Author: Charles Spurgeon

Pray with Spurgeon: God always hears your prayers

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We ask that while Jesus Christ is lifted up throughout this week, many may look to him and be cured of the serpent’s bite forever. You have promised to hear your people’s prayer, and this is a prayer that must be according to your mind; and it is for the honor of your dear Son; and it is put up in faith, put up in faith in Jesus; therefore you cannot run back from it, but you must keep that word to which in humble, but adoring faith, we hold you—“my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty” (Isaiah 55:11). Give us then a great increase to the church, by the sharing of the gospel this week.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.” (Isaiah 55:10–11)

Any time we share God’s word, we may have a full assurance that we shall not labor in vain, nor spend our strength for nothing. No, no; the raindrops go not on an errand that can fail, and the snowflakes that fall to the earth accomplish the end for which they are sent. Much more shall the purpose of God’s Word be accomplished! Behold, it drops like the gentle rain; like snowflakes fly the messages of mercy from the lips of the Lord himself, and they shall not fall in vain, blessed be his holy name!

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Followers of Christ speak about Christ

Today we prayed that our evangelistic conversations this week would be fruitful. Are you ready to be the answer to this prayer? To share the Word boldly and clearly with non-believers you know?

Maybe the reason so many Christians don’t do the work of evangelism is because they don’t understand it. Evangelism isn’t meant to be an unnatural, guilt-motivated task that Christians carry out with dread and fear — it’s meant to be a natural overflow of our life in Christ.

Marks of the Messenger by Mack Stiles is a short book on evangelism that has the power to transform your life. In the book, Stiles shows that evangelism isn’t motivated by fear, guilt, or pragmatism, it’s simply to be motivated by who Christ is and our faith in him.

This summer, as many places and events re-open after a season of quarantine, will be full of opportunities for evangelism. God wants to do a work through you this summer — get prepared and motivated by reading Marks of the Messenger.

Buy Marks of the Messenger:

Pray with Spurgeon: Destroy our (false) hope and give us true hope

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Look in great mercy upon the many that may be here, who never have believed in Jesus. O Strong Son of God, Immortal Love—whom, though we have not seen your face, we do believe in, and rely upon—ride forth this morning with your arrows dipped in your own blood, and shoot them out, that the people may fall under them, wounded with the sense of sin, smitten even to self-despair with a consciousness of guilt: and oh, that they might get healing from the hands that wound them, may they get life from the hand that kills their hope. May they look to you, anointed of the Lord, ennobled in the highest heaven, who once received the sinner here below in your own Person, and who still receives sinners: oh, that they might come to you and live. 

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:23)

Our soul has been delivered from the curse. The redemption of the soul is complete, but not yet that of the body. That must suffer pain and weariness, and even descend into the tomb, but its day of manifestation shall surely come.

At the appearing of our Lord from heaven, then shall the body itself be delivered, and the whole creation shall also be delivered. So we wait in a travailing condition; and we may well be content to wait, for these pangs within us and around us signify the glorious birth for which we may wait in hope.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Find deeper joy in the God who saves you and keeps you

Today prayed, asking God to end our self-righteousness so that we can be filled with hope rooted in our salvation by grace, not our own goodness. This is our only hope and joy. If we continue to reflect on God’s grace in his Word, we will see this hope and joy increase.

A great resource to help you focus on the wonders of God’s grace is PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Graceby Timothy Paul Jones. This book is a a great, thoroughly biblical approach to unpacking God’s sovereignty in salvation — the wonderful truth that God is in control of all things, so that we know he will definitely save his people!

Whether the doctrine of God’s sovereignty has been precious to you or if you’re hesitant to embrace it, PROOF will encourage you as it takes you on a stunning journey to reflect on God’s Planned, Resurrecting, Outrageous, Overcoming, and Forever grace.

I know that PROOF will deepen your joy and confidence in God, so I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace:

Pastor, really love Jesus (and tell people about him)

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

We have tasted of the honey of communion with Jesus: we have not, perhaps, feasted upon handfuls of it, as some of our Samsons have done; but we have at least, like Jonathan, dipped the end of our rod into it, and our eyes have been enlightened, so that our hearers can see them sparkle with joy while we tell them how precious Jesus is. This gives emphasis to our testimony.

When we speak as ministers and not as men, as preachers instead of penitents, as theologians instead of disciples, we fail; when we lean our head too much upon the Commentary, and too little upon the Savior’s bosom; when we eat too largely of the tree of knowledge, and too little of the tree of life, we lose the power of our ministry. I am myself a sinner, a sinner washed in the blood, and delivered from the wrath to come by the merit of my Lord and Master—all this must be fresh upon our mind.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe reading difficult portions of Scripture.

If you have difficulty, take it before God in prayer. Tell the great Father exactly what it is that puzzles you, and beg him by his Holy Spirit to solve the question.

If I cannot believe a statement in a book, I am glad to inquire of the author what he means by it; and if he is a true man his explanation will satisfy me; much more will the divine explanation of the hard points of Scripture satisfy the heart of the true seeker. The Lord is willing to make himself known; go to him and see if it is not so. Repair at once to your closet, and cry, “O Holy Spirit, lead me into the truth! What I do not know, teach me.”

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

The key to more faithful, fruitful preaching is often knowing God and loving his glory. Don’t short-cut sermon preparation by jumping right to commentaries (or copy-pasting from someone else’s manuscript 🙄) — spend unhurried time in God’s Word to know and enjoy God.

Don’t settle for manufactured “passion,” pray hard and read the Word and allow God to bring love for himself into your heart.

If this newsletter is encouraging, please share it with another pastor. You can forward this email to a pastor you know.

If someone forwarded this email to you, sign up to get another one every week. Click here to subscribe.

Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks

Pray with Spurgeon: When we are afraid, help us trust Jesus

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

There may be some here that are so tossed about mentally, that are so dismayed with inward temptation, so out of their wits by the assaults of Satan, that they know not what to do. Lord when they have no wit, give them enough wit to trust Christ; and when they can do nothing else, may they faint away upon the bosom of Eternal Love.

The Lord help his servants, when they are in extremity, to feel that now is the time for God to begin; and when they are driven over the very verge of hope, and the precipice of despair is before them, oh grant them grace to fall into the arms of Jesus, and there shall they find life from the dead.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, offspring, a reward.” (Psalm 127:3)

The Lord gives children, not as a penalty nor as a burden, but as a favor. They are a token for good if men know how to receive them and educate them. They are “doubtful blessings” only because we are doubtful persons. Where society is rightly ordered, children are regarded, not as an incumbrance, but as an inheritance; and they are received, not with regret, but as a reward.

Even with all the straits of limited incomes, our best possessions are our own dear offspring, for whom we bless God every day.

Parents, please check out my new project, GodCenteredFamily.org — a daily interactive Bible reading plan for parents and kids of any age. Click here to learn more and download a free sample.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Trust the God who is able to keep you until the end

Today we prayed that God would preserve us, even as we suffer. As we pray for God to strengthen our faith, we can also fill our minds with his Word as a means to boost our faith.

A great book on growing your faith in God is Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. This book focuses on God’s sovereignty, his good control over all things, and shows that we really can trust God in any circumstance. This book is full of reasons to trust God and applies those reasons to the trials in our lives that make it particularly hard to trust God.

This book will strengthen your faith and confidence in our great God — I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy Trusting God:

Pray with Spurgeon: Help anyone who doubts believe in Jesus now

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord, we ask you to help us all look to Jesus Christ alone. If any backsliders here are questioning whether they ever did believe in Jesus, may they leave that question alone and believe in him now. May they be content to let the past go by the wall, and once for all come, if they never did come, and embrace the Savior whom you, great God, have set forth as all-sufficient to save.

Let Peter weep bitterly, but let him come to his Master again. Oh, let the most wandering, cry to you; and may they look to your holy temple; and as they look, let the eternal life stream into them again, by the energy of the Eternal Spirit; and may they feel that whatever may have been the past, they are restored like prodigal children to a feast of love, restored forever to the Father’s house.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing…. Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.” (Luke 15:25, 28)

I never know which to admire more—the love of the father in going to meet the returning prodigal or in going out to talk with this coldhearted elder brother. He was a son, but he had not the true spirit of his father. He had fallen into a wrong state of mind—just like certain Christians I know who have little sympathy with those who have been great sinners. They seem not to want to see such people as these brought to the Savior. Yet they themselves were no better than others by nature, though grace has done much in restraining them from the sin into which others have fallen, and it was wrong for them to talk as if they were sheer legalists, as this Pharisaic elder brother did.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Teach your children the truth (or the world will teach them lies)

Parents, our most important task is teaching our children the truth about who God is and what he has done.

God has called you and equipped you to disciple your children, to train them in the fear and instruction of the Lord.

The God-given solution to keep your children from falling prey to the sinful influences around them is simple: daily exposure to God’s Word.

I’ve created a new resource to help you do that — to open the Bible with your kids in a fruitful, fun, engaging way — every day.

GodCenteredFamily.org is a daily interactive Bible reading plan for parents and kids of any age. I hope it will be a blessing to your family.

You can learn more and download a free sample at GodCenteredFamily.org.

Pray with Spurgeon: We are completely forgiven by Jesus

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh, this morning let your people feel that there is now no condemnation to them. Let them feel the completeness of the washing Christ has given, the blessed fullness of the righteousness which Christ has imputed, the eternal vitality of that life with which Christ has endowed us, the indissoluble character of that union by which we are knit to Christ by ties that never can be broken.

May we today rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh; and do write upon our hearts these blessed words, “filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19), and may we know it is so; that we have all that we can hold; and may we be praying to be enlarged, that we may take in even more of Christ than we have as yet received; for he is all ours, altogether ours, and ours world without end.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Start a youth out on his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

Have you ever heard of a man who said he did not teach his children the ways of God because he thought they were so young that it was very wrong to prejudice them, and he would rather leave them to choose their own religion when they grew older? One of his boys broke his arm, and while the surgeon was setting it the boy was swearing all the time. The good doctor said, “I told you what would happen. You were afraid to prejudice your boy in the right way, but the devil had no such qualms. He has prejudiced him the other way, and pretty strongly too.”

It is our duty to prejudice our field in favor of corn, or it will soon be covered with thistles. Cultivate a child’s heart for good, or it will go wrong by itself, for it is already depraved by nature. If only we were wise enough to think of this, and leave no little one to become a prey to the destroyer.

Parents, please check out my new project, GodCenteredFamily.org — a daily interactive Bible reading plan for parents and kids of any age. Click here to learn more and download a free sample.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

How does God’s unfailing love allow suffering and evil?

Today, we praised God for his gracious, merciful, unending, never changing love in Christ. For some of us, this kind of prayer is challenging to pray. Our experience tries to drown out the truth of Scripture. Surely a God who allows so much suffering cannot really be infinitely loving?

Grappling with questions like “If God is love why do bad things happen?” can increase your amazement at the wonders of God’s love. And so wrestling through those questions is important.

One great resource for helping you tackle those questions is The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson. This short book explains God’s love in a thoroughly biblical way that will leave you amazed at God’s grace and more eager to love others.

I hope you’ll grab a copy and read it this summer.

Buy The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God:

Pray with Spurgeon: The truth of God is worth living and dying for

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

God, set up your eternal throne in our hearts. Help us love you and you alone. We do pray this with our whole hearts; and assist us, we pray, most blessed Redeemer, to show forth your praises in our lives. Sanctify us in our households. May we go in and out before your showing the name and nature of Christ.

Help us in our business, that in all we do among our fellow men we may act as Christ would have us act. Strengthen us in secret; there may we be mighty in prayer. Guard us in public, that neither in act nor word we may slip away from Thee

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“My son, keep your father’s command, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching. Always bind them to your heart; tie them around your neck.” (Proverbs 6:20–21)

Solomon tells us to bind the teachings of our parents to our hearts, for they are worthy of loving adherence. Show that you love these things by binding them upon your heart.

The heart is the vital point; let godliness lie there, love the things of God. If we could take young men and women and make them professedly religious without their truly loving godliness, that would be simply to make them hypocrites, which is not what we desire. We do not want you to say that you believe what you do not believe, or that you rejoice in what you do not rejoice in.

But our prayer—and oh that it might be your prayer too!—is that you may be helped to bind these things about your heart. They are worth living for, they are worth dying for, they are worth more than all the world besides; the immortal principles of the divine life which comes from the death of Christ. “Bind them continually upon thine heart.”

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Introducing GodCenteredFamily.org

Today, we prayed for our households, asking that God would help us model godliness to everyone in them. And we saw in God’s Word, that our goal for our parenting is that our children would love God with all of their hearts.

Training children to follow Christ wasn’t just a talking point for Spurgeon, it was a huge lifelong passion for him, starting with his own children.

For Spurgeon, training his children to know Scripture and love God centered on a daily habit of family worship. Despite his busy schedule and the demands of ministry, he gathered his wife and children every day at 6 p.m., to read the Bible, pray, and sing together.

I want to help YOUR family do that today — have a daily time of family worship.

And that’s why I’m excited to tell you about a new project that I’m thrilled to be a part of. It’s called GodCenteredFamily.org.

We’re creating a daily interactive Bible reading plan for parents to use with kids of any age.

I am so excited about this resource and cannot wait to see how God uses it for his glory in your family.

You can learn more and download a free sample at GodCenteredFamily.org

Pray with Spurgeon: I can never be saved by works.

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We again declare that all our hope is centered in the atoning Sacrifice, and in the risen Savior, who has gone into the glory as the testimony of our justification, and of our acceptance in him.

Oh, dear Savior, if in the course of years we have tried to add anything to the one foundation, if unconsciously we are relying now upon our knowledge, our experience, our Christian effort, we desire to clear away all these heap of rags and get down on the foundation again. None but Jesus! None but Jesus! Our soul rests in none but Jesus; and we hate and loathe, with our inmost nature, the very idea of adding anything to what he has finished, or attempting to complete what is perfect in him.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift.” (Ephesians 2:8)

For salvation to be complete, it must be by free favor. The saints, when they come to die, never conclude their lives by hoping in their good works. Those who have lived the most holy and useful lives invariably look to free grace in their final moments. If this be the case in our last moments, when the conflict is almost over, much more ought we to feel it to be so while we are in the thick of the fight.

If a man be completely saved in this present time of warfare, how can it be except by grace. While he has to mourn over sin that dwells in him, while he has to confess innumerable shortcomings and transgressions, while sin is mixed with all he does, how can he believe that he is completely saved except it be by the free favor of God?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Know (and enjoy) the God who gives all grace

Today we prayed that God would remove all of our confidence in ourselves and rest only in the free grace that he gives through his Son Jesus Christ. This beautiful salvation by grace alone is a work of the Triune God alone. We don’t play a part, but each member of the Trinity does.

An excellent book for growing to enjoy the glorious God who gives grace is Experiencing the Trinity: The Grace of God for the People of God by Joe Thorn. This book is fifty, very short devotionals, each covering one aspect of God’s character and salvation. The book is divided into three sections: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, with each devotional reflecting on a different aspect of that person’s glory.

This daily devotional is a breath of fresh air — add it to your daily reading and you will grow your knowledge of God and your love for God. I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy Experiencing the Trinity:

Pastor, no one’s salvation depends on you

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

At times I have thought, when I have done preaching, that I have laid down the gospel so clearly, that the nose on one’s face could not be more plain; and yet I perceive that even intelligent hearers have failed to understand what was meant by “Look unto me and be ye saved.”

Converts usually say that they did not know the gospel till such and such a day; and yet they had heard it for years. The gospel is unknown, not from want of explanation, but from absence of personal revelation. This the Holy Ghost is ready to give, and will give to those who ask him. Yet when given, the sum total of the truth revealed all lies within these words: “Christ died for the ungodly.”

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the need to be born again.

To put the matter very simply—did you ever hear of Mr. Rowland Hill’s illustration of the cat and the sow? I will give it in my own fashion, to illustrate our Savior’s expressive words—“You must be born again.”

Do you see that cat? What a cleanly creature she is! How cleverly she washes herself with her tongue and her paws! It is quite a pretty sight! Did you ever see a sow do that? No, you never did. It is contrary to its nature. It prefers to wallow in the mire. Go and teach a sow to wash itself, and see how little success you would gain. It would be a great sanitary improvement if swine would be clean. Teach them to wash and clean themselves as the cat has been doing! Useless task. You may by force wash that sow, but it hastens to the mire, and is soon as foul as ever. The only way in which you can get a sow to wash itself is to transform it into a cat; then it will wash and be clean, but not till then! Suppose that transformation to be accomplished, and then what was difficult or impossible is easy enough; the swine will henceforth be fit for your parlor and your hearth-rug.

So it is with an ungodly man; you cannot force him to do what a renewed man does most willingly; you may teach him, and set him a good example, but he cannot learn the art of holiness, for he has no mind to it; his nature leads him another way. When the Lord makes a new man of him, then all things wear a different aspect. So great is this change, that I once heard a convert say, “Either all the world is changed, or else I am.” The new nature follows after right as naturally as the old nature wanders after wrong. What a blessing to receive such a nature! Only the Holy Ghost can give it.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

After preaching this past Sunday, I felt like I had blown it. It had been a rough weekend, I gave my everything in the pulpit, and walked away feeling discouraged. And yet, several church members told me how encouraged they were. My imperfect sermon showed them a perfect Savior, and they were built up.

I hope that Spurgeon’s words remind you today: the success of your ministry is not dependent on you. God saves his people in the perfect time. God always grows his people in the perfect way. It’s not dependent on us! God is the one who saves.

If this newsletter is encouraging, please share it with another pastor. You can forward this email to a pastor you know.

If someone forwarded this email to you, sign up to get another one every week. Click here to subscribe.

Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks

Pray with Spurgeon: The Risen Savior: My Only Hope

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord, we begin again this morning by looking unto Jesus Christ anew—whatever may be our sin, whatever your pure and holy eye can see amiss in us, which we cannot see: we desire to come to Jesus as sinners, guilty, lost, ruined by nature, and again to give the faith look, and to behold him hanging on the cross for us.

You know with what heartiness and depths of truthfulness, we can say, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” We again declare that all our hope is centered in the atoning Sacrifice, and in the risen Savior, who has gone into the glory as the testimony of our justification, and of our acceptance in him.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.” (John 15:26)

By this mark you may know whether that which has been taught you is of the Spirit of God. If it does not testify of Christ, if he is not the head and front of it all, there is nothing in it for you to accept. If any man comes to you with what he calls a revelation, if it is not all concerning Christ, by this shall you judge it; it is not of the Spirit of God if it does not testify of Christ.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

What’s so amazing about grace?

Today, we prayed, confessing that our only hope is in Jesus and his resurrection. And, as we saw in God’s Word, we need Jesus, not any other message.

We really do need to re-ground ourselves in the stunning message of God’s glorious goodness and amazing grace every day. This will keep us humble as we remember that Jesus’ resurrection (not our own goodness) is our only hope.

One book that has been so incredible helpful to me in this area, helping me cultivate enjoyment of God’s grace is By Grace Alone: How the Grace of God Amazes Me by Sinclair Ferguson. This book is a great devotional, with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of God’s amazing grace.

I can’t think of a better topic to study and consider this summer than God’s amazing grace. You will walk away from this book singing with joy at the wonders of God’s grace. I hope you’ll buy a copy today.

Buy By Grace Alone: