Let Us Work With Faith In God

Whether we live, or whether we die, let us have faith in God: whenever we preach or teach the Gospel, let us have faith; for without faith we shall labor in vain. Whenever you distribute religious books or visit the sick, do so in faith, for faith is the lifeblood of all our service. If only by faith can a dying Jacob bless his descendants, so only by faith can we bless the sons of men. Have faith in God, and the instruction which you give shall really edify, the prayers you offer shall bring down showers of mercy, and your endeavors for your sons and daughters shall be prospered. God will bless what is done in faith; but if we believe not our work will not be established.

Faith is the backbone and marrow of the Christian’s power to do good: we are weak as water till we enter into union with God by faith, and then we are omnipotent. We can do nothing for our fellowmen by way of promoting their spiritual and eternal interests if we walk according to the sight of our eyes; but when we get into the power of God, and grasp his promise by a daring confidence, then it is that we obtain the power to bless.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Jacob Worshipping On His Staff." Image by Ruth Hartnup on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

No One Can Believe For Me

It is not possible for a man to shift from his own shoulders to those of another his obligations to the Most High. Obedience to the law of God must be personally rendered, or a man becomes guilty. No matter how holy his father, or how righteous his mother, he himself will have to stand upon his own feet and answer for himself before the judgment-seat of God. Each man who hears the gospel is responsible for the hearing of it. No one else can believe the gospel for him, or repent for him, or be born again for him, or become a Christian for him. He must himself personally repent of sin, personally believe in Jesus Christ, personally be converted, and personally live to the service and glory of God. Every tub must stand on its own bottom.

There have been idle attempts to shift the responsibility to a certain order of men called priests, or clergymen, or ministers, according as the case may be; but it cannot be done. Each man must seek the Lord himself-himself lay his load of sin at the foot of the cross, and himself accept a personal Savior for himself. You cannot do with the matters of your soul as you do with the business of your estate, and employ a priest in the same way as you engage a solicitor to represent you. There is one substitute and advocate who can plead for us, but no earthly sponsor can avail with heaven. God demands the heart, and with the heart man must believe unto righteousness, and with his own heart, too, for none can take his place.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Am I My Brother's Keeper?" Image by Ian Sane on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Sum of the Gospel

Beloved, because Jesus is the sum of the gospel he must be our constant theme. “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.” So spake men of old, and so say we.

When we have done preaching Christ we had better have done preaching; when you have done teaching in your classes Jesus Christ himself, give up Sunday school work, for nothing else is worthy of your pains. Put out the sun, and light is gone, life is gone, all is gone. When Jesus is pushed into the background or left out of a minister’s teaching, the darkness is darkness that might be felt, and the people escape from it into gospel light as soon as they can. A sermon without Jesus in it is savourless, and worthless to God’s tried saints, and they soon seek other food. The more of Christ in our testimony the more of light and life and power to save.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Jesus Christ Himself," delivered December 9, 1877. Image by Ruben Sihombing on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Christ Himself is the Proof

The character of Jesus has commanded respect even from those who have abhorred his teaching. It has been a stumbling-stone to all objectors who have preserved a shade of candour. Jesus’ doctrine they could refute, they say; his precepts they could improve, so they boast; his system is narrow and outworn, so they assert: but himself - what can they do with him? They must admire him even if they will not adore him; and having done so they have admired a personage who must be divine, or else he wilfully left his disciples to believe a lie. How they surmount this difficulty? They cannot do so by railing at him, for they have no material for accusation. Jesus Christ himself silences their cavillings. This is a file at which these asps do bite, but break their teeth. Beyond all argument or miracle, Jesus Christ himself is the proof of his own gospel.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Jesus Christ Himself," delivered December 9, 1877. Image by Florin Gorgan on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

A People Who Know The Truth

In the present age if any man can talk well he will get a following, whatever he may teach. I am astounded at some professors, who can hear this man to-day and that man the next, though the two are diametrically opposed. Surely there is some difference between truth and error, and mere cleverness cannot neutralize false doctrine. Our forefathers discerned between things that differed, and when false doctrine came before them they cast it out, notwithstanding the eloquence of its advocate. I do not want you to be bigots. God deliver us from their bitter spirit, but I do want you to be sound believers. There is a great difference between obstinate bigotry and a decided maintenance of that which we have believed. After all, what is the chaff to the wheat? There is a difference between the doctrines of men and the teachings of the Lord. No lie is of the truth. Garnish it as you may, it is still a lie. Oh to be rooted and grounded and built up in Christ! One of the most desirable things in this fickle age is to see around the minister of Christ a people who know the truth, and feel that the truth binds them fast to their God.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Taking Hold Upon God," delivered October 7, 1877. Image by Jeff Pang on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Sword Is Yours

We are armed with the word of God, not only that we may smite our own spiritual foes, but that we may win men for Christ. As the Israelites had to conquer Canaan, so have we to conquer the world for Jesus. Go ye up against the ramparts of error, go ye up against the hosts of evil, with no weapon in your hand but the story of the cross, the revelation of the Most High, the declaration of the gospel of Jesus, for by this sign we conquer; it is impossible that we should fail with the gospel in our hands. How happy God’s people ought to be when they think of this. Armed with an invincible weapon, ought we not to rejoice in anticipation of victory?

A man who has a Bible of his own - I mean not the paper and the letterpress, but all that is in the inspired volume, - is there anything more that he can desire? He finds from Genesis to Revelation every promise his, every dear assurance of almighty power and love all his own, what more doth he need? He who can use this two-edged sword may defy doubt, fear, anxiety, care, temptation, worldliness, yea, and death and the devil. At the very sight of this sword our adversaries tremble, for it cuts through joints and marrow, and leaves a deadly wound wherever it cuts. Be happy, Christian; the Lord help thee to be happy as thou seest this sword of the Spirit to be thine.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Happiness The Privilege And Duty Of Christians," delivered June 10, 1877. Image by LenDog64 on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

You Need Only Be Willing

Willingness to come is everything. A readiness to believe in Jesus, a willingness to cast the soul on him, a preparedness to accept him just as he is, because you feel that he is just the Savior that you need - that is all: there was no other readiness, there could have been none, in the case of those who were poor and blind, and halt, and maimed, yet came to the feast.

The text does not say, “You are ready, therefore come,” that is a legal way of putting the gospel; but it says, “All things are ready, the gospel is ready, therefore you are to come.” As for your readiness, all the readiness that is possibly wanted is a readiness which the Spirit gives us, namely, willingness to come to Jesus.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "All Things Are Ready. Come." Sermon delivered May 13, 1877. Image by Paulo Brandao on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Here Am I, Send Me!

Brethren, the heathen are perishing, and there is but one way of salvation for them, for there is but one name given under heaven among men whereby they must be saved. God in the glorious unity of his divine nature is calling for messengers who shall proclaim to men the way of life. Out of the thick darkness my ear can hear that sound mysterious and divine, “Whom shall I send?” If ye will but listen with the ear of faith ye may hear it in this house to-day- “Whom shall I send?” While the world lieth under the curse of sin the living God, who willeth not that any should perish but that they should come to repentance, is seeking for heralds to proclaim his mercy; he is asking even in pleading terms for some who will go forth to the dying millions and tell the wondrous story of his love- “Whom shall I send?”

As if to make the voice more powerful by a threefold utterance we hear the sacred Trinity enquire, “Who will go for us?” The Father asks, “Who will go for me and invite my far-off children to return?” The Son enquires, “Who will seek for me my redeemed but wandering sheep?” The Holy Spirit demands, “In whom shall I dwell, and through whom shall I speak that I may convey life to the perishing multitudes?” God in the unity of his nature crieth, “Whom shall I send?” and in the trinity of his persons he asketh, “Who will go for us?” Happy shall we be to-day if earnest responses shall be heard in this house- “Here am I, send me.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Divine Call For Missionaries," delivered April 22, 1877. Image by Paul Bica on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Stay Free!

Those who had been of the sect of the Pharisees brought a good share of Pharisaic tendencies with them into the church, and these were dangerous to the young kingdom of Christ. I scarcely know whether legal principles were not able to do more mischief inside the church by perverting pure doctrine than they could do outside the church by exciting persecution. One can hardly imagine how the gospel could have escaped being overlaid and smothered by Judaism, like a babe by its mother, had it not been for the preserving grace of God, and the indwelling Spirit within the church of God.

Ye know, brethren, how we mourn at this day that certain who claim to be Christians are laboring most zealously to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. They invent pompous ceremonies, observe days and months, and are bound by rubrics and regulations, all of which are an idle and needless servitude to outward forms. Certain others would bind us with creeds and ordinances not plainly taught in the word of God, nor agreeable thereto, of which Peter and John knew nothing whatever, having no force but that which comes of human authority. The old Pharisaic spirit is a great forger of bonds and builder of prisons, it would subject us to ordinances of “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” and fetter us with rules of many sorts: for it cannot understand the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. It teacheth this and it teacheth that, whereof the apostles would have said, “We gave no such commandment.” We must contend against this spirit as much now as ever. Still must we refuse to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Christ is all. We are complete in him, and we will not permit a single letter to be added to his perfect law of liberty.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Faith Purifying The Heart," delivered April 15, 1877. Image by Steve Dunleavy on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Sinner's Savior

Gospel blessings are intended for those who have transgressed and are under condemnation, for who else would value forgiveness and justification? I know myself of no gospel for men who have not sinned. I know of no New Testament promises intended for those who have never broken the law; but I perceive all through the wondrous pages of the gospel that mercy’s eye and heart are set upon those who are guilty and self-condemned.

The Eternal Watcher is looking over the vast ocean of life, not that he may spy out the vessels which sail along proudly in safety, but that he may see those who are almost wrecks. “He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profiteth me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.” Our Lord was more moved at the sight of sickness than of health, and wrought his greatest wonders among fevers, leprosies, and palsies. This is the end and object of the gospel, namely, to save the unrighteous; the God of the gospel is he that “justifieth the ungodly,” “for when we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.” “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Sinner's Savior," delivered October 1, 1876. Image by Jenny Downing on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Do you know God?

There must be a knowledge of God. And, mark you, if you know God you will think very little of yourself. He who knows not God thinks man a noble being; he who has seen God thinks man to be dust and ashes. He who knows not God’s holiness thinks himself to be a good creature, but when he sees a thrice-holy God he says, “I abhor myself.” He who knows not God thinks man to be a wonderful being, able to accomplish whatsoever he wills, but in the sight of God human strength is burned up, and man becomes lighter than vanity.

Do you know God? O my dear hearer, do you know God in the majesty of his justice as condemning your sin, and you for sin? Do you know God in the splendor of his love, as giving Jesus Christ to die for sinners, blending that love with justice — for love gave Jesus, and justice slew him? Do you know God in the fullness of his power to save, renewing the heart, changing the mind, subduing the will? Do you know him even in this, which is, comparatively, a slender branch of knowledge? If you do, you have begun to know him, and you have begun to know yourself too, for he knows not himself who does not know something of God. Oh, to know the Father as my Father, who hath kissed me, and put the best robe upon me! Oh, to know the Son as my brother, in whose garments I am accepted, and stand comely in the sight of God! Oh, to know the Spirit as the quickener and the divine indweller and illuminator, by whose light alone we see, and in whose life we live!

To know the Lord — that is true religion, and I say again, any religion, whatever it is — Churchianity or Nonconformity, or what you like — if it does not lead you to know God, is of no use whatever.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Blessings Of Following On." Image by ankakay on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Are we doing all we can for missions?

Ask what God is, and the answer is, God is a river of goodness streaming down to men through the person of Jesus Christ.... see what a misery it is that men should be perishing and dying of soul-thirst when there is this river so near. That men should die of thirst would be horrible, but that such deaths should happen all along the banks of a river is shocking indeed. What ails them? Have they never heard of it?

Dear brethren, let the thought press heavily on you, that millions of our race have never heard of Jesus. In China, in parts of India, in Africa, in large tracts of country myriads live and die without having heard the sweet name of Jesus. Are we doing all we can for missions, do you think? Are we all sure that we give as much as we should, and pray as we should, and work as we should for missions? It is a sad thing that Christ has come into the world and yet men perish by millions.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Rivers Of Water In A Dry Place," delivered July 11, 1875. Image by Steve-h on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Preaching the Gospel will prove it is true

Brethren, if you want to answer infidelity*, preach the gospel; tell the people that Jesus Christ is able to save sinners. Lift high the bloodstained cross, proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound. This will make a stir, this will agitate the masses. There is nothing like it. Christ’s gospel is like fire flung amongst the standing corn, it makes a wondrous conflagration. Preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, the people must come to hear it, they are not masters of themselves, they cannot stay away; and as they hear it, and as they feed upon it, and joy comes unto them, and peace, and new life, facts will answer theories, salvation will be the best reply to the witticisms and the sophistries of unbelief.

Do not enter into arguments, but test the gospel practically.... If they tell us that the gospel which we preach is not true, we point to many here present whose stories of reclamation from vice and deliverance from despair and uplifting into light and life and holiness are proofs that the gospel is divine. There they are! Facts, facts, facts, these are God’s replies.

*- in the old sense of unbelief, especially mocking and atheistic unbelief

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Beware Of Unbelief," delivered June 6, 1875. Image by Angelo Amboldi on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Believe With Confidence

Surely the witness of Matthew and Mark, and Luke and John, and Peter and James and Paul, is as good as the witness of Julius Caesar or Tacitus, and it is rendered the more trustworthy from the fact that they died for adhering to it, which neither Caesar nor Tacitus were made to do. Besides, for the gospel narrative we have many witnesses, the number of names was about one hundred and twenty, and they all agreed and stood fast; and even the one who did for a time seem to forsake his testimony, bad as he was, returned to it, and threw down the money for which he had sold his Master, and said, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.” We have the witness of men as to the facts that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Faith, And The Witness Upon Which It Is Founded." Image by Vincent van der Pas on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Plain Gospel

Do you not understand it? Christ bore the wrath of God, instead of those who trust him. Jesus Christ took the sins of all who trust him, and was punished in the room and stead of every believer, so that God will not punish a believer, because he has punished Christ for him. Christ died for the man who believes in him, so that it would be injustice on the part of God to punish that man, for how shall he punish twice for the same offense? 

Faith is the seal and evidence that you were redeemed nineteen hundred years ago upon the bloody tree of Calvary, and you are justified, and who shall lay anything to your charge. “It is God that justifies you: who is he that condemns you? It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that is risen again.” This is the gospel of your salvation.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Hospital of Waiters Visited With The Gospel." Image by Balaji.B on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Making God A Liar

A physician says, “That medicine will heal you.” The patient replies, “I want to see that it does heal me before I take it.” The man is a fool, and so are you if that is how you trifle with God. You must believe the gospel on the evidence of God, and not otherwise, or your faith is not faith in God at all. The faith which he commanded in the gospel is faith in the record which God has given concerning his Son, a faith which takes God at his word. Believe then, on the Lord Jesus Christ and you have believed God to be true: refuse to trust in Jesus Christ, unless you get some other evidence beyond the witness of God, and you have practically said that God’s testimony is not enough, that is to say, you have made God a liar.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Solemn Impeachment of Unbelievers," delivered December 13, 1874. Image by Keoni Cabral on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The business of the preacher

Let every unconverted person recollect that God knows what his excuse is for turning a deaf ear to the voice of a dying Savior’s love. You may not have spoken it to yourself so as to put it into words; you might not even dare to do so, lest your conscience should be too much startled: but God knows it all. He sees the hollowness, the folly, and the wickedness of your excuses. He is not deceived by your vain words, but makes short work with your apologies for delay. Remember the parables of our Lord, and note that when the man of one talent professed to think his master a hard man, he took him at his word, and out of his own mouth condemned him; and in the case of the invited guests who pleaded their farms and their merchandise as excuses, no weight was attached to what they said, but the sentence went forth, “None of these men that are bidden shall taste of my supper.” God knows the frivolity of your plea for delay, he knows that you yourself are doubtful about it, and dare not stand to it so as to give it anything like a solemn consideration. Very hard do you try to deceive yourself into an easy state of conscience concerning it, but in your inmost soul you are ashamed of your own falsehoods.

My business at this time is, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to deal with your consciences, and to convince you yet more thoroughly that delay is unjustifiable, for the gospel has present demands upon you, and you must not say, “The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Now, A Sermon For Young Men And Young Women," delivered March 19, 1874. Image by Andreas Levers on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The great means of spreading the Gospel

The holiness of Christians is the great means of spreading the gospel. Beyond all other missions I commend the mission of holiness. They preach best for Christ who preach at the fireside, who preach in the shop, whose lives are sermons, who are themselves priests unto God, whose garments are vestments, and whose ordinary meals are sacraments. Give us a holy, consecrated people, and we will win, for these are the omnipotent legions with which the world shall be conquered to Christ. We joy in a holy people because they bring glory to God. Mere professors* do not so; inconsistent professors dishonor God, of whom I tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. A people walking in truth crown the head of Jesus. They compel even blasphemers to hold their tongues, for when they see these holy men and women, they cannot say anything against the gospel which has produced such characters.

Beloved, if you love your pastor, if you love the Bible, if you love the gospel, if you love Christ, if you love God, be a holy people. You who profess to be saved, be true, be watchful. If you would not grieve us, if you would not dishonor the gospel, if you would not crucify Christ afresh, and put him to an open shame, walk as Christ would have you walk; abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be in your speech and in your temper, in your business transactions with your fellow-men, and in your communications in the family circle, men approved of God, such as you will wish to have been when your Lord shall come, for he is at the door, and blessed are those servants who are ready for his coming.

* - in the sense of those who profess Christ 

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Parent's and Pastor's Joy," delivered December 21, 1873. Image by Steve-h on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Let us talk about the best things

There is no preaching the gospel if the atonement be left out. No matter how well we speak of Jesus as a pattern, we have done nothing unless we point him out as the substitute and sinbearer. We must, in fact, continually imitate the apostle, and speak plainly of him “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” It is to Christ, then, this morning as the sin-bearer that I am about to direct your attention. It may not be many times longer that I may have the opportunity to preach the gospel, for bodily pain reminds me of my mortality. How soon are the hale and the strong, as well as the sickly, carried off! and so many during the last few days whom we knew have been borne from among us to the silent tomb, that we are reminded how feeble our life is, how short our time for service.

 Let us, then, brethren, deal always with the best things, and attend to the most necessary works while yet our little oil suffices to feed the lamp of life. Rising newly from a sick bed, I have felt that if any theme in the Scriptures has an importance far above all the rest, it is the subject of the atoning blood, and I have resolved to repeat that old, old story again and again.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Death For Sin And Death To Sin," delivered November 16, 1873. Image by itslegitx on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Wherever the Gospel is preached

Wherever the true gospel is preached it promotes holiness, and in so doing acts according to its nature, creating its like. There is not a doctrine of the gospel which is not according to godliness, none of its blessings make provision for the flesh, none of its precepts encourage sin, none of its promises wink at iniquity. The spirit of the gospel is the spirit of holiness always; it wages determined war against the lustings of the flesh, and consequently the gospel is abhorred by the unclean. It lays the axe at the root of sin, and like a fire devours all evil.

As for the Lord Jesus Christ himself, is he not immaculate holiness? If you would see holiness embodied, where can you look but to the person of our well-beloved Master? Where are his imperfections? Can you find a flaw either in his language or in his actions, in himself or in the spirit that moved him? Is he not altogether perfect?

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Paved With Love," delivered September 28, 1873. Image by on Flickr under Creative Commons License.