Characteristics of Faith

Characteristics of Faith

Using the story of the nobleman whose son was dying, Spurgeon traces three stages of growing faith: seeking faith, which drives a person to earnest, persistent prayer even while making the mistake of trying to dictate exactly how God must answer; relying faith, which takes Christ at his bare word and finds quiet peace even before any evidence confirms it; and full assurance, which comes only after careful observation has confirmed that God indeed did what he promised, and which naturally overflows to bless one's entire household. He also diagnoses three diseases that can derail faith at each stage — abandoning prayer when answers seem slow, demanding visible signs and wonders as a substitute for simply trusting God's word, and failing to actually observe God's hand at work in daily providence — warning that built-in dreams, feelings, or strange experiences are no foundation for real assurance compared to the plain word of Scripture. He closes with three searching questions for anyone who claims to have faith: does it make you pray, does it make you obey in the ordinary honesty of daily business, and does it make you actively seek the salvation of your own household — since faith that produces none of these is, however confidently held, no faith at all. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on May 27th, 1860.

The Teaching of the Holy Spirit

Spurgeon argues that the gift of the Holy Spirit, often undervalued compared to the gift of Christ, is what actually makes Christ's work effective in us — teaching believers how to do everything that pleases God, from the simplest things like crying out to God and learning to speak the language of faith, to the highest acts of preaching, praying, and singing, none of which have any real power apart from the Spirit's working. He traces what the Spirit specifically teaches — the true sinfulness of sin, the total ruin and helplessness of self, the character and attributes of God, the person and love of Christ, and the believer's adoption and coming inheritance — and describes how the Spirit teaches: by awakening interest where there was indifference, by creating a humble willingness to learn even painful lessons, by putting Scripture in clear focus, by opening the understanding itself, by refreshing memory, and by making truth felt rather than merely told, the way tasting honey teaches sweetness better than any description could. He closes by describing this teaching as sovereign (the Spirit teaches whom he wills, by whatever means and degree he chooses), effectual (no true pupil of the Spirit is ever turned away unlearned), infallible (unlike human teachers, the Spirit never teaches error), and continual (he never abandons the work until it is complete) — and ends with a solemn appeal to anyone who has never felt this inward teaching, warning that all human learning and effort are worthless for spiritual things, and urging them to simply believe on Christ now, since obedience to that one command is itself proof that the Spirit has already begun his quickening work in them. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on May 13th, 1860.

Importance of Small Things in Religion

Spurgeon uses the story of the ark of the covenant being moved on a new cart instead of being carried on priests' shoulders, and Uzzah being struck dead for touching it, to argue that small departures from God's clear instructions are never harmless — God's sense of how serious sin is differs vastly from ours, any change to what God has commanded brings real trouble even when the motive seems good, and one small deviation from Scripture has historically led, step by step, to much larger errors, as when the practice of infant baptism gradually grew into the damaging doctrine of baptismal regeneration. He argues this is why the church today lacks the power of the apostolic church — not because the gospel itself has weakened, but because the church has departed from the original purity and simplicity of Scripture in countless small ways, and only a return to "the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible" will restore her former strength. He closes by turning to anyone seeking salvation, warning them just as urgently against touching the ark with their own merit — trying to mix good works or self-effort with Christ's finished work — since salvation comes only by trusting Jesus completely and is offered freely to "whosoever," with the same right to come as the witness called by name in court, simply because Christ himself has commanded it. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on April 8th, 1860.

Election and Holiness

Spurgeon defends the doctrine of Election as singular (God bypassed angels to choose fallen men), unconstrained (it rests on God's free will rather than any goodness in the chosen, foreseen or otherwise), and just (no one merits salvation, and God owes mercy to none, so giving extra grace to some wrongs no one, while the unsaved are lost only because they themselves refuse to come). He proves its truth by pointing out that even believers who deny the doctrine in theory affirm it the moment they pray for God to save specific loved ones or sing hymns crediting grace alone for their own conversion, since both acts assume God distinguishes between people. He closes by demolishing the charge that Election promotes sinful living, arguing instead that being chosen and separated by God's love is itself a powerful motive toward holiness, not license for sin, and urges believers to live up to their high calling without shame while warning unbelievers never to use uncertainty about election as an excuse for unbelief, since the only business required of anyone is simply to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on March 11th, 1860.

A Blast of the Trumpet Against False Peace

Spurgeon takes aim at false peace — the comfortable feeling of being spiritually fine when one is not — identifying five main sources of it: the man who drowns conscience in ceaseless amusement and gaiety, beating drums so loud that the soul's own cries cannot be heard; the man who has swallowed infidel arguments not from honest intellectual conviction but because the Bible makes him too uncomfortable in his sins; the careless procrastinator who silences conscience by promising to reform later, not realizing that each delay makes the heart harder; the man living on hollow resolutions that have already been broken every time they came due; and most dangerously, the church member who has turned sound doctrine into a cover for immoral living, believing himself elect while loving sin, which Spurgeon calls a thoroughly damnable delusion against which Calvin's own teaching stands as a direct refutation. He also addresses ignorance as a source of false peace, arguing that when the gospel is not clearly preached people remain comfortable in forms and formalities without ever grasping justification, atonement, or the difference between the old and new covenants — and he reserves his most solemn warning for the possibility that some may have been given up by God as a judicial act, their conscience permanently silenced not by grace but by the withdrawal of the Spirit's striving. He closes by urging every hearer to test their peace against three standards — whether it would hold on a sickbed, in a dying hour, and at the last judgment — and insists that any peace compatible with the love of sin, trust in personal righteousness, or living outside of Christ, is a false peace that will crumble precisely when it is most needed. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on February 26th, 1860.