Struggles of Conscience

Struggles of Conscience

Spurgeon attacks a subtle form of self-righteousness common in his day — the idea that a sinner must first feel their guilt deeply enough, with strong conviction and sorrow, before they have any right to trust Christ — arguing instead that this demand is itself a disguised legalism, since the gospel invites "sinners" as sinners with no qualifying adjective and no preparation of feeling required. He comforts those struggling with this by pointing out that wanting to feel one's sin more is itself evidence of real spiritual life (since the truly wicked never wish to see their guilt at all), gives practical advice on how to gain a deeper sense of sin through examining specific transgressions, sitting under a direct and personal preaching ministry, studying God's law, and especially meditating on Christ's sufferings, and warns sharply against confusing the Holy Spirit's work of conviction with Satan's counterfeit work of driving a soul to despair. He closes with an urgent appeal that anyone waiting to feel "enough" before coming to Christ will wait forever, since the true gospel command is simply "look unto Me" rather than to one's own feelings, and that the sinner's only safety lies in coming exactly as they are now, trusting that Christ's blood — not their preparation for it — is what saves. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on September 22nd, 1860.

Three Homilies From One Text

Spurgeon draws three distinct lessons from the same passage describing Christ healing every kind of disease throughout Galilee. First, a homily to ministers, urging them to imitate Christ's itinerant, energetic preaching rather than staying confined to one pulpit, since souls are won by actively seeking sinners rather than waiting for them to come. Second, a homily to ordinary believers, teaching that just as friends carried the sick and paralyzed to Jesus when they could not come themselves, Christians today must "bring" reluctant or resistant loved ones to Christ through persistent prayer and confident faith, since vicarious faith exercised on another's behalf has real power to bring that person to saving faith of their own. Third and longest, an encouragement to sinners themselves, assuring them that Christ heals every kind of spiritual disease without exception — including cases everyone considers hopeless or "incurable" — and that he asks nothing in payment but simply invites sinners of every land and background to come exactly as they are and trust him, with the promise that the moment anyone truly trusts Christ, all their sins are immediately and completely forgiven. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on September 2, 1860.

Christ's First and Last Subject

Spurgeon argues that because repentance was both Christ's opening and closing message, it must be the spiritual alphabet's first and last letter — a Gospel grace born at the foot of the cross rather than at Sinai, and produced only by divine grace since no unaided human heart can transform itself any more than a river can leap backward up its own waterfall. He breaks true repentance into four ingredients — illumination (seeing one's sin as God sees it), humiliation (acknowledging the justice of deserved judgment with no boasting left), detestation (genuinely hating sin rather than merely regretting its consequences), and transformation (a complete change not just in outward behavior but in the very desires of the heart, so the penitent no longer wants to sin) — and pairs it with three inseparable companions: faith (born simultaneously with repentance, like twins who cannot live apart), confession (which gives voice to repentance's wordless groans), and the peace that follows once sin's troublesome weight has been turned out of the heart. He closes by insisting, somewhat surprisingly, that repentance is actually sweet rather than merely bitter, since repentance joined to hope in the cross is "next door to Heaven" even while repentance without that hope would be unbearable, and he pleads with every hearer to repent now, warning that the heart unbroken today will be broken forever under judgment if it continues to resist. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on August 19th, 1860.

True Prayer—True Power!

Spurgeon identifies four essential qualities of prevailing prayer found in the text — definite objects (naming specific things and specific people rather than vague, rambling requests), earnest desire (praying with real urgency rather than cold, half-hearted words that ask for a denial), firm faith (believing prayer is an actual force in the universe, not merely a comforting habit), and a realizing expectation that counts the answer as already on its way before it visibly arrives. He then turns this lens on the church's actual practices, gently criticizing public prayer meetings for relying on memorized phrases, impressive vocabulary, and stamina rather than genuine, specific petitions spoken in one's own words, and confessing that private prayer closets could tell many stories of hurried, distracted, and doubting prayers that dishonored the God being addressed. He closes with a double appeal — urging believers to weep over their neglect of so mighty a power and then to rejoice that God's ear remains open and his hand ready despite past failures, and inviting any sinner who has never truly prayed to lay aside their sin and simply cry out for mercy through the blood of Christ, since even the groan of an awakened heart is acceptable prayer that God delights to answer. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on August 12th, 1860.

High Doctrine

Spurgeon takes "all things are of God" as a summary of his entire ministry's teaching, arguing systematically that every part of the new spiritual creation — the first desire toward Christ, the new nature, the privileges of pardon and adoption, and even the holy actions and sufferings of believers — comes from God alone in its planning, its purchase through Christ's blood, its application to the individual soul, its ongoing maintenance, and its final completion, with man contributing nothing since a dead sinner can no more raise himself spiritually than a corpse can rise on its own. He defends this doctrine by appealing to Scripture's statement that "every good gift comes from above," to the fact that all glory for salvation belongs to God (which only makes sense if all the work belongs to God too), and to the testimony of every Christian's own experience, which credits grace rather than self for any good within them. He closes by showing this doctrine's practical benefits — it humbles human pride, kills self-sufficiency, gives lasting comfort since a salvation entirely secured by God cannot collapse the way one resting partly on human effort could, and far from discouraging sinners, actually invites them to come exactly as they are, since every quality they lack — a new heart, true repentance, saving faith, the power to persevere — is itself a gift that God freely supplies to those who simply come and receive. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on June 3rd, 1860.