Who Can Tell?

A Divided Heart

Spurgeon takes the divided heart as a spiritual disease of the most dangerous kind — dangerous because it strikes a vital organ, because its victim is unconscious of how loathsome it is, because it is chronic and deep-seated, and above all because the heart flatters its owner into thinking everything is fine — and he identifies its four main symptoms: formality in religion (defending the shell because there is no kernel), inconsistency of life (one kind of person on Sunday and another on Saturday), variableness of purpose (spasmodic religious enthusiasm that comes and goes with the latest cause), and frivolity toward sacred things. He then traces the sad effects of this condition in three directions: the divided-heart person is personally miserable because the soul cannot rest in two places at once, he is useless and even dangerous to the church since hypocrisy spreads like contagion among healthy people, and he is utterly reprobate in God's sight — for God hates sin anywhere but most of all when it lays its hand on his altar wearing a disguise. He closes with two contrasting words: a solemn warning to the brazen-faced professor that at judgment he will be snatched from among the saints with greater horror than a common sinner receives; and a tender invitation to the broken-hearted penitent who, unlike the divided heart, has had all self-confidence shattered and now desires only to be truly God's — such a person is bidden to trust Christ immediately, since he is willing, able, and waiting to be gracious. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on September 25th, 1859.

Who Can Tell?

In this sermon, Spurgeon uses the story of Jonah and Nineveh to show how seriously people should take God’s warnings about sin and judgment. He describes how the Ninevites suddenly realized their guilt, the shortness of their time, and the terror of the destruction coming upon them. Even though Jonah offered no promise of mercy, they still repented because they believed there was a chance—“Who can tell?”—that God might forgive. Spurgeon then contrasts their limited hope with the far greater hope available to his listeners, who have clear promises of mercy through Christ’s death and resurrection. He urges sinners to turn to God immediately, reminding them that every warning, every sermon, and every invitation to repent is itself evidence that God is willing to save. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on September 18th, 1859.

Paul’s Desire To Depart

Spurgeon takes Paul's phrase "to depart and be with Christ" and unpacks it in three movements: first, what death actually is for the believer — not an arrest, not a plunge into darkness, but a quiet departure like a ship leaving harbor, the visible part being simply a calm leave-taking from everything loved on earth; second, what waits on the other side — not a long interval but an immediate arrival, where "to be with Christ" means vision of his face, intimate communion, full fruition of everything faith has only tasted, and a share in his glory forever. He then explains why Paul's desire to depart was genuinely wise and noble rather than cowardly — distinguishing it sharply from the suicide's despair, the philosopher's misanthropy, the ambitious man's bitter disappointment, or the sufferer's flight from pain — and traces Paul's real reasons: the longing to be completely and permanently free from sin, the desire to be reunited with beloved saints who had gone before, and above all the burning hunger to be with Christ himself. Throughout the sermon he addresses two audiences in parallel, showing believers reasons to welcome death with longing confidence, and warning the unconverted that for them death brings no such departure to sweetness but a harvest of their own sowing, companions in judgment rather than in glory, and a meeting with the Christ they despised — not as a welcoming friend but as the righteous Judge. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on September 11th, 1859.

Christ Triumphant

Spurgeon takes Colossians 2:15 as an invitation to view the cross not through the eyes of worldly shame but through the eyes of faith — and describes the cross as Christ's actual battlefield, where he fought Satan, sin, and death in a cosmic war that reached its crisis at Calvary, disarmed every enemy by taking their weapons, stripped them of their armor and their crowns, and then divided the spoil as a conqueror does when the battle is fully and finally won. He then unfolds the triumphal procession that flows from this victory, using the image of a Roman triumph to picture the ascended Christ riding through the gates of heaven in his chariot, with the redeemed streaming behind him from Abel through the martyrs and reformers to the present day, while Satan bound, sin gagged, and death disarmed are dragged as captive prisoners at his wheels to the universal shout of "Worthy is the Lamb." He closes by turning the grand vision into a personal question: will you march in that procession? — and answers it simply: if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and have committed your soul to his keeping, your eyes will see that day of glory, and you will share the throne of him who has already triumphed. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on September 4th, 1859.

Limiting God

Spurgeon exposes the sin of "limiting God" through two main forms — dictating to him and distrusting him — showing how believers dictate when they demand specific answers to prayer in their own chosen form, by their own chosen means, on their own chosen timetable, and how they distrust when they declare their trials too great for his power, give up praying for hardened loved ones because months have passed, or decide their own sins exceed the reach of his grace. He applies the diagnosis equally to seeking sinners who limit God by insisting on being saved in a particular dramatic way they have read about, or who refuse to believe he is willing until some special sign is given, or who fall into the darkest form of this sin — a sullen despair that effectively slanders God as cold and indifferent to their long groaning, making him out to be harder-hearted than any human being would be toward a neighbor in the same anguish. He closes with an urgent appeal to both groups: to the believer, stop setting deadlines and stop choosing the method, and trust that delayed answers come back with compound interest; and to the despairing sinner, dare to think well of God, come to the cross as the vilest of the vile, and let him have the glory of saving precisely the one who seemed most beyond saving. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on August 28th, 1859.