How Saints May Help the Devil

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.

Faith Illustrated

Spurgeon explains that the Christian’s greatest act is committing the soul entirely to Christ, just as Paul declared, “I know whom I have believed.” Spurgeon shows that saving faith involves three movements: renouncing all trust in self, placing full confidence in Christ’s power and willingness to save, and surrendering oneself wholly to Him as Lord, much like a fugitive clinging to the crucifix for refuge or a lost climber trusting a guide in the storm. He illustrates how Paul abandoned his former righteousness—his pedigree, zeal, and law‑keeping—as worthless, choosing instead to rely solely on Christ’s atonement, resurrection, and intercession. Spurgeon emphasizes that believers must continue this act of trust throughout life, resting not in their ability to keep themselves but in Christ’s ability to “keep that which I have committed unto Him.” He concludes that Paul’s confidence was justified because he knew Christ—His deity, His redeeming work, His unchanging love—and had proven Him through long experience, climbing “summit after summit” of trial until he could say with unshakable certainty that Christ would preserve him to the end. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on August 21st, 1859.

The Tabernacle of the Most High

Spurgeon opens by forcefully dismissing all superstitious reverence for physical church buildings — arguing that bricks, stained glass, and consecrated graveyards have no moral or spiritual quality, and that true holiness can only reside in conscious, living persons — before turning to the text's claim that there is a real house of God: the living spiritual temple made of converted men and women, built on Christ as the cornerstone whose laying was cemented in his own blood, shaped from the rough quarry-stones of sinners by the saw of the law and the chisel of the gospel, and held together by love into an indestructible structure that no enemy has ever successfully stormed. He then develops the image of the church not merely as a building but as God's habitation — the place where, like a man at home, God lays aside the terror of his public majesty and shows his inner tenderness to his children, makes revelations he shares nowhere else, takes his rest and delight, and toward which all of providence — wars, angels' errands, harvests, hidden riches — ultimately tends as a household tends toward the home at its center. He closes on two notes: the security this gives the church, since a God who calls it his home will defend it as fiercely as any man defends his hearth; and the practical duty it lays on every member to keep themselves holy, since one defiled stone defiles the temple, and the Divine Inhabitant cannot share his house with sin. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on August 14th, 1859.