Distinguishing Grace

The Story of God's Mighty Acts

Spurgeon urges believers to remember and retell the great works God has done—from the Red Sea to Pentecost—so that past wonders might stir present expectation. He recounts how God overthrew Pharaoh, routed Sennacherib, and empowered early Christians so that within a century “the gospel had been preached in every nation,” and then traces later revivals through Chrysostom, Luther, Calvin, the Lollards, and the explosive ministries of Whitefield and Wesley, when “England was permeated with evangelical truth.” Spurgeon emphasizes that God’s greatest works are often sudden, overwhelming movements of the Spirit, such as the revival at Cambuslang or the contemporary awakening in Belfast, where even “the lowest and vilest men” were struck with deep conviction and transformed. He notes that God typically uses insignificant instruments—a David, a Luther, a Whitefield—and always honors great faith and great prayer, pointing to the American revival that began with one man praying alone in a hired room. Finally, Spurgeon challenges his hearers to reject the idea that such wonders belong only to the past, insisting that God is unchanged and urging them to praise Him for former mercies and to plead earnestly for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit in their own day. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on July 17th, 1859.

Distinguishing Grace

Spurgeon uses the question "Who makes you to differ?" as a sword against pride, working through a series of contrasts — between the comfortable and the suffering among God's own people, between the converted and the callous hearer sitting in the same pew, between the believer and the openly hardened sinner, between the preserved and those who have fallen into open apostasy, and finally between those who are saved and former companions who are now in hell — arguing in each case that the only honest answer is sovereign grace, since nothing in the person themselves explains why they received mercy while others did not. He is particularly sharp about the danger of self-congratulation among believers who have been kept from gross sin, noting that Abraham, Noah, Lot, and David all fell when left even briefly without divine support, so that any Christian who has not fallen owes their standing entirely to God's continual keeping, not to their own superior character. He draws three practical lessons: first, that genuine awareness of distinguishing grace should kill pride stone dead; second, that if God could save us he can save anyone, so no one should ever be given up as hopeless; and third, that those who have been loved more than others owe correspondingly greater service to Christ, and he calls the church to examine whether it is doing anything at all, given how much remains undone and how little time remains. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on February 6th, 1859.

The Call of Abraham

Spurgeon traces Abraham's call — what he left (family, homeland, settled comfort, known pastures), where he went (an unknown land with nothing but a promise), and how he went (immediately, cheerfully, without hesitation or conditions) — and holds him up as the model of a faith that acts before it understands, trusting the Guide rather than needing to know the road. He then applies this pattern to four situations his congregation would recognize: the new convert who must leave an ungodly family; the believer whose views on doctrine or baptism change and who must bear the cost of following conviction even among friends; the wealthy or well-connected person who must choose Christ over respectability; and anyone whose circumstances are suddenly overturned by providence and who must go forward into uncertainty. He closes with a personal application to his own congregation — then facing the loss of their meeting place at the Surrey Music Hall — urging them not to be distressed, since the God who gathered them will keep them together wherever he leads, and finally extending the image to death itself, that last journey taken without a map, where the only certainty the believer carries is that God goes with them. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on July 10th, 1859.

An Earnest Invitation

Spurgeon unpacks the command "Kiss the Son" through four progressively deeper meanings — a kiss of reconciliation that ends the sinner's rebellion against God, a kiss of homage that acknowledges Christ as king, a kiss of worship that bows before his full divinity, and a kiss of affectionate gratitude like Mary Magdalene weeping at Christ's feet — arguing that each aspect of this single command encompasses the entire movement from enmity to love, and that Christ stands ready to receive every sinner who comes with any one of these intentions. He then turns to the warning with thunder and urgency: Christ the Lamb can become angry, and when he does it is the most fearful anger in the universe — the wrath of the very one who is "mighty to save" — and even a little of that anger is enough to destroy the sinner forever, while death may come without warning at any moment, so that delay is not merely foolish but potentially fatal. He closes with the benediction as a second and sweeter argument: those who trust Christ are not merely promised blessing but receive it really, consciously, and increasingly, growing from the first ray of faith all the way to eternal glory — and he urges every trembling sinner to simply trust Christ now, since no soul that ever cast itself on Christ has perished, the door of mercy stands wide open, and the only qualification required is to feel your own need. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on July 3rd, 1859.

A Home Mission Sermon

Spurgeon argues that God keeps his people in this world for one reason — to do good to others and glorify him — and the ruling principle for that work is the text: do whatever your hand finds, meaning the work that is near and possible right now, not the grand scheme miles away or the imaginary ministry you would have if circumstances were different, and the moment you find it, do it promptly, wholeheartedly, and in God's strength, since procrastination robs Christ of today's service and listless half-heartedness is an insult to the One who gave everything. He enforces this with two great arguments: first, that death is nearer than we think and the grave ends all service — no second chances, no posthumous warnings, no deferred generosity — so that every hour of idleness or delay is an hour permanently lost; and second, that if we truly believe men are perishing in hell, our stillness is a moral absurdity, since no one who genuinely believed a neighbor was running toward a cliff would stand idly watching. He closes with three specific charges: parents must teach their own children while they still can, Sunday school teachers must give their whole hearts to their classes, and ministers must preach with urgency — and he holds up Whitfield's story as the model, a man who returned from death's door resolved not to go home until he could bring souls with him. Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on June 26th, 1859.