Maidenbower Baptist Church

This is one of the sermons preached "on an evening when the regular hearers left their seats to be occupied by strangers." Imagine asking some five thousand people to vacate their places, only to see another five thousand pressing in to hear the good news of Jesus Christ! On such an occasion, Spurgeon gives himself especially to explaining, demonstrating, reasoning, pleading, and persuading that sinners will turn to Christ Jesus. Thus he here holds up our Lord Jesus as the "marvellous magnet," zeroing in on his crucifixion as that reality, that sight, by which he draws men to himself. So he considers first the attractive force which lies in the crucified Saviour himself. Then he asks how this force is exercised, considering the means and the power by which the Holy Spirit draws sinners to Christ Jesus. Finally, he asks what the implications of all this must be for those who are hearing him, pressing home the claims of Christ upon every soul. As you read it you will find that it is not an unusually short sermon, nor is it crassly simplistic. It is lively and it is direct, and the preacher labours to keep every fixed upon the Redeemer. In this, it is an example of truly evangelistic preaching, without bells or whistles, and with no special measures other than this: that Christ is resolutely at the centre and in the forefront throughout.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

The Lord speaks of Messiah and his blessings, one who not only brings liberty to the prisoners and light to the benighted, but who cares for those whom he leads out. Here are promises made to you of blessings bestowed and applied as well as evils restrained and removed. Here is a person close to you, the one who shows mercy in his leading and guiding. Here, too, is the path set for you, as the Merciful One leads you by springs of water, and so refreshes your soul. These are a taste of heaven for the child of God in the wilderness, celestial food and favour on our way to our celestial home.

David concludes his applications with strong contrasts and earnest exhortations. Having first set out the reality of true happiness in his conclusion, and then pressed it home by way of personal illustration, he reminds us here of the sorrows of the wicked, the many, certain, and deserved plagues and pains of the unrepentant rebel. The different comes not from favour earned but from faith's reward, for the sinner must trust in the Lord to receive the undeserved kindnesses he holds out. Such a believer is surrounded by divine mercy, giving him cause to rejoice now and always. True sorrow over sin which leads to repentance brings the believer into the joy of salvation, but the sorrows of the wicked do not end.

There are no themes sweeter than the love of God toward us in Christ Jesus our Lord, and there are few themes upon which Spurgeon is more happy and eloquent. In this sermon he digs into the text of his text, working through the language of love which John speaks. Love begins in and with God: he is its source. That love flows out in the sending of God's beloved Son to be the propitiation for the sins of his people, and then flows over in the people so loved, filling their hearts and spilling out into the lives of others. Here again you will find a familiar emphasis in Spurgeon, that it is love revealed in the gospel which draws out love and secures obedience, something which the law in itself could never do. But there is more, the love with which we have been loved does not just stimulate love of another kind, but produces love of the same kind, drawing from us a Godlike, Christlike love which operates in a similar direction and fashion. So it is that we need to consider and enjoy that love with which God has loved us in Christ Jesus, in order that we might not only appreciate its benefits for ourselves but also demonstrate it in our responses to God himself and to those around us, both in the church and in the world.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

David has given us his conclusion, and from his own life provided an illustration, before offering a series of applications. In this we hear the painful echo of his own experience. We hear something of God's own voice providing instruction, teaching, and guidance, and so David pleads with us not to be stubborn but compliant, not to be obstinate but obedient, to receive God's truth readily, that we may not need less gentle means to bring us into a right way. Too many of God's people are like the horse and the mule, requiring bit and bridle to be brought into the path of obedience, and David pleads with us to take the better and happier way.

With a wonderful pastoral sensitivity, Spurgeon preaches a sermon to a congregation which has recently lost two esteemed, elderly deacons. Without artificiality, and without clumsiness, he takes full account of the sorrow of the congregation, while offering them hope and joy in proportion to their grief. He zeroes in on the gladness for which Moses prayers at the end of Psalm 90, looking at the way in which the Lord is able to supply a gladness to balance out sadness, and at the distinctiveness of the gladnesses which the Lord is pleased to grant his praying people. These joys are both real and enduring, and as he contemplates the future—and asks his people to contemplate a future without two eminent servants of God in their midst—Spurgeon does so with eyes lifted to heaven, fixed upon the hand of Almighty God. So he encourages himself, and them, and us, with the prospect of God's work in and after our days, giving us our own work to do and then smiling upon that work. It is a genuinely encouraging sermon, and I hope that you will find it so.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

David has announced his conclusion and offered the illustration of his own experience concerning the forgiveness of God and the joy that follows. Now he presses home his applications. The first is an encouragement to pray. David's experience gives others a reason to pray; they are to do so in any season of need; they find in the Lord a place to hide; and, he brings them into an atmosphere of praise. If this is true of the godly who sin against the Lord, then there is hope for all who call upon his name.

"A delicious carelessness of holy confidence." That is the beautiful phrase which Spurgeon uses to describe the state he encourages in this sermon. Many people are full of care, and the apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, wants them to be without care, not oppressed and flustered by a weight of trouble. And so, following Paul, Spurgeon urges the saints first of all to avoid those states which necessarily involve a burden of care which might be avoided—unwise marriages, immersion in business, public service that overwhelms our capacity, jobs which prevent attending or serving in God's house, and any forms of speculation (risk-taking, gambling). He also tells us to steer clear of those pursuits which necessarily involve this kind of care: pursuing wealth, craving a reputation, desiring respectability, idolising anything in this life. Finally, and very positively and practically, he urges us to exercise a childlike faith in the ever-blessed God. Don't drag your troubles, real or imagined, out of the future and into the present; be content with God's will; be confident in God's love; believe in the power of prayer. Do not live loaded with care, pleads Spurgeon, but ask first of all how you may live to God's glory, and you will live as Christ lived—in a delicious carelessness of holy confidence.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

What is your attitude to the law of God? Spurgeon's is typically Particular Baptist, typically Puritan, with a strong emphasis on the blessings of the new covenant in Christ bringing us into a new, true, happy relation to the law which God wrote on Adam's heart in creation and inscribed on tablets of stone at Sinai. Spurgeon emphasises in this sermon that the law of God is written now on the tablets of our heart. Having given us a few biblical-theological insights by way of introduction, he brings us soundly into the realm of the new covenant, showing us that the same law given at Sinai is now inscribed into the core of the inner man, and becomes a part of every believer. Then he shows us what this writing is, the whole, unaltered law, written so that memory, will, and affection are fully engaged, and he considers how the Holy Spirit uses various means to keep that writing legible. He thinks of God as the one who alone is entitled and able to write perfectly and permanently upon the human heart, and then briefly closes with the result of this writing. Here he presses home both the radical change which occurs, in terms of battle joined against all sin, but also by way of the new principle of obedience which characterises the regenerate soul. By way of this he points us toward the heaven which is prepared for those who love God, those who are themselves prepared for heaven by a lifelong pursuit of that which pleases him. This sermon is a powerful corrective to those who would put aside the law of God at any point, as well as to those who think to impose and enforce it by any means other than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

The challenges, rebukes, and encouragements of this sermon all carry their proper weight. Preaching from James 4:2–3, Spurgeon first exposes the poverty of lusting, how all the carnal and self-reliant effort in the world never produces that for which we seek. Then, and painfully, he points out how Christian churches may suffer from spiritual poverty, declining and drifting, neither desiring anything worthwhile nor seeking after it. Such churches are often competing for the wrong things in the wrong spirit, even with bitterness. Where, asks the preacher, is the asking? Where is the praying and the pleading for God's blessing, and for God's glory in the blessing? All this leads to stirring encouragements to take God at his word, and to ask rightly of a God who is only too ready to bestow his favours upon those who seek him. Spurgeon really hammers this point home, exhorting us to persistent prayer to the God of heaven, assuring us that the Lord Almighty stands ready to pour out his goodnesses on those who call upon him. So, shall we believe the Word of God? Shall we give ourselves to prayer? Shall we look for the answer, because we are persuaded of what God himself has said?

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

The love of God should be a theme to which we gleefully return, though we can never plumb its depths nor scale its heights. Where do we see this love? It has a distinct manifestation, a full and clear revelation, which involves a person, a place, and a purpose. The demonstration concerns a person, the only begotten Son of God whom the Father sent. The location concerns a place, the world which God made and which had fallen, into which the Son came on his errand of mercy. The intention of God's love concerns the purpose, the grant of life through the Son to those who were dead to all good. This love in Christ is to be believed and to be received.

Having begun with his conclusion, David now describes his experience, the painful path to peace. It was painful not because God required penance, but because David resisted penitence. He maintained a sinful silence, not addressing his sins against the Lord. He felt a heavy hand, the Lord dealing with his erring and stubborn child in chastising love. This brought him to a clear confession, in which he was truly transparent about the depth and breadth of his sin. Consequently, he received full forgiveness, the Lord proving more ready to remove sin than David had been to confess it.

It is very easy—perhaps too easy—for us to accommodate the language of the psalms to ourselves, as if we were the primary reference point. Spurgeon here reminds us that, while it is not wrong to see our own experience written in the psalms, nevertheless we are typically pointed first and plainly to Jesus Christ (indeed, it is this which enables us to interpret our own experience, and learn from it). Thus, here, he takes us to our Lord's deepest trouble, and bids us observe our Lord's behaviour, then to consider our Lord's deliverance, then our Lord's reward for his sufferings, and finally, the Lord's likeness in his redeemed people. The result is a sermon which is vivid and realistic in its depiction of our Saviour's distresses, but which also shows the spirit in which he bore those distresses, and the smile of his Father upon his labours. All this puts our own sorrows in perspective, and helps us to understand Christ's sympathy with us in our distresses, and our confidence that—trusting in him—the God of heaven will also lift us up out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

The last time Paul refers to 'my gospel' is part of his encouragement to Timothy in the face of distresses and difficulties. Timothy will need to keep in mind that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to Paul's gospel. The incarnation and the resurrection, with all implied in them, must be what holds up Timothy's soul. These are the facts upon which a sinner can rely and which a Christian must declare.

Psalm 32 is a song of confession and instruction. The Apostle Paul refers to it as a description of the blessedness of the justified man. As we begin studying this psalm, we find it opening with its conclusion: that true and lasting joy consists in the forgiveness of transgression, the covering of sin, the non-imputation of iniquity. These blessings come to the man who is honest with God, and with himself, about the reality of his sin and his need of mercy.

Sometimes you get a sense of the preacher's excitement from the very first sentence of his sermon. It is the case here, as Spurgeon bubbles over from the opening line! With such a verse and theme before him, Spurgeon feels his utter inadequacy to express all that is contained in the exceeding riches of God's grace in Christ Jesus. But, confident that others could preach the gospel better, but could never preach a better gospel, he gives us his best…and what a delight it is! Overflowing with spiritual excitement, his first point really frames the substance along the lines of the text. It is in the second point that his soul begins to soar, telling us that this exceedingly rich grace in Christ is above all limit, observation, and expression, above all our ways of action, our understanding, and all our sins. It is greater than God's promises, greater than anything we have yet received. It is above all measure! What an incitement to come and trust in the Christ through whom all blessings flow! Finally, Spurgeon sets out to illustrate his text just a little more, trying to add a last few strands of thought concerning the patience, the freeness, the effectiveness of divine grace, and its beautiful endurance, carrying us in to eternity future as we wonder how we shall ever be able to tell not just what we now know, but all that we do not now know, as it is unfolded in ages to come.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

When Paul speaks of 'my gospel' is not a gospel he has crafted for himself, but one he has received from God, relied upon for himself, and proclaimed in obedience. This is the gospel which he preached to the Romans and others, and he puts it in all its context and connections: Christ as its prime preacher, its hidden beauty, its plain revelation, its great scope, its mighty authority, and its saving purpose. By this gospel, the God of heaven is pleased to establish a people, lifting them up and holding them up in Christ, safe and secure in a shifting and passing world.

We can become so anguished in spirit that doubt speaks with a voice that borders on blasphemy: "Has God forgotten to be gracious?" Asaph pushes the logic of his distress toward its ugly conclusion. In this sermon, we apply his question to three cases: the struggling Christian, the sorrowing backslider, and the seeking sinner. Has God forgotten to be gracious? No, and in each case we must remember the character of God, revealed in Christ, and—rebuking unbelief—rely on the grace of God.

Spurgeon says that this text overpowers him: "It is a gem of priceless value." Even before he gets to the formal substance of his sermon, his unusually long introduction has turned that gem in the light so that its facets begin to reflect something of the goodness of God, and set us up for the main elements of his address. In fact, he effectively gives us a couple of mini-sermons before he gets to the sermon proper! When he eventually begins to work through five particulars to which he wants to draw our attention, he first considers blessings in their fullness—God as our sun. Then there are blessings in their counterpoise—that God is also a shield. Developing that thought, he then turns us to blessings in their order. Building on that, we have blessings in development and in maturity. Finally, there are blessings in their universality. The sermon is less one of sequence and more one of layering, thought laid upon thought, and insight upon insight, giving us a rich and sweet feast for those who walk uprightly, and closing with urgent entreaties to enjoy and expect the good things that the Lord has laid up for his people.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

There are many who have opportunities to hear the Word of God, some regularly and clearly. When this happens, the devil is painfully punctual, never absent, never late, determined to do harm. The devil is fearfully powerful, taking away the word from the hearers. The devil is fiendishly practical, particularly aiming to keep the word from the heart. The devil is viciously purposeful, intending to prevent people believing and being saved. This reminds us of the power of the Word of God preached, and our dependence on the Holy Spirit, and the danger of a careless or contemptuous hearing of the Scriptures.

Paul refers three times to "my gospel." The first occurrence is in Romans 2:16, where he underlines the certainty of judgment, the measure or substance of judgment, and the agent of judgment. All this, he says, is in accordance with his gospel. How does the gospel of God, received, relied up, and proclaimed by Paul, set forth a coming judgment? Is this your gospel too?

This is a sermon full of life and strength preached by a man full of sickness and weakness. The introduction surveys all the key facts contained in the text, giving us the scope of the whole, and then the preacher zeroes in on the reality of the resurrection, unpacking it in its bearing upon other great truths, its bearing on the gospel itself, and its bearing upon us. The sermon is packed full of theology and of Scripture, as Spurgeon uses the opportunity to join the dots for us, connecting the resurrection of Jesus to various other doctrines, demonstrating how it lies at the very heart of all our gospel hope and joy, and then pressing it home in terms of personal expectation and confidence: we must remember this! His last words are a stirring call to grasp that this risen Jesus is ruling still, and that—whatever may be the eulogies, mournful or mocking, pronounced over the religion of Christ—the Saviour who lives and reigns has obtained and must obtain the victory, and we with him. It is a fine sermon for a sick man to preach, no doubt full of comfort to himself, and so flowing forth from his heart to comfort others also.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

This sermon cuts deeply in order to probe carefully. It is Spurgeon in typically and painfully sober mode. The sermon puts to each hearer the question which Christ asked of his disciples at a season of mass desertion: "Will you also go away?" Searching deeply into our hearts, Spurgeon first asks why Christ asked this question of his twelve disciples, looking at the defections which were taking place. Then he takes the question itself, and this is perhaps the most painful element of the sermon, as Spurgeon points out the contagion of desertion, and how it would cut through the twelve themselves, and the importance of a thoughtful and voluntary attachment to Christ himself. After the wound, the balm: our preacher then considers the three elements of Peter's answer, an answer which we ourselves should give to our divine Leader. So he concludes with the heartfelt plea, "By thy faithfulness, O Lord, keep us faithful!" Is Spurgeon being harsh or hard? Is he trying to unsettle the faithful? Is he deliberately assaulting faith? No, here is a true-hearted minister in difficult times bringing needful warnings to the souls of his congregation, not carelessly undermining but deliberately probing to ensure that we have a good foundation.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

This royal psalm sets out the blessings God bestows on his King and the service the King renders to the Lord. Divine strength is at the beginning and the end of the whole, which points far beyond David to the Lord Christ, the King of kings. In concluding the psalm, we find a good desire for the saints to possess: "Be exalted, O Lord!" There is a good dependence for saints to profess: "in your own strength," at once a confession of our own weakness and an expectation of God's power. There is a good delight for saints to pursue: "we will sing and praise your power!" This is a good response to the wickedness of the world and the weakness of the church, which we should cultivate now and which will be fully realised at the coming of Christ.

In the aftermath of a particular effort on the part of the Tabernacle congregation, Spurgeon calls on the people to consider the spirit in which they have gone about their business: was their service acceptable to God? He is concerned more with the inward disposition of the heart than with any outward activity, energy, or generosity. So he asks whether our service has been rendered out of a sense of our immeasurable obligation to the Lord. Furthermore, has our service been offered up in the power of divine grace, rather than human nature, even at its best? Have we worked with reverence, a holy shame of face, aware of our own personal sins and the failings of what we bring to the Lord? Have we also come in the spirit of holy cheerfulness, with a godly fear? Finally, are we cultivating a profound sense of the divine holiness, a sense of God as a consuming fire? His point is that, whatever service has been rendered to the Lord, if we take credit to ourselves then we are robbing the altar of God. His closing plea would suit any one of us, as we look back upon whatever we have brought to God in recent days: "Let us bring the sacrifices of the last week to him, with repentance for every fault, humbly pleading that of his grace he will accept it, and earnestly desiring that all we have done may redound to his glory through Jesus Christ his Son, to whom be honour, world without end."

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology

What is our response when faced with decisions and difficulties? Abraham is a model of obedient faith. It is helpful to consider what he knew negatively—what he did not know when he went out. It is good to remember what he did know—the presence, promise, and protection of the Lord. It is therefore clear why he did what he did, going out as he was called, obeying God out of implicit trust.

This is a shorter sermon, preached on a Thursday evening, and in it Spurgeon contrasts and compares two texts, each speaking of something good. The first is, perhaps, more surprising: it is good when we are afflicted. The second might make more obvious sense to us: it is good to draw near to God. The first is good when it does not sour the sufferer, but forms, spurs, stirs, sanctifies, and instructs the child of God who is afflicted. The second is good because we feel God near us, are moved to greater trust, and out of it we are able to bear good witness to the works of the Almighty. Do we feel the virtues of both sanctified affliction from the Lord and sweet communion with the Lord? Are we prepared to call both of these good? Are we truly thankful for any afflictions God grants for his holy purposes, and for any closeness which he bestows upon us? These are the questions and comforts with which the preacher leaves his congregation.

We are working through a book of systematic theology called "Daily Doctrine" by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway). We hope that you will join us and engage with the book as we seek to learn more about the God of heaven, and what the knowledge of him means for his pilgrim people upon earth. The whole video series can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=ACvRi4lPPuAH1jqx If you are in the UK you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3ZX4ICu or https://www.icmbooks.co.uk/product/38356/Daily-Doctrine-A-One-Year-Guide-to-Systematic-Theology or https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781433572852/daily-doctrine-hardback. If you are in the US you can get the book here: https://amzn.to/3VSrTNq or https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/daily-doctrine-deyoung.html. Direct from Crossway: https://www.crossway.org/books/daily-doctrine-hcj/ Logos users: https://www.logos.com/product/299143/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology