Maidenbower Baptist Church

The meeting between Peter and Cornelius reaches a climax with Peter's gospel confession that the Lord shows no partiality, and the sweet gospel declaration of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Peter recounts his gospel commission to make known this good news to all. When the Holy Spirit falls upon the gathered Gentiles there is gospel recognition: God is powerfully at work to save sinners among the nations, and the gospel wave has definitively broken on Gentile shores!

Do we take God at his word? In condescension and compassion, the Lord of hosts invites his people to "try me now in this": to act in dependence upon his promises and to obtain great blessings. We need to understand what the Lord's challenge involves, who is speaking and what he is inviting us to do. We need to feel why the challenge bites, our tendency to hold back even when the Lord holds out his mercies. Then, we ought to consider how to act when the challenge comes, and what it looks like to take God at his word.

Subtitled, "A Pleading Reminder for the New Year." If you are a pastor-preacher, and your heart is where it should be, then this short sermon is likely to resonate with you. However, it may be that, if you are not a pastor, you have rarely or even never thought about the way in which an under-shepherd of Christ's flock considers the sheep entrusted to his care by the Great Shepherd. This short sermon expresses the deep concern and abiding affection which a true pastor has for the people to whom he preaches and over whom he watches. Spurgeon describes is as the pastor's life being "wrapped up with his people's faithfulness." There is nothing that more grieves him than a departure from the way of truth, there is nothing that more delights him than to see the saints standing fast. He looks at all sides of this experience—those who are not in the Lord at all, those who appear to be in the Lord but are not standing fast, and those who are in the Lord and standing fast, who bring deep joy to an overseer's heart. This sermon will help you, on the one hand, to consider your own heart; on the other, it might give you a glimpse into the heart of your pastors, and help you to appreciate and to pray for them.

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

We have mentioned from time to time the sermonic runs which we find here and there in Spurgeon's published sermons. This is the end of one such sequence, preached from the second chapter of John's first letter, and considering the different stages or phases of spiritual maturity. The first sermon on little children was preached on Sunday 18th March; the second on young men was preached on Sunday 8th April. This is the third, concerning the fathers, preached on Sunday 18th November. This brief topical series spanned nine months! On the one hand, it is notable that Spurgeon expected his congregation, in some measure, to keep track of and to remember the previous ministry. On the other, it is helpful to see how carefully and briefly Spurgeon connects each sermon to those preceding it, neither rehearsing the former at extravagant length nor assuming full recall. Each sermon stands largely alone, but benefits from the connection with the others. In each case, Spurgeon more or less walks through the text: here he identifies the people, asks about their distinctive character, and considers the message addressed to them—simple and solid!

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

On one level, the meeting in person between Cornelius and Peter seems to be a simple summary of the action so far over four days. However, in the intensity of these two prepared men coming face to face, we can learn something about the proper eagerness with which we should hear God's word, the appropriate quickness with which we should obey God's word, and the humble readiness with which we should speak God's word.

The natural desire to see spiritual blessings poured upon those whom we love makes the position of Christian wives with unconverted husbands a particularly challenging one. Peter underlines the general principle of submission to one's own husband, but acknowledges the specific circumstance that not all husbands of Christian women are themselves believers. He therefore identifies the desired outcome for unsaved husbands, and—indeed—all unconverted family members: that they may be won to Christ. He encourages Christian wives to use particular means to accomplish this, under God: even if an unbelieving husband resists the Word of God, the conduct of a godly wife might compel investigation of the gospel which produces a Christlike character the likes of which the pagan world can never produce.

It has become sadly typical to suggest some kind of tension or even opposition between knowing and doing, as if a delight in doctrine somehow chills the soul and cripples the hand, or someone who is earnest and zealous need not or even should not bother themselves with theology. Spurgeon gives the lie to such silliness with this sermon on spiritual knowledge and its practical results. Before he even gets to that specific topic, he is urging us to consider the value of intercessory prayer. Only then does to begin to unpack the value of spiritual knowledge, showing that true knowledge is truly spiritual, and that the saints should desire to be filled with it. Then he comes to the practical results of such knowledge, emphasising that it motivates, transforms, and directs those who possess it. Finally, Spurgeon speaks briefly about the reflex action of knowledge upon holiness, for the holy man is one who increases in knowledge, spurred by appetite and increased in capacity. Thus spiritual knowledge and zealous labour are properly connected, and so we learn better what it means to know and to serve the living and true God.

Apologies for the blurring at one point...a few technical challenges to overcome this week! 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 gospel is good news. That is not so much a question of 'what' as 'who', and the answer is Jesus Christ. Paul summarises the primary gospel realities: this is the Christ who died, and who was buried, and who was raised again, and who was seen by many witnesses. Outside of this Jesus, there is no salvation; Christianity is receiving him in accordance with this truth, standing in the gospel, being saved by this Saviour, and holding fast to him and what is revealed concerning him.

Amasai is not a well-known figure, but the record of his heart and words in 1 Chronicles 12:16–18 marks him out as a true disciple of David. Representing the men of Benjamin and Judah, he and those with him came in faith, believing what God had said about David as his Anointed King. The faced a test, whether they were truly on David's side or had treacherous hearts. They gave a pledge, Amasai speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit, testifying of their allegiance to David. Like Amasai, true Christians come to a greater than David, the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving him as the Lord and Christ from God, though now despised upon earth. Like Amasai, believers face a test as to their faithfulness: are they truly coming to and committed to the Lord Jesus? Finally, believers give a pledge, not least in their baptism, that they belong to Christ and stand with him and for him.

Spurgeon is as practical as he is doctrinal and experimental (he often insists on all these being properly represented in public ministry, either within or across sermons). This sermon consists in a great deal of practical pastoral counsel with regard to humility, applying the requirement for humility to our church life, to our behaviour in our afflictions, in our daily dealings with God, and in our seeking forgiveness as sinners (recognising that the last element is more an extrapolation from the text than a explication of it). Perhaps you have read treatments of pride and humility that are clothed in a kind of faux-lowliness. It may well be that Spurgeon struggled with pride (several biographers suggest it was a battle for him) but here he simply goes for the jugular of this sin, putting himself as squarely in the sights of his text as anyone else in the congregation, and preaching with a directness and simplicity that is commendable. Because, as he says, "pride is so natural to fallen man that it springs up in his heart like weeds in a watered garden, or rushes by a flowing brook," the sermon remains as relevant to me and to you as it did to anyone sitting in the Metropolitan Tabernacle that day in or around 1883. May the sermon do as much good to us as we trust it did to them!

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

Continuing our exploration of godly femininity in the marriage relationship, we work out some of the dimensions of submission. Its religious nature lies in its being an expression of a godly woman's relationship to the Lord; its broad extent is wide-ranging but not absolute. It could be distorted or perverted in an unrighteous abnegation and effacement, or in a sinful domination and manipulation. This is a spirit which is heavenly, formed by the Holy Ghost, and which he is pleased to bestow on those who seek him for it.

Because of the manner of his preaching over time, it is not unusual to find Spurgeon creating his own connections, contrasts, and counterpoints. You may find little sermon 'runs' as he works through, for example, the stages of Christian maturity in 1 John 2. Sometimes he will say something like, "A few Sabbaths ago we looked at that, but today we must consider this so that we do not lose sight of either." In this sermon, he is building on a previous sermon, seeking to lift up a particular aspect of truth already addressed and press it home in a particular direction. Is Christ the Beloved of the Father? Then what does it mean for us to accepted in the Beloved Son? Spurgeon suggests that this is more a matter for sweet meditation than for didactic instruction, and so proceeds to unpack his text in a series of thoughts which invariably focus on Christ the Beloved, and what it means for God to receive us for his sake. A note of joyful wonder permeates the sermon, as the preacher—ranging far and wide through Scripture and nature for illumination and illustration—digs ever deeper into the delight of being accepted by the Great Father for the sake of his Beloved Son.

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 Holy Spirit continues to guide God's elect in the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Cornelius having been primed, the Spirit now readies Peter for his part. In this passage we begin with Peter's prayer as he walks on a housetop, and the vision which he sees. Then there is Peter's pain, his visceral reaction to the prospect of eating unclean food. Then there is his perplexity, his bewilderment as to the meaning of the heavenly vision. Next we come to Peter's prompt, as the Holy Spirit himself gives further direction as to what is taking place and must take place. All this feeds into Peter's progress, as he welcomes Cornelius' servants, the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile beginning to crack under the pressure of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5 not only identifies loving leadership as the keynote of the male role in marriage but also cheerful submission as the keynote for a married woman. This is the primary element, an active and positive, cheerful and joyful yielding and employing one's gifts and graces in one's husband. The specific sphere of this submission is marriage to one's own husband, a general disposition that finds its full expression within the safety and security of the marriage bond.

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 is little which excites and delights Spurgeon as much as the preaching of Christ. Christ is not the icing on the cake of his ministry, but its sweet and sustaining bread and butter. There are times when Spurgeon is in poor health or other difficulties, and his preaching sometimes reflects his private struggles; on this occasion, you get a sense of a man whose soul is peaceful and joyful, and who is cheerfully employing his strength in the exaltation of his beloved Saviour. With liveliness and vigour, he presses through his text, each point introduced, expanded, and summarised. In considering the mystery of the gospel, he first simply holds before us Christ, letting us gaze upon our Beloved. Then he digs a little deeper, and reminds us that it is "Christ in you" in whom we take refuge and delight. Finally, he looks up and reminds us what it means to have Christ in his people as the hope of glory. At every stage of this sermon there is a very precious sense of real personality, and of personal relationship. Spurgeon speaks not just of what he knows, but of whom he knows, and we are drawn to see Christ Jesus clearly and happily.

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.