Podcasts about media gratiae

There is a particular trick which our Adversary loves to use both to hinder sinners and to disturb saints, and that is to paint the character of God in the darkest possible shades, to twist and pervert the Almighty and All-Merciful God's revelation of himself. In this sermon, preached from three texts, Spurgeon sets out, in the best sense, to vindicate the character of God. While still insisting upon the utter holiness of the Most High, Spurgeon nevertheless makes most clear the compassion of the Lord, and his willingness to save, and his pleadings with those who are lost in the misery of sin, and his provision for them in Christ Jesus to find life and joy and peace, through forgiveness. He emphasises God's delight in salvation, not as a mere idea, but as a sweet reality. As you can imagine, the sermon is peppered with strong reasoning and urgent pleading for sinners who may have the wrong idea of God to understand his gracious heart, as he makes himself known in the Word of God, and to come to him that they might not die, but live. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/pleading-and-encouragement Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

In this week's episode, Dr. John Snyder welcomes pastor and author Jeremy Walker to discuss his new devotional, A Word in Season: 50 Days of Hope for Hard Times. Many of you will know Jeremy from his two Media Gratiae podcasts—From the Heart of Spurgeon and A Word in Season. In this conversation, Jeremy shares the story behind both projects, the pastoral concerns that first prompted the daily A Word in Season recordings during the uncertainties of 2020–2021, and how these brief meditations have continued to encourage believers across the world. He also reflects on the process of shaping those recordings into a written devotional and the unique value books offer for Christian growth. If you are new to Jeremy's preaching and writing, we commend him to you wholeheartedly. You can find links to all those below. Show Notes: – A Word in Season: 50 Days of Hope for Hard Times https://shop.mediagratiae.org/products/a-word-in-season-50-days-of-hope-for-hard-times – A Word in Season podcast https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/a-word-in-season – From the Heart of Spurgeon podcast https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon – Sermons by Jeremy Walker on SermonAudio https://www.sermonaudio.com/broadcasters/mbc/ – Weekly Walkthrough / Daily Doctrine https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLydzd6kZnPWdDUP1Dj9CIV_hSp42WEeMb&si=oTsh0cRj5BK0G76j Subscribe to the podcast - Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-whole-counsel/id1439465486 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0F7FovDzhh7Mi2Fe0xgQBC?si=tGk_NWu3QTqMatauGVAxJg&nd=1&dlsi=bc847f4a2de64f49 See other Media Gratiae materials, including resources for small group studies and family worship: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/all-products-1

Preached at Exeter Hall to a congregation which seems to have consisted largely if not exclusively of young men, an extended introduction about the importance of profitable reading gives way to a punchy series of questions. The first, “What is most essential to be understood in this Book?” gives Spurgeon the opportunity to review the gospel in its essence as contained in Isaiah 53. The second, “What is the test of a man's understanding the Book?” gives the preacher scope to speak of the receptive reader's delight in Christ and his truth. Thirdly, the question, “What can be done to obtain such a desirable understanding?” allows our preacher to stir up a spiritual appetite in his hearers, and to urge them to use every proper means to grasp the truth as it is in Jesus. Again, the crafting of the sermon is natural and effective, the three questions providing a platform for the preacher not just to proclaim the gospel but to press it home upon his congregation. The final sentences open a precious window into the preacher's hopeful heart: “When we meet in heaven we shall praise the Lord for making us understand what we read. God bless you all, for Christ's sake.” What a sweet and happy prospect for us still! Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/understandest-thou-what-thou-readest Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

In recognition of the upcoming 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, we are presenting a special episode from our Navigating the Classics series. Dr. John Snyder is joined by attorney and elder Steve Crampton and pastor Jamie Crampton to discuss Athanasius's classic work On the Incarnation. Together, they trace the historical context of the writing, the theological debate that prompted it, and its influence on the Nicene Creed and the broader Christian tradition. They also walk through the content of the work itself, considering Athanasius's central arguments concerning sin, the incarnation, redemption, and the defeat of death. This episode is for listeners who want to understand why On the Incarnation has endured for centuries as one of the most important works in Christian literature. We pray it is a blessing to you this Thanksgiving season. To read the book and C. S. Lewis' introduction online: http://www.onthewing.org/user/Athanasius - On the Incarnation.pdf To purchase the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/673655.On_the_Incarnation Subscribe to the podcast - Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-whole-counsel/id1439465486 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0F7FovDzhh7Mi2Fe0xgQBC?si=tGk_NWu3QTqMatauGVAxJg&nd=1&dlsi=bc847f4a2de64f49 See other Media Gratiae materials, including resources for small group studies and family worship: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/all-products-1

This week we finally crest the peak of our reading of Spurgeon's sermons, crossing the halfway line in our reading through the Passmore & Alabaster collection of his preaching. This address, on love as the first fruit of the Spirit, is a fitting marker for the occasion. The sermon bears many of Spurgeon's hallmarks: richly doctrinal and practical and experimental; full of a lively sense of the Holy Spirit; rising to a Christ-centred crescendo; pleading for the holiness of God's people and the salvation of the lost; a thorough sense of the text in its context; an inventive and engaging outline; a delight in the grace of our heavenly Father; a lively hope of heaven; a plain call to penetrating self-examination. In one sense there is nothing remarkable about the sermon. In another sense, the fact that this is a further sermon showing a consistent richness of substance and a sustained intensity of spirituality makes it notable not because it stands out but because it is more of the same, and it warms our hearts. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-first-fruit-of-the-spirit Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

As this year comes to a close, we want to present to you a report on what the Lord has guided Media Gratiae to accomplish over the course of 2025. This week, Dr. John Snyder highlights new Bible studies, books, and expanded translations of our material. He also discusses the relaunch of our Media Gratiae Online and our growing podcast reach. We are grateful for your prayers and support. With every podcast we want to point you to Christ and our annual update is no different. John closes this year's update with a phrase that has become precious to him. In Matthew 15, a Syrophoenician woman comes to Jesus asking him to heal her daughter. She is discouraged by the apostles and seemingly discouraged by Jesus himself. But her response is, “Yes, Lord, but…” That is a sweet response available to every Christian right now.

Here is another sermon in which you detect notes of what today might be called ‘pastoral theology.' Spurgeon could preach to preachers, certainly, and you see much of that in some collections of lectures and sermons, especially his Lecture to My Students. However, he also wants those who hear the Word of God to have some understanding of what it is to preach the Word of God. So, earlier in this year, you have his sermon on the pastor's life being wrapped up with the steadfastness of the saints. Here, he opens a window into what is taking place in the man who preaches and to the man to whom he preaches. How does God fit a man to be a minister of the gospel? What does God do in the heart of a converted man? And, what does that converted man have to do, in terms of his own experience of and response to the work of God? Here then you have two divine operations, one upon a preacher, and one upon a hearer, the second developing into its Godward and its manward elements, and yet never merely theoretical, but constantly brought close to the life of those who preach and those who hear. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/gods-work-minister-and-convert Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This is a deliberately simple sermon. Spurgeon sets out to answer the prayer of the boy who asked, “Lord, grant that our minister may say something to-morrow that I may understand.” Some might not have turned to Leviticus in order to answer that prayer, but Spurgeon does so in order to “deal with the essence and soul of true religion.” Taking an image that recurs in Leviticus, he speaks here primarily of the attitude of the one who makes the burnt offering, involving confession, acceptance, transference, identification. That vocabulary might not be the simplest, but the explanation of each is plain and pressing, driving at the penal substitutionary atonement (to use a similarly dense phrase!) which lies at the heart of our acceptance with God. Of interest may be the fact that the sermon for the following week (number 1772) he takes the same text and deals with the death of the sacrifice, so that out of one brief verse he unpacks the core of our salvation, as it is accomplished by Christ and the cross and appropriated by the faith of the repenting sinner. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/putting-the-hand-upon-the-head-of-the-sacrifice Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

You might have thought that high doctrine and broad doctrine were contrasts, perhaps one good and the other bad, but in this sermon they are complements, each declaring something wonderful about God's plan and purpose in salvation. This is something of a throwback, I think, a sermon from the archives, preached at Exeter Hall, probably in the 1850s (published here in 1884). It is a wonderful example of lively, eager, natural evangelistic preaching. Spurgeon loads his sermon with illustrations; his cheerful humour is on full display; his eagerness to make Christ known is unparalleled; his pathos in pleading with sinners is exemplified; his wisdom in addressing doubts and fears is plain. This is the kind of sermon which no preacher should seek merely to mimic, but it is just the kind of ministry to emulate. If we are Christians, let us feel again the sweet force of the gospel, and let it inspire us not only to cling to Christ, but to make him known to others. If we are preachers, let this rebuke us and stimulate us, that we have not so preached and that we should so preach. If you are not yet a believer, then may I urge you to listen to this sermon, to read it all, and to take it to your heart. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/high-doctrine-and-broad-doctrine Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app  

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/pleading-for-new-year Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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! Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/fathers-in-christ Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here:https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/spiritual-knowledge-hsz5y Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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! Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/on-humbling-ourselves Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This is our final week of previewing studies Media Gratiae has produced through the years. If you have been through Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically, or Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty, you have seen Jordan Thomas. He contributed to the interview segments of those two studies. When we started producing smaller studies, we knew we wanted Jordan to make one. We approached him and asked for a topic or passage he felt was needed in today's church. He unhesitatingly answered that a study on treasuring Christ corporately would be the topic of his choosing. The resulting study is Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church. Jordan wanted to create this study based on the belief that many Christians in our modern, individualistic culture have lost their grasp on the value of the local church. Through this eight-week study, he aims to teach congregations —the local expressions of Christ's bride —how to treasure Christ as a body. As with our other studies, Christ Our Treasure consists of video sermons and a workbook. The workbook is the heart of this study. To learn more about the study, follow the links below: Show Notes: Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/christ-our-treasure The Nature and Practice of True-Hearted Discipleship https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/true-hearted-discipleship Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/products/behold-your-god-the-weight-of-majesty-media-gratiae-online-course Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty Workbook https://shop.mediagratiae.org/products/behold-your-god-the-weight-of-majesty-workbook

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/accepted-of-the-great-father Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app #spurgeon #podcast #fyp #preacher #reformed #Christian #sermon #history #churchhistory #pastor

We are continuing our special series highlighting studies Media Gratiae has produced through the years, and this week, we are presenting to you one of our newer studies. Published in 2024, The Nature and Practice of True-Hearted Discipleship was written and taught by Dr. Ian Hamilton. If you are unfamiliar with Dr. Hamilton, we highly encourage you to seek out his books and preaching. His style is simultaneously direct and disarming. As with our other studies, there are two components: a workbook and eight video sermons. In each chapter, Dr. Hamilton guides us back to Scripture to examine what Jesus says about what it means to be his follower. The life of a disciple begins with a radically transformative new birth, and from that birth flows a life of following Jesus in obedience. We pray that this first session and the entire study may be a blessing to you. You can learn more about the study at the link below. Show Notes: The Nature and Practice of True-Hearted Discipleship https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/true-hearted-discipleship Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/products/behold-your-god-the-weight-of-majesty-media-gratiae-online-course Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty Workbook https://shop.mediagratiae.org/products/behold-your-god-the-weight-of-majesty-workbook Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/christ-is-all Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

We are taking a break from our series on letters from Christian history to give Teddy James and his family a short break while they care for their new addition, Jack. During this time, we are presenting to you the first session from several studies that Media Gratiae has produced over the years. This week's special is Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty, which is a follow-up to our first study. After people went through the first Behold Your God study, they asked if we could recommend a study specifically focused on the attributes of God. These requests led us to create a 12-week multimedia study on God's attributes. These attributes are discussed in a specific order, allowing them to build upon one another. The study begins with God's incomprehensibility, self-existence, and independence, and then moves on to His holiness, wrath, and love. The order is intentional, as the beginning attributes add weight to the later ones. We have heard from many who have watched the videos and been blessed by them. When we asked for their thoughts regarding the workbook, they revealed they were unaware that the workbook existed. That reality is heartbreaking to us because the workbook is the heart of the study. It is where participants work through passages of Scripture and see how God's attributes are not just found in the Old Testament or the New Testament, but that he is the same throughout the entirety of Scripture. If you have been through Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty before, we pray this first session may remind you of the things God taught you through it. If you haven't been through the study, you can learn more about the videos and accompanying workbook at the link below. Show Notes: Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/products/behold-your-god-the-weight-of-majesty-media-gratiae-online-course Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty Workbook https://shop.mediagratiae.org/products/behold-your-god-the-weight-of-majesty-workbook Learn more about Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically - https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/behold-your-god-series See the workbook here: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/products/behold-your-god-workbook Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-marvellous-magnet Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

We are celebrating an addition to the Media Gratiae family over the next few weeks. If you have listened to The Whole Counsel for a long time, you may remember Teddy James. His family is welcoming their newest addition, Jack. To give Teddy some time to focus on his home needs, we are running a series of special episodes highlighting some of the studies produced by Media Gratiae over the years. First in this series, we are highlighting the study that started Media Gratiae, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. This 12-week study seeks to help you deepen in your knowledge of God. Of all our studies, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically has reached the widest audience. It has been translated into multiple languages and has been used in churches across the globe. We have heard from many who have watched these videos and been blessed by them. But so often, people are unaware of its accompanying workbook. That is sad to us because the workbook is the heart of the study. It is where you work through the Scriptures, wrestling over the truths taught in the video material. If you have never completed the workbook, our prayer is that this first session will encourage you to consider doing so. You can learn more about it at the link below. Show Notes: Learn more about Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically - https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/behold-your-god-series See the workbook here: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/products/behold-your-god-workbook Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Public prayer, whether it is praying in a corporate setting or simply asking a blessing over a meal with friends, can cause many Christians to feel uncomfortable. It may be easy to think we are the only ones who feel awkward in the practice, but this has been a reality for much longer than we think. In this week's letter from the past, Dr. John Snyder reads a helpful correspondence from John Newton on five principles to keep in mind when we have the opportunity to exercise social prayer. Far from making us wooden in our prayer or afraid to lead out in praying, these are to help us make the most of our opportunity to both glorify Christ and edify the body in which we are praying alongside. Newton's concluding advice is helpful to have in mind as you begin this episode: “I shall be glad if these hints may be of any service to those who desire to worship God in spirit and in truth.” May it be so for us today. We are running a giveaway this week for Select Letters of John Newton. If you already receive weekly emails from Media Gratiae, there is nothing for you to do. You are already entered. If you would like to be entered to win, you can sign up for the Media Gratiae email list below. https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway You can read this week's letter here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/thoughts-on-the-exercise-of-public-prayer You can read next week's letter here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/first-leter-to-mrs Show Notes: Watch other episodes of our letter series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW0xuCgknPDMzuC301aRv8v3tga_psAcK The Works of John Newton: https://banneroftruth.org/uk/store/christian-living/works-john-newton/ John Newton Introductions from Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty https://youtu.be/m9riTq53Vg4 Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Dr. John Snyder has spent the last two weeks looking at John Newton's seasons of the Christian life, which he likens to a growing stalk of corn. The Christian life starts as a blade sprouting from the soil. Then there is a small, immature, but very real fruit showing. Lastly, the season we are discussing this week is the mature Christian life. Each stage has its distinguishing marks, and this season is marked by contemplation. The mature believer learns and grows not only by studying Scripture and applying it to his life but also by looking at how God providentially moves, convicts, and grows other believers. This growth of wisdom and maturity comes with a warning. The mature believer must beware the temptation to think of himself as more powerful in himself. It is actually the opposite. The believer is more dependent on Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We are running a giveaway this week for Select Letters of John Newton. If you already receive weekly emails from Media Gratiae, there is nothing for you to do. You are already entered. If you would like to be entered to win, you can sign up for the Media Gratiae email list below. https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway You can read this week's letter here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-full-corn-in-the-ear You can read next week's letter here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/thoughts-on-the-exercise-of-public-prayer Show Notes: Grace in the Ear: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/grace-in-the-ear  Grace in the Blade: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/grace-in-the-blade Letter to a Student of Divinity: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/extract-of-a-letter-to-a-student-of-divinity The Works of John Newton: https://banneroftruth.org/uk/store/christian-living/works-john-newton/ John Newton Introductions from Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty https://youtu.be/m9riTq53Vg4 Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

“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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/without-carefulness  Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-law-written-on-the-heart Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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? Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/ask-andhave Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/brought-up-from-the-horrible-pit Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app #spurgeon #podcast #fyp #preacher #reformed #Christian #sermon #history #churchhistory #pastor

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/a-feast-for-the-upright-e8l4z-zrlgl Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/a-feast-for-the-upright Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-resurrection-of-our-lord-jesus Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/a-home-question-and-a-right-answer Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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.” Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/acceptable-service Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

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. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/two-good-things Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This sermon unfolds gradually but surely. We do not know exactly where the preacher will take us, but he is evidently following a planned route, and so we are content to take each development of his theme as he introduces us to it. Considering the fundamental truth that without Christ no Christian can do anything of any spiritual value, Spurgeon first of all considers our Lord's assertion as an aspiration of hope. Then he feels it as a shudder of fear. It presses upon him and us next as a vision of failure. Then we hear it as a voice of wisdom. Finally, it rings out as a song of content. In this way, the same statement is made of various use to those who are or profess to be followers of the Lamb, and each comes in its turn. Even the sequence is interesting: hope comes first, then warning, then instruction, then comfort and joy, so that we are pointed in the right direction, cautioned with regard to the prospect, but then encouraged concerning the final outcome. There is a great deal of discernment, then, not only in the substance of the sermon but in its arrangement, as we walk away impressed with the need for a known and felt union with our Lord Jesus if we are to be fruitful in his service. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/without-christ-nothing Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Love labours. In doing so, it overcomes a multitude of difficulties. It triumphs over those difficulties in a way which demonstrates the heavenly source of its energies. Spurgeon actually begins the sermon with a meditation on the Holy Spirit as the only one who can work true Christian love in the heart of sinners like us. Christian love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. It contends with and overcomes self, other people, the world, and hell. The middle section on the triumphs of love is quite splendid. In each case Spurgeon shows what is the bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring power of love, applying the principle to our dealings both with believers and unbelievers, and then pointing us to Christ Jesus as the enduring example and demonstration of that aspect of love. It is a powerful and probing part of the sermon. The last section is much shorter, but can afford to be, as the preacher is really just tying off the threads which he laid in his introduction, and which have run throughout the sermon as a whole. As an example of sermonic construction, including adaptation in the act of preaching, it is most helpful. But it is more than a model for preaching; it is a call to loving living, and one that is convicting and compelling and comforting. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/loves-labours Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Though Spurgeon typically preaches from fairly brief texts, he occasionally takes longer sections, and sometimes—as on this occasion—hangs his thoughts on a single phrase. This is not an easy mode of preaching, as it can lead to strained exegesis, shallow substance, or repetitive or tortured structure. While it helps that the phrase in question is the loaded one, “through faith,” Spurgeon also avoids these traps by setting his phrase in its context, connecting grace and faith. He then proceeds in a manner both systematic and pastoral, drawing on his rich theological heritage and his concern for troubled men and women. First he asks what faith is, and gives some standard answers in a lively fashion. In particular, he weaves in a number of illustrations to take account of the heat and heaviness of the morning in which he preaches, a good example of a preacher responding to his circumstances. Next Spurgeon answers the question why faith is selected as the channel of salvation. Finally, he asks how we can obtain and increase our faith, closing his sermon with some very down-to-earth counsels. This is, then, a sermon in which theological care and practical counsel is closely bound throughout, all intended to bring sinners to the Saviour and assure them of their security in him. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/what-is-it-how-can-it-be-obtained Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

While Spurgeon usually preaches on single texts he does not invariably preach isolated sermons. On Sunday 5th June, 1881, he preached from 1 Corinthians 3:6–9 about God's co-labourers. On Sunday 12th June he took up the same theme of labourers on God's farm, this time from Mark 4:26–29, explicitly linking the two sermons together. If the first sermon showed how far human agency is required in the work of the gospel, and how dependent all results are upon the Lord, the second sermon emphasises how far a holy labourer can go, and how far he cannot go: “the measure and limit of human instrumentality in the kingdom of grace.” As so often, Spurgeon's structure is fairly simple and repetitive: what we can and cannot do, what we can and cannot know, what we may and may not expect if we work for God, and what sleep workers may and may not take. It is an intensely practical sermon of particular encouragement and instruction to Christian workers—and which Christian ought not also to be a worker on God's farm? Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/what-the-farm-labourers-can-do-and-what-they-cannot-do Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Spurgeon regularly throws a little exegetical advice into his sermons, often at the beginning, and he does so here, encouraging his hearers to interpret each portion of Scripture in its context, which he immediately applies to his text, in which Job claims that “the root of the matter is found in me.” Spurgeon first examines this root and defines it in terms of confidence in a living Redeemer. Next, he digs deeper into the matter of something which lies at the root—something which is essential, vital, comprehensive of all the rest. Thirdly, Spurgeon addresses the fact that we can personally discern our possession of this root, not always easily but carefully and comfortingly. Finally, he presses some practical lessons upon our souls, especially considering the way in which we can—in various ways and to various degrees—be guilty of persecuting someone in whom is the root of the matter. It is another example of the remarkable number of directions in which Spurgeon can turn the truth in a single sermon. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-substance-of-true-religion Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

A man's heart-longings provide an accurate index of his present and future character. Put simply, “Tell me what a man really wants and I will tell you what he is really like and what he will one day be.” Grace gives a man a new and heavenly set of desires for the judgments of God, what Spurgeon calls the saint's absorbing object. Then he considers the saint's ardent longing for those judgments. Finally, he points to the saint's cheering reflections drawn from such desires of the heart. The structure is simple, with that happy repetition which helps both to follow the argument and to fix it in the mind. As so often, Spurgeon moves without fanfare from David's experience to ours, unpacking the inner life of the believer in every age, giving preachers an example of what it means to enter into the mind and heart of his hearers. Spurgeon also excels in encouragements, which he offers both with regard to what a Christian is now and what he will one day be, so closing the loop of his sermon. And, of course, he wants us to be sure that such longing after God's judgments makes Christ himself most precious to the saints. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/holylongings Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

How much is joy a feature of your life as a Christian? While he recognizes that the fruit of the Spirit is one cluster, nevertheless Spurgeon wants us to focus in this sermon on joy as part of the believer's spiritual experience. Some have a melancholy disposition which needs to be overcome; others seem to be committed to gloom as a religious essential. Spurgeon would have us understand that joy is a legitimate and inevitable element of the fruit of the Spirit (though varied in the experience of different believers), and also wants us to grasp the singular character of this joy as well as the various forms and circumstances in which a Christian may enjoy it. However, he also includes warnings about the way in which the growth of this spiritual fruit may be hindered, as well as encouraging us to cultivate what he considers to be the obligation of spiritual joy, giving us various reasons why joy is such a blessing which incite us to seek and keep this happy fruit. And there is a practical conclusion, as he calls his congregation to “rise as one man, and sing, ‘Then let our songs abound, / And every tear be dry: / We're marching thro' Immanuel's ground / To fairer worlds on high.'” Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-fruit-of-the-spirit-joy Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This is the last sermon in Volume 26 of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. After a fairly extended introduction in which the preacher sets out to demonstrate that “true penitents do not seek to extenuate or diminish the sin which has been forgiven them, but they own how great it is, and set it forth in all its enormity as it appears before their enlightened eyes,” Spurgeon launches into his main substance. Although it has no publication date, it may be selected for the last sermon of the year because of its retrospective emphasis. Look back, says Spurgeon, to excite adoring gratitude; look back to sustain deep humility; look back to renew genuine repentance; look back to kindle fervent love; look back to arouse ardent zeal; look back to make you hopeful for the salvation of others; look back to confirm your confidence for yourselves. Of course, you need not wait until year's end for such a retrospective. Every child of God can consider what they were before, and be stirred up to such deep affections. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/iwasbefore-yk4yk Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

While Dr. John Snyder was in Wales pursuing his doctorate, he and his family attended Heath Evangelical Church, where Mr. W. Vernon Higham was the pastor. Mr. Higham was also a close friend of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones and his wife. Through the years spent at Heath Evangelical, John and his family benefited greatly from Mr. Higham's preaching, but there has been one series that John has gone back to time and again. He has also recommended it to many others. Mr. Higham preached this series on revival at the Evangelical Movement of Wales Conference. This first sermon highlights our world's need for revival and is based on Isaiah 62. As we at Media Gratiae have been blessed by these messages, we pray you will be as well. Show Notes: W. V. Higham Trust: https://www.wvhigham.org/ The Turn of the Tide by W. Vernon Higham: http://churchawakening.com/product/the-turn-the-tide/ Lectures of the Revival of Religion, by Ministers of the Church of Scotland edited by W. M. Hetherington https://www.abebooks.com/Lectures-Revival-Religion-Ministers-Church-Scotland/31027820289/bd Free ebook: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Lectures_on_the_revival_of_religion_by_ministers_o?id=T-kDAAAAQAAJ&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1 Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

In this sermon Spurgeon seeks to plumb something of the depths of Christ's grief over sin. (Interestingly, the following week, and the following printed sermon, is an effort properly to record the joy of our Lord.) The preacher begins with a brief survey of the three occasions on which our Lord wept, revealing his grief over domestic sorrow, national troubles, and human guilt. It is the second of these to which he turns his attention. Spurgeon first of all assesses the Lord's inward grief, looking at the heart from which poured forth such tears. While this might horrify some (and please others), Spurgeon also offers a fairly bold rejection of divine impassibility (which he does a few times over the course of the next few sermons, so it is no passing thought). He is not at his clearest at this point in the sermon, both with regard to Christ's two natures and the nature of God himself, perhaps seeking to communicate something of the depths of the Mediator's sorrow. But the heart which produced these tears of distress also produced words of sorrow, and these allow the preacher to trace something more of the cause of our Saviour's anguish of heart. All this leads to a pointed conclusion, in which the Spurgeon holds out not only the horror of condemnation, but also the opportunity to enter into the new Jerusalem through faith in this same Jesus who wept over the earthly city. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-lamentations-of-jesus Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This is one of those sermons which seems to bubble over in a torrent from the preacher's soul. Rather than broadening out, it narrows down, perhaps a reflection of pressure of time in the preaching, coming to an ever more narrow focus. The sermon begins with the excellence of a humble walk, considering what that means. It moves on to the humble walk as an evidence of salvation, with Christ in his proper place in your heart. This humble walk is also a symptom of spiritual health, calling us to self-examination, including in our response to providences which we may not appreciate. It is also a cause for very great anxiety, by which Spurgeon means that we must take it seriously, because it is too easy to presume upon. Finally, a humble walk is the source of the deepest conceivable pleasure, for “the man that leaves everything to God finds joy in everything.” The sermon is a great example of unpacking a very brief phrase in a thoroughly Christian fashion, pressing it into the conscience in a way that both brings us low and lifts us up. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/walking-humbly-with-god Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This very sweet sermon takes a seminal declaration of gracious forgiveness as the starting point of a very simple treatment of this central theme. After an introduction in which he presses home the need to believe what God says concerning forgiveness, Spurgeon launches into a warm treatment of the measure, manner, and manifestations of forgiving grace. In the first he emphasises the divine largesse, the greatness of God's heart in putting away sin, the riches of divine grace. In the second, which is much like the first in tone, he calls us to reckon with God acting in accordance with those divine riches. In the third, his emphasis turns to the fact that it is through the redemption in Christ's blood that these riches of grace are revealed and bestowed. As he concludes, he returns to the thrust of his introduction, asking us whether or not it is right for believers to speak of themselves using the same language as unbelievers, to pray or praise as if we had not received the forgiveness of sins. The preacher calls us to feel the love that arises from forgiven sin, the only proper response to such wonders of grace. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-glories-of-forgiving-grace Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

A typically probing sermon from Spurgeon, who is as tenacious in calling for self-examination as he is earnest in pleading the cause of Jesus Christ. Though he gives a little time to John, it is really only to set up the Baptist as the foil for Herod. At first, Spurgeon speaks charitably of all that Herod did which was “so far, so good.” Then, he speaks honestly of all that Herod lacked, and how—despite some fair appearances—he ultimately had no faith in or attachment to the Jesus whom John preached. Finally, he speaks sadly of Herod's end, pleading with his hearers not to fall into Herod's trap. With characteristic precision, Spurgeon probes our souls, forcing us to ask whether or not we are dallying with faithful preachers or truly embracing the Jesus whom they preach. We cannot afford to be merely impressed; we must be converted indeed. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/johnandherod Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Here Spurgeon considers two offices of Christ, those of Judge and Saviour, as they are found in him as Mediator. Both, he suggests, have reference to mankind as sinners, and then he unpacks what that means, and the relationship which they have to each other, and how the one leads us to the other. It is, on some levels, a very simple sermon, and yet the tracing out of the two offices—without being overly clever and showy—enables the preacher to press home the realities of both sin and grace, concluding with an earnest plea to come to the Saviour who forgives in order that you might not be judged as you deserve. It is a good example of a sermon which seems quite straightforward on the surface (albeit Spurgeon's headings require a little more careful thought than is sometimes the case) while having and drawing out depths of understanding beneath it and behind it. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-mediatorjudge-and-saviour Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This rallying-cry is drawn from Moses' question to Israel when sin was rampant among the people, and the sermon is preached shortly after a general election when men had been choosing a side. Spurgeon uses the political and social climate to impress upon our souls spiritual truth. After drawing attention to the character of Moses, Spurgeon looks at the question and command which issues from him, in terms of decision, avowal, and consecration. He elevates it to the very question of salvation and extends it to every consequent decision which a believer makes in the service of Christ. With characteristic intensity, the preacher calls for an entire commitment to the Lord based on our relationship to him as our Creator, Redeemer, and Preserver, and applies it closely to his own society, and—by extension—to ours, asking about our modes of worship, our casual superstitions, our sinful amusements, and our general tampering with principle. As so often, we are called to repentance and to correction, stirred and drawn by the King whom we serve and the matters which are at stake.   Check out the new From the Heart of Spurgeon Book! British: https://amzn.to/48rV1OR American: https://amzn.to/48oHjft Connect with the Reading Spurgeon Community on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ReadingSpurgeon Sign up to get the weekly readings emailed to you: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts-1/from-the-heart-of-spurgeon. Check out other Media Gratiae podcasts at www.mediagratiae.org Download the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Media Gratiae is pleased to announce our newest, Gospel Realities: Lessons from Galatians, written and taught by Dr. Stephen Yuille. Yuille is the professor of church history and spiritual formation at The Southerwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the preaching pastor of a local church, and serves as a content director and editor at Reformation Heritage Books. We at Media Gratiae found the writing and editing of Dr. Yuille so helpful we asked him to create a study for us. Even though he has an incredibly full schedule, he was happy to do the work of preparing, writing, and preaching this study. We are grateful for his work. We pray after hearing from him you will be encouraged to study Galatians alongside us. If you would like some help in studying Galatians, consider Gospel Realities: Lessons from Galatians. Watch the study trailer here: https://youtu.be/HlAIb5uSBOI Find more information here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/gospel-realities-lessons-from-galatians Show Notes William Perkins volumes from Reformation Heritage Books: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/the-works-of-william-perkins-the-10-volume-collection.html A Perfect Redeemer by William Perkins: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/a-perfect-redeemer-perkins.html Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app