Podcasts about Spurgeon

6/12/2026 | Today's daily devotional by C. H. Spurgeon on SermonAudio: Title: Dwelling Safely Apart Subtitle: Faith's Checkbook by Spurgeon Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Prince of Preachers Event: Audiobook Date: 6/12/2026 Bible: Deuteronomy 33:28 Length: 1 min.

6/12/2026 | Today's evening devotional by C. H. Spurgeon on SermonAudio: Title: Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - Jun 12 PM Subtitle: Spurgeon's Daily Devotional Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Prince of Preachers Event: Audiobook Date: 6/12/2026 Bible: 2 Timothy 1:9 Length: 3 min.

6/12/2026 | Today's morning devotional by C. H. Spurgeon on SermonAudio: Title: Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - Jun 12 AM Subtitle: Spurgeon's Daily Devotional Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Prince of Preachers Event: Audiobook Date: 6/12/2026 Bible: Daniel 5:27 Length: 3 min.

Send us Fan MailPsalm 56:9,10 U het my ellende raakgesien. U het my trane opgevang. U het dit opgeskryf in u boek. Die dag dat ek na U roep om hulp, val my vyande terug. Dat God aan my kant is, weet ek beslis. (NLV) Volgens opnames bid tussen die helfte en driekwart van alle mense in tye van persoonlike krisis - of hulle nou gelowiges is of nie. Wat sê dit vir jou?Gebed is vir my goud werd. Ek het al self te veel kragtige antwoorde op gebed gehad, om te wag totdat ek 'n krisis beleef, voordat ek bid - om nie eens te praat van die vrede en vreugde wat ek ervaar wanneer ek met die Here praat nie.Van tyd tot tyd beleef ons almal krisisse wat ons in ons broek laat bewe; wat ons harte breek en bitter trane laat stort. Maar te midde van teëspoed, het ek en so baie ander mense wat werklik ons vertroue in Jesus gestel het, gevind, dat ons te midde van die dreigende storm 'n wonderlike vrede beleef. Ons word oorweldig met die vaste wete dat God met ons is. Hier is Dawid se gebed in:Psalm 56:9,10 U het my ellende raakgesien. U het my trane opgevang. U het dit opgeskryf in u boek. Die dag dat ek na U roep om hulp, val my vyande terug. Dat God aan my kant is, weet ek beslis. (NLV)Die bekende prediker, Charles Spurgeon, het diep lyding en depressie geken, en tog het hy vurig aan God vasgeklou: “Ek het geleer,” het hy gesê, “om die golf te soen wat my teen die Rots van die Eeue gooi.” Ons vertaal dit as “kus die roede.” Dit beteken om pynlike beproewinge (die golwe) te omhels, want dit dwing jou om op Christus (die Rots van die Eeue) te vertrou, en krag in God te vind, eerder as om omstandighede te weerstaan.Spurgeon ontken nie die golf nie - die pyn en die trane nie -maar hy sien in daardie einste lyding die Hand van 'n getroue God wat Hom nader trek. Dit maak nie saak wat jou omstandighede, jou trane, en jou pyn is nie … God is met jou!Dis Sy Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

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How can a just and holy God "justify" a sinner? Mr. Spurgeon will help with this serious question.

Most Christians think the debate over spiritual gifts comes down to one question: do they still happen or don't they? Dr. Vern Poythress, 50-year New Testament professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, says both cessationists and continuationists are asking the wrong question. ABOUT THIS EPISODE:Dr. Poythress proposes the term "analogous gifts" — the idea that the gifts of the Spirit are genuine, Spirit-empowered works modeled after Christ's own prophetic, priestly, and kingly ministry, but subordinate to it. Not identical to what the apostles did. Not a lower-tier substitute. Analogous with the same Spirit, the same source, a different level of authority.This reframing has real stakes for the cessationist/continuationist divide. The tension in the body of Christ right now isn't just academic: it's shaping how whole churches think about prophecy, tongues, healing, and what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Dr. Poythress argues that if Gaffin is right about New Testament prophecy being infallible, that doesn't end the conversation, but just moves it. There's still a genuine, non-inspired, Spirit-empowered gifting that needs to be accounted for. And if Grudem is right, continuationists still need to reckon with what discernment and testing actually look like in practice.Joshua and Dr. Poythress also discuss the history of cessationism, why it developed as a response to Roman Catholic claims, how the Reformation fought on two fronts (Rome and the enthusiasts), and why figures like Samuel Rutherford and even C.H. Spurgeon complicate the neat cessationist narrative. The episode doesn't try to solve the debate. It tries to widen the table.0:00 – Introduction0:44 – Guest: Vern Poythress3:05 – Analogous Gifts Explained14:52 – Cessationism vs. Completionism20:34 – Canon and Prophecy30:06 – Puritan Prophesying Language44:04 – RC Sproul's Voice53:15 – Pursuing Spiritual Gifts59:09 – Closing ThoughtsGROW IN THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMsjeViSScFGpsFnIkPFAIzI4BFoAy3zQABOUT THE GUEST:"What are Spiritual Gifts?" by Dr. Poythress https://frame-poythress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/PoythressVernWhatAreSpiritualGifts.pdfSubscribe to The Remnant Radio newsletter and receive our FREE introduction to spiritual gifts eBook. Plus, get access to: discounts, news about upcoming shows, courses and conferences - and more. Subscribe now at TheRemnantRadio.com. Support the showABOUT THE REMNANT RADIO: The Remnant Radio exists to equip believers who are hungry for the radical middle of both Word and Spirit. Subscribe for twice-weekly content on theology, church history and the gifts of the Spirit.

Contact us. We'd love to serve youGive financially to support the work of helping pastors thriveWrite a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Register for the Advancing the Church Equip Conference! (02:39) Framing the question: Can a pastor stay too long?(02:46) Acts 20 & 2 Timothy 4 – finishing your course in ministry(05:31) 1 Corinthians 16 – “open door” and “many adversaries” as stay/leave indicators(08:00) High-profile examples: Alistair Begg and contrasting exit models(09:33) Jim's personal retirement aspirations and health/age as limits(13:37) Practical markers that it's time to step down (diminished gifts, effectiveness)(17:18) Yes, pastors can stay too long; continuing ministry after leaving the pastorate(19:25) Why some won't let go: finances, lack of self-awareness, identity in ministry(22:21) When no one can tell the pastor, “It's time” – isolation and lack of accountability(26:00) Succession planning in churches and ministries (Brian's and Jim's examples)(29:30) Defining “finishing well”: faithfulness over visible success(31:44) Spurgeon's ending, realism about messy conclusions, and faithfulness to the end(33:03) Final Word and Prayer

Contact us. We'd love to serve youGive financially to support the work of helping pastors thriveWrite a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Register for the Advancing the Church Equip Conference! (02:39) Framing the question: Can a pastor stay too long?(02:46) Acts 20 & 2 Timothy 4 – finishing your course in ministry(05:31) 1 Corinthians 16 – “open door” and “many adversaries” as stay/leave indicators(08:00) High-profile examples: Alistair Begg and contrasting exit models(09:33) Jim's personal retirement aspirations and health/age as limits(13:37) Practical markers that it's time to step down (diminished gifts, effectiveness)(17:18) Yes, pastors can stay too long; continuing ministry after leaving the pastorate(19:25) Why some won't let go: finances, lack of self-awareness, identity in ministry(22:21) When no one can tell the pastor, “It's time” – isolation and lack of accountability(26:00) Succession planning in churches and ministries (Brian's and Jim's examples)(29:30) Defining “finishing well”: faithfulness over visible success(31:44) Spurgeon's ending, realism about messy conclusions, and faithfulness to the end(33:03) Final Word and Prayer

Laodicea, an important city of the Roman Empire, had a serious issue with drinkable water. Hot Springs filled with impurities were a main source of water for the city. Archaeological excavations have revealed an attempt to bring water from an outside source in through stone pipes containing limestone deposits which would have contaminated the water for drinking. Just as lukewarm water is useless, the church in Laodicea is useless to Jesus. Dependency is a sign of maturity for a Christian. The danger of wealth is that it has the potential to create independent people. They may feel competent and successful but they are in actuality poor, and pitiful. Jesus strong words are a love gift to wake them up and reset their lives onto a new trajectory. They need only to repent, turn away from self-sufficiency and turn back to Jesus!------------------------By now we can see each church named is located in a real place with real temptations, hardships, and opposition. This is how it is for all Christians in all centuries – for we do have a very real enemy and this world is not our home. Additionally we have also seen how Jesus uses illustrations from the reader's own environment to communicate deep spiritual truths for greater understanding among its hearers. He did this all throughout the gospels as well!  In Summary:• **Ephesus – drifting church:** right doctrine but did not have love• **Smyrna – suffering church:** going through persecution—encouraged to stay faithful• **Pergamum – compromising church:** held to the truth—exhorted to not compromise• **Thyatira – tolerant church:** tolerance led to unfaithfulness• **Sardis – defeated church:** apathy and material wealth lead to defeat• **Philadelphia—suffering church:** going through persecution—Jesus reminds them of His love.• **Laodicea—lukewarm church:** apathy and material wealth lead to uselessnessThe pattern laid out in these letters is: *who Jesus is, who the church is, exhortations and promises.*Let us take to heart the condition of each church, examining our own walk and the culture of our own church against each possible state. Let us receive both Jesus' words of encouragement in suffering and His warnings in apathy. Above all else let us wake up to and rejoice in our “great need for a Saviour and a great Saviour for our need!” (Spurgeon)Prepare for this week's teaching by reading Revelation 3:14-22

Laodicea, an important city of the Roman Empire, had a serious issue with drinkable water. Hot Springs filled with impurities were a main source of water for the city. Archaeological excavations have revealed an attempt to bring water from an outside source in through stone pipes containing limestone deposits which would have contaminated the water for drinking. Just as lukewarm water is useless, the church in Laodicea is useless to Jesus. Dependency is a sign of maturity for a Christian. The danger of wealth is that it has the potential to create independent people. They may feel competent and successful but they are in actuality poor, and pitiful. Jesus strong words are a love gift to wake them up and reset their lives onto a new trajectory. They need only to repent, turn away from self-sufficiency and turn back to Jesus!------------------------By now we can see each church named is located in a real place with real temptations, hardships, and opposition. This is how it is for all Christians in all centuries – for we do have a very real enemy and this world is not our home. Additionally we have also seen how Jesus uses illustrations from the reader's own environment to communicate deep spiritual truths for greater understanding among its hearers. He did this all throughout the gospels as well!  In Summary:• **Ephesus – drifting church:** right doctrine but did not have love• **Smyrna – suffering church:** going through persecution—encouraged to stay faithful• **Pergamum – compromising church:** held to the truth—exhorted to not compromise• **Thyatira – tolerant church:** tolerance led to unfaithfulness• **Sardis – defeated church:** apathy and material wealth lead to defeat• **Philadelphia—suffering church:** going through persecution—Jesus reminds them of His love.• **Laodicea—lukewarm church:** apathy and material wealth lead to uselessnessThe pattern laid out in these letters is: *who Jesus is, who the church is, exhortations and promises.*Let us take to heart the condition of each church, examining our own walk and the culture of our own church against each possible state. Let us receive both Jesus' words of encouragement in suffering and His warnings in apathy. Above all else let us wake up to and rejoice in our “great need for a Saviour and a great Saviour for our need!” (Spurgeon)Prepare for this week's teaching by reading Revelation 3:14-22

The End of the World Jonathan Parnell Download Psalm 97,The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;let the many coastlands be glad!2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.3 Fire goes before himand burns up his adversaries all around.4 His lightnings light up the world;the earth sees and trembles.5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,before the Lord of all the earth.6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,and all the peoples see his glory.7 All worshipers of images are put to shame,who make their boast in worthless idols;worship him, all you gods!8 Zion hears and is glad,and the daughters of Judah rejoice,because of your judgments, O Lord.9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;you are exalted far above all gods.10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil!He preserves the lives of his saints;he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.11 Light is sown for the righteous,and joy for the upright in heart.12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!This morning I want to talk to you about the end of the world. For as long as there has been a world, humanity has been fascinated with this topic. This has been true of cultures all over the world all throughout history — from Ancient Mesopotamia to Chinese dynasties, from Norse Vikings to sub-Saharan Africa, from medieval Europeans to modern Americans — it's a human thing to wonder about the world's end.And in the Bible itself, the end of the world was on the table right away!In the Book of Genesis, just five chapters in, the Flood could have been the final judgment to end the world — and it would have been if not for the mercy of God!But because of God's mercy, and because of his patience (the apostle Peter tells us), the final end of the world has been delayed. Still.But the end is coming, and that's what I want to talk about this morning. And the real reason I wanna talk about the end of the world is because it's the topic of Psalm 97.There are three parts to the psalm, and I'm gonna title each part with what its mainly about:Part 1, verses 1–6 is Christ will come again.Part 2, verses 7–9 is Every human will respond. Part 3, verses 10–12 is How God's people live in the meantime.We're gonna spend most of our time on Part 3, but first Part 1.1. Christ will come again (vv. 1–6)Psalm 97, verse 1 just picks up where Psalm 96 left off. Psalm 96 envisions all of creation rejoicing, and the last verse of Psalm 96 explains why. This rejoicing is, verse 13,“…before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.”97:1, then, says: Yes, that's right, the Lord reigns and all the earth rejoices, even the coastlands. That's the deepest corners of the earth. The parts way out there.Then verses 2–5 describe the coming of God with this intense imagery. Listen to this: clouds and thick darkness. A throne of righteousness and justice. Fire going before him, consuming his adversaries. Lightning flashes. The earth itself trembles. Mountains melt like wax.To a casual reader, this sounds like a really bad thunderstorm. But when we have the whole Bible in mind, we can pick up the allusion to Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai was when God came down on the mountain to give the law: Exodus 19:18,“Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.”Deuteronomy 4:11,“the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.”The Final TheophanyThis was an amazing moment in history. The word for it is a ‘theophany' — which means a God-appearing. That's what Sinai was.And now Psalm 97 is describing another theophany — it's a future, final God-appearing, that's envisioned to be like Sinai!That's because the Original Law-Giver and the Final Judge are the same. That's why the imagery is the same, except in this future, final appearing, God comes in the person of Jesus Christ. We know this from the New Testament: John 5:11,“The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.”Matthew 24:30,“Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man… and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”2 Thessalonians 1:7,“the Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire…”The end of the world is now what we call the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The God who once descended on Sinai in clouds and fire will appear again finally in the person of Christ, and “every eye will see him” — Revelation 1:7. Everybody will see him, and everybody will respond, one way or another. That's Part 2.2. Every human will respond (vv. 7–9) Humanity is divided into two categories that will be clearest on the final day of judgment.Jesus has called these categories the wheat and the tares. The Psalms use the language of the righteous and the wicked. The New Testament draws the line as between believers and unbelievers — those who are in Christ and those who are not. And when Jesus comes back every eye will see him — those who have been united to him by faith and those who have rejected him. They all will see him, but they're gonna respond differently. Shame for IdolatersVerse 7 tells us the unbelievers (those who reject Christ) will be put to shame — but here they're described as the “worshipers of images” … as those who “boast in worthless idols.” Which is a good reminder! I want you to get this: there is really no such thing as an unbeliever. Everybody believes in something. The question is never if you believe, but who you believe in. So, unbelievers are always more accurately called “idolaters.” They've chosen to reject the one true God, and instead, they've replaced him with some other ‘little-g god' — and for the last hundred years in our society, the ‘little-g god' of choice is the Modern Self. That's the point of theologian Carl Trueman's book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (it's a helpful book written a few years ago).In one sense, modern idolatry is as old as it comes — our society has “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen” — that's Romans 1:25.But what makes us different today is that, with our technologies, we have said, “I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14) …So we want to create human life … We want to determine our own sexuality …We want to invent our own morality … We want to become super human in our daily lives and live longer than ever … We even want to have the final say on when and how we die … The whole thing is about putting Self in the place of God.That's what transhumanism is — it starts with the myth of exclusive humanism (that's the idea that there is no God, but only us). That paves the way for the idolatry of the Self — the idea that “We are all God.” And right now, it's just so clear that's what's going on. If you look around in our culture, the idolatry of Self is having its moment. But on the day Jesus returns, at the end of the world, every unbeliever/every idolater/everyone who rejects Jesus will be put to shame. That means eternal regret. They will hate the choices they have made. The lies they have embraced will be exposed. And the demonic forces behind the idolatry will also bow the knee in submission to Jesus! (That's the end of verse 7.) The Day is coming. Joy for BelieversBut now in verse 8 notice the contrast to believers, to those who trust in Christ — that's who Zion and Judah represent. It's the people of God. Zion is glad! The daughters of Judah rejoice! And the mention of “daughters” in verse 8 is an idiom for villages or small towns. (This is an insight from Christopher Ash.) He says the idea here is that it's not just the capital city, Zion, that rejoices, but it's all believers everywhere! Even what might seem like the smallest outpost of kingdom of Christ, even the parts way out there, like in the middle of North America — on that day we're all rejoicing together … believers from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” … We will all say, “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory!” (Revelation 7:9; 19:7). On that day, verse 9 will be the clearest reality of all:“For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;you are exalted far above all gods.”In other words, Jesus has ultimate supremacy … “every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).This is what Psalm 97 is getting at. In summary, Psalm 97:1–9 is the Christian hope in a nutshell: One day Jesus is coming back in judgment and salvation — judgment for those who reject him and salvation for those who trust him. And by his grace, church, we trust him. We will rejoice on that day. We will love his future, final appearing! Amen.The big question now is: How do we live in the meantime?3. How do God's people live in the meantime?Now this is the church's question. We ask it together, and the New Testament is all about it. But verses 10–12 in Psalm 97 give us a pretty good answer, and that's what I wanna show you. But I want to help you bring it down more personally. This is a topic that can be so out there and theoretical, but don't let it be. I want you to think, right now: Jesus is coming back one day. Now ask yourself this question: What does God want me to do in this life? How should I live in the meantime?According to verses 10, 11, 12, we see at least three answers. First is this:1. Lead a moral life.This is verse 10, and it's one you need to see. So everybody help me out. Find Psalm 97, verse 10:“O you who love the Lord, hate evil!”“Hate evil” — this is a command, and it's one that we are not set up well to understand. That's because “hate” is a biblically strong word that we use too commonly. And “evil” is a biblically common word that we use too strongly. That make sense? We've weakened the word hate and narrowed the word evil. So we have to slow down and think about this.To hate something is to have an intense hostility against it. It's not a mood, it's a conviction. We shouldn't casually throw the word around about food or weather or sports teams. And evil is anything that defies the moral will of God — anything that is a deprivation or distortion of God's goodness. It's not just the worst, most horrible things nobody likes to talk about. But truly, sin, of every kind, is evil. See, we often define evil horizontally: we think it has to do with how much hurt it causes other people. But the Bible, first, defines evil vertically: the issue is what it says about God.Evil is evil because it defies him, it rejects him, it dishonors him. This is why we must have a God-centered morality.Right and wrong, good and evil, is not whatever you want it to be in the moment. But good and evil — the moral framework of reality — is an objective standard determined by the righteousness of God, and he has revealed this to us as his moral will in Scripture. What a gift!God guides us how to live in harmony with his holiness. He shows us how to lead a moral life, which means we hate evil. I think this is one of the greatest needs in our day for the church's witness. We need moral clarity — the ability to recognize evil, the courage to call evil evil, and the God-centered conviction to hate evil.And that means the evil out there, but it starts first with the evil within our own hearts. It's been said that many Christians today are soft on evil. And wherever that's true, my theory is that we're soft on evil culturally because we're soft on evil personally, and we're soft on evil personally because our vision of God is small … Wherever our understanding of God's glory is frail, and our commitment to his word is weak, we will get this wrong.And if we're ever gonna experience true revival, in our church, in this country, it will include a recovery here. Spurgeon put it plainly. He said, “We cannot love God without hating what he hates.”Until Jesus returns, in the meantime, we're called … you're called … to lead a moral life.Second thing to do in the meantime …2. Lead a hopeful life. This is verse 11:“Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.”A few years back, the Holy Spirit made this verse pop off the page to me. I wrote it out on a notecard and put it on my desk. I think it's a glorious sentence. Notice first that it's an agricultural metaphor, which we see a lot of in Scripture. Light and joy are sown. The focus is on planting, on sowing, but the words “light” and “joy” sound more like a harvest. How do you sow light? How do you plant joy? You don't. You sow something else that, in the moment of sowing, looks different from what you hope it will become.I just re-seeded my front yard. Tall fescue grass: Thick, forest-green blades, cool to the touch on the hottest summer day, firm but humble, durable but inviting, elegant but approachable — oh it will be wonderful! But what I held in my hand, before I dropped it in the ground, looked nothing like that — it looked nothing like what it will become. It was just a seed.That's so much of life, isn't it? Life in this meantime is sowing. It's planting. And a lot of times, we want to judge the future harvest by how the seed looks now. It's such an easy mistake to make. How do we not do that?How can we call it light now in the sowing? How can we call it joy now? The answer is hope. Our hope is in the harvest, and it's so sure — God's promise is so certain — we can say the light is in the ground. The joy is coming, and it's already here. That's what it means to lead a hopeful life.Third thing to do in the meantime …3. Lead a thankful life.This is verse 12:“Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!”Rejoicing and thanksgiving — it's the same idea. We rejoice in God and we give him thanks in response to who he is and what he's done. Now, I'm just going to use the word thankful because it's the last word in verse 12 and it encapsulates joy. Thankfulness includes joy. And this is such a fitting way to conclude Psalm 97, and really, to conclude everything. For everyone who trusts in Christ, thankfulness will be the posture of our hearts at the end of the world. We begin doing now what we will do forever. We're called to lead a thankful life today: Colossians 3:15,“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts… And be thankful.”1 Thessalonians 5:18,“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”Now, how do we do that? What does it look like to lead a thankful life?I think it comes down to the discipline of daily thankfulness.Very practically, just imagine how you start and end your days. You wake up every morning. We all start there. Now what if, first thing in the morning, when you're awake for your brain to work, you thanked God? Thank him for something specific — a provision, a gift, an experience. Start by thanking him. And then that night, with your head on your pillow, when God has brought you through another day, you end your day by thanking him for it. Even when things are tough, when things go sideways, in the full assessment of everything, there's a reason to be thankful. Give God thanks as you fall asleep, give God thanks when you wake up — and if you do that everyday that becomes a thankful life. It will be a life that honors God until that final day when we step into the eternal morning. This is how we live as we wait for the end of the world, because, as Psalm 97 shows us: Because Christ will come again. And every human will respond to his final appearing, either in shame or joy. And until that day, in the meantime, lead a moral life, lead a hopeful life, lead a thankful life.Father in heaven, the life to which you have called us is a life that you create. Thank you for the Holy Spirit! Thank you for his presence and power day by day, moment by moment. We need him. Thank you that your Spirit brought us from death to life through the gospel. Thank you that he opened our eyes to see Jesus and to know your great love for us.Thank you for the hope that your Spirit guarantees in our hearts — the hope that Jesus will return and make all things new. We long for that day. And we pray, with the apostle John, Come, Lord Jesus!In his name, amen.

“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.” So writes the man of God in Psalm 25:10, and so preaches the servant of God in this sermon. In another simply structured sermon—remember, Spurgeon deliberately seeks to avoid complexity—he first paints the portrait of the covenanter, the man who keeps the covenant and testimonies of the Lord. As you might imagine, the preacher takes the opportunity to portray a truly Christian man, one thoroughly persuaded of his own sin and misery, but equally delighted with the provision God has made in Christ Jesus for sinners, and so committed to the Saviour and to the way of the righteous. But the man is no static saint: he walks that road, and find it to be paved with mercy and truth, not so much on his account, but on the Lord's. Spurgeon emphasises that this is the way by which the Lord draws near to the covenanting man, and these are the blessings which he showers upon him. Thus the experience described is less that of the covenanter seeking the Lord, and more the Lord favouring the covenanter. So the preacher both encourages the saint to keep God's covenant and testimonies, and challenges the sinner as to the misery and emptiness of life without God. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/the-covenanter 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

"All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies." So writes the man of God in Psalm 25:10, and so preaches the servant of God in this sermon. In another simply structured sermon—remember, Spurgeon deliberately seeks to avoid complexity—he first paints the portrait of the covenanter, the man who keeps the covenant and testimonies of the Lord. As you might imagine, the preacher takes the opportunity to portray a truly Christian man, one thoroughly persuaded of his own sin and misery, but equally delighted with the provision God has made in Christ Jesus for sinners, and so committed to the Saviour and to the way of the righteous. But the man is no static saint: he walks that road, and find it to be paved with mercy and truth, not so much on his account, but on the Lord's. Spurgeon emphasises that this is the way by which the Lord draws near to the covenanting man, and these are the blessings which he showers upon him. Thus the experience described is less that of the covenanter seeking the Lord, and more the Lord favouring the covenanter. So the preacher both encourages the saint to keep God's covenant and testimonies, and challenges the sinner as to the misery and emptiness of life without God.

On my final day in Vanuatu, as I continue my work on Part II of John G. Paton’s autobiography, I read a portion from the forthcoming book that includes both George Mueller and C.H. Spurgeon. Then I discuss the growth of the Chinese church in the capital city of Vanuatu, Port Vila, before looking at the Chinese cities to pray for this week (PrayforChina.us). I'm your China travel guide in exile, Missionary Ben. Follow me on Twitter/X (@chinaadventures) where I share a new Chinese city to pray for every single day. Feel free to email anytime: chinacompass @ privacyport.com. Check out PrayGiveGo.us for everything else, incl. Patreon, Substack & books… The Autobiography of John G. Paton (JohnGPaton.com) Pray for China (May 24-31): https://chinacall.substack.com/p/pray-for-china-may-24-31-2026 Follow China Compass Thank you for listening! Subscribe & leave a review on your preferred podcast platform! And don’t forget to visit PrayGiveGo.us for books + Heb. 13:3: Remember those who are in prison, “as bound with them”!

Christians have lots of needs, lots of demands – but take heart because Jesus has great supplies. -------- Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible.     Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org   Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

In this profound exploration of Matthew 22:1-14, we examine Jesus's parable of the wedding feast—one of the most theologically dense teachings in Scripture. This parable reveals the magnificent scope of God's gospel invitation extended to all humanity, the tragic reality of human rejection, and the sovereign grace that ensures God's purposes will not be thwarted. Through the imagery of a royal wedding banquet, Jesus addresses the religious leaders who challenged His authority while simultaneously unveiling timeless truths about salvation, election, and the nature of the Church. This episode unpacks the parable's layers of meaning, from the universal call of the gospel to the particular grace of election, equipping believers to understand both the urgency and the sovereignty of God's redemptive work. Key Takeaways The Universal Gospel Call Is Genuine and Urgent: God's invitation to salvation goes out indiscriminately to all people, regardless of ethnicity, social status, or moral condition. This external call is sincere, well-meant, and accompanied by genuine offers of grace. Human Rejection Is Willful and Culpable: The parable demonstrates that humanity's refusal of God's invitation is not due to insufficient information but to volitional rebellion. This rejection often progresses from indifference to active hostility against God and His messengers. God's Sovereign Purposes Cannot Be Frustrated: Despite widespread rejection, the wedding hall will be filled. God's redemptive plan includes the expansion of His covenant community beyond ethnic Israel to include Gentiles from every nation. The Wedding Garment Represents Imputed Righteousness: The garment required for the feast symbolizes the righteousness of Christ, received by faith alone, not earned through human effort. This illustrates the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. The Visible Church Contains Both Genuine and False Believers: The parable warns that not all who hear the gospel and enter the visible church possess true saving faith, distinguishing between the external call and the internal, effectual work of the Spirit. Eternal Punishment Is Real and Conscious: The parable's conclusion soberly affirms the doctrine of eternal, conscious punishment for those who reject Christ, depicted as "outer darkness" with "weeping and gnashing of teeth." "Many Are Called, But Few Are Chosen": This foundational statement maintains the biblical tension between the universal external call of the gospel and the particular, effectual call of God that sovereignly draws the elect to salvation. Key Concepts The Nature of the Gospel Call: External and Effectual Reformed theology has carefully distinguished between two aspects of God's call. The external or general call is the sincere proclamation of the gospel to all without distinction, inviting everyone to faith and repentance. This call is genuine on God's part—He truly offers salvation to all who hear. However, due to total depravity, the natural person will not respond to this call on their own. The internal or effectual call is the sovereign, irresistible work of the Holy Spirit by which the elect are regenerated, have their wills renewed, and are infallibly brought to saving faith. This distinction preserves both human responsibility (we are culpable for rejecting a genuine offer) and divine sovereignty (God alone saves by His grace). The parable beautifully illustrates both realities: servants genuinely invite all they find on the highways, yet the King ultimately determines who is properly clothed for the feast. The Wedding Garment and Justification by Faith Alone The wedding garment represents one of the parable's most critical theological elements. In ancient Near Eastern culture, hosts often provided garments for wedding guests, making the lack of proper attire inexcusable. Theologically, this garment symbolizes the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers—a righteousness not produced by human effort but received through faith alone. This directly confronts any notion of works-righteousness or the idea that we can stand before God based on our own moral achievements, religious observances, or church membership. The man without the garment represents those who presume to approach God on the basis of their own righteousness rather than Christ's alien righteousness. His speechlessness before judgment illustrates that on the last day, no one will successfully argue their case on grounds of personal merit. This underscores the Reformation principle of sola gratia and sola fide—salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, clothing us in a righteousness that is entirely Christ's. The Tension Between Universal Call and Particular Election The parable's conclusion—"many are called, but few are chosen"—encapsulates one of theology's profound mysteries. This statement places two realities side by side without resolving the tension philosophically. The invitation truly goes to all (universal call), yet only some respond savingly (particular election). Reformed theology maintains this biblical tension rather than collapsing it in either direction. We don't limit the external call only to the elect (hyper-Calvinism), nor do we make the internal call dependent solely on human decision (Arminianism). Instead, we affirm that the gospel invitation is genuinely universal while the effectual drawing is sovereignly particular. This means Christians can proclaim unreservedly, "Christ has died for you" to any person, knowing the offer is sincere, while simultaneously trusting that God will infallibly save all His elect through that proclamation. Memorable Quotes "The most scandalous and tragic thing that could happen at a wedding or a wedding banquet is that nobody shows up. The guests don't come. Or in fact, not only do they not come, they don't want to come—they burn the invitations." "You don't bring anything to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary." "Many a man in this world will silence his own conscience with many a fair excuse. But in that day, there will be no excuse, no plea, no delay." - William Perkins Full Episode Transcript [00:00:58] Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 493 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse, and this is the podcast where we will talk about every single parable. Hey, brothers and sisters. So when was the last time that you were at a wedding? I think weddings are one of the most glorious of all kinds of human events and celebrations, and I think the solemness of the vows and the promises that are exchanged between a man and a woman in marriage in that ceremony, or maybe only equaled by the joy of those same vows and promises. And of course, the whole point of coming together to celebrate a, a wedding. Is to make that joy consummate and complete by having others participate in it. The seeing the union of a man and a woman become one, the excitement of that love expressed in promise and commitment. It's an incredible thing. And I was thinking about this recently because our wedding invitation is actually framed in, in our living room because one of the guests that we invited gave that to us as a really thoughtful gift. And so our wedding ceremony and the party that followed, and it was a. Amazing and awesome party, especially thanks to my in-laws and my parents who generously made sure that that was possible was an exceptional event that we still talk about all the time. Actually, you know, in my wedding when we had this grand kind of wedding banquet afterwards, we had a friend of ours who actually performed the song that we danced to on grand piano and sang for us, which is amazing. We had a DJ in one room and we had a live jazz band in another, and I specifically recall. That when we left late in the evening, my new wife and I, that there were still people on the dance floor having a good time. And I thought, this is the way it's supposed to be. I mean, this is a wedding. This is a wedding banquet. [00:02:58] Why No One Comes [00:02:58] Jesse Schwamb: And so it also made me think recently, especially as we find ourselves in Matthew chapter 22, continuing to look at all these incredible parables that Jesus gives to us, that perhaps the most scandalous and tragic thing that could happen at a wedding or a wedding banquet is that nobody shows up. The guests don't come. Or in fact, like not only do they not come, they don't want to come, they burn the invitations. They wanna have nothing to do with the celebration or the ceremony itself. And so Jesus has been doing all of this teaching that we've been tracking, and he's been responding to these leaders in the Jewish community, the people we call the Pharisees and the scribes who have challenged his authority. And he's been progressing in the way that he's almost ratcheting up the language that he's using, the indictments that he's bringing to them. And now he's about to bring in weddings and specifically the wedding banquet. And that is where we're gonna find ourselves in a Matthew Chapter 22. Now, by the way, I should also mention that because my wife is super popular lady and super lovable. We had a pretty large wedding. I think we had over 200 guests, and so. Because my father-in-law is retired military, we were actually able to have our whole wedding banquet, our whole celebration and party on a local army base. But because of that, it meant that before you could actually get onto the base, all of our guests. Had to be searched. So it's nothing like, you know, basically just shaken down your wedding guests before they show up. So that also was super fun.  [00:04:32] Reading Matthew 22 [00:04:32] Jesse Schwamb: But let's go to the scriptures, everybody. So here's Matthew chapter 22. Uh, listen to this as we take a look at what Jesus has to say and why he brings in weddings. Actually, it might be helpful to say or to give you something, rather to listen to or listen for before you even hear me read the scriptures because. This parable of this wedding banquet, it is definitely one of the most theologically dense parables in the entire synaptic tradition. It is set like we've been saying within the final week of Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem, and it's embedded in the sequence of confrontational exchanges that he's having with the Jewish leadership because they have challenged his authority. And so as you listen to this being read, I want you to clue in, key in as they say to a couple of things. See if you can find the, like the Christological proclamation in this. There's a, a covenantal poll. I think there's some sociological instruction and there's an eschatological warning. All of this happens as is Jesus's jam in the short span of several verses where he illuminates all of these principles of the sovereign grace of God and the summons of the gospel. Total depravity and culpability of this, these rebellious people who refuse the call, the historical judgment of God upon the covenant breaking Israel. And then of course, the subsequent expansion of that covenant into the community include to include the Gentiles. All of this is happening. In this parable, and so I want you just to listen for that as we together read. Or in my case, I guess I just read, especially if you're driving, do not read the parable that begins in the first part of Matthew chapter 22. Here's the word of God. And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables saying The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and he sent out his slaves to call those who had been called to the wedding feast and they were unwilling to come again. He sent out other slaves saying, tell those who have been called. Behold. I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fon livestock are all butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized the slaves and mistreated them and killed them. But the king was enraged and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. Then he said to his slaves, the wedding is ready, but those who were called were not worthy. Go, therefore, to the main highways and as many as you find there, call to the wedding feast. And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who is not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes? And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called, but few are chosen.  [00:07:50] Parable Context [00:07:50] Jesse Schwamb: Wow. So what an incredible. Story, what an incredible foundation or rubric or context in which so many rich theological concepts and pastoral concepts, doctrinal concepts are given to us from Jesus. And you'll notice that of course, chronologically here, this parable is following the parable of the two sons and the parable of the wicked tenants. Those are the vine growers that we were talking about over the last several episodes. And this one rounds everything out. It forms like a triptych of rejection parables directed against these chief priests and the Pharisees who keep coming after Jesus and his authority. And Matthew signals this kind of escalating tension. The Jewish leaders are now explicitly seeking to arrest Jesus. And Jesus responds not by treating their, not by retreating, of course, but by intensifying his indictment in this parabolic form. And here's where we arrive in Matthew 22. It's interesting to me, of course, that this is the approach that Jesus takes. He has already conveyed these two great stories, and at the end of the last one, Tony and I spoke about how this was where at least Matthew explains to us very directly that the, the Pharisees and the scribes, they understood, they discerned that Jesus was speaking about them, and yet Jesus says, I'm not done yet. I've got one more. And this is the culmination of all the things that he's been saying. And it starts again in verse one with Jesus saying, and again, he spoke to them in a parable. You know, it signals that the parable itself is still a reply. Not to a verbal question at this immediate moment, but to this ongoing posture of rejection exhibited by the religious leaders. You notice that what Matthew says here is very, I think, theologically significant in light of where Jesus explains that the parables both reveal and they conceal their instruments of divine judgment upon heart and hearts, even as they illuminate those with ears to hear. This is why I think it's just so important that as Christians. Even as we study God's word, as we participate in it, so to speak, as we let it read us, that we come with this posture of prayer, that we desperately need God's Holy, holy, holy Spirit to illuminate for us what the scriptures say, to lead us into the paths of righteousness and judgment, which are present in the scriptures, so that we may understand them with these spirit-filled eyes, with a spirit enabled brain with ears that have been unstopped by the spirit. So these parables are the mode by which Christ simultaneously honors and judges his audience. He shows indirectly what it would've been of no use to state plainly. And so the parable form itself is really part of the message here. I think that's something hopefully you picked up as we've been processing them all together, that Jesus opponents cannot arrest what they cannot fully comprehend, yet their incomprehension is itself their condemnation, right? This is, this is the mystery. Of the gospel of what God does, where there is this outward and full unbiased external call, and yet there is something that is efficacious by the power of the Holy Spirit for those whom God has chosen and called to himself so reformed to eus. Are attentive to the authorial intent in historical situatedness of each thing that Jesus says. That's one of the things I think is great about the way in which we kind of have organized our theological perspective and these parables function as a prophetic oracle of judgment. And certainly that's like in an Old Testament accent. I mean, that's the Old Testament jam. It's an Old Testament lawsuit kind of John. It's like law and order. If law and order were Moses, were doing it right. So notice that again, as Tony and I've said so many times before, what I kind of always find so phenomenal about these parables is that often we think of parables as having the main object of being a noun of some kind. It's a person, it's a place. It's a thing that is sometimes the case, but more often than not, it's one of those nouns associated with a verb.  [00:11:59] Kingdom And The King [00:11:59] Jesse Schwamb: And so we get that in verse two. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to what? To a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. And so it implies that the kingdom is being revealed and likened in a definitive act. We got verbs, loved ones. This is the classic. The ultimate, God does all the verbs because you're gonna hear her over and over again. God is going out. God is giving. God is seeking. God is going after, and these verbs are really the center of the parable itself. It's not just that it's the wedding banquet as maybe the title in your scripture gives you, but it's more about this giving of this event and it's preparing of this grand feast. And so the recurrence of this allegory seemed, I think, pretty straightforward to us. The the king is God, the Father, the Son is Christ, and the wedding banquet, which by the way in the Greek here is plural, is really emphasizing that it's a totality of an occasion. This is the Messianic feast. This is the eschatological consummation of the Covenant of Grace. And that image imagery draws like so deep from this Old Testament well and background of God as the husband and the bridegroom of Israel. Again, how lovely and amazing for Jesus and his thorough knowledge of the scriptures to draw in something that the audience would've been like, yes, I know what you're talking about. I'm totally down with that. And so the son's wedding is therefore not some kind of like incidental entertainment. It is the central event of all history, the installation of the Messianic king and the gathering of his bride. And of course, the people hearing this would've immediately gravitated toward that. I think they would've leaned in maybe even like smiled or smirked at one another, knowing that this was now all that veiled. What Christ was drawing on here was the classic presentation. Of the family of God represented in the children of Israel itself, being drawn back into consummate harmony with God the Father, where there was peace and unitedness, and a celebration of this fact that all things were now made and brought together, that God was restoring and bringing all those back to himself in his true and true kingdom that could not be thwarted. So the fact that the king gives the banquet, prepares it, sends servants, selects the guests, underscores this incredible modernistic character of salvation. I think it's impossible to miss here that God is literally doing all the verbs. The initiative at every point is divine. There's no hint here of synergism. The guests do not arrange their own invitations, literally. And so that's why in verse three, we see God, he sending out his servants. And of course that's a familiar theme. It should be to us. If you've been tracking with us the last several parables we've been speaking of because the servants represent the prophets of the Old Testament and subsequently the apostles and the ministers of the word. The invitation had already gone out to quote those who were invited. So it's this perfect passive parable in the Greek, it's, it's indicating a prior and standing invitation. This is the external or general call of the gospel going out through the preaching of the word. And notice that there is always a response. Even here, Jesus moves directly and quickly to here's what the response was. In other words, as the scripture has told us that God's word never goes out in returns void, there's always, as it were, a response here, that's illustrated for us very directly because the response is not so good.  [00:15:32] Invitation Refused [00:15:32] Jesse Schwamb: I mean, this is what would, this is horrible like wedding etiquette. They were not willing to come. And this verb I think is critical because it's volitional refusal. It's not mere ignorance. And reformed theology is insistent here against any kind of constellation that makes man's rejection of the gospel. A matter of insufficient information or circumstances we know better, right? We as people should know that we as Christians who have been changed, know that the natural man here is not natural, merely because he lacks the certain kind of information as if he could be restored or regenerated or reformed if we just knew more things. The will is in bondage to sin. And so as the Westminster Confession, faith says, man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. This is classic Jonathan Edwards, like, you don't bring anything to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. For some reason in my head, I said that with kind of a, a weird, almost like southern attitude, which I did not mean to convey. But the point is that this refusal is total, it's willing, it's culpable, it's damnable, it's precisely that, which makes it all the more grievous. The invitation is genuine, the refusal is genuine, and the guilt here is entirely real. So the invited in verse three, represent all of Israel. I, I would say like particularly the leaders here, Tony and I have been talking about the responsibility of these, these leaders in particular to, of course, lead Shepherd, grow these people in faith and a love toward God in a way that is toward freedom and now toward more conviction around extraneous rules or heavy burdens that they set up for them that they cannot perform. And so we have these leaders who had received the covenantal promises and the prophetic witness. I mean, that's like classic Romans nine. The rejection of the servants echoes the pattern of prophetic persecution throughout all of Israel's history. So this is sad stuff. It's a sad beginning to have this grand wedding feast prepared by this king for his son set in motion with the invitations already gone out. And essentially all of those who have been invited have Ally refused.  [00:17:49] Feast Is Ready [00:17:49] Jesse Schwamb: But what's so incredible about God and his loving kindness is still represented here in verse four. The king does not relent after the first refusal, which is remarkable. I mean, this is, again, going back to our proper understanding that we love because God first loved us. That love always leads to giving. And so therefore, God so loved the world that he gave his only son. And when did he give his son? At the fullness of time when we were still at enmity, when we were enemies with him still, he sent his son for us and he sends, therefore a second embassy with an even more urgent and elaborate message that he gives them. He puts into their mouth. And the feast, again, is not merely planned. It's prepared. It's ready. The oxen and fat and calves are images of this lavish like sacrificial celebration. Everything's all slaughtered. Everything is ready to go. Now, I don't know the last time you've been to like an epic feast. I do mean like epic over the top feast. I want you to look up something for me. When you have a chance, look up, just go to your browser of choice and type in shady maples smorgasbord. Now, I don't know if you know what a smorgasbord is, but it's like a, I guess it's like a buffet, but like if you took a buffet and multiply it by a million and then only serve like rich, decadent food and more food than you could possibly really imagine and close to where I live, there's a very famous Amish style. Buffet called Shady Maple Smoker Sport. Just go look it up. 'cause it's gonna be possible for you to describe, but all I can say to you is this isn't just like your standard buffet, it's not just like a potluck where it's like, Hey, we got ham. And, um, we've got some salads and, uh, we've got that, uh, what's that? That weird stuff. You can I, the ambrosia, like we, we've got your hydrox cookies for dessert. This is the last time I was there and uh, actually I was there with my parents and my wife and they treated us. And because this was at a part of my life where my gallbladder was trying to attack me and kill me, I remember just being so ill while I was there feeling so ill, and yet just being so disappointed and bummed out that I couldn't eat all this glorious food because there was filet mignon and lobsters. And shrimp and fish and ham like glazed ham and like carving stations. And then for desserts there was like custards and pies and ice cream and cookies and whoopee pies. And it was this over the top celebration of food. And you couldn't help but just feel like, wow, this thing that we're doing right now is like incredible. I've also, I don't think ever seen my father sample so many different desserts because it was special. This was a, a lavish and incredible celebration for us, and it was prepared, it was ready to go. And we find the same thing here. And so the second sending corresponds to this ministry of the Apostles and the early churches proclamation to Israel. The urgency of the messages come now. It reflects this eschatological pressure of the gospel. A good kind of pressure as if like there's a tea kettle on the stove and it's heating up, and now it's starting to whistle and then to boil over. The kingdom has arrived. Loved ones, the feast is set, delay is inexcusable, and, and so the language of readiness, I think is this glorious language of the gospel. The atonement has accomplished. Christ has been crucified, risen, and exalted, and the feast of salvation is prepared. And what I love is that the reformed tradition consistently insists on the sufficiency of Christ's work for all and the genuine freeness of that gospel offer. I like this is what I usually go back to, is that the cannons of dort affirm this in this way. This is the quote. The promise of the gospel is that whosoever believes in Christ, crucified shall not perish, but of everlasting life. This promise together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and proclaimed to all the nations. The invitation is genuine and urgent. The feast is truly ready. [00:22:01] Mission To All [00:22:01] Jesse Schwamb: The church that I attend is part of the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination, and one of the many things I love about my church is that outward and continual focus on this very thing. That the invitation is genuine. It is urgent, and the feast is truly ready, and it is for all peoples. This freeness to, as we talked about before, scatter the seed of the gospel message unreservedly and without bias to all, all in your sphere of influence. All nations, all people, all tongues, all tribe. And my church is very serious about this. In fact, one of the things our pastor loves to do is oftentimes when he's giving it this kind of proclamation, in fact, just this Lord's day, he was speaking from Matthew 28 and about the Great Commission and the essential nature of that great commission is every Christian's promise to participate in that. It is something you and I are commissioned for and we ought to regularly evaluate our, what our prayers look like. What our finances look like and what our time looks like with respect to whether we are taking seriously that commission, which God has given to us. And so in reminding us of that very fact, one of the things he'll often say from the pulpit is he'll ask out to the congregation, he'll say, what is our middle name? And everybody will respond, missionary. And, and while it's a little bit trite, it reminds us that as part of like the essential ethos in DNA of who we are as Christians, and in fact in this particular year. One of the themes that the whole Christian Missionary Alliance nomination has been focusing on is all of Jesus for All the World takes all of us. I love that all of Jesus for all the world takes all of us. And so we have embedded in this parable here, so much of this intentionality of the gospel, of going out for all people, making this, this message and this mission available. Going out and speaking and preaching and witnessing and testifying of how great God is and what he has done in setting and preparing this gospel message for all people. But in verse five, we find out that even still with all of this, they paid no attention. They went off one to his farm and another to his business. In other words, the word here suggests this kind of contemptuous indifference rather than this active hatred that that actually comes a little bit later. But worldly affairs, a farm, some converse. All this displaces the invitation. And these are not wicked activities, of course, in themselves. Their wickedness consists in their displacement of what is the ultimate. And that I think is actually like very penetrating diagnosis of the human condition. The great enemy of the gospel, at least it seems to me, is not always, as you talk to people, like some kind of dramatic philosophical rejection, some well articulated hatred toward God. It's instead like a quiet absorption in the ordinary pursuits of life. It's like what I think Augustine called being curved inward upon oneself. The world is a great enchant. It be witches our souls, it distracts us. There are so many things that can pull us away from not only meditating on this gospel message, but coming alongside and appreciating. In participating in that great commission. There's so many things to distract us. It's, it's not as if we need a list. I think if I asked each one of you or you asked me, what are some things that you find distracting that pull you away from time and prayer time, studying God's word, time spent with my wife, time spent serving in my local church. I'm not gonna be hard pressed to find those things to say to you. So this idea that we have, whether it's the farm or this business pursuit here, I suppose it could be representative to at least great earthly loves. You have the land, kind of a agrarian rooted life, and then there's trade mercantile and acquisitive life. I mean, maybe these just suggests that the rejection spans all of our social and economic classes, both within Israel at the time and for us today. And so we move both from like this kind of cold indifference, this we'll have other things to do. I'm, I'm just too busy. And, uh, how many times do we really convince ourselves that we can justify our busyness when we feel the pull of the spirit that there is a need? We feel the pull of the gospel message because there's the gospel pressure to ensure that we are speaking truth and love to those around us. That we ourselves are responding to this invitation with our wholeheartedness, our mind, soul, and spirit, everything that we are, and we convince ourselves. Well, I just, you know, I have a lot going on right now. God, there's just so much that I need to do.  [00:26:34] Indifference Turns Violent [00:26:34] Jesse Schwamb: Now we get to verse six and things shift a little bit. Verse six reads, while the rest sees the servants and treated them shamefully and killed them. Now, what's interesting to me is the indifference, kinda just that cold lackadaisical ness of verse five escalates somehow into violence. In verse six, some of them invited not only ignore the servants, but actively persecute them. And so here we have them, basically are being told they treated them outrageously, shamelessly, they killed them, and, and that's really the language of the entire prophetic tradition, the killing of the prophets. In fact, this Greek word here is ris. It's a word for arrogance. Honor, violating, assault, a sin against the honor of both the messenger and the one who sent him both. Like the one who is the emissary and the one who grants power or vouch saves authority to that emissary. And so to assault the king's servant is of course, to come against the king, and this is an act of high treason. It's against the sovereign God of the entire universe. I, I like here something that Calvin notes about this kind of inexcusable aggregation of aggravation of Israel's sin. He writes, they not only rejected the grace, which was offered to them, but added cruelty to their contempt. That's incredible. Right? That's exactly what we do. We reject God. It's, it's of course like not only just taking all the gifts he gives us and pretending as if they're under our own authority or. Have been the result of our own talents or abilities. But instead, when we do this, we add cruelty to all of our contempt. And the reformed doctrine, of course, of total depravity is not merely the claim that humans are bad. It's the claim that following humanity left to itself moves progressively from the indifference. That we saw in the previous verse, verse five, two, hostility toward the living God in his gospel messengers, which we see in verse six. In other words, unless God constrain us, loved ones, that is the natural end of man to move from this place where I do not care about God till I hate him, and then I hate all those who represent him, all those who speak on his behalf. [00:28:46] Judgment On The City [00:28:46] Jesse Schwamb: And so the king's response here, as you might imagine, is one of anger. He's angry. He sends his troops and he destroys the scriptures, say those are murderers, and he burns their city. I mean, the verse is almost certainly this kind of pro prophecy filled in its intent and its content. It's I think, probably a transparent reference to the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman armies in 80, 70. And Matthew, even if we say he's writing after that event, or in like a conservative dating with prophetic anticipation, presents Christ as foreseeing and pronouncing the divine judgment upon the city. And this King's anger, of course, is not just, it's not anger that's looking for reciprocity. It's not just anger that's saying, this has made me upset and I'm responding viscerally and emotionally. It's not petulant rage. It is holy and righteous wrath of the sovereign whose grace has been despised and whose servants have been murdered. The destruction is complete. The murderers are destroyed, the city is burned to the ground, and there are foreign tradition kind of following. A covenantal hermeneutic, I think reads 80, 70 as this terminus of the old Covenant administration in many ways, and the judgment upon Nashville Israel for his rejection, for her rejection, rather of the Messiah, you know? While all of that is true, I think what this presents for us is a reminder of how serious our God's Holiness is. And that again, every time we sin, every time that we come against God and someone would challenge his authority as it were, either directly or indirectly, we put ourselves in the place of those who reject the gospel message. And in so doing, we ought to fall on our knees and ask for the kind of repentance that is necessary because we ourselves are putting our place, we're extending among. The murderers, and in this case, the, the message that Jesus has for those is only anger and again, is a righteous kind of anger. So one might imagine as we read in like the previous parables, that Jesus could have just entirely ended there. It almost sounds like we've drawn to a close.  [00:31:04] Invitation Rejected [00:31:04] Jesse Schwamb: Listen, there's a king. He has a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out last invitations. Nobody came. He goes to confronts the guests and not only do they say we're not interested, some of them are like, yeah, we burned all the invitations. And then the people that you sent to remind us, we killed those people. And it'll be right for the king to say. That's it. Everybody's done here. I'm shutting the whole thing down. And honestly, that could have happened in the garden. That could happen at the cross. Instead, we find something totally different. The parable goes on.  [00:31:33] Feast Still Happens [00:31:33] Jesse Schwamb: In fact, verse eight reads, then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Notice loved ones that the feast does not get canceled. I mean, Christmas doesn't get canceled. It's just redirected. The king's purposes will not, cannot be frustrated, and this is a critical sociological and eschatological claim to me, at least. What we're seeing here is the refusal of the invited guests does not leave the wedding hall empty. Praise the Lord. It occasions the wider extension of the invitation.  [00:32:07] Gospel Offer Explained [00:32:07] Jesse Schwamb: And this idea of not worthy does not introduce a prior standard of merit by which the guests were found deficient. But instead, as you know, their unworthiness consists in their refusal To refuse the gospel is to demonstrate one's unworthiness of it. And so worthiness in this context is not some kinda like moral achievement, but it's a covenantal responsiveness. It's the openness of the creature to receive what the king graciously provides. It's why when we stand before God in the kind of judgment that we rightfully deserve, and he says something to the extent of, why should I let you into my heaven? Why should I let you enjoy eternal life with me? We should rightly say, because you promised. And because by the power of your Holy Spirit, through the faith you have given and instilled in me by this imputed righteousness, I can trust you at your promise. And so I think this verse is like so critical for understanding the well meant offer of the gospel. Again, we should together affirm that the gospel is offered to all without distinction, and that those who do not come are inexcusable. God does not will. The damnation of those who reject the gospel as a bare first intention, their damnation follows from their own culpable refusal.  [00:33:31] Mission To All Roads [00:33:31] Jesse Schwamb: And so the king says, listen guys, go out everywhere. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding piece. As many as you find. I don't know how you're envisioning. If you were listening to this story and you were like setting the actual scene, but I don't know, to me, I just find them, the, the servants or the slaves that they look at it one another and they're just like s go time and they just turn around and start going everywhere to all the places, uh, to anyone who will listen to all the like, stops that there were on the byways. All the highways, all the roads. They're just going through all the places. Wherever the road takes 'em, that's where they're going. And all along the way they're spreading this mission, this invitation, and the mission now. Is universal in scope. The main roads, literally the, the exits, the outlets of all these places. The thoroughfares, where the roads branch out of the city and the highways diverge in the countryside. This is representing, of course, like the ends of the earth, the places where any and all may be found. And the command here to as many as you find to go to those is of course, like a command of universal scope. It's for you and me, loved ones there. There's no prior qualification, rich or poor, Jewish, gentile, moral or immoral. This is the missio day, breaking through all ethnic and social boundaries, and in this loving way, in this pastoral way, it underpins the free and indiscriminate offer of the gospel. Again, like going back to the Westminster Confession and the shorter catechism, affirming this covenant of grace that is administered by the preaching of the word. And no matter where you work, like reform theology from like William Cur, David Bernard, like to the modern missionary movement, we're drawing from this mandate of precisely this kind of universal commission. You know, it's like Spurgeon, I think once said something effect of like, Christ has done more than give a general invitation. He has given an urgent, pressing, commanding invitation to all something like that. And I always remember that because when I think about what it means to step into this role of fulfilling the great commission of understanding what Jesus is saying here, it's not just as if we're saying, listen, the world is in a dire place. This is an emergency situation. And so for all of us in our sphere of influence. To bring forward this message of the indiscriminate offer of the gospel is to take God at his word and then to deliver that word to all of those, all the highways, all the byways, all the outplace, every tribe, Tong, nation. What a glorious thing that our God has given us and put us on mission in this way so that no matter who we meet, we know we might say Jesus loves you, that Jesus has died for you. This is, I think, one of the things that those who maybe are new to the reformed tradition and the theological perspective. Find a little bit interesting to parse out, or maybe sometimes if you've had conversations like I have people think that we're parsing the words too much, but there's something to be said for the death of Jesus being sufficient for all and efficacious for the elect, that we're not simply splitting words. There we're describing very discreetly, very cogently, very crisply. This indiscriminate gospel message while at the same time recognizing that it's God's sovereign choice and will to draw those whom he will to himself. And so in verse 10.  [00:36:54] Good And Bad Gathered [00:36:54] Jesse Schwamb: These servants go out to the roads and they gather all whom they found both good and bad. And so the wedding hall, guess what was filled with guests, because this is God's sovereign prerogative because he can do all these things because even those who have denied him does not remove him from power. That he does all the verbs and so the servants obey and the results are comprehensive. They gather in all of these, and Matthew's quick to say both the good and the bad, and I think like the good and the bad pairing is significant. I don't think this is necessarily meaning that there's the morally virtuous and the morally depraved, though that probably is included somewhere. But I think this, this more, this reflection that, once again, it's all kinds of people. For God's to love the world that whomsoever, all of those who believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life. The wedding hall is filled, it was filled, and it's filled by God's sovereign action through human instrumentality.  [00:37:53] Visible And Invisible Church [00:37:53] Jesse Schwamb: And there is, like I'd say, if you're tracking with this, you should notice that there is a, a kinda a tension here. It sits between verses 10 and 11, and it's going to resolve the banquet hall is full. But you'll notice that it's not all within, well, not everybody who's within it are truly saved. And we'll get to why that isn't just a second. But the filling of the hall through the universal gospel summons does produce a mixed company. We've already talked about the parable of the terrors in the wheat before, so this, this should be news if you've been listening to us for a little while, but it's precisely the condition of the visible church in this age. Again, I just think it's fantastic that when we go to the scriptures, one of the reasons we know it's true is because God tells us the truth about the way things are. And we know that this is the way that the church is today. We would call this the visible versus the invisible church. And of course there's a distinguishing between the visible church, which consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion from the invisible church, which is the totality of the elect, those who God has actually called to himself. So the hole is full. But not all in the hall are clothed. And this is fascinating how Jesus brings in this idea of dressing of not, I mean, not what you put on your salad, a smorgasbord, but like what you're actually wearing.  [00:39:07] Wedding Garment Meaning [00:39:07] Jesse Schwamb: So in verse 11, but the king came in to look at the guests and he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. So notice that the parable scene here kind of shifts dramatically all of a sudden because the king arrives suddenly. He's present. He was speaking, he was giving instructions, he was preparing, he was a character, kind of chilling in the background. But now there's this eschatological moment the king's coming to inspect. The guests corresponds to this final judgment, and what he finds is there's a man without a wedding garment. He's at the center, I think of this parables, theological climax. So what, what is this wedding garment? I would put it to you like, as you're thinking through this and maybe interpreting listening for yourself, what do you think the wedding garment is? And I would say like what most reformed interpreters have been unified on is that this really represents that imputed righteousness, the the righteousness of Christ that's credited to the believer and received by faith alone. And so by a wedding garment, I would understand this to mean the purity and the holiness of that transforms and regenerated life, which is required of all those who are brought inside the true and invisible church. And though he immediately qualifies this as like righteousness, that is inseparable from justification. It is not earned, but it is received. In fact, I think, uh, I have my Logos Bible software up as I'm talking to you, and I see that Matthew Henry comments on this by saying, the righteousness of Christ is the robe of righteousness, the garment of salvation in which true believers are closed. I mean. That's a great turn of phrase, brothers and sisters. I love this idea of what the scriptures tell us elsewhere of putting on these garments of praise or worship, the garments of Christ, of being exchanged out as it were, for what is dirty and unsuitable for something that suits the occasion that is given to you to wear by faith alone. And of course, this wedding garment is not a work that the guest has produced, but it's a garment provided, uh, presumably like the king's servants actually supplied it. Uh, I, I think that's like a detail implied by the ancient custom and the severity of the guest condemnation for lacking it. It's almost as if the king is saying. Uh, like you were, should have been provided. Why did you not put this on? Why did by faith you not accept this? And this underscores the so gratia and so fide. The righteousness by which we stand before God on the last day is not our own, but Christ, it's received through faith. And the man without the garment represents those who presume to stand before God on the basis of their own righteousness. Whether that's religious profession. Moral achievement, charitable giving, mere church membership rather. And instead of. That alien and beautiful righteousness of Christ. So the fact that this man is inside the hall, you know, he's come in through the general call confirms that the parable addresses not only those outside the church, but those within it who lack genuine saving faith. It's almost, to me, kind of like an intra ecclesial warning. It's, it's not merely a missional observation. I think that is for all of us. It's why Paul elsewhere says. Check test, confirm to see whether you yourselves are in this faith because it is by faith that we put on these wedding garments which are appropriate and suitable for this great eschatological Messianic wedding feast with the lamb. [00:42:48] Speechless Before Judgment [00:42:48] Jesse Schwamb: So in verse 12, the king says to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And notice the man's response. I, I almost find this kind of funny because he just says, and he was speechless. Like there was, there was nothing for him, uh, to, to say it all. And of course, like this question that's posed here, this, how did you get in here without the winning government? It's not a real question, right? It's not a question of genuine puzzlement. It's the same way in which when we find God walking in the cool of the day, in the garden after the sin of Adam and E, where he says, Adam, where are you? It's not a genuine question of a quizzical nature. It's instead, this rhetorical structure is God questions through judgments. And when he says to Cain, where is Abel your brother, where is Abel, your brother? He's exposing and he's condemning. He's not merely inquiring. And so this man in response, sensing this condemnation, discerning this condemnation, this judgment that's been brought against him, I think this is why the Greek says he was muzzled. He was silenced, his mouth was shut up. He had no answer. Uh, it's not because the question was unfair. But because there was just no legitimate words that he could bring there, there was no argumentation. In other words, there's no poll mic. There was no great debate that he could have. In this moment. Every mouth will be stopped before God. I mean, that's like Romans three. The silence of the ungodly before the Divine Tribunal is a consistent biblical theme, and we find it here. Again, this is the eschatological end to those who are condemned. No one loved ones is gonna stand before God on the last day and successfully argue their case on the ground of personal merit. I love William Perkins on this topic. He was apparently really moved. I learned by this verse and by what he saw in the silence as a profound warning against false assurance. So he actually wrote many a man in this world. Silence is his own conscience. With many fair excuse. Do you hear that? I, I love that turn of phrase. So we're talking about silence. It's about being silence, but I love how he says it's very easy to, to silence, not yourself, not like somebody coming against you with debate, but your own conscience. So he writes, again, many a man in this world will silence his own conscience with many a fair excuse. But in that day, there will be no excuse, no plea, no delay. So that time of plea is now, it's in this life. It's by faith and repentance, which is why there's an urgency to this gospel message. And so the king.  [00:45:17] Outer Darkness Warning [00:45:17] Jesse Schwamb: In hearing this and knowing that this man has no excuse for his outer attire, he says to him, listen to the servants. Bind him hand and foot, cast him into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The sentence is severe. It's total. Of the command is given to the servants and attendance maybe in this parable and parabolic form, likely the angelic executors of divine judgment and it is binding. It renders the condemned utterly helpless. It's a picture of total divine control over the destiny of the ate. He has cast into this outer darkness, outside the light and warmth of the banquet hall entirely. And I think it's incumbent upon us to take a second and to grieve the repercussions of what is being said here. That the death and destruction of the ATE should make us grieve. It should compel us to go out into the highways, the byways, and to share this message. Unreservedly. One of the ways we know really the full anguish of what this entails is this phrase, weeping and gnashing of teeth, actually occurs seven times in Matthew, and it functions as this refrain, this chorus, this common language of this eschatological condemnation, it combines interestingly in this wordplay here, both the anguish of grief with the rage of frustrated pride. It's a portrait, not of this just like regret, but continuing imp penitent, hostility against God and eternal punishment. And I think if Tony were here, he would agree with me that we have consistently affirmed the doctrine of eternal conscience punishment. You know, the Westminster Confession says, the wicked who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be cast into eternal torments. In other words, this outer darkness is not annihilation. The weeping and the gnashing continues. It implies an ongoing conscious existence. It's the image of a binding stands against the notion of this kind of postmortem repentance or universalism. The severity of that verse, I think, really must be allowed to stand in its canonical context without mitigation. The, the severity of this judgment ought to fill us with fear, not theological domestication. We, we shouldn't set this aside and be saying, well, this implies that there is nothing after that time. No, there continues to be only time with God in his presence, in eternal, consummate joy and harmony and peacefulness and celebration. Or there is literally. A weeping and a gnashing of teeth, an unresolved rage and anger where that is punished by God because he's absent where there's unmitigated pain and suffering because it is absent the presence and the mediation of God himself, who even now in this world, holds us back so that while we are sinful and we are not as bad as we could or ought to be because of his great kindness, all of us, even those. Who are not believers.  [00:48:37] Called Yet Chosen [00:48:37] Jesse Schwamb: And so because of that, it ends with these very famous in stock words in in verse 14, for many are called, but few are chosen. And that concluding aphorism is, I think, the theological linchpin of this entire thing. The contrast between this idea of called and chosen, you know, this is the vocabulary that is deliberately covenantal and elective, and we shouldn't shy away from that. Of course, it's referring to this external call, the universal proclamation of the gospel to all the hearers. The call is genuine, it's earnest, it's gentile, it's sufficient as an offer. It is the call that goes to all the highways, all who hear the gospel are truly called to repentance and faith. And for me, in my own journey of understanding what this means as God has allowed me to, that has been critical. This idea that this universal call means that it is sufficient as a call to repentance and faith for all those who hear it. And then it does become the responsibility of all those who hear it to respond to it. And so this idea then of this pairing then with the chosen and the elect is referring of course to those whom God has chosen from before the foundation of the world. The elect are those who not only receive the external call, but are effectually drawn by the eternal efficacious call of the Holy Spirit. We can look to Romans eight 30, those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified. And I say, because this is a Reformed Theological podcast, and this is what you came here for, I presume, brothers and sisters. Then it behooves us to at least mention again that the reformed tradition has classically distinguished between that external or general call, the sincere well meant proclamation of the gospel to all without distinction, inviting everybody to faith and repentance. That call is genuine on God's part and God's doing the verbs in that as well. And then again, we, we set that over in next two, the internal, what we call like effectual efficacious call. It's sovereign. It's irresistible work of the Holy Spirit by which the elect regenerated, have their will renewed and are infallibly brought to saving faith. All those whom God has predestined unto life and those only he's pleased in his appointed and accepted time to affectionately call by His word and his spirit out of the state of sin and death to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. I was thinking recently of this idea of the narrow path and somewhere between like the scriptures there and pilgrim's progress, and paths and journeys. I had this image in my mind of the road on which we walk. And in this life, the natural man on that road encounters all these like intractable boulders, these things that cannot be traversed. These just great mountainous pieces of rock, which block the path. And so prevent us from at least accomplishing the thing that we would like. Like to live forever, to have peace with God, to be at peace with ourselves, to love our brothers and our sisters as much as we love ourselves to honor something that is greater than us. And those boulders are things like sin, death in the devil, which constantly invade us, which constantly thwart us, which constantly block us. And in Christ, what he has accomplished in salvation is not just, I think to remove those boulders, though that would've been good enough of course to just get them outta the way. Instead, it's as if he's taken them and he's crushed them, and now to the softest sand between our toes and we walk over them in victory by the power of his name through the Holy Spirit into eternal life. Into that grand wedding feast spoil, which we have been invited because he has done this because he loves us. And so verse 14 places these two realities side by side without resolving the tension. Philosophically, this is one of the great mysteries of theology. Uh, reformed theology does not collapse the distinction by limiting the external call to the elect alone as like maybe kind of a hyper Calvinist model, but it doesn't make the internal call dependent on a human decision. As like Armenian theology would instead, you know, the tension is, is biblical. This is here for us. It's here for us, because I believe that God wishes for us to submit our knowledge and our reasoning to him knowing that he is far and above us. And because this tension is biblical, it has to be maintained. The invitation is genuinely universal. The effectual drawing is sovereignly particular. How great is our God loved ones? There is no one like him. And so there's so much in this that I think we could spend all of the rest of our life thinking about, and that would be a noble, I was just thinking today that, um, you know, unless the Lord Terrys like, maybe this will be the last series me and Tony ever do, because there's so much that's rich and deep in these parables and there's so many of them, and the teaching of Christ is, is so complete of course, for us because it gives us everything that we need for life and salvation and godliness that. We find that the more that we look into them, the more that we ask the Holy Spirit to bathe us in a realization that comes from the spirit of God, the more that we will find. They challenge us. They encourage us. They equip us. So I'm thinking and praying for you all as I hope that you are for Tony and I as we continue to wrestle with these things as we continue to talk them out, because I'm asking God that he would equip us as we look at the teaching of his son in these parables with a firm understanding of the truth and equip us with his promises and with his encouragement so that. As he grows us in our faith, our faith for us would be like a thousand eyes and a thousand wings that we would find ourselves moving from glory to glory. Because we see in these parables the great work of God for us. What he has accomplished through his son and how he continues to be for us and the son who is given for us is with us. That we have his Holy Spirit within us and who discerns the mind of God, accept the spirits of God. So love us. Let's continue to get after what's being said in these parables here because there's so much for us here.  [00:55:14] Living The Commission [00:55:14] Jesse Schwamb: And might I add, just to tack onto the end, there's also so much for the world. I know that we're quick to say, or like colloquially Christians have said in the past like, Jesus is the answer, but you I think cannot necessarily fault the world for sometimes asking, well, what is the question? And unless we go forward with this proper understanding that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That all are in need of this savior and that this gospel message is for, in fact, for all people without reservation. Full stop. I guess I ask for you and I and Tony who's editing this episode, are we going out into the highways and byways? What is the proof of the pudding in the eating look like when we examine our lives, but with specifically our finances and our time and our prayer closet and our service? Aren't we in fact concerned with the great commission that is reflected here? Are we concerned with the emergence and urgent need of this gospel message, which is for all people because God so loved the world that he gave his only forgotten son. That whosoever shall believe in him will not per but have everlasting life.  [00:56:27] Community And Support [00:56:27] Jesse Schwamb: So come hang out with us. Come talk about this parable. You know where to go. But I'm gonna tell you anyway because that's what we do. If you go to your browser, type in T Me Back slash Reform Brotherhood, t Me Back slash Reform Brotherhood, that link will take you to an app called Telegram. Telegram is just a messaging app. It's like, I dunno, iMessages for Apple or whatever you Android people are using these days. And there's just a little community that we've sectioned off there. And it's a community of listeners to the Reform Brotherhood who are talking about all kinds of things. You, you wanna be in that group? It is. It is a great group. Don't, don't reject the invitation. Don't reject it. Just, just come. I know you're thinking, listen, I got land. I got commerce I gotta deal with. That's fine. Come, come and join us. So go to t.me/reform brotherhood. One last thing. I would be remiss if I didn't thank all of those who make sure that this podcast still goes out to all the highways and the byways of the internet. That there is no Jericho paywall around it because it does cost money to put out there all the subscriptions, all the distribution. It's surprising, but there are. Intense fees with a lot of that stuff, and so I wanna say thank you, thank you, thank you to those who have listened and said, you know what? I would like to make sure. That this continues to go on. I've been blessed just by the conversation. God has done something here because again, he does all the verbs. Tony and I do zero verbs, and so because of that, they've gone to patreon.com Reform Brotherhood, and they've just decided to give a little bit of the kindness of their heart and generosity to the Lord. So if you're thinking, you know what? I've been listening for a while, and I do appreciate that this just magically, as it were, pops up in my feed and I continue to listen to it. Would you please consider helping us? Uh, Tony and I and so many other listeners who give a little bit just to make sure that together we can keep this thing going strong. And again, you can just go to patreon.com/reform brotherhood. There's also a website, uh, reform brother.com and all kinds of other fun stuff. But I will leave that to you. I, I didn't even bring it up. See, I'm just so glad that you mentioned it yourself 'cause it would've been awkward otherwise.  [00:58:31] Final Blessing [00:58:31] Jesse Schwamb: So loved ones. There are still so many more parables to go. They're all so good. So I hope that you all come back and join us next time as we continue to move through these parables. But until then, there's something that you should definitely do honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. 

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Partr 1 of Spurgeon's classic book, "All of Grace" in which he lays out as clearly as it can be done, the plan of salvation. Pass this one on... First 3 chapters. "God justifies the UNgodly" is a miracle from Heaven!

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Send us Fan MailJob wanted answers. He wanted a hearing. And when God finally speaks out of the whirlwind, Job's big move is not a speech, it is silence: “I will lay my hand upon my mouth.” That single turn becomes our springboard for a brutally practical conversation about humility, restraint, and what happens when we talk too much while we're under pressure.We dig into Job 40 to see why God's correction is loving even when it feels intense, then we sit with Job 41 and Leviathan as a picture of strength that puts our fears and egos in their place. Along the way, we connect the dots to Romans 7:24 and the honest cry, “Who will deliver me?” because the deeper issue is not just suffering, it is the heart behind our responses. We also reflect on a Spurgeon line that nails the need beneath the noise: a great need for Christ and a great Christ for our need.Then we bring it into today's world: reactive speech, online bickering, getting baited, and the temptation to defend ourselves until we lose composure. We talk about guarding your heart, choosing measured words, and learning the hard balance between necessary correction and sinful escalation. If you've ever left a conversation thinking, I should have stayed quiet, Job's lesson is for you.Subscribe for the upcoming studies, share this with a friend who's tired of comment wars, and leave a review telling us: when is staying silent the most faithful choice?Support the showBE PROVOKED AND BE PERSUADED!

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Audio Treasures is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: A sweet recompense Subtitle: Puritan Devotional Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Grace Audio Treasures Event: Devotional Date: 5/20/2026 Bible: Isaiah 61:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 Length: 3 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Audio Treasures is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us Subtitle: Puritan Devotional Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Grace Audio Treasures Event: Devotional Date: 5/19/2026 Bible: Hebrews 12:5-12; James 1:2-4 Length: 2 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Audio Treasures is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: If we had the arranging of our own lives, and the disposing of all events Subtitle: Puritan Devotional Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Grace Audio Treasures Event: Devotional Date: 5/18/2026 Bible: Job 1:21; Romans 8:28 Length: 4 min.

A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Mr. Fearing 2 - At the Hill Difficulty, at the River. Subtitle: Pictures- Pilgrim's Progress Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audiobook Date: 5/18/2026 Length: 12 min.

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A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Qualifications For Soul Winning Godward Subtitle: The Soul Winner Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audiobook Date: 5/16/2026 Length: 41 min.

A new MP3 sermon from The Word and the Cross is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: John Ploughman Talks, 5, Final Subtitle: Spurgeon sermons Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: The Word and the Cross Event: Teaching Date: 5/16/2026 Length: 21 min.

The apostle Paul had a holy dread of the Philippians sliding away from the faith of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon says he does not doubt the victory, but neither would he have it lost. Being “in the Lord,” these believers are in their right place, and Spurgeon explains what that means for the Philippians and for others who have entrusted themselves to Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they need to keep their right place. If they are in the Lord, then that is where they need to “stand fast,” in faith, in life, in experience, in holiness, without wearying or warping or wandering. But it is all very well to exhort a saint to stand fast—how is he or she to do so? What motives enable and sustain such endurance in the faith? Spurgeon often challenges us in the light of particular encouragements, or encourages us in the light of particular challenges: here he does the latter, reminding us of our citizenship in heaven, our expectation of Christ's return and our transformation, and the resources at our disposal in this pilgrimage. So, with our eyes firmly fixed on Christ and the fulness that is in him, we press toward the prize, holding firmly to Christ and his truth, standing fast in the Lord. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/stand-fast 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 apostle Paul had a holy dread of the Philippians sliding away from the faith of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon says he does not doubt the victory, but neither would he have it lost. Being "in the Lord," these believers are in their right place, and Spurgeon explains what that means for the Philippians and for others who have entrusted themselves to Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they need to keep their right place. If they are in the Lord, then that is where they need to "stand fast," in faith, in life, in experience, in holiness, without wearying or warping or wandering. But it is all very well to exhort a saint to stand fast—how is he or she to do so? What motives enable and sustain such endurance in the faith? Spurgeon often challenges us in the light of particular encouragements, or encourages us in the light of particular challenges: here he does the latter, reminding us of our citizenship in heaven, our expectation of Christ's return and our transformation, and the resources at our disposal in this pilgrimage. So, with our eyes firmly fixed on Christ and the fulness that is in him, we press toward the prize, holding firmly to Christ and his truth, standing fast in the Lord.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Audio Treasures is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing! Subtitle: Puritan Devotional Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Grace Audio Treasures Event: Devotional Date: 5/14/2026 Bible: Romans 14:12; Ecclesiastes 12:14 Length: 4 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Maidenbower Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Earthquake, but not Heartquake (sermon 1950) Subtitle: From the heart of Spurgeon Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Maidenbower Baptist Church Event: Podcast Date: 5/8/2026 Bible: Psalm 46:1-3 Length: 38 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Maidenbower Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Watchword for To-day: “Stand Fast” (sermon 1959) Subtitle: From the heart of Spurgeon Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Maidenbower Baptist Church Event: Podcast Date: 5/15/2026 Bible: Philippians 3:20-4:1 Length: 31 min.

A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Mr. Fearing! Some of you know Mr. Fearing Very Well Subtitle: Pictures- Pilgrim's Progress Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audiobook Date: 5/14/2026 Length: 11 min.

Show Notes: Charles Spurgeon's SermonWhen you're crying out to God in pain and getting only silence, is He ignoring you?Job has lost everything. He's been interrogated by three friends, talked over by a brash young man named Elihu, and God still hasn't said a word. In Job 35–37, Elihu makes his final case, and for one breathtaking moment he actually gets it right.As a storm gathers on the horizon, Elihu stops dissecting Job's theology and does something none of them have done yet. He looks up. And what he sees changes everything he says next.What you'll learn:Faith vs. transaction: Elihu lands a truth worth sitting with. Your relationship with God was never meant to be a deal. Faithfulness isn't a payment God owes you a return on.Why God sometimes seems silent: There's a difference between crying from pain and crying for God. And it turns out it matters deeply which one you're doing.Songs in the night: What an ancient phrase from Job 35 and a famous Spurgeon sermon reveal about finding peace when it makes no sense to worship.God's power reframed: Job feared God's power would crush him. Elihu argues it's actually the guarantee of justice, a tension that pays off big in the next episode.How not to comfort someone: After four men and dozens of speeches, the most practical lesson in these chapters may be the simplest. Listen before you speak and build bridges, not walls.Discussion Questions for Job 35-37Have you ever tried to comfort someone who was suffering, but your words made things worse instead of better?Is there a trial in your life right now where you need to cry out for God's presence rather than just His intervention?Has God ever used your own suffering to prepare you to comfort someone else?This podcast episode is part of our ongoing Bible Book Club series, Season 18: The Book of Job.We love feedback, but can't reply without your email address. Message us your thoughts and contact info!Contact Bible Book ClubDONATE Buy merch Like, comment, or message us through Bible Book Club's InstagramLike or comment on Susan's Facebook or InstagramLeave us an Apple reviewContact us through our website formThanks for listening and happy podcasting!

A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Communion With Christ and His People Subtitle: 'Till He Come Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audiobook Date: 5/10/2026 Bible: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 Length: 25 min.

5/10/2026 | Today's morning devotional by C. H. Spurgeon on SermonAudio: Title: Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - May 10 AM Subtitle: Spurgeon's Daily Devotional Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Prince of Preachers Event: Audiobook Date: 5/10/2026 Bible: 1 Corinthians 15:20 Length: 3 min.

5/10/2026 | Today's evening devotional by C. H. Spurgeon on SermonAudio: Title: Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - May 10 PM Subtitle: Spurgeon's Daily Devotional Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Prince of Preachers Event: Audiobook Date: 5/10/2026 Bible: John 1:14 Length: 3 min.

5/10/2026 | Today's daily devotional by C. H. Spurgeon on SermonAudio: Title: Fear Only God Subtitle: Faith's Checkbook by Spurgeon Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: Prince of Preachers Event: Audiobook Date: 5/10/2026 Bible: Hebrews 13:6 Length: 1 min.

A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Believer is Not An Orphan Subtitle: 'Till He Come Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audiobook Date: 5/10/2026 Bible: John 14:18 Length: 29 min.

Spurgeon speaks, in a most non-theological but clear tone, on gossip and laziness.

A new MP3 sermon from The Word and the Cross is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: John Ploughman Talks 4 Subtitle: Spurgeon sermons Speaker: C. H. Spurgeon Broadcaster: The Word and the Cross Event: Teaching Date: 5/9/2026 Length: 14 min.

After a brief survey of the ways in which Psalm has been a blessing to true believers through the century, Spurgeon tells us how he intends to use it—to speak on the confidence of the saints, on the courage with grows from that confidence, and the way in which that courage will be tested. Each of those three points hangs upon an element of his text. However, in the background of the whole sermon hangs the fact of the Ligurian earthquake, with an associated tsunami, which struck northern Italy and the French Riviera (including Spurgeon's beloved Mentone) a few days earlier. It was a significant enough event to mean that the thought of the shaking earth and the roaring seas would have been close to the minds of the preacher's congregation, increasing their interest and the impact of the truth on their souls. It is, then, not only a fine example of a sermon well-grounded in a text, but also of a sermon which takes account of current events, and uses them to draw the attention of the hearers to eternal truths. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/eternearthquake-but-not-heartquake 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

After a brief survey of the ways in which Psalm has been a blessing to true believers through the century, Spurgeon tells us how he intends to use it—to speak on the confidence of the saints, on the courage with grows from that confidence, and the way in which that courage will be tested. Each of those three points hangs upon an element of his text. However, in the background of the whole sermon hangs the fact of the Ligurian earthquake, with an associated tsunami, which struck northern Italy and the French Riviera (including Spurgeon's beloved Mentone) a few days earlier. It was a significant enough event to mean that the thought of the shaking earth and the roaring seas would have been close to the minds of the preacher's congregation, increasing their interest and the impact of the truth on their souls. It is, then, not only a fine example of a sermon well-grounded in a text, but also of a sermon which takes account of current events, and uses them to draw the attention of the hearers to eternal truths.

Jason and Duffey discuss a book on the pastoral life and theology of the nineteenth-century English Baptist pastor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This mini-series will be an on-going series in "book club" style. They will read a chapter and discuss it on an episode each month. This episode covers Chapters 8-10.  If you'd like to read along, you may purchase a copy here:  Geoff Chang, Spurgeon The Pastor 

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From time to time Spurgeon preaches a sermon from multiple texts. Some of these are by way of development, some by way of contrast, some by way of confirmation and reiteration. This sermon belongs to that last category. The same phrase occurs in each text: “Lay hold on eternal life.” Emphasising first the vital important of knowing and obtaining this life, and therefore the need for every man to lay hold upon it, the preacher then begins to plead and enforce the exhortation. We are to believe in it as it is presented in the Scriptures and impressed upon us by the Holy Spirit—it must be more than an idea to us. We must possess it, laying hold of it by putting our faith in Jesus Christ and working it out in all our actions. We must watch over it, for it is too easily shrivelled and undermined. We need to fulfil it, living here as those who have this life everlasting in our souls, with its realities conditioning our use of our time and strength. Then, we need to expect it—we must eagerly anticipate it as something that we enter fully before very long. How much do we consider eternal life? Perhaps even as Christians it tends to fade into the background. Spurgeon rescues it from neglect, and sets it before our eyes, front and centre, and very much within present grasp. Read the sermon here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/resources/eternal-life-within-present-grasp 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

Charles Spurgeon died in 1892, but his influence on churches is still pervasive today. Thom looks at one major aspect of Spurgeon's ministry: his emphasis on evangelism in the local church. He takes two episodes to share Spurgeon's eight convictions. The post Charles Spurgeon: 8 Clear Convictions about Evangelism in the Local Church (Part 2) appeared first on Church Answers.

Charles Spurgeon died in 1892, but his influence on churches is still pervasive today. Thom looks at one major aspect of Spurgeon's ministry: his emphasis on evangelism in the local church. He takes two episodes to share Spurgeon's eight convictions. The post Charles Spurgeon: 8 Clear Convictions about Evangelism in the Local Church (Part 1) appeared first on Church Answers.

Why does worship feel shallow? Why does preaching feel flat? Why has passion for God gone cold? The answer might be simpler — and more uncomfortable — than you think: a low view of God.This episode is sponsored by The Master's University. To learn more about how you can invest in a college education devoted to Christ & Scripture, visit https://www.masters.edu In this episode, we open in Isaiah 6 — widely considered the greatest passage on the holiness of God in all of Scripture — and trace it through the story of King Uzziah, the seraphim, Palm Sunday in John 12, and the return of Christ in Revelation 19. What we find is a thread that ties the whole Bible together: God is a holy King, and understanding that changes everything.Topics we cover:What A.W. Tozer meant when he said your view of God is the most important thing about youKing Uzziah — what pride, prosperity, and a low view of God's holiness cost him- The seraphim in Isaiah 6 — who they are and why they cover their facesWhat "Holy, Holy, Holy" actually means (and why it's the only attribute tripled in Scripture)The connection between Isaiah 6 and Palm Sunday in John 12- Why God is not self-deprecating — and why that's actually good newsThe difference between a quantitative and qualitative view of GodRevelation 19 and the return of the KingReferenced: Isaiah 6, 2 Chronicles 26, John 12, Revelation 4 & 19, Tozer, Sinclair Ferguson, RC Sproul, Spurgeon, Michael Horton