Spurgeon's sermons

Lots of people find Charles Spurgeon's devotional entitled Morning and Evening to be a useful daily guide to prayer. I often draw inspiration from that work for material that I post on this site (for example, see here and here).

However, the real classics from Spurgeon are his full-length sermons. The website SermonAudio offers audio readings of many of his sermons. But I recently stumbled across a website that offers PDF versions of all of his sermons. For free!

Try printing a sermon or emailing it to your Kindle. Then find a quiet place and spend 15-20 minutes reading through it. I find something spiritually useful in nearly every sermon!

Psalm 1:1 -- the progression of sin

The first verse of the first Psalm reads (KJV),

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

As other commentators have noted, those three verbs -- walketh, standeth, and sitteth -- imply a progression of letting sin come into our lives. First, we accept some sinful activity by "walking" in its presence. Eventually, we "stand" and "sit" in its presence, thus completely joining in with the debauchery.

Unfortunately, so much sin follows that exact progression. We allow something contrary to God's will to enter our lives; we might not even notice God's displeasure at first. And from there, the sinful behavior escalates.

In our prayers, we should make an attempt to catch those sins at the "walketh" stage. But if they slip past that point, entering the dreaded "standeth" or "sitteth," well, we should pray harder!

The rewards of responding to God's warning

Proverbs 1:23 (NLT) reads,

Come and listen to my counsel. I'll share my heart with you and make you wise.

The word "counsel" is translated from the Hebrew word "tokhakhat." Although I often quote from the NLT, note that most other English Bibles translate that word into a slightly harsher English word, such as "rebuke" (NIV, NET), "reproof" (KJV, ESV, NASB), or "warning" (HCSB). For example, here's the same verse from the KJV,

Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

Translation issues aside, this verse contains a powerful message. God is speaking to us, perhaps harshly. It's our responsibility to "come" (NLT) or "turn" (KJV) to God. And it's our responsibility to heed his possibly harsh message. If we do, God promises to advance us spiritually!

More advice from Job's friend, Eliphaz

I've posted before about Job friend, Eliphaz. For the most part, Eliphaz gets things wrong, insisting that Job's suffering directly connects to some sin Job must have committed. Rather, the book's main message is that human successes and sufferings accord with God's will, which is beyond our understanding. Job finally recognizes that.

But Job's friends do occasionally stumble upon (partial) spiritual insights. Eliphaz, in particular, offers a beautiful explanation of repentance in Chapter 22. Here are verses 21-25 (NLT) from that chapter.

Submit to God, and you will have peace;

then things will go well for you.

Listen to his instructions,

and store them in your heart.

If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored—

so clean up your life.

If you give up your lust for money

and throw your precious gold into the river,

the Almighty himself will be your treasure.

He will be your precious silver!

Pretty powerful for all of us!

What is reliable?

Stricken with great financial, person, and physical calamity, Job seeks advice from his friends. And although his friends offer some appropriate insights, they mostly offer useless hot air. Job, realizing the emptiness of their ramblings, complains (Job 6:15-17, NLT),

My brothers, you have proved as unreliable as a seasonal brook

that overflows its banks in the spring

when it is swollen with ice and melting snow.

But when the hot weather arrives, the water disappears.

These lines reflect our own futility in seeking earthly answers to spiritual questions. Earthly philosophizing seems enticing at first, but what happens when the "hot weather arrives"?

Meanwhile, as Job seeks answers from his friends, David seeks answers from God, and with more success (Psalm 9:10, NLT),

Those who know your name trust in you,

for you, O LORD, do not abandon those who search for you.

Simply put, earthly wisdom, despite sometimes sounding insightful, is not eternally reliable. Eventually, the "hot weather arrives" and that wisdom disappears. But God is eternally reliable.

Poor in spirit

In Matthew 5:3 (KJV), Jesus utters the famous words,

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

But what does it mean to be "poor in spirit"? The more dynamically-translated NLT renders that verse (Matthew 5:3, NLT),

God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

So, the obvious emphasis is that our trust must be placed in God. Psalm 49:6-7 (NLT) clarifies this point further,

They trust in their wealth

and boast of great riches.

Yet they cannot redeem themselves from death

by paying a ransom to God.

Note that having wealth is not, in itself, a sin. Rather, the sin involves relying on that wealth above God, which is a form of idolatry. This point fits a theme that runs throughout the Bible: We stumble spiritually when we focus on the perishable. God's word never perishes, and that should be our main emphasis in life and prayer. When we acknowledge our inability to save ourselves through earthly means, and when we acknowledge our complete dependence upon God, then we are poor in spirit.

A prayer of submission by Jeremiah

I posted last week about surrendering to God. After that post, I stumbled across a prayer in Jeremiah that hits upon that exact theme.

The prayer comes after a lengthy description of impending punishment for the peoples' repeated idolatry. Jeremiah then prays (10:23-24, NLT),

I know, LORD, that our lives are not our own.

We are not able to plan our own course.

So correct me, LORD, but please be gentle.

Do not correct me in anger, for I would die.

Note that Jeremiah is not concerned with self-empowerment, but rather "God empowerment." He submits, and requests that God guide his steps. He does so with humility and fear. Today, let us use Jeremiah's words as a template for our prayers.

Surrender our independence to God

The modern world places great emphasis on "freedom of choice," "independence," "self-will," "self-empowerment," and the like. By contrast, the modern world frowns upon surrendering our independence and free-will to some superior authority.

But the Bible teaches that too much emphasis on our own independence is a recipe for sin. To pick just one example, David says (Psalm 37:23-24, NLT),

The LORD directs the steps of the godly.

He delights in every detail of their lives.

Though they stumble, they will never fall,

for the LORD holds them by the hand.

As the king of Israel, David had no superior authority to submit to. At least, not an earthly one. Nonetheless, David surrendered his independence to God. Let us follow David's example by swallowing our pride, surrendering our earthly freedom, and letting God direct our steps.