You have inherited thousands of God's promises, and you don't have to do a thing to earn them. Charles Spurgeon discusses many of the provisions God has made for all of His children, including everlasting life, spiritual guidance, and unshakable faith. Discover a wonderful security, peace, and richness in your life.
I've read many Spurgeon quotes over the years, but this is the first time I've actually read one of his books. Packed full of worthwhile content, very little in the way of fluffy illustrations.
I bought and read two other books on God's grace this year: John Piper's "Future Grace," and Max Lucado's "Grace: More than We Deserve. More than We Imagine." I hadn't chosen those books for the topics involved. I read John Piper's book because I had already read "The Future of Justification," his refutation of N.T. Wright's new doctrine, the New Perspective on Paul. I was curious to read more of Piper's works. And I chose the Max Lucado book because it's been a long while since I've read a grown-up book of his, and saw that one. I had bought both of them at a passion play in FL called "The Holy Land Experience," (which I would also recommend.)
Be the reasons for my choices as they may, this has been a year of reading about God's grace, and especially when I followed up the other two with this book, C. H. Spurgeon's "Grace God's Unmerited Favor," which I happened to see on a mostly unexplored shelf in my parents' home.
So, I had three different authors' perspectives, all devoted to teaching the Word of God, all tying their works closely to scripture. And I think that we will never exhaust plumbing the depths of God's grace for us. Max Lucado's book is more of a heart-warming storytelling one and John Piper's book is more scholarly, but I like to read Spurgeon, too. He didn't hesitate to call it as he sees it, and I enjoyed reading his "Morning and Evening," devotions some years ago.
If someone wanted to pursue the topic further, I would recommend all three of these books, with a caveat that I know some of my friends would not want to read books by Calvinists, (John Piper and Charles Spurgeon fall in the Calvinist category; I'm not sure about Max Lucado.) But whatever one thought about that philosophy, there was still much good in these books. Charles Spurgeon occasionally lapsed into older English, which some readers might struggle with, but this particular volume has been "revised for clarity and readability."
The best parts, my favorite parts, of all three of them invariably turn out to be scripture, and I like the way these authors take verses in context and tie them to other verses on the same topic, or the way that they ponder a verse's meaning word by word. May we always marvel and the grace and the goodness of God. In fact, that's often why I read such books - as an act of worship, to marvel at the God Who loves us so - and to stand amazed at this or that facet of His grace, as shown to us in His Word.
Spurgeon said, "If the selfish hope of winning heaven by works [an idea which Spurgeon refutes] has moved some men to great sacrifice, so much more should the godly motive of gratitude to Him, who has done all this for us, move us to the noblest service and make us feel that it is not a sacrifice at all." Amen.
And yet, I have to smile a bit, because Piper would've disagreed slightly with Spurgeon on a minor point. He said in "Future Grace," that while gratitude can certainly be our motivator, a stronger motivator, pointed out more frequently in scripture, is that when we have seen the grace of God in our past, that it gives not just gratitude, but the faith to ask God for more grace in the future - that faith is the stronger motivator than even gratitude.
I'm picking at nothings, here. Both gratitude and faith are good motivators, but I found the verses that Piper used in showing faith as a motivator to be profound.
I loved the chapter on the verse: "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they." - Acts 15:11. Peter said this during a Jewish Christian counsel about what to do with the Gentile believers, and Spurgeon spoke about every word or phrase in that statement.
But, I had not caught before -and it's funny - that it would've been more expected for Peter to say that the Gentiles were saved "even as we are," but instead, Peter turned the self-righteousness of it around and declared that the Jewish believers would be saved, even as the Gentile believers were. Peter was, in effect, calling the counsel on their self-righteous attitudes, and not giving the Jewish Christians preeminence or first importance on the issue of salvation.
In that section, Spurgeon wrote, "Your being restrained from overt offenses is a favor for you to be grateful for but not a virtue for you to trust in.... If you do, your self-righteousness will be more dangerous to you than some men's open sins are to them."
And, "Sons of Christian parents, do not imagine, because you spring from a godly ancestry, that your nature is not polluted like the nature of others."
I also loved this verse that Spurgeon discussed: "...I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." - Jeremiah 32:40
Okay, other favorite quotes in Spurgeon's book:
"Certain earnest preachers are incessantly exciting the people but seldom, if ever, instructing them." That, actually, is an apt description of some. Or this one, "a ministry that very eloquently teaches nothing."
"The day may come when in clearer light we will perceive that sound doctrine is the very root and vital energy of practical holiness and that to teach the people the truth that God has revealed is the readiest and surest way of leading them to obedience and persevering holiness."
"If you become vexed and angry, I will not be at all alarmed because I have never believed that I was commissioned to teach what would please my readers or that I was expected by sensible and gracious people to shape my views to suit the notions of my audiences. I count myself responsive to God and to the text."
"Will it also be said that those who are redeemed have redeemed themselves? Or, that slaves of Satan break their own chains? ... Why would there be any need for Jesus to descend into the world to redeem those who could redeem themselves? ... Our Lord Jesus did not come to do an unessential work."
"They leave their sins and endeavor to be like Christ: they choose holiness not out of compulsion, but from the influence of a new nature. This leads them to rejoice in holiness."
"If you do not like the doctrine, I cannot help it. I did not write the text, and if I have to expound it, I must expound it as honestly as it is in my Master's Word."
"Do you imagine that, when it was death to listen to the preacher, men, under the shadows of night and amid the wings of tempest would then listen to philosophical essays or to mere moral precepts or to diluted, adulterated, soulless, theological suppositions? No, there is no energy in that kind of thing to call men together when they fear for their lives. But what did bring them together in the dead of night amid the glare of lightning and the roll of thunder? Why the doctrine of the grace of God, the doctrine of Jesus."
"Deny the substitutionary work of Jesus, and you have denied all that is precious in the New Testament."
"The fact is you unbelieving souls will not trust Christ whichever way you have lived, for from some quarter or another, you will find cause for your doubting... Do not say, 'We would come if we were worse [morally],' or 'We would come if we were better,' but come as you are; come just as you are."
"Shortly, dear friends, I will be crossing the channel. I will suppose that a good stiff wind may arise and that the vessel may be driven off her course and be in danger. I imagine that as I walk the deck, I see a poor girl on board. She is very weak and ill, quite a contrast tot he strong, burly passenger who is standing beside her, enjoying the salt spray and the rough wind. Now, suppose a storm comes up. Who of these two is safer? Well, I cannot see any difference, because if the ship goes to the bottom, they will both go, and if the ship gets to the other side of the channel, they will both land in security. The safety is equal when the thing upon which they depend is the same... God would make no distinction between one sinner and another when we come to Him through Christ."
"He may preach the Gospel better than I can, but he cannot preach a better Gospel." - Spurgeon's grandfather, speaking of Spurgeon.
"Those who have lived the most holy and useful lives invariably look to free grace in their final moments. I have never stood by the bedside of a godly man who reposed any whatever in his own prayers, repentance, or piety."
"Feelings are a set of cloudy, windy phenomena that cannot be trusted in reference to the eternal truths of God."
"If the Lord is now your haven, you will look to Him in the last, dread storm, for that is the way your eye has turned all these years."
"We have no contentions for the faith because our amusements occupy all our time."
"Henceforth, he will never shut his eyes to God, for his longing is to see more and more of Him, He is determined to be right with God; he knows that if he were right with all his fellow creatures and everything about him and yet were wrong with God, he would be out of order in the main point."
"Many think the Christian experience leans toward the area of sentiment, if not of imagination, but indeed it is not so. The surest fact in a believer's life is God's nearness to him, care for him, and love for him."
"Every Christian should add his own personal testimony to the great evidence that proves the truth of our God."
"Come, dear friends, you may not be able to tell me what the Lord has done personally in your lives, but I exhort you to speak when you have had your dinners, and your children are gathered around you. Tell them how gracious God has been to you in your times of trouble." - I find that a challenge.
"Though we often see the marvelous tenderness of our God, it is not necessary that we see it to make it true."
"Some people imagine that we Christians, when we do not attend or participate in certain worldly amusements, are very much denying ourselves. It is nothing of the kind. Contrary to their thinking, it would be an awful denial for us if we had to go with the worldlings to pollute our minds and hearts with their loose amusements."
"What have you to surrender? Nothing but a lot of rubbish of your own - your self-righteousness, especially, which is but 'filthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6)"
Only when God enables us by His Spirit to influence your minds by solid truth and arguments of substance will you then move with a constancy of power that nothing can turn aside.
Salvation is not a blessing just to be enjoyed upon the deathbed and to be sung of in a future state above, but a matter to be obtained, receive, promised, and enjoyed now.
A gospel that proclaims an uncertain salvation is a miserable deception.
If you ever are saved, you will have to be saved in the same way as those who have been permitted to plunge into the most outrageous sin.
...if the weakest Christian in the boat of salvation - that is, if he trusts Christ - he is as safe as the strongest Christian. If Christ failed the frail one, He would fail the strong one, too.
...for those who are most addicted to the performance of outward rites are usually the last persons to enjoy any assurance of being saved by grace.
Henceforth, we have no life apart from the living God; He is our ambition and our expectation, our end and our way, our desire and our delight. He rejoices over us to do us good, and we rejoice in Him and seek His glory.
It would be greatly advantageous for us to meditate more on the mercy of God to us. So much of His mercy comes and goes without our noticing it. It is a shame that the Lord should thus be deprived of the revenues of His praise!
I have often found that His comfort abounds to me in proportion to my tribulations.
Indeed, I serve a good Master. I can speak well of Him at all times, but I find Him especially kind when the weather is rough around His pilgrim child!
I urge you to recall your memories of His great goodness often.
God is as good when he denies as when He grants.
This is the covenant blessing: God makes men to love His commandments and delight themselves in truth, righteous, and holiness.
God is everything. When God gives Himself to us, He gives us more than all time and eternity, all Earth and all heaven.
If we have to bless God more for any one thing than for everything else, it is to thank Him that we have not escaped the rod.
Life Mission Know God - Love God - Love People - Become like Christ - recount His mercies, love, and grace Make Discplemakers -
This was a great, easily-read book, with lots of good truths. Probably my only quibble is that he's pretty black and white about how you'll be after you're a Christian. He doesn't touch so much on how we'll still be sinful and tempted, etc.
Here's one of my favorite quotes from the book: "Whether our days trip along like the angels mounting on Jacob's ladder to heaven or grind along like the wagons that Joseph sent for Jacob, they are in each case ordered by God's mercy."
As always Spurgeon writes to both the unsaved in the hope that he might win some and also to those of the faith that they might be strengthened and challenged. In this book he looks at the Grace of God, how it is not possible to live in legalism when you know the depths of grace. He goes through different aspects of grace and how it should impact on our lives. I love Spurgeon, a great book for anyone to read or perhaps one to give away to an unbeliever.
I greatly enjoyed reading this gem from Spurgeon. Salvation is completely the work of God and Spurge on publishes that message loud and clear.
If you struggle with the idea of God's grace then I would suggest you read this book. I would also add that this book is helpful for anyone else because we can never hear the message of God's free grace too often.
Spurgeon explores the deep richness of God's grace. Grace that is only by faith alone. He rightly points out that you don't do good works to be saved, you do good works because you are saved. The good works are evidence of your faith in Jesus Christ.
There are soo many quotes in this book but one that stands out is when Spurgeon talks about how God writes his law on the hearts of those who are born again in Christ.
He says, "That way, the man knows the law by heart. What is even better he loves the law. That law accuses him but he would not have it altered."
So even though Gods law convicts us , we love the law because we know it is from God and it is truth.
There are some great truths and great reminders of grace in this book. But it comes with a lot of poor eisegesis. And then in the last couple of pages Spurgeon is describing a god more like Allah than Yahweh.
You hear Spurgeon quoted a lot because he has said some good things over the years. However, it seems that between those frequent good things there is almost as much drivel. This has sadly been a case of meeting one of your heroes and being solely disappointed. For this is, I believe, the first of his books I have read.
No one but Charles H Spurgeon can so eloquently describe the grace of God in such a way that makes you yearn to have it, and to know it in all it's glory. This book reminded me how wonderful it is to know the grace of the Almighty and infinite God. Praise God for using this man in such a mighty way.
I love Spurgeon's writings because he's not introducing anything new - he's not rewriting the gospel or adding anything to God's word - but he's presenting simple Biblical truths in relevant and understandable ways. In each chapter of this book he uses a study text to take a deep, thorough look at God's grace and encourages readers to study the Word of God for themselves.
I loved the Twelve covenant mercies that those who are saved by grace receive that the author mentioned in the book.
The ending stood out to me where the author says that "..our Heavenly Father never pampers His children...He will every now and then give you a whipping behind the door"
This has opened my eyes to what true grace really is and it is Jesus Himself.
Very good book and I agree with another review I read that every Christian should read this just to understand ( or maybe remind) them of what amazing Grace we have in Christ. You can’t help but to feel Gods love as you read about what is offered to us through Gods grace.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound proclaimed by Spurgeon! And so true, how he points out that the Covenanter is kept by God - while drawn with cords of His love!
LOVE LOVE LOVE Please read this book I don't even know how to articulate how amazing it is. In an attempt to tell you how good it is let me first say that Mr Spurgeon is such an amazing writer, he really allowed the Holy Spirit to speak through him because I genuinely know that no man came up with the stuff he wrote in this book. If it ain't the spirit then I dont know what it is. I love how he doesn't use old English jargon or many metaphors and stories rather he focuses on writing about the scriptures and breaking Gods Grace down. Sometimes you can hear the same thing over and over again and not get it but when you read a whole book dedicated to the topic it all begins to make sense. I love the version he put the quotes in I believe it was KJV or NKJV, which actually made me a lot more familiar with KJV (as its often seen to be such a scary version) He also referenced A LOT of scripture in this book, so if you dont have your bible or phone handy then this book will not be nearly as good. It's through the context of those scriptures that it all makes sense. Also, get yourself a notepad and pen when reading this book because you will definitely need them. Not only is everything in this book so good but Spurgeon makes you start to wonder about things and ask questions and want to seek answers not so that you can claim to know Gods ways fully (we know we will never be able to do that) but so that we can understand the cross and what we have access to because of it.
Took me a while to get into it but very nourishing
Minor note: contains some jabs at improper aspects of Catholic doctrine/practice. Does it caricature them a little? Either yes or else it was just accurate in his time/place; if former, that's unpleasant, but if latter then: well done.