Of late I have been searching out Charles Spurgeon sermons from the 1880s. Part of it was inquisitive....I wanted to see where his mind was....as he would have been in his 50s....and part of it was that I wanted to see his commentary....if any....on that day and age that he lived in....this thirty-some years after his beginnings as a twenty year old preacher wunderkind.
The easiest way to do this....for me anyway....is to go to one of the many....Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit yearly volumes....(published by Banner Of Truth)....and then Google an audio....read by someone else....of any one of the sermon titles....and this always worked....until yesterday. The title was just what I wanted....Israel And Britain. A Note Of Warning....preached on Lord's Day morning....June 7, 1885....but I could not find anyone who had put this sermon on audio. My next option was fine....I would just read the sermon....which last evening I did.
I had wondered if the reason this sermon was never put on tape would have been because it might not be one of his best sermons? After reading it....this obviously only opinion here....by someone who is not an expert scholar on Charles Spurgeon....but rather by someone who has been blessed almost as much as anyone else from his ministry....this sermon was indeed essentially different....for Spurgeon....more than even normal....seemed enraptured by the glories of his Lord and Savior. But there was something more.....
If you are not very familiar with C. H. Spurgeon....his ministry began at twenty years old in 1854....at the largest Baptist congregation in London. Roughly thirty-three years later began what became known as....the Downgrade. The church in Britain was departing from the gospel! Spurgeon saw this very clearly....and faced the challenge head-on. It was a battle royale....where pastors took sides....and most within Spurgeon's own denomination....took sides against the gospel that saved them....and against the man that preached that gospel to them. Spurgeon's wife believed that the battle....the trials and physical challenges....eventually killed him....this in January of 1892. All one would have to do is look at England today....and it's history over the past 130 years since Spurgeon's death. The church collapsed....wars came....God sustained England through them....but the collapse continued.
Most of the sermon was on Isaiah's call from God to proclaim the glories of the Almighty....and His faithfulness to Israel....and very clear prophecies to the people....of their coming Messiah....and also of the judgment that would come because the people had in effect rejected God.
Spurgeon seemed swept up in the glories just as Isaiah had been....so much so that I wondered if he was ever going to get to....Britain....but he did....and wept at what his beloved nation had become. His descriptions could be given to America today....as we simply over time became disinterested in God. We had other big plans. One thing Spurgeon said in his sermon was that the Church of England had remained more faithful than his own....'Dissenter'......churches. The Church of England had of course J. C. Ryle within it....warning and being opposed just as had Charles Spurgeon.
One other thing....at the very end of the sermon....Spurgeon spoke of the coming of the Lord...."Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him....and when he comes, as come he must ere long...." Spurgeon spoke of a remnant....only a remnant....maybe...."a tenth"....that God kept so that England might not be "as Sodom....and made like unto Gomorrah."
The sermon finished with this...."Be wise now, therefore, and no more resist your Lord....'Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way while his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him!'....May you and I and all of us be of that blessed number. Amen and Amen."
Psalm 2:12
Addendum: C. H. Spurgeon, The People's Preacher....ninety minutes long....is a very enjoyable and informative docudrama film on Spurgeon that you can easily Google-up and watch.
