Spurgeon on Resting in the Promises of God

© 2022 by

JASON K. ALLEN

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

These sermons of Charles H. Spurgeon were originally published in the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit and the New Park Street Pulpit. The compiler has sometimes shortened portions of these sermons and updated certain words and spelling for clarity and context. Scripture references have been updated to the New King James Version.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.

Edited by Allan Sholes

Interior design: Brandi Davis

Cover design: Gabriel Reyes-Ordeix

Cover illustration of Charles Spurgeon copyright © 2015 by denisk0/iStock (484302822). All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon), 1834-1892, author. | Allen, Jason K., editor.

Title: Spurgeon on resting in the promises of God / compiled by Jason K. Allen.

Description: Chicago : Moody Publishers, [2022] | Series: Spurgeon speaks; vol 4 | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: Volume 4 of the Spurgeon Speaks series helps you find true rest-the lasting peace that comes from confidence in God. Spurgeon points you to the biblical promises God has made. Those words weren’t just valid for ancient Israelites or Victorian-era preachers. God’s eternal promises can give you rest today!-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021060529 (print) | LCCN 2021060530 (ebook) | ISBN 9780802426314 (paperback) | ISBN 9780802499608 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Rest--Religious aspects--Christianity--Sermons. | God--Promises--Sermons. | Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon), 1834-1892--Sermons. | BISAC: RELIGION / Christian Living / Prayer | RELIGION / Christian Church / History

Classification: LCC BV4597.55 .S68 2022 (print) | LCC BV4597.55 (ebook) | DDC 248.4--dc23/eng/20220127

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021060529

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021060530

Originally delivered by fleets of horse-drawn wagons, the affordable paperbacks from D. L. Moody’s publishing house resourced the church and served everyday people. Now, after more than 125 years of publishing and ministry, Moody Publishers’ mission remains the same—even if our delivery systems have changed a bit. For more information on other books (and resources) created from a biblical perspective, go to www.moodypublishers.com or write to:

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With Christian affection, this book is dedicated to Hilary Spurgeon, Richard Spurgeon, and Tim and Susan (Spurgeon) Cochran. In the lineage of the great man himself, they’ve come to be friends of the Spurgeon Library. They’ve blessed us with their artifacts, their presence, and their friendship. May Charles Spurgeon’s convictions live on through them, and their heirs, for generations to come.

Contents

Introduction

1. The Rainbow

2. A Refreshing Promise

3. Obtaining Promises

4. Rest, Rest

5. Only Trust Him! Only Trust Him!

6. Sweet Peace for Tried Believers

7. A Cure for Care

8. The Blessing of Full Assurance

Acknowledgments

Friend,

Thank you for choosing to read this Moody Publishers title. It is our hope and prayer that this book will help you to know Jesus Christ more personally and love Him more deeply.

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Introduction

OVER THE TWO THOUSAND YEARS of Christian history, certain names have taken on immortal status. Generation after generation, century after century, these names remain with us. Their legacies endure. And with each passing generation they inspire the next to defend the faith, to serve the church, and to fulfill the Great Commission.

In the Patristic Era, Augustine and Athanasius stood tall for their Christological and Trinitarian formulations and defense. In the Reformation Era, John Calvin and Martin Luther towered above the rest for their recovery of Scripture and even the gospel itself.

Closer to our times, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield flamed the Great Awakening, earning unquestionable status as Christian greats. Similarly, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, and Luther Rice led the modern missionary movement and are celebrated accordingly.

These individuals, and many others like them, proved to be titans, serving the cause of Christ in monumental ways. A case can be made for each one of them to appear on Christianity’s Mount Rushmore.

Charles Spurgeon has earned such status as well. The British preacher pastored the greatest church (the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in the greatest city (London), situated within the greatest empire in the world at that time, the United Kingdom. Spurgeon was the right man, at the right place, at the right time.

Spurgeon emerged on the national scene in Great Britain while still a teenage preacher. By the time he was in his twenties he was the best-known preacher in England, and, soon, the world.

Spurgeon preached up to ten times per week, pastored the largest congregation in England (and possibly the world), and launched more than sixty ministries, including a pastors’ college and leading orphanages. Additionally, he published 135 books and 63 volumes of sermons, all the while having his weekly sermons transcribed and shipped around the world. Spurgeon remains one of the most widely read Christians of all time.

What made Spurgeon so compelling, his ministry so expansive, his reputation so enduring? Spurgeon observers, then and now, have pointed to his gifting. And to be sure, God gifted him in extraordinary ways. Spurgeon’s mind was dazzling. His voice was powerful. His imagination was electric. His energy level was indefatigable. His courage was unquestioned.

As to Spurgeon, he often pointed to the power of Scripture, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Most often, though, he pointed to prayer as the secret of his ministerial success, especially the prayers of his church members.

Yet, there’s another factor that contributed to his spiritual strength and ministerial resilience. That was his resolve, his firm confidence in the promises of God. Spurgeon rested in the promises of God.

For Spurgeon, the ultimate questions of life and ministry were settled. Such questions often keep Christians awake at night and prompt ministers to doubt their call to ministry. Could Spurgeon be sure of his salvation? Absolutely. Could he take comfort in the power of Scripture? For sure. Could he depend on the ministry of the Holy Spirit? Of course. Could he rest in the absolute sovereignty of God over the affairs of men and thus trust Him? Without a doubt.

This is the God of Scripture, and this is the God Spurgeon presents to us in this book. As he quipped, God promises to keep His people, and He will keep His promises.¹ May you read this book and, in good times or bad, rest in the promises of God that you discover within it.

____________

1. This quote is commonly attributed to Charles Spurgeon, but the source is unknown.

TITLE:

The Rainbow

TEXT:

Genesis 9:16

SUMMARY:

Just as the rainbow represents a covenant of grace that is everlasting, such is the covenant between God and man in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is the token of the covenant for us, a reminder for the elect that God has saved them. He is much more than the rainbow, as Jesus sits eternally enthroned as the mediator of the greater covenant of grace.

NOTABLE QUOTES:

He gave them a covenant—a covenant embellished with a divine symbol and ratified with His own signature written out in all the colors of beauty.

And so when God covenanted with Christ, it was not, ‘I will save my people if they do this,’ but, ‘I will’ and ‘they shall,’ from first to last.

God has never failed His people nor cast away His chosen; not one promise has lost its fulfillment nor one word its faithfulness.

1

The Rainbow

The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

GENESIS 9:16

THE STORY OF NOAH’S PRESERVATION in the ark is a suggestive representation of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is, we think, especially intended to depict that part of our salvation that lies in the washing of regeneration. In the same way as baptism is the outward symbol of regeneration, so also is the ark, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water [1 Pet. 3:20]. The ark was immersed in those dreadful rains and awful cataracts that deluged the earth, and Noah’s family was buried in that ark to all the world. But by this burial they were floated out of the old condemned world into the new world of life and grace. Death to the world, and burial in the ark, were the means of their safety.

There is also an antitype which now saves us, says the apostle Peter (1 Pet. 3:21), baptism not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism is a most significant picture of regeneration, but it is in no sense the cause of the new birth. Baptism saves no one except, as Peter says, in figure; but as a figure, it is eminently full of divine teaching. It sets forth the great truth that the believer, standing today in the old world, is buried to that world. His rising from the liquid tomb is the figure of His resurrection in Christ into a new world as a new man, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). Would to God that we thought more of being dead with Christ, buried with Him, and risen with Him.

Do you not think, dear friends, that the history of Noah may be viewed as typical and instructive? Noah came out of the ark—no longer cooped up and penned within its narrow limits. He walked abroad, and the whole world was before him where to choose. Was not that a picture of the freedom of the believer who has been buried with Christ and enjoys the possession of God’s free Spirit? For him there is no spirit of bondage; he is free as a child in his Father’s house. All things are his, by gift of God, to use and to enjoy; he has learned the liberty wherewith Christ makes men free, and if the Son makes us free, we are free indeed.

When Noah slaughtered the bull and the other clean animals and offered them upon the altar, did he not show the believer’s employment? For we also offer acceptable sacrifices of prayer and praise unto God, and we ourselves are living sacrifices unto God. Did He not as much as say to all generations of saints, You, being thus delivered from a death that you deserve, are to spend your lives as priests unto your God? When the Lord was pleased on that day to bless Noah and his family, bidding them be fruitful, did He not set forth the fruitfulness that belongs to believers, so that, abiding in Christ, they bring forth much fruit? May not that benediction teach us how earnestly we should seek