The Present Truth: A Collection of Sermons Preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle

By Charles H. Spurgeon

Oh, Christians, never be satisfied with being merely saved. Move up! Move on! Go onward to the high mountains, to the clearer light, to the brighter joy! If you are saved and are brought like the shipwrecked mariner to shore, is that enough? Yes, for the moment it is enough to justify the purest satisfaction and the warmest congratulations, but the mariner must seek a livelihood as long as he lives. He must put forth his energy. He must vigorously seek whatever job opportunities open up before him.

Let it be the same with you. Saved from the depths of sin that threatened to swallow you up, rejoice that you are preserved from death, but be determined that the life granted to you will be active, earnest, vigorous, and fruitful in every good work. Be as diligent as the industrious workers are. Notice that they wake up early in the morning. This man rushes to one place, and that man to another. How direct they speak! How quickly they move about! They will go about their business, and they spare no effort to increase it. Oh, that Christians were half as diligent in the service of God!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aneko Press
• Release date: Apr 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781622457625

Charles H. Spurgeon

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), nació en Inglaterra, y fue un predicador bautista que se mantuvo muy influyente entre cristianos de diferentes denominaciones, los cuales todavía lo conocen como «El príncipe de los predicadores». El predicó su primer sermón en 1851 a los dieciséis años y paso a ser pastor de la iglesia en Waterbeach en 1852. Publicó más de 1.900 sermones y predicó a 10.000,000 de personas durante su vida. Además, Spurgeon fue autor prolífico de una variedad de obras, incluyendo una autobiografía, un comentario bíblico, libros acerca de la oración, un devocional, una revista, poesía, himnos y más. Muchos de sus sermones fueron escritos mientras él los predicaba y luego fueron traducidos a varios idiomas. Sin duda, ningún otro autor, cristiano o de otra clase, tiene más material impreso que C.H. Spurgeon.

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The Present Truth

A Collection of Twelve Sermons Preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle

Annotated, Updated Edition

Charles H. Spurgeon

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Contents

Ch. 1: A Many-Sided Motto

Ch. 2: A Distinct Message

Ch. 3: A Divine Mission

Ch. 4: A Double Challenge

Ch. 5: A Timely Challenge

Ch. 6: A Special Invitation

Ch. 7: A Merciful Embassy

Ch. 8: A Cheerful Prospect

Ch. 9: A Pitiful Chastisement

Ch. 10: A Serious Contrast

Ch. 11: A Sad Confession

Ch. 12: A Present Pardon

Ch. 13: A Precious Abundance

Ch. 14: A Magnetic Force

Ch. 15: A Mournful Defection

Ch. 16: A Solemn Resolution

Ch. 17: A Clear Understanding

Ch. 18: Preparation for Heaven

Charles H. Spurgeon – A Brief Biography

I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

– 2 Peter 1:12 KJV

Chapter 1

A Many-Sided Motto

One thing is necessary. (Luke 10:42)

One thing I do know. (John 9:25)

One thing I do. (Philippians 3:13)

I have one thing in view – one thing on which I want to focus your attention. Bear with me for a few minutes before I announce a text. It has been said that a person of one book is fierce in the force of his convictions. He has studied that book so well, has digested it so thoroughly, and understands it so profoundly that it is perilous to encounter him in debate. No one becomes noteworthy in any pursuit unless he gives himself up to it with all the powers and passions of his nature in both body and soul.

Michelangelo would not have been so great a painter if his love of art had not become so enthusiastic that he frequently did not take off his garments to sleep for days at a time. Handel would not have become such a great musician if his passion for heavenly sounds had not led him to use the keys of his harpsichord until, by constant playing, they became the shape of spoons. A person must have one pursuit and must consecrate all his strength and energy to one purpose if he wants to excel or rise to eminence among his fellows.

When streams of water divide themselves into innumerable smaller streams, they usually create a swamp or marshy area that proves dangerous to the inhabitants of the neighborhood. If all those streams could be dammed up into one channel and made to flow in one direction, they might gather themselves into a navigable river that takes ships to the ocean, enriching the people who dwell upon its banks.

To obtain one thing, one comprehensive request from heaven, has been the object of many saintly prayers, like that of David: Unite my heart to fear Your name (Psalm 86:11). The advice of Paul was to set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2 KJV) – not your affections, as it is often misquoted. The apostle Paul wanted all the affections tied up into one affection, with that one concentrated affection not set upon earthly things, but upon things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. The union of all our powers and capacities in one single purpose, to obtain one object, and to produce one result, is one great objective of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The one thing that I am now going to write about very seriously will require three texts to explain it. There are three small and direct passages of Holy Scripture that I will attempt to press home upon your heart and conscience.

Our first text is Luke 10:42: One thing is necessary.

This one thing, according to this passage, is faith in Christ Jesus – sitting down at the Master’s feet and drinking in His Word. If I can expand upon the one thing for a minute without seeming to make twenty things of that which is only one, I will refer to the possession of a new life. This life is given to us when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are created new in Christ Jesus. It develops itself in a simple confidence in Jesus, in a wholehearted obedience to Jesus, in a desire to be like Jesus, and in a constant yearning to be near Jesus.

One thing is necessary. That one thing is salvation, worked in us by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. The new heart, the right spirit, a childlike fear of God, love to Jesus – this is the one thing necessary.

I think you all know how to distinguish essential things from convenient things, and I hope that you are more concerned about necessary things than about things that are merely attractive, or even helpful. The little child might admire the field that is covered with red and blue flowers, but the farmer delights more in the wheat that is ripening for the harvest. In the same way, our childish minds are often fascinated with the bright flowers of fortune and fashion, and we pursue after wealth and fame and worldly distinction. However, if our better reason is allowed to speak, it will prefer the necessary things, the things that we must have or else must perish.

We can get by without earthly goods, for thousands have been happy in life and triumphant in death without any of the luxuries that riches can purchase. The heart’s love of his fellow beings has been simply won by many humble people who have never sought popular applause. The patience of the poor has often been considered as precious as fine gold, while the pride of the wealthy has passed for nothing but repulsive rubbish. Even lack of health, which is heaven’s priceless blessing to mortals here below, has not prevented some precious sufferers from serving their generation by glorifying God in a martyrdom of pain, and passing on treasures of piety to grateful heirs.

Ten thousand things are convenient. Thousands of things are desirable. Hundreds of things are to be sought for. However, there is one thing, only one thing, the one thing we have described to you, of which our Savior speaks as the one thing necessary and needful. How needful this one thing is! It is needful for your children. They are growing up around you and they give you much joy, for you can see in them many promising qualities. To your partial eyes, they give promise of goodness, if not of greatness. They will be the comfort of your declining years.

You have carefully watched their education. You have not failed in any way to teach them what is right and wrong. It has been your loving desire to give them a good start in the world until their portion is the fruit of your providence. You want to protect them from danger and threats. As much as you can, you want to guide them through the difficulties of life. That is all good, but, dear parents, remember always that one thing is necessary.

So that your children can begin life, continue in life, and end honorably in life, it is good for them to be educated. It is good that morality is instilled into them, but this is not enough. We have seen many children grow up and leave the purest parental influences to plunge into the most wicked sins. Their education has only become a tool for iniquity, and the money with which they might have helped themselves to live on has been squandered away in sin.

One thing is necessary for that bright-eyed boy. If you can take him to the Savior, and if the blessing of the Good Shepherd will rest on him and renew him while he is still a child, the best will have been done for him; his one main need will have been supplied. If that dear girl, before she comes to womanhood, will be led to that blessed Savior who rejects none who come to Him, she will have received all she will need for time and for eternity.

Strengthen your prayers, then, dear parents. Think of your children and seek their welfare more intelligently. Be more persistent in interceding on their behalf. Truly, this is the one thing needful for them. One thing, too, is needful for that young man who is leaving home to go out as an apprentice and learn his trade or who is going off to college. This can be a difficult time for an untested hand. The heart may well be apprehensive as this young and inexperienced one reflects that he is now about to head out on his own. Before long, it will be seen whether those fine professions of faith had truth as a foundation.

He will get to a big city – many of you have passed through this ordeal. What a maze it seemed to you at first, and with what amazement you surveyed it! Sinful tendencies lurk within your heart, and many attractions around you entice your ears and captivate your eyes until you are spellbound by temptation. What you could not do in the village, what you dared not think of in the little town, seems easy to be done unobserved in the great city. Hundreds of fingers point you to the places of pleasure, the home of wickedness, and the path to hell.

Ah, mother and father! You present the Bible as your parting gift. You write the youth’s name on the flyleaf. You offer your prayers, and you shed your tears for him. The conviction comes over you that the one thing he needs, you cannot pack in his bag, nor can you send it to him later in the mail. The one thing needful is that Christ should be formed in his heart – the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). With that, he would begin life well. A sword of the true Jerusalem metal that will not break in the heat of the conflict will be useful all his journey through.

Do I speak to some young man who has not forgotten his mother’s kind remarks when he left home? Let me just echo them and say to him, One thing you lack (Mark 10:21). Oh seek it, seek it now! Before you leave your room, seek until, through grace, you obtain this one thing necessary that will carry you safely to the skies.

But one thing is necessary, not just for those young children at home, or for those about to go out into the world. One thing is also needful for the businessman. He says, I need a lot of things. But what, I ask, is the one thing? You speak of things that are needed. You call ready cash indispensable. Give me this, says the man of the world, and I don’t care about anything else. Recommend your Christianity to whomever you want, but let me have solid gold and silver, and I will be very content.

Oh, people! You deceive yourselves with shadows. You fondly dream that wealth in your hands would do more for you than it has ever done for your fellows. You must have seen some people make large fortunes whom you knew to be very miserable. They have retired from business to get a little rest, and yet they could find no rest in their retirement. You must have known others who the more they got, the more they have wanted, for they have swallowed a leech, and it has cried, Give, give (Proverbs 30:15).

Of course, you never suspected that the money caused the problems or that the precious metal poisoned the heart. But are you in pursuit of happiness? It does not lie in investments, whether in annuities or mortgages, stocks or bonds, or gold or silver. These things can be beneficial. They can be used to promote happiness. As accessories to our welfare, they may often prove to be blessings, but if accredited with intrinsic worth, they will spread like gangrene (2 Timothy 2:17). Money circulated is a means of public benefit, while money hoarded is a means of private discomfort. A person might just be raking manure to himself if he is forever seeking to scrape everything to himself. A miser is bound to be miserable. Before high heaven, he is an object to make the angels weep.

One thing is necessary for you merchants, brokers, and other businessmen to keep you from sinking under your anxieties and losses, or to preserve you from becoming dishonorable and selfish through your successes, and to prevent your greed from increasing with your gains. One thing is necessary for your life to be a true life, or else, when it comes to its end, all that can be said of you will amount to this: He died worth so much. Must that be your only memorial? When you depart from this world, the poor and needy will not miss you. The widow and orphan will not grieve for you. The church of Jesus Christ will not mourn. The bright spirits above will not be waiting to greet you. The greatest achievement of your career will be a will!

What will it profit anyone, no matter how large a fortune he may have accumulated, if he loses his soul (Mark 8:36)? Do you think that riches you gained in this world will earn you any respect in hell? I have heard that in the old Fleet Prison in London, the man who was put in jail for owing twenty-five thousand dollars thought himself a gentleman in comparison with those common fellows who were put in jail for some small debt of fifty or a hundred dollars.

There are no such distinctions in hell. You who can boast of your abundance of gold and silver, if you are cast away, will be just as much complete wrecks as those who never had two cents extra, but lived and died in destitution and poverty. You need one thing, and if you get this one thing, your wealth will prove to be a blessing; otherwise it will be a curse. With this one thing, your sufficiency for the day guaranteed to you by promise will make you as one of heaven’s favorites, fed by the hand of God – ever needy, but never neglected.

You elderly gentlemen, do I have to remind any of you that one thing is necessary, and is most necessary to you? Death has already put his bony palm upon your head and has frozen your hair to the whiteness of that winter in which all your strength must fail and all your beauty fade. Oh, how sad – if you have no Savior! You will soon have to leave these temporary scenes. The young may die, but the old must die. To die without a Savior will be dreary and dreadful. Then after death comes the judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

Brave old man, how will your courage stand if you have no one to plead your cause? Oh, aged woman, you will soon be in the judgment seat; your character must be weighed very soon. If it is said of you, TEKĒL – you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient (Daniel 5:27), there will be no opportunity to get right or adjust your relations to God or to your fellow creatures. Your lamp will have gone out. There will be no chance of rekindling it. If you are lost, you are lost forever. You are forever in the dark, forever cast away!

It will not help you then that you have nourished and brought up children. It will not be enough that you paid your debts honestly. It will not matter that you attended a place of worship and were always respected in the neighborhood. One thing is necessary, and if you lack that, you will learn that you have been a fool. Despite many opportunities and repeated invitations, you will realize that it was an irreparable mistake to have rejected the one thing – the only thing necessary. Oh, how you will weep in your disappointment! How you will gnash your teeth as they do who find fault with themselves! You will mourn forever, and your self-reproach will know no end.

I wish I could move you, as I desire, to feel as I feel myself, that this one thing is necessary to every unconverted person reading this. Some of you already have this one great thing that is so needful. Hold it fast; never let it go. Grace gave it to you. Grace will keep it for you. Grace will hold you true to it. Never be ashamed of it. Treasure it beyond all cost.

As for you who do not have it, I think I hear your funeral bells ringing in my ears, and as you speed away, your spirits fly right into the arms of justice out of fear. I think I hear your bitter cry: Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved (Jeremiah 8:20). I would willingly hold you by the shirt sleeve, if I could, and say to you, "Why not seek the one thing needful without any further delay? Get it now. It will not hurt you in any way. It will make you happy here and blessed hereafter. It is as needful for this life as for the next, as needful for the office as for the hospital room, as needful for the street and for the home as for the dying bed and for the day of judgment. One thing – one thing is necessary."

Allow me now, as it were, to change horses. I must take another text. It is John 9:25: One thing I do know.

The man who was born blind, whose eyes were opened at the pool of Siloam, said, One thing I do know. I want to turn this simple statement into a penetrating question. Among the many things, dear friends, that you are acquainted with, do you know the one thing that this poor man knew? Though I was blind, now I see (John 9:25). There is a wealth of self-knowledge in this single declaration. He knew little enough, I daresay, about other people, but he knew a great deal about himself. He was well aware that he was once blind, and he was quite positive that he now could see.

Can you say that with sincerity? "I know that I was once blind. I could see no beauty in Christ, though I thought I saw great beauties in the world. Before, I could not love God. I did not hate sin. I had no repentance. I had no faith. I was blind, but now – oh, blessed change – now I see my sin, and I weep over it. Now I see a Savior, and I trust Him. Now I see His beauties, and I admire Him. Now I see His service, and I delight to spend my strength in it. One thing I do know." What a marvelous experience of a marvelous change this implies!

Its importance cannot be overrated. There is no going to heaven unless you undergo a change that makes you entirely new, and make all things entirely new to you. A young convert once said, I do not know how it is: either the world is changed, or else I am, for nothing seems to me to be the same as it once was.

This old Bible used to be a dry book to me, but now it abounds in substance and richness! Prayer was once a tedious duty, but now it is a delightful exercise! Meeting together with other Christians on the Lord’s Day used to be a weariness of the flesh. How much better it was to be in the fields! Yet now, how delightful it is to assemble with the Lord’s saints! With what pleasure we greet the Sabbath morning! All things are changed. Behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We now love what we once hated, and we hate what we used to love.

Is it this way with you? Do not be content with mere reformation. Were you a drunkard in the past, and now you do not drink alcohol at all? Good – very good; yet as good as that is, it will not save your soul. As dishonest and deceitful as you once were, and how truthful and trustworthy you might now be – you cannot rely upon it for salvation. In former days you were immodest and immoral, and by strict determination you have given up the lust and indecency, but even that will not save you. Even those who never fell into your pits of sin need the change. You must be born again (John 3:7).

You must have an entire renewal – a radical change. It is more than just cutting off the limbs of a tree or moving a shrub to another place that will allow it to climb as a vine. The sap must be changed. The heart must be renewed. The inner man must be made completely new. Is it so with you?

I think if some of us were to meet our old selves walking down the street, we would hardly recognize ourselves. It is true that our old self has knocked at our door quite often since we were changed. Of all the knocks we hear, there is none that we dread so much – not even that of the devil. We dread the knock of the old nature when it says, Let me in with my corruptions and lusts. Let me reign and have my own way. No, old nature, you were once ourselves, but go your way, for we have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man (Ephesians 4:22). We cannot know you, for one thing we know now that we did not know before – whereas we were blind, now we see.

I do not need to linger any longer upon this point. Let it be enough for me to leave it as a kind of awakening question upon the heart and conscience. There are not twenty things, but there is only one thing you must inquire about. Do you know this one thing of a certainty – that you are not now what you used to be? Do you know that Jesus has made the difference, that Jesus has opened the eyes that were once without sight – that you now see Jesus, and seeing Him, you love Him?

Our third text is Philippians 3:13. There the apostle Paul says, One thing I do.

Please notice that I did not introduce doing first. That would not be right. We do not begin with doing. The one thing necessary is not doing. Coming to Christ and trusting in Him must be first. Not until after you have got the one thing needful, know that you have it, and are conscious that you were once blind but now can see can you be fit to take the next step: One thing I do.

What is that one thing? Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14). It seems, then, that the apostle Paul was completely focused on glorifying God by his spiritual life. He was never content with what he was. If he had a little faith, he sought for more. If he had a little hope, he wanted to obtain more. If he had some degree of virtue, he desired more.

Oh, Christians, never be satisfied with being merely saved. Move up! Move on! Go onward to the high mountains, to the clearer light, to the brighter joy! If you are saved and are brought like the shipwrecked mariner to shore, is that enough? Yes, for the moment it is enough to justify the purest satisfaction and the warmest congratulations, but the mariner must seek a livelihood as long as he lives. He must put forth his energy. He must vigorously seek whatever job opportunities open up before him.

Let it be the same with you. Saved from the depths of sin that threatened to swallow you up, rejoice that you are preserved from death, but be determined that the life granted to you will be active, earnest, vigorous, and fruitful in every good work. Be as diligent as the industrious workers are. Notice that they wake up early in the morning. This man rushes to one place, and that man to another. How direct they speak! How quickly they move about! They will go about their business, and they spare no effort to increase it.

Oh, that we were half as diligent in the service of God! Here we are, wasting away our time. We do not expend all our talents, increase our faith, and enlarge our coast. Why are we so hesitant to go to that great Giver of every good and perfect gift for fresh supplies? Why do we not wait upon Him to be enriched? I wish that we were as diligent in spiritual things as we are in worldly things! Oh, that we were desirous with a holy covetousness for the best gifts God can bestow and the greatest blessings saints can receive!

Paul was anxious to do more good, to get more good, and to be more good. He sought to win souls. He wanted to make Christ’s name known. A burning passion inflamed him, and a soaring enthusiasm inspired him. Tentmaking, it is true, was his trade, but tentmaking did not monopolize all his heart and soul and strength. Does your worldly occupation absorb all your thoughts?

Although Paul was proud of his hard work and could say conscientiously that his own hands ministered to his own needs (Acts 20:34), preaching the gospel was the one thing he pursued as his lifework. He was a workman just as many of you are, but where were his tools? They were close at hand when he needed them. Do you think they ever crept up into his heart? I don’t believe they ever did. For to me, to live is Christ, he said (Philippians 1:21). That was just as true, I promise you, when he was tentmaking or picking up sticks on the island of Malta as when he was talking heavenly wisdom to the worldly wise, addressing the Athenians on Mar’s Hill, preaching about the resurrection of the dead to the Jews, or when he expounded the way of justification to the gentiles. He was a man of one idea, and that one idea had entirely possessed him.

In the old pictures, they put a halo around the heads of the saints. But, in fact, that halo encircles their hearts and penetrates every part of their bodies. The halo of single-minded consecration to Christ should not be around only their heads to adorn their portraits, for it encompassed their entire being – their spirit, soul, and body. It surrounded them and encircled their whole being.

One thing I do was the motto of early saints. Let it be your motto. Beloved, I address you as the saints of this generation. My earnest desire is that you should not come behind in grace or in gifts (1 Corinthians 1:7). When the believers of all ages are gathered together and are counted, may you be found among the faithful and true. If you are not among the first or second class of mighty men and women in the army of the Son of David, yet may you be found to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Our God is a loving Father. He likes to praise His people. Be clear, therefore, about the one thing you need, the one thing you know, and the one thing you do. If so, you will stand well in that day. For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? (1 Thessalonians 2:19). Amen.

Chapter 2

A Distinct Message

I have a message from God for you. (Judges 3:20)

Can there be a person reading this to whom God has never sent a message? This question might possibly startle you. The very thought of the great invisible God sending such a message seems strange and unlikely to you. To me, it is far more surprising that anyone would imagine that He has never done so.

Is He your Creator? Has He who made you launched you forth on the tempestuous sea of life to drift in solitude without compass or guide? We know that He has made you immortal, and is it possible that during that short life that is a preface to eternity, upon which that never-ending period depends – is it possible that He has left you without any sort of communication? Does it seem likely? You call Him Father because He is the author of your being. Can He be your Father and yet have no concern for your well-being? Is it probable that He has never spoken to you or has never sent a message from His great throne to your hearts? How improbable this sounds! Might there not be another answer?

I think that the truth of the matter is that you have been deaf to God’s messages. He has often desired to correspond with you. He has even sent some communications to you, but you have resented and rejected them. Is it not likely that He has often spoken when you have not heard, and that He has drawn near to you and called to you when you would not listen to Him? I think, from the analogy of nature, that this would be the case. It cannot be that God has left the world, but that the world has left God. It is not possible that God has stopped speaking to the soul. Surely the soul has ceased listening to God, acknowledging His messages, or replying to them.

I believe – and I especially address my words to those of you who have not yet received Christ by faith and love into your hearts – I believe that most of you, although still without God and without