Baptist pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon is remembered today as the Prince of Preachers. But in addition to his sermons, he regularly reading a Bible passage before his message and gave a verse-by-verse exposition, rich in gospel insight and wisdom for the Christian life.
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Sample: 1 Peter 1:1-5
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1 Peter 1
1. Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ. It must have been very pleasant to his heart to write those words—not “Peter, who denied his Master.” Not, “Peter, full of imperfections and infirmities—the impetuous and changeable one of the twelve,” but, “Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ,” as truly sent of God as any of the other Apostles and with as much of the Spirit of his Master resting upon him! “Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ”—
1, 2. To the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. You might go for fifty years to some places of worship and never hear the word, “elect,” ever mentioned! Modern ministers seem to be ashamed of the grand old doctrine of election, but it was not so with the Apostles and the early Christians! They were accustomed to speak of one another as the elect of God. The doctrine of election was most precious to their hearts and, therefore, Peter writes, “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father”—
2. Through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. We not only need grace, but we need much grace! And also peace. And we need a greatly increased measure of both those blessings. Do not be satisfied, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, with the grace that you already have. Be thankful for it, but ask for the Divine multiplication of it—regard the grace which you have already received as being like the boy’s loaves and fishes—and expect that Christ will continue to multiply it for you and for thousands of others round about you! “Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”
3-5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in Heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. What a vast mass of meaning is packed away in these words! Men’s books, even when they are good, are like gold-leaf—a little precious metal is very thinly hammered out so as to cover a wide surface—but almost every Word in the Bible seems to contain a whole mine of heavenly wealth! Note, Beloved, what Peter says concerning your new birth—you are begotten by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! At your first birth, you were born in sin. But now you have been born-again, through grace, by the almighty power of God! Notice, also, unto what you are born—unto a hope that is full of life, a lively hope, a hope of immortality, a hope whose root is in the grave of Christ, the empty grave from which He has risen and which is the assurance that because He has risen, you also shall rise. See, further, to what you have been born—“to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away.” See, also, how that inheritance is entailed upon you, for it is “reserved in Heaven for you.” And see, too, how you are kept for it, for you “are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
