BONUS EPISODE: The Earnest of Heaven (S358)

This delightful sermon on the operations of the Spirit is full, at the front end, of comforts and joys. Spurgeon considers that the Holy Spirit is given as the earnest—the foretaste and guarantee—of heaven to come, and considers what it is about his ministry to us and in us that gives us a true sense of what lies ahead of us as saints. It is a sweet reminder of the spiritual realities enjoyed by the people of God. But Spurgeon is a true evangelist. As well as drawing men to Christ by holding up his beauties and offering his mercies through the Spirit, he also warns men of what it is like to live and die without the Spirit of God. There is a liveliness and an intensity that runs through this sermon: the preacher’s soul is bubbling over as he extols the wonders of redeeming love, and mourns the miseries of those who do not know what it is to have the Holy Ghost dwelling within them.