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The sermon presents the prosperity of the church at home and the progress of missions abroad as closely connected under God’s providence. A healthy church consists not merely of large numbers or financial support, but of converted members, sound doctrine, holiness, unity, prayer, and active obedience. Each believer’s spiritual condition contributes to the church’s collective witness, and inconsistency can obstruct the gospel. Spurgeon closes with a solemn appeal both to Christians to labor for the salvation of others and to the unconverted to repent and believe before it is too late.
Theological center: God builds and preserves his church by grace, and he uses spiritually vital, united, holy believers as instruments for extending the gospel and bringing sinners to salvation.
Applications: Cultivate a Healthy Church · Preserve Christian Unity · Pray and Work for Missions · Use Personal Influence for Salvation
Primary texts: Psalm 147:14-15 · Psalm 147:2 · Ephesians 5:30
ON BEHALF OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY “He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.” Psalm 147:14-15 PARDON me, my brethren, if I attempt no exposition whatever of the text, but simply endeavor to address you upon what I think is an inference from it, or at least a reflection to which it might readily give rise. The psalmist is here describing the prosperity of Jerusalem, and he connects that prosperity with the progress and diffusion of the Word of God. He is teaching us I think this great truth, that there is an intimate connection between the establishment and the building of our Zion at home, and the going forth and the spread of God’s Word abroad, both in the provinces of our own land, and throughout the regions of the world. Our own churches must be in a prosperous state. As the second verse has it—“the Lord doth build up Jerusalem,” we may then rest assured that “He will gather together the outcasts of Israel.” If there be in the churches of our own highly-favored land a healthiness of spirit and an abundance of the grace of God, we need not fear but that all our operations will be carried on with success. God shall greatly crown our endeavors, and give us to see our heart’s desire. If this be not precisely the critical meaning of the text, then let me just say I shall use it in this sense as a motto. The subject of this evening’s discourse will be the connection between a healthy church at home, and the increase of the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. First, let me very briefly advert to the main points which constitute a healthy state in the church of Christ. Under what conditions should we be warranted in applying to it the glowing description of this psalm—“He hath blessed thy children within thee; he maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of wheat.” When we have described this healthiness, we shall proceed to show the connection between this and the sending forth of God’s commandment upon earth—the running swiftly of His Word, and then we shall conclude by pushing this principle home to the necessary inference. I. First then, WHAT ARE THE POINTS WHICH CONSTITUTE THE HEALTHINESS OF THE CHURCH AT HOME? To begin with the most important—the true piety of all her members. A church can never be in a sound and satisfactory state for labor, she never can be in such a condition that God can smile upon her complacently, if she be mixed up with the world, if her sons and daughters be not sufficiently dist…