Of Colchester. A blinding snowstorm had hit the area that particular morning such that only 12 people were able to make it to the building that day. The pastor not being one of them. He couldn't make it through the snowstorm. So, one of the elders happened to be there and he looked around and he realized no one was able no one else was going to be able to preach there that morning. And so reluctantly he stepped to the pulpit and thought, "Well, I better preach the word." And so he opened the word to Isaiah 45:22, which in the King James says this, "Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth."
And with that, this nondescript, ordinary faithful elder of the local church there began to expound upon that text. And as he looked at the dozen people that were gathered there that morning, he preached with all of his might. And then he looked directly at 15-year-old Charles Spurgeon and he said this young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look, look, look. You have nothing to do but to look and live.
And it was at that that Charles Spurgeon repented and trusted Christ. We're doing a series through the cloud of witnesses laid out for us in Hebrews 11. But that's not the only cloud. There are approximately 16 names given to us in Hebrews 11. But the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us extend from the time of scripture all the way until now. There are faithful saints who have lived imperfect lives but faithful to the Lord that serve as an example for us.
And we are not to venerate these people. We're not to put anyone on a pedestal save for the Lord Jesus Christ himself. But God has given us these people in our lives as a as an example for how to live for Christ. In fact, when we come to Thessalonians in the new year, we're going to start in 1 and 2 Thessalonians in January. We will see it over and over again that examples are good for us. Particularly examples that tell us how to live for Christ.
That's why Paul says in first Corinthians, "Follow me as I follow Christ." A person's example is only good in so far as they are showing us how to follow Christ. But when they do so faithfully and well, they give us an understanding of what the Christian life looks like when lived well. And so that's that's what we consider when we are considering the cloud of witnesses. How do we live for Christ as given to us by an example in this person or that person?
We've looked at the life of Abel so far. We've looked at the life of Rahab. And today we're going to look at the life of Charles Haden Spurgeon. We're going to look at a lot of text, so get your Bible turning fingers ready. But before we do that, we want to examine his life in in a thumbnail overview sketch, and then we'll get into some of the particulars. Charles Haden Spurgeon was born in 1834 and died in 1892. He spent his life in England.
He was the eldest son of 17 children. Yep. That's a lot. At age two, he his mother was set to deliver her second child and sent Charles at age two to live with his grandparents where he lived until age six. Well, this proved to be providential because his grandparents were reading constantly and it was there that he heard them read to him a book called the pilgrims progress by John Bunan and Richard Baxter's book called the call to the unconverted.
And so he he began to be influenced by these Puritans. After he came to faith, he was baptized and became a church member. And at age 16, he preached his first sermon. And immediately his preaching gift was recognized. So much so that at age 17, he became the senior pastor of the rural Baptist church in a community called Water Beach. 17-year-old senior pastor.
Bryce, I hear that. This was a community known for their debauchery and their hardness of heart. He ministered there for two years in that church and in that time it grew from 40 members to well over a 100 members. At age 19, he was called to pastor New Park Street Chapel, the most famous church in London at that time. It had a cavernous auditorium, but had been whittleled down to less than 200 attendees due to liberal preaching.
Within a few months of Spurgeon's arrival, there was over 500 people attending. By the end of the first year of his time there, that building was too small to contain the crowds that were coming to hear him preach the gospel. So, the chapel was enlarged. They did an expansion project so that it could seat 1,500 people with a 500 person overflow area for standing room, but that was definitely insufficient. It still could not hold the masses that were coming to hear him preach the gospel.
The streets around that area were blocked with traffic by the masses that were coming. In the midst of all this, he met Susanna Thompson, a member of the congregation at that time, and they were married on January 8th of 1956. And after giving birth to their twin sons less than a year after their marriage, she was rendered a semi-invalid and was unable to attend the church for the remainder of his ministry.
She basically never heard Charles preach after that. And yet he considered her his greatest encourager. Now due to the growing crowds they moved to Exit Hall which seated 4,000 people. It was a famous public building at that time but it was still insufficient to hold the masses that were coming. Many hundreds each week were not able to get into the building because it was simply too small. So at that time they began construction of what became known as the Metropolitan Tabernacle which would become the largest Protestant house of worship in the world at that time.
In the meantime while they were building it they moved to music hall at Royal Suri Gardens. This building seats 12,000 people. But moving there came with a cost. For on October 19th of 1856, the building was packed. A full 12,000 people were there to hear the gospel preached by Charles Spurgeon. And someone in the crowd yelled, "Fire!" Now, there proved to actually be no fire, but panic ensued.
People rushed for the exits and many people died that day by trampling. This ate at Spurgeon and remained with him for the remainder of his days. He would in his later years struggle with health ailments such as gout and kidney disease. He preached his final sermon on June 7th of 1891 and died in on January 31st of 1892 at the age of 57.
At the multiple services that were held for him, the funeral services, over 60,000 mourners came to pay their respects throughout the entire nation of Great Britain. Flags were flown at half mast. Shops and pubs were closed. Someone commented that it was as if a member of the royal family had died. During his ministry, 14,692 people became members of that church. 11,000 people were baptized and Charles Haden Spurgeon personally addressed approximately 10 million people through his preaching.
Now remember this is before the internet. This is before television. This was people who came to hear him preach. In fact, he became known as the prince of preachers. That was his moniker. He authored 135 books. He edited 28 others. More than there are more than 3,800 sermons of his in print, which comprise the largest bound collection of one man's writings in the English language to this very day.
Was he a perfect man? Far from it. Time would fail me to list the flaws in him because he had many as we all do. But the Lord used him in his faith. And so that's what we want to examine now. That's that's the thumbnail overview. There's a lot more we could get into, but that's the basic overview of his life. And we want to look at three areas where he exhibited faith and how it could spur us on. The first area is really for the elders here, but I welcome the rest of you to listen in.
He exhibited great faith in his preaching. Go with me, if you will, to second Timothy chapter 4. In 2 Timothy 4, we read this. Starting at verse one, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.
Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Notice how solemn this charge is. You see it here. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is the judge by his appearing and by his kingdom.
This is a weighty charge. There is something heavy here. This is no small thing. And what's the charge? Preach the word. Preach the word. Declare it. Make it known. When in season and out of season. What does that mean? That means when it's in vogue, when it's popular, and when it's not, you preach it always and you preach it in its totality.
This is the call of God to the man of God to preach the word in its total context, even when it's popular and even when it's not. Now, it's really popular to preach 1 John 4:8. God is love. Boy, that's popular. It's popular to preach John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Praise God for that. But you know what's less popular? To preach the rest of the verses.
Let me go there. John 3:16. Let me read to you 3:16-21. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he does not believe in the name of the only son of God. And this is the judgment.
The light has come into the world and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. That'll preach. But the whole context tells us something significant.
God loved the so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him repenting believing should not perish but have everlasting life. However, should you not repent and should you not believe you are condemned you will go to hell. That's less seeker friendly, but it is still truth. Look at what Paul said in Acts chapter 20. In Acts 20, Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders. He's saying a farewell address to them.
And in the course of that, he says this to them in verses 26 and 27. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole council of God, the whole thing. How is it that he, the the the man of God, the preacher of God, was able to say with a with a clear conscience that he was not guilty of their blood? Because he preached all of it.
I taught all of it. I didn't tiptoe around things. I have heard of churches that have preached Romans 1 and not even talked about homosexuality. You're not preaching the whole council of God then because it's right in the text. We cannot do that. There must have been a temptation for Charles Spurgeon to try to close the back door. You'd think so. Do you know what that means? Closing the back door. When you get people coming in and you go, "Great, we don't want them to leave. We want to keep them here.
So, we'll make sure we'll we'll soft pedal maybe the gospel. We'll soft pedal the teaching. Maybe we'll skip over a few things. We'll major on the majors. And we're not going to talk about the things that make us uncomfortable so that we keep people. This is what leads to compromising churches inevitably. Whereas churches that's keep the back door wide open say we're going to preach the the whole council of scripture.
We're going to preach it in truth and if you leave you leave. We will not shrink from declaring truth. Spurgeon to his credit never veered from that. He preached the whole council of of scripture. In fact, in that passage in in Timothy, we we read there that there is this time coming. It says, I think we can safely say we see it today when people will not endure sound teaching.
They're they won't tolerate it. They won't put up with it. What are they going to do? They're going to accumulate for themselves teachers who are going to give them what they want to hear. To to this to the credit of Spurgeon, he didn't do that. All those people coming and he never veered from teaching the whole council of scripture. In fact, in his book, lectures to my students, a great book. If you haven't read it, encourage you to read it. But in there, here's a few quotes of his about preaching. He's teaching young men how to preach. And he says this, "Sermons should have real teaching in them, and their doctrine should be solid, substantial, and abundant.
We do not enter the pulpit to talk just for talk's sake. We have instructions to com to convey important to the last degree and we cannot afford to utter pretty nothings. Take care that your deliverances are always weighty and full of really important teaching. Do not build with wood, hay, and stubble, but with gold, silver, and precious stones. Your doctrinal teaching should be clear and unmistakable. To be so, it must first of all be clear to yourself. Some men think and smoke and preach in a cloud.
But your people do not want a luminous haze. They want the solid terrairma of truth. Bedrock beneath their feet. That is what people need. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That's how we would have you pray for us as elders. That we would never veer from the teaching of scripture and that we would preach it in its totality. All of it without apology, unvarnished, giving the truth of the word of God. That is our desire. That is our hope. We would ask you to pray for us to that end that we would never compromise that he exhibited faith in his preaching.
I would say he also exhibited faith in his evangelism. Arnold Delmore was doing a a backstory of Charles Spurgeon and he said this about him. Throughout each sermon and especially as he drew to its close, he pleaded with unsaved hearers to believe on Christ and he expected them to do so right there and then. Quite something. Matthew chapter 9 speaks to this. In Matthew 9, right before he sends out the disciples to go forth and minister, he says this to them in 37 and 38, he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." He follows that up in chapter 13 by giving a parable. The parable of the swer. And in the parable of the sewer, listen to what we read starting in verse three of Matthew 13. He told them many things in parable saying, "A sewer went out to sew. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky soil where they did not have much soil or pardon me, rocky ground where they did not have much soil.
And immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some 100fold, some 60, some 30. He who has ears, let him hear. And then later on in verse 18 of that same chapter, he explains this parable. When anyone just picking up in verse 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been swn in his heart.
This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. But and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown swnown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.
He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case 100fold and another 60 and another 30. What is he saying? Take the seed and spread it. Spread it liberally. We are not to be the ones who look at a person and go, should I give the person the seed of the gospel or shouldn't I? Yes, the answer is yes. Give them the gospel. Give it to everyone. Spread the seed everywhere. The Lord does the saving. We are to be faithful to give the gospel.
This is a critically important thing. Faith comes from hearing. From Romans 10 says they need the people of God need to and and the people who aren't of God all need to hear the gospel. The seed should be spread liberally by us. It is not our call to curate who we will tell and who we won't. It is our call to tell everyone. In Isaiah 52 in that passage that was read to us earlier by Travis. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.
We read it also in Romans 10. Spurgeon once said this and famously he said, "I take my text and make a beline to the cross." So should it be not only from the pulpit but from us as believers when we're talking with our unsaved family members, our friends, our co-workers that we make a beline to the cross in our conversations helping people understand their need for Christ. This ought to be the heart of each of us.
But it can it takes faith. We are in a world that is increasingly hostile to the gospel and particularly hostile to the exclusivity of the gospel. If we were to come to people and and if we were to preach a message that says here's the message of the gospel. If you believe it, great. If you don't, so be it. It's up to you. And there's other ways that you could be saved. This is just what we think. If we preach that kind of message, the world would love it. They would say this is wonderful.
But when we come with the truth and we say no, you cannot be saved any other way. You will go to hell lest you repent and believe there's only one way to be saved. It is through Jesus Christ. You must die to self and live for Christ. That is the only way and there is no other way. All of these other faulty religions and cults, they will perish in their sins and go to a Christless eternity. You must repent. That message is not loved by the world. Pastors are being gunned down.
Churches have gunmen coming into them. P churches are being lit ablaze. We saw more churches on fire in the United States again this past week. This is the reality of needing faith in evangelism to trust the Lord to trust his word to trust what it says in Romans 1 where it says I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Do I believe that this is true? Do I have faith that this is true? That the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. If we believe that, we should go forth regardless of the terror that it may ensue. I'll let you in on something, and I'm sure Pastor Bryce could probably agree with this. In the years when I have stepped up at the end of our live nativity, we do in the parking lot here, and you step up at the end and give the gospel. And I've tried to be very clear about it because in our parking lot is often four or 500 people, most of whom don't know the Lord.
I don't know who's in that audience. I don't know what they're going to do to me. And with every passing year, it's gotten a little more fearful in my heart because I don't know if they're going to come at me. That's the world we live in. But they're dead in their sins and they need Christ. We must be willing to give the gospel to a dying world. And so may it be that we would be found faithful in bringing the good news of Jesus without alteration to a dying world requires faith.
One of the thing I would say was modeled for us in terms of faith in the life of Charles Haden Spurgeon is perseverance. In order to be a faithful servant of God, it's going to require some steadfastness to press on. And and there will be hurdles that we'll need to endure as we work our way to the finish line of this life. And Spurgeon's life, the biggest hurdle he faced was what became known as the downgrade controversy. Here's what happened.
In the late 1800s, the free church denominations across England wanted to work together and set aside differences so that they could have a faithful gospel witness. And so that meant we are not going to preach and teach on matters of pretty important doctrine. We're going to set virtually everything aside. We're only going to talk about the resurrection and pretty much nothing else. And so we're going to set everything aside so that we can link arms and sing kumbaya and be united all in the name of unity.
Charles Haden Spurgeon was the lone voice saying, "Hold on, guys. This is going to end badly because you're going to compromise on truth." And over time, he was proven correct. These free denominations that came together and set aside sound doctrine for the sake of quote unquote unity acquiesced on things like the inherency of scripture. They would go on to teach that it's not necessary to believe in the deity of Christ in order to be saved and on and on and on.
They gave in on core matters of doctrine in the name of unity which ends up being honestly a false unity. And Spurgeon had the eyes to see that. And he said, not only did he say, "I won't be part of it." He spoke and taught against it. He was imploring them not to do this. He was imploring them to stand firm on sound doctrine. And he didn't. Or they didn't. And but he was proven right. But in the moment, in the moment, he was chastised. He was maligned.
These churches, many of them took out articles in the local newspapers to lambaste him for being so altogether uncharitable and so altogether unkind. Why doesn't he just work with us? Why doesn't he be ecumenical? Why isn't he more like us? And so when for for standing up for truth, his name was dragged through the mud for years. Now, our Lord Jesus went through this. Go with me to John chapter 6.
Now, if you read John 6 in its entirety, you can see there some difficult teaching. In fact, to this day, there are those who struggle in churches with what's taught in John chapter 6. Jesus did not sugarcoat the truth. He gave it to the people. And starting I'm going to pick it up for you in verse 60 after a lot of this teaching has already happened. This is what we read. When many of his disciples, notice this.
These are people that would have claimed to be his own disciples. There was this large group of people that were following Christ that would have even claimed to be followers of his his disciples. Even when his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this?" Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit who gives life.
The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are the spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him. And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the father." After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. He was telling them, "No one will come to faith in Christ unless God draws them, unless God opens their eyes.
They're not coming on their own. The flesh is of no help at all. You need the spirit of God to open your eyes, to quicken you in order to believe. This was a teaching that even to this day people struggle with. And many of those who claimed to be his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. They left him. He was alone. It's a lonely thing. And for the follower of Christ, for those who are those who would say, "Yes, I am a disciple of Christ and be a faithful follower of Christ," they should expect the same thing. If you are a follower of Christ and you expect the world to universally love you, you haven't read the same Bible I have read.
John 15, listen to what we read here. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples in the upper room. He says this, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world and but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And it goes on from there. Those who are followers of Christ will face persecution. Someone once said the bumper sticker should be created that says follow Jesus. It could end badly in this world, but not for eternity. But it takes perseverance. In 1 John 3:13, it says there we should expect that the world will despise us. And not only the world out there, but even the evangelical world.
This was Spurgeon's controversy with those who claimed to be believers, with those who were part of the church. Jesus here in in John chapter 6. This was those who claim to be his disciples. It's not just the world out there. It's even in within the church where when we stand for truth, we should expect some controversy at times. Unless you think that this is a 1800's issue. It's still happening today. In 1994, which I know for some of you might seem like that's way long ago.
It's in my lifetime, people. 1994, the ECT was signed. Unless you don't know what the ECT is, it stands for Evangelicals and Catholics Together. This was a declaration that now we are one Christian church. That there's no longer any division. We are one. We're all pulling in the same direction. We all have the same beliefs. This was signed by prominent Catholic Richard John New House or John Richard New House, pardon me, and Ji Packer and Chuck Coulson among many others.
The larger evangelical church basically came together to say, "We have no differences. Yay. We're all pulling in the same direction." Two men stood up and said, "Hold on. Not only are we not signing it, we're going to teach directly against this because this is wrong. We don't even have justification together, let alone other things. We are nowhere close to being together." The two men, RC Sprru, John MacArthur, they were the lone voices standing up and saying, "This isn't right."
And they were chastised for it. They were maligned. They were dragged through the mud. But they've been proven to be true. They were proven to be correct. It requires perseverance to stand for God's truth. Because not only will the world mistreat you, at times even the evangelical church will mistreat you. So what gives us the impetus to press on to endure in such a situation?
Well, go back with me if you will to John chapter 6. So in verse 66, let me read that verse again. It says after this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So this large group leaves and then Jesus said to the twel do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God. Praise God for that. That's what needs to anchor our soul. Where else are we going to go? Jesus is the author of life. He is the giver of life. We have believed based upon all that has been revealed to us that the only hope we have is found in Christ Jesus the Lord.
And so may that anchor our hearts. Faith as remember from Hebrews 11, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. And if we have such faith in the saving work and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can by his enabling power press on. We can press on in biblical preaching, in evangelism, in perseverance for his name's sake, knowing that one day we will be home with him and Lord willing, hear the words we long to hear. Well done, good and faithful servant.
He is worthy of all praise. The love of God anchors us to him. And may we never drift from that. So, Father, I I pray that you would give us such a heart that we would not ever compromise the truth that by faith we would believe that the word of God is given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and it is inherent and without fail without fail that we can trust the word in its totality. Help us to preach it.
Preach all of it. Not skip over the the difficult parts, but Lord, help us to be faithful in that because you're faithful. We pray that we would cling to you no matter what storms may be upon us from larger culture or even within the walls of the evangelical church. May we be found faithful to the goodness and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
