THE VICTORY OF FAITH - FOLLOWUP

What could we possibility learn from a sermon that was preached a hundred and fifty two years ago. Times have changed and people live totally different now than they did then. If that is what crossed through your mind then maybe we should have left the date and name off. LJG said maybe she should have broken it down into parts. Well I can’t honestly ever remember hearing a preacher saying well let’s take a break and we will continue tomorrow. But for the sake of those who like to take things in part, we will break this sermon down and show you what he is talking about and how it very much relates to today.

To begin with Victory in Faith is something that we should all have in our life’s. I am no C. H. Spurgeon, but LJG and I find his teachings very enlightening. I shall try to condense his sermon into a brief explanation. First a little about Pastor Sturgeon:

At the age of 22 after only 3 months of probation, and four years after his conversion, Spurgeon was called to pastorate London’s famed New Park Street Chapel in Southwark. This was the largest Baptist congregation at the time.

Spurgeon would go on to found with William Garrett Lewis the London Baptist Association. Within months of Spurgeon’s arrival at Park Street, his powers as a preacher made him famous. Starting the following year his sermons were published in printed form every week.

At the time of his death he had preached almost thirty-six hundred sermons and published forty-nine volumes of commentaries, sayings, anecdotes, illustrations, and devotions. His style of preaching was of a plain spoken and direct appeal, using the Bible to provoke people to consider the claims of Jesus Christ.

Walter Thornbury wrote in 1897 of meeting Sprugeon..”
a congregation consisting of 10,000 souls, streaming into the hall, mounting the galleries, humming, buzzing, and swarming-a mighty hive of bees-eager to secure at first the best plates, and, at last, any place at all. After waiting more than half an hour-for if you wish to have a seat you must be there at least that space of time in advance .. Mr. Spurgeon ascended his tribune. To the hum, and rush, and trampling of men, succeeded a low, concentrated thrill and murmur, of' devotion, which seemed to run at once, like an electric current, through the breast of every one present, and by this magnetic chain the preacher held us fast bound for about two hours. It is not my purpose to give a summary of his discourse. It is enough to say of his voice, that its power and volume are sufficient to reach every one in that vast assembly; of his language that it is neither high-flown nor homely; of his style, that it is at times familiar, at times declamatory, but always happy, and often eloquent; of his doctrine, that neither the 'Calvinist' nor the ' Baptist' appears in the forefront of the battle which is waged by Mr. Spurgeon with relentless animosity, and with Gospel weapons, against irreligion, cant, hypocrisy, pride, and those secret bosom-sins which so easily beset a man in daily life; and to sum up all in a word, it is enough to, say of the man himself, that he impresses you with a perfect conviction of his sincerity. ”

Spurgeon founded Pastor’s College in 1857 it was renamed after him in 1923.

On March 18, 1861 the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed purpose-built Metropolitan Tabernacle at Elephant and Castle, Southwark, seating five thousand people with standing room for another thousand. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was the largest church edifice of its day and can be considered a precursor to the modern "megachurch." It was at the Tabernacle that Spurgeon would continue to preach several times per week until his death 31 years later. He never gave altar calls at the conclusion of his sermons, but he always extended the invitation that if anyone was moved to seek an interest in Christ by his preaching on a Sunday, that they could come to meet with him at his vestry on Monday morning. Without fail, there was always someone at his door the next day. He wrote his sermons out fully before he preached, but what he carried up to the pulpit was a note card with an outline sketch. Stenographers would take down the sermon as it was delivered, then Spurgeon would have opportunity to make revisions to their transcripts the following day for immediate publication. His weekly sermons that sold for a penny each were widely circulated and still remain one of the all-time best selling series of writings published in history.

Besides sermons, Spurgeon also wrote several hymns and published a new collection of worship songs in 1866 called "Our Own Hymn Book". It was mostly a compilation of Isaac Watts' Psalms and Hymns that had been originally selected by John Rippon, a Baptist predecessor to Spurgeon. What is remarkable compared to most modern practices, is that the singing in the congregation was exclusively acapella under his pastorate. It is noteworthy that thousands heard the preaching and were led in the singing without any amplification of sound that exists today. Hymns were a subject that he took seriously. While Spurgeon was still preaching at New Park Street, a hymn book called "The Rivulet" was published. Spurgeon's first controversy arose due to his critique of its theology, which was largely deistic. At the end of his review, Mr Spurgeon warned:
“ We shall soon have to handle truth, not with kid gloves, but with gauntlets, – the gauntlets of holy courage and integrity. Go on, ye warriors of the cross, for the King is at the head of you. ”

On June 5, 1862, Spurgeon also challenged many paedobaptist ( One who advocates or practices infant baptism.) Christian leaders when he preached against infant baptism in his most famous sermon called "Baptismal Regeneration". However, Spurgeon did build bridges across denominational lines as well. It was during this period at the new Tabernacle that Spurgeon found a friend in James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the inter-denominational China Inland Mission. Spurgeon supported the work of the mission financially, and directed many missionary candidates to apply for service with Taylor. He also aided in the work of cross-cultural evangelism by promoting "The Wordless Book", a teaching tool that he described in a message given on January 11, 1866 regarding Psalm 51:7 "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." This "book" has been and is still used to teach uncounted thousands of illiterate people - young and old - around the globe about the Gospel message.

In the steps of another Christian figure that he admired from a different denomination - George Muller, Spurgeon founded the Stockwell Orphanage, which opened for boys in 1867 and for girls in 1879 and continued in London until it was bombed in the Second World War. This orphanage turned into Spurgeon's Child Care which still exists today.

On the death of missionary David Livingstone in 1873, a discolored and much used copy of one of Spurgeon's printed sermons "Accidents, Not Punishments" was found among his few possessions much later, along with the handwritten comment at the top of the first page "Very good, D.L." He had carried it with him throughout his travels in Africa, and it was returned to Spurgeon and treasured by him (W. Y. Fullerton, Charles Haddon Spurgeon: A Biography).

Additional controversy flared among his fellow Baptists in 1887 with the publication of the "Down-grade" paper which exposed the spiritual decline among the churches. This led to The Metropolitan Tabernacle separating from the Baptist Union to become essentially the largest non-denominational church of the time.

Often Spurgeon's wife was too ill to even leave home to hear him preach. Spurgeon, too suffered ill health towards the end of his life, afflicted by a combination of rheumatism, gout, and Bright's disease. He often recuperated at Menton, near Nice, France, where he eventually died on January 31, 1892. Spurgeon's wife and sons outlived him. His remains were buried at West Norwood Cemetery in London.

William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri purchased Spurgeon's 5,103-volume library collection for £500 ($2500) in 1906. The collection was purchased by Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri in 2006 for $400,000 and is currently undergoing restoration. A special collection of Spurgeon's handwritten sermon notes and galley proofs from 1879–1891 resides at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

God Bless,
rECj/LJG

SOURCE: Wedpedi