Four Lessons from the Conversion of Charles Spurgeon

Providence Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Amen. Well, I'll be honest, tomorrow's date is sort of driven what

00:29

I want to speak about tonight. Tomorrow, of course, as you know, is

00:35

January 6th and I'm going to speak to a more, well, not more, a topical message tonight.

00:46

January 6th is, honestly, it's a day that more churches should talk about,

00:55

I believe. The day itself was a terrible day.

01:01

You could even say the day changed the nation.

01:08

And of course, I'm speaking about January 6th, 1850. I don't know what other

01:15

January 6th you would think I would stand up here and talk about. But it was on this day that a 15 -year -old young man, the day

01:25

I said was terrible is because that day there was a terrible snowstorm in England. And this man had planned to go to church with his father.

01:35

And the snowstorm was so bad that he was unable to go to the church where he wanted to.

01:41

And God's providence directed him down to a little primitive

01:48

Methodist church. And in this church, there was probably a room even maybe smaller than this, and he sat down and the snowstorm was so bad that the pastor didn't even show up, couldn't show up.

02:09

So a man in the congregation stood up, basically, I guess, who else was going to do it?

02:16

It had to be this man. He stood up. He opened his Bible. He came to the pulpit.

02:23

He opened his Bible to Isaiah 45, 22, which my translation says, turn to me and be saved.

02:30

All the ends of the earth, for I'm God and there is no other. But his translation said, look to me and be saved.

02:37

All the ends of the earth, for I'm God and there is no other. And this man preached.

02:44

It has been said maybe 10 minutes and he wasn't a very good preacher. It has been said, but he kept telling the young man that was sitting in the congregation, look to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ.

02:58

And it was on that day that that young man, 15 year old Charles Haddon Spurgeon was converted.

03:07

And so I think January 6 is a day that churches should talk about and we should talk about the conversion of Spurgeon.

03:15

And tonight I do have a topical message, but I have four lessons that I think we can learn from his conversion.

03:23

And I hope that you find it encouraging to you and challenging even. And something to think about as you walk away this evening.

03:31

Would you stand with me? And we're going to read for our text Isaiah 45, 22, the very text that.

03:39

Well, what would it be? One hundred and seventy four years ago, one hundred and seventy four years ago tomorrow, the very text that was preached and Charles Haddon Spurgeon came to Christ.

03:57

Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am

04:02

God and there is no other. Let me pray. Father, we thank you for your word.

04:10

We pray, God, that it would be effectual. We pray,

04:17

God, that it would encourage our hearts. You'd help us tonight with it, challenge us, encourage us.

04:25

We think, Lord, you've even used Spurgeon in my life in many ways. Even we could say without really knowing that a lot of people not knowing, but Providence Baptist Church is growing and strengthening because of Spurgeon's influence.

04:40

And so we thank you because we know ultimately it's not Spurgeon, it's Christ and that you, oh, God, have used him.

04:46

And so encourage us tonight. And we pray that you'd use this for the edification of his church.

04:52

In Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. If I was just going to give you a quick exposition of the verse,

05:03

I might say, number one, the me of salvation turned to me. Look to me. That me is

05:09

Christ. We know that in the context of Isaiah 45, it is Yahweh speaking.

05:15

But don't forget that the gospel that we preach is Yahweh's gospel. That Yahweh is one

05:21

God in three persons. And that he took on flesh in the person of Christ, born of the

05:27

Virgin Mary, fulfilled all righteousness, obedient to the law of God, died on the cross for sinners under the wrath of God, and rose again.

05:36

And so when the text says turned to me, it means turned to Christ.

05:41

The me of salvation. Secondly, I might say, the means of salvation. And the means here is turning.

05:49

Or I know that King James says look. The word's probably better translated turn.

05:55

But either way, you have the idea of the means of salvation. It's not enough that Jesus Christ lived, died, rose again.

06:03

There needs to be a moment in our lives that we receive this, right? We must look to Christ to be saved.

06:12

We must turn. Turn what? Turn away from the world. Turn to Christ. Now, it's not that we clean ourselves up and come to Christ.

06:21

This is very, very important. In fact, you can read about the Scottish Merrill controversy and all that kind of stuff.

06:27

And we want to be careful with our language. But when we say turn, we're not saying that you repent enough and then

06:34

Christ will receive you. We're saying that as you come to Christ, you're turning away from sin and self and you're turning to Christ.

06:41

You're looking to Christ. You're receiving Christ. You're believing on Christ. This is the means of salvation.

06:50

And then thirdly, I might mention the measure of salvation. Turn to me and be saved. And what does the text say?

06:57

All the ends of the earth. How far does salvation stretch? How far can salvation be measured?

07:05

How far does salvation go? The text says to all the ends of the earth.

07:11

In fact, we're a fulfillment of this prophecy, aren't we? You ever thought about that? Sometimes we're so me -centered and centralized that we forget that when this prophecy was given, the ends of the earth, that's us.

07:23

I know Alex believes that. Perry County is the ends of the earth. I knew that, right? But you understand that we're part of this fulfillment.

07:32

So the measure of salvation is all the ends of the earth. There's the one message, the one gospel that we have.

07:38

The good news of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That's the message we take to the ends of the earth.

07:45

Now, for I am God and there is no other. There's no salvation in anyone else.

07:51

Some have said of this passage that it is both wide and narrow. It's wide in the sense that any sinner is included.

07:59

It's narrow in the sense that the only way to get to God is Christ. Turn to Christ, Christ alone.

08:09

We take the Lord's Supper tonight. It's not the Lord's Supper. It's not your baptism. It's not how much money you give.

08:15

It's not your joining this church. The only way of salvation, the only door of salvation is

08:20

Christ. Now, when we think about Spurgeon's conversion, I have four points that I want to encourage you with.

08:31

As I said, again, this is topical. Four points to encourage you with that I think we can learn surrounding his conversion.

08:42

The first is the persistence of godly impressions.

08:48

Number one, the persistence of godly impressions.

08:54

Now, Spurgeon attributes his conversion to a specific date.

09:01

January 6th, 1850. He was born in 1834, June 19th, 1834.

09:09

And so he was 15 on January 6th. He would turn 16 later that year. That is his time that he was converted.

09:17

Now, we believe conversion itself is a moment in time. Regeneration is a moment in time.

09:24

When you first put your faith in Christ turning from sin, it's a moment in time.

09:30

But here's something that we need to know about Spurgeon's life that I want to encourage the saints of Providence Baptist Church.

09:36

The persistence of godly impressions. You understand that when Spurgeon said hearing that gospel, that was not actually the first time that he heard the gospel in that church.

09:48

Well, it was the first time he heard it in that church. But it wasn't the first time he heard the gospel. Spurgeon attributes his conversion to that day.

09:57

But he also attributes and credits his mother. His mother was a praying mother.

10:04

His mother would point him to Christ. His mother would continually talk to him about the things of the

10:13

Lord. And he had a godly mother. And he attributes part of his conversion experience and certainly a big part of his

10:20

Christianity to the impressions of a godly mother. There's moms in this room. There's godly mothers in this room.

10:27

Mothers, don't take for granted the impressions that you make upon your children.

10:33

Now, the negative thing I might say is you can make bad impressions, right? But you can also make good impressions.

10:40

Let them know that you're praying for them. Don't just pray silently in your closet.

10:47

But also let your children know, I'm praying for you. I pray for you. I pray that you would know

10:53

Christ. These are the kind of things that Spurgeon's mom would tell him. And these are the kind of things that impacted his life.

11:00

Of course, it's not just his mom. He had a godly father. His dad. Dad's in this room.

11:06

We need to consider that the things that we do make impressions upon our children. This morning

11:11

I mentioned that God loves the corporate gathering of the church more than anything else.

11:16

And I stand by it. And this is true. But also, dads, isn't it important that we gather our families around the

11:24

Bible in the evenings or in the mornings, perhaps, or whenever you do it. But isn't it important that we gather our families around and we lead our families in family worship?

11:35

That's important. Why? Because we're making godly impressions. So, Spurgeon has this one moment in time where he's converted, but then he has all of these moments before that time of persistent godly impressions.

11:51

Time and time and time and time again. I'll mention one more, too.

11:58

He had a godly grandfather. And we could include grandmothers in here, too.

12:04

But from his grandfather, he would read the Puritans. From his grandfather, he learned about Christ.

12:12

Even grandparents have a role in pointing their grandchildren to Christ. So what's one thing we can learn about Spurgeon's conversion?

12:21

The persistence of godly impressions. Number two, something else we can learn.

12:27

The providence of great inconvenience. Number two, the providence of great inconvenience.

12:38

I think about, of all the things that God does, and I think about how sometimes we just don't understand all that's happening.

12:50

I'm gonna laugh. I'm not gonna say this person's name because it would not be appropriate and then I might get in trouble.

12:56

But there is a person in this room who looks at the forecast next Friday and it's gonna snow.

13:01

And this person really, really, really does not want it to snow. Well, they're a

13:07

Grinch, no. Let me say this. Stop looking at her because that makes no sense.

13:14

Let me say this. Sometimes God inconveniences us because he's going to do a marvelous work that we could not even imagine.

13:28

I don't know what Spurgeon's life would have been like had this snowstorm not come in.

13:34

I don't know. You just think about that. You just think about that. The moment before the foundation of the world that God had ordained to save Charles Haddon Spurgeon and he had ordained all these events that came about and he had ordained this snowstorm and this providence, this thing.

13:50

I'm sure people woke up that day. Think about the pastor of that Methodist church. I'm sure he woke up that day and he was frustrated.

13:58

He probably had a great sermon to preach and he was frustrated. He can't even make it to church.

14:03

And yet the very thing that frustrated one believer is the means by which God used to convert someone.

14:12

And I just think that we need to think about the providence of great inconvenience. Frankly, I'm going to tell you this.

14:19

You complain too much. And me too. Me too. We complain.

14:26

Instead of considering that when bad things happen, when frustrating things happen.

14:34

By the way, there's no such thing as mother nature. We know that, right? Hopefully y 'all don't use that in your home. And hopefully if you do, you rebuke each other.

14:42

There's no such thing as mother nature. We have a sovereign God, right? And he is in control of all events, great and small.

14:50

We believe in the meticulous sovereignty of God. From the flat tire to the

14:56

President of the United States to the galaxies and the far reaches of the universe, God is in control of it all.

15:03

To the man in prison, to the man set free from prison, to all of these things, God is in control.

15:09

And sometimes the things that inconvenience us are the very things that God is doing in order to further his kingdom.

15:18

So we learn about the providence of great inconvenience. Thirdly, we consider the power of God -breathed instruction.

15:33

You know what that man got up to do? Everyone's looking around, everyone's considering, well, the pastor's not here, what do we do?

15:44

Imagine if the church that day just said, well, you know what, the pastor can't make it. Let's just sing a few songs and go home.

15:54

But they understood. That primitive Methodist church 174 years, five years ago now, that primitive

16:02

Methodist church understood that it is necessary to preach the word.

16:10

The power of God does not rest upon so many things that churches busy themselves with.

16:21

The power of God rests upon the inspired and infallible word of God.

16:31

I want you to think too how powerful the word of God is. It's important to study.

16:37

And we talked about this last Sunday night. Would you please pray for your pastors as they study? Pray for Pastor Jacob.

16:44

You know, coming up in January, the end of January, the last Sunday of January, Pastor Jacob will be taking over basically a whole day because me and my family will be gone to Founders Conference.

16:56

And so he'll be preaching that morning, preaching that evening, pray for him. Don't get ideas with what I'm about to say,

17:01

Pastor Jacob, but pray for him, encourage him, make sure that he has the time necessary to study.

17:07

But think about this. The power is not in Jacob's study. The power's in the word of God.

17:15

So Spurgeon walks into this primitive Methodist church. How many hours did this man study?

17:22

None. He just got up and he said, well, this is what the Bible says.

17:28

Look to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ. And what did God do? God converted a sinner.

17:35

I'm just saying. We argue sometimes about how long we should be studying. And again,

17:41

I cannot emphasize enough, men of God who are preparing to preach, they must study the word of God.

17:48

I'm not minimizing that at all. But I wonder sometimes if we're so focused on study that we forget the power of preaching comes from God.

17:58

And the power in preaching is the word of God. We can study ourselves.

18:04

I think about, I won't say his name because I don't want his name to even taint our YouTube channel. But I know of a man who could preach some of the most polished sermons.

18:15

Who could preach alliteration after alliteration after alliteration. Who could, you could just marvel at his preaching and just be encouraged and he would slap the pulpit and you'd just say, wow, wow, what a preacher.

18:28

And he would say, spend this amount of time studying. And those are the things he would do. And it turns out that for five years, he was having at least in some measure an affair.

18:41

We must be reminded tonight of the power of God -breathed instruction. The power is in the word of God.

18:51

And then fourthly, I will say this. What do we learn from the conversion of Charles Spurgeon?

18:57

The persistence of godly impressions. The providence of great inconvenience. The power of God -breathed instruction.

19:05

And finally tonight, the priority of gospel invitation.

19:12

The priority of gospel invitation. Turn to me and be saved. All the ends of the earth.

19:19

For I am God and there is no other. What would happen if it wasn't

19:27

January 6th, 1850? But it was January 6th, 2025.

19:36

And the next perhaps Charles Haddon Spurgeon walks into an evangelical church.

19:43

I want to know tonight, would he hear the gospel?

19:52

Would he hear the good news of what Christ has done? Would he be exhorted to repent and to look to Christ?

20:03

I'm afraid today that sometimes in our pulpits, there is a lack of gospel priority and sometimes there is a lack of gospel preaching.

20:14

We need to think to ourselves and I hope that I can think back. I hope that Pastor Jacob can think back.

20:20

We can go through our sermons and we could say, if ever this was a snowstorm sermon and Charles Haddon Spurgeon walked in, he would have heard the gospel and been exhorted to look to Christ.

20:31

We need to be reminded of the priority of gospel invitation. And I use that importantly because, see some people think, oh yeah, we have an altar call at the end of the service.

20:42

That's not what I'm talking about. Because an altar call at the end of the service, first of all, it is manipulative in many ways.

20:49

Second of all, it's never commanded or even patterned in the scripture. It's not shown in the scripture, nor is it commanded in scripture.

20:58

So when I say the priority of gospel invitation, I'm saying one thing we learn from Spurgeon's life is that we ought to be preaching the gospel.

21:06

And as we preach the gospel, we ought to invite sinners to look to Christ and be saved.

21:13

So make sense? That's what we see happening in Spurgeon's life and I think that we should learn from that and be encouraged to that.

21:20

And we went on to say at the end of any service, if a Spurgeon walked in, he heard the gospel.

21:26

He heard the gospel and he heard the exhortation to not only know what the gospel is.

21:34

You understand? So I would kind of differentiate the difference between declaring the gospel maybe and preaching the gospel.

21:43

I know that's maybe a little bit of a nuance, but there is a way that we can tell you, I can tell you what the gospel is.

21:49

Jesus Christ lived a perfect life. He died on the cross for sinners and He rose again from the dead.

21:54

I have just declared to you the truth. That's the gospel. But I haven't told you what you need to do with that.

22:01

And so in order to preach the gospel, I need to tell you the facts of the gospel and then I need to tell you what the text says.

22:08

The text says Isaiah 45, 22, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am

22:14

God and there is no other. The response the gospel demands is that you would lay down all other hopes, you would let go of your works, you would turn away from sin and self and you had to believe on Christ.

22:24

Christ is offered to you. Christ is here. You may have Christ, but you must put your faith in Him.

22:30

So we need to tell the gospel and then the response. And this is not done in a shoddy sort of build the service up to this crescendo of we're gonna play 18 ,000 verses of just as I am and you just keep coming forward.

22:46

That's not how it works. The gospel invitation is this, you may have Christ, go to Him, repent and believe the gospel.

22:57

These are the things that we learn from Spurgeon. Spurgeon even said that every text that we preach some, sorry, every text that we preach from, we ought to make a beeline to the cross.

23:09

Or it's been said this way, in every cross, every text, every verse, we ought to hear that we hear preached, we ought to hear the echoes of nails hitting the hands of Christ.

23:22

So this is what we can learn tonight from Spurgeon's conversion. The persistence of godly impressions, the providence of great inconvenience, the power of God -breathed instruction and the priority of gospel invitation.

23:38

Now I don't think that necessarily much of that is revolutionary for us.

23:44

There's probably nothing that you heard in that tonight that you would think to yourself, well, I'm not doing that,

23:49

I've never heard of that. But I hope that all of it and most of it is encouraging to you and it hopefully reminds you that there are reasons that our church does the things that we do.

24:01

And it's because we believe that these things that I've shared with you tonight are biblical. Not just because it's about Charles Spurgeon, it's all about the glory of Christ.

24:09

You think about a man like Spurgeon that God used in a way unlike the vast majority of so many others in our world today.

24:17

And I'm not saying that we need to have a thousand more Spurgeons, although that would be great. We just need faithful pastors, faithful church members who believe the truths that we've talked about tonight.

24:31

Will you believe these truths? And will you rest in the one that Isaiah 45, 22 says?

24:36

Turn to me and be saved. All the ends of the earth, for I am

24:42

God and there is no other. Let's pray. Father, we pray your blessing over the preaching tonight.

24:50

May we be encouraged by it and challenged. Lord, as we prepare now to partake of the

24:56

Lord's supper, we pray we would reflect upon the truths we've heard and we would seek to repent in any areas we need to, rest ourselves in Christ and think about the gospel.