Gò0dNews for Men
A Blessed Man’s Lasting Legacy
lessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night” (Psalms 1:1-2). Charles Spurgeon lived from 1854-1892. He was raised in a family of preachers. Despite the fact that his parents kept him from gross sin, he still felt the sting of sin and despised who he was early in life. He did not see God as loving and was constantly mindful of his shortcomings. Spurgeon, during this time, found his way to a Methodist church where the pastor was preaching from Isaiah 45:22: “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” You only have to look to the Lord and be saved. Those simple words gripped his heart and thus began a loving relationship with his precious Savior. Salvation was no longer something he had to earn or achieve; he just looked to the Lord and was saved. Spurgeon preached his first sermon at the age of sixteen, and by the age of nineteen, was the pastor of a church in London that became the biggest Baptist church in Great Britain. This church would later become the largest independent church in the world. He preached to over 10 million people in his lifetime. His recorded sermons are an estimated 20-25 million words and sixty-three volumes long. It still stands today as the largest library in the history of Christianity, and that does not even include his books, other materials, and songs he produced. Spurgeon was a man noted for his love for the poor. He started an orphanage and established sixty ministries at his church in London. However, he was also a man of controversy. He preached during a time when Charles Darwin and other academic professionals questioned the validity of the Bible. In response to Darwin, he preached a message in a gorilla suit. His message was about the Gorilla man and the land he inhabits. The media often criticized him for his stance against the great philosophical minds of his time—people either loved or hated him. After over thirty years of ministry, Spurgeon decided it best to sever his ties with the Baptist Union and become an independent church. This ordeal was known
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as the Downgrade Controversy. He felt the church had downgraded the basic fundamental truths of the Bible. There are a lot of historical questions about what exactly happened and how this drama unfolded. I believe he was misunderstood, but through it all, he never let go of his personal faith in Jesus Christ and his love for the Word of God. He was a true picture of the Blessed man described in Psalms 1, who lived by and delighted in the Word of God. It took him twenty years to produce the Treasury of David. I am currently enjoying his book on the Holy Spirit. Would Spurgeon have left such a legacy had he and others not been faithful and recorded it all? God’s words through him and others continue to reach beyond this earthly life and touch our world today. I believe these are some of the major keys to leaving a lasting legacy for God.
About The Author
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by Jonathon Wright
Jonathon Wright currently lives in Cleveland, Tennessee, and has been a member of the Church of God for about twenty years. He is a graduate of Lee University and Beacon University where he earned a BA and MA in Biblical Studies. He loves studying the Bible and has done so for over thirty years, but only now has God given him a desire and the opportunity to be a writer. He is currently beginning the process of writing a book on Genesis entitled, God’s Good Prophetic Plan: From Beginning to End.
