Characteristics Of Faith E-Book

C. H. Spurgeon

• Herausgeber: Darolt Books
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Hope messages in times of crisis
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 41

Beschreibung

Characteristics Of Faith is a message of meditation based on the Bible and written by one of the most important Christian writers of all time. A devotional message of faith and hope for you. Charles Haddon (CH) Spurgeon,19 June 1834 - 31 January 1892) was a British Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, among whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers". He was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist, defending the Church in agreement with the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith understanding, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day.

Leseprobe

PREFACE

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (19 June 1834 - 31 January 1892) was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, among whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers". He was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the Church in agreement with the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith understanding, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day.

Spurgeon was pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London for 38 years. He was part of several controversies with the Baptist Union of Great Britain and later he left the denomination over doctrinal convictions.3 In 1867, he started a charity organisation which is now called Spurgeon's and works globally. He also founded Spurgeon's College, which was named after him posthumously.

Spurgeon authored many types of works including sermons, one autobiography, commentaries, books on prayer, devotionals, magazines, poetry, hymns, and more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. He is said to have produced powerful sermons of penetrating thought and precise exposition. His oratory skills are said to have held his listeners spellbound in the Metropolitan Tabernacle and many Christians hold his writings in exceptionally high regard among devotional literature.  

CHARACTERISTICS OF FAITH

“Then said Jesus unto him, Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” John 4:48.

You will remember that Luke, in his letter to Theophilus, speaks of things which Jesus began both to do and to teach as if there was a connection between His doings and His teachings. In fact, there was a relation of the most intimate kind. 

His teachings were the explanation of His doings His doings confirmations of His teachings. Jesus Christ had never occasion to say, “Do as I say, but not as I do.” His words and His actions were in perfect harmony with one another. You might be sure that He was honest in what He said, because what He did forced that conviction upon your mind. 

Moreover, you were led to see that what He taught you must be true, because He spoke with authority an authority proved and demonstrated by the miracles He worked. 

Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ! When our biographies shall come to be written at last, God grant that they may not be all sayings, but that they may be a history of our sayings and doings! And may the good Spirit so dwell in us that at the last it may be seen that our doings did not clash with our sayings! It is one thing to preach, but another thing to practice. 

And unless preaching and practice go together, the preacher is himself condemned and his ill practice may be the means of condemning multitudes through his leading them astray. If you make a profession of being God"s servant, live up to that profession, and if you think it necessary to exhort others to virtue, take care that you set the example. You have no right to teach, if you have not yourself learned the lesson which you would teach to others.

Thus much by way of preface: And now concerning the subject itself. 

The narrative before us seems to me to suggest three points and those points each of them triplets. I shall notice in this narrative, first, the three stages of faith; in the second place, I shall notice the three diseases to which faith is subject; and then I shall come, in the third place, to ask three questions about your faith.

CHAPTER 1

1. To begin, then, with the first point. It seems to me that we have before us FAITH IN THREE OF ITS STAGES.

Doubtless, the history of faith might, with propriety, be divided just as accurately into five or six dif- ferent stages of growth; but our narrative suggests a threefold division, and therefore we stand to that this morning.

There is a nobleman living at Capernaum; he hears a rumor that a celebrated prophet and preacher is continually going through the cities of Galilee and Judea, and is given to understand that this mighty preacher does not merely enthrall every hearer by His eloquence, but wins the hearts of men by singularly benevolent miracles which He works as a confirmation of His mission. He stores these things in his heart, little thinking that they would ever be of any practical service to him. It comes to pass on a certain day that his sonfalls sick perhaps his only son, one very dear to his father"s heartthe sickness, instead of diminishing, gradually increases. Fever breathes its hot breath upon the child and seems to dry up all the moisture in his body, and to blast the bloom from his cheeks.