C. H. Spurgeon _ Grieve not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4-30) скачать в хорошем качестве

C. H. Spurgeon _ Grieve not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4-30)

C. H. Spurgeon _ Grieve not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4-30) Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born on June 19, 1834, in the small village of Kelvedon, Essex, England. He was the first child of John Spurgeon and Eliza Jarvis, a devout Christian couple who raised their children in a strong religious environment. His father, John, was a bi-vocational preacher and businessman, while his mother, Eliza, was a woman of deep piety who nurtured her children’s spiritual lives from their earliest days. Spurgeon’s grandparents also played a vital role in shaping his early religious consciousness. He spent considerable time with his grandfather, James Spurgeon, a Congregational minister in Stambourne. James was a faithful and steady preacher of the gospel who pastored his church for more than five decades. The young Charles absorbed the rhythms of ministry and the devotion to Scripture in this environment. Although he grew up in a Christian family, Spurgeon’s early years were not without difficulty. His family struggled financially, and Charles often described himself as a mischievous and sensitive boy. Yet the foundation laid in his home—prayer, Scripture reading, and the example of faithful parents—prepared him for the profound spiritual encounter that would change the trajectory of his life. Charles Spurgeon’s conversion story has been told countless times, and it remains one of the most remarkable and oft-cited accounts in Christian history. As a teenager, he wrestled with his own sense of sin, guilt, and unworthiness before God. Though he was well acquainted with Christian teaching, he had not yet experienced personal assurance of salvation. On January 6, 1850, a heavy snowstorm forced the fifteen-year-old Charles to take shelter in a small Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester. The regular minister was absent due to the weather, and an untrained layman stood up to preach. His text was Isaiah 45:22: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” The preacher, in plain and simple language, exhorted his listeners to look to Christ for salvation. Spurgeon later described how, in that moment, he suddenly understood the simplicity of the gospel. He realized that salvation was not about striving to be good enough or earning God’s favor but about looking in faith to Jesus Christ alone. He wrote in his autobiography: “I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said, I was so possessed with that one thought: ‘Look unto me, and be ye saved.’ Like when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, ‘Look!’ what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could have almost looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun.” From that day, Charles Spurgeon was transformed. He experienced the profound joy of forgiveness and assurance of eternal life in Christ. This conversion became the central theme of his preaching throughout his life: that salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. After his conversion, Spurgeon immediately developed a hunger for the Word of God. He began reading the Bible with great intensity, often studying for hours at a time. He also devoured theological works, especially those of the Puritans, whose depth of spiritual insight profoundly shaped his thinking. By age sixteen, Spurgeon was already teaching Sunday school and soon began receiving invitations to preach in small chapels. His natural eloquence, powerful voice, and deep conviction quickly drew attention. He had no formal seminary training, yet his sermons displayed a clarity and biblical grounding that astonished older ministers. In 1851, at only seventeen years old, Spurgeon accepted his first pastorate at the small Baptist church in Waterbeach, a village near Cambridge. Under his leadership, the congregation grew rapidly, and his reputation as a gifted preacher spread across the region. It was at Waterbeach that Spurgeon developed the core convictions that would mark his ministry: unwavering commitment to the authority of Scripture, passionate proclamation of the gospel, and a shepherd’s heart for the people of God. By the time he was nineteen, Spurgeon’s preaching had attracted the attention of leaders in London. In 1854, he was invited to preach at New Park Street Chapel, a historic Baptist congregation in the city. The church, which had been in decline, was suddenly revitalized by the young preacher’s sermons. Crowds overflowed the building, and within months, Spurgeon was called to be the pastor.