Randy Alcorn - We Shall See God: Charles Spurgeons Classic Devotional Thoughts on Heaven

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We Shall See God: Charles Spurgeons Classic Devotional Thoughts on Heaven

Copyright 2011 by Eternal Perspective Ministries. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph copyright Iakov Kalinin by Shutterstock. All rights reserved.

Designed by Jennifer Ghionzoli

Edited by Stephanie Voiland

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible , English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible , King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NKJV is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Alcorn, Randy C.

We shall see God : Charles Spurgeons classic devotional thoughts on heaven / Randy Alcorn.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN 978-1-4143-4554-3 (hc)

1. HeavenChristianityPrayers and devotions. I. Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon),

1834-1892. II. Title.

BT846.3.S68 2011

236.24dc22 2010054407

To my sons-in-law, Dan Franklin and Dan Stump

What a joy and privilege to have entrusted, ten years ago,

our precious daughters, Karina and Angela, to the lifelong care

of two godly men who seek to honor our Lord Jesus. Nanci and

I couldnt be happier with the fathers of our treasured grandsons, Jake, Matthew, Tyler, and Jack! As lovers of the deep things of God,

I hope you both will profit from the insights of Charles Spurgeon

Ive enjoyed assembling for this book. I look forward to our friendship and fellowship in the days ahead, and eternal Christ-centered adventures on Gods New Earth. I anticipate that someday we will sit down together at dinner with King Jesus and Spurgeon and many others and have some incredible conversations!

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Spurgeon-lover Diane Meyer for long ago helping me compile some of Spurgeons sermons on Heaven. Thanks to Steve Tucker, Doreen Button, Stephanie Anderson, Nanci Alcorn, and Kathy Norquist for their keen editorial input. Thanks to Bob Schilling for his welcome research assistance and Bonnie Hiestand for help typing and reformatting portions of the book. Thanks to Scott Lindsey and Logos Bible Software for their wonderful complete collection of Spurgeon sermons! Thanks to Ron Beers and Carol Traver and the whole team at Tyndalewhat a joy to work with you. And special thanks to Stephanie Voiland at Tyndale House for her thoughtful and outstanding editing of the submitted manuscript.

Introduction

Who Was Charles Spurgeon?

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born in Essex, England, on June 19, 1834, and after forty-one years as a preacher in London, died January 31, 1892. Spurgeons early preaching ministry took place while the American Civil War was being fought across the pond. He was born a year before Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and died a year before Henry Ford completed the first automobile.

Spurgeon came to faith in Christ at age fifteen, when a snowstorm forced him to take shelter in a Methodist chapel where a service was in progress. There his heart was opened to salvation in Christ. The text that moved him was Isaiah 45:22 ( NKJV ): Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

He preached his first sermon at sixteen and began his work as a full-time pastor at seventeen. Then, starting at age nineteen, he became pastor of Londons New Park Street Chapel. By age twenty he was preaching to crowds of up to two thousand. The biblical depth and theological insight of the messages Spurgeon wrote and preached at that age seem almost unbelievable, yet for one and a half centuries, his words have stood the test of time. Later, upon completion of the much larger Metropolitan Tabernacle, he preached to crowds of six thousand.

No matter where Spurgeon spoke, nearly every seat was filled. When the Metropolitan Tabernacle was being repaired, the church rented the immense Agricultural Hall in another part of London. The hall was filled to capacity each week, with twenty thousand people in attendance to hear him preach. When he spoke at the Crystal Palace, the exact size of the crowd was counted by turnstile: 23,654. And all this was happening at a time when there were no microphones and no public address systems! Imagine the toll it took upon Spurgeon to project his voice so the crowds could hear him, especially later in life when he was frequently very ill.

Four times a year he asked his church members to stay away on a Sunday evening so unbelievers could fill the seats and hear Gods Word.

To say Spurgeons church was ministry minded is an understatement. The Metropolitan Tabernacle stayed open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week, offering not only spiritual training but also many social programs to assist the needy. Additionally, a thousand church members regularly conducted ministry meetings outside the Tabernacle.

Spurgeons impact is inseparable from the faithful laborers of his church. Once, when asked for the secret of his success, Spurgeon replied, My people pray for me.

Though he wasnt college educated, Spurgeon eventually founded, gave direction to, and taught at a two-year pastors college. His book Lectures to My Students reveals that many of his lessons were full of spiritual insights as well as practical ways for students to develop their voices so their congregations could hear them. By 1866 Spurgeons trainees had begun eighteen new churches in London alone. He modeled hard work for his student-pastors and said to them, Ours is more than mental workit is heart work, the labor of our inmost soul.

During his lifetime, Spurgeon founded and maintained sixty-five different institutions, including orphanages, social welfare services, mission groups, and homes for unwed mothers. He also established organizations for distributing literature. He sent people door-to-door to distribute Bibles, Christian books, magazines, and tractsmostly ones hed written. His tracts were widely circulated at Oxford and Cambridge, as well as to individual homes. In 1878 alone, ninety-four of these literature distributors made a total of 926,290 home visits. They didnt simply sell books; they talked about spiritual questions and shared the gospel with the people of London.