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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well. - Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice. - Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts. - C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day. - David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk. - Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year. - Carla Rolfe
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The citation for : have you no wish for others to be saved? |
Hello Internet.
Here is a quote you have probably read before:
"Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
You may also have seen it the quote prefixed to a larger paragraph, as though this were the paragraph from which the quote was lifted:
"Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners and his blessed Master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the brave fireman, who cares not for the scorch or the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity has set its heart. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
As it turns out, this paragraph is a hash of three quotes, the above quote, and thoughts snipped out of two different Spurgeon sermons (numbers #284, and #349):
The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners, and love to his blessed Master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the stout, brave fireman, who careth not for the scorch or for the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity hath set his heart. - Charles Spurgeon, One Antidote for Many Ills (Sermon #284, November 9, 1859, see: http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0284.htm)
"...if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for." - Charles Spurgeon, The Wailing of Risca (sermon #349, December 9, 1860 see: http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0349.htm)
The original quote however is taken from a sermon preached by Spurgeon in 1888 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle entitled, "She was not Hid" (see: http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols34-36/chs2019.pdf) and is pulled from the following paragraph:
"But the confession had to be made for the sake of others. Do any of you wish to live unto yourselves? If you do, you need saving from selfishness. I have seen it brought as a charge against evangelical religion that we teach men to look to their own salvation first and that this is a kind of spiritual selfishness. Ah, but if that salvation means salvation from selfishness, where is the selfishness of it? It is a very material point in salvation to be saved from hardness of heart and carelessness about others. Do you want to go to Heaven alone? I fear you will never go there. Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that. What is the most natural plan to use for the salvation of others but to bear your own personal testimony?"
It took me a while to source that, so I figured it would probably be good to provide the citation here, should anyone else be looking to find it.
Grace and peace. |
posted by Daniel @
10:58 AM
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8 Comments: |
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That was one full of wisdom post. I apprciate your study skills Daniel. Another outstanding gift from our Lord to you, and for us.
I was thinking of the different intensity each of us might have in our hearts for others come to Christ. I was speaking with a Salvation Army worker the other day, as he rang his bell next to his donation pot, and I mentioned how William Booth was a man who had such a fire in his belly for souls, that you are standing here and gathering money and are connected to him, who lived over a hundred years ago. This particualr worker wasn't really aware of the history of SA. But it was a pleasant time, and an encouragement to him.
I, myself, have moments of great longing for the lost to be found. But for the most part I don't. Though I want it for sure all the time. And this is of course the Holy Spirit, who cahanged my heart, and abides with me, and in me.
So, I would agree with brother Charles that every Christian must have a tender heart for the lost; even the most vile sinner.
"For, but for the grace of God, there go I."- John Newton (I think)
Thanks Daniel. And a Merriest Christmas to you and your lovely fam! And my Merry is a "Joy to the World! The Lord has Come!", Merry Christmas!
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Don,
In the context of the original quote, Spurgeon was addressing a charge being made against evangelicals at the time, that they were being selfish in looking after their own salvation. Spurgeon notes that since salvation from sin necessarily means salvation from selfishness, the charge was moot. He remarked that it was a quintessential point in salvation to be set free from that hardness of heart and clarelessness about others that attends the unregenerate. Thus, anyone who had (absolutely) no desire to see the lost come to Christ can hardly be called "saved" - for what have they been saved from?
The catch here though is the same catch for all sin, and we must be careful with it, lest we damn those who are not damned. No believer is without sin, so that every believer will be selfish at times. The truth is that even believers, when they are carnal, will not have a desire to see people saved.
Salvation has not (yet) redeemed our sinful flesh, otherwise we would rightly argue that anyone who fails to always desire that the lost be saved, is in fact unsaved, and lo, we would be wiser than angels who themselves are not discerning enough to know who are the tares and who are the wheat.
When I first heard this quote, I trembled before it, because I knew in my heart that my love for the lost is at best halting and beggarly. It is a shame that so many people quote it as an absolute, as though it were the sniff test for true™ Christianity. We should all be so dependant upon our Lord that such selfishness finds no purchase in us, but who among us is consistently so?
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clarelessness? er, I mean carelessness.
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Merry Christmas to you also Don. I looked this one up because I hear it quoted so often in the Arminian camp, and used so often to solicit (what amounts to) an entirely guilt/fear driven carnal effort in people to suddenly love the lost --or else!
That kind of talk sounds great in the pulpit, but has no power to free a man from the same bondage that makes him tremble.
Remembering that Christians are not perfect, but being sanctified, is not meant to excuse our lovelessness, but rather to encourage us when the enemy would use our lack of growth to further pin us down in our immaturity. Knowing that God truly loves us, and learning to walk in that love - trusting in His promises, and circumventing these snares, is the heart and soul of Christian growth.
But I digress.
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"That kind of talk sounds great in the pulpit, but has no power to free a man from the same bondage that makes him tremble."
Got ya. Good word Daniel. I have grown to know your heart over the years, and it's wonderful how you pull out these deep truths from Scripture from your heart as well. Even though our hearts are desperately wicked, we are indwelt with God the Holy Spirit of comfort and peace and joy and love.
Thanks for edifying me Daniel.
And I look forward to one day being in heaven with you, and all my other comrades in Christ, and we can all gaze upon Jesus, and enjoy Him forever and ever without sin anymore.
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Wow, thanks for this. I will certainly be referencing this often when I see Spurgeon being quoted. It seems there are some folks who quote these exact snippets as if to say anyone who isn't on the street corner preaching every night is in some kind of danger. I love our evangelist friends, but not all have been called to be evangelists.
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it's 2021 and i've come across these posts, actually almost in tears, as i remembered this exact post by Spurgeon. There was a time that i had this desire for the lost - it was right when the LORD saved me. and something has happened that bound me in the fear of men. I know, when i fear men, i don't fear GOD - i guess that's a famous quote as well. Due to the fact that I once had this desire to see people saved and now somehow no longer, already gives me the impression that I seem to have probably shipwrecked in my faith myself. I wonder what happened along the way.... i seem to be lukewarm; and JESUS said HE will spit those out that are lukewarm. So, HE will spit me out. Even this doesn't cause something like panic within me! I must be cold hearted and numb as one can be. and no, please don't say 'the fact that you are thinking about these things, proves that you're not!' i believe this is nonsense. the fact is that i feel i'm lukewarm, i feel and see that i don't do the things one should do if he's saved... well, i guess i just wanted to get these thoughts off my shoulder somewhere...
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Anonymous
Thanks for posting.
In 2 Tim, Paul thanks God for Timothy's sincere faith - a faith Paul writes, that was in both Timothy's mother and grandmother. I ask myself why Paul mentions the sincerity of Timothy's faith, or that this same faith was likened to the faith of others in Timothy's life?
I think the answer is found in the verses that follow - where Paul encourages Timothy to stir up the gift that is in him. Generally, we don't tell people to stir something up, unless we have a reason to believe it is stagnant. From the salutation - it seems Timothy was struggling in his faith and that this struggle was choking out the gift that was in him. Paul doesn’t chastise Timothy for such a struggle, but rather encourages Timothy to rekindle the gift that was in him. Remember the woman who as sick for 18 years, bound up by a spirit we are told (Luke 13) such that she was bent over doubled and couldn’t straighten herself out?
Your situation sounds similar to my ears. You once walked well, but for years now you’ve been hobbled, and feel like you can’t be free from it. If it was a spirit that kept this woman bound up like this – it could well be a spirit that has you in bondage – maybe your bondage isn’t physical – but it is certainly a kind of bondage.
Our Lord's response to that woman who endured 18 years of bondage is instructive:
"You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath Day?"
Aren’t you in a kind of bondage – spiritual bondage? I commend you to appeal to our Lord who sets the prisoners free. Not as a beggar coming for a crumb, but as a son seeking freedom from a bondage that is more powerful than you are. Humble yourself before God – that means to submit yourself to His rule, to the point that you view yourself as having no “right” to disobey God, or to act on your own desires. If you believe that God is God, and that His way is right and good. Then you ought to walk in that same way for the same reason.
I hope you overcome this.
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That was one full of wisdom post. I apprciate your study skills Daniel. Another outstanding gift from our Lord to you, and for us.
I was thinking of the different intensity each of us might have in our hearts for others come to Christ. I was speaking with a Salvation Army worker the other day, as he rang his bell next to his donation pot, and I mentioned how William Booth was a man who had such a fire in his belly for souls, that you are standing here and gathering money and are connected to him, who lived over a hundred years ago. This particualr worker wasn't really aware of the history of SA. But it was a pleasant time, and an encouragement to him.
I, myself, have moments of great longing for the lost to be found. But for the most part I don't. Though I want it for sure all the time. And this is of course the Holy Spirit, who cahanged my heart, and abides with me, and in me.
So, I would agree with brother Charles that every Christian must have a tender heart for the lost; even the most vile sinner.
"For, but for the grace of God, there go I."- John Newton (I think)
Thanks Daniel. And a Merriest Christmas to you and your lovely fam! And my Merry is a "Joy to the World! The Lord has Come!", Merry Christmas!