Revelation 3.5 and "Eternal Security" (Perseverance of the Saints)

“The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” (Revelation 3.5 ESV)

I was once asked how to justify my belief that I could not lose my salvation in light of Revelation 3.5.  I admit, I was not prepared for the question and looked at the verse trying to figure it out myself.  I knew it was not being applied correctly in my friend's question, but I did not know why.  The full context of Biblical teaching supports the security of a Christian's salvation.  However, this verse was troublesome for me.  I decided to research it and the result is my post. 

Taken alone, this verse does seem to imply that one can lose salvation. First I wish to deal with this verse and then to fit the security of salvation into Biblical context.

Revelation 3.5 discusses the one who conquers and says of him, “I will never blot his name out of the book of life.”  Some have said there are two different books mentioned in the Bible that are similar: the book of life and the LAMB’s book of life.   I do not find this to be a strong argument and will not pursue it.  Another view in keeping with the impossibility of losing salvation once received by grace through faith (Ephesians 2.8-10) is that this verse alludes to something that is a possibility, namely that a Christian's name can be blotted out if Jesus here says He will not blot a name out.

I believe there is clarity to be found when looking at this verse with cultural context mixed in.  The meaning becomes much clearer.

In verses four and five Jesus is talking about those in Sardis who are faithful to Him.  He is not talking about those who are unfaithful.  This is for a good reason.

According to Utley,

“I will not erase his name from the book of life” This is a strong DOUBLE NEGATIVE. When citizens died, their names would be erased from the rolls of their city but God will never erase believers from His rolls. 

This metaphorical phrase “the book of life” is also found in Rev. 20:12–15, where two books are mentioned: (1) the book of life which is made up of the names of God’s people (cf. Exod. 32:32; Ps. 69:28; Isa. 4:3; Dan. 12:1; Luke 10:20; Phil. 4:3; Heb. 12:23; Rev 13:8; 17:8; 20:15; 21:27); and (2) the book of deeds or remembrances which records the deeds of both wicked and righteous (cf. Ps. 56:8, 139:16; Isa. 65:6; Mal. 3:16).(1)

Further, according to Wiersbe,

The promise in Revelation 3:5 (“clothed in white raiment”) would have been especially meaningful to people who lived in a city where woolen garments were manufactured. And the statement about the names being blotted out would also be significant to people in the Roman Empire, where citizenship was vitally important (see Acts 22:24–30). 

Is there a warning here that a true believer might lose his salvation? I don’t think so. It would appear that God’s “Book of Life” contains the names of all the living, the wicked as well as the righteous (Ps. 69:28). Revelation 13:8 and 17:8 suggest that the names of the saved are written in the book from the foundation of the world—that is, before they had done anything good or bad. By God’s grace, they have been chosen in Christ before the beginning of time (Eph. 1:4; see also Matt. 25:34). 

Jesus told His disciples to rejoice because their names were “written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). The Greek verb is in the perfect tense, which means it can be translated (as Kenneth Wuest does in his Expanded Translation), “your names have been written in heaven and are on permanent record up there.” It is not likely that Jesus would contradict Himself in this important matter! 

If the names of believers (the elect) are written from the foundation of the world, and if God knows all things, why would He enter the name of somebody who would one day fall and have to be removed from the book? We are enrolled in heaven because we have been born again (Heb. 12:23), and no matter how disobedient a child may be, he or she cannot be “unborn.” 

As unbelievers die, their names are removed from the book; thus, at the final judgment, the book contains only the names of believers (Rev. 20:12–15). It then becomes “the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Rev. 21:27), because only those saved by the Lord Jesus Christ have their names in it. All the others have been blotted out, something God would never do for any true child of God (see Ex. 32:32; Rom. 9:3). It is a book of life, and lost sinners are dead (Eph. 2:1).(2)

The book of life brought out in Revelation is found at the Judgment in chapter 20: “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. ¹⁵ And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20.12-15 ESV) (3)

The Lamb's Book of life is referred to in Revelation 21.27: "But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life."

Here the book is solely called the “book of life” and only the names of those who are alive in Christ are found in that book.  It was clear in the context of the day since the names of people who died in a city were blotted out of the rolls for their cities.  A Christian’s name cannot be blotted out because he has eternal, forever-lasting, life.  Since a Christian cannot die, his name remains in the book God put together beforehand.

Reading this in a modern culture loses some of the point being made.  This promises believers that they will not die, so their names will not be blotted out.  When the book of life is read their names will be found because they are spiritually alive. Only those found to be spiritually dead will be as those with their names blotted out of the rolls.

*Notice that Jesus already addressed the unfaithful preceding these verses.  He is now directing His statement toward those who are faithful.  This verse (Revelation 3.5) is an encouragement, not a warning.

For Biblical context to support the understanding that salvation is not so fragile that it can be lost, I will look to grace, the blood and promises of the guarantee of an inheritance.

GRACE

I have heard it said that if grace seems fair it is not grace.  This is true.  In our minds if someone acts badly enough they do not deserve grace.  The genocidal mass-murdering rapist who repents does not deserve it and should not be given the opportunity to gain God’s forgiveness.  Hitler should not have been given the opportunity to be forgiven if he repented (there is no evidence that he ever repented and is surely currently paying the penalty for his horrific sin). 

Likewise, the pastor who was saved, served God, fell from the ministry in disgrace and now wallows in self-criticism, a broken family, a destroyed marriage and deep guilt does not deserve God’s grace.  However, this man is covered by grace if he was saved to begin with.  That is so unfair.  However, before you become smug in your Christianity, your salvation is unfair.  You caused a man to die.  It was your fault that Jesus was tortured, mocked, cursed and crucified.  You were guilty, not Him.  That was unfair.

Think of Tom Sawyer.  When Tom took a whipping from his teacher to protect Becky Thatcher, he was an illustration of what Christ did for us.  Though we were guilty, He took the punishment.  However, the punishment was far worse than what Tom Sawyer took for Becky.(4)  Jesus died in brutality because of the wrong we did.  He was not just punished or mocked; He was brutally murdered on the cross in the bloodthirsty fashion the Romans are known for.  When Jehovah’s Witnesses say He was nailed to a stake or a pole they are demonstrating their ignorance of history.

“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, ²¹ so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5.20-21 ESV) (5)

Grace is made up of such a special and unfathomable quality that where sin becomes more prevalent, grace becomes more powerful.  Paul puts it into a negative statement in Romans 6.1-2: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” (ESV)(6)  It is not that grace cannot abound, it is that grace should not be made to abound. In fact, Paul repeats this sentiment a few verses later: “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Romans 6.15 ESV)(7)  He asks and answers to make sure we get it.  Grace is powerful because it was purchased with the blood of Christ.  Grace is not a license to sin; it is the inoculation from the price of sin before God.  We may still sin and feel the consequences of that sin (like the hypothetical pastor I mentioned earlier), but the eternal cost has been paid.  We are saved and still sin, but it is already forgiven and paid for by the blood of Christ.  It is totally unfair.  It is grace.

THE BLOOD

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2.13 ESV)(8)  The blood of Christ is what has reconciled the Christian with God.  We, who have chosen to be enemies of God by our own will are brought into a relationship with the God we have offended.  It cost Him His life- His blood- on the cross.  Hebrews 9.22 says, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (ESV) (9)

To bring about forgiveness once and for all, animal sacrifices (which were practiced under the Law) were not sufficient.  It took the sacrifice of a perfect and spotless lamb to cover someone under the Law, but Jesus came as the perfect and spotless Lamb of God to be the final sacrifice God would ever recognize.  His sacrifice was far superior to any other sacrifice ever offered because He was God in the flesh.  It was more than His royal blood that paid the price; it was His Godhood that made this sacrifice all-sufficient. 

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. ¹¹ And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12.10-11 ESV)(10)

The blood of the Lamb that gives Christians their testimonies and their ability to sacrifice their lives for the Gospel defeats Satan and his evil horde.  The key here is it is the blood of Christ that defeats Satan.  It is that powerful.

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1.19-20 ESV)(11)

THE GUARANTEE

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1.11-14 ESV)(12)

In this verse we see we have a guarantee of an inheritance.  It is not something fleeting; the guarantee is the sealing with the Holy Spirit.  Having been saved, we were also sealed.  Being sealed we are given a guarantee.  What does a guarantee mean?  It means what was promised will happen.  It has been said that a guarantee is only as good as the one standing behind it.  I would submit that if God makes the guarantee (in writing no less!), it is a guarantee you can count on.

“As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. ¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. ²⁰ For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” (2 Corinthians 1.18-20 ESV)(13)

His promises are always met with a yes and a fulfillment in Christ Jesus.  He does not fail to deliver. Never.

Again Paul writes, “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 5.5 ESV)(14)  “This very thing” that Paul mentions is the promise of God that we will pass from our current faulty bodies and into a “heavenly dwelling”, a new, uncorrupted body.  That is part of our inheritance through salvation.

“…but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:

       ‘The Lord has sworn

and will not change his mind,

       “You are a priest forever.”’

²² This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.” (Hebrews 7.21-22 ESV)(15)

Again, Scripture shows that the Triune God has guaranteed our inheritance as part of the better covenant of God’s grace through the blood of Christ.  The maintenance of our salvation is in the hands of God, not in our feeble hands.

In closing, Jude shows that Jesus is our strength in our salvation in the first and last verses of his letter:

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ…” (Jude 1 ESV)(16)

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24 ESV)(17)

When we see that it is all about Jesus and not about us we can begin to understand and appreciate how God’s grace is poured out upon us.  We can be secure in our salvation as we are secure in our God.


Pete Garbacki is a minister with Time for Truth Ministries and Mission.Brasil. Follow him on Twitter @pregador27 or FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/pete.garbacki.

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Footnotes

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^[1] Utley, R. J. (2001). Hope in Hard Times - The Final Curtain: Revelation (Vol. Volume 12, p. 43). Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International.

^[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 577–578). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

^[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Re 20:12–15). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[4] http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/34/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/5449/chapter-20/ (see bottom half of the page)

^[5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ro 5:20–21). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ro 6:1–2). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ro 6:15). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Eph 2:13). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Heb 9:22). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Re 12:10–11). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Col 1:19–20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[12] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Eph 1:11–14). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[13] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (2 Co 1:18–20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[14] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (2 Co 5:5). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[15] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Heb 7:21–22). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[16] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Jud 1). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[17] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Jud 24–25). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Remember Your Leaders: Charles Spurgeon

Soul-winning is the chief business of every Christian minister; 

indeed it should be the main pursuit of every true believer.

 -Charles Spurgeon

A Biographical Sketch[1]

Charles Haddon Spurgeon stands today as one of the greatest preachers and evangelists this world has seen. His gospel-influence in the 19^th century still thunders today through his influence. He preached the central truth of God’s free grace for sinners in Jesus Christ for decades and did so with a burden and fire in his soul not for intellectual pursuit but for the salvation of the lost. Hughes Oliphant Old famously stated “There was no voice in the Victorian pulpit as resonant, no preacher as beloved by the people, no orator as prodigious as Charles Haddon Spurgeon.”[2] He is perhaps known most famously as the “Prince of Preachers.”[3] He found himself bitten by the gracious and unwarranted love of God and did all in his power to make it known by his life. We would do well to learn from this leader in the Christian faith.

Spurgeon was born on June 19, 1834 in Essex, England. He grew up in a devout Christian home with his father as a minister. He was the oldest of seventeen children. However he found himself growing up as one unconverted, even as he was exposed his entire childhood to the truths of the Christian faith growing up with his father as a minister. He stated later in life, “The light was there, but I was blind.”[4]

However God has a way of giving sight to the blind. At fifteen years of Age, on January 6, 1850, Spurgeon found his life utterly transformed. It was a Sunday morning and Spurgeon found himself walking in the midst of a raging snowstorm. To get out of the driving cold, Spurgeon took shelter in a local church in Colchester which was currently holding their Sabbath worship service. He sat in the pew and listened to the lay-preacher expound on Isaiah 45:22, “Look unto Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth.”

“Fixing his eyes on young Spurgeon, he urged: ‘Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.’ Like an arrow from heaven’s bow, the gospel hit its intended target. Spurgeon wrote: ‘I saw at once the way of salvation. Like as a brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me.’ Gazing by faith on Christ, he was dramatically converted.”[5]

A year later, age sixteen, Spurgeon preached his first sermon and at age seventeen he was called as minister to a Baptist church in Waterbeach. It was here in Spurgeon’s early life that his tremendous gift of preaching was recognized. At age nineteen Spurgeon was called again, this time to pastor New Park Street Chapel in London, a historic church, once of profound prominence. He would shepherd these individuals for the remainder of his life.

Spurgeon’s preaching here transformed the lives of thousands. The attendance went from 200 to 1,500 just after a year which in turn forced the sanctuary to be enlarged. The continued increase of those coming to hear the master preacher forced them to leave the restricted space of New Park Street Chapel and worship in Exeter Hall which would hold near 5,000. However even this new space could not keep up with the growing crowd. They were forced to build a new place for worship that would accommodate the growing crowds, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, which was “the largest Protestant house of worship in the world.”[6] In 1861 the Metropolitan Tabernacle was opened and could sit more than 6,000.

Throughout Spurgeon’s adult life he was vehemently zealous for the truth of the Gospel and the preservation of its essential doctrines. This embattled him in many controversies, similar to Luther in his zeal for the Gospel. One such controversy near the end of his life forced his resignation as pastor. Fed up with the growing devaluation of the Scriptures in his time, particularly in the Baptist Union, Spurgeon passionately pled for a return to a posture of reverence toward the Scriptures as God’s word. However others did not share his opinion and he resigned and in the ensuing turmoil passed away prematurely, on January 31, 1892, at fifty-seven years old.

“During his thirty-eight year London ministry, Spurgeon witnessed his congregation grow from two hundred to almost six thousand members. Over this time, he took 14,692 new members into the church…it has been estimated that Spurgeon personally addressed nearly ten million people.”[7]

Spurgeon was a faithful evangelist, preacher, theologian, and leader of the church in England. His wake can be felt today. Here are three examples of his faith for us to take to heart and incorporate into our lives:

The Primacy of the Scriptures

It was the end of Spurgeon’s vocation as Pastor that was defined by his defense of the primacy of the Scriptures as the authoritative revealed will of God for the life of the believer, though he never failed to preach this throughout his years as a minister. Upon the Scriptures rested all of Spurgeon’s efforts:

“For Spurgeon, the Bible was just that, the very Word of God to break the heart and bring the soul before the throne of God, thus bringing them to a redemptive knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon this foundation Spurgeon built his entire theology and ministry.”[8]

The Gospel was central to Spurgeon’s ministry; he was a herald of the good news, and central to the Gospel is its revelation in the Scriptures. They were to Spurgeon an invaluable gift.

And so Spurgeon’s call on his audience was to truly trust and believe in the word of God. As a preacher, he knew that “No man [would] preach the gospel aright who does not wholly believe it.”[9] His aim therefore was to so order the minds of his listeners to see and believe in the capital-A Authorship of the Scriptures.

“This volume is the writing of the living God; each letter was penned with an Almighty finger; each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips…Albeit, that Moses was employed to write his histories with fiery pen, God guided that pen…if I turn to the smooth page of John…the fiery chapters of Peter…if I turn to Jude, who launches forth anathemas upon the foes of God, everywhere I find God speaking; it is god’s voice, not man’s.”[10]

Spurgeon’s resolve for the primacy of the Scriptures in our lives is a call for us to see them as the very word of God and therefore as the greatest instruction, the greatest exhortation, the greatest balm, the greatest knowledge of love that we could ever know. It is worthy then of our time and study. Or in the famous words of Spurgeon himself: “It is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, your blood is bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows from you.”[11]

The Call to Evangelism

The second thing we ought to have impressed upon us from the life of Spurgeon is his obedience to the Scriptures in his resolve to show lost souls that their only hope was in the free grace of Jesus; Spurgeon was a gifted evangelist. He stated that, “Soul-winning is the chief business of the Christian minister; indeed, it should be the main pursuit of every true believer.”[12]

Spurgeon therefore included an appeal to the hope of the Gospel in every sermon he preached. The lost soul was his target as he spoke from the pulpit, the Gospel the arrow, and his voice the bow. He longed for those who did not know Christ to know the joy that he experienced in that Methodist church in Colchester, when the darkness dissipated and light of God’s love in Christ was shed in his heart. His appeal sprang both from a passionate desire for the lost to know Christ and his peace and from a desire to be faithful to God’s call on his life—to proclaim the fullness of the Gospel without reservation.

Spurgeon then “felt that preaching that did not lead to conversions was pointless.”[13] His resolve as an evangelist should lay heavy on our hearts, in a day where evangelism can be avoided and the lost disregarded. Spurgeon’s own conscience spurs us to value those who do not know Christ, to save them from eternal peril.

“I should be destitute of all humanity if I should see a person about to poison himself, and did not dash away the cup; or if I saw another about to plunge from the London bridge, if I did not assist in preventing him from doing so; and I should be worse than a fiend if I did not now, with all love, and kindness, and earnestness, beseech you to lay hold on eternal life.”[14]

The Christian’s Witness

Lastly, Spurgeon’s example would impress upon us the importance of our witness to each other and the world as we represent the name of Christ in our life. We are all—whether pastor, accountant, student, athlete, librarian, teacher, chef, mom—ambassadors for the Gospel if we claim the name Christian. We act not on our own behalf, but upon and for Another.

In Spurgeon’s lasting Lectures to My Students, he addresses those who are discerning and being equipped for pastoral ministry. He says at the outgo that this is their beginning, “True and genuine piety is necessary as the first indispensable requisite; whatever ‘call’ a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry.”[15] While he is addressing students, this foundational exhortation ought to be given to any who claims the name of Christ for all of the Christian’s life is that of ministry. When a Christian opens a door for someone, they do so in the love of Christ. When a Christian serves the poor and homeless, they do so in the name of Christ. But so too when a Christian exhibits road rage, is caught in a lie, or sleeps around, they do so in the name of Christ.

“Take heed, therefore, to yourselves first, that you be that which you persuade others to be, and believe that which you persuade them daily to believe, and have heartily entertained that Christ and Spirit which you offer unto others.”[16]

And so from Spurgeon’s own example as one faithful to the word of God, as one faithful to the call to share the good news with the lost, and as one faithful in living a life above reproach, we have much to remember and imitate from this great man of God.

*     *     *

JT Holderman is Assistant Pastor of Bellevue Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Gap, PA.

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[1] The bulk of Spurgeon’s “A Biographical Sketch” has been referenced from Steven J. Lawson, The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon (Sanford, FL.: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2012).

[2] Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 6: The Modern Age (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 422.

[3] Lewis Drummond, Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1992), 277.

[4] Charles H. Spurgeon, C.H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography, Vol. I:1834-1854 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1899), 98.

[5] Steven J. Lawson, The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon, 5.

[6] Ibid., 8.

[7] Ibid., 17.

[8] Drummond, Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, 624.

[9] Ian H. Murray, Heroes (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2009), 282.

[10] Charles H. Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. I (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1981), 110.

[11] Charles H. Spurgeon, C.H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography, Vol. IV:1878-1892 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1900), 268.

[12] Charles Spurgeon, The Soul-Winner: How to Lead Sinners to the Savior (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963), 15.

[13] Steven J. Lawson, The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon, 84.

[14] Charles H. Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. V (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1981), 21-22.

[15] Charles H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2010), 9.

[16] Ibid., 13.