“Be ready to impart what you know”

spurgeon pageA few weeks ago I had the privilege of travelling around Scotland with four students as the culmination of our class on aspects of Scottish church history. It was a great time, and I hope to comment more on it.

One thing we did was visit several great book shops, chief among them James Dickson Books, with whom I’ve been doing business for quite a few years now. They have a wonderful array of books, and the owner is a wealth of information especially about the Covenanters.

On this visit, when he remembered I am a Baptist, Mr. Dickson wanted me to see some sermon manuscript pages he had from “Mr. Spurgeon.” In the end I purchased the one pictured here. Once home I had it framed at Graves Gold Leaf Gallery where Mr. Graves knows exactly how to handle and preserve old documents.

The page is from the sermon transcription done while Spurgeon preached with his own edits (in purple ink) before it was sent to the printer. That’s fun in itself. But, I like this page particularly for what it says. Spurgeon is preaching on 1 Cor 2:12 and at this page he is enlarging on the point that gospel truths have been “freely given to us of God.” Here is the sermon text from the page:

“He should give himself away because Jesus gave Himself for us. You should be of a large heart, for you serve a large-hearted Christ who has given you all things freely to enjoy. Next, be ready to impart what you know. If the Spirit of God has made you to know the things freely given of God, try to tell somebody else. Don’t act as if you had a patent, or a monopoly and wanted Divine Grace to be a secret. You have not the gift of God yourself if you have no desire that others should have it. The first instinct of a converted man is to try to convert others. If you have no wish to bring others to Heaven, you are not going there yourself.”

Yes! That is what I want to be about in the ministry the Lord has given me. Sharing the truths of God, passing along any understanding I may have, and pointing others to Christ.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *