A Sermon
(No. 52)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, December 2, 1855, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
"And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life."–John 5:40.
This is one of the great guns of the Arminians, mounted upon the top of
their walls, and often discharged with terrible noise against the poor
Christians called Calvinists. I intend to spike the gun this morning,
or, rather, to turn it on the enemy, for it was never theirs; it was
never cast at their foundry at all, but was intended to teach the very
opposite doctrine to that which they assert. Usually, when the text is
taken, the divisions are: First, that man has a will. Secondly, that he
is entirely free. Thirdly, that men must make themselves willing to
come to Christ, otherwise they will not be saved. Now, we shall have no
such divisions; but we will endeavour to take a more calm look at the
text; and not, because there happen to be the words "will," or "will
not" in it, run away with the conclusion that it teaches the doctrine
of free-will. It has already been proved beyond all controversy that
free-will is nonsense. Freedom cannot belong to will any more than
ponderability can belong to electricity. They are altogether different
things. Free agency we may believe in, but free-will is simply
ridiculous. The will is well known by all to be directed by the
understanding, to be moved by motives, to be guided by other parts of
the soul, and to be a secondary thing. Philosophy and religion both
discard at once the very thought of free-will; and I will go as far as
Martin Luther, in that strong assertion of his, where he says, "If any
man doth ascribe aught of salvation, even the very least, to the
free-will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt
Jesus Christ aright." It may seem a harsh sentiment; but he who in his
soul believes that man does of his own free-will turn to God, cannot
have been taught of God, for that is one of the first principles taught
us when God begins with us, that we have neither will nor power, but
that he gives both; that he is "Alpha and Omega" in the salvation of
men.
Our four points, this morning, shall be: First–that every man is dead,
because it says: "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life."
Secondly–that there is life in Jesus Christ: "Ye will not come to me,
that ye might have life." Thirdly–that there is life in Christ Jesus
for every one that comes for it: "Ye will not come to me, that ye might
have life;" implying that all who go will have life. And fourthly–the
gist of the text lies here, that no man by nature ever will come to
Christ, for the text says, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have
life." So far from asserting that men of their own wills ever do such a
thing, it boldly and flatly denies it, and says, "Ye
WILL NOT
WILL NOT
I. First, then, our text implies THAT MEN BY NATURE ARE DEAD.
No being needs to go after life if he has life in himself. The text
speaks very strongly when it says, "Ye will not come unto me, that ye
might have life." Though it saith it not in words, yet it doth in
effect affirm that men need a life more than they have themselves. My
hearers, we are all dead unless we have been begotten unto a lively
hope. First, we are all of us, by nature, legally dead–"In the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death," said God to Adam;
and though Adam did not die in that moment naturally, he died legally;
that is to say death was recorded against him. As soon as, at the Old
Bailey, the judge puts on the black cap and pronounces the sentence,
the man is reckoned to be dead at law. Though perhaps a month may
intervene before he is brought on the scaffold to endure the sentence
of the law, yet the law looks upon him as a dead man. It is impossible
for him to transact anything. He cannot inherit, he cannot bequeath; he
is nothing–he is a dead man. The country considers him not as being
alive in it at all. There is an election–he is not asked for his vote
because he is considered as dead. He is shut up in his condemned cell,
and he is dead. Ah! and ye ungodly sinners who have never had life in
Christ, ye are alive this morning, by reprieve, but do ye know that ye
are legally dead; that God considers you as such, that in the day when
your father Adam touched the fruit, and when you yourselves did sin,
God, the Eternal Judge, put on the black cap and condemned you? You
talk mightily of your own standing, and goodness, and morality–where
is it? Scripture saith, ye are "condemned already." Ye are not to wait
to be condemned at the judgment-day–that will be the execution of the
sentence–ye are "condemned already." In the moment ye sinned; your
names were all written in the black book of justice; every one was then
sentenced by God to death, unless he found a substitute, in the person
of Christ, for his sins. What would you think if you were to go into
the Old Bailey, and see the condemned culprit sitting in his cell,
laughing and merry? You would say, "The man is a fool, for he is
condemned, and is to be executed; yet how merry he is." Ah! and how
foolish is the worldly man, who, while sentence is recorded against
him, lives in merriment and mirth! Do you think the sentence of God is
of no effect? Thinkest thou that thy sin which is written with an iron
pen on the rocks for ever hath no horrors in it? God hath said thou art
condemned already. If thou wouldst but feel this, it would mingle
bitters in thy sweet cups of joy; thy dances would be stopped, thy
laughter quenched in sighing, if thou wouldst recollect that thou art
condemned already. We ought all to weep, if we lay this to our souls:
that by nature we have no life in God's sight; we are actually,
positively condemned; death is recorded against us, and we are
considered in ourselves now, in God's sight, as much dead as if we were
actually cast into hell; we are condemned here by sin, we do not yet
suffer the penalty of it, but it is written against us, and we are
legally dead, nor can we find life unless we find legal life in the
person of Christ, of which more by-and-by.
But, besides being legally dead, we are also spiritually dead. For not
only did the sentence pass in the book, but it passed in the heart; it
entered the conscience; it operated on the soul, on the judgment, on
the imagination, and on everything. "In the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die," was not only fulfilled by the sentence
recorded, but by something which took place in Adam. Just as, in a
certain moment, when this body shall die, the blood stops, the pulse
ceases, the breath no longer comes from the lungs, so in the day that
Adam did eat that fruit his soul died; his imagination lost its mighty
power to climb into celestial things and see heaven, his will lost its
power always to choose that which is good, his judgment lost all
ability to judge between right and wrong decidedly and infallibly,
though something was retained in conscience; his memory became tainted,
liable to hold evil things, and let righteous things glide away; every
power of him ceased as to its moral vitality. Goodness was the vitality
of his powers–that departed. Virtue, holiness, integrity, these were
the life of man; but when these departed man became dead. And now,
every man, so far as spiritual things are concerned, is "dead in
trespasses and sins" spiritually. Nor is the soul less dead in a carnal
man, than the body is when committed to the grave; it is actually and
positively dead–not by a metaphor, for Paul speaketh not in metaphor,
when he affirms, "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins." But my hearers, again, I would I could preach to your hearts
concerning this subject. It was bad enough when I described death as
having been recorded; but now I speak of it as having actually taken
place in your hearts. Ye are not what ye once were; ye are not what ye
were in Adam, not what ye were created. Man was made pure and holy. Ye
are not the perfect creatures of which some boast; ye are altogether
fallen, ye have gone out of the way, ye have become corrupt and filthy.
Oh! listen not to the siren song of those who tell you of your moral
dignity, and your mighty elevation in matters of salvation. Ye are not
perfect; that great word, "ruin," is written on your heart; and death
is stamped upon your spirit. Do not conceive, O moral man, that thou
wilt be able to stand before God in thy morality, for thou art nothing
but a carcass embalmed in legality, a corpse arrayed in some fine
robes, but still corrupt in God's sight. And think not, O thou
possessor of natural religion! that thou mayest by thine own might and
power make thyself acceptable to God. Why, man! thou art dead! and thou
mayest array the dead as gloriously as thou pleasest, but still it
would be a solemn mockery. There lieth queen Cleopatra–put the crown
upon her head, deck her in royal robes, let her sit in state; but what
a cold chill runs through you when you pass by her. She is fair now,
even in her death–but how horrible it is to stand by the side even of
a dead queen, celebrated for her majestic beauty! So you may be
glorious in your beauty, fair, and amiable, and lovely; you put the
crown of honesty upon your head, and wear about you all the garments of
uprightness, but unless God has quickened thee, O man! unless the
Spirit has had dealings with thy soul, thou art in God's sight as
obnoxious as the chilly corpse is to thyself. Thou wouldst not choose
to live with a corpse sitting at thy table; nor doth God love that thou
shouldst be in his sight. He is angry with thee every day, for thou art
in sin–thou art in death. Oh! believe this; take it to thy soul;
appropriate it, for it is most true that thou art dead, spiritually as
well as legally.
The third kind of death is the consummation of the other two. It is
eternal death. It is the execution of the legal sentence; it is the
consummation of the spiritual death. Eternal death is the death of the
soul; it takes place after the body has been laid in the grave, after
the soul has departed from it. If legal death be terrible, it is
because of its consequences; and if spiritual death be dreadful, it is
because of that which shall succeed it. The two deaths of which we have
spoken are the roots, and that death which is to come is the flower
thereof. Oh! had I words that I might this morning attempt to depict to
you what eternal death is. The soul has come before its Maker; the book
has been opened; the sentence has been uttered; "Depart ye cursed" has
shaken the universe, and made the very spheres dim with the frown of
the Creator; the soul has departed to the depths where it is to dwell
with others in eternal death. Oh! how horrible is its position now. Its
bed is a bed of flame; the sights it sees are murdering ones that
affright its spirit;. the sounds it hears are shrieks, and wails, and
moans, and groans; all that its body knows is the infliction of
miserable pain! It has the possession of unutterable woe, of
unmitigated misery. The soul looks up. Hope is extinct–it is gone. It
looks downward in dread and fear; remorse hath possessed its soul. It
looks on the right hand–and the adamantine walls of fate keep it
within its limits of torture. It looks on the left–and there the
rampart of blazing fire forbids the scaling ladder of e'en a dreamy
speculation of escape. It looks within and seeks for consolation there,
but a gnawing worm hath entered into the soul. It looks about it–it
has no friends to aid, no comforters, but tormentors in abundance. It
knoweth nought of hope of deliverance; it hath heard the everlasting
key of destiny turning in its awful wards, and it hath seen God take
that key and hurl it down into the depth of eternity never to be found
again. It hopeth not; it knoweth no escape; it guesseth not of
deliverance; it pants for death, but death is too much its foe to be
there; it longs that non-existence would swallow it up, but this
eternal death is worse than annihilation. It pants for extermination as
the laborer for his Sabbath; it longs that it might be swallowed up in
nothingness just as would the galley slave long for freedom, but it
cometh not–it is eternally dead. When eternity shall have rolled round
multitudes of its everlasting cycles it shall still be dead. Forever
knoweth no end; eternity cannot be spelled except in eternity. Still
the soul seeth written o'er its head, "Thou art damned forever." It
heareth howlings that are to be perpetual; it seeth flames which are
unquenchable; it knoweth pains that are unmitigated; it hears a
sentence that rolls not like the thunder of earth which soon is
hushed–but onward, onward, onward, shaking the echoes of
eternity–making thousands of years shake again with the horrid thunder
of its dreadful sound–"Depart! depart! depart! ye cursed!" This is the
eternal death.
II. Secondly, IN CHRIST JESUS THERE IS LIFE,
for he says: "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." There is
no life in God the Father for a sinner; there is no life in God the
Spirit for a sinner apart from Jesus. The life of a sinner is in
Christ. If you take the Father apart from the Son, though he loves his
elect, and decrees that they shall live, yet life is only in his Son.
If you take God the Spirit apart from Jesus Christ, though it is the
Spirit that gives us spiritual life, yet it is life in Christ, life in
the Son. We dare not, and cannot apply in the first place, either to
God the Father, or to God the Holy Ghost for spiritual life. The first
thing we are led to do when God brings us out of Egypt is to eat the
Passover–the very first thing. The first means whereby we get life is
by feeding upon the flesh and blood of the Son of God; living in him,
trusting on him, believing in his grace and power. Our second thought
was–there is life in Christ. We will show you there are three kinds of
life in Christ, as there are three kinds of death.
First there is legal life in Christ. Just as every man by nature
considered in Adam had a sentence of condemnation passed on him in the
moment of Adam's sin, and more especially in the moment of his own
first transgression, so I, if I be a believer, and you, if you trust in
Christ, have had a legal sentence of acquittal passed on us through
what Jesus Christ has done. O condemned sinner! Thou mayest be sitting
this morning condemned like the prisoner in Newgate; but ere this day
has passed away thou mayest be as clear from guilt as the angels above.
There is such a thing as legal life in Christ, and, blessed be God!
some of us enjoy it. We know our sins are pardoned because Christ
suffered punishment for them; we know that we never can be punished
ourselves, for Christ suffered in our stead. The Passover is slain for
us; the lintel and door-post have been sprinkled, and the destroying
angel can never touch us. For us there is no hell, although it blaze
with terrible flame. Let Tophet be prepared of old, let its pile be
wood and much smoke, we never can come there–Christ died for us, in
our stead. What if there be racks of horrid torture? What if there be a
sentence producing most horrible reverberations of thundering sounds?
Yet neither rack, nor dungeon, nor thunder, are for us! In Christ Jesus
we are now delivered. "There is therefore
NOW
Sinner! Art thou legally condemned this morning? Dost thou feel that?
Then, let me tell thee that faith in Christ will give thee a knowledge
of thy legal acquittal. Beloved, it is no fancy that we are condemned
for our sins, it is a reality. So, it is no fancy we are acquitted, it
is a reality. A man about to be hanged, if he received a full pardon
would feel it a great reality. He would say, "I have a full pardon; I
cannot be touched now." That is just how I feel.
"Now freed from sin I walk at large,
The Saviour's blood's my full discharge,
At his dear feet content I lay,
A sinner saved, and homage pay."
Brethren, we have gained legal life in Christ, and such legal life that
we cannot lose it. The sentence has gone against us once–now it has
gone out for us. It is written, "
THERE IS NOW NO CONDEMNATION
Then, secondly, there is spiritual life in Christ Jesus. As the man is
spiritually dead, God has spiritual life for him, for there is not a
need which is not supplied by Jesus, there is not an emptiness in the
heart which Christ cannot fill; there is not a desolation which he
cannot people, there is not a desert which he cannot make to blossom as
the rose. O ye dead sinners! spiritually dead, there is life in Christ
Jesus, for we have seen–yes! these eyes have seen–the dead live
again; we have known the man whose soul was utterly corrupt, by the
power of God seek after righteousness; we have known the man whose
views were carnal, whose lusts were mighty, whose passions were strong,
suddenly, by irresistible might from heaven, consecrate himself to
Christ, and become a child of Jesus. We know that there is life in
Christ Jesus, of a spiritual order; yea, more, we ourselves, in our own
persons, have felt that there is spiritual life. Well can we remember
when we sat in the house of prayer, as dead as the very seat on which
we sat. We had listened for a long, long while to the sound of the
gospel, but no effect followed, when suddenly, as if our ears had been
opened by the fingers of some mighty angel, a sound entered into our
heart. We thought we heard Jesus saying, "He that hath ears to hear,
let him hear." An irresistible hand put itself on our heart and crushed
a prayer out of it. We never had a prayer before like that. We cried,
"O God! have mercy upon me a sinner." Some of us for months felt a hand
pressing us as if we had been grasped in a vice, and our souls bled
drops of anguish. That misery was a sign of coming life. Persons when
they are being drowned do not feel the pain so much as while they are
being restored. Oh! we recollect those pains, those groans, that living
strife that our soul had when it came to Christ. Ah! we can recollect
the giving of our spiritual life as easily as could a man his
restoration from the grave. We can suppose Lazarus to have remembered
his resurrection, though not all the circumstances of it. So we,
although we have forgotten a great deal, do recollect our giving
ourselves to Christ. We can say to every sinner, however dead, there is
life in Christ Jesus, though you may be rotten and corrupt in your
grave. He who hath raised Lazarus hath raised us; and he can say, even
to you, "Lazarus! come forth."
In the third place, there is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And, oh! if
eternal death be terrible, eternal life is blessed; for he has said,
"Where I am there shall my people be." "Father, I will that they also,
whom thou hast given unto me, be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory." "I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall
never perish." Now, any Arminian that would preach from that text must
buy a pair of India rubber lips, for I am sure he would need to stretch
his mouth amazingly; he would never be able to speak the whole truth
without winding about in a most mysterious manner. Eternal life–not a
life which they are to lose, but eternal life. If I lost life in Adam I
gained it in Christ; if I lost myself for ever I find myself for ever
in Jesus Christ. Eternal life! Oh blessed thought! Our eyes will
sparkle with joy and our souls bum with ecstasy in the thought that we
have eternal life. Be quenched ye stars! let God put his finger on
you–but my soul will live in bliss and joy. Put out thine eye O
sun!–but mine eye shall "see the king in his beauty" when thine eye
shall no more make the green earth laugh. And moon, be thou turned into
blood!–but my blood shall ne'er be turned to nothingness; this spirit
shall exist when thou hast ceased to be. And thou great world! thou
mayest all subside, just as a moment's foam subsides upon the wave that
bears it–but I have eternal life. O time! thou mayest see giant
mountains dead and hidden in their graves; thou mayest see the stars
like figs too ripe, falling from the tree, but thou shalt never, never
see my spirit dead.
III. This brings us to the third point: that ETERNAL LIFE IS GIVEN TO ALL WHO
COME FOR IT.
There never was a man who came to Christ for eternal life, for legal
life, for spiritual life, who had not already received it, in some
sense, and it was manifested to him that he had received it soon after
he came. Let us take one or two texts–"He is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto him." Every man who comes to Christ will
find that Christ is able to save him–not able to save him a little, to
deliver him from a little sin, to keep him from a little trial, to
carry him a little way and then drop him–but able to save him to the
uttermost extent of his sin, unto the uttermost length of his trials,
the uttermost depths of his sorrows, unto the uttermost duration of his
existence. Christ says to every one who comes to him, "Come, poor
sinner, thou needst not ask whether I have power to save. I will not
ask thee how far thou hast gone into sin; I am able to save thee to the
uttermost." And there is no one on earth can go beyond God's
"uttermost."
Now another text: "Him that cometh to me, [mark the promises are nearly
always to the coming ones] I will in no wise cast out." Every man that
comes shall find the door of Christ's house opened–and the door of his
heart too. Every man that comes–I say it in the broadest sense–shall
find that Christ has mercy for him. The greatest absurdity in the world
is to want to have a wider gospel than that recorded in Scripture. I
preach that every man who believes shall be saved–that every man who
comes shall find mercy. People ask me, "But suppose a man should come
who was not chosen, would he be saved?" You go and suppose nonsense and
I am not going to give you an answer. If a man is not chosen he will
never come. When he does come it is a sure proof that he was chosen.
Says one, "Suppose any one should go to Christ who had not been called
of the Spirit." Stop, my brother, that is a supposition thou hast no
right to make, for such a thing cannot happen; you only say it to
entangle me, and you will not do that just yet. I say every man who
comes to Christ shall be saved. I can say that as a Calvinist, or as a
hyper-Calvinist, as plainly as you can say it. I have no narrower
gospel than you have; only my gospel is on a solid foundation, whereas
yours is built upon nothing but sand and rottenness. "Every man that
cometh shall be saved, for no man cometh to me except the Father draw
him." "But," says one, "suppose all the world should come, would Christ
receive them?" Certainly, if all came; but then they won't come. I tell
you all that come–aye, if they were as bad as devils, Christ would
receive them; if they had all sin and filthiness running into their
hearts as into a common sewer for the whole world, Christ would receive
them. Another says, "I want to know about the rest of the people. May I
go out and tell them–Jesus Christ died for every one of you? May I
say–there is righteousness for everyone of you, there is life for
every one of you?" No; you may not. You may say–there is life for
every man that comes. But if you say there is life for one of those
that do not believe, you utter a dangerous lie. If you tell them Jesus
Christ was punished for their sins, and yet they will be lost, you tell
a wilful falsehood. To think that God could punish Christ and then
punish them–I wonder at your daring to have the impudence to say so! A
good man was once preaching that there were harps and crowns in heaven
for all his congregation; and then he wound up in a most solemn manner:
"My dear friends, there are many for whom these things are prepared who
will not get there." In fact, he made such a pitiful tale, as indeed he
might do; but I tell you who he ought to have wept for–he ought to
have wept for the angels of heaven and all the saints, because that
would spoil heaven thoroughly. You know when you meet at Christmas, if
you have lost your brother David and his seat is empty, you say: "Well,
we always enjoyed Christmas, but there is a drawback to it now–poor
David is dead and buried!" Think of the angels saying: "Ah! this is a
beautiful heaven, but we don't like to see all those crowns up there
with cobwebs on; we cannot endure that uninhabited street: we cannot
behold yon empty thrones." And then, poor souls, they might begin
talking to one another, and say, "we are none of us safe here for the
promise was–"I give unto my sheep eternal life," and there is a lot of
them in hell that God gave eternal life to; there is a number that
Christ shed his blood for burning in the pit, and if they may be sent
there, so may we. If we cannot trust one promise we cannot another." So
heaven would lose its foundation, and fall. Away with your nonsensical
gospel! God gives us a safe and solid one, built on covenant doings and
covenant relationship, on eternal purposes and sure fulfillments.
IV. This brings us to the fourth point, THAT BY NATURE NO MAN WILL COME TO
CHRIST,
for the text says, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." I
assert on Scripture authority from my text, that ye will not come unto
Christ, that ye might have life. I tell you, I might preach to you for
ever, I might borrow the eloquence of Demosthenes or of Cicero, but ye
will not come unto Christ. I might beg of you on my knees, with tears
in my eyes, and show you the horrors of hell and the joys of heaven,
the sufficiency of Christ, and your own lost condition, but you would
none of you come unto Christ of yourselves unless the Spirit that
rested on Christ should draw you. It is true of all men in their
natural condition that they will not come unto Christ. But, methinks I
hear another of these babblers asking a question: "But could they not
come if they liked?" My friend, I will reply to thee another time. That
is not the question this morning. I am talking about whether they will,
not whether they can. You will notice whenever you talk about
free-will, the poor Arminian, in two seconds begins to talk about
power, and he mixes up two subjects that should be kept apart. We will
not take two subjects at once; we decline fighting two at the same
time, if you please. Another day we will preach from this text–"No man
can come except the Father draw him." But it is only the will we are
talking of now; and it is certain that men will not come unto Christ,
that they might have life. We might prove this from many texts of
Scripture, but we will take one parable. You remember the parable where
a certain king had a feast for his son, and bade a great number to
come; the oxen and fatlings were killed, and he sent his messengers
bidding many to the supper. Did they go to the feast? Ah, no; but they
all, with one accord, began to make excuse. One said he had married a
wife, and therefore he could not come, whereas he might have brought
her with him. Another had bought a yoke of oxen, and went to prove
them; but the feast was in the night-time, and he could not prove his
oxen in the dark. Another had bought a piece of land, and wanted to see
it; but I should not think he went to see it with a lantern. So they
all made excuses and would not come. Well the king was determined to
have the feast; so he said, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and"
invite them–stop! not invite–"compel them to come in;" for even the
ragged fellows in the hedges would never have come unless they were
compelled. Take another parable:–A certain man had a vineyard; at the
appointed season he sent one of his servants for his rent. What did
they do to him? They beat that servant. He sent another; and they
stoned him. He sent another and they killed him. And, at last, he said,
"I will send them my son, they will reverence him." But what did they
do? They said, "This is the heir, let us kill him, and cast him out of
the vineyard." So they did. It is the same with all men by nature. The
Son of God came, yet men rejected him. "Ye will not come to me that ye
might have life." It would take too much time to mention any more
Scripture proofs. We will, however, refer to the great doctrine of the
fall. Any one who believes that man's will is entirely free, and that
he can be saved by it, does not believe the fall. As I sometimes tell
you, few preachers of religion do believe thoroughly the doctrine of
the fall, or else they think that when Adam fell down he broke his
little finger, and did not break his neck and ruin his race. Why,
beloved, the fall broke man up entirely. It did not leave one power
unimpaired; they were all shattered, and debased, and tarnished; like
some mighty temple, the pillars might be there, the shaft, and the
column, and the pilaster might be there; but they were all broken,
though some of them retain their form and position. The conscience of
man sometimes retains much of its tenderness–still it has fallen. The
will, too, is not exempt. What though it is "the Lord Mayor of
Mansoul," as Bunyan calls it?–the Lord Mayor goes wrong. The Lord
Will-be-will was continually doing wrong. Your fallen nature was put
out of order; your will, amongst other things, has clean gone astray
from God. But I tell you what will be the best proof of that; it is the
great fact that you never did meet a Christian in your life who ever
said he came to Christ without Christ coming to him. You have heard a
great many Arminian sermons, I dare say; but you never heard an
Arminian prayer–for the saints in prayer appear as one in word, and
deed and mind. An Arminian on his knees would pray desperately like a
Calvinist. He cannot pray about free-will: there is no room for it.
Fancy him praying, "Lord, I thank thee I am not like those poor
presumptuous Calvinists. Lord, I was born with a glorious free-will; I
was born with power by which I can turn to thee of myself; I have
improved my grace. If everybody had done the same with their grace that
I have, they might all have been saved. Lord, I know thou dost not make
us willing if we are not willing ourselves. Thou givest grace to
everybody; some do not improve it, but I do. There are many that will
go to hell as much bought with the blood of Christ as I was; they had
as much of the Holy Ghost given to them; they had as good a chance, and
were as much blessed as I am. It was not thy grace that made us to
differ; I know it did a great deal, still I turned the point; I made
use of what was given me, and others did not–that is the difference
between me and them." That is a prayer for the devil, for nobody else
would offer such a prayer as that. Ah! when they are preaching and
talking very slowly, there may be wrong doctrine; but when they come to
pray, the true thing slips out; they cannot help it. If a man talks
very slowly, he may speak in a fine manner; but when he comes to talk
fast, the old brogue of his country, where he was born, slips out. I
ask you again, did you ever meet a Christian man who said, "I came to
Christ without the power of the Spirit?" If you ever did meet such a
man, you need have no hesitation in saying, "My dear sir, I quite
believe it–and I believe you went away again without the power of the
Spirit, and that you know nothing about the matter, and are in the gall
of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." Do I hear one Christian man
saying, "I sought Jesus before he sought me; I went to the Spirit, and
the Spirit did not come to me"? No, beloved; we are obliged, each one
of us, to put our hands to our hearts and say–
"Grace taught my soul to pray,
And made my eyes to o'erflow;
'Twas grace that kept me to this day,
And will not let me go."
Is there one here–a solitary one–man or woman, young or old, who can
say, "I sought God before he sought me?" No; even you who are a little
Arminian, will sing–
"O yes! I do love Jesus–
Because he first loved me."
Then, one more question. Do we not find, even after we have come to
Christ, our soul is not free, but is kept by Christ? Do we not find
times, even now, when to will is not present with us? There is a law in
our members, warring against the law of our minds. Now, if those who
are spiritually alive feel that their will is contrary to God, what
shall we say of the man who is "dead in trespasses and sins"? It would
be a marvelous absurdity to put the two on a level; and it would be
still more absurd to put the dead before the living. No; the text is
true, experience has branded it into our hearts. "Ye will not come to
me, that ye might have life."
Now, we must tell you the reasons why men will not come unto Christ.
The first is, because no man by nature thinks he wants Christ. By
nature man conceives that he does not need Christ; he thinks that he
has a robe of righteousness of his own, that he is well-dressed, that
he is not naked, that he needs not Christ's blood to wash him, that he
is not black or crimson, and needs no grace to purify him. No man knows
his need until God shows it to him; and until the Holy Spirit reveals
the necessity of pardon, no man will seek pardon. I may preach Christ
for ever, but unless you feel you want Christ you will never come to
him. A doctor may have a good shop, but nobody will buy his medicines
until he feels he wants them.
The next reason is, because men do not like Christ's way of saving
them. One says, "I do not like it because he makes me holy; I cannot
drink or swear if he saved me." Another says, "It requires me to be so
precise and puritanical, and I like a little more license." Another
does not like it because it is so humbling; he does not like it because
the "gate of heaven" is not quite high enough for his head, and he does
not like stooping. That is the chief reason ye will not come to Christ,
because ye cannot get to him with your heads straight up in the air;
for Christ makes you stoop when you come. Another does not like it to
be grace from first to last. "Oh!" he says, "If I might have a little
honor." But when he hears it is all Christ or no Christ, a whole Christ
or no Christ, he says, "I shall not come," and turns on his heel and
goes away. Ah! proud sinners, ye will not come unto Christ. Ah!
ignorant sinners, ye will not come unto Christ, because ye know nothing
of him. And that is the third reason.
Men do not know his worth, for if they did they would come unto him.
Why did not sailors go to America before Columbus went? Because they
did not believe there was an America. Columbus had faith, therefore he
went. He who hath faith in Christ goes to him. But you don't know
Jesus; many of you never saw his beauteous face; you never saw how
applicable his blood is to a sinner, how great is his atonement; and
how all-sufficient are his merits. Therefore, "ye will not come to
him."
And oh! my hearers, my last thought is a solemn one. I have preached
that ye will not come. But some will say, "it is their sin that they do
not come."
IT IS SO.