Grace Exalted–Boasting Excluded

Grace Exalted–Boasting Excluded
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 19, 1862, BY REV. C. H.
SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but
by the law of faith."
Romans 3:27.
PRIDE is most obnoxious to God. As a sin, His holiness hates it. As a
treason, His sovereignty detests it. As a rebellion, the whole of His
attributes stand leagued to put it down. God has touched other sins
with His finger, but against this vice He has made bare His arm. There
have been, I know, terrible judgments against lust–but there have been
ten times as many against that swelling lust of the deceitful heart.
Remember, the first transgression had in its essence, pride.
The ambitious heart of Eve desired to be as God, knowing good and evil,
and Adam imagined that he should be lifted up to Divine rank if he
dared to pluck and eat. The blasting of Paradise, the sterility of the
world, the travail of human birth, the sweat of the brow, and the
certainty of death may all be traced to this fruitful mother of
mischief, pride.
Remember Babel and how God has scattered us and confounded our tongues.
It was man's pride which led him to seek for an undivided monarchy that
so he might be great. The tower was to be the rallying point of all the
tribes and would have been the central throne of all human
grandeur–but God has scattered us–that pride might not climb to so
high a pitch. Pride, you have indeed suffered severe strokes from God.
Against you has He furbished His sword and prepared His weapons of war.
The Lord, even the Lord of Hosts has sworn it, and He will surely stain
the pride of all human glory and tread all boasting as straw is trod
for the dunghill. Talk no more so exceedingly proud. Let no arrogance
come out of your mouth, for the bows of the mighty have been broken and
the haughtiness of man has been bowed down. Remember Pharaoh and the
plagues which God brought on Egypt, and the wonders which He worked in
the field of Zoan.
Remember the Red Sea, and Rahab cut, and the dragon broken. Think of
Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty architect of Babylon, driven out to eat
grass like the oxen till his nails grew like birds' claws and his hair
like eagles' feathers. Remember Herod, eaten of worms, because he gave
not God the glory. And Sennacherib, with the Lord's hook in his jaws,
turned by the way he came to the place where his sons became his
slayers.
Time would fail to tell of the innumerable conquerors, and emperors,
and mighty men of earth who have all perished beneath the blast of Your
rebuke, O God, because they lifted up themselves and said, "I am, and
there is none beside me." You have turned wise men backward and made
their knowledge foolishness and no flesh may glory in Your Presence.
Yes, when pride has sought to shelter itself in the hearts of God's
chosen people, still the arrows of God have sought it out and have
drunk its blood. God loves His servants still, but pride even in them,
He abhors. David may be a man after God's own heart–but if his pride
shall lift him up to number the people, then he shall have a choice
between three chastisements. And he shall be happy to choose the
pestilence as being the least of the plagues.
Or if Hezekiah shall show to the ambassadors of Babylon his riches and
his treasures, there shall come to him the rebuke–"What have they seen
in your house?" And the threat–"Behold they shall take your sons to
make them eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." Oh, Brethren,
forget not that God has uttered the most solemn words as well as issued
the most awful judgments against pride. "Pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall." "Him that has a high look and a
proud heart will I not suffer." "Pride and arrogance do I hate."
"The Lord will destroy the house of the proud." "The day of the Lord
shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that
is lifted up, and he shall be brought low." "I am against you, O you
most proud, says the Lord God of Hosts." There are hundreds of terrible
texts like these but we cannot now recount them all.
Now mark, to put an everlasting stigma upon human vanity and to hurl
once and for all mire and filth upon all human glorying, God has
ordained that the only way in which He will save men shall be a way
which utterly excludes the possibility of man's having a single word to
say by way of vaunting. He has declared that the only foundation which
He will ever lay shall be one by which man's strength shall be broken
in pieces and by which man's pride shall be humbled in the dust.
To this subject I ask your attention this morning. It is to enlarge and
amplify the sentiment of the text that I seek. "Where is boasting,
then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of
faith."
We shall notice first of all, the rejected plan of Law. Then we shall
note the excluded vice. Having so done, we shall notice in the third
place, that the very fact that boasting is excluded permits of the
reception of the worst of sinners. And we shall close by observing that
the same system which excludes boasting includes humble and devout
gratitude to God for His Grace and mercy.
I. First, then, THE REJECTED PLAN. There are two ways by which man
might have been forever blessed. The one was by works–"This do and you
shall live. Be obedient and receive the reward; keep the commandment
and the blessing shall be yours, well earned and surely paid." The only
other plan was–"Receive Grace and blessedness as the free gift of God;
stand as a guilty sinner having no merit, and as a rebellious sinner
deserving the very reverse of goodness–but stand there–and receive
all your good things, simply, wholly and alone of the free love and
sovereign mercy of God."
Now, the Lord has not chosen the system of works. The word Law, as used
twice in the text, is employed, it is believed by many commentators,
out of compliment to the Jews, who were so fond of the word, that their
antagonism might not be aroused. But it means here, as elsewhere in
Scripture, plan, system, method. There were two plans, two systems, two
methods, two spirits–the plan of works and the plan of Divine Grace.
God has once and for all utterly refused the plan of merit and of works
and has chosen to bless men only and entirely through the plan, or
method, or law of faith.
Now, Brethren, we have put the two before you, and we beg you to mark
that there is a distinction between the two, which must never be
forgotten. Martin Luther says–"If you can rightly distinguish between
works and Grace, thank God for your skill and consider yourself to be
an able Divine." This, indeed, is the bottom of theology and he who can
understand this clearly, it seems to me, can never be very heterodox.
Orthodoxy must surely follow and the right teaching of God must be
understood when we once and for all are able to discriminate with
accuracy between that which is of man–works–and that which is of
God–faith–and Divine Grace received by faith.
Now, the plan of salvation by works is impossible for us. Even if God
had ordained it to be the way by which men should labor to be saved, it
is certain that none would have been saved by it, and therefore, all
must have perished. For if you would be saved by works, remember O Man,
that the Law requires of you perfection. One single flaw, one offense
and the Law condemns you without mercy. It requires that you should
keep it in every point and in every sense and to its uttermost
degree–for its demands are rigorous in the extreme.
It knows nothing of freely forgiving because you can not pay–but like
a severe creditor, it takes you by your throat and says, "Pay me all."
And if you cannot pay even to the uttermost farthing, it shuts you up
in the prison of condemnation, out of which you can not come. But if it
were possible for you to keep the Law in its perfection outwardly, yet,
remember that you would be required to keep it in your heart as well as
in your external life.
One single motion of the heart from the right, one reception of even
the shadow of a passing temptation, so as to become a partaker of sin,
would ruin you. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your mind, and with all your soul, and with all your
strength and your neighbor as yourself." Fail here and oh, who among us
can be such a hypocrite as to think he has not failed ten thousand
times–fail here–and though your life were virtuous, though your
exterior were such as even criticism itself must commend, you still
perish because you have not kept the Law and yielded its full demands.
Remember, too, that it is clear you can never be saved by the Law,
because if up to this moment your heart and life have been altogether
without offense, yet it is required that it should be so even to your
dying day. And do you hope that as temptations come upon you thick as
your moments, as your trials invade you numerous as the swarms which
once thronged from the gates of Thebes, you will be able to stand
against all these? Will there not be found some joint in your harness?
Will there not be some moment in which you may be tripped up–some
instant when either the eye may wander after lust, or the heart set on
vanity?
Can you say you would never stretch out your hand to touch that which
is not good? Oh, Man, remember, we are not sure that even this life
would end that probation, for as long as you should live and be God's
creature, duty would still be due and the Law still your insatiable
creditor. Forever would your happiness tremble in the scales. Even in
Heaven itself the Law would follow you. Even there, as your
righteousness would be your own, it would never be finished. And even
from yonder shining battlements you might fall and amid those harps,
wearing that white robe, if you were to be saved by your own works,
there might be a possibility of perishing!
The obedience of a creature can never be finished. The duty of a
servant of the Law is never over. So long as you were the creature of
God, your Creator would have demands upon you. How much better to be
accepted in the Beloved and to wear His finished righteousness as our
glory and security! Now in the face of all this, will any of you prefer
to be saved by your works? Or, rather, will you prefer to be damned by
your works? For that will certainly be the issue, let you hope what you
may.
Now I suppose that in this congregation we have but very few–there may
be some–who would indulge a hope of being saved by the Law in itself.
But there is a delusion abroad that perhaps God will modify the Law, or
that at least He will accept a sincere obedience even if it is
imperfect. That He will say, "Well, this man has done what he could
and, therefore, I will take what he has given as though it were
perfect."
Now, remember, against this the Apostle Paul declares peremptorily, "By
the works of the Law shall no flesh living be justified," so that that
is answered at once. But more than this, God's Law cannot alter, it can
never be content to take less from you than it demands. What said
Christ? "It is easier for Heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of
the Law to fail." And again, He expressly said, "Think not that I am
come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy but
to fulfill."
The Law's demands were met and fulfilled for Believers by Christ. But
as far as those demands are concerned to those who are under it, they
are as great, as heavy, and as rigorous as ever they were. Unless His
Law could be altered, and that is impossible, God cannot accept
anything but a perfect obedience. And if you are hoping to be saved by
your sincere endeavors to do your best, your hopes are rotten things.
They are delusions, falsehoods–and you will perish wrapped up in the
shrouds of your pride.
"Yes," some say, "but could it not be partly by Grace and partly by
works?" No. The Apostle says that boasting is excluded and excluded by
the law of faith. But if we let in the Law of works in any degree, we
cannot shut out boasting, for to that degree you give man an
opportunity to congratulate himself as having saved himself. Let me say
broadly–to hope to be saved by works is a delusion. To hope to be
saved by a method in which Divine Grace and works are co-acting, is not
merely a delusion but an absurd delusion.
It is contrary to the very nature of things–that Divine Grace and
merit should ever mingle and co-work. Our Apostle has declared times
without number that if it is of Grace, it is not of works, otherwise
Grace is no more Divine Grace. And if it is of works, then it is not of
Grace, otherwise work is no more work. It must be either one or the
other. These two cannot be married, for God forbids the bands. He will
have it all Grace or all works, all of Christ or all of man. But for
Christ to be a make-weight, for Christ to supplement your narrow robes
by patching on a piece of His own, for Christ to tread a part of the
winepress, and for you to tread the rest–oh, this can never be!
God will never be yoked with the creature. You might link an angel with
a worm and bid them fly together! But God with the creature? The
precious blood of Jesus with the foul ditch-water of our human merits?
Never! Never! Our paste gems, our varnished falsehoods, our
righteousnesses which are but filthy rags–put with the real, true,
precious, everlasting, Divine things of Christ? Never! Unless Heaven
should blend in alliance with Hell, and holiness hold dalliance with
impurity, it must be one or the other–either man's merit, absolutely
and alone–or unmixed, unmerited favor from the Lord.
Now, I suppose if I were to labor ever so arduously to hunt out this
evil spirit from the sons of men, I should miss it, still, for it hides
in so many shapes. Therefore let me say that in no shape, in no sense,
in no single case and in no degree whatsoever, are we saved by our
works or by the Law. I say in no sense, because men make such shifts to
save alive their own righteousness. I will show you one man who says,
"Well, I don't expect to be saved by my honesty. I don't expect to be
saved by my generosity, nor by my morality. But then, I have been
baptized. I receive the Lord's Supper. I have been confirmed. I go to
Church, or I have a sitting in a meeting house. I am, as touching the
ceremonies, blameless."
Well, Friend, in that sense you cannot be saved by works, for all these
things have no avail whatever upon the matter of salvation, if you have
not faith. If you are saved, God's ordinances will be blessed things to
you. But if you are not a
Believer you have no right to them. And with regard to Baptism and the
Supper, every time you touch them you increase your guilt. Whether it
is Baptism or the Lord's Supper, you have no right to either, unless
you are saved already. They are both ordinances for Believers and for
Believers, only. These ordinances are blessed means of Divine Grace to
living, quickened, saved souls.
But to unsaved souls, to souls dead in trespasses and sins, these
outward ordinances can have no avail for good but may increase their
sin, because they touch unworthily the holy things of God. Oh, repose
not in these! Oh, dream not that a priestly hand and sacred drops, or a
God-ordained Baptism in the pool, can in any way redeem you from sin,
or land you in Heaven–for by this way salvation is impossible. But if
I drive the lover of self-righteousness out of this haunt, he runs to
another.
You will find others who suppose that at least their feelings, which
are only their works in another shape, may help to save them. There are
thousands who think, "If I could weep so much, and groan so deeply, and
experience so much humiliation, and a certain quantity of repentance,
and so much of the terrors of the Law, and of the thunders of
conscience, then I might come before God." Souls, Souls, this is
work-mongering in its most damnable shape, for it has deluded far more
than that bolder sort of work-trusting, which says, "I will rely upon
what I do."
If you rely upon what you feel, you shall as certainly perish as if you
trust to what you do. Repentance is a work of the Holy Spirit, and to
be convinced of sin by God the Holy Spirit is a holy privilege. But to
think that these other things in any way win salvation is to run clean
counter to all the teachings of the Word, for salvation is of the Free
Grace of God, alone. There are some, moreover, who believe that if
their feelings cannot do it, still their knowledge can. They have a
very sound creed. They have struck out this doctrine and that. They
believe in justification by faith, and their sound creed is to them a
confidence. They think that because they hold the theory of
justification by faith, therefore they shall be saved.
And oh, how they plume their feathers! How they set up their peacock
tail because they happen to be orthodox! With what awful pride do they
exult over their fellow professors because they hold the truth and all
the rest of the Church, they think, is deluded with a lie. Now this is
nothing but salvation by works, only they are works performed by the
head instead of by the hands.
Oh, Sirs, I will tell you–if you rest in creeds, if you hope to be
saved because you can put your hand to the thirty-nine articles of an
Episcopalian prayer book, or to the solemn league and covenant of the
Presbyterian, or to the confession of faith of the Calvinist–if you
fancy that because you happen to receive truth in the head you shall be
saved, you know not the Truth of God but still cling to Satan's
lie–that salvation is of man and not of God!
I know that self-righteousness was born in our bones and that it will
come out in our flesh and even that man in whom its reigning power is
kept down will still feel it sometimes rising up. When he has preached
a sermon and has got on pretty well, the devil will come up the pulpit
stairs and say, "Well done." When he has prayed in public and has had
unusual fluency, he will have to be careful lest there should be a
whisper behind–"What a good and gifted man you are." Yes, and even in
his hallowed moments, when he is on the top of the mountain with his
Lord, he will have to watch, even there, lest self-congratulation
should suggest–"Oh, Man, greatly-Beloved, there must surely be
something in you, or else God would not have done thus unto you."
Brethren, when you are thinking of your sanctification, if you are
tempted to look away from Christ–away with it! And if when you are
repenting of sin you cannot still have one eye on Christ, remember it
will be a repentance that will need to be repented of, for there is
nothing in ourselves that can be offered to God.
There is a stench and putridity in everything that is done of the
Creature, and we can never come before God except through Christ Jesus,
who is made of God unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. I have thus tried to denounce the plan which God has
rejected.
II. I shall now, in the second head, SHOW THAT BOASTING IS EXCLUDED,
for in a blessed sense God has accepted the second plan, namely, the
way of salvation by faith through Divine Grace.
The first man that entered Heaven, entered Heaven by faith. "By faith
Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain." Over the tombs of
all the goodly who were accepted of God, you may read the
epitaph–"These all died in faith." By faith they received the promise.
And among all yonder bright and shining throng, there is not one who
does not confess, "We have washed our robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb."
The plan, then, which God has chosen, is one of Divine Grace, alone. I
will try and picture that plan before our mind's eye. We will imagine
Boasting to be exceedingly desirous to enter into the kingdom of
Heaven. He marches to the door and knocks. The porter looks out and
demands, "Who stands there?" "I am Boasting," says he, "and I claim to
have the highest seat. I claim that I should cry aloud and say, Glory
be unto man, for though he has fallen, he has lifted himself up and
worked out his own redemption."
And the angel says, "But have you not heard that the salvation of souls
is not of man, nor by man, but that God will have mercy on whom He will
have mercy and will have compassion on whom He will have compassion?
Get you gone, Boasting, for the highest seat can never be yours, when
God, in direct opposition to human merit, has rejected the Pharisee and
chosen the publican and the harlot, that they may enter into the
kingdom of Heaven."
So Boasting says, "Let me take my place, then, if not in the highest
seat, yet somewhere amid the glittering throng. For instance, let me
take my place in the seat of election. Let it be said and taught, that
albeit God did choose His people, yet it was because of their works
which He foresaw and their faith which He foreknew and that, therefore,
foreseeing and foreknowing, He did choose them because of an excellence
which His prescient eye discovered in them. Let me take my seat here."
But the porter says, "No, you can not take your place there, for
election is according to the eternal purpose of God, which He purposed
in Christ Jesus before the world was. This election is not of works but
of Grace and the reason for God's choice of man is in Himself and not
in man. And as for those virtues which you say God did foreknow, God is
the Author of all of them if they exist, and that which is an effect
cannot be a first cause. God foreordained these men to faith and to
good works and their faith and good works could not have been the cause
of their foreordination.
Then straight from Heaven's gate the trumpet sounded–("For the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but
of Him that calls it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the
younger"). Then Boasting found that as works had no place in election,
so there was no room for him to take his seat there and he bethought
himself where next he could be.
So after a while Boasting says to the porter, "If I cannot mount the
chair of election, I will be content to sit in the place of conversion,
for surely it is man that repents and believes." The porter did not
deny the truth of that, and then this evil Boasting said, "If one man
believes and not another, surely that must be the act of the man's
will. And his will being free and unbiased, it must be very much to
that man's credit that he believes and repents and is therefore saved.
For others, having like opportunities with himself and having the same
Grace no doubt, reject the preferred mercy and perish, while this man
accepts it and therefore let me at least take my seat there."
But the angel said in anger, "Take your seat there? Why, that were to
take the highest place of all, for this is the hinge and turning-point
and if you leave that with man then you give him the brightest jewel in
the crown. Does the Ethiopian change his skin and the leopard his
spots? Is it not God that works in us to will and to do of His own good
pleasure? Of His own will He begat us with the Word of Truth and it is
not of the will of man, nor of blood, nor of birth. Oh, Boasting, your
free will is a lie!
It is not man that chooses God but God that chooses Man. What did
Christ say–"You have not chosen Me but I have chosen you." And what
did He say to the ungodly multitude, "You will not come unto Me that
you might have life." In which He gave the death-blow to all ideas of
free will–when He declared that man will not come to Him that he might
have life. And then He said again, in another place, as if that were
not enough, "No man can come unto Me except the Father which has sent
Me draw him."
So Boasting, though he was glad not to admit it, was shut out and could
not take his place in Heaven upon the stool of conversion. And while he
stood there but little abashed, for bashfulness he knows not, he heard
a song floating over the battlements of Heaven from all the multitude
who were there, in accents like these, "Not unto us, not unto us but
unto Your name, O Lord, be the praise"–
"It was the same love that spread the feast That gently forced us in;
Else we had still refused to taste, And perished in our sin."
But then," said Boasting, "if I may not have so high a place, let me at
least sit on the lowly stool of perseverance and let it at least be
said that while God saved the man and is therefore to have the glory,
still the man was faithful to Grace received. He did not turn back unto
perdition but watched and was very careful and kept himself in the love
of God and therefore there is considerable credit due to him. For while
many drew back and perished and he might have done the same, he
struggled against sin. And thus by his using his Grace he kept himself
safely. Let me sit, then, on the chair of perseverance."
But the angel replied, "No, no, what have you to do with it? I know it
is written, 'keep yourselves in the love of God,' but the same Apostle
forbids all fleshly trust in human effort by that blessed
doxology–'Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to
present you faultless before the Presence of His glory with exceeding
joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and forever. Amen.' That which is a command in one
Scripture is a Covenant promise in another, where it is written, 'I
will put My fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from Me.' "
Oh, Brethren, well do you and I know that our standing does not depend
upon ourselves. If that Arminian doctrine, that our perseverance rests
somewhere in our own hands, were true, then damnation must be the lot
of us all. I cannot keep myself a minute, much less year after year–
"Ifever it should come to pass, That sheep of Christ should fall away;
My fickle, feeble soul, alas! Would fall a thousand times a day."
But what says the Scripture?–"I give unto My sheep eternal life and
they shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of My
hand,. My Father who gave them Me is greater than all and none is able
to pluck them out of My Father's hand." And what says the Apostle–"I
am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
I have not time to quote all the innumerable passages, but it is
absolutely certain that if there is one doctrine in Scripture more
clearly revealed than another, it is the doctrine of the Perseverance
of the Saints by the power of the Holy Spirit. The man who doubts that
precious Truth of God has quite as much reason to doubt the Trinity, to
doubt the divinity of Christ, or the fact of the atonement. For nothing
can be more clear in the plain, common sense meaning of the words than
this–that they who are in Christ have, even today, eternal life and
shall never perish.
Now, since this perseverance is not dependent upon our works, but like
all the rest of salvation, is an efflux from the bottomless love of
God, boasting is manifestly excluded. But once again and lastly,
Boasting sometimes asks to be admitted a little into glorification. I
fear sometimes that a doctrine which is popular in the Church, about
degrees of glory, is not altogether unassociated with that old
self-righteousness of ours which is very loath to die.
"One star differs from another star in Glory" is a great truth–but
this the stars may do without differing in degrees. One star may shine
with one radiance and another with another. Indeed, astronomers tell us
that there are many varieties of color among stars of the same
magnitude. One man may differ from another, without supposing a
difference in rank, honor, or degree. For my part, I do not see
anything about degrees in Glory in Scripture, and I do not believe in
the doctrine–at least if there are degrees, mark this–they cannot be
according to works but must be of Divine Grace alone.
I cannot consider that because one Christian has been more devoted to
Christ than another, therefore there will be an eternal difference, for
this is to introduce works. This is to bring in again the old Hagar
marriage and to bring back the child of the bondwoman, whereof God has
said, "The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with My son, even
with Isaac."
Oh, Brethren, I think we can serve God from some other motive than that
base one of trying to be greater than our Brethren in Heaven. If I
should get to Heaven at all, I do not care who is greater than I am,
for if anyone shall have more happiness in Heaven than I shall, then I
shall have more happiness, too. For the sympathy between one soul and
another will there be so intense and so great, that all the heavens of
the righteous will be my Heaven. And therefore, what you have, I shall
have, because we shall all be one in fellowship far more perfectly than
on earth.
The private member will there be swallowed up in the common body.
Surely, Brethren, if any of you can have brighter places in Heaven, and
more happiness and more joy than I, I will be glad to know it. The
prospect does not excite any envy in my soul now, or if it did now, it
certainly would not then–for I should feel that the more you had the
more I should have. Perfect communion in all good things is not
compatible with the private enrichment of one above another.
Even on earth the saints had all things common when they were in a
heavenly state and I am persuaded they will have all things common in
Glory. I do not believe in gentlemen in Heaven and the poor Christians
behind the door. I believe that our union with each other will be so
great that distinctions will be utterly lost, and that we shall all
have such a joint communion and interest and fellowship, that there
will be no such thing as private possession, private ranks and private
honors. We shall there, to the fullest extent, be one in Christ.
I do believe that Boasting is shut out there. But I think that if there
were these degrees in glory, I mean if they are dependent on works done
on earth, Boasting would at least get his tail in. If it did not
insinuate its whole body, it would at least get some of its unhallowed
members over the wall, whereas, the text says it is excluded. Let me
enlarge this one word and then proceed. It does not say, "Boasting, you
are to be allowed to come in and sit down on the floor." No, shut the
door and do not let him in at all.
"But let me in," he says," and I will be quiet." No, shut him out
altogether. "But at least let me put my foot in." No, exclude him–shut
him out altogether. "But at least let me sometimes go in and out." No,
shut him out altogether. Exclude him–bolt the door–put double
padlocks on it. Say once and for all, "Boasting, get you gone. You are
hurled down and broken in pieces and if you can refit yourself and come
once more to the gate to ask admittance, you shall be driven away with
shame." It is excluded. It cannot be let in, in any sense, in any term,
nor in any degree.
As Calvin says, "Not a particle of boasting can be admitted, because
not a particle of work is admitted into the Covenant of Grace." It is
of Divine Grace from top to bottom, from Alpha to Omega. It is not of
man nor by man, not of him that wills, nor of him that runs but of God
that shows mercy and therefore, boasting is excluded by the law of
faith.
III. And now, thirdly and very briefly. Beloved in Christ Jesus, what a
precious Truth of God I have now to hold up to the eyes of poor lost
sinners, who today are aware that they have no merits of their own.
Soul, THE VERY GATE WHICH SHUTS OUT BOASTING, SHUTS IN HOPE AND JOY FOR
YOU.
Let me state this Truth of God broadly, that the ignorant may catch it.
You say today, "Sir, I never attend the House of God and up to this
time I have been a thief and a drunkard." Well, you stand today on the
same level as the most moral sinner and the most honest unbeliever, in
the matter of salvation. They are lost, since they believe not, and so
are you. If the most honest is saved, it will not be by their honesty
but by the Free Grace of God. And if the most evil would be saved, it
must be by the same plan.
There is one gate to Heaven for the most chaste and the most debauched.
When we come to God, the best of us can bring nothing, and the worst of
us can bring no less. I know when I state it thus, some will say, "Then
what is the good of morality?" I will tell you. Two men have fallen
overboard. One man has a dirty face and the other a clean one. There is
a rope thrown over from the stern of the vessel and only that rope will
save the sinking men–whether their faces are fair or foul. Is not this
the truth? Do I therefore underrate cleanliness. Certainly not–but it
will not save a drowning man.
Nor will morality save a dying man. The clean man may sink with all his
cleanliness and the dirty man may be drawn up with all his filth, if
the rope does but get its hold of him. Or take this case. Here we have
two persons, each with a deadly cancer. One of them is rich and clothed
in purple, the other is poor and wrapped about with a few rags. And I
say to them–"You are both on a par now, here comes the Physician
Himself–Jesus, the King of disease–His touch can heal you both. There
is no difference between you whatever."
Do I therefore say that the one man's robes are not better than the
others rags? Of course they are better in some respects but they have
nothing to do with the matter of curing disease. So morality is a neat
cover for foul venom but it does not alter the fact that the heart is
vile and the man, himself, under condemnation. Suppose I were an army
surgeon and there had been a battle. There is one man there–he is a
captain and a brave man. He led his rank into the thick of the battle
and he is bleeding out his life from a terrible gash. By his side there
lies a man of the rank and file, and a great coward, too, wounded in
the same way.
I come up to both of them and I say, "You are both in the same
condition. You have both the same sort of wound and I can heal you
both." But if either of you should say, "Get you gone. I'll have
nothing to do with you," your wound will be your death. If the captain
should say, "I do not want you. I am a captain, go and see to that poor
dog yonder." Would his courage and rank save his life? No, they are
good things but not saving things. So is it with good works, men can be
damned with them as well as without them if they make them their beast.
Oh, what a Gospel is this to preach in our theatres. To tell those
hedge-birds, those who are full of all manner of loathsomeness, that
there is the same way of salvation open to them as to a peer of the
realm, or a bishop on the bench. That there is no difference between us
in the way of mercy, that we are all condemned. That there may be
degrees as to our guilt but that the fact of our condemnation is quite
as certain to the best as to the worst!
"Oh" you say, "this is a leveling doctrine!" Ah, bless God if you are
leveled. "Oh," you say, "but this cuts at everything that is good in
man!" Ah, thank God, if it kills everything in which man glories, for
that which man thinks to be good is often an abomination in the sight
of God. And oh, if all of us together, moral or immoral, chaste or
debauched, honest or unholy, can come with the rope about our neck and
with the weeds of penitence upon our loins and say, "Great God, forgive
us. We are all guilty, give us Grace. We do not deserve it. Bestow upon
us Your favor, we have no right to it but give it to us because Jesus
died."
Oh, He will never cast out one that way, for that is the way of
salvation. And if we can put our hand this morning– no matter though
it were black last night with lust, or red up to the elbow with
murder–yet if we can put our hand on Jesus' head and believe on
Him–the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleans us from all sin.
Where is boasting now? You who have done so much for humanity–you
cannot boast–for you have nothing to boast of. You fine gentlemen and
noble ladies, what do you say of this?
O be wise and join in the prayer, "But You, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
miserable sinners!" And may the Lord then pronounce over us His
sentence, "You are clean, go and sin no more. Your iniquities are all
forgiven you."
IV. I close by just observing, that THE SAME PLAN WHICH SHUTS OUT
BOASTING LEADS US TO A GRACIOUS GRATITUDE TO CHRIST.
We are sometimes asked by people, "So you think that such a thing is
necessary to salvation?" or, perhaps, the question is put in another
way, "How long do you think a man must be godly in order to be saved?"
I reply, dear Friend, you cannot understand us, for we hold that these
things do not save in any sense. "Why, then," they say, "are you
baptized?" or, "Why do you walk in holiness?" Well, not to save myself
but because I am saved. When I know that every sin of mine is forgiven,
that I cannot be lost, that Christ has sworn to bring me to the place
where He is–then I say, Lord what is there that I can do for You?
Tell me. Can I burn for You? Blessed were the stake if I might kiss it.
If You have done so much for me, what can I do for You? Is there an
ordinance that involves self-denial? Is there a duty which will compel
me to self-sacrifice? So much the better–
"Now for the love I bear His name, What was my gain I count my lost; By
former pride I call my shame, And nail my glory to His Cross." This is
the way to do good works. And good works are impossible until we come
here. Anything that you do by which to save yourself is a selfish act,
and therefore cannot be good. Only that which is done for God's glory
is good in a Scriptural sense.
A man must be saved before he can do a good work. But when saved,
having nothing to get and nothing to lose– standing now in Christ,
blessed and accepted–he begins to serve God out of pure gratitude and
love. Then, virtue is possible and he may climb to its highest steeps
and stand safely there without fear of the boasting which would cast
him down. He will feel, even then, that his standing is not in what he
has done, nor in what he is, nor in what he hopes to be but in what
Christ did and in the, "It is finished," which made his eternal
salvation secure.
O for Divine Grace, that we may live to the praise of the glory of His
Grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved, bringing forth
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory
and praise of God. Of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To
Him be glory forever. Amen.