DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, AUGUST 27, 1882,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel." Colossians 1:23.
I THINK this morning we showed pretty plainly that many a soul has a
great struggle to attain to the hope of the Gospel. [See "Despair
Denounced and Grace Glorified," No. 1676.] Not without hand-to-hand
fighting do many hearts lay hold on Christ and eternal life. Conscience
often sets up a chevaux de frise around the hill of Calvary and thus
cuts off the convicted sinner from approaching his Savior. Doubts and
fears, the Black Watch of evil, drive back the coming ones and worry
those who would gladly hide in the Rock of Ages. Satan summons all his
hosts to push men back from the Cross that they may not come to Christ
and live.
But, Brothers and Sisters, the battle does not end when, by a desperate
rush, a man has come to Christ. In many it assumes a new form–the
enemy now attempts to drag the trembler from his refuge and eject him
from his stronghold! It is difficult to get at the hope of the Gospel,
but quite as difficult to keep it so as not to be moved away from it.
If Satan spends great power in keeping us from the hope, he uses equal
force in endeavoring to drag us away from it–and equal cunning in
endeavoring to allure us from it. Hence the Apostle tells us not to be
moved away from the hope of the Gospel. The exhortation is necessary in
presence of an imminent danger. Do not think that in the moment when
you believe in Christ the conflict is over, or you will be bitterly
disappointed! It is then that the battle renews itself and every inch
of the road swarms with enemies.
Between here and Heaven you will always have to fight, more or less,
and frequently the severest struggle will be at a time when you are
least prepared for it. There may be smooth passages in your career and
you may, for a while, be like your Savior in the wilderness, of whom it
is said, "Then the devil departed from Him, and angels came and
ministered unto Him." But you may not, therefore, cry, "My mountain
stands firm, I shall never be moved," for fair weather may not outlast
a single day! Do not grow secure, or carnally presumptuous. There is
but a short space between one battle and another in this world. It is a
series of skirmishes even when it does not assume the form of a pitched
battle. He that would win Heaven must fight for it! He that would take
the new Jerusalem must scale it and if he has the wits to take Jacob's
ladder and set it against the wall and climb up that way, he will win
the City. "The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take
it by force."
At this time our subject is not the winning, but the wearing–not the
taking but the holding of the fort. "Be not moved away," you that have
come to it. "Be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel."
I. First, BE NOT MOVED AWAY FROM THE SUBJECT OF THAT HOPE so as to give
up any part of the hope which is revealed to you by the Gospel. What is
your hope? First, it is the hope of full salvation–the hope that,
inasmuch as you have believed in Jesus Christ, you are free from all
condemnation at the present moment and shall be free from all
condemnation in the future as to all your sins. And that, in addition
to this, He that takes away the condemnation of sin will also destroy
the power of it over you. You have this hope–that being made to love
righteousness you shall be enabled to walk in obedience and "to perfect
holiness in the fear of the Lord."
Your hope is that one day you shall be presented holy, without blame
and unreprovable in the sight of the great Father. You shall, one day,
be presented "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing," cleansed
from all guilt and cleansed from all tendency to sin and to
corruption–and made like unto the perfect creature of God when first
it comes from His hands. Oh, this is a blessed hope! "He that has this
hope in him purifies himself even as Christ is pure." We hope that we
shall be like unto Christ, Himself, and that the Glory of His holiness
shall be our glory–and we shall see His face and His name shall be on
our foreheads–and we shall be without fault before the Throne of God.
Now, never give that up!
Never allow a particle of it to be diminished. God means all that He
has said, and more, rather than less. Let no man debase the currency of
Heaven or clip the coin of the realm of the Great King.
The first part of it–hold to it, that the Lord Jesus Christ has
cleansed you from all the guilt and penalty of sin, so that not a speck
remains to accuse or condemn you. Hold to it, moreover, that if He has
once washed you, you shall not need to wash, again, in that fountain
filled with blood, for, "He that is washed needs not except to wash his
feet." And that washing shall be given to him by the condescending
hands of Christ. The water shall be a second cure of that which the
blood has already cleansed and removed. The blood-washing has removed
all guilt and prevented all possibility that sin shall have dominion
over you. Complete forgiveness and full justification are proofs that
through your Lord's endurance of the death penalty, you are no more
under the Law, but under Grace.
My soul rejoices, tonight, in perfect pardon! I will not take off a
corner of it so as to allow that the smallest charge can lie against
us! We are complete in Christ! He that believes in Him is justified
from all things–
"Here's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
cast! And, oh, my Soul, with wonder view– For sins to come, here's
pardon too!" All pardon is provided in the one great Sacrifice offered
by our bleeding Lord who has now gone into the heavens to plead the
merit of His blood. Never take off a fraction from that other part of
full salvation, namely, the possibility and the absolute certainty that
every sinful tendency now in your nature shall be utterly destroyed.
There shall remain in you no root of bitterness, no scar of evil, no
footprint of iniquity! There shall be no tinder in your soul upon which
the sparks of temptation can fall so as to live and make a flame! And
when the Prince of this world comes he shall find nothing in you. Then
you shall enter into your eternal rest, for God keeps not His ripe
wheat in the field, but takes it Home when it is once fit to be
gathered into the garner. This is your hope through the Gospel–be not
moved away from it.
In connection with this, there is the hope of final perseverance. I
confess that to me it is one of the most attractive doctrines of God's
Word, that, "the righteous shall hold on his way, and he that has clean
hands shall be stronger and stronger." For I am "confident of this very
thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ." "I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they
shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of My hands." "He
that believes in Him is not condemned." "He that lives and believes in
Me shall never die." There are many assurances to this effect and if
anything definite is taught in Scripture, I am confident that this is
among the plainest of such teachings!
I beseech you, do not shun this doctrine as though it would lead you
into the least presumption. If properly understood, its legitimate
effect is the very reverse of carelessness! If it is true that once
enlisted in this army of the Lord, you must and shall fight until you
are a conqueror, then there is no temptation to lay down the sword, for
a while, in the hope of taking it up, again, at a more convenient
season. If, as some say, you may be Christ's soldier today and desert
tomorrow and then be enlisted again–if it is indeed true that a man
may be regenerated and then lose the Divine life and, upon repentance,
be re-regenerated and re-re-re-re-re-regenerated–I know not how many
times–I am not aware that this novelty is hinted at in my unrevised
New Testament! There I read of being "born again," but not of being
born again and again and again and again and again and again–I say I
cannot find a trace of this in the Bible!
On the other hand, I find that if the one regeneration fails, which is
impossible, there would remain nothing else to be done! God's best work
is broken down and He will never try it again. He has said, "It is
impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the
heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have
tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if
they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open
shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it,
and bring forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receives
blessings from God; but that which bears thorns and briers is rejected,
and is near unto cursing; whose end is to be burned." You cannot
re-salt the salt if it has once lost its savor. If, then, Grace does
utterly depart, which I believe to be impossible, there remains no hope
for such a one. God's supreme effort, according to that theory, has
been made and failed!
Now, there is nothing for it but that the land which has received the
dew of Heaven and brought forth no fruit, is near unto cursing, whose
end is to be burned. "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of
you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak." We
have but made the supposition to show you the danger, upon whose
brink you stand, and over whose verge you would slide if Grace did not
prevent. If you, indeed, believe in Christ Jesus, set this to your
seal, that He will keep you to the end! Whatever happens, "I am
persuaded that neither 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." For dear life hold
on to the hope of final preservation, for there is a purifying,
encouraging, stimulating power about that precious Truth of God! "He
keeps the feet of His saints." "Be not moved away from the hope of the
Gospel."
We have a hope beyond this, for we believe that we shall experience the
Resurrection. Though they fall down and men call them corpses, they are
precious in the sight of the Lord. The grave shall be a refining pot
out of which the pure metal of our purified body shall come forth. At
the word of the Lord, the dry bones shall live–they shall be clothed
with flesh–and skin shall come upon them, if, after that fashion, the
body is to be raised. But if not–if the body is to assume another form
and we are to be made like unto a Glory which as yet we cannot
comprehend, then we may be sure of this– that we shall so rise that
mortality shall put on immortality and corruption shall give place to
incorruption! In any case, our bodies shall rise again. The Grace of
God secures the bodies as well as the souls of the saints. Christ
bought not the half of a man, but the whole trinity of our manhood is
His redeemed inheritance–spirit, soul and body shall dwell forever
with Him–for He has redeemed our undivided manhood!
Never give up that hope, either, concerning yourselves or your friends.
Let nothing shake your confidence in the Resurrection! Let no
philosophical explanation fritter it away. No other historical fact is
so well attested as the Resurrection of Christ, which is the very
cornerstone of our confidence. "For if the dead rise not, then is not
Christ raised. And if Christ is not raised, your faith is vain; you are
yet in your sins. Then they, also, which are fallen asleep in Christ
are perished. If only in this life we have hope in Christ, we are, of
all men, most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead and
become the first fruits of them that slept."
Often and often, when I am sorely beset with devilish temptations and
insinuations as to the eternal hope of my soul and body, I fly to
this–Jesus Christ did rise from the dead and, inasmuch as He rose from
the dead, He has come back to tell us that there is another world and
that not only our souls, but our bodies shall inherit a far more
blessed condition than this present one! Hold on to this hope of the
Gospel, and never let it go–
"The Lord is risen! He lives!
The First-born from the dead,
To Him the Father gives
To be creation's Head.
O'er all forever reigning,
Of death He holds the keys;
And Hell–His might constraining–
Obeys His high decrees.
Flies now the gloom that shaded
The vale of death to me;
The terrors that invaded
Are lost, O Christ, in Thee!
The grave, no more appalling,
Invites me to repose;
Asleep in Jesus falling,
To rise as Jesus rose."
Then remember, you have the hope of the Second Advent. If Jesus comes
before you die, you will meet Him–gladly meet and welcome the Son of
God upon this earth! You shall be changed so that you shall be fit to
inherit the incorruptible glories of the skies. You shall see your
Redeemer when He stands in the latter day upon the earth. As Job said,
"In my flesh shall I see God, whom my eyes shall see for myself, and
not another." Have joy, then, at every thought of your Master's coming!
Do not put it among dark prophecies or doubtful dreams. It is a clearly
revealed Truth of God that Jesus will come again and take His people up
to their eternal Home–"Therefore comfort one another with these
words," and be not moved away from that hope of the Gospel which lies
so sweetly in the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ!
And, once more, we have this hope–that when we have passed through all
that concerns time and are in eternity, that shoreless, bottomless
sea–there remains for us no fear or dread, but we shall be "forever
with the Lord." I notice
that certain of those who deny the eternity of future punishment are
ready, for the sake of their notion, to pull down the battlements of
Heaven, itself, and to make the joy of saints to be as short as the
misery of sinners. I, for one, will not pawn Heaven in that fashion, to
make sin cheap for the willfully impenitent! Once landed on that
eternal shore, there are no storms to dread or hurricanes to fear for
these frail boats of ours! There shall not a wave of trouble roll
across our peaceful spirits when once we cast anchor in the "Fair
Havens," in the Port of Peace forever!
Be not dismayed as though there would be an after-probation, or a
"purgatory," or a lim bus patrum, or any of those pretty places that
have filled priests' pockets so long–and are now being newly vamped
and produced by our proud thinkers as an aid to their pretty
speculations! We will have no "purgatory" under any form–it is the
larder of priests and the refuge of heresy-mongers–and there is not a
word of it in God's Bible! We stand to the text–"So shall we be
forever with the Lord." "The righteous shall go away into life
eternal." There is "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and
that fades not away, reserved in Heaven for you." "Him that overcomes
will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more
out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the
city of My God, which is New Jerusalem, which comes down out of Heaven
from My God: and I will write upon him My new name."
"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the
sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of
the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains
of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." "Be not
moved away from the hope of the Gospel," as to the objects of that
hope!
II. But now, secondly, I charge you, Beloved, before God, that you BE
NOT MOVED AWAY FROM THE HOPE
OF THE GOSPEL AS TO THE GROUND OF THAT HOPE. And what is the ground of
that hope? The ground of that hope is, first, the rich, free, Sovereign
Grace of God because He has said, "I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
The Lord claims for Himself the prerogative of mercy and, as He can
exercise it without the violation of His justice through the atoning
Sacrifice of Christ, we joy and rejoice in the fact that men are not
saved because of any natural goodness of disposition, or because of
anything that they have done, or ever shall do!
The children being not yet born, neither having done good nor evil, the
Divine decree stood fast fixed in the Sovereign will and immutable
counsels of Jehovah! And this is a good ground of hope for the very
chief of sinners. If He has saved the dying thief–if He has saved the
adulterer–if He has saved even the murderer, why should He not save
me? He can if He will and He is exceedingly gracious, infinite in
compassion and willing not the deaths of any, but that all should come
to repentance! It is in the mercy of our God that all our hopes begin
and the cause of that mercy is itself! The reason of Divine love is
Divine love! Because God is gracious, therefore He bestows His Grace
upon the undeserving and the lost. Be not moved away from this.
The ground of our salvation is, next, the merit of Christ–what Christ
is; what Christ has done–what Christ has suffered. This is the ground
upon which God saves the sons of men. Even Cardinal Bellarmine, the
mighty opponent of Luther–perhaps the best opponent that he had, whose
eyes saw much of Gospel Light–once said this, "That albeit good works
are necessary unto salvation, yet, inasmuch as no man can be sure that
he has performed as many good works as will save him, it is, upon the
whole, safest to trust, alone, in the merits and sufferings of Christ."
Cardinal, the safest way suits me! If that is the best and safest, what
better do any of us need? Where is the rest for our soul if the ground
of our hope is to be what we are, or what we do, or what we feel? But
when we fall back upon the finished work of Jesus Christ and believe in
Him, whom God has set forth to be a Propitiation for sin, and not for
ours only, but for the sins of the whole world–I say, when we fall
back on Him–then we have something solid to rest upon!
Our eyes cannot bear to look into eternity so long as we cling, in the
least degree, to human merit! But when it is all put aside and we look
to Him bleeding yonder on the Cross, then is there a "peace that passes
all understanding," filling our hearts by Christ Jesus! Brothers and
Sisters, if a man were to live in good works without a single sin for
10,000 years, he would be well recompensed for that by half-an-hour of
Heaven! How, then, can we expect to merit eternal bliss by any works of
ours? Ah, no! The hope were vanity! Heaven is too precious a thing to
be purchased by anything that we can, by any possibility, do–but it is
not too great to be purchased by the blood of Christ! And when we come
to His Atonement, our anchor holds abidingly. "Be not moved away from
the hope of the Gospel."
Another ground of our hope is this–that God has solemnly pledged that
"whoever believes in Christ shall not perish, but shall have
everlasting life." If, then, we really, and in very deed, believe in
Jesus Christ and rest on Him, we cannot perish, for God cannot
contradict Himself! Thus it is written–hear it and accept it–"He that
believes and is baptized shall be saved." Those of us, then, who trust
the Savior, and Him only–and have made confession of that trust in His
own appointed way–know for sure that God's eternal veracity is staked
upon our salvation! It is not possible that the Lord should cast away a
Believer! Is it not written, "The just shall live by faith"? We live
because we believe in the Ever-Living One! "He that believes in Him has
everlasting life," Be not moved away from this Gospel hope which God,
who cannot lie, has set before us–
" The Covenant of the King of Kings
Shall stand forever sure!
Beneath the shadow of His wings
His saints repose secure."
Another ground of our hope is the Immutability of God. God changes not
and, therefore, the sons of Jacob are not consumed. The Immutability of
Christ also confirms our hope, for He is, "the same yesterday, and
today, and forever." The unchanging power of His blood is a tower of
strength to our faith–
"Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood
Shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Is saved to sin no more."
If God is Immutable, then those that believe in Him have an immutable
hope–be sure that you never cast it away! But, once again, our hope of
the Gospel is grounded in the Infallibility of Scripture. The Papist
has an infallible pope, but we have an Infallible Bible. If that which
is spoken in this Book is not true, neither is our hope sure! If these
things are questionable, our confidence is questionable! But if this
Word of God abides fast, forever and ever, though Heaven and earth
should pass away, then he that believes and builds on this Infallible
Truth may rejoice and stand fast! I beseech you, "be not moved away
from the hope of the Gospel."
III. So far have I come with all my heart and soul and I believe that
you, dear Friends, the members of this Church, at any rate, have
accompanied me. Now let us consider HOW WE MAY BE MOVED AWAY FROM THE
HOPE OF THE GOSPEL unless Grace is given to prevent us. We may be moved
from the hope of the Gospel in the following ways. Sometimes by a
conceit of ourselves. You may get off the ground of confidence in Free
Grace to think, "Now I am somebody. Have not I prayed at the Prayer
Meeting? Did not friends say that they were edified by it? Have not I
preached a wonderful sermon? Am I not generous? Have not I given large
sums to the Church and to the poor? Am I not somebody?"
Ah, you and the devil, together, can make a commotion about that and I
have no doubt that all he tells you, you will very greedily suck in,
for we like to be praised and, though the praise comes from Satan,
himself, it is welcome to our proud flesh! Well, whenever we get to
think we are somebody, we are moved away from the hope of the Gospel.
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Somebody says, "But I
am not a sinner." Ah, then He did not come to save you! Do you say, "I
was once a sinner, but I have grown so perfect that I no longer sin"?
Do you? Then you are removed from that hope which belongs to those who
confess and lament their sins! You unChristianize yourself as soon as
you strike your name out of the list of SINNERS who are saved by the
Savior's Grace! You are a sinner and Christ died to save you, but do
not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel by a vain notion that you
are no longer sinful! Christ came not to heal the whole, but those who
are sick.
Do not be moved away, on the other hand, by despondency. Satan does not
mind which way you get off the Rock– whether it is by jumping up or by
jumping down–it is all the same to him, so long as you leave the Rock
of your salvation. Many there are that go up in a balloon of conceit,
while others are ready to roll down the steeps of despondency and
despair. But be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel either one
way or the other! The least sin ought to make you humble, but the
greatest sin ought not to make you despair. If you are, even now, as
big a sinner as any 50 men rolled into one, Christ can save you
readily–no, has saved you if you put your trust in Him! But, on the
other hand, if you presume that you are not guilty, or despairingly
say, "I am guilty, but I dare not believe that He can forgive me," you
are, in either case, moved away from the hope of the Gospel! May
eternal mercy keep you hourly penitent and believing, for repentance
and faith walk on either side of a Christian till he enters the pearly
gates.
You may be moved away from the hope of the Gospel, also, by false
teaching. If, for instance, you do not believe Christ to be, "Light of
light, very God of very God," you have moved away from our hope which
depends upon His Godhead. If you think that the priest can save you,
you are moved away from the one only Priest before whom all other
priests must let their censers die out into blackness! ONLY JESUS
CHRIST can save you! If you listen to any teaching which puts your
working or your doing into the place of Christ, you are drinking in
error and you will be removed from the hope of your calling, which is
Free Grace, received by faith, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You can be removed from the hope of your calling by hoping to live by
feelings. Ah, there are many Christians who get tempted that way! They
feel so happy and that is the reason why they believe that they are
saved. That is not the reason why I believe I am saved. I am saved
because I trust Christ–and if I were as miserable as misery, itself, I
should be just as truly saved as if I were as happy as Heaven itself!
It is faith that does it, not feeling! Faith is precious, feeling is
fickle. Believing, we stand firm, but by feeling we are tossed about.
True feeling follows faith and, as such, is valuable– but faith is the
root–and the life of the tree lies there, not in the branches and
leaves, which may be taken away, and yet the tree will survive.
Some have very joyous feelings. They swim in trances and deliriums and
yet they are all wrong. Rest on Christ, whether it is bright day or
dark night with you–though He slay you, trust in Him–as much trust in
Him as if He pressed you to His bosom! Faith must abide though joy
departs! If your feelings are down in the dust–if you feel as though
you could not hold up your head or look towards Heaven–never mind
that, but cling to the promise, feel what you may. Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners, and good
feelings will follow, by-and-by, but, just now, your first business is
this–"He that believes in Him is not condemned." "He that believes in
Him has everlasting life," Stand to that hope of the Gospel!
Many are moved away from the hope of their calling by a dazzle of
intellect. They are content simply to believe in Jesus till they meet
some fine man, a thinker with a big forehead and a large box which
ought to be full of brains. We have not been inside to see what is
there, but the preacher talks much of his thought and culture. He tells
you that you are behind the age–that a faith which believes God might
have done very well for the times of Cromwell and the roundhead
Puritans, but that, nowadays, we are far in advance of all that kind of
thing. Whenever a so-called "brother" dazzles you like that, let him
dazzle! Let him shine as much as he likes! But, as for you, tell him
that he who has once looked the sun in the face is not to be dazzled by
a glowworm! Go back to your wax and dazzle your brother worms, but you
cannot dazzle me!
A man who once has come to know Christ experimentally and lives by
faith upon the Son of God, may, if he likes, read all your essays and
reviews, and all the articles in your Quarterlies which ridicule the
power of faith, whether in living or in dying, and he will say, when he
has read them all through, "This is all they know about it." I daresay
that if a horse were to write a book, he would tell us that roast beef
is exceedingly bad food to eat. "Well," we should say, "that is a very
natural opinion for a horse! Let him keep to his oats and his hay." And
when a man says that there is no power in prayer, he shows that he does
not know anything about praying! Let him keep to what he knows and hold
his tongue about what he does not know! He says that it cannot be, so
we say, "But it is so"–and when we have tasted and handled it and
known it–there is no dazzling us out of it by a sense of the great
man's superiority of mind!
I have often thought that those who cry up their own learning must have
wonderfully little of it, for I have jotted down in my pocketbook that
I never saw the Bank of England send its bullion anywhere with a number
of bells upon the cart to say, "Here is bullion coming along!" But I
have noticed that every dustman does that! When I hear the bells
ringing so much about "culture," I say to myself, "Dust on!" If they
had real diamonds on board, they would hold their tongues about them!
At any rate, dust or diamonds, the load in these men's carts is nothing
to us–we have a more sure word of testimony to which our experience
has set its seal. We have believed in Christ Jesus and found salvation
and, by God's Grace, we will not be moved away from the hope of our
calling!
Lastly, be not moved away by persecution, or by sneers, or by ridicule.
The persecution of this present day is a small thing compared with what
our forefathers suffered. Look at that picture of the amphitheatre, by
Dore. All is over! Every seat is empty! The stars, like the eyes of
God, are looking down upon the arena. There lie the bodies of the
saints and
there are the tigers and the lions prowling over the sanded floor,
tearing the carcasses which they have slain. But the painter pictures a
vision of angels descending from over the uttermost parapet of the
amphitheatre–they are tenderly watching over those precious bodies,
for they have triumphed! And from the mouths of the beasts they have
gone to the thrones of the angels!
Only hold fast where the saints held fast at the first, "in nothing,
terrified by your adversaries." No more mind the advance of learning
than they dreaded the universality of ignorance! We have to fight with
both the ignorance of this world and the wisdom of it, too–"But the
foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is
stronger than man." How readily shall the Divine wisdom and power make
an end of learned babblings! Be not moved away from the hope of your
calling. "Cast not away your confidence" which has great recompense of
reward. Be like the Grecian youth who took his shield to battle–let it
be your glory and your defense. We would say to you what the Spartan
mother said to her son–"Come back with your shield, or on it." Come
back with the Gospel well strapped upon your arm like a golden shield,
or, if you die, may it become your bier and may you be borne Home upon
it as a steadfast Believer in Christ! But never be moved away from the
hope of your calling, for so would your shield be vilely cast away.
III. Lastly, WHY IS IT THAT WE CANNOT BE MOVED AWAY FROM THE HOPE OF
THE GOSPEL? What would follow if we were? Well, first, we will not be
moved away from the hope of our calling, for there is nothing better to
take its place! A man would not think of going to Australia if he heard
that the wages were less there than here, the expense of living greater
and the people were poorer. "No," he would say, "I shall not jump out
of the frying pan into the fire. I shall certainly stay where I am,
rather than go farther and fare worse."
Well, we are just of that mind. We do not see how we could improve
ourselves. Jonathan Edwards, in one of his treatises, speaks somewhat
to this effect–"If any man can prove this form of the Gospel to be
untrue and a mere dream, the very best thing that he can do is to sit
down and weep forever to think that he has disproved the brightest hope
that ever shone upon the eyes of men." And that is so. To have the
glorious hope that, believing in Christ, we are saved, is such a
blessing and such a joy that nothing can compare with it!
Where are the fields that can tempt away the sheep of Christ? Where is
the shepherd that can vie with Him? Where is the light that is brighter
than this eternal sun? Oh, you tempt us with your rattles like
children, but, having become men, we despise them! What have you to
offer of truth, of hope, of comfort, of joy equal to what we possess?
Let us, each one, sing our answer to the tempter–
"You only, Sovereign of my heart,
My refuge, my almighty Friend,
And can my soul from You depart,
On whom, alone, my hopes depend?
Let earth's alluring joys combine,
While You are near, in vain they call!
One smile, one blissful smile of Yours,
My dearest Lord, outweighs them all!
Your name, my inmost powers adore,
You are my life, my joy, my care.
Depart from You? 'Tis death–'tis more,
'Tis endless ruin, deep despair!" Remember, too, that if we are moved
away from the hope of our calling, we shall soon be in bondage. A man
may be as merry as a lark if he believes in Christ for salvation. But
let him leave that and, before long, he will be as dull as an owl! What
is there that can give us joy apart from Christ? Are we not bound in
chains of doubt when once we leave the way of Sovereign Grace through
believing in Christ? If we are moved away from the hope of our calling,
we cannot grow. A tree that is frequently moved usually dies–growth
there cannot be! And a man who begins in the spirit and hopes to be
made perfect by the flesh. A man who begins in Free Grace and then gets
to relying on his own works. A man who begins by trusting in Christ and
then makes confession to a priest. A man who rests in the precious
blood and then dabbles in sacraments and hopes to find salvation
there–he can never grow in Grace!
He is whirled about with every oar. Every tide of doctrine puts him up
stream or down stream. He can make no progress. And what good can such
a man do? He cannot influence others beneficially, for he teaches one
thing, today, and
another, tomorrow. He says that God has saved him and the next day he
doubts it. He says that the Atonement is full and free, but tomorrow he
says that penance is to be performed. He cannot bless others–he does
not know the way to blessing. Besides, if we were moved away from the
hope of our calling, what mean, miserable wretches we would be, for we
should have deserted our Savior! I wonder where I could hide my
dishonorable head if I once came here to preach salvation by the works
of the flesh and not by the Grace of God! I hope that you would hiss me
from the platform! And I hope that you will so treat anybody that shall
succeed me, when I am gone, who shall preach to you any other Gospel
than that which you have received!
Hold fast, with all your might, right solemnly to the grand old faith,
for if you do not, in rejecting that way of salvation, you reject
yourselves! What did Christ die for, if we can be saved in some other
way? Why did He pour out His blood if there is a cheaper method to win
the skies? Why did He go down into the depths of death-shade, if you
can force your way to Heaven by your own endeavors without Him? No,
no–we will stand fast where we are, resting only and alone upon Jesus
Christ our Savior! For us to leave the plan of salvation–and with this
I close–is something like a soldier entrenched in an impregnable
fortress accepting an invitation to come out of it! You remember how
the black monarch, who has been so much run after in England, said that
our soldiers ought to come out of the entrenchments?
They were rats, he said, to hide behind earthworks. If they would only
come out, he would destroy them! But our soldiers were wise enough not
to venture into the open until the proper time. So the world, the
flesh, the devil and error say, "Come out! Come out! You talk about an
Infallible Scripture and an Almighty Savior and a simple faith in Him.
Come out and fight us fairly on the level." Yes, but we do not see it
and we shall never attempt it! We are like the little coney, of whom
Solomon speaks. He hid himself among the rocks and, the sportsman, I
have no doubt, said, "Why don't you come out, little coney? Come, and
let me be your friend." But the coney, though he was feeble, was wise,
and he hid himself in the rock all the more, because a stranger invited
him out. Do the same when Satan cries, "Come away and be free. Be a
man! Do not be always trusting in authority." "No," you say, "I shall
stay where I am."
As I was riding along in the south of France one day, I saw pair of
fine birds overhead. The driver called out in the French tongue,
"Eagles!" Yes, and there was a man below, with a gun, who was wishful
to get a nearer acquaintance with the eagles, but they did not come
down to oblige him! He pointed his rifle at them, but his shots did not
reach half way, for the royal birds kept above. The higher air is the
fit dominion for eagles! Up there is the eagle's playground, where he
plays with the callow lightning! Up above the smoke and clouds he
dwells. Stay there, eagles! Stay there! If men can get you within
range, they mean no good to you. Keep up, Christians! Keep up in the
higher element, resting in Jesus Christ, and do not come down to find a
perch for yourself among the trees of philosophy! Whatever we do, let
us never leave the way of the Truth of God, of peace, of safety!
We are going along the King's Highway and the thieves on the side of
the road say, "Come off the highway! It is so dull and monotonous. Come
into the woods! We will show you fair flowers, ferny dells and quiet
caves. Come, listen to the birds that sing all day and all night, too.
Come with us." We heed you not–he that travels along the King's
Highway is under the King's protection–but he that wanders into the
dark mountains and lonesome woods may take care of himself. We shall do
as we have done–follow the way that leads from the banishment–the way
of trusting in the Savior and in Him, alone!
As you hold to the faith, so may God bless and enrich you. As with
simple heart you plod along the road that leads to Heaven by the
righteousness of the Son of God, may the Lord be with you and comfort
you. But if you turn back, woe unto you! A curse will fall upon you in
that day of shame and crime! The Lord keep you, that you may keep the
faith. Amen.
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The General Convocation Around Mount Zion