Election–its Defenses and Evidences
(No. 2920)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1862.
"Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our Gospel came
not unto you in word only, but also inpower, and in the Holy Spirit,
and in much assurance… And you became followers of us, and of the
Lord having received the word in much affliction, withjoy of the Holy
Spirit." 1 Thessalonians 1:4-6.
AT the very announcement of the text, some will be ready to say, "Why
preach upon so profound a Doctrine as Election?" I answer, because it
is in God's Word, and whatever is in the Word of God is to be preached!
"But some Truths of God ought to be kept back from the people," you
will say, "lest they should make an ill use of them." That is Popish
doctrine! It was upon that very theory that the priests kept back the
Bible from the people–they did not give it to them lest they should
misuse it. "But are not some Doctrines dangerous?" Not if they are true
and rightly handled. The Truth of God is never dangerous–it is error
and reticence that are fraught with peril! "But do not men abuse the
Doctrines of Grace?" I grant you that they do! But if we destroyed
everything that men misuse, we would have nothing left! Are there to be
no ropes because some fools will hang themselves? And must cutlery be
discarded and denounced because there are some who will use dangerous
weapons for the destruction of their adversaries? Decidedly not!
Besides all this, remember that men read the Scriptures and think about
these Doctrines and, therefore, often make mistakes about them. Who,
then, shall set them right if we who preach the Word hold our tongues
about the matter?
I know that some men who have embraced the Doctrine of Election have
become Antinomians. Such men would probably have found other excuses
for their misdeeds if they had not sheltered themselves under the
shadow of this Doctrine. The sun will ripen the noxious weed as well as
the fruitful plant, but that is not the fault of the sun, but of the
nature of the weed, itself! We believe, however, that more persons are
made Antinomians through those who deny the Doctrine than through those
who preach it. One evidence of this is that in Scotland. You will
scarcely find a congregation of Hyper-Calvinists–the simple reason
being that the Church in Scotland holds entire the whole Doctrine upon
this matter and her ministers, as a rule, are not ashamed to preach it
fearlessly and boldly–and in connection with the rest of the faith.
Take any Doctrine and preach upon it exclusively, and you distort it.
The fairest face in the world, with the most comely features, would
soon become unseemly if one feature were permitted to expand while the
rest were kept in their usual form. Proportion, I take it, is
beauty–and to preach every Truth of God in its fair proportion,
neither keeping back any nor giving undue prominence to any, is to
preach the whole Truth as Christ would have it preached! On a Gospel
thus entire and harmonious, we may expect to have the blessing of the
Most High. So much by way of preface, not by way of apology. It is not
my custom to offer any apology for speaking the Truth of God!
I. WHAT IS THIS DOCTRINE OF ELECTION? Let us try to understand it as
spoken of in the text–"Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of
God."
There is such a thing as election. Any man who should deny that man is
a free agent might well be thought unreasonable, but free willis a
different thing from free agency. Luther denounced free will when he
said that "free will is the name for nothing." And President Edwards
demolished the idea in his masterly treatise. God is the universal
Agent and does as He wills–and His will is supremely good. He is the
superlative Agent and man, acting according to the devices of his own
heart, is nevertheless overruled by that Sovereign and wise legislation
which causes the wrath of man (that agency in which the creature cannot
govern himself) to praise Him and the remainder thereof He restrains.
How
these two things are true I cannot tell. It is not necessary for our
good, either in this life or the next, that we should have the skill to
solve such problems. I am not sure that in Heaven we shall be able to
know where the free agency of man and the Sovereignty of God meet, but
both are great Truths. God has predestinated everything, yet man is
responsible, for he acts freely and no constraint is put upon him even
when he sins and wantonly and wickedly disobeys the will of God! But so
many as are saved, you will say, are saved because they believe.
Certainly it is so! It is most true–God forbid I should deny it–but
why do they believe? They believe as the result of the working of the
Grace of God in their hearts. Since every man who is saved confesses
this, since every true Believer in the world acknowledges that
something special has been done for him more than for the impenitent,
the fact is established that God does make a difference. No one ever
heard it laid as an impeachment against the Lord that He has made such
a difference, so I cannot see why He should be impeached for intending
to make that difference–which is the Doctrine of Election! I am saved,
but I know it is not because of any goodness in me. And if you are
saved, you will freely confess that it is the distinguishing love of
God that has made you to differ. The Doctrine of Election is simply
God's intention to make the difference between people which you know
exists. While He gives mercy to all, He gives more mercy to some so
that the mercy already received shall be made effectual to their
eternal salvation.
This Election of God is Sovereign. He chooses as He wills. Who shall
call Him to account? "Can I not do as I will with My own?" is His
answer to every quibbler. "No, but, O man, who are you that replies
against God?" is the solemn utterance that silences everyone who would
impugn the Justice of the Most High. He has a right, seeing we are all
criminals, to punish whom He will. As King of the universe, He
doubtless acts with discretion, but still according to His Sovereignty.
Wisely, not wantonly, He rules, but always according to the counsel of
His own will. Election, then, is Sovereign.
Again, Election is free. Whatever may be God's reason for choosing a
man, certainly it is not because of any good thing in that man! He is
chosen because God will do so. We can get no further. We get as far as
those words of Christ, "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Your
sight," and there we stop–for beyond that no philosophy and no
Scripture can take us.
As it is Sovereign and free, so Election is irreversible. Having chosen
His people, He does not cast them away nor call back the word that is
gone from His lips, for it is written, "He hates putting away." He is
of one mind and who can turn
Him?
Once more, Election is effectual For "whom He did predestinate, them He
also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He
justified, them He also glorified."
And this Election is personal, for He calls out His children one by one
by their names. He calls them even as He leads out the stars and so He
brings them, every one, to the Father's House above.
We have thus given a statement as to what this Doctrine is. There we
will leave it. Our present objective is not so much to expound the
Doctrine as to strike a blow or two at certain errors which are very
common and which spring out of it. I know, dear Friends, there are some
who are so afraid of this Doctrine that the mention of it produces
alarm. If they were to meet a lion in their way, they would not be more
terrified than they are when they see this Doctrine in Scripture or
hear it from the pulpit!
II. Therefore, secondly, we will NOTICE WHAT ARE THE DEFENSES OF THIS
DOCTRINE and try, if we can, should you be laboring under any distress
of mind about it, to remove your difficulties.
Will you please remember, then, that this is not a point which you can
understand at the commencement of spiritual and religious life? You
would not teach your children, I suppose, to say their prayers
backwards and begin at, "Amen." And you are beginning at the wrong end
when you want, first of all, to know your election instead of
commencing with repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ! Election is a lesson for the more advanced students. Faith and
hope must be learned, first of all, in the infant class to which we all
must go if we would be wise unto salvation.
Now, if a child should have a book of algebra put into his hand and
should puzzle himself and say, "I shall never get an education, for I
cannot understand this." And then take down some ancient classic and
say, "I cannot comprehend this, either," you would say, "Dear Child,
you have nothing to do with these yet! Here is a sampler book for
you–a primer. Here you have A, B, C–learn this, first, and then, step
by step, you shall attain to the rest." Even so it is with us. Simple
trust in Christ is the first thing you have to understand. After that
you shall know the high, the sublime and
the glorious Doctrine of God's Decrees–but do not begin with these!
You will mystify and ruin yourself–you will lose your way in a fog and
get no good thereby.
Again, it is very certain that whatever this Doctrine may be–and we
will have no dispute about it just now–this Doctrine cannot possibly
be inconsistent with certain plain promises in God's Word. Such
promises as these–"Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." "Whoever will, let him take the water
of life freely." "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by Him." Why, I might quote by the hour together some of these
promises which are as wide as the poles–invitations that must not be
narrowed, exhortations which are addressed to every man and woman under
Heaven–in which every one of them is bidden to hear and live. "Ho,
everyone that thirsts, come to the waters." You know the class of
promises to which I allude. Now these are the Words of God which are
for you–get hold of them–come to Jesus Christ with them in your hands
and rest assured the Doctrine of Election, instead of pushing you back,
shall stand like the servants about your father's table to make music
while your whole being shall dance to the glorious tune! It shall be
like a dish upon the table at the feast of the returning prodigal, of
which you shall eat to the very full! It shall by no means repulse you
or show anything to you which may keep you from hoping in Christ.
Once more, it is quite certain that whatever it may be, this Doctrine
of Election does not deliver you from your duty. Now what is your duty?
"This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent." So
much is this your absolute duty that, "He that believes not is
condemned already, because he has not believed." This, more than
anything else is the reason of men's condemnation! The Scripture says
this is the one great sin. Of the Spirit of Truth we read that "when He
is come, He will reprove the world of sin–of sin because they believe
not on Me." Very well, then–in as much as God has so put it, that He
commands you this day to trust Christ and to believe on Him–that is
what you have to see to–and you may rest perfectly sure that falling
back on the Doctrine of Election in order to exonerate you from what
God commands you to perform is but a pitiful pretense! You are
commanded to believe and what God commands, no Doctrine may teach that
it is unfit for you to do! May God help you to believe, for this
Doctrine comes not to excuse you. The Gospel commandsyou and Election
through the Holy Spirit enablesyou. It is your duty to believe, but no
man ever was saved as a matter of duty, for that which saves is the
gift of God. But your business now is with Christ, only, and not with
the Decrees of the Father which are all in the keeping of Christ and
shall presently be revealed to you. You have to go to Christ, first,
and to His Father afterwards, for He says, "No man comes unto the
Father but by Me." You must go to the Cross to get to the Decree–you
must go round by Redemption to get to Election–there is no other way.
III. In the third place let us see WHAT ARE THE EVIDENCES OF ELECTION.
Our text says, very plainly too, that the Apostle knew the election of
the Thessalonians. How did he know it? The way by which the Apostle
knew it must be the method by which you and I are to know our election
of God, too.
We have known more than once in our day of some men who pretended to
know their election by their impudence. They had got into their head
the presumption that they were elected and though they lived on in sin
and still did as they liked, they imagined they were God's chosen. This
is what I call presuming upon election by sheer impudence.
We know of others, alas, who have imagined themselves to be elect
because of the visions that they have seen when they have been asleep
or when they have been awake–for men have waking dreams–and they have
brought these as evidences of their election. These are of as much
value as cobwebs would be for a garment! They will be of as much
service to you at the Day of Judgment as a thief's convictions would be
to him if he were in need of a character to commend him to mercy. You
may dream long enough before you dream yourself into Heaven–and you
may have as many stupid notions in your head as there are romances in
your circulating libraries–but because they are in your head they are
not, therefore, in God's Book. We need a more sure word of testimony
than this and if we have it not, God forbid that we should indulge our
vain heart with the dainty thought that we are chosen of God!
I have heard of one who said in an alehouse that he could say more than
any of the rest, that he was one of God's children. Meanwhile he drank
deeper into intoxication than the rest. Surely he might have said, with
an emphasis, that he was one of the devils children–and he would have
been correct. When immoral men and women who live constantly in sin,
prate about being God's children, we discern them at once. Just as we
know a crab tree when we see the fruit hanging upon it, we understand
what spirit these people are of when we see their walk and
conversation. Oh, it is
detestable–loathsome above all loathsomeness–to hear men whose
characters in secret are infamous, and whose lives are destitute of
every Christian virtue, boasting as though they had the keys of Heaven
and could set up whomever they would, and pull down whomever they might
please! Blessed be God, we are not under their domination, for a more
terrific set of tyrants than they are, the world has never known! And a
more frightful reign of vice than they would inaugurate if they had
their way, I am sure villainy, itself, cannot conceive! "Be not
deceived, God is not mocked." "Without holiness no man shall see the
Lord." If Divine Grace does not make us holy, teaching us to deny
ungodliness and worldly lusts, it is not worth the having! Brothers and
Sisters, if we are God's elect we must have some substantial evidence
to attest it!
According to our text, what are these evidences? They seem to be four.
The first evidence appears to be the Word of God coming home with power
If you will turn to the verse, you will soon see how the Apostle says,
"Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in
the Holy Spirit." The Gospel is preached in the ears of all–it only
comes with power to some. The power that is in the Gospel does not lie
in the eloquence of the preacher, otherwise men would be the converters
of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher's learning, otherwise it
would consist in the wisdom of man. The power which converts souls does
not even lie in the preacher's simplicity or adaptation to his
work–that is a secondary agency, but not the cause. Again, the power
which converts souls does not even lie in the pathos which the speaker
may employ. Men may weep to the tragic muse in a theater as well as to
prophetic strains in a chapel! Their creature passions may be impressed
through the acting on the stage as well as by the utterance of God's
own servants! No, there is something more than this needed and where it
is absent, all preaching is nothing! We might preach till our tongues
rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul
would be converted unless there were the mysterious power of the Holy
Spirit going with it, changing the will of man!
O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity
unless the Holy Spirit is with the Word to give it power to convert the
soul! We are reminded of Mr. Rowland Hill, who once met a man in the
street at night, not quite drunk, but almost so. The man said, "Mr.
Hill, I am one of your converts." "Yes," he said, "I dare say you are
one of mine–but if you were one of Gods, you would not be in the state
in which you now are." Our converts are worth nothing. If they are
converted by man they can be unconverted by man! If some charm or power
of one preacher can bring them to Christ, some charm or power of
another preacher can take them from Christ. True conversion is the work
of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit alone!
Well, then, my Hearers, did you ever, when listening to the Word, feel
a Divine Power coming with it? Never mind where you were, whether in
Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, in this Tabernacle, or at some
special service at one of the theaters–the place matters nothing.
"Well," perhaps you will say, "I have felt some impression." Ah, but
that may be wiped away! Have you ever felt something coming with the
Word which you could not understand. Which, while it wooed you and won
your heart, smote you as though a sword had gone through you and that
not with a flesh wound, but with a wound that divides between soul and
spirit, between joint and marrow, as if the Truth of God were, as
indeed it is, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts?
Those who are really God's elect can tell a tale something like this.
"There was a time when the Word was to me like a great ten
thonged-whip–my shoulders were stripped bare and every time the Word
was preached it seemed to make a gash within my soul! I trembled. I saw
God in arms against me. I understood that I was in debt to His Justice
and could not pay–that I was involved in a controversy against my
Maker and could not conquer. I saw myself stripped naked to my shame,
leprous from head to foot, a bankrupt and a felon ready to be given
over to a traitor's doom." Truly the Word came with power to your soul.
"And," you continue, "I remember, too, when the Truth of God came home
to my heart and made me leap for very joy, for it took all my load
away–it showed me Christ's power to save! I had known the Truth
before, but now I felt it! I had understood that Christ could save, but
now that fact came home to me! I went to Jesus just as I was–I touched
the hem of His garment and I was made whole! I found now that the Word
was not a fiction–that it was the one reality. I had listened scores
of times and he that spoke was as one that played a tune upon an
instrument–but now he seemed to be dealing with me, putting his hand
right into my heart and getting hold of me. He brought me first to
God's Judgment Seat and there I stood and heard the thunders roll! Then
he brought me to the Mercy Seat and I saw the blood sprinkled on it,
and I went home triumphing because my sin was washed away." Oh, again I
ask you, did the Word over come home with this power to your souls?
Since the day of your conversion has the Word ever rebuked you? Has it
sometimes cut down your hopes? Do you sometimes, after hearing a
sermon, feel as if it had been like a great hurricane bearing right
through the forest of your thoughts, cleaving its own course, and
leaving many a dead thing that you thought alive swept down to the
ground? Do you feel, too, when you go home from the sanctuary, as if
God Himself had been there? You did not know what else it could be. It
could not have been the speaker nor the words he uttered, but the very
God came and looked into your eyes and searched the thoughts of your
mind–and turned your heart upside down and then filled it full again
with His love and with His light, with His truth and with His joy, with
His peace and with His desire after holiness? Is it so with you? Where
the Word is not with power to your souls, you lack the proof of
Election.
Remember, I do not say that it will always be so. You must not expect
that God will speak with you every time–in fact, the preacher himself
fails often and is painfully conscious of it. How shall one man always
speak without sometimes feeling that he, himself, is not in a fit frame
to be God's mouthpiece? But though it be a clown from the country, if
he preaches God's Word, the Spirit will go with it! It is not the
clown, nor yet the archbishop that does the work–it is the Word of God
that is quick and powerful! Your evidence of Election is blotted and
blurred unless the Word has come to you with demonstration of the
Spirit and with His Power. People come and hear sermons in this place
and then they go out and say, "How did you like it"–as if that meant
anything to anybody–"How did you like it?" And one says, "Oh, very
well." And another says, "Oh, not at all." Do you think we live on the
breath of your nostrils? Do you believe that God's servants, if they
are really His, care for what you think of them? No, verily, but if you
should reply, "I enjoyed the sermon," they are inclined to say, "Then
we must have been unfaithful or else you would have been angry–we must
surely have slurred over something or else the Word would have cut your
conscience as with the jagged edges of a knife! You would have said, 'I
did not think how I liked it–I was thinking how I liked myself and
about my own state before God. That was the matter that exercised me,
not whether he preached well, but whether I stood accepted in Christ,
or whether I was a castaway.'" My dear Hearers, are you learning to
hear like that? If you are not, if going to church and to chapel are to
you like going to a play, or like listening to some orator who speaks
upon temporal matters, then you lack the evidence of Election–the Word
has not come to your souls with power.
But there is yet a second evidence of Election. Those whom God has
chosen receive the Word "in much assurance." They do not all receive it
with full assurance–that is a Grace they get afterwards–but they
receive it with much assurance. There are some professors who go upon
very strange principles. It is indeed somewhat difficult to know what
principles are enforced and acknowledged in this age, for there are
persons whose principles allow them to say black and white are the same
thing! And there are certain persons whose religious principles are not
much unlike this. They put a hymn book in their pockets when they are
going to a meeting. They put a comic song book in their pockets when
they are going somewhere else. They can hold with the hare and run with
the hounds. Such people as these never have any very great confidence
in their religion–and it is very proper that they should not–for
their religion is not worth the time they spend in making a profession
of it!
But the true Christian, when he gets hold of principles, keeps them and
there is no mistake about the grip with which he maintains his hold of
them. "Ah," he says, "that Word which I have heard with my ears is the
very Truth of God and it is true to me, real and substantial to me–and
here I clasp it with both hands–with a clasp that neither time, nor
tribulation, nor death shall ever cause me to let go." To a Christian
his religion is a part of himself–he believes the Truth of God not
because he has been told it or taught it by mother or friend, but
because it is true to him in his inmost soul. He is like the servant
girl who, when she could not answer her infidel master, said, "Sir, I
cannot answer you, but I have a something in here that would if it
could speak." There is "much assurance."
Sinners who have once felt their need of a Savior feel very much
assurance about His preciousness. And saints that have once found Him
precious have very much assurance about His Divinity, about His
Atonement, about His everlasting Love, about His immortal dignity as a
Prophet, a Priest and a King. They are sure of it. I know some persons
who say if a man speaks positively, he is dogmatic. Glorious old
dogmatism, when will you come back to earth? It is these, "ifs," and
"buts," and qualifications–these, "perhapses," and "maybe sos" that
have ruined our pulpits! Look at Luther when he stood up for the glory
of his God–was there ever such a dogmatist? "I believe it," he said,
"and therefore I speak it." From that day, when on Pilate's staircase,
he was trying to creep up and down the stairs to win Heaven, when the
sentence out of the musty folio came before him, "Justified by faith we
have peace with God," that man was as sure that works could notsave him
as he was of his own existence! Now, if he had come out and said,
"Gentlemen, I have a theory to propound that may be correct. Excuse my
doing so," and so on, the Papacy would have been dominant to this day!
But he knew God had said it and he felt that that was God's own way to
his own soul–and he could not help being dogmatic with that glorious
force of secession which soon laid his foes prostrate at his feet!
Now have you received the Gospel "with much assurance"? If you have and
you can say, "Christ is mine. I trust in Him and though I may sometimes
have doubts about my own interest in Him, yet I do know by experience
in my soul that He is a precious Christ–I know not by
'Paley'sEvidences nor by 'Butler'sAnalogy,' but I know by my heart's
inward evidence. I know by the analogy of my own soul's experience that
the Truth of God which I have received is no cunningly devised fable,
but something that came from God to draw my soul up to God"–that is
another evidence of Election! If you have that, never mind the rest! I
hardly care whether you believe the Doctrine of Election or not–you
are elect. As I have sometimes told a Brother who has denied the
Doctrine of Final Perseverance, when I have seen his holy life, "Never
mind, my Brother, you will persevere to the end and you will prove the
Doctrine that you do not believe! You may not be able to receive the
Doctrine I now preach, but if such has been your experience, when you
get to Heaven you will wake up and say, 'Well, I am one of the elect! I
made a deal of fuss about it while on the earth, but I will make a deal
of music about it now that I have got to Heaven. And I will sing more
sweetly and loudly than all the rest, 'Unto Him that has loved me and
washed me from my sins in His blood, unto Him be glory forever and
ever!'"
But there is a third evidence. Those who are chosen of the Lord desire
to be like Him.' 'You became followers of us and of the Lord," the
Apostle says in the text–by which he does not mean that they said, "I
am of Paul, I am of Silas, I am of Timothy"–but that they imitated
Paul so far as he imitated Christ. Thomas a" Kempis wrote a book about
the imitation of Christ and a blessed book in some respects it is. But
I would like the Holy Spirit to write in your hearts the imitation of
Christ. It shall be to you a sweet proof that you are chosen of God.
Are you Christlike or do you want to be? Can you forgive your enemy and
can you love him and do him good? Can you say tonight, "I am no more
any man's enemy than is the baby that is just born"? And do you now
desire to live unselfishly, to live for others, to live for God? Are
you prayerful? Do you come to God in prayer as Jesus did? Are you
careful of your words and of your acts as Christ was? I do not ask you
if you are perfect, but I do ask whether you follow the Perfect One! We
are to be followers of Christ, if not with equal steps, still with
steps that would be equal if they could! If we follow Christ, that will
be to others one of the surest proofs of our election, though perhaps
to ourselves, if we are humble-minded, it will be no proof, since we
shall rather see our blemishes than our virtues and mourn over our sins
more than we rejoice in our Graces. If a man follows not Christ, those
who look on may be safe enough in concluding that, whatever he may say
about election, and however much he may prate about it, he is not the
Lord's. On that point I shall not say anything more because I have
already enlarged upon it in a former part of the discourse.
In the last place I will say the fourth evidence is the existence of
spiritual joy in spiritual service. If you look further, it seems that
those of whose election the Apostle was sure, received the Word of God
"in much affliction," but, "with joy in the Holy Spirit." What do you
say about this, you whose religion consists of a slavish attendance
upon forms that you detest? Look how many there are who go to a place
of worship just because it is not respectable to stay away, but who
often wish it were! And when many of your Christians get to the
Continent, where is the Sabbath with them, then? Where is then their
care for God's House? See, too, with what misery some people at home go
up to the House of the Lord. Why? Because they have come to regard it
as a place where they ought to be very solemn. It is not a home to
them–it is a prison. How different it is with your children when they
come home for their holidays! How do they come into their father's
house? Dull, demure, as if they could not speak? No, bless their little
hearts, they come running up to their father's knees, so glad to be
there, so glad to be home! That is how a man whose religion is his
delight comes up to the House of the Lord. He feels that it is his
Father's House. He would be reverent, for his Father is God, but he
must be happy, for God is his Father!
See again the Christian when he goes to his closet to pray. Ungodly
persons will not go there at all. Or, if they do, it is because they
want to win Heaven by it. But look, they go through their dreary
prayers–and what a dreary thing it must be for a man to pray when he
never expects to be heard and when he has no spirit of prayer! It is
like a horse going round a mill grinding for somebody else and never
getting any farther–doing the same tomorrow, the same the day
after, and ever on and on. Sometimes as the little church bells sound
in the morning in certain churches to fetch people out–Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday there are some
persons to be found there for early prayers–and they go to evening
prayers, too, and a very good thing this would be if those who attend
went there with holy joy! But there is the sexton and he says it is a
great trouble to be always opening the doors like that when nobody
comes except three old women that have got alms-houses and two that
expect them and are, therefore, there. Do you think that an acceptable
service to God? But they who go because they would not stay away if
they could–they who worship God because it is an instinctand a
pleasure, a holy thing and honorable–these are men and women who
delight in God's Word and they give the best evidence of being chosen
of God!
Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, who make your faces miserable that
you may appear unto men to fast! Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that reads the heart asks not that your head may hang down like a
bulrush, but that you may do deeds of mercy and walk humbly with your
God! And you who can delight yourselves in your God shall have the
desires of your heart! You that rejoice in the Lord, always, and
triumph in His name shall go from strength to strength, and going at
last to Glory, you shall find that you are there as the result of His
Divine Purpose and Decree–and you shall give Him all the praise!
But now, I think I hear some say, "Oh, I want to know whether I am
elect. I cannot say that the Word ever came to me with power. I cannot
say I received it in much assurance. I cannot say I am a follower of
Christ. I cannot say I have received the Word with joy." Well, dear
Beloved, then leave that question alone! Instead of that, let me ask
another, "Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you now trust
Christ to save your souls?" He will do it, if, just as you are, whoever
you may be, you will come to Christ and give yourself up to Him to save
you, to have you, to hold you for better, for worse, in life and
through death. The moment you believe, you are saved! That act of
faith, through the precious blood of Christ, will put away your every
sin! You will not begin to be saved–you are saved. You will not be put
into a salvable condition, but you shall be saved the moment you
believe–completely and perfectly saved! "Oh," says one, "I would I
could trust Christ." Say you so? "Whoever will, let him take," let him
trust Christ. God help you now to do it! Trust Jesus and you are saved!
This is addressed to every one of you without exception, for, "He that
believes on the Son has everlasting life." The Lord help you to trust
Jesus and then you may go on your way with joy, "knowing, brethren
beloved, your election of God."
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 CORINTHIANS9:22-27.
The Apostle Paul is here giving a description of the way in which he
made everything help toward the fulfillment of his desire to be a
faithful minister of Jesus Christ. He longed to be the means of winning
souls. He desired that at the last his Master might be able to say to
him, "Well done, you good and faithful servant." And, therefore,
everything with which he had to do was made to bend in that direction.
22-24. I am made all things to allmen, that Imight by allmeans save
some. And this I do for the Gospels sake, that I might be partaker
thereof with you. Know you not that they which run in a race all run,
but one receives the prize?No matter if 20 or a hundred had entered the
race, "but one receives the prize." Alas, out of these who appear to be
running in the Christian ministry, how many will be prize-takers at the
last? And out of those who seem to be running the race of the Christian
life, how many will win the prize? Ah, Lord, You know!
24. So run that you may obtain. Do not speculate about what others will
do, or not do, but see to your own running–"So run that you may
obtain." Salvation is all of Grace, but when a man is saved, he still
has to run the Christian race and to be a runner as long as he lives."
25. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all
things. Here Paul is alluding to the athletic games and pugilistic
encounters of the time. It was a matter of common notoriety that every
man who was going to fight, or wrestle, or run, had to get himself into
proper condition–to "go into training," as we say in similar cases
nowadays.
25. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we for an
incorruptible crown. The athletes who completed in the Grecian games
passed through great self-denials and mortifications of the flesh in
order that every part of their
bodily frame might be tough and strong when they came forward to
wrestle, or to run, or to fight. "Now," says Paul, "if they do all that
to gain a crown of parsley"–which was generally the crown
given–truly, "a corruptible grown"– "how much more ought we to do in
order to win a crown that fades not away–'an incorruptible crown'"!
26. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that
beats the air. He would not leave a stone unturned, as it were, that he
might gain the prize. He put out all his strength in the name of the
Lord.
27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. The Greek
word, according to some, implies getting his body into the same
position as a man does when, in a sport encounter, he gets his
adversary's head under his arm and smites him with all his might. So
Paul says concerning his body, "I bring it into subjection and take
care that it feels the full force of my will." According to other
interpreters, the verse may be read, "I drag my body off as a
slave"–just as in some of those ancient fights, the victors dragged
away their antagonists as slaves, Paul accounted his body to be as a
slave to his soul and dragged it behind him in chains.
27. Lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself
should be a castaway. The Greek word which is translated, "a castaway,"
is, "adokimos" It might better have been rendered, "disapproved." It
certainly has no such meaning as that which has been generally given to
it. Paul was not afraid of being cast away by God at the last! What he
aimed at was this–as he had entered the lists, as a Christian
minister, to fight for Christ, to wrestle against principalities and
powers, to seek to win souls for Christ, he must keep his bodily powers
and passions so in subjection that, at the last, when the prizes were
distributed, he would be found to have won his. This is quite another
matter from being "a castaway" from salvation and eternal life! Paul
was saved and he knew it–and some of us know, to a certainty, that we
are saved–but we also know that there is another crown to be won which
the Lord will give to His servants who win in the great fight with sin.
To win this crown is our high ambition and we long to hear the Master
say to each one of us, in that day, "Well done, you good and faithful
servant, you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you
ruler over many things: enter you into the joy of your Lord."