Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, March 5th, 1871 by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and
everyone that loveth him that begot loveth him also that is begotten of
him."–1 John 5:1.
FOR THE PREACHER of the gospel to make full proof of his ministry will
be a task requiring much divine teaching. Besides much care in the
manner and spirit, he will need guidance as to his matter. One point of
difficulty will be to preach the whole truth in fair proportion, never
exaggerating one doctrine, never enforcing one point, at the expense of
another, never keeping back any part, nor yet allowing it undue
prominence. For practical result will much depend upon an equal
balance, and a right dividing of the word. In one case this matter
assumes immense importance because it affects vital truths, and may
lead to very serious results unless rightly attended to; I refer to the
elementary facts involved in the work of Christ for us, and the
operations of the Holy Spirit in us. Justification by faith is a matter
about which there must be no obscurity much less equivocation; and at
the same time we must distinctly and determinately insist upon it that
regeneration is necessary to every soul that shall enter heaven. "Ye
must be born again" is as much a truth as that clear gospel statement,
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." It is to be feared
that some zealous brethren have preached the doctrine of justification
by faith not only so boldly and so plainly, but also so baldly and so
out of all connection with other truth, that they have led men into
presumptuous confidences, and have appeared to lend their countenance
to a species of Antinomianism very much to be dreaded. From a dead,
fruitless, inoperative faith we may earnestly pray, "Good Lord, deliver
us," yet may we be unconsciously, fostering it. Moreover to stand up
and cry, "Believe, believe, believe," without explaining what is to be
believed, to lay the whole stress of salvation upon faith without
explaining what salvation is, and showing that it means deliverance
from the power as well as from the guilt of sin, may seem to a fervent
revivalist to be the proper thing for the occasion, but those who have
watched the result of such teaching have had grave cause to question
whether as much hurt may not be done by it as good. On the other hand,
it is our sincere conviction that there is equal danger in the other
extreme. We are most certain that a man must be made a new creature in
Christ Jesus, or he is not saved; but some have seen so clearly the
importance of this truth that they are for ever and always dwelling
upon the great change of conversion, and its fruits, and its
consequences, and they hardly appear to remember the glad tidings that
whosoever believeth on Christ Jesus hath everlasting life. Such
teachers are apt to set up so high a standard of experience, and to be
so exacting as to the marks and signs of a true born child of God, that
they greatly discourage sincere seekers, and fall into a species of
legality from which we may again say, "Good Lord, deliver us." Never
let us fail most plainly to testify to the undoubted truth that true
faith in Jesus Christ saves the soul, for if we do not we shall hold in
legal bondage many who ought long ago to have enjoyed peace, and to
have entered into the liberty of the children of God.
It may not be easy to keep these two things in there proper position,
but we must aim at it if we would be wise builders. John did so in his
teaching. If you turn to the third chapter of his gospel it is very
significant that while he records at length our Saviour's exposition of
the new birth to Nicodemus, yet in that very same chapter he gives us
what is perhaps the plainest piece of gospel in all the Scriptures:
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life." So, too, in the chapter before us
he insists upon a man's being born of God; he brings that up again and
again, but evermore does he ascribe wondrous efficacy to faith; he
mentions faith as the index of our being born again, faith as
overcoming the world, faith as possessing the inward witness, faith as
having eternal life–indeed, he seems as if he could not heap honour
enough upon believing, while at the same time he insists upon the grave
importance of the inward experience connected with the new birth.
Now, if such difficulty occurs to the preacher, we need not wonder that
it also arises with the hearer, and causes him questioning. We have
known many who, by hearing continually the most precious doctrine that
belief in Jesus Christ is saving, have forgotten other truths, and have
concluded that they were saved when they were not, have fancied they
believed when as yet they were total strangers to the experience which
always attends true faith. They have imagined faith to be the same
thing as a presumptuous confidence of safety in Christ, not grounded
upon the divine word when rightly understood, nor proved by any facts
in their own souls. Whenever self-examination has been proposed to them
they have avoided it as an assault upon their assurance, and when they
have been urged to try themselves by gospel tests, they have defended
their false peace by the notion that to raise a question about their
certain salvation would be unbelief. Thus, I fear, the conceit of
supposed faith in Christ has placed them in an almost hopeless
position, since the warnings and admonitions of the gospel have been
set aside by their fatal persuasion that it is needless to attend to
them, and only necessary to cling tenaciously to the belief that all
has been done long ago for us by Christ Jesus, and that godly fear and
careful walking are superfluities, if not actually an offence against
the gospel. On the other hand, we have known others who have received
the doctrine of justification by faith as a part of their creed, and
yet have not accepted it as a practical fact that the believer is
saved. They so much feel that they must be renewed in the spirit of
their minds, that they are always looking within themselves for
evidences, and are the subjects of perpetual doubts. Their natural and
frequent song is–
"Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought;
Do I love the Lord, or no?
Am I his, or am I not?"
These are a class of people to be much more pitied than condemned.
Though I would be the very last to spread unbelief, I would be the very
first to inculcate holy anxiety. It is one thing for a person to be
careful to know that he is really in Christ, and quite another thing
for him to doubt the promises of Christ, supposing that they are really
made to him. There is a tendency in some hearts to look too much
within, and spend more time studying their outward evidences and their
inward feelings, than in learning the fullness, freeness, and all
sufficiency of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. They too much obscure
the grand evangelical truth that the believer's acceptance with God is
not in himself, but in Christ Jesus, that we are cleansed through the
blood of Jesus, that we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, and
are, in a word, "accepted in the Beloved." I earnestly long that these
two doctrines may be well balanced in your souls. Only the Holy Spirit
can teach you this. This is a narrow path which the eagle's eye has not
seen, and the lions whelp has not trodden. He whom the Holy Ghost shall
instruct will not give way to presumption and despise the Spirit's work
within, neither will he forget that salvation is of the Lord Jesus
Christ, "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption." The text appears to me to blend these
two truths in a very delightful harmony, and we will will try to speak
of them, God helping us.
"He that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." We shall
consider this morning, first of all, the believing which is here
intended; and then, secondly, how it is a sure proof of regeneration;
and then, thirdly, dwelling for awhile upon the closing part of the
verse we shall show how it becomes an argument for Christian love:
"Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten
of him."
I. WHAT IS THE BELIEVING INTENDED IN THE TEXT? We are persuaded, first
of all, that the believing here intended is that which our Lord and his
apostles exhorted men to exercise, and to which the promise of
salvation is always appended in the word of God; as for instance that
faith which Peter inculcated when he said to Cornelius, "To him give
all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in
him shall receive the remission of sins;" and which our Lord commanded
when he came into Galilee, saying to men, "Repent ye, and believe the
gospel" (Mark i. 15). Certain persons have been obliged to admit that
the apostles commanded, and exhorted, and besought men to believe, but
they tell us the kind of believing which the apostles bade men exercise
was not saving faith. Now, God forbid we should ever in our zeal to
defend a favorite position, be driven to an assertion so monstrous. Can
we imagine for a moment apostles with burning zeal and ardor, inspired
by the Spirit of God within them, going about the world exhorting men
to exercise a faith which after all would not save them? To what
purpose did they run on so fruitless an errand, so tantalizing to human
need, so barren of results? When our Lord bade his disciples go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and added, "he
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," the faith which was to
be preached was evidently none other than a saving faith, and it is
frivolous to say otherwise. I must confess that I felt shocked the
other day to read in a certain sermon the remark that the words of Paul
to the jailor "were spoken in a conversation held at midnight under
peculiar circumstances, and the evangelist who wrote them was not
present at the interview." Why, had it been at high noon, and had the
whole world been present, the apostle could have given no fitter answer
to the question, "What must I do to be saved?" than the one he did
give, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." It
is, I repeat, a mere frivolity or worse, to say that the faith enjoined
by the apostles was a mere human faith which does not save, and that
there is no certainty that such faith saves the soul. That cause must
be desperate that calls for such a defence.
Furthermore, the faith here intended is the duty of all men. Read the
text again: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God." It can never be less than man's duty to believe the truth; that
Jesus is the Christ is the truth, and it is the duty of every man to
believe it. I understand her by "believing," confidence in Christ, and
it is surely the duty of men to confide in that which is worthy of
confidence, and that Jesus Christ is worthy of the confidence of all
men is certain, it is therefore the duty of men to confide in him.
Inasmuch as the gospel command, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved," is addressed by divine authority to every
creature, it is the duty of every man so to do. What saith John: "This
is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus
Christ," and our Lord himself assures us, "He that believeth on him is
not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." I
know there are some who will deny this, and deny it upon the ground
that man has not the spiritual ability to believe in Jesus, to which I
reply that it is altogether an error to imagine that the measure of the
sinners moral ability is the measure of his duty. There are many things
which men ought to do which they have now lost the moral and spiritual,
though not the physical, power to do. A man ought to be chaste, but if
he has been so long immoral that he cannot restrain his passions, he is
not thereby free from the obligation. It is the duty of a debtor to pay
his debts, but if he has been such a spendthrift that he has brought
himself into hopeless poverty, he is not exonerated from his debts
thereby. Every man ought to believe that which is true, but if his mind
has become so depraved that he loves a lie and will not receive the
truth, is he thereby excused? If the law of God is to be lowered
according to the moral condition of sinners, you would have a law
graduated upon a sliding- scale to suit the degrees of human
sinfulness; in fact, the worst man would be under the least law, and
become consequently the least guilty. God's requirements would be a
variable quantity, and, in truth, we should be under no rule at all.
The command of Christ stands good however bad men may be, and when he
commands all men everywhere to repent, they are bound to repent,
whether their sinfulness renders it impossible for them to be willing
to so or not. In every case it is man's duty to do what God bids him.
At the same time, this faith, wherever it exists, is in every case,
without exception, the gift of God and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Never yet did a man believe in Jesus with the faith here intended,
except the Holy Spirit led him to do so. He has wrought all our works
in us, and our faith too. Faith is too celestial a grace to spring up
in human nature till it is renewed: faith is in every believer "the
gift of God." You will say to me, "Are these two things consistent?" I
reply, "Certainly, for they are both true." "How consistent?" say you.
"How inconsistent?" say I, and you shall have as much difficulty to
prove them inconsistent as I to prove them consistent. Experience makes
them consistent, if theory does not. Men are convinced by the Holy
Spirit of sin–"of sin," saith Christ, "because they believe not on
me;" here is one of the truths; but the selfsame hearts are taught the
same Spirit that faith is of the operation of God. (Col. ii. 2)
Brethren be willing to see both sides of the shield of truth. Rise
above the babyhood which cannot believe two doctrines until it sees the
connecting link. Have you not two eyes, man? Must you needs put one of
them out in order to see clearly? Is it impossible to you to use a
spiritual stereoscope, and look at two views of truth until they melt
into one, and that one becomes more real and actual because it is made
up of two? Man men refuse to see more than one side of a doctrine, and
persistently fight against anything which is not on its very surface
consistent with their own idea. In the present case I do not find it
difficult to believe faith to be at the same time the duty of man and
the gift of God; and if others cannot accept the two truths, I am not
responsible for their rejection of them; my duty is performed when I
have honestly borne witness to them.
Hitherto we have only been clearing the way. Let us advance. The faith
intended in the text evidently rests upon a person–upon Jesus.
"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." It is
not belief about a doctrine, nor an opinion, nor a formula, but belief
concerning a person. Translate the words, "Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ," and they stand thus: "Whosoever believeth that
the Saviour is the Anointed is born of God." By which is assuredly not
meant, whosoever professes to believe that he is so, for many do that
whose lives prove that they are not regenerate; but, whosoever believes
it to be the fact, as truly and in very deed to receive Jesus as God
has set him forth and anointed him, is a regenerate man. What is meant
by "Jesus is the Christ," or, Jesus is the Anointed? First, that he is
the Prophet; secondly, that he is the Priest; thirdly, that he is the
King of the church, for in all these three senses he is the Anointed.
Now, I may ask myself this question: Do I this day believe that Jesus
is the great Prophet anointed of God to reveal to me the way of
salvation? Do I accept him as my teacher and admit that he has the
words of eternal life? If I so believe, I shall obey his gospel and
possess eternal life. Do I accept him to be henceforth the revealer of
God to my soul, the messenger of the covenant, the anointed prophet of
the Most High? But he is also a priest. Now, a priest is ordained among
men to offer sacrifices; do I firmly believe that Jesus was ordained to
offer his one sacrifice for the sins of mankind, by the offering of
which sacrifice once for all he has finished the atonement and made
complete expiation? Do I accept his atonement as an atonement for me,
and receive his death as an expiation upon which I rest my hope for
forgiveness of all my transgressions? Do I in fact believe Jesus to be
the one sole, only propitiating Priest, and accept him to act as priest
for me? If so, then I have in part believed that Jesus is the Anointed.
But he is also King, and if I desire to know whether I possess the
right faith, I further must ask myself, "Is Jesus, who is now exalted
in heaven, who once bled on the cross, is he King to me? Is his law my
law? Do I desire to submit myself entirely to his government? Do I hate
what he hates, and love what he loves? Do I live to praise him? Do I,
as a loyal subject, desire to see his kingdom come and his will be done
on earth as it is in heaven?" My dear friend, if thou canst heartily
and earnestly say, "I accept Jesus Christ of Nazareth to be Prophet,
Priest, and King to me, because God has anointed him to exercise those
three offices; and in each of these three characters I unfeignedly
trust him," then, dear friend, you have the faith of God's elect, for
it is written, "He that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God."
Now we go a little further. True faith is reliance. Look at any Greek
lexicon you like, and you will find that the word pisteuein does not
merely mean to believe, but to trust, to confide in, to commit to,
entrust with, and so forth; and the marrow of the meaning of faith is
confidence in, reliance upon. Let me ask, then, every professor her who
professes to have faith, is your faith the faith of reliance? You give
credit to certain statements, do you also place trust in the one who
glorious person who alone can redeem? Have you confidence as well as
credence? A creed will not save you, but reliance upon the Anointed
Saviour is the way of salvation. Remember, I beseech you, that if you
could be taught an orthodoxy unadulterated with error, and could learn
a creed written by the pen of the Eternal God himself, yet a mere
notional faith, such as men exercise when they believe in the existence
of men in the moon, or nebulae in space, could not save your soul. Of
this we are sure, because we see around us many who have such a faith,
and yet evidently are not the children of God.
Moreover, true faith is not a flattering presumption, by which a man
says, "I believe I am saved, for I have such delightful feelings, I
have had a marvelous dream, I have felt very wonderful sensations;" for
all such confidence may be nothing but mere assumption. Presumption,
instead of being faith, is the reverse of faith; instead of being the
substance of things hoped for, it is a mere mirage. Faith, is as
correct as reason, and if her arguments are considered, she is as
secure in her conclusions as though she drew them by mathematical
rules. Beware, I pray you, of a faith which has no basis but your own
fancy.
Faith, again, is not the assurance that Jesus died for me. I sometimes
feel myself a little at variance with that verse–
"Just as I am–without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me."
It is eminently suitable for a child of God, but I am not sure as to
its being the precise way for putting the matter for a sinner. I do not
believe in Jesus because I am persuaded that his blood was shed for me,
but rather I discover that his blood was shed especially for me from
the fact that I have been led to believe in him. I fear me there are
thousands of people who believe that Jesus died for them, who are not
born of God, but rather are hardened in their sin by their groundless
hopes of mercy. There is no particular efficacy in a man's assuming
that Christ has died for me; for it is a mere truism, if it true as
some teach, that Jesus died for everybody. On such a theory every
believer in a universal atonement would necessarily be born of God,
which is very far from being the case. When the Holy Ghost leads us to
rely upon the Lord Jesus, then the truth that God gave his only
begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might be saved, is opened
up to our souls, and we see that for us who are believers, Jesus died
with the special intent that we should be saved. For the Holy Spirit to
assure us that Jesus shed his blood for us in particular is one thing,
but merely to conclude that Jesus for us on the notion that he died for
everybody is as far as the east is from the west, from being real faith
in Jesus Christ.
Neither is it faith for me to be confident that I am saved, for it may
be the case that I am not saved, and it can never be faith to believe a
lie. Many have concluded rashly that they were saved when they were
still in the gall of bitterness. That was not the exhibition of
confidence in Christ but the exhibition of a base presumption
destructive to the last degree. To come back to where we started from,
faith, in a word, is reliance upon Jesus Christ. Whether the Redeemer
died in special and particular for me or not, is not the question to be
raised in the first place; I find that he came into the world to save
sinners, under that general character I come to him, I find that
whosoever trusteth him shall be saved, I therefore trust him, and
having done so, I learn from his word that I am the object of his
special love, and that I am born of God.
In my first coming to Jesus I can have no knowledge of any personal and
special interest in the blood of Jesus; but since it is written, "God
hath set him forth to be a propitiation for our sins: and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world," I come and trust
myself to that propitiation; sink or swim I cast myself on the Saviour.
Great Son of God, thou hast lived and died, thou hast bled and
suffered, and made atonement for sin for all such as trust thee, and I
trust thee, I lean upon thee, I cast myself upon thee. Now, whoever has
such faith as this is born of God, he has true faith which is proof
positive of the new birth. Judge ye, therefore, whether ye have this
faith or no.
Let me tarry just one minute longer over this. The true faith is set
forth in Scripture by figures, and one or two of these we will mention.
It was an eminent type of faith when the Hebrews father in Egypt slew
the lamb and caught the warm blood in the basin, then took a bunch of
hyssop and dipped it in the blood and marked the two posts of his door,
and then struck a red mark across the lintel. That smearing of the door
represented faith. The deliverance was wrought by the blood; and the
blood availed through the householder's own personally striking it upon
his door. Faith does that; it takes of the things of Christ, makes them
its own, sprinkles the soul, as it were, with the precious blood,
accepts the way of mercy by which the Lord passes over us and exempts
his people from destruction. Faith was shown to the Jews in another
way. When a beast was offered in sacrifice for sin, the priest and
sometimes the representatives of the tribes or the individual laid
their hands upon the victim in token that they desired their sins to be
transferred to it, that it might suffer for them as a type of the great
substitute. Faith lays her hands on Jesus, desiring to receive the
benefit of his substitutionary death.
A still more remarkable representation of faith was that of the healing
look of the serpent-bitten Israelites. On the great standard in the
midst of the camp Moses lifted up a serpent of brass; high overhead
above all the tents this serpent gleamed in the sun, and whoever of all
the dying host would but look to it was made to live. looking was a
very simple act, but it indicated that the person was obedient to God's
command. He looked as he was bidden, and the virtue of healing came
from the brazen serpent through a look. Such is faith. It is the
simplest thing in the world, but it indicates a great deal more than is
seen upon its surface:
"There is life for a look at the Crucified One."
To believe in Jesus is but to glance the eye of faith to him, to trust
him with thy soul.
That poor woman who came behind our Saviour in the press offers us
another figure of what faith is. She said, "If I may but touch the hem
of his garment I shall be made whole." Taking no medicines, making no
profession, and performing no ceremonies, she simply touched the
ravelling of the Saviour's robe, and she was healed at once. O soul, if
thou canst get into contact with Christ by simply trusting him, though
that trust be ever so feeble, thou hast the faith of God's elect; thou
hast the faith which is in every case the token of the new birth.
II. We must now pass on to show that WHEREVER IT EXISTS IT IS THE PROOF
OF REGENERATION. There never was a grain of such faith as this in the
world, except in a regenerate soul, and there never will be while the
world standeth. It is so according to the text, and if we had no other
testimony this one passage would be quite enough to prove it.
"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." "Ah!" I
hear thee say, poor soul, "the new birth is a great mystery; I do not
understand it; I am afraid I am not a partaker in it." You are born
again if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, if you are relying upon
a crucified Saviour you are assuredly begotten again unto a lively
hope. Mystery or no mystery, the new birth is yours if you are a
believer. Have you never noticed that the greatest mysteries in the
world reveal themselves by the simplest indications. The simplicity and
apparent easiness of faith is no reason why I should not regard its
existence as an infallible indication of the new birth within. How know
we that the new-born child lives except by its cry? Yet a child's
cry–what a simple sound it is! how readily could it be imitated! a
clever workman could with pipes and strings easily deceive us; yet was
there never a child's cry in the world but what it indicated the
mysteries of breathing, heart-beating, blood-flowing, and all the other
wonders which come with life itself. Do you see yonder person just
drawn out of the river? Does she live? Yes, life is there. Why? Because
the lungs still heave. But does it not seem an easy thing to make lungs
heave? A pair of billows blown into them, might not that produce the
motion? Ah, yes, the thing is easily imitated after a sort; but no
lungs heave except where life is. Take another illustration. Go into a
telegraph office at any time, and you will see certain needles moving
right and left with unceasing click. Electricity is a great mystery,
and you cannot see or feel it; but the operator tells you that the
electric current is moving along the wire. How does he know? "I know it
by the needle." How is that? I could move your needles easily. "Yes;
but do not you see the needle has made two motions to the right, one to
the left, and two to the right again? I am reading a message." "But,"
say you, "I can see nothing in it; I could imitate the clicking and
moving very easily." Yet he who is taught the art sees before him in
those needles, not only electric action, but a deeper mystery still; he
perceives that a mind is directing an invisible force, and speaking by
means of it. Not to all, but to the initiated is it given to see the
mystery hidden within the simplicity. The believer sees in the faith,
which is simple as the movements of the needle, an indication that God
is operating on the human mind, and the spiritual man discerns that
there is an inner secret intimated thereby, which the carnal eye cannot
decipher. To believe in Jesus is a better indicator of regeneration
than anything else, and in no case did it ever mislead. Faith in the
living God and his Son Jesus Christ is always the result of the new
birth, and can never exist except in the regenerate. Whoever has faith
is a saved man.
I beg you to follow me a little in this argument. A certain divine has
lately said, "A man's act of believing is not the same as his being
saved: it is only in the direction of being saved." This is tantamount
to a denial that every believer in Christ is at once saved; and the
inference is that a man may not conclude that he is saved because he
believes in Jesus. Now, observe how opposed this is to Scripture. It is
certain from the Word of God that the man who believes in Jesus is not
condemned. Read John iii. 18, and many other passages. "He that
believeth on Him is not condemned." Now is not every unregenerate man
condemned? Is not a man who is not condemned a saved man? When you are
sure on divine authority that the believer is not condemned, how in the
name of everything that is rational can you deny that the believer is
saved? If he is not condemned, what has he to fear? Will he not rightly
conclude that being justified by faith, he has peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ?
Note, secondly, that faith in the fourth verse of the chapter before us
is said to "overcome the world." "This is the victory that overcomes
the world, even our faith." What, then, does faith overcome the world
in persons who are not saved? How can this be possible when the apostle
saith that that which overcomes the world is born of God? Read the
fourth verse: "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:" but
faith overcomes the world. therefore the man who has faith is
regenerate; and what means that but that he is saved, and that his
faith is the instrument by which he achieves victories.
Further, faith accepts the witness of God, and more, he that hath faith
has the witness in himself to the truth of God. Read the tenth verse of
the chapter: "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself." It is not said, "He that does this or feels that," but "He
that believeth hath the witness in himself," his heart bears witness to
the truth of God. Has any unsaved man an experimental witness within?
Will you tell me that a man's inner experience bears witness to God's
gospel and yet the man is in a lost state, or only hopeful of being
saved ultimately? No, sir, it is impossible. He that believeth has that
change wrought in him which enables by his own consciousness to confirm
the witness of God, and such a man must be in a state of salvation. It
is not possible to say of him that he is an unsaved man.
Again, note in this chapter, at the thirteenth verse, that wherever
there is faith there is eternal life; so run the words, "these things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God;
that ye may know that ye have eternal life." Our Lord himself, and his
apostles, in several places have declared, "He that believeth on him
hath everlasting life." Do not tell me that a sinner who believes in
Jesus is to make an advance before he can say he is saved, that a man
who trusts Christ is only on his way to salvation, and must wait until
he has used the ordinances, and has grown in grace, before he may know
that he is saved. No, the moment that the sinner's trust in placed on
the finished work of Jesus he is saved. Heaven and earth may pass away,
but that man shall never perish. If only one second ago I trusted the
Saviour I am safe; just as safe as the man who has believed in Jesus
fifty years, and who has all the while walked uprightly. I do not say
that the new born convert is as happy, nor as useful, nor as holy, nor
as ripe for heaven, but I do say that the words, "he that believeth on
him hath everlasting life," is a truth with general bearings, and
relates as much to the babe in faith as does to the man who has
attained to fullness of stature in Jesus Christ.
As if this chapter were written on purpose to meet the gross error that
faith does not bring immediate salvation, it extols faith again and
again, yea, and I may add, our Lord himself crowns faith, because faith
never wears the crown, but brings all the glory to the dear Redeemer.
Now, let me say a word or two in reply to certain questions. But must
not a man repent as well as believe? Reply: No man ever believed but
what he repented at the same time. Faith and repentance go together.
they must. If I trust Christ to save me from sin, I am at the same time
repenting of sin, and my mind is changed in relation to sin, and
everything else that has to do with its state. All the fruits meet for
repentance are contained in faith itself. You will never find that a
man who trusts Christ remains an enemy of God, or a lover of sin. The
fact that he accepts the atonement provided is proof positive that he
loathes sin, and that his mind is thoroughly changed in reference to
God. Moreover, as to all the graces which are produced in the Christian
afterwards, are they not all to be found in embryo in faith? "Only
believe, and you shall be save," is the cry which many sneer at, and
others misunderstand; but do you know what "only believe" means? Do you
know what a world of meaning lies in that word? Read that famous
chapter to the Hebrews, and see what faith has done and is still able
to do, and you will see that it is no trifle. Wherever there is faith
in a man let it but develop itself and there will be a purging of
himself from sin, a separating himself from the world, a conflict with
evil, and a warring for the glory of Christ, which nothing else could
produce. Faith is in itself one of the noblest of graces; it is the
compendium of all virtues; and as sometimes there will lie within one
single ear enough seed to make a whole garden fertile, so, within that
one word "faith," there lies enough of virtue to make earth blessed;
enough of grace, if the Spirit make it to grow, to turn the fallen into
the perfect. Faith is not the easy and light thing men think. Far are
we from ascribing salvation to the profession of a mere creed, we
loathe the idea; neither do we ascribe salvation to a fond persuasion,
but we do ascribe salvation to Jesus Christ, and the obtaining of it to
that simple, child like confidence which lovingly casts itself into the
arms of him who gave both his hands to the nail and suffered to the
death for the sins of his people. He who believes, then, is saved–rest
assured of that. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God."
III. Now what flows out of this? Love is the legitimate issue! We must
love if we are begotten of God all those who are also born of God. It
would be an insult to you if I were to prove that a brother should love
his brother. Doth not nature herself teach us that? Those, then, who
are born of God ought to love all those of the same household. And who
are they? Why, all those who have believed that Jesus is the Christ,
and are resting their hopes where we rest ours, namely, on Christ the
Anointed One of God. We are to love all such. We are to do this because
we are of the family. We believe, and therefore we have been begotten
of God. Let us act as those who are of the divine family; let us count
it our privilege we are received into the household, and rejoice to
perform the lovely obligations of our high position. We look around us
and see many others who have believed in Jesus Christ; let us love them
because they are of the same kindred. "But they are some of them
unsound in doctrine, they make gross mistakes as to the Master's
ordinances." We are not to love their faults, neither ought we to
expect them to love ours, we are nevertheless to love their persons,
for "whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God," and
therefore he is one of the family, and as we love the Father who begat
we are to love all those who are begotten of him. First, I love God,
and therefore I desire to promote God's truth and to keep God's gospel
free from taint. But then I am to love all those whom God has begotten,
despite the infirmities and errors I see in them, being also myself
compassed about with infirmities. Life is the reason for love, the
common life which is indicated by the common faith in the dear Redeemer
is to bind us to each other. I must confess, though I would pay every
deference to every brother's conscientious judgment, I do not know how
I could bring my soul as a child of God to refuse any man communion at
my Master's table, who believed that Jesus is the Christ. I have proof
in his doing do, if he be sincere (and I can only judge of that by his
life), that he is born of God; and has not every child a right to come
to the Father's table? I know in the olden times, parent used to make
their children go without meals as a punishment, but everybody tell us
now this is cruel and unwise, for it injures the child's constitution
to deprive it of necessary food. There are rods in the Lord's house,
and there is no need to keep disobedient children away from supper. Let
them come to the Lord's table, and eat and drink with the Lord Jesus
and with all his saints, in the hope that when their constitution
bestows stronger they will throw out the disease which now they labor
under, and come to be obedient to the whole gospel, which saith, "He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
Let me beg the members of this church to exhibit mutual love to one
another. Are there many feeble among you? Comfort them. Are there any
who want instruction? Bring your knowledge to their help. Are there any
in distress? Assist them. Are they backsliding? Restore them. "Little
children, love one another," is the rule of Christ's family, may we
observe it. May the love of God which has been she abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, reveal itself by our love to
all the saints. And, remember, other sheep he has which are not yet of
this fold; them also he must bring in. Let us love those who are yet to
be brought in, and lovingly go forth at once to seek them; in whatever
other form of service God has given us, let us with loving eyes look
after our prodigal brothers, and who knows, we may bring into the
family this very day some for whom there will be joy in the presence of
the angels of God, because the lost one has been found. God bless and
comfort you, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–1 John 5.