Preceding Grace
[This sermon was originally titled "Prevenient Grace."]
A SERMON PREACHED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTON.
" When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His Grace, to reveal His Son in me." Galatians 1:15.
You all know the story of the Apostle Paul. He had been a persecutor
and went armed with letters to Damascus to hail men and women and drag
them to prison. On the road there he saw a light exceedingly
bright–above the brightness of the sun–and a voice spoke out of
Heaven to him saying, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" By this
miraculous interposition he was converted–three days he spent in
darkness. But when Ananias came to tell him of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, there fell from his eyes, as it were, scales. He was baptized,
became the most mighty of all Christian teachers, and could truly say
that he was not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles.
Paul's conversion is generally considered so very remarkable for its
suddenness and distinctness and truly it is. Yet, at the same time, it
is no exception to the general rule of conversions, but is rather a
type, or model, or pattern of the way in which God shows forth His
long-suffering to them that are led to believe on Him. It appears from
my text, however, that there is another part of Paul's history which
deserves our attention quite as much as the suddenness of his
conversion, namely, the fact that although he was suddenly converted,
yet God had had thoughts of mercy towards him from his very birth.
God did not begin to work with him when he was on the road to Damascus.
That was not the first occasion on which eyes of love had darted upon
this chief of sinners. Paul declares that God had separated him and set
him apart even from his mother's womb that he might, by-and-by, be
called by Grace and have Jesus Christ revealed in him! I selected this
text, not so much for its own sake as to give me an opportunity for
saying a little this evening upon a doctrine not often touched upon,
namely, that of PRECEDING GRACE, or the Grace which comes before
regeneration and conversion.
I think we sometimes overlook it. We do not attach enough importance to
the Grace of God in its dealings with men before He actually brings
them to Himself. Paul says that God had designs of love towards him
even before He had called him out of the dead world into spiritual
life.
I. To begin, then, let us talk for a little while upon THE PURPOSE OF
GOD PRECEDING SAVING GRACE AS IT MAY CLEARLY BE SEEN DEVELOPING ITSELF
IN HUMAN HISTORY. You generally judge what a man's purpose is by his
actions. If you saw a man very carefully making molds in the sand, then
watched him take several pieces of iron and melt them down. And if you
further noticed him pouring the melted iron into the molds, you might
not know precisely what class of machine he was making, but you would
very justly conclude that he was making some part of an engine or other
machinery. Perhaps you might guess a beam, or a lever, or a crank, or a
wheel–and according to what you saw the molds in the sand to be you
would form your idea of what the man was intending to make.
Now, when I look at the life of a man, even before conversion, I think
I can discover something of God's molding and fashioning in him even
before regenerating Grace comes into his heart. Let me give you an
illustration of my course of thought. When God created man–we are told
in the book of Genesis–He made him "out of the dust of the earth."
Mark him beneath his Maker's hand, the framework of a man, the
tabernacle for an immortal soul–a man made of clay, fully made I
suppose, and perfect in all respects excepting one and that soon
followed–for after God had formed him out of the dust, then He
breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life and man became a living
soul.
Now it strikes me that during the early part of the history of the
people whom God means to save, though they have not received into their
hearts any spiritual life, nor experienced any of the work of
regeneration, yet their life before conversion is really a working of
them in the clay. Let us endeavor to bring this out more distinctly.
Can you not perceive God's purpose in the Apostle Paul when you think
of the singular gifts with which he was endowed? Here was a man, a
rhetorician so noble that there are in his works passages of eloquence
not to be equaled, much less excelled, by Demosthenes and Cicero.
As a logician his arguments are most conclusive as well as profound.
Never had man such eagle eyes to pierce into the depths of a matter!
Never had man such eagle wings to mount up into its sublimities! He
argues out questions so difficult to understand that at all times they
have been the battlegrounds of controversies! And yet he seems to
perceive them clearly and distinctly and to unfold and expound them
with a precision of language not to be misunderstood. All Apostles of
Jesus Christ put together are not equal to Paul in the way of teaching.
Truly he might have said of them all, "You are but as children compared
with me."
Peter dashes, and dashes gloriously against the adversary! But Peter
cannot build up, nor instruct like the great Apostle of the Gentiles.
He has to say of Paul's writings that they, "contain some things hard
to be understood." Peter can confirm, but scarcely can he understand
Paul–for where intellect is concerned, Paul is far, far above him.
Paul seems to have been endowed by God with one of the most intelligent
brains that ever filled human cranium and to have been gifted with an
intellect which towered far above anything that we find elsewhere.
Had Paul been merely a natural man, I do not doubt but what he would
take the place either of Milton among the poets, or of Bacon among the
philosophers. He was, in deed and in truth, a mastermind. Now, when I
see such a man as this cast by God in the mold of Nature, I ask
myself–"What is God's purpose? What is He doing here?" As every man
has a purpose, so also has God, and I think I see in all this that God
foreknew that such a man was necessary to be raised up as a vessel
through whom He might convey to the world the hidden treasures of the
Gospel. Such a man was needed so that God might speak His great things
by him!
You will say, probably, that God reveals great things by fools. I beg
your pardon. God did once permit an ass to speak, but it was a very
small thing that he said–for any ass might readily have said it.
Whenever there is a wise thing to be said, a wise man is always chosen
to say it. Look the whole Bible through and you will find that the
Revelation is always congruous to the person to whom it is given. You
do not find Ezekiel blessed with a Revelation like that of Isaiah.
Ezekiel is all imagination, therefore he must soar on the eagle's
wings. Isaiah is all affection and boldness and therefore he must speak
with evangelical fullness.
God does not give Nahum's Revelation to the herdsman Amos–the herdsman
Amos cannot speak like Nahum, nor can Nahum speak like Amos. Each man
is after his own order and a man of this masterly order of mind, like
the Apostle Paul, must have been created, it seems to me, for no other
end than to be the appropriate means of revealing to us the fullness
and the blessing of the Gospel of peace! Mark, again, the Apostle's
education. Paul was a Jew, not half Greek and half Jew, but a pure Jew
of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, speaking the Jews'
native tongue and not a stranger to the ancient speech of Israel.
There was nothing in the traditions of the Jews which Paul did not know
and understand. He was educated at the feet of Gamaliel. The best
master of the age is selected to be the master of the hopeful young
scholar and the school in which he is placed must be a Rabinnical one.
Now, just observe in this the purpose of God. Paul's life-long struggle
was to be with Jewish superstition. In Iconium, in Lystra, in Derbe, in
Athens, in Corinth, in Rome he must always be confronting the Judaizing
spirit. And it was well that he should know all about it–that he
should be well schooled in it. And it does strike me that God separated
him from his mother's womb on purpose that he might go forth to
proclaim the Gospel instead of Law and shut the mouths of those who
were constantly abiding by the traditions of the fathers, instead of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
All this, remember, was going on while as yet he was unconverted,
though he was even then, as we see, being prepared for his work. Then
observe the spiritual struggles through which Paul passed. I take it
that mental struggles are often a more important part of education than
what a man learns from his schoolmaster. What is learned here in my
heart is often of more use to me than what can be put into my head by
another. Paul seems to have had a mind bent upon carrying out what he
believed to be right. To serve God appears to have been the great
ambition, the one object of the Apostle's life.
Even when he was a persecutor, he says he thought he was doing God
service. He was no seeker after wealth–never in his whole lifetime was
Paul a Mammonite. He was no mere seeker after learning–never! He was
learned, but it was all held and used subject to what he deemed far
more highly–the indwelling Grace of God. Even before he knew Christ he
had a sort of religion and an attachment, and an earnest attachment,
too, to the God of his fathers, though it was a zeal not according to
knowledge. He had his inward fights and fears and struggles and
difficulties and all these were educating him to come out and talk to
his fellow sinners and lead them up out of the darkness of Judaism into
the light of Christianity.
And then, what I like in Paul and that which leads me to see the
purpose of God in him, is the singular formation of his mind. Even as a
sinner, Paul was great. He was "the chief of sinners," just as he
afterwards became, "not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles."
There are some of us who are such little men that the world will never
see us. The old proverb about the chips in porridge giving one pleasure
either way, might apply to a great many people, but never to Paul. If
there was anything to be done, Paul would do it–yes, and if it came to
the stoning of Stephen, he says he gave his vote against him–and
though he was not one of the actual executioners, yet we are told that
"the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose
name was Saul."
He would do all that was to be done and was a thoroughgoing man
everywhere. Believing a thing to be right, Paul never consulted with
flesh and blood, but girded up his loins and worked with all the powers
of his being–and that was no mean force–as his enemies felt to their
cost. Why, as I see him riding to Damascus, I picture him with his eyes
flashing with fanatic hate against the disciples of the Man whom he
thought to be an impostor–and his heart beat high with the
determination to crush the followers of the Nazarene!
He is a man all energy and all determination. And when he is converted,
he is only lifted into a higherlife–but unchanged as to temperament,
nature and force of character. He seems to have been naturally
constituted a thoroughgoing, thorough-hearted man in order that when
Grace did come to him, he might be just as earnest, just as dauntless
and fearless, in the defense of what he believed to be right. Yes, and
such a man was needed to lead the vanguard in the great crusade against
the god of this world. No other could have stood forward as Paul did,
for no other had the same firmness, boldness and decision that he
possessed.
"But," I hear someone say, "was not Peter as bold?" Yes, he was. But
Peter, you remember, always had the failing of being just where he
ought not to be when he was needed. Peter was unstable to the very
last, I think. Certainly, in Paul's day, Paul had to withstand him. He
was a great and good man, but not fitted to be the foremost. Perhaps
you say, "But there is John–would not John do?" No. We cannot speak in
too high terms of John, but John is too full of affection. John is the
plane to smooth the timber, but not the axe to cut it down. John is too
gentle, too meek. He is the Phillip Melancthon. Paul must be the Luther
and Calvin rolled into one! Such a man was needed–and I say that from
his very birth, God was fitting him for this position. And before he
was converted, preceding Grace was engaged fashioning, molding, and
preparing the man in order that by-and-by there might be put into his
nostrils the breath of Life.
Now what is the drift of all this? A practical one. And to show you
what it is, we will linger a minute here before we go on to anything
else. Some of the good fathers among us are mourning very bitterly just
now over their sons. Your children have not turned out as you wish they
would. They are getting skeptical, some of them, and they are also
falling into sin. Well, dear Friends, it is yours to mourn. It is
enough to make you weep bitterly! But let me whisper a word into your
ears. Do not sorrow as those who are without hope, for God may have
very great designs to be answered, even by these very young men who
seem to be running so altogether in the wrong direction!
I do not think I could go so far as John Bunyan did, when he said he
was sure God would have some eminent saints in the next generation
because the young men in his day were such gross sinners! He thought
they would make fine saints. And when the Lord came and saved them, by
His mercy–they would love Him much–because they had had so much
forgiven. I can hardly say as much as that, but I do believe that
sometimes in the inscrutable wisdom of God–when some of those who have
been skeptical come to see the Truth–they are the very best men that
could possibly be found to do battle against the enemy.
Some of those who have fallen into error, after having passed through
it and happily come up through its deep ditch, are just the men to
stand and warn others against it. I cannot conceive that Luther would
ever have been so mighty a preacher of the faith if he had not,
himself, struggled up and down Pilate's staircase on his knees when
trying to get to
Heaven by his penances and his good works. O let us have hope! We do
not know but that God may be intending to call them and bless them! Who
can tell, there may be a young man here tonight who will one day be the
herald of the Cross in China, in Hindustan, in Africa and in the
islands of the sea!
Remember John Williams wishing to keep an appointment with another
young man who committed a certain sin. He wanted to know what time it
was and so stepped into Moorefield's Chapel. Someone saw him so he did
not want to leave, and the Word, preached by Mr. Timothy East who still
survives among us, fell on his ears and the young sinner was made a
saint! And you all know how he afterwards perished as a martyr on the
shores of Erromanga. Why may there not be another such a case tonight?
There may be some young man here who has been receiving a first class
education–he has no idea what for! He has been learning a multitude of
things–perhaps a great deal which it would be much better if he did
not know–but the Lord is meaning to make something of him.
I do not know where you are, young Man, but O, I wish I could fire you
tonight with a high ambition to serve God! What is the good of my being
made at all if I do not serve my Maker? What is the use of my being
here if I do not bring any glory to Him who put me and keeps me here?
Why, I had better have been a piece of rotten dung strewn upon the
field and bringing forth something for the farmer's use than to have
been a mere consumer of bread and meat and to have breathed the air and
lived upon God's bounty and yet to have done nothing for Him! O young
Man! If such an army of you as we have tonight could allbe led by
Divine Grace to say with the Apostle Paul, "God forbid that I should
glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," why, there would be
hope for Old England yet!
We would yet fling Popery back to the seven hills from where it came.
Oh that God would grant us this blessing! But if He should not be
pleased to call all of us by His Grace, yet may some here live to prove
that they were separated from their mother's womb to God's work and set
apart that they might have the Son of God revealed in them and might
proclaim His Gospel with power! We will now leave this point, but shall
continue the same subject in another form.
II. You would, perhaps, say that all I have talked about as yet has
been Providence rather than Grace. Very likely, but I think that
Providence and Grace are very near akin. At any rate, if Providence is
the wheel, Grace is the hand which turns and guides it.
But I am now about to speak of GRACE PRECEDING, CALLING IN ANOTHER
SENSE. It strikes me that it is impossible to say, concerning the
elect, when the Grace of God begins to deal with them. You can tell
when the quickening Grace comes, but not when the Grace, itself, comes.
For know, in one sense, Grace was exercised upon the chosen–
"Before the daystar knew its place, Or planets ran their round."
I should say that is what I cannot call by any other name than
formative Grace exercised upon the vessels of mercy at their very
birth. It seems to me to be no small mercy that some of us were born of
such parents as we were and that we were born where we were. Some of us
began right and were surrounded by many advantages. We were cradled
upon the lap of piety and dandled upon the knee of holiness.
There are some children who are born with a constitution which cannot
escape sin, and which at the same time seems as if it inevitably led
them to it. Who can deny that there are some whose passions seem
naturally to be so violent that, notwithstanding almost any and every
restraint, they run headlong into sin? And often those failings may be
distinctly traced to their parents! It is no small blessing when we can
look back and thank God, that if no blue-blood of nobility flows in our
veins, yet from our very childhood we have not heard the voice of
blasphemy, nor strayed into the haunts of vice–but that in the very
formation of our character–Divine Grace has ever been present with us!
This formative Grace, many of you, I have no doubt, can trace in the
examples and influences which have followed you from the cradle through
life. Why, what a blessing to have had such a Sunday school teacher as
some of you had! Other children went to schools but they had not such a
teacher, or such a class as yours. What a privilege to have had such a
minister as some of you had, though perhaps he has fallen asleep now!
You know there were others who went to places where there was no
earnestness, no life–but that good man who was blessed to you was full
of anxiety for your soul–and at the very first, before you were
converted, his preaching helped to form your character!
Why, it strikes me that every word I heard and everything I saw while I
was yet a child or a youth, had a part in the formation of my later
life. Oh, what a mercy it is to be placed where a holy example and
godly conversation tend to form the man in a godly mold! All this may
be, you know, without Divine Grace. I am not speaking, now, of the work
of effectual calling, but of that preceding Grace which is too much
forgotten, though it so richly deserves to be remembered.
Think, too, of the prayers which brought tears to our eyes and the
teaching that would not let us sin so deeply as others. Think of the
light which glowed in us, even in our childhood, and seems to have
dispelled something of our natural darkness. Think of that earnest face
that used to look so steadily on us when we did wrong and of that
mother's tear which seemed as if it would burn itself into our hearts
when there had been something amiss that made Mother anxious. All
this–though it did not convertus–yet it helped to make us what we now
are and unto God let us give the Glory!
Furthermore, while there was this formative Grace, there seems to me to
have gone with it very much of preventive Grace. How many saints fall
into sins which they have to regret even after conversion, while others
are saved from leaving the path of morality to wander in the morass of
lust and crime! Why, some of us were, by God's Grace, placed in
positions where we could not well have been guilty of any gross acts of
immorality even if we had tried! We were so hedged about by guardian
care–so watched and tended on every side–that we would have been
dashing our heads against a stone wall if we had run into any great or
open sin.
Oh, what a mercy to be prevented from sinning–when God puts chains
across the road, digs ditches, makes hedges, builds walls and says to
us, "No, you shall not go that way, I will not let you. You shall never
have that to regret. You may desire it, but I will hedge up your way
with thorns. You may wish it, but it never shall be yours." Beloved, I
have thanked God a thousand times in my life that before my conversion
when I had evil desires I had no opportunities! And on the other hand,
that when I had opportunities I had no desires–for when desires and
opportunities come together like the flint and steel–they make the
spark that kindles the fire. But neither the one nor the other, though
they may both be dangerous, can bring about any great amount of evil so
long as they are kept apart! Let us, then, look back and if this has
been our experience let us bless the preventing Grace of God.
Again, there is another form of Grace I must mention, namely,
restraining Grace. Here, you see, I am making a distinction. There are
many who didgo into sin. They were not wholly prevented from it, but
they could not go as far into it as they wanted to do. There is a young
man here tonight–he will ask how I know–well, I do know–there is a
young man here tonight who wants to commit a certain sin, but he
cannot. Oh, how he wishes to do it, but he cannot! He is placed in such
a position of poverty that he cannot play the fine gentleman he would
like.
There is another! He wants to be dancing at such-and-such a place, but
thank God he is lame! There is another, who, if he had had his wish
would have lost his soul–but since his blindness has come upon him
there is some hope for him. Oh how often God has thrown a man on a sick
bed to make him well! He would have been such as he was even unto death
if he had been well–but God has made him sick–and that sickness has
restrained him from sin! It is a mercy for some men that they cannot do
what they would and though "to will is present" with them, yet even in
sin, "how to perform that which they would, they find not."
Ah, my fine Fellow, if you could have had your own way you would have
been at the top of the mountain by now! So you think, but no–you would
have been over the precipice long before this if God had you climb at
all–and so He has kept you in the valley because He has designs of
love towards you and because you shall not sin as others sin. Divine
Grace has its hand upon the bridle of your horse. Or perhaps it is a
woman and you may speak bitter words against that wife, that sister, or
that mother whom God has put there to hold you back. But you cannot go
on, you shall not go on. Another inch forward and you will be over the
precipice and lost, and therefore God has put that hand there to throw
your horse back on its haunches and make you pause and think–and turn
from the error of your ways. What a mercy it is that when God's people
go into sin to any extent, He speaks and says, "To this point shall you
go, but no further. Here shall your proud sins be stopped!" There is,
then, restraining Grace.
We shall get still further into the subject when we come to what Dr.
John Owen calls the preparatorywork of Grace. Have you ever noticed
that parable about the different sorts of ground and the sower of the
seeds? A sower went forth to sow and some of the seed fell on stony
ground. You can understand that, because all men have stones in their
hearts. Some fell on the thorns and thistles. You can comprehend that,
because men are so given to worldly care. Another part of the seed fell
on the beaten path. You can understand that–men are so occupied with
worldliness.
But how about the "good ground"? "Good ground"! Is there such a thing
as "good ground" by nature? One of the evangelists says that it was
"honest and good ground." Now, is there such a difference between
hearts and hearts? Are not all men depraved by nature? Yes, he who
doubts human depravity had better begin to study himself. Question–If
all hearts are bad, how are some hearts good? Reply–They are good
comparatively. They are good in a certain sense. It is not meant in the
parable that the good ground was so good that it never would have
produced a harvest without the sowing of the seed–but that it had been
prepared by Providential influences upon it to receive the seed and in
that sense it may be said to have been "good ground."
Now let me show you how God's Grace does come to work on the human
heart so as to make it good soil before the living seed is cast into
it–so that before quickening Grace visits it, the heart may be called
a good heart–because it is prepared to receive that Grace. I think
this takes place thus–first of all, before quickening Grace comes, God
often gives an attentive ear and makes a man willing to listen to the
Word. Not only does he like to listen to it, but he wants to know the
meaning of it. There is a little excitement in his mind to know what
the Gospel tidings really are. He is not saved as yet, but it is always
a hopeful sign when a man is willing to listen to the Truth and is
anxious to understand it.
This is one thing which preceding Grace does in making the soul good.
In Ezekiel's vision, as you will recall, before the Breath came from
the four winds, the bones began to stir and they came together bone to
his bone. So, before the Spirit of God comes to a man in effectual
calling, God's Grace often comes to make a stir in the man's mind so
that he is no longer indifferent to the Truth but is anxious to
understand what it means.
The next mark of this gracious work is an honest heart. Some persons
will not hear you, or if they do, they are always picking holes and
finding fault–they are not honest and good ground. But there are
others who say, "I will give the man a fair and an honest hearing. I
will read the Bible. I will read it honestly. I will really see whether
it is the Word of God or not. I will come to it without any prejudices,
or, if I have any prejudices I will throw them aside." Now, all this is
a blessed work of preparatory Grace making the heart ready to receive
effectual calling.
Then, when this willingness and honesty are attended with a tender
conscience, as they are in some unconverted people, this is another
great blessing. Some of you are not converted, but you would not do
wrong. You are not saints, but you would not tell a lie for the world!
I thank God that there are some of you so excellent in morals that if
you were proposed to us for Church membership, we could not raise any
objection to you on that ground, at any rate. You are as honest as the
day is long. As for the things of God, you are outwardly as attentive
to them and as diligent in them as the most earnest and indefatigable
Christians.
Now, this is because your conscience is tender. When you do wrong you
cannot sleep at night. And you do not feel at all easy in being without
a Savior–I know some of you do not. You have not come to any decision.
The Grace of God has not really made you feel your thoroughly blind
state–still you are not quite easy. In fact, to go farther, your
affections, though not weaned altogether from earth, yet begin to
tremble a little as though they would go heavenward. You want to be a
Christian–when the communion table is spread, you dare not come
downstairs–but I see you looking from the gallery and you wish you
were with us.
You know you have not believed in Jesus Christ, and the world keeps you
back from doing so–but still there is a kind of twitching in your
conscience. You do not know what it is, but there is a something in you
that makes you say at times, "O God, let me die the death of the
righteous and let my last end be like his." Yes, and you even go
farther than this and ask to live the righteous man's life, too. Now,
remember, this will not save you–"You must be born again." But for all
this the Church of God should feel deeply grateful–for they have seen
in themselves that this is often God's preparatory work–clearing away
the rubbish and rubble and digging out the foundations, that Jesus
Christ might be laid there, the Cornerstone of future hope and of
future happiness!
Another work of Grace is the creation of dissatisfaction with their
present state. How many men we have known who were consciously "without
God and without hope in the world"! The apples of Sodom had turned to
ashes and bitterness in their mouth, though at one time all was fair
and sweet to their taste. The mirage of life with them has been
dispelled, and instead of the green fields and waving trees and
rippling waters which their fevered imagination had conjured up in the
desert, they can see now nothing but the arid sand and wasteness of
desolation which appall their fainting spirits and promise nothing! No,
not even a grave to cover their whited bones which shall remain a
bleached memorial that, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
Multitudes have been brought to see the deluge of sin which has covered
even the high places of the earth! They find no rest for the sole of
their feet, but as yet they know not of an ark, nor of a loving hand
prepared to pull them in as did Noah the dove in olden times! Look at
the life of St. Augustine, how wearily he wanders here and there with a
death-thirst in his soul that no fount of philosophy, or scholastic
argument, or heretical teaching could ever satisfy! He was aware of his
unhappy estate and turned his eye round the circle of the universe
looking for peace–not fully conscious of what he wanted–though
feeling an aching void the world could never fill. He had not found the
center, fixed and steadfast, around which all else revolved in
ceaseless change.
Now, all this appetite, this hunger and thirst I look upon as not of
the devil, nor of the human heart alone–it was of God! He strips us of
all our earthly joy and peace, that, shivering in the cold blast, we
might flee, when drawn by His Spirit, to the "Man who is as a hiding
place from the storm, a cover from the tempest, and the shadow of a
great rock in a weary land." Of course, I have not gone fully into this
doctrine of preceding Grace, but I trust I have said just enough to
waken the gratitude of all the saints who have experienced it and to
make them sing with greater emotion than they have ever done before–
"Determined to save, He watched over my path When, Satan's blind slave,
I sported with death."
III. And now we come to the last point, which is, PAUL'S ACTUAL CALLING
BY DIVINE GRACE. All preparatory work of which we have spoken was not
the source or origin of the vital godliness which afterwards
distinguished that renowned servant of God–that came to him suddenly.
Beloved, there may be some here tonight who cannot discern anything in
themselves of God's work of Grace at all. I do not wonder at this. I do
not suppose that the Apostle could discern it in himself, or even
thought of looking for it! He was as careless of Christ as is the
butterfly of the honey in the flowers. He lived with no thought of
honoring Jesus and no desire to magnify Him–but with the very reverse
passion glowing like a hot coal within his soul. And yet in a moment he
was turned from an enemy into a friend! Oh, what a mercy it would be if
some here tonight were turned from enemies into friends in a
moment–and we are not without hope but that this will be the case!
You have hated Christ, my Friend. You have hated Him boldly and
decidedly. You have not been a sneaking sort of adversary, but have
opposed Him frankly and openly. Now, why did you do it? I am sorry for
your sin, but I like your honesty. What is there in the Person of
Christ for you to hate? Men hated Him while He was on earth and yet He
died for them! Can you hate Him for that? He came into this world to
gain no honor for Himself–He had honor enough in Heaven–but He gave
it up for the sake of men. When He died He had not amassed a fortune,
nor gathered about Him a troop of soldiers–nor had He conquered
provinces–and He died naked on the Cross!
Nothing brought Him here but disinterested affection. And when He came
He spent His life in deeds of holiness and good. For which of these
things can you hate Him? The amazing loving-kindness of Christ Jesus
towards sinners should, in itself, disarm your animosity and turn your
hatred of Him to love. Alas! I know that this thought of itself will
not do it–but the Spirit of God can. If the Spirit of God once comes
in contact with your souls and shows you that Christ died for you, your
enmity towards Christ will be over!
Dr. Gifford once went to see a woman in prison who had been a very
gross offender. She was such a hardened reprobate that the doctor began
by discoursing with her about the judgments of God and the punishments
of Hell. But she only laughed him to scorn and called him opprobrious
names. The doctor burst into tears, and said, "And yet, poor Soul,
there is mercy for you, even for such as you are, though you have
laughed in the face of Him who would do you good. Christ is able to
forgive you, hard though you are. And I hope that He will yet take you
to dwell with Him at His right hand."
In a moment the woman stopped her laughing, sat down quietly, burst
into tears and said, "Don't talk to me in that way! I have always been
told that I should be damned and I made up my mind to be! I knew there
was no chance and so I have gone on from one sin to another–but oh, if
there is a hope of mercy for me, that is another thing! If there is a
possibility of my being forgiven, that is another thing!" The doctor at
once opened his Bible and began to read to her these words, "The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanses us from all sin." The
greatest brokenness of heart followed.
In subsequent visits the doctor was gratified to find that she was
brought to Christ. And though she had to undergo a sentence for many
years at the time, yet years later the godly man saw her walking
honestly and uprightly as a Believer in Jesus Christ. Sinner, I wish
that thought would bring youto Christ! O that you would know that He
has chosen you, that He has separated you for Himself, and to be
His–even from your mother's womb! Ah, you have played the harlot, but
He will bring you back! You have sinned very greatly, but you shall one
day be clothed in the white robe and wear the everlasting crown!
Oh, blush and be ashamed that you should ever have sinned as you have
done! You have been a thief and a drunkard. You have brought your
mother's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave, but her prayers are going
up even now to Heaven and you shall be brought in yet. O stubborn
Sinner, my Master means to have you! Run as you will, you wandering
sheep, the Shepherd is after you–yield, yield, yield now! O Prodigal,
your Father's heart is open! Arise! Go to your Father! You are ashamed
to go, are you? Oh, let that shame make you go faster! Let it not keep
you back! Jesus bled, Jesus wept, Jesus lives in Heaven. "Ho, everyone
that thirsts, come to the waters. And he that has no money, let him buy
wine and milk, without money and without price." "Whoever will, let him
come and take of the Water of Life freely."
There is no sinner too black to be forgiven! There are no iniquities
that can damn you if you believe in Jesus! All manner of sin and
iniquity shall be forgiven him who puts his trust in the shadow of
Jehovah-Jesus. Look to Him! He dies! He lives! Look, He rises, He
pleads above! "Look unto Me and be you saved, all the ends of the
earth, for I am God and there is none else." I trust that the whole of
your past mysterious life, my dear fellow Sinner, will be explained to
you tonight by your believing in Jesus. That will be the golden key
which will open the secret and you will say, "Now I see it. I could not
tell what that mysterious hand was that kept me back from doing a
certain thing. I could not understand why I was led into such a path,
but now I know that it was to take me to the feet of the blessed Savior
where I might be happy forever."
As you look back and think of all the dealings of Divine Grace and
Providence with you throughout your life, you will sing–
"Ah, who am I that God has saved Me from the doom I did desire, And
crossed the lot myself did crave, To set me even higher?"
I must give one word of warning to those who are afflicting themselves
with a notion that in order to a true, real, conversion they must have
a long course of agonizing soul-conflict. You must mark that I am NOT
teaching this! The new birth was instantaneous–at once! Saul of Tarsus
calls Him Lord and it is only three days that darkness rests upon him.
This is the longest case recorded in the Bible–and how short a time in
darkness and anguish that is–compared with the experience of some whom
you are regarding as models on which God must act in your case.
Remember that God is not the God of uniformity–though He is of union
and peace. He may lead you at once into joy and peace, as Nathanael,
who said as soon as he saw Christ, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You
are the King of Israel." God may, and doubtless has been, blessing you
through His Grace from your birth. But He needs not to plunge you many
days in the cold dark waters of conviction to wash away your sin–the
blood of Christ at oncecan cleanse from all sin if you confide your
soul to Him. Believe, therefore, and you are at once justified and at
peace with God. May the Lord bless you all, for Jesus' sake.
[This sermon was originally titled "Prevenient Grace."]