Salvation Altogether By Grace
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 29, 1866, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
to us in Christ Jesus before the world began."
2 Timothy 19.
IF we would influence thoughtful persons it must be by solid arguments.
Shallow minds may be worked upon by mere warmth of emotion and force of
excitement, but the more valuable part of the community must be dealt
with in quite another manner. When the Apostle Paul was desirous to
influence his son in the faith, Timothy, who was a diligent and earnest
student and a man of gifts as well as of Divine Grace, he did not
attempt to affect him by mere appeals to his feelings. Paul felt that
the most effectual way to act upon him was to remind him of solid
doctrinal Truth of God which he knew Timothy believed.
This is a lesson for the ministry at large. Certain earnest preachers
are incessantly exciting the people, but seldom, if ever, instructing
them. They carry much fire and very little light. God forbid that we
should say a word against appealing to the feelings–this is most
necessary in its place–but then there is a due proportion to be
observed in it. A religion which is based upon, sustained, and
maintained simply by excitement will necessarily be very flimsy and
unsubstantial, and will yield very speedily to the crush of opposition
or to the crumbling hand of time.
The preacher may touch the feelings by rousing appeals as the harpist
touches the harp strings, and he will be very foolish if he should
neglect so ready and admirable an instrument. But still, as he is
dealing with reasonable creatures, he must not forget to enlighten the
intellect and instruct the understanding. And how can he appeal to the
understanding better than by presenting to it the Truth which the Holy
Spirit teaches? Scriptural doctrine furnishes us with powerful motives
to urge upon the minds of Christians.
It seems to me that if we could, by some unreasoning impulse, move you
to a certain course of action it might be well in its way. But it would
be unsafe and untrustworthy, for you would be equally open to be moved
in an opposite direction by other persons more skilled in such
operations. But if God enables us, by His Spirit, to influence your
minds by solid Truth and substantial argument, you will then move with
a constancy of power which nothing can turn aside. The feather flies in
the wind, but it has no inherent power to move–and consequently when
the gale is over it falls to the ground–such is the religion of
excitement. But the eagle has life within itself and its wings bear it
aloft and onward whether the breeze favors it or not–such is religion
when sustained by a conviction of the Truth of God! The well-taught man
in Christ Jesus stands firm where the uninstructed infant would fall or
be carried away. "Be not carried about with every wind of doctrine,"
says the Apostle, and those are least likely to be so carried who are
well established in the Truth as it is in Jesus.
It is somewhat remarkable–at least it may seem so to persons who are
not accustomed to think upon the subject– that the Apostle, in order
to excite Timothy to boldness–to keep him constant in the
faith–reminds him of the great doctrine that the Grace of God reigns
in the salvation of men! He gives in this verse–this parenthetical
verse as some call it, but which seems to me to be fully in the current
of the passage–he gives in this verse a brief summary of the Gospel,
showing the great prominence which it gives to the Grace of God, with
the design of maintaining Timothy in the boldness of his testimony for
Christ.
I do not doubt but that a far greater power for usefulness lies
concealed within the Doctrines of Grace than some men have ever dreamed
of. It has been usual to look upon doctrinal Truth as being nothing
more than unpractical theory, and many have spoken of the precepts of
God's Word as being more practical and more useful. The day may yet
come when, in clearer light, we shall perceive that sound doctrine is
the very root and vital energy of practical holiness, and that to teach
the people the Truth which God has revealed is the readiest and surest
way of leading them to obedience and persevering holiness.
May the Holy Spirit assist us while we shall, first, consider the
doctrine taught by the Apostle in this text. And secondly, the uses of
that doctrine.
I. Very carefully let us CONSIDER THE DOCTRINE TAUGHT BY THE APOSTLE IN
THIS TEXT. Friends will remember that it is not our object to preach
the doctrine which is most popular or most palatable. Nor do we desire
to set forth the views of any one person in the assembly. Our one aim
is to give what we judge to be the meaning of the text. We shall
probably deliver doctrine which many of you will not like, and if you
should not like it we shall not be at all surprised! Or even if you
should be vexed and angry we shall not be at all alarmed because we
never understood that we were commissioned to preach what would please
our hearers, nor were expected by sensible, not to say gracious men, to
shape our views to suit the notions of our audience.
We count ourselves amenable to God and to the text. And if we give the
meaning of the text, we believe we shall give the mind of God and we
shall be likely to have His favor which will be sufficient for us,
contradict us who may. However, let every candid mind be willing to
receive the Truth of God if it is clearly in the inspired Word.
1. The Apostle, in stating his doctrine in the following words, "Who
has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to
us in Christ Jesus before the world began," declares God to be the
Author of salvation–"Who has saved us and called us." The whole tenor
of the verse is towards a strong affirmation of Jonah's doctrine, "that
salvation is of the Lord."
It would require very great twisting–involving more than ingenuity, it
would need dishonesty–to make out salvation by man out of this text!
But to find salvation altogether of God in it is to perceive the Truth
of God which lies upon the very surface. No need for profound enquiry.
The wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err here–the text says as
plainly as words can say, "God has saved us, and called us with a holy
calling."
The Apostle, then, in order to bring forth the Truth that salvation is
of Grace, declares that it is of God–that it springs directly and
entirely from Him and from Him alone. Is not this according to the
teaching of the Holy Spirit in other places where He affirms over and
over again that the alpha and omega of our salvation must be found, not
in ourselves, but in our God? Our Apostle, in saying that God has saved
us, refers to all the Persons of the Divine Unity. The Father has saved
us. "God has given to us eternal life" (1 John 5:11). "The Father
Himself loves you." It was He whose gracious mind first conceived the
thought of redeeming His chosen from the ruin of the Fall.
It was His mind which first planned the way of salvation by
Substitution. It was from His generous heart that the thought first
sprang that Christ should suffer as the Covenant Head of His people, as
said the Apostle, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. According as He has chosen us in Him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of
His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made
us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:3-6).
From the heart of Divine compassion came the gift of the only begotten
Son: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." The Father selected the persons who should receive an interest
in the redemption of His Son, for these are described as, "called
according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28). The plan of salvation in all its
details sprang from the Father's wisdom and grace. The Apostle did not,
however, overlook the work of the Son. It is most certainly through the
Son of God that we are saved, for is not His name Jesus, the Savior?
Incarnate in the flesh, His holy life is the righteousness in which
saints are arrayed, while His ignominious and painful death has filled
the sacred bath of blood in which the sinner must be washed that he may
be made clean.
It is through the Redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, that the people
of God become accepted in the Beloved. With one voice before the
Eternal Throne they sing, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from
our sins in His blood, unto Him be glory." And they chant that hymn
because He deserves the glory which they ascribe to Him. It is the Son
of God who is the Savior of men, and men are not the saviors of
themselves. Nor did the Apostle, I am persuaded, forget that Third
Person in the blessed Unity–the Holy Spirit.
Who but the Holy Spirit first gives us power to understand the Gospel?
"The carnal mind understands not the things that are of God." Does not
the Holy Spirit influence our will, turning us from the obstinacy of
our former rebellion to the obedience of the Truth of God? Does not the
Holy Spirit renew us, creating us in Christ Jesus unto good works? Is
it not by the Holy Spirit's breath that we live in the spiritual life?
Is He not to us Instructor, Comforter, Quickener? Is He not everything,
in fact, through His active operations upon our mind?
The Father, then, in planning. The Son in redeeming. The Spirit, in
applying the redemption, must be spoken of as the one God "who has
saved us." Brothers and Sisters, to say that we save ourselves is to
utter a manifest absurdity! We are called in Scripture "a temple"–a
holy temple in the Lord. But shall anyone assert that the stones of the
edifice were their own architect? Shall it be said that the stones of
the building in which we are now assembled cut themselves into their
present shape and then spontaneously came together and piled this
spacious edifice? Should anyone assert such a foolish thing we should
be disposed to doubt his sanity! Much more may we suspect the spiritual
sanity of any man who should venture to affirm that the great temple of
the Church of God designed and erected itself!
No! We believe that God the Father was the Architect, sketched the
plan, supplies the materials, and will complete the work. Shall it also
be said that those who are redeemed redeemed themselves? That slaves of
Satan break their own fetters? Then why was a Redeemer needed at all?
How should there be any need for Jesus to descend into the world to
redeem those who could redeem themselves? Do you believe that the sheep
of God, whom He has taken from between the jaws of the lion, could have
rescued themselves? It were a strange thing if such were the case.
Our Lord Jesus came not to do a work of supererogation, but if He came
to save persons who might have saved themselves, He certainly came
without a necessity for so doing. We cannot believe that Christ came to
do what the sinners might have done themselves! No, "He has trod the
winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Him," and the
redemption of His people shall give glory unto Himself only!
Shall it be asserted that those who were once dead have spiritually
quickened themselves? Can the dead make themselves alive? Who shall
assert that Lazarus, rotting in the grave, came forth to life of
himself? If it is so said and so believed, then, no, not even then,
will we believe that the dead in sin have ever quickened themselves!
Those who are saved by God the Holy Spirit are created anew according
to Scripture–but whoever dreamed of creation creating itself? God
spoke the world out of nothing, but nothing did not aid in the creation
of the universe! Divine energy can do everything, but what can nothing
do?
Now if we have a new creation, there must have been a creator, and it
is clear that not being, then, spiritually created, we could not have
assisted in our own new creation, unless, indeed, death can assist
life, and non-existence aid in creation. The carnal mind does not
assist the Spirit of God in new creating a man, but altogether
regeneration is the work of God the Holy Spirit, and the work of
renewal is from His unassisted power. Father, Son and Spirit, we, then,
adore, and putting these thoughts together, we would humbly prostrate
ourselves at the foot of the Throne of the august Majesty and
acknowledge that if saved, He alone has saved us, and unto Him be the
glory!
2. We next remark that grace is in this verse rendered conspicuous when
we see that God pursues a singular method, "Who has saved us and called
us." The peculiarity of the manner lies in three things–first, in the
completeness of it. The Apostle uses the perfect tense and says, "who
has saved us." Believers in Christ Jesus are saved. They are not looked
upon as persons who are in a hopeful state and may ultimately be saved,
but they are already saved.
This is not according to the common talk of professors nowadays, for
many of them speak of being saved when they come to die. But it is
according to the usage of Scripture to speak of us who are saved. Be it
known this morning that every man and woman here is either saved at
this present moment, or lost–and that salvation is not a blessing to
be enjoyed upon the dying bed and to be sung of in a future state–but
a matter to be obtained, received, promised and enjoyed NOW! God has
saved His saints, mark, not partly saved them, but perfectly saved
them. The Christian is perfectly saved in God's purpose. God has
ordained him unto salvation, and that purpose is complete.
He is saved, also, as to the price which has been paid for him, for
this is done not in part but in whole. The substitutionary work which
Christ has offered is not a certain proportion of the work to be done,
but, "it is finished," was the cry of the Savior before He died. The
Believer is also perfectly saved in his Covenant Head, for as we were
utterly lost as soon as ever Adam fell, before we had committed any
actual sin, so every man in Christ was saved in the second
Adam when He finished His work. The Savior completed His work and in
the sense in which Paul uses that expression, "He has saved us."
This completeness is one peculiarity–we must mark another. I want you
to notice the order as well as the completeness–"who has saved us and
called us." What? Saved us before He called us? Yes, so the text says.
But is a man saved before he is called by Divine Grace? Not in his own
experience. Not as far as the work of the Holy Spirit goes. But he is
saved in God's purpose, in Christ's redemption, and in his relationship
to his covenant Head. And he is saved, moreover, in this respect–that
the work of his salvation is done, and he has only to receive it as a
finished work. In the olden times of imprisonment for debt it would
have been quite correct for you to step into the cell of a debtor and
say to him, "I have freed you," if you had paid his debts and obtained
an order for his discharge.
Well, but he is still in prison! Yes, but you really liberated him as
soon as you paid his debts. It is true he was still in prison, but he
was not legally there, and no sooner did he know that the debt was paid
and that receipt was pleaded before proper authorities, than the man
obtained his liberty. So the Lord Jesus Christ paid the debts of His
people before they knew anything about it. Did He not pay them on the
Cross more than eighteen hundred years ago to the utmost penny? And is
not this the reason why, as soon as He meets with us in a way of Grace,
He cries, "I have saved you. Lay hold on eternal life"? We are, then,
virtually, though not actually, saved before we are called. "He has
saved us and called us."
There is yet a third peculiarity, and that is in connection with the
calling. God has called us with a holy calling. Those whom the Savior
saved upon the tree are, in due time, effectually called by the power
of God the Holy Spirit unto holiness. They leave their sins, they
endeavor to be like Christ, they choose holiness–not out of any
compulsion–but from the stress of a new nature which leads them to
rejoice in holiness, just as naturally as before they delighted in sin.
Whereas their old nature loved everything that was evil, their new
nature cannot sin because it is born of God, and it loves everything
that is good.
Does not the Apostle mention this result of our calling in order to
meet those who say that God calls His people because He foresees their
holiness? Not so! He calls them to that holiness–that holiness is not
a cause but an effect–it is not the motive of His purpose, but the
result of His purpose. He neither chose them nor called them because
they were holy, but He called them that they might be holy, and
holiness is the beauty produced by His workmanship in them. The
excellences which we see in a Believer are as much the work of God as
the Atonement itself!
This second point brings out very sweetly the fullness of the Grace of
God. First–salvation must be of Grace, because the Lord is the Author
of it, and what motive but Grace could move Him to save the guilty? In
the next place, salvation must be of Grace because the Lord works in
such a manner that our righteousness is forever excluded. Salvation is
completed by God, and therefore not of man, neither by man. Salvation
is worked by God in an order which puts our holiness as a consequence
and not as a cause, and therefore merit is forever disowned.
3. When a speaker desires to strengthen his point and to make himself
clear, he generally puts in a negative as to the other side. So the
Apostle adds a negative– "Not according to our works." The world's
great preaching is, "Do as well as you can. Live a moral life and God
will save you." The Gospel preaching is this–"You are a lost sinner,
and you can deserve nothing of God but His displeasure. If you are to
be saved, it must be by an act of Sovereign Grace. God must freely
extend the silver scepter of His love to you, for you are a guilty
wretch who deserves to be sent to the lowest Hell. Your best works are
so full of sin that they can in no degree save you–to the free mercy
of God you must owe all things."
"Oh," says one, "are good works of no use?" Good works are of use when
a man is saved–they are the evidences of his being saved. But good
works do not save a man, good works do not influence the mind of God to
save a man, for if so, salvation would be a matter of debt and not of
Grace. The Lord has declared over and over in His Word, "Not of works,
lest any man should boast." "By the works of the Law there shall no
flesh living be justified." The Apostle in the Epistle to the Galatians
is very strong, indeed, upon this point. Indeed, he thunders it out
again, and again, and again! He denies that salvation is even so much
as in part due to our works, for if it is by works, then he declares it
is not of Grace, otherwise Grace is no more Grace. And if it is of
Grace, it is not of works, otherwise work is no more work.
Paul assures us that the two principles of Grace and merit can no more
mix together than fire and water–that if man is to be saved by the
mercy of God–it must be by the mercy of God and not by works. But if
man is to be saved by works, it must be by works entirely and not by
mercy mixed with it, for mercy and work will not go together. Jesus
saves, but He does all the work or none. He is Author and Finisher, and
works must not rob Him of His due. Sinner, you must either receive
salvation freely from the hand of Divine Bounty, or else you must earn
it by your own unassisted merits, which is utterly impossible! Oh that
you would yield to the first!
My Brethren, this is the Truth of God which still needs to be preached.
This is the Truth of God which shook all Europe from end to end when
Luther first proclaimed it. Is not this the old thunderbolt which the
great Reformer hurled at Rome–"Justified freely by His grace, through
the redemption which is in Christ Jesus"? But why did God make
salvation to be by faith? Scripture tells us–"Therefore it is of
faith, that it might be by grace." If it had been by works it must have
been by debt–but since it is by faith we can clearly see that there
can be no merit in faith. It must be therefore by Divine Grace.
4. My text is even more explicit, yet, for the eternal purpose is
mentioned. The next thing the Apostle says is this: "Who has saved us,
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but
according to His own purpose." Mark that word–"according to His own
purpose." Oh how some people wriggle over that word, as if they were
worms on a fisherman's hook! But there it stands, and cannot be gotten
rid of. God saves His people "according to His purpose." No, "according
to His OWN purpose."
My Brothers and Sisters, do you not see how all the merit and the power
of the creature are shut out here, when you are saved, not according to
your purpose or merit, but "according to His own purpose"? I shall not
dwell on this. It is not exactly the object of this morning's discourse
to bring out in full the great mystery of electing love, but I will
not, for a moment, keep back the Truth of God. If any man is saved, it
is not because he purposed to be saved, but because God purposed to
save him.
Have you never read the Holy Spirit's testimony: "It is not of him that
wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy"? The Savior
said to His Apostles what He, in effect, says also to us, "You have not
chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you might
bring forth fruit." Some hold one and some another view concerning the
freedom of the will, but our Savior's doctrine is, "You will not come
unto Me that you might have life." You will not come! Your wills will
never bring you! If you do come, it is because Divine Grace inclined
you! "No man can come unto Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw
Him." "Whoever comes to Me I will in no wise cast out," is a great and
precious general text, but it is quite consistent with the rest of the
same verse–"All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me."
Our text tells us that our salvation is "according to His own purpose."
It is a strange thing that men should be so angry against the purpose
of God. We ourselves have a purpose–we permit our fellow creatures to
have some will of their own, and especially in giving away their own
goods. But is my God to be bound and fettered by men, and not permitted
to do as He wills with His own? But be this known unto you, O men that
reply against God, that He gives no account of His actions, but asks of
you, "Can I not do as I will with My own?" He rules in Heaven, and in
the armies of this lower world, and none can stay His hand or say unto
Him, "What are you doing?"
5. But then the text, lest we should make any mistake, adds, "according
to His own purpose and grace." The purpose is not founded on foreseen
merit, but upon Divine Grace alone. It is Grace, all Grace, nothing but
Grace from first to last! Man stands shivering outside, a condemned
criminal, and God, sitting upon His Throne, sends the herald to tell
him that He is willing to receive sinners and to pardon them. The
sinner replies, "Well, I am willing to be pardoned if I am permitted to
do something in order to earn pardon. If I can stand before the King
and claim that I have done something to win His favor, I am quite
willing to come."
But the herald replies, "No, if you are pardoned, you must understand
it is entirely and wholly as an act of Grace on God's part. He sees
nothing good in you. He knows that there is nothing good in you. He is
willing to take you just as you are, filthy, and bad, and wicked, and
undeserving. He is willing to give you graciously what He would not
sell to you, and what He knows you cannot earn of Him. Will you take
it?" And naturally every man says, "No, I will not be saved in that
style."
Well, then, Soul, remember that you will never be saved at all, for
God's way is salvation by Grace! You will have to confess, if ever you
are saved, my dear Hearer, that you never deserved one single blessing
from the God of Grace. You will have to give all the glory to His holy
name if ever you get to Heaven. And mark you, even in the matter of the
acceptance of this offered mercy, you will never accept it unless He
makes you willing! He does freely present it to every one of you, and
He honestly bids you come to Christ and live. But come you never will,
I know, except the effectual Grace which first provided mercy shall
make you willing to accept that mercy. So the text tells us it is His
own purpose and Grace.
6. Again, in order to shut out everything like boasting, the whole is
spoken of as a gift. Notice–lest, (for we are such straying sheep in
this matter), lest we should still slip out of the field–it is added,
"purpose and grace which He gave us." Not, "which He sold us," "offered
us," but "which He GAVE us." He must have a word here which shall be a
death-blow to all merit–"which he gave us"–it was GIVEN. And what can
be freer than a gift, and what more evidently of Divine Grace?
7. But the gift is bestowed through a medium, which glorifies Christ.
It is written, "which was given us in Christ Jesus." We ask to have
mercy from the wellhead of Divine Grace, and we ask not even to make
the bucket in which it is to be brought to us! Christ is to be the
sacred vessel in which the Grace of God is to be presented to our
thirsty lips. Now where is boasting? Why surely there it sits at the
foot of the Cross and sings, "God forbid that I should glory save in
the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Is it not Grace and Grace alone?
8. Yet further, a period is mentioned and added–"before the world
began." Those last words seem to me forever to lay prostrate all idea
of anything of our own merits in saving ourselves, because it is here
witnessed that God gave us Divine Grace "before the world began." Where
were you then? What hand had you in it "before the world began"? Why,
fly back, if you can, in imagination, to the ancient years when those
venerable mountains, that elder birth of nature, were not yet formed!
Fly back when world, and sun, and moon, and stars, were all in embryo
in God's great mind–when the unnavigated sea of space had never been
disturbed by wing of seraph, and the awful silence of eternity had
never been startled by the song of cherubim–when God dwelt alone.
If you can conceive that time before all time, that vast eternity–it
was then He gave us Grace in Christ Jesus. What, O Soul, had you to do
with that? Where were your merits then? Where were you yourself? O you
small dust of the balance, you insect of a day, where were you? See how
Jehovah reigned, dispensing mercy as He would, and ordaining unto
eternal life without taking counsel of man or angel, for neither man or
angel then had an existence! That it might be all of Grace He gave us
Grace before the world began!
I have honestly read out the doctrine of the text, and nothing more. If
such is not the meaning of the text I do not know the meaning of it,
and I cannot, therefore, tell you what it is. But I believe that I have
given the natural and grammatical teaching of the text. If you do not
like the doctrine, I cannot help it. I did not make the text, and if I
have to expound it I must expound it honestly as it is in my Master's
Word. And I pray you receive what He says, whatever you may do with
what I say.
II. I shall want your patience while I try to SHOW THE USES OF THIS
DOCTRINE. The Doctrine of Grace has been put by in the lumber chamber.
It is acknowledged to be true, for it is confessed in most creeds. It
is in the Church of England articles. It is in the confessions of all
sorts of Protestant Christians, except those who are avowedly Arminian,
but how little is it ever preached! It is put among the relics of the
past. It is considered to be a respectable sort of retired officer who
is not expected to see any more active service.
Now I believe that it is not a superannuated officer in the Master's
army, but that it is as full of force and vigor as ever. But what is
the use of it? Why, first, it is clear from the connection that it has
a tendency to embolden the man who receives it. Paul tells Timothy not
to be ashamed, and he gives this as a motive–how can a man be ashamed
when he believes that God has given him Grace in Christ Jesus before
the world was? Suppose the man to be very poor. "Oh," he says, "what
does it matter? Though I have but a little oil in the cruse, and a
little meal in the barrel, yet I have a lot and a portion in
everlasting things! My name is not in Doomsday Book nor in Burke's
Peerage–but it is in the book of God's election, and was there before
the world began!"
Such a man dares look the proudest of his fellows in the face. This was
the doctrine on which the brave old Ironsides fed–the men who, when
they rode to battle with the war cry of, "The Lord of Hosts!" made the
cavaliers fly before them like chaff before the wind. No doctrine like
it for putting a backbone into a man, and making him feel that he is
made for something better than to be trod down like straw for the
dunghill beneath a despot's heel. Sneer who will, the elect of
God derive a nobility from the Divine choice which no royal patent can
outshine! I would that Free Grace were more preached, because it gives
men something to believe with confidence.
The great mass of professing Christians know nothing of doctrine. Their
religion consists in going a certain number of times to a place of
worship, but they have no care for the Truth of God one way or another.
I speak without any prejudice in this matter–but I have talked with a
large number of persons in the course of my very extensive pastorate
who have been for years members of other churches. And when I have
asked them a few questions upon doctrinal matters it did not seem to me
that they thought they were in error–they were perfectly willing to
believe almost anything that any earnest man might teach them. But they
did not know anything–they had no minds of their own–and no definite
opinions.
Our children, who have learned "The Westminster Assembly's Confession
of Faith," know more about the Doctrines of Grace and the doctrine of
the Bible than hundreds of grownups who attend a ministry which very
eloquently teaches nothing. It was observed by a very excellent critic
not long ago that if you were to hear thirteen lectures on astronomy or
geology you might get a pretty good idea of what the science was, and
the theory of the person who gave the lectures– but that if you were
to hear thirteen hundred sermons from some ministers, you would not
know at all what they were preaching about or what their doctrinal
sentiments were. It ought not to be so.
Is not this the reason why Puseyism spreads so, and all sorts of errors
have such a foothold, because our people, as a whole, do not know what
they believe? The doctrine of Election, if well received, gives to a
man something which he knows and which he holds and which will become
dear to him. Something for which he would be prepared to die if the
fires of persecution were again kindled! Better still is it that this
doctrine not only gives the man something to hold but it holds the man!
Let a man once have burnt into him that salvation is of God and not of
man, and that God's Grace is to be glorified and not human merit, and
you will never get that belief out of him!
It is the rarest thing in all the world to hear of such a man ever
apostatizing from his faith. Other doctrine is slippery ground, like
the slope of a mountain composed of loose earth and rolling stones down
which the traveler may slide long before he can even get a transient
foothold. But this is like a granite step upon the eternal pyramid of
Truth–get your feet on this–and there is no fear of slipping so far
as doctrinal standing is concerned. If we would have our churches in
England well instructed and holding fast the Truth of God, we must
bring out the grand old verity of the eternal purpose of God in Christ
Jesus before the world began!
Oh may the Holy Spirit write it on our hearts! Moreover, my Brethren,
this doctrine overwhelms, as with an avalanche, all the claims of
priest-craft. Let it be told to men that they are saved by God, and
they say at once, "Then what is the good of the priest?" If they are
told it is God's Grace, then they ask, "Then you do not want our money
to buy masses and absolutions?" And down goes the priest at once!
Beloved, this is the battering ram that God uses with which to shake
the gates of Hell! How much more forcible than the pretty essays of
many so-called Divines which have no more power than bulrushes, no more
light than smoking flax!
What do you suppose people used to meet in the woods for in persecuting
times? They met by thousands outside the town of Antwerp, and such-like
places on the Continent, in jeopardy of their lives! Do you suppose
they would ever have come together to hear that poor milk-and-water
theology of this age, or to receive the lukewarm milk and water of our
modern anti-Calvinists? Not they, my Brethren! They needed stronger
meat, and a more savory diet to attract them. Do you imagine that when
it was death to listen to the preacher, that men under the shadows of
night, and amid the wings of tempest would then listen to philosophical
essays, or to mere moral precepts, or to diluted, adulterated,
soulless, theological suppositions?
No! There is no energy in that kind of thing to draw men together under
fear of their lives. So what did bring them together in the dead of
night amidst the glare of lightning, and the roll of thunder? What
brought them together? Why, the doctrine of the Grace of God! The
doctrine of Jesus and of His servants Paul, and Augustine, and Luther,
and Calvin! For there is something in that doctrine which touches the
heart of the Christian and gives him food such as his soul loves,
savory meat, suitable to his Heaven-born appetite!
To hear this, men braved death and defied the sword! And it we are to
see once again the scarlet hat plucked from the wearer's head, and the
shaven crowns with all the gaudy trumpery of Rome sent back to the
place from where they came–and Heaven grant that they may take our
Puseyite Established Church with them–it must be by declaring all the
doctrines of the Grace of God! When these are declared and vindicated
in every place, we shall yet again make these enemies of God and man to
know that they cannot stand their ground for a moment where men of God
wield the sword of the Lord and of Gideon by preaching the doctrines of
the Grace of God.
Brothers and Sisters, let the man receive these Truths! Let them be
written in his heart by the Holy Spirit, and they will make him look
up. He will say, "God has saved me!" and he will walk with a constant
eye to God. He will not forget to see the hand of God in Nature and in
Providence. He will, on the contrary, discern the Lord working in all
places, and will humbly adore Him. He will not give to laws of Nature
or schemes of State the glory due to the Most High, but will have
respect unto the unseen Ruler.
"What the Lord says to me, that will I do," is the Believer's language.
"What is His will that will I follow. What is His Word, that will I
believe. What is His promise, on that I will live." It is a blessed
habit to teach a man to look up, look up to God in all things! At the
same time, this doctrine of Election makes a man look down upon
himself. "Ah," he says, "I am nothing! There is nothing in me to merit
esteem. I have no goodness of my own. If saved, I cannot praise myself.
I cannot in anyway ascribe to myself honor. God has done it, God has
done it." Nothing makes the man so humble, but nothing makes him so
glad! Nothing lays him so low at the Mercy Seat, but nothing makes him
so brave to look his fellow man in the face. It is a grand Truth of
God! Would to God you all knew its mighty power!
Lastly, this precious Truth is full of comfort to the sinner, and that
is why I love it. As it has been preached by some it has been
exaggerated and made into a bugbear. Why, there are some who preach the
doctrine of Election as though it were a line of sharp spikes to keep a
sinner from coming to Christ! As though it were a sharp, glittering
sword to be pushed into the breast of a coming sinner to keep him from
mercy!
Now it is not so. Sinner, whoever you may be, wherever you may be, your
greatest comfort should be to know that salvation is by Divine Grace.
Why Man, if it were by merit, what would become of you? Suppose that
God saved men on account of their merits? Where would you drunkards be?
Where would you swearers be? You who have been unclean and unchaste,
and you whose hearts have cursed God, and who even now do not love
Him–where would you be?
But when it is all of Grace, why, then, all your past life, however
black and filthy it may be, need not keep you from coming to Jesus.
Christ receives sinners! God has elected sinners! He has elected some
of the filthiest of sinners–why not you? He receives everyone that
comes to Him. He will not cast you out. There have been some who have
hated Him, insulted Him to His face–that have burned His servants
alive, and have persecuted Him in His members–but as soon as they have
cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner," He has given them mercy at
once!
And He will give it to you if you are led to seek it. If I had to tell
you that you were to work out your own salvation apart from His Grace
it were a sad day for you. But when it comes to you
yourself–filthy–there is washing for you! Dead–there is life for
you! Naked–there is raiment for you! All undone and ruined–here is a
complete salvation for you! O Soul, may you have Grace to lay hold of
it, and then you and I together will sing to the praise of the glory of
Divine Grace.