The Warrant of Faith

The Warrant of Faith
A Sermon
(No. 531)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, September 20th, 1863, by the
Rev. C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his
Son Jesus Christ."–1 John 3:23.
THE old law shines in terrible glory with its ten commandments. There
are some who love that law so much, that they cannot pass over a
Sabbath without its being read in their hearing, accompanied by the
mournful petition, "Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to
keep this law." Nay, some are so foolish as to enter into a covenant
for their children, that "they shall keep all God's holy commandments,
and walk in the same all the days of their life." Thus they early wear
a yoke which neither they nor their fathers can bear, and daily
groaning under its awful weight, they labour after righteousness where
it never can be found. Over the tables of the law in every Church, I
would have conspicuously printed these gospel words, "By the deeds of
the law shall no flesh living be justified." The true believer has
learned to look away from the killing ordinances of the old law. He
understands that "as many as are of the works of the law are under the
curse, for it is written: Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all
things which are written in the book of the law to do them." He
therefore turns with loathing from all trust in his own obedience to
the ten commands, and lays hold with joy upon the hope set before him
in the one commandment contained in my text, "This is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ."
We sing, and sing rightly too–
"My soul, no more attempt to draw
Thy life and comfort from the law,"
for from the law death cometh and not life, misery and not comfort. "To
convince and to condemn is all the law can do." O, when will all
professors, and especially all professed ministers of Christ, learn the
difference between the law and the gospel? Most of them make a
mingle-mangle, and serve out deadly potions to the people, often
containing but one ounce of gospel to a pound of law, whereas, but even
a grain of law is enough to spoil the whole thing. It must be gospel,
and gospel only. "If it be of grace, it is not of works, otherwise
grace is no more grace; and if it be of works, then it is not of grace,
otherwise work is no more work."
The Christian then, turning his attention to the one command of the
gospel, is very anxious to know first, what is the matter of the
believing here intended; and secondly, what is the sinner's warrant for
so believing in Christ; nor will he fail to consider the mandate of the
gospel.
I. First then, THE MATTER OF BELIEVING, or what is it that a man is to
believe in order to eternal life. Is it the Athanasian creed? Is it
true, that if a man does not hold that confession whole and entire, he
shall without doubt perish everlastingly? We leave those to decide who
are learned in matters of bigotry. Is it any particular form of
doctrine ? Is it the Calvinistic or the Arminian scheme? For our own
part we are quite content with our text–believing on "his Son Jesus
Christ." That faith which saves the soul is believing on a person,
depending upon Jesus for eternal life.
To speak more at large of the things which are to be believed in order
to justification by faith. they all relate to the person and the work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must believe him to be God's Son–so the
text puts it–"His Son." We must grasp with strong confidence the great
fact that he is God: for nothing short of a divine Saviour can ever
deliver us from the infinite wrath of God. He who rejects the true and
proper Godhead of Jesus of Nazareth, is not saved, and cannot be, for
he believes not on Jesus as God's Son. Furthermore, we must accept this
Son of God as "Jesus," the Saviour. We must believe that Jesus Christ
the Son of God, became man out of infinite love to man, that he might
save his people from their sins, according to that worthy saying,
"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," even the chief. We
must look upon Jesus as "Christ," the anointed of the Father, sent into
this world on salvation's errand, not that sinners might save
themselves, but that he, being mighty to save, might bring many sons
unto glory. We must believe that Jesus Christ, Coming into the world to
save sinners, did really effect his mission; that the precious blood
which is shed upon Calvary is almighty to atone for sin, and therefore,
all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, since the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin. We
must heartily accept the great doctrine of the atonement–regarding
Jesus as standing in the room, place, and stead of sinful men, bearing
for them the terror of the law's curse until justice was satisfied and
could demand no more. Moreover, we should rejoice that as Jesus Christ,
by his dying, put away for ever the sin of his people, so by his living
he gave unto those who trust in him a perfect righteousness, in which,
despite their own sins, they are "accepted in the beloved." We are also
taught, that if we heartily trust our soul with Christ, our sins,
through his blood, are forgiven, and his righteousness is imputed to
us. The mere knowledge of these facts will not, however, save us,
unless we really and truly trust our souls in the Redeemer's hands.
Faith must act in this wise: "I believe that Jesus came to save
sinners, and therefore, sinner though I be, I rest myself on him; I
know that his righteousness justifies the ungodly; I, therefore, though
ungodly, trust in him to be my righteousness; I know that his precious
blood in heaven prevails with God on the behalf of them that come unto
him; and since I come unto him, I know by faith that I have an interest
in his perpetual intercession."
Now, I have enlarged the one thought of believing on God's Son Jesus
Christ. Brethren, I would not darken counsel by words without
knowledge. "Believing" is most clearly explained by that simple word
"trust." Believing is partly the intellectual operation of receiving
divine truths, but the essence of it lies in relying upon those truths.
I believe that, although I cannot swim, yonder friendly plank will
support me in the flood–I grasp it, and am saved: the grasp is faith.
I am promised by a generous friend that if I draw upon his banker, he
will supply all my needs–I joyously confide in him, and as often as I
am in want I go to the bank, and am enriched: my going to the bank is
faith. Thus faith is accepting God's great promise, contained in the
person of his Son. It is taking God at his word, and trusting in Jesus
Christ as being my salvation, although I am utterly unworthy of his
regard. Sinner, if thou takest Christ to be thy Saviour this day, thou
art justified; though thou be the biggest blasphemer and persecutor out
of hell, if thou darest to trust Christ with thy salvation, that faith
of thine saves thee; though thy whole life may have been as black, and
foul, and devilish as thou couldst have made it, yet if thou wilt
honour God by believing Christ is able to forgive such a wretch as thou
art, and wilt now trust in Jesus' precious blood, thou art saved from
divine wrath.
II. The WARRANT OF BELIEVING is the point upon which I shall spend my
time and strength this morning. According to my text, the warrant for a
man to believe is the commandment of God. This is the commandment, that
ye "believe on his Son Jesus Christ."
Self-righteousness will always find a lodging somewhere or other. Drive
it, my brethren, out of the ground of our confidence; let the sinner
see that he cannot rest on his good works, then, as foxes will have
holes, this self-righteousness will find a refuge for itself in the
warrant of our faith in Christ. It reasons thus: "You are not saved by
what you do but by what Christ did; but then, you have no right to
trust in Christ unless there is something good in you which shall
entitle you to trust in him." Now, this legal reasoning I oppose. I
believe such teaching to contain in it the essence of Popish
self-righteousness. The warrant for a sinner to believe in Christ is
not in himself in any sense or in any manner, but in the fact that he
is commanded there and then to believe on Jesus Christ. Some preachers
in the Puritanic times, whose shoe latchets I am not worthy to unloose,
erred much in this matter. I refer not merely to Alleyne and Baxter,
who are far better preachers of the law than of the gospel, but I
include men far sounder in the faith than they, such as Rogers of
Dedham, Shepherd, the author of "The Sound Believer," and especially
the American, Thomas Hooker, who has written a book upon qualifications
for coming to Christ. These excellent men had a fear of preaching the
gospel to any except those whom they styled "sensible sinners," and
consequently kept hundreds of their hearers sitting in darkness when
they might have rejoiced in the light. They preached repentance and
hatred of sin as the warrant of a sinner's trusting to Christ.
According to them, a sinner might reason thus–"I possess such-and-such
a degree of sensibility on account of sin, therefore I have a right to
trust in Christ." Now, I venture to affirm that such reasoning is
seasoned with fatal error. Whoever preaches in this fashion may preach
much of the gospel, but the whole gospel of the free grace of God in
its fulness he has yet to learn. In our own day certain preachers
assure us that a man must he regenerated before we may bid him believe
in Jesus Christ; some degree of a work of grace in the heart being, in
their judgment, the only warrant to believe. This also is false. It
takes away a gospel for sinners and offers us a gospel for saints. It
is anything hut a ministry of free grace.
Others say that the warrant for a sinner to believe in Christ is his
election. Now, as his election cannot possibly be known by any man
until he has believed, this is virtually preaching that nobody has any
known warrant for believing at all. If I cannot possibly know my
election before I believe–and yet the minister tells me that I may
only believe upon the ground of my election–how am I ever to believe
at all? Election brings me faith, and faith is the evidence of my
election; but to say that my faith is to depend upon my knowledge of my
election, which I cannot get without faith. is to talk egregious
nonsense.
I lay down this morning with great boldness–because I know and am well
persuaded that what I speak is the mind of the Spirit–this doctrine
that the sole and only warrant for a sinner to believe in Jesus is
found in the gospel itself and in the command which accompanies that
gospel, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." I
shall deal with that matter first of all, negatively, and then,
positively.
1. First, NEGATIVELY; and here my first observation is that any other
way of preaching the gospel-warrant is absurd. If I am to preach faith
in Christ to a man who is regenerated, then the man, being regenerated,
is saved already, and it is an unnecessary and ridiculous thing for me
to preach Christ to him, and bid him to believe in order to be saved
when he is saved already, being regenerate. But you will tell me that I
ought to preach it only to those who repent of their sins. Very well;
but since true repentance of sin is the work of the Spirit, any man who
has repentance is most certainly saved, because evangelical repentance
never can exist in an unrenewed soul. Where there is repentance there
is faith already, for they never can be separated. So, then, I am only
to preach faith to those who have it. Absurd, indeed! Is not this
waiting till the man is cured and then bringing him the medicine ? This
is preaching Christ to the righteous and not to sinners. "Nay," saith
one, "but we mean that a man must have some good desires towards Christ
before he has any warrant to believe in Jesus." Friend, do you not know
what all good desires have some degree of holiness in them ? But if a
sinner hath any degree of true holiness in him it must be the work of
the Spirit, for true holiness never exists in the carnal mind,
therefore, that man is already renewed, and therefore saved. Are we to
go running up and down the world, proclaiming life to the living,
casting bread to those who are fed already, and holding up Christ on
the pole of the gospel to those who are already healed? My brethren,
where is our inducement to labour where our efforts are so little
needed ? If I am to preach Christ to those who have no goodness, who
have nothing in them that qualifies them for mercy, then I feel I have
a gospel so divine that I would proclaim it with my last breath, crying
aloud, that "Jesus came into the world to save sinners"–sinners as
sinners, not as penitent sinners or as awakened sinners, but sinners as
sinners, sinners "of whom I am chief."
Secondly, to tell the sinner that he is to believe on Christ because of
some warrant in himself, is legal, I dare to say it–legal. Though this
method is generally adopted by the higher school of Calvinists, they
are herein unsound, uncalvinistic, and legal; it is strange that they
who are so bold defenders of free grace should make common cause with
Baxterians and Pelagians. I lay it down to he legal for this reason: if
I believe in Jesus Christ because I feel a genuine repentance of sin,
and therefore have a warrant for my faith, do you not perceive that the
first and true ground of my confidence is the fact that I have repented
of sin? If I believe in Jesus because I have convictions and a spirit
of prayer, then evidently the first and the most important fact is not
Christ, but my possession of repentance, conviction, and prayer, so
that really my hope hinges upon my having repented; and if this be not
legal I do not know what is. Put it lower. My opponents will say, "The
sinner must have an awakened conscience before he is warranted to
believe on Christ." Well, then, if I trust Christ to save me because I
have an awakened conscience, I say again, the most important part of
the whole transaction is the alarm of my conscience, and my real trust
hangs there. If I lean on Christ because I feel this and that, then I
am leaning on my feelings and not on Christ alone, and this is legal
indeed. Nay, even if desires after Christ are to be my warrant for
believing, if I am to believe in Jesus not because he bids me, but
because I feel some desires after him, you will again with half an eye
perceive that the most important source of my comfort must be my own
desires. So that we shall be always looking within. "Do I really
desire? If I do, then Christ can save me; if I do not, then he cannot."
And so my desire overrides Christ and his grace. Away with such'
legality from the earth!
Again, any other way of preaching than that of bidding the sinner
believe because God commands him to believe, is a boasting way of
faith. For if my warrant to trust in Jesus be found in my experience,
my loathings of sin, or my longings after Christ, then all these good
things of mine are a legitimate ground of boasting, because though
Christ may save me, yet these were the wedding-dress which fitted me to
come to Christ. If these be indispensable pre-requisites and
conditions, then the man who has them may truly and justly say, "Christ
did save me, but I had the pre-requisites and conditions first, and
therefore let these share the praise." See, my brethren, those who have
a faith which rests upon their own experience, what are they as a rule?
Mark them, and you will perceive much censorious bitterness in them,
prompting them to set up their own experience as the standard of
saintship, which may assuredly make us suspicious whether they ever
were humbled in a gospel manner at all, so as to see that their own
best feelings, and best repentances, and best experiences in themselves
are nothing more nor less than filthy rags in the sight of God. My dear
brethren, when we tell a sinner that foul and filthy as he is, without
any preparation or qualification, he is to take Jesus Christ to be his
all in all, finding in him all that he can ever need, when we dare on
the spot to bid the jailor just startled out of sleep, "Believe in
Jesus," we leave no room for self-glorification, all must be of grace.
When we find the lame man lying at the temple gates, we do not bid him
strengthen his own legs. or feel some life in them, but we bid him in
the name of Jesus rise up and walk; surely here when God the Spirit
owns the Word, all boasting is excluded. Whether I rely on my
experience or my good works makes little difference, for either of
these reliances will lead to boasting since they are both legal. Law
and boasting are twin brothers, but free grace and gratitude always go
together.
Any other warrant for believing on Jesus than that which is presented
in the gospel is changeable. See, brethren, if my warrant to believe in
Christ lies in my meltings of heart and my experiences, then if to-day
I have a melting heart and I can pour my soul out before the Lord, I
have a warrant to believe in Christ. But to-morrow (who does not know
this?) to-morrow my heart may be as hard as a stone, so that I can
neither feel nor pray. Then, according to the qualification-theory, I
have no right to trust in Christ, my warrant is clean gone from me.
According to the doctrine of final perseverance, the Christian's faith
is continual, if so the warrant of his faith must be always the same,
or else he has sometimes an unwarranted faith which is absurd; it
follows from this that the abiding warrant of faith must lie in some
immutable truth. Since everything within changes more frequently than
ever does an English sky, if my warrant to believe in Christ be based
within, it must change every hour; consequently I am lost and saved
alternately. Brethren, can these things be so? For my part I want a
sure and immutable warrant for my faith; I want a warrant to believe in
Jesus which will serve me when the devil's blasphemy comes pouring into
my ears like a flood; I want a warrant to believe which will serve me
when my lustings and corruptions appear in terrible array, and make me
cry out, "O wretched man that I am;' I want a warrant to believe in
Christ which will comfort me when I have no good frames and holy
feelings, when I am dead as a stone and my spirit lies cleaving to the
dust. Such an unfailing warrant to belief in Jesus is found in this
precious truth, that his gracious commandment and not my variable
experience, is my title to believe on his Son Jesus Christ.
Again, my brethren, any other warrant is utterly incomprehensible.
Multitudes of my brethren preach an impossible salvation. How often do
poor sinners hunger and thirst to know the way of salvation, and there
is no available salvation preached to them. Personally, I do not
remember to have been told from the pulpit to believe in Jesus as a
sinner. I heard much of feelings which I thought I could never get, and
frames after which I longed; but I found no peace until a true, free
grace message came to me, "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth." See, my brethren, if convictions of soul are necessary
qualifications for Christ, we ought to know to an ounce how much of
these qualifications are needed. If you tell a poor sinner that there
is a certain amount of humblings, and tremblings, and convictions, and
heart-searchings to be felt, in order that he may be warranted to come
to Christ, I demand of all legal-gospellers distinct information as to
the manner and exact degree of preparation required. Brethren, you will
find when these gentlemen are pushed into a corner, they will not
agree, but will every one give a different standard, according to his
own judgment. One will sa the sinner must have months of law work;
another, that he only needs good desires; and some will demand that he
possess the graces of the Spirit–such as humility, godly sorrow, and
love to holiness. You will get no clear answer from them. If the
sinner's warrant to come is found in the gospel itself, the matter is
clear and plain; but what a roundabout plan is that compound of law and
gospel against which I Contend! And let me ask you, my brethren,
whether such an incomprehensible gospel would do for a dying man? There
he lies in the agonies of death. He tells me that he has no good
thought or feeling, and asks what he must do to be saved. There is but
a step between him and death–another five minutes and that man's soul
may be in hell. What am I to tell him? Am I to be an hour explaining to
him the preparation required before he may come to Christ? Brethren, I
dare not. But I tell him, "Believe. brother, even though it be the
eleventh hour; trust thy soul with Jesus, and thou shalt be saved."
There is the same gospel for a living man as for a dying man. The thief
on the Cross may have had some experience, but I do not find him
pleading it; he turns his eye to Jesus, saying, "Lord, remember me !"
How prompt is the reply, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." He
may have had onging desires, he may have had deep convictions, but I am
quite sure he did not say, "Lord, I dare not ask thee to remember me,
because I do not feel I have repented enough. I dare not trust thee,
because I have not been shaken over hell's mouth." No, no, no; he
looked to Jesus as he was, and Jesus responded to his believing prayer.
It must be so with you, my brethren, for any other plan but that of a
sinner's coming to Christ as a sinner, and resting on Jesus just as he
is, is utterly incomprehensible, or, if it is to be explained at all,
will require a day or two to explain it ill; and that cannot be the
gospel which the apostles preached to dying men.
Yet again, I believe that the preaching of alarms of conscience and
repentance as qualifications for Christ, is unacceptable to the
awakened sinner. I will introduce one, as Saltmarsh does in his
"Flowings of Christ's Blood Freely to the Chief of Sinners." Here is a
poor brother who dares not believe in Jesus. I will suppose him to have
attended a ministry where the preaching is "If you have felt this, if
you have felt that, then you may believe." When you went to your
minister in trouble, what did he say to you? "He asked me whether I
felt my need of Christ, I told him I did not think I did, at least I
did not feel my need enough. He told me that I ought to meditate upon
the guilt of sin, and consider the dreadful character of the wrath to
come, and I might in this way feel my need more." Did you do so? "I
did; but it seemed to me as if while I meditated upon the terrors of
judgment, my heart grew harder instead of softer, and I seemed to be
desperately set, and resolved in a kind of despair to go on in my ways;
yet, some-times I did have some humblings and some meltings of heart."
What did your minister tell you to do to get comfort then? "He said I
ought to pray much." Did you pray? "I told him I could not pray; that I
was such a sinner that it was of no use for me to hope for an answer if
I could." What did he say then? "He told me I ought to lay hold upon
the promises." Yes, did you do so? "No; I told him I could not lay hold
upon the promises; that I could not see they were meant for me, for I
was not the character intended; and that I could only find threatenings
in the Word of God for such as I was." What did he say then? "He told
me to be diligent in the use of the means, and to attend his ministry."
What did you say to that? "I told him I was diligent, but that what I
wanted was not means, I wanted to get my sins pardoned and forgiven."
What did he say then? "Why, he said that I had better persevere and
wait patiently for the Lord; I told him that I was in such a horror of
great darkness, that my soul chose strangling rather than life. Well
then, he said, he thought I must already be truly penitent, and was
therefore safe, and that sooner or later I should have hope But I told
him, a mere hope was not enough for me, I could not he safe while sin
lay so heavy upon me. He asked me whether I had not desires after
Christ. I said I had, but they were merely selfish, Carnal desires;
that I sometimes thought I had desires, but they were only legal. He
said if I had a desire to have a desire, it was God's work, and I was
saved. That did prop me up for a time, sir, but I went down again, for
that did not do for me, I wanted something solid to rest on." And
sinner, how is it now with you? where are you now? "Well, sir, I scarce
know where I am, but I pray you, tell me what I must do?" Brethren, my
reply is prompt and plain; hear it. Poor soul, I have no questions to
ask you; I have no advice to give you, except this, God's command to
you is, whatever you may be, trust to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you
shall be saved. Will you do it or no? If he rejects that, I must heave
him; I have no more to say to him; I am clear of his blood, and on him
the sentence comes, "He that believeth not shall be damned." But you
will find in ninety-nine Cases out of one hundred, that when you begin
to talk to the sinner, not about his repentings and his desirings, but
about Christ, and tell him that he need not fear the law, for Christ
has satisfied it; that he need not fear an angry God, for God is not
angry with believers; tell him that all manner of iniquity was Cast
into the Red Sea of Jesus' blood, and, like the Egyptians, drowned
there for ever; tell him that no matter however vile and wicked he may
have been, "Christ is able to save unto the uttermost them that come
unto God by him;" and tell him that he has a right to come, be he who
he may, or what he may, because God bids him come; and you will find
that the suitability of such a gospel to the sinner's case, will prove
a sweet inducement in the hand of the Holy Spirit, to lead that sinner
to lay hold on Jesus Christ. O my brethren, I am ashamed of myself when
I think of the way in which I have sometimes talked to awakened
sinners. I am persuaded that the only true remedy for a broken heart is
Jesus Christ's most precious blood. Some surgeons keep a wound open too
long; they keep cutting, and cutting, and cutting, till they cut away
as much sound flesh as proud flesh. Better by half heal it, heal it at
once, for Jesus Christ was not sent to keep open the wounds, but to
bind up the broken in heart. To you, then, sinners of every sort and
hue, black, hard-hearted, insensible, impenitent, even to you is the
gospel sent, for "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,"
even the chief.
I might here pause, surely, but I must add yet one other point upon
this negative mode of reasoning. Any other warrant for the sinner's
faith than the gospel itself, is false and dangerous.
It is false, my brethren, it is as false as God is true, that anything
in a sinner can be his warrant for believing in Jesus. The whole tenour
and run of the gospel is clean contrary to it. It must be false,
because there is nothing in a sinner until he believes which can be a
warrant for his believing. If you tell me that a sinner has any good
thing in him before he believes, I reply, impossible–"Without faith it
is impossible to please God." All the repentings, and humblings, and
convictions that a sinner has before faith, must be, according to
Scripture, displeasing to God. Do not tell me that his heart is broken;
if it is only broken by carnal means, and trusts in its brokenness, it
needs to be broken over again. Do not tell me he has been led to hate
his sin; I tell you he does not hate his sin, he only hates hell. There
cannot be a true and real hatred of sin where there is not faith in
Jesus. All the sinner knows and feels before faith is only an addition
to his other sins, and how can sin which deserves wrath be a warrant
for an act which is the work of the Holy Spirit?
How dangerous is the sentiment I am opposing. My hearers, it may be so
mischievous us to have misled some of you. I solemnly warn you, though
you have been professors of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for twenty
years, if your reason for believing in Christ lies in this, that you
have felt the terrors of the law; that you have been alarmed, and have
been convinced; if your own experience be your warrant for believing in
Christ, it is a false reason, and you are really relying upon your
experience and not upon Christ: and mark you, if you rely upon your
frames and feelings, nay, if you rely upon your communion with Christ,
in any degree whatever, you are as certainly a lost sinner as though
you relied upon oaths and blasphemies; you shall no more be able to
enter heaven, even by the works of the Spirit–and this is using strong
language–than by your own works; for Christ, and Christ alone, is the
foundation, and "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ." Take care of resting in your own experience.
All that is of nature's spinning must be unravelled, and everything
that getteth into Christ's place, however dear to thee, and however
precious in itself, must be broken in pieces, and like the dust of the
golden calf, must be strawed upon the water, and thou wilt be made
sorrowfully to drink of it, because thou madest it thy trust. I believe
that the tendency of that preaching which puts the warrant for faith
anywhere but in the gospel command, is to vex the true penitent, and to
console the hypocrite; the tendency of it is to make the poor soul
which really repents, feel that he must not believe in Christ, because
he sees so much of his own hardness of heart. The more spiritual a man
is, the more unspiritual he sees himself to be; and the more penitent a
man is, the more impenitent he discovers himself to be. Often the most
penitent men are those who think themselves the most impenitent; and if
I am to preach the gospel to the penitent and not to every sinner, as a
sinner, then those penitent persons, who, according to my opponents,
have the most right to believe, are the very persons who will never
dare to touch it, because they are conscious of their own impenitence
and want of all qualification for Christ. Sinners, let me address you
with words of life: Jesus wants nothing of you, nothing whatsoever,
nothing done, nothing felt; he gives both work and feeling. Ragged,
penniless, just as ye are, lost, forsaken, desolate, with no good
feelings, and no good hopes, still Jesus comes to you, and in these
words of pity he addresses you, "Him that cometh to me I will in no
Wise cast out." If thou believest in him thou shalt never be
confounded.
2. But now, POSITIVELY, and as the negative part has been positive
enough, we will be brief here. The gospel Command is a sufficient
warrant for a sinner to believe in Jesus Christ. The words of our text
imply this–" This is the commandment." My brethren, do you want any
warrant for doing a thing better than God's command to do it? The
children of Israel borrowed jewels of silver and jewels of gold from
the Egyptians. Many, as they read the Bible, find fault with this
transaction; but, to my mind, if God bade them do it, that was enough
of justification for them. Very well; if God bid thee believe–if this
be his commandment that thou believe–canst thou want a better warrant?
I say, is there any necessity for any other. Surely the Lord's Word is
enough.
Brethren, the command to believe in Christ must be the sinner's
warrant, if you consider the nature of our commission. How runs it? "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." It
ought to run, according to the other plan, "preach the gospel to every
regenerate person, to every convinced sinner, to every sensible soul."
But it is not so; it is to "every creature." But unless the warrant be
a something in which every creature can take a share, there is no such
thing as consistently preaching it to every creature. Then how is it
put?–"He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved; he that
believeth not shall be damned." Where is there a word about the
pre-requisites for believing. Surely the man could not be damned for
not doing what he would not have been warranted in doing. Our reaching,
on the theory of qualifications, should not be," Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;" but "Qualify yourselves for
faith, be sensible of your sin, be regenerated, get marks and
evidences, and then believe." Why, surely, if I am not to sow the good
seed on the stony places and among the thorns, I had better give up
being a sower, and take to ploughing, or some other work. When the
apostles went to Macedonia or Achaia, they ought not to have commenced
with preaching Christ; they should have preached up qualifications,
emotions, and sensations, if these are the preparations for Jesus; but
I find that Paul, whenever he stands up, has nothing to preach but
"Christ, and him crucified." Repentance is preached as a gift from the
exalted Saviour, but it is never as the cause or preparation for
believing on Jesus. These two graces are born together, and live with a
common life–beware of making one a foundation for the other. I would
like to carry one of those who only preach to sensible sinners, and set
him down in the capital of the kingdom of Dahomey. There are no
sensible sinners there! Look at them, with their mouths stained with
human blood, with their bodies smeared all over with the gore of their
immolated victims–how will the preacher find any qualification there?
I know not what he could say, but I know what my message would be. My
word would run thus–"Men and brethren, God, who made the heavens and
the earth; hath sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world to suffer for
our sins, and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life." If Christ crucified did not shake the kingdom of
Dahomey, it would be its first failure. When the Moravian missionaries
first went to Greenland, you remember that they were months and months
teaching the poor Greenlander about the Godhead, the doctrine of the
Trinity, and the doctrine of sin and the law, and no converts were
forthcoming. But one day, by accident, one of the Greenlanders
happening to read that passage, "Behold what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God,"
asked the meaning, and' the missionary, hardly thinking him advanced
enough to understand the gospel, nevertheless ventured to explain it to
him, and the man became converted, and hundreds of his countrymen
received the Word. Naturally enough, they said to the missionaries,
"Why did not you tell us this before? We knew all about there being a
God, and that did us no good; why did not you come and tell us to
believe in Jesus Christ before?" O my brethren, this is God's weapon,
God's method; this is the great battering-ram which will shake the
gates of hell; and we must see to it, that it be brought into daily
use.
I have tried, on the positive side, to show that a free-grace warrant
is consistent with the text–that it accords with apostolic custom, and
is, indeed, absolutely necessary, seeing the condition in which sinners
are placed. But, my brethren, to preach Christ to sinners, as sinners,
must be right; for all the former acts of God are to sinners, as
sinners. Whom did God elect? Sinners. He loved us with a great love,
even when we were dead in trespasses and sins. How did he redeem them?
Did he redeem them as saints? No; for while we were yet enemies, he
reconciled us unto God by the death of his Son. Christ never shed his
blood for the good that is in us, but for the sin that is in us. "He
laid down his life for our sins," says the apostle. If, then, in
election and redemption, we find God dealing with sinners, as sinners,
it is a marring and nullifying of the whole plan if the gospel is to be
preached to men as anything else but sinners.
Again, it is inconsistent with the character of God to suppose that he
comes forth and proclaims, "If, O my fallen creatures, if you qualify
yourselves for my mercy, I will save you; if you will feel holy
emotions–if you will be conscious of sacred desires after me, then the
blood of Jesus Christ shall cleanse you." There would be little which
is godlike in that. But when he comes out with pardons full and free,
and saith, "Yea, when ye lay in your blood, I said unto you Live"–when
he comes to you, his enemy and rebellious subject, and yet cries, "I
have blotted out thy sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud thine
iniquities." Why, this is divine. You know what David said, "I have
sinned." What did Nathan say? "The Lord has put away thy sin, thou
shalt not die," and that is the message of the gospel to a sinner as a
sinner. "The Lord has put away thy sin; Christ has suffered; he has
brought in perfect righteousness; take him, trust him, and ye shall
live." May that message come home to you this morning, my beloved.
I have read with some degree of attention a book to which I owe much
for this present discourse–a book, by Abraham Booth, called "Glad
Tidings to Perishing Sinners." I have never heard any one cast a
suspicion upon Abraham Booth's soundness; on the contrary, he has been
generally considered as one of the most orthodox of the divines of the
last generation. If you want my views in full, read his book. If you
need something more, let me say, among all the bad things which his
revilers have laid to his door, I have never heard any one blame
William Huntingdon for not being high enough in doctrine. Now, William
Huntingdon prefaced in his lifetime a book by Saltmarsh, with which he
was greatly pleased; and the marrow of its teaching is just this, in
his own words, "The only ground for any to believe is, he is faithful
that hath promised, not anything in themselves, for this is the
commandment, That ye believe on his Son Jesus Christ." Now, if William
Huntingdon himself printed such a book as that, I marvel how the
followers of either William Huntingdon or Abraham Booth, how men
calling themselves Calvinistic divines and high Calvinists, can
advocate what is not free grace, but a legal, graceless system of
qualifications and preparations. I might here quote Crisp, who is pat
to the point and a high doctrine man too. I mention neither Booth nor
Huntingdon as authorities upon the subject, to the law and to the
testimony we must go; but I do mention them to show that men holding
strong views on election and predestination yet did see it to be
consistent to preach the gospel to sinners as sinners–nay, felt that
it was inconsistent to preach the gospel in any other way.
I shall only add, that the blessings which flow from preaching Christ
to sinners as sinners, are of such a character as prove it to be right.
Do on not see that this levels us all? We have the same warrant for
believing, and no one can exalt himself above his fellow.
Then, my brethren, how it inspires men with hope and confidence; it
forbids despair. No man can despair if this be true; or if he do, it is
a wicked, unreasonable despair, because if he has been never so bad,
yet God commands him to believe. What room can there be for
despondency? Surely if anything Could cut off Giant Despair's head,
Christ preached to sinners is the sharp two-edged sword to do it.
Again, how it makes a man live close to Christ! If I am to come to
Christ as a sinner every day, and I must do so, for the Word saith, "As
ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him;" if every
day I am to come to Christ as a sinner, why then, how paltry all my
doings look! what utter contempt it casts upon all my fine virtues, m
preachings, my prayings, and all that comes of my flesh! and though it
leads me to seek after purity and holiness, yet it teaches me to live
on Christ and not on them, and so it keeps me at the fountain head.
My time flies, and I must leave the last head, just to add, sinner,
whoever thou mayst be, God now commands thee to believe in Jesus
Christ. This is his commandment: he does not command thee to feel
anything, or be anything, to prepare thyself for this. Now, art thou
willing to incur the great guilt of making God a liar? Surely thou wilt
shrink from that: then dare to believe. Thou canst not say, "I have no
right:" you have a perfect right to do what God tells you to do. You
cannot tell me you are not fit; there is no fitness wanted, the Command
is given and it is yours to obey, not to dispute. You cannot say it
does not come to you–it is preached to every Creature under heaven;
and now soul, it is so pleasant a thing to trust the Lord Jesus Christ
that I would fain persuade myself thou needest no persuading. It is so
delightful a thing to accept a perfect salvation, to be saved by
precious blood. and to be married to so bright a Saviour, that I would
fain hope the Holy Spirit has led thee to cry, "Lord, I believe; help
thou mine unbelief."