Election no Discouragement to Seeking Souls

Election no Discouragement to Seeking Souls

A Sermon

(No. 553)

Delivered on Sunday Morning, February 7th, 1864, by the

Rev. C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"I will be gracious upon whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy
upon whom I will show mercy."–Exodus 33:19.

BECAUSE GOD IS THE MAKER, and creator, and sustainer of all things, he
has a right to do as he wills with all his works. "Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not
the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor, and another unto dishonor?" God's absolute supremacy and
unlimited sovereignty naturally flow from his omnipotence, and if it
were not so, the superlative excellence of the divine character would
entitle him to absolute dominion. He should be chief who is best. He
who cannot err, being perfect in wisdom; he who will not err, being as
perfect in holiness; he who can do no wrong, being supremely just; he
who must act in accordance with the principles of kindness, seeing he
is essentially love, is the most fitting person to rule. Tell me not of
the creatures ruling themselves: what a chaos were this! Talk not of a
supposed republic of all created existences, controlling and guiding
themselves. All the creatures put together, with their combined wisdom
and goodness–if, indeed, it were not combined folly and
wickedness–all these, I say, with all the excellencies of knowledge,
judgment, and love, which the most fervid imagination can suppose them
to possess, could not make the equal of that great God whose name is
holiness, whose essence is love, to whom all power belongeth, and to
whom alone wisdom is to be ascribed. Let him reign supreme, for he is
infinitely superior to all other existences. Even if he did not
actually reign, the suffrages of all wise men would choose the Lord
Jehovah to be absolute monarch of the universe; and if he were not
already King of kings and Lord of lords, doing as he wills among the
armies of heaven and the inhabitants of this lower world, it were the
path of wisdom to lift him up to that throne. Since men have sinned,
there becomes a yet further reason, or, rather a wider scope for the
display of sovereignty. The creature, as a creature, may be supposed to
have some claim upon the Creator; at least, it may expect that he shall
not make it intentionally and despotically to put it to pain; that he
shall not arbitrarily and without cause or necessity, cause its
existence to be one of misery. I will not venture to judge the Lord,
but I do think it is altogether incompatible with his goodness that he
should have made a creature, and, as a creature, have condemned it to
misery. Justice seems to demand that there shall be no punishment where
there is no sin. But man has lost all his rights as a creature. If he
ever had any, he has sinned them away. Our first parents have sinned,
and we, their children, have attainted ourselves, by high treason
against our liege lord and sovereign. All that a just God owes to any
one of us on the footing of our own claim, is wrath and displeasure. If
he should give to us our due, we should not longer remain on praying
ground, breathing the air of mercy. The creature, before its Creator,
must now be silent as to any demands upon him; it cannot require
anything of him as a matter of right. If the Lord willeth to show
mercy, it shall be so; but, if he withholds it, who can call him to
account? "Can I not do as I will with mine own?" is a fit reply to all
such arrogant enquiries; for man has sinned himself out of court, and
there remains no right of appeal from the sentence of the Most High.
Man is now in the position of a condemned criminal, whose only right is
to be taken to the place of execution, and justly to suffer the due
reward of his sins. Whatever difference of opinion, then, there might
have been about the sovereignty of God as exercised upon creatures in
the pure mass, there should be none, and there will be none, except in
rebellious spirits, concerning the sovereignty of God over rebels who
have sinned themselves into eternal ruin, and have lost all claim even
to the mercy, much more the love of their offended Creator.

However, whether we all of us agree to the doctrine that God is
sovereign or not, is a very little matter to him, for he is so. De
jure, by right, he should be so; de facto, as matter of fact, he is so.
It is a fact, concerning which you have only to open your eyes and see
that God acts as a sovereign in the dispensation of his grace. Our
Saviour, when he wished to quote instances of this, spake on this wise:
many widows there were in Israel in the time of Elias the prophet, but
unto none of these was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon,
unto a woman who was a widow. Here was election! Elias is not sent to
nourish and to be nourished by an Israelitish widow, but to a poor
idolatress across the border, the blessing of the prophet's company is
graciously granted. Again our Saviour says, "Many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them were cleansed,
save only Naaman the Syrian"–not an Israelite at all, but one who
bowed in the house of Rimmon. See how distinguishing grace finds out
strange objects! Although our Saviour only gave these two instances,
and no more, because they sufficed for his purpose, there are thousands
of such cases on record. Look at man and the fallen angels. How is it
that fallen angels are condemned to endless fire, and reserved in
chains of darkness unto the great day? There is no Saviour for angels;
no precious blood was ever shed for Satan. Lucifer falls, and falls for
ever, never to hope again. There is no dispensation of mercy to those
nobler spirits; but man who was made lower than the angels, is selected
to be the object of divine redemption. What a great deep is here! This
is a most illustrious and indisputable instance of the exercise of the
prerogatives of divine sovereignty. Look again at the nations of the
earth. Why is the gospel preached today, to us Englishmen? We have
committed as many offenses–I will even venture to say we have
perpetrated as many political crimes as other nations. Our eye is
always prejudiced toward everything which is English; but if we read
our history fairly, we can discover in the past, and detect in the
present, grave and serious faults which disgrace our national banner.
To pass by as minor offenses the late barbarities in Japan, and our
frequent wars of extermination in New Zealand, and at the Cape, let it
crimson the cheek of every inhabitant of the British Isles when we do
but hint at the opium traffic with China. Yet to us the gospel is
graciously sent, so that few nations enjoy it so fully as we do. It is
true that Prussia and Holland hear the Word, and that Sweden and
Denmark are comforted by the truth, but their candle burns but dimly;
it is a poor flickering lamp which cheers their darkness, while in our
own dear land, partly from the fact of our religious liberty, and yet
more graciously through the late revival, the sun of the gospel shines
brightly, and men rejoice in the light of day. Why this? Why no grace
for the Japanese? Why no gospel preached to the inhabitants of Central
Africa? Why was not the truth of God displayed in the Cathedral of
Santiago, instead of the mummeries and follies which disgraced both
dupes and deceivers, and were the incidental cause of the horrible
burnings of that modern Tophet? Why today is not Rome, instead of being
the seat of the beast, become the throne of Jesus Christ? I cannot tell
you. But assuredly, divine sovereignty passing by many races of men,
has been pleased to pitch upon the Anglo-Saxon family, that they may be
as the Jews were aforetime, the custodians of divine truth, and the
favorites of mighty grace.

We need not further speak upon national elections, for the principle is
plainly carried out in individuals. See ye anything, my brethren, in
that rich publican whose coffers are gorged with the results of his
extortion, when he climbs the sycamore-tree, that his short stature may
not prevent his seeing the Saviour–see ye anything in him why the Lord
of glory should halt beneath that sycamore-tree and say, "Zaccheus,
make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house?" Can
you find me a reason why yonder adulterous woman, who has had five
husbands, and who is now living with a man who is not her husband,
should constrain the Saviour to journey through Samaria that he might
tell her of the water of life? If you can see anything, I cannot. Look
at that bloodthirsty Pharisee, hurrying to Damascus with authority to
hail men and women to prison, and shed their blood. The heat of midday
cannot stop him, for his heart is hotter with religious rage than the
sun with noontide rays. But see, he is arrested in his career, a
brightness shines round about him; Jesus speaks from heaven the words
of tender rebuke; and Saul of Tarsus becomes Paul, the apostle of God.
Why? Wherefore? What answer can we give but this? "Even so, Father, for
so it seemed good in thy sight." Read the "Life of John Newton;" had he
not ripened into the grossest of all villains? Turn to the history of
John Bunyan, by his own confession the lowest of all blackguards, and
tell me, can you find in either of these offenders any sort of reason
why the Lord should have chosen them to be among the most distinguished
heralds of the cross? No man in his senses will venture to assert that
there was anything in Newton or Bunyan why they should engross the
regard of the Most High. It was sovereignty, and nothing but
sovereignty. Take your own case, dear friends, and that shall be the
most convincing of all to you. If you know anything of your own heart,
if you have formed a right estimate of your own character, if you have
seriously considered your own position before the Most High, the
reflection that God loveth you with an everlasting love, and that,
therefore, with the bands of his kindness he has drawn you, will draw
forth from you at once the exclamation, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for truth's sake."
Brethren! the whole world is full of instances of divine sovereignty,
for in every conversion some beam of the absolute dominion of God
shines forth upon mankind.

When a sinner is anxiously disturbed about his soul's affairs, his
chief and main thought should not be upon this subject; when a man
would escape from wrath and attain to heaven, his first, his last, his
middle thought should be the cross of Christ. As an awakened sinner, I
have vastly less to do with the secret purposes of God, than with his
revealed commands. For a man to say, "Thou commandest all men to
repent, yet will I not repent, because I do not know that I am chosen
to eternal life," is not only unreasonable, but exceedingly wicked.
That it is unreasonable you will clearly see on a moment's reflection.
I know that bread does not of itself nourish my body, "For man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the
mouth of God." It depends, therefore, upon God's decree whether that
bread shall nourish my body or not; for if he has not purposed that it
shall, it may even choke me, and so become rather the cause of my death
than the staff of my life. Do I therefore, when I am hungry, thrust my
hands into my pockets and stand still, and refuse to help myself from
the well-loaded table, because I do not know whether God has decreed
that the bread shall nourish me or not? If I did, I should be an idiot
or madman; or if in my senses, I should starve myself on such a
pretence, I should richly deserve the burial of a suicide. I am not
absolutely sure that there will be a harvest upon my field next year:
unless God has ordained that the corn shall spring up and shall ripen,
all my husbandry will be labor lost. There are worms in the earth,
frosts in the air, birds in the sky, mildews in the winds–all of which
may destroy my corn, and I may lose every single grain of the handsful
which I throw into my furrows. Shall I, therefore, leave my farm to be
one perpetual fallow, because I do not know whether God has decreed
that there shall be a harvest or not next year? If I become a
bankrupt–if I am unable to pay my rent–if the thorn and the thistle
grow taller and higher, and if at last, my landlord thrusts me from my
tenancy, all that men will say, will be, "It serves him
right!"–because I was such a fool as to make the secret purposes of
God a matter of paramount consideration, instead of performing my known
duty. I am ill and sick: a physician comes to me with medicine. I am
not clear that his medicine will heal me; it has healed a great many
others, but if God has decreed that I shall die, I shall die, let me
take any quantity of physic, or take none at all. My arm mortifies, but
I will not have it cut off, because I do not know whether God has
decreed that I shall die of mortification or not. Who but a crazed
idiot, or raving maniac, would talk thus? When I put the case in that
light, you all reply, "Nobody ever talks in that way; it is too
absurd." Of course, nobody does. And the fact is, even in the things of
God, nobody really does argue in that way. A man may say, "I will not
believe in Christ, because I am afraid I am not elected;" but the thing
is so stupid, so absurd, that I do not believe that any man, not
absolutely demented, can be so grossly foolish as to believe in his own
reasoning. I am far rather inclined to think that is a wicked and
perverse method of endeavoring to stultify conscience, on the theory
that a bad excuse is better than none, and that even a foolish argument
is better than having one's mouth shut in speechless confusion.

But since men will everlastingly be getting to his point, and there are
so many who are always giving this as a reason why they do not believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, because, "It is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," I shall try, this
morning, to talk with these people on their own ground; and I shall
endeavor, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to show that the doctrine of
the sovereignty of God, so far from discouraging anybody, has not in
it, if regarded aright, any sort of discouragement whatever, for any
souls believing in Jesus Christ.

For one moment let me detain you from my object, while I reply to a
very common method of misrepresenting the doctrine. It may be as well
to start with a clear idea of what the doctrine really is. Our
opponents put the case thus: suppose a father should condemn some of
his children to extreme misery, and make others supremely happy, out of
his own arbitrary will, would it be right and just? Would it not be
brutal and detestable? My answer is, of course, it would; it would be
execrable in the highest degree, and far, very far be it from us to
impute such a course of action to the Judge of all the earth. But the
case stated is not at all the one under consideration, but one as
opposite from it as light from darkness. Sinful man is not now in the
position of a well-deserving or innocent child, neither does God occupy
the place of a complacent parent. We will suppose another case far
nearer the mark, indeed, it is no supposition, but an exact description
of the whole matter. A number of criminals, guilty of the most
aggravated and detestable crimes, are righteously condemned to die, and
die they must, unless the king shall exercise the prerogative vested in
him, and give them a free pardon. If for good and sufficient reasons,
known only to himself, the king chooses to forgive a certain number,
and to leave the rest for execution, is there anything cruel or
unrighteous here? If, by some wise means, the ends of justice can be
even better answered by the sparing of the pardoned ones, than by their
condemnation, while at the same time, the punishment of some tends to
honor the justice of the lawgiver, who shall dare to find fault? None,
I venture to say, but those who are the enemies of the state and of the
king. And so may we well ask, "Is there unrighteousness with God? God
forbid." "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power
known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on
the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us,
whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?"
Who is he that shall impugn the mingled mercy and severity of heaven,
or make the eternal God an offender, because "he hath mercy on whom he
will have mercy?" Let us now proceed to our proper subject, and
endeavor to clear this truth from the terrors supposed to cluster
around it.

I. Let us begin with this assertion, which we are absolutely sure is
correct: THIS DOCTRINE DOES NOT OPPOSE ANY COMFORT DERIVED FROM OTHER
SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS.

This doctrine, stern as it may seem to be, does not oppose the
consolation which may be rightly derived from any other truth of
revelation. Those who hold the free-will theory, say that our doctrine,
that salvation is of the Lord alone, and that he will have mercy on
whom he will have mercy, takes away from man the comfort derivable from
God's goodness. God is good, infinitely good in his nature. God is
love; he willeth not the death of any, but had rather that all should
come to repentance. "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in
the death of him that dieth, but had rather that he should turn unto me
and live." Our friends very properly insist upon it that God is good to
all, and his tender mercies are over all his works; that the Lord is
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy; let me
assure them that we shall never quarrel on these points, for we also
rejoice in the same facts. Some of you have listened to my voice for
these ten years: I ask you whether you have heard me utter a single
sentence which at all contradicts the doctrine of God's great goodness?
You may have so construed it by mistake, but no such teaching has
passed my lip. Do I not, again and again, assert the universal
benevolence of God–the infinite and overflowing goodness of the heart
of the Most High? If any man can preach upon the great text, "God is
love," though I may not be able to preach with the same eloquence, I
will venture to view with him in the decision, heartiness, delight,
earnestness, and plainness, with which he may expound his theme, be he
who he may, or what he may. There is not the slightest shadow of a
conflict between God's sovereignty and God's goodness. He may be a
sovereign, and yet it may be absolutely certain that he will always act
in the way of goodness and love. It is true that he will do as he
wills; and yet it is quite certain that he always wills to do that
which, in the widest view of it, is good and gracious. If the sons of
sorrow fetch any comfort from the goodness of God, the doctrine of
election will never stand in their way. Only mark, it does with a
two-edged sword cut to pieces that false confidence in God's goodness
which sends so many souls to hell. We have heard dying men singing
themselves into the bottomless pit with this lullaby, "Yes, sir, I am a
sinner, but God is merciful; God is good." Ah! dear friends, let such
remember that God is just as well as good, and that he will by no means
spare the guilty, except through the great atonement of his Son Jesus
Christ. The doctrine of election, in a most blessedly honest manner
does come in, and breaks the neck, once for all, of all this false and
groundless confidence in the uncovenanted mercy of God. Sinner, you
have no right to trust to the goodness of God out of Christ. There is
no word in the whole Book of Inspiration, which gives the shadow of a
hope to the man who will not believe in Jesus Christ. It says of him,
"He that believeth not shall be damned." It declares of you, who are
resting upon such a poor confidence as the unpromised favor of heaven,
"Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ
the righteous." If this be an evil to rob you of a false refuge, the
doctrine of election certainly does this; but from the comfort properly
derivable from the largest view of God's bounteous goodness and
unlimited love, election does not detract a single grain.

Much comfort, too, flows to a troubled conscience from the promise that
God will hear prayer. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you, for every one that
asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh
it shall be opened." If you ask anything of God in the name of Jesus
Christ, you shall receive it. Now, there are some who imagine that they
must not pray because they do not know whether they are God's chosen
people. If you refuse to pray on the ground of such bad reasoning as
this, you must do so at your own expense; but do mark our solemn
assurance, for which we have God's warrant, that there is nothing in
the sovereignty of God which at all militates against the great truth,
that every sincerely seeking soul, craving divine grace by humble
prayer through Jesus Christ, shall be a finder. There may be an
Arminian brother here who would like to get into this pulpit and preach
the cheering truth, that God hath not said to the seed of Jacob, seek
ye my face in vain. We not only accord him full liberty to preach this
doctrine, but we will go as far as he can, and perhaps a little
further, in the enunciation of that truth. We cannot perceive any
discrepancy between personal election and the prevalence of prayer. Let
those who can, vex their brains with the task of reconciling them; to
us the wonder is how a man can believe the one without the other.
Firmly must I believe that the Lord God will show mercy to whom he will
show mercy, and have compassion on whom he will have compassion; but I
know as assuredly that wherever there is a genuine prayer, God gave it;
that wherever there is a seeker, God made him seek; consequently if God
has made the man seek and made the man pray, there is evidence at once
of divine election; and the fact stands true that none seek who shall
not find.

Very much comfort also is supposed to be derived, and naturally so,
from the free invitations of the gospel. "Ah," cries one, "what a sweet
thing it is that the Saviour cried, Come unto me all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' How delightful to read such
a word as this, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price,' Sir, my heart is encouraged
when I find it written, Whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely.' But, sir, I dare not come because of the doctrine of
election." My dear hearer, I would not say anything harshly to you, but
I must express my conviction that this is nothing but an idle excuse
for not doing what you have no mind to do; because invitations of the
most general character, nay, invitations which shall be universal in
their scope, are perfectly consistent with the election of God. I have
preached here, you know it, invitations as free as those which
proceeded from the lips of Master John Wesley. Van Armin himself, the
founder of the Arminian school, could not more honestly have pleaded
with the very vilest of the vile to come to Jesus than I have done.
Have I therefore felt in my mind that there was a contradiction here?
No, nothing of the kind; because I know it to be my duty to sow beside
all waters, and like the sower in the parable, to scatter the seed upon
the stony ground, as well as upon the good land, knowing that election
does not narrow the gospel call which is universal, but only affects
the effectual call, which is and must be from the Spirit of God. My
business is to give the general call, the Holy Spirit will see to its
application to the chosen. O my dear hearers, God's invitations are
honest invitations to every one of you. He invites you; in the words of
the parable he addresses, "All things are ready; come ye to the supper,
my oxen and my fatlings are killed." Nay, he saith to his ministers,
"Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in."
Though he foreknows who will come in, and has before all worlds
ordained who shall taste of that supper, yet the invitation in its
widest possible range, is a true and honest one; and if you accept it
you shall find it so.

Furthermore, if we understand the gospel at all, the gospel lies in a
nutshell. It is this:–"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved." Or, to use Christ's words, "He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned."
This promise is the gospel. Now, the gospel is true, whatever else may
be false. Whatever doctrine may or may not be of God, the gospel
certainly is. The doctrine of sovereign grace is not contrary to the
gospel, but perfectly consonant therewith. God has a people whom no man
shall number, whom he hath ordained unto eternal life. This is, by no
means, in conflict with the great declaration, "He that believeth on
him is not condemned." If any man who ever lived, or ever shall live,
believes in Jesus Christ, he hath eternal life. Election or no
election, if you are resting upon the rock of ages you are saved. If
you, as a guilty sinner, take the righteousness of Christ–if all
black, and foul, and filthy, you come to wash in the fountain filled
with blood, sovereignty or no sovereignty, rest assured of this, that
you are redeemed from the wrath to come. O my dear friends, when you
say, "I will not believe in Christ because of election," I can only say
as Job did to his wife, "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women
speaketh." How dare you, because God reveals to you two things, which
two things you cannot make square with one another–how dare you charge
either the one or the other with being false? If I believe God, I am
not only to believe what I can understand, but what I cannot
understand; and if there were a revelation which I could comprehend and
sum up as I may count five upon my fingers, I should be sure it did not
come from God. But if it has some depths vastly too deep for me–some
knots which I cannot untie–some mysteries which I cannot solve–I
receive it with the greater confidence, because it now gives me
swimming-room for my faith, and my soul bathes herself in the great sea
of God's wisdom, praying, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

Let it be said over and over again, that there shall be no doubt about
this matter, that if there be any comfort derivable from the gospel; if
there be any sweet consolation flowing from the free invitations and
the universal commands of divine truth, all those may be received and
enjoyed by you, while you hold this doctrine of divine sovereignty as
much as if you did not hold it, and received some wider scheme.
Methinks I hear one voice say, "Sir, the only comfort I can ever have
lies in the infinite value of the precious blood of Christ; O sir, it
seems to me such a sweet thing that there is no sinner so black that
Christ cannot wash away his sins, and no sinner so old that the
meritorious virtue of that atonement cannot meet his case–not one in
any rank or in any condition whom that blood cannot cleanse from all
sin. Now, sir, if that be true, how can the doctrine of election be
true?" My dear friend, you know in your own heart that the two things
are not opposed to each other at all. For what does the doctrine of
election say? It says that God has chosen and has saved some of the
greatest sinners who ever lived, has cleansed some of the foulest sins
ever committed, and that he is doing and will do the same to the
world's end. So that the two things exactly tally. And I will venture
to say that if in the fulness of a man's heart he shall say, "There is
no sin except the one excepted sin, which cannot be forgiven," if he
boldly announce that "All manner of sin shall be forgiven unto men,"
and if he shall plead with power and earnestness that souls would now
come to Christ and lay hold upon eternal life, he may go back to his
Bible, and he may read every text teaching the sovereignty of God, and
every passage upholding divine election; nd he may feel that all these
texts look him in the face, and say, "Well done, our spirit and your
spirit are precisely the same; we have no conflict together; we are two
great truths which came from the same God; we are alike the revelation
of the Holy Ghost." But we leave that point. If there be any comfort,
sinner, which you can truthfully and rightly get from any passage of
Scripture, from any promise of God, from any invitation, from any open
door of mercy, you may have it, for the doctrine of election does not
rob you of one atom of the consolation which the truth of God can
afford you.

II. But now will take another point for a moment. Our second head is,
that THIS DOCTRINE HAS A MOST SALUTARY EFFECT UPON SINNERS. These may
be divided into two classes: those who are awakened, and those who are
hardened and incorrigible.

To the awakened sinner, next to the doctrine of the cross, the doctrine
of distinguishing grace is perhaps the most fraught with blessings and
comfort. In the first place, the doctrine of election, applied by the
Holy Ghost, strikes dead for ever all the efforts of the flesh. It is
the end of Arminian preaching to make men active, to excite them to do
what they can; but the very end and object of gospel preaching is to
make men feel that they have no power of their own, and to lay them as
dead, at the foot of God's throne. We seek, under God, to make them
feel that all their strength must lie in the Strong One who is mighty
to save. If I can convince a man that, let him do what he may, he
cannot save himself; if I can show him that his own prayers and tears
can never save him apart from the Spirit of God; if I can convince him
that he must be born again from above; if I lead him to see that all
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and only that which is born of the
spirit is spirit, brethren! three parts of the great battle are already
won. "I kill and I make alive," saith God: "when a man is killed the
work is half done." "I wound and I heal: when a man is wounded his
salvation is commenced." What! am I to set a sinner industriously to
labor after eternal life by his own works? Then, indeed, am I an
ambassador of hell. Am I to teach him that there is a goodness in him
which he is to evolve, to polish, and educate and perfect, and so to
save himself? Then I am a teacher of the beggarly elements of the law
and not the gospel of Christ. Are we to set forth man's prayers,
repentings, and humblings as the way of salvation; if so, let us
renounce the righteousness of Christ at once, for the two will never
stand together! I am a mischief-maker if I excite the activities of the
flesh instead of pointing to the arms of the Redeemer! But if the
potent hammer of electing sovereignty dashes out the brains of all a
man's works, merits, doings, and willings, while it pronounces over the
dead carcass this sentence: "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy;" then, the best thing is
done for a sinner that can be done as a stepping-stone to the act of
faith. When a man is weaned from self, and totally delivered from
looking to the flesh for help, there is hope for him: and this the
doctrine of divine sovereignty does through the Holy Spirit's power.

Again, this doctrine gives the greatest hope to the really awakened
sinner. You know how the case stands. We are all prisoners condemned to
die. God, as sovereign, has a right to pardon whom he pleases. Now,
imagine a number of us shut up in a condemned cell, all guilty. One of
the murderers says within himself: "I know that I have no reason to
expect to be delivered. I am not rich: if I had some rich relations,
like George Townley, I might be found insane, and delivered. But I am
very poor; I am not educated. If I had the education of some men I
might expect some consideration. I am not a man of rank and position; I
am a man without merit or influence, therefore I cannot expect that I
should be selected as one to be saved." No, I believe that if the
present authorities of our land were the persons to be taken into
consideration, a man who was poor might have a very poor chance of
expecting any gratuitous deliverance. But when God is the great
sovereign the case is different. For then, we argue thus: "Here am I;
my salvation depends entirely upon the will of God: is there a chance
for me? We take down a list of those whom he has saved, and we find
that he saves the poor, the illiterate, the wicked, the godless, and
the worst of the worst, the base things, and things that are despised.
Well, what do we say? Then, why may he not choose me? Why not save me?
If I am to look for some reason in myself why I should be saved, I
shall never find any, and consequently never shall have a hope. But if
I am to be saved for no reason at all but that God wills to save me,
ah! then there is hope for me. I will to the gracious King approach, I
will do as he bids me, I will trust in his dear Son, and I shall be
saved." So that this doctrine opens the door of hope to the worst of
the worst, and the only persons it discourages are the Pharisees, who
say: "Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men are"–those proud,
haughty spirits who say: "No! if I am not to be saved for something
good in myself, then I will be damned!" as damned they will be with a
vengeance, too.

Moreover, do not you see, dear friends, how the doctrine of election
comforts the sinner in the matter of power. His complaint is, "I find I
have no power to believe; I have no spiritual power of any kind."
Election stoops down and whispers in his ear–"But if God wills to save
you, he gives the power, gives the life, and gives the grace; and
therefore since he has given that power and might to others as weak as
you, why not to you? Have courage, look to the cross of Christ and
live." And oh! what emotions of gratitude, what throbbings of love does
this doctrine cause in human hearts. "Why," saith the man, "I am saved
simply because God would save me, not because I deserved it, but
because his loving heart would save me; then, I will love him, I will
live to him, I will spend and be spent for him." Such a man cannot be
proud, I mean not consistently with the doctrine. He lies humbly at
God's feet. Other men may boast of what they are, and how they have own
eternal life by their own goodness, but I cannot. If God had left me, I
had been in hell with others; and if I go to heaven, I must cast my
crown at the feet of the grace which brought me there. Such a man will
become kind to others. He will hold his opinions, but he will not hold
them savagely, nor teach them bitterly, because he will say, "If I have
light, and others have not, my light was given me from God, therefore,
I have no cause to plume myself upon it. I will try to spread that
light, but not by anger and abuse. For why should I blame those who
cannot see, for could I have seen if God had not opened my blind eyes?"
Every virtue this doctrine fosters, and every vice it kills, when the
Holy Spirit so uses it. Pride it treads under foot, and humble,
trustful confidence in the mercy of God in Christ, it cherishes as a
darling child.

My time is gone; but I wanted to have said a word as to the effect of
this gospel upon incorrigible sinners. I will just say this: I know
what the effect of it ought to be. What do you say who have made up
your minds not to repent, you who care not for God? Why, you believe
that any day you like you can turn to God, since God is merciful, and
will save you; and therefore, you walk about the world as comfortably
as possible, thinking it all depends upon you, and that you will get
into heaven just at the eleventh hour. Ah! man, that is not your case.
See where you are. Do you see that moth fluttering in my hand! Imagine
it to be there. With this finger of mine I can crush it–in a moment.
Whether it shall live or not depends absolutely upon whether I choose
to crush it or let it go. That is precisely your position at the
present moment. God can damn you now. Nay, let us say to you, "Yours is
a worse position than that." There are some seven persons now doomed
for murder and piracy on the high seas. You can clearly say that their
lives depend upon Her Majesty's pleasure. If Her Majesty chooses to
pardon them she can. If not, when the fatal morning comes, the bolt
will be drawn and they will be launched into eternity. That is your
case, sinner. You are condemned already. This world is but one huge
condemned cell in which you are kept, until the execution morning
comes. If you are ever to be pardoned, God must do it. You cannot
escape from him by flight; you cannot bribe him by actions of your own.
You are absolutely in the hand of God, and if he leaves you where you
are and as you are, your eternal ruin is as certain as your existence.
Now, does not this make some sort of trembling come upon you? Perhaps
not; it makes you angry. Well, if it does, that will not frighten me,
because there are some of you who will never be good for anything until
you are angry. I believe it is no ill sign when some persons are angry
with the truth. It shows that the truth has pierced them. If an arrow
penetrates my flesh, I do not like the arrow, and if you kick and
struggle against this truth, it will not alarm me; I shall have some
hope that a wound is made. If this truth should provoke you to think,
it will have done for some of you one of the greatest things in the
world. It is not your perverse thinking which frightens me; it is the
utterly thoughtless way in which you go on. If you had sense enough to
consider these things and fight against them, I should then have some
faint hope of you. But alas! many of you have not sense enough, you
say, "Yes, yes, it is all true," you accept it, but then it has no
effect upon you. The gospel rolls over you, like oil adown a slab of
marble, and produces no effect.

If you are at all right in heart, you will begin to see what your state
is, and the next thing that will startle your mind will be the
reflection: "Is it so? am I absolutely in God's hands? can he save me
or damn me as he will? Then, I will cry to him, O God, save me from the
wrath to come–from eternal torment–from banishment from thy presence.
Save me, O God! What wouldst thou have me to do? Oh! what wouldst thou
have me to do, that I may find thy favor and live?'" Then comes the
answer to you:–"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved;" for "whosoever believeth in him shall never perish, but shall
have eternal life."

O that God might bless this divine doctrine to you. I have never
preached this doctrine without conversions, and I believe I never
shall. At this moment God will cause his truth to attract your hearts
to Jesus, or to affright you to him. May you be drawn as the bird is
drawn by the lure, or may you be driven as a dove is hunted by the hawk
into the clefts of the rock. Only may you be sweetly compelled to come.
May my Lord fulfill this desire of my heart. O that God may grant me
your souls for my hire; and to him shall be the glory, world without
end. Amen.