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CHARLES SPURGEON DEFENDING CALVINISMHi, everyone,
We've often enjoyed the works of that wonderful preacher, Spurgeon. Can you enjoy him again defending Calvinism with all his might?
A Defense of Calvinism

"The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."—C. H. Spurgeon

T IS A GREAT THING to begin the Christian life by believing good solid doctrine. Some people have received twenty different "gospels" in as many years; how many more they will accept before they get to their journey's end, it would be difficult to predict. I thank God that He early taught me the gospel, and I have been so perfectly satisfied with it, that I do not want to know any other. Constant change of creed is sure loss. If a tree has to be taken up two or three times a year, you will not need to build a very large loft in which to store the apples. When people are always shifting their doctrinal principles, they are not likely to bring forth much fruit to the glory of God. It is good for young believers to begin with a firm hold upon those great fundamental doctrines which the Lord has taught in His Word. Why, if I believed what some preach about the temporary, trumpery salvation which only lasts for a time, I would scarcely be at all grateful for it; but when I know that those whom God saves He saves with an everlasting salvation, when I know that He gives to them an everlasting righteousness, when I know that He settles them on an everlasting foundation of everlasting love, and that He will bring them to His everlasting kingdom, oh, then I do wonder, and I am astonished that such a blessing as this should ever have been given to me! "Pause, my soul! adore, and wonder!
Ask, 'Oh, why such love to me?'
Grace hath put me in the number
Of the Saviour's family:
Hallelujah!
Thanks, eternal thanks, to Thee!"

I suppose there are some persons whose minds naturally incline towards the doctrine of free-will. I can only say that mine inclines as naturally towards the doctrines of sovereign grace. Sometimes, when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude that God has never let me act as they have done! I have thought, if God had left me alone, and had not touched me by His grace, what a great sinner I should have been! I should have run to the utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me. I feel that I should have been a very king of sinners, if God had let me alone. I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine grace. If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into the pit. Looking back on my past life, I can see that the dawning of it all was of God; of God effectively. I took no torch with which to light the sun, but the sun enlightened me. I did not commence my spiritual life—no, I rather kicked, and struggled against the things of the Spirit: when He drew me, for a time I did not run after Him: there was a natural hatred in my soul of everything holy and good. Wooings were lost upon me—warnings were cast to the wind—thunders were despised; and as for the whispers of His love, they were rejected as being less than nothing and vanity. But, sure I am, I can say now, speaking on behalf of myself, "He only is my salvation." It was He who turned my heart, and brought me down on my knees before Him. I can in very deed, say with Doddridge and Toplady— "Grace taught my soul to pray,
And made my eyes o'erflow;"
and coming to this moment, I can add— "'Tis grace has kept me to this day,
And will not let me go."

Well can I remember the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace in a single instant. Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit, and did not see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul—when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man—that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God. One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God."

I once attended a service where the text happened to be, "He shall choose our inheritance for us;" and the good man who occupied the pulpit was more than a little of an Arminian. Therefore, when he commenced, he said, "This passage refers entirely to our temporal inheritance, it has nothing whatever to do with our everlasting destiny, for," said he, "we do not want Christ to choose for us in the matter of Heaven or hell. It is so plain and easy, that every man who has a grain of common sense will choose Heaven, and any person would know better than to choose hell. We have no need of any superior intelligence, or any greater Being, to choose Heaven or hell for us. It is left to our own free-will, and we have enough wisdom given us, sufficiently correct means to judge for ourselves," and therefore, as he very logically inferred, there was no necessity for Jesus Christ, or anyone, to make a choice for us. We could choose the inheritance for ourselves without any assistance. "Ah!" I thought, "but, my good brother, it may be very true that we could, but I think we should want something more than common sense before we should choose aright."

First, let me ask, must we not all of us admit an over-ruling Providence, and the appointment of Jehovah's hand, as to the means whereby we came into this world? Those men who think that, afterwards, we are left to our own free-will to choose this one or the other to direct our steps, must admit that our entrance into the world was not of our own will, but that God had then to choose for us. What circumstances were those in our power which led us to elect certain persons to be our parents? Had we anything to do with it? Did not God Himself appoint our parents, native place, and friends? Could He not have caused me to be born with the skin of the Hottentot, brought forth by a filthy mother who would nurse me in her "kraal," and teach me to bow down to Pagan gods, quite as easily as to have given me a pious mother, who would each morning and night bend her knee in prayer on my behalf? Or, might He not, if He had pleased, have given me some profligate to have been my parent, from whose lips I might have early heard fearful, filthy, and obscene language? Might He not have placed me where I should have had a drunken father, who would have immured me in a very dungeon of ignorance, and brought me up in the chains of crime? Was it not God's Providence that I had so happy a lot, that both my parents were His children, and endeavoured to train me up in the fear of the Lord?

John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, and laugh at it, too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of election, "Ah! sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else He would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards." I am sure it is true in my case; I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great Biblical doctrine. I recollect an Arminian brother telling me that he had read the Scriptures through a score or more times, and could never find the doctrine of election in them. He added that he was sure he would have done so if it had been there, for he read the Word on his knees. I said to him, "I think you read the Bible in a very uncomfortable posture, and if you had read it in your easy chair, you would have been more likely to understand it. Pray, by all means, and the more, the better, but it is a piece of superstition to think there is anything in the posture in which a man puts himself for reading: and as to reading through the Bible twenty times without having found anything about the doctrine of election, the wonder is that you found anything at all: you must have galloped through it at such a rate that you were not likely to have any intelligible idea of the meaning of the Scriptures."

If it would be marvelous to see one river leap up from the earth full-grown, what would it be to gaze upon a vast spring from which all the rivers of the earth should at once come bubbling up, a million of them born at a birth? What a vision would it be! Who can conceive it. And yet the love of God is that fountain, from which all the rivers of mercy, which have ever gladdened our race—all the rivers of grace in time, and of glory hereafter—take their rise. My soul, stand thou at that sacred fountain-head, and adore and magnify, for ever and ever, God, even our Father, who hath loved us! In the very beginning, when this great universe lay in the mind of God, like unborn forests in the acorn cup; long ere the echoes awoke the solitudes; before the mountains were brought forth; and long ere the light flashed through the sky, God loved His chosen creatures. Before there was any created being—when the ether was not fanned by an angel's wing, when space itself had not an existence, when there was nothing save God alone—even then, in that loneliness of Deity, and in that deep quiet and profundity, His bowels moved with love for His chosen. Their names were written on His heart, and then were they dear to His soul. Jesus loved His people before the foundation of the world—even from eternity! and when He called me by His grace, He said to me, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."

Then, in the fulness of time, He purchased me with His blood; He let His heart run out in one deep gaping wound for me long ere I loved Him. Yea, when He first came to me, did I not spurn Him? When He knocked at the door, and asked for entrance, did I not drive Him away, and do despite to His grace? Ah, I can remember that I full often did so until, at last, by the power of His effectual grace, He said, "I must, I will come in;" and then He turned my heart, and made me love Him. But even till now I should have resisted Him, had it not been for His grace. Well, then since He purchased me when I was dead in sins, does it not follow, as a consequence necessary and logical, that He must have loved me first? Did my Saviour die for me because I believed on Him? No; I was not then in existence; I had then no being. Could the Saviour, therefore, have died because I had faith, when I myself was not yet born? Could that have been possible? Could that have been the origin of the Saviour's love towards me? Oh! no; my Saviour died for me long before I believed. "But," says someone, "He foresaw that you would have faith; and, therefore, He loved you." What did He foresee about my faith? Did He foresee that I should get that faith myself, and that I should believe on Him of myself? No; Christ could not foresee that, because no Christian man will ever say that faith came of itself without the gift and without the working of the Holy Spirit. I have met with a great many believers, and talked with them about this matter; but I never knew one who could put his hand on his heart, and say, "I believed in Jesus without the assistance of the Holy Spirit."

I am bound to the doctrine of the depravity of the human heart, because I find myself depraved in heart, and have daily proofs that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. If God enters into covenant with unfallen man, man is so insignificant a creature that it must be an act of gracious condescension on the Lord's part; but if God enters into covenant with sinful man, he is then so offensive a creature that it must be, on God's part, an act of pure, free, rich, sovereign grace. When the Lord entered into covenant with me, I am sure that it was all of grace, nothing else but grace. When I remember what a den of unclean beasts and birds my heart was, and how strong was my unrenewed will, how obstinate and rebellious against the sovereignty of the Divine rule, I always feel inclined to take the very lowest room in my Father's house, and when I enter Heaven, it will be to go among the less than the least of all saints, and with the chief of sinners.

The late lamented Mr. Denham has put, at the foot of his portrait, a most admirable text, "Salvation is of the Lord." That is just an epitome of Calvinism; it is the sum and substance of it. If anyone should ask me what I mean by a Calvinist, I should reply, "He is one who says, Salvation is of the Lord." I cannot find in Scripture any other doctrine than this. It is the essence of the Bible. "He only is my rock and my salvation." Tell me anything contrary to this truth, and it will be a heresy; tell me a heresy, and I shall find its essence here, that it has departed from this great, this fundamental, this rock-truth, "God is my rock and my salvation." What is the heresy of Rome, but the addition of something to the perfect merits of Jesus Christ—the bringing in of the works of the flesh, to assist in our justification? And what is the heresy of Arminianism but the addition of something to the work of the Redeemer? Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor. "If ever it should come to pass,
That sheep of Christ might fall away,
My fickle, feeble soul, alas!
Would fall a thousand times a day."
If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all; if one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be; and then there is no gospel promise true, but the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worth my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once when I can believe that a saint of God can ever fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then He will love me for ever. God has a master-mind; He arranged everything in His gigantic intellect long before He did it; and once having settled it, He never alters it, "This shall be done," saith He, and the iron hand of destiny marks it down, and it is brought to pass. "This is My purpose," and it stands, nor can earth or hell alter it. "This is My decree," saith He, "promulgate it, ye holy angels; rend it down from the gate of Heaven, ye devils, if ye can; but ye cannot alter the decree, it shall stand for ever." God altereth not His plans; why should He? He is Almighty, and therefore can perform His pleasure. Why should He? He is the All-wise, and therefore cannot have planned wrongly. Why should He? He is the everlasting God, and therefore cannot die before His plan is accomplished. Why should He change? Ye worthless atoms of earth, ephemera of a day, ye creeping insects upon this bay-leaf of existence, ye may change your plans, but He shall never, never change His. Has He told me that His plan is to save me? If so, I am for ever safe. "My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impress'd on His heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace."

I do not know how some people, who believe that a Christian can fall from grace, manage to be happy. It must be a very commendable thing in them to be able to get through a day without despair. If I did not believe the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, I think I should be of all men the most miserable, because I should lack any ground of comfort. I could not say, whatever state of heart I came into, that I should be like a well-spring of water, whose stream fails not; I should rather have to take the comparison of an intermittent spring, that might stop on a sudden, or a reservoir, which I had no reason to expect would always be full. I believe that the happiest of Christians and the truest of Christians are those who never dare to doubt God, but who take His Word simply as it stands, and believe it, and ask no questions, just feeling assured that if God has said it, it will be so. I bear my willing testimony that I have no reason, nor even the shadow of a reason, to doubt my Lord, and I challenge Heaven, and earth, and hell, to bring any proof that God is untrue. From the depths of hell I call the fiends, and from this earth I call the tried and afflicted believers, and to Heaven I appeal, and challenge the long experience of the blood-washed host, and there is not to be found in the three realms a single person who can bear witness to one fact which can disprove the faithfulness of God, or weaken His claim to be trusted by His servants. There are many things that may or may not happen, but this I know shall happen— "He shall present my soul,
Unblemish'd and complete,
Before the glory of His face,
With joys divinely great."
All the purposes of man have been defeated, but not the purposes of God. The promises of man may be broken—many of them are made to be broken—but the promises of God shall all be fulfilled. He is a promise-maker, but He never was a promise-breaker; He is a promise-keeping God, and every one of His people shall prove it to be so. This is my grateful, personal confidence, "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me"—unworthy me, lost and ruined me. He will yet save me; and— "I, among the blood-wash'd throng,
Shall wave the palm, and wear the crown,
And shout loud victory."
I go to a land which the plough of earth hath never upturned, where it is greener than earth's best pastures, and richer than her most abundant harvests ever saw. I go to a building of more gorgeous architecture than man hath ever builded; it is not of mortal design; it is "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens." All I shall know and enjoy in Heaven, will be given to me by the Lord, and I shall say, when at last I appear before Him— "Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in Heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise."

I know there are some who think it necessary to their system of theology to limit the merit of the blood of Jesus: if my theological system needed such a limitation, I would cast it to the winds. I cannot, I dare not allow the thought to find a lodging in my mind, it seems so near akin to blasphemy. In Christ's finished work I see an ocean of merit; my plummet finds no bottom, my eye discovers no shore. There must be sufficient efficacy in the blood of Christ, if God had so willed it, to have saved not only all in this world, but all in ten thousand worlds, had they transgressed their Maker's law. Once admit infinity into the matter, and limit is out of the question. Having a Divine Person for an offering, it is not consistent to conceive of limited value; bound and measure are terms inapplicable to the Divine sacrifice. The intent of the Divine purpose fixes the application of the infinite offering, but does not change it into a finite work. Think of the numbers upon whom God has bestowed His grace already. Think of the countless hosts in Heaven: if thou wert introduced there to-day, thou wouldst find it as easy to tell the stars, or the sands of the sea, as to count the multitudes that are before the throne even now. They have come from the East, and from the West, from the North, and from the South, and they are sitting down with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Jacob in the Kingdom of God; and beside those in Heaven, think of the saved ones on earth. Blessed be God, His elect on earth are to be counted by millions, I believe, and the days are coming, brighter days than these, when there shall be multitudes upon multitudes brought to know the Saviour, and to rejoice in Him. The Father's love is not for a few only, but for an exceeding great company. "A great multitude, which no man could number," will be found in Heaven. A man can reckon up to very high figures; set to work your Newtons, your mightiest calculators, and they can count great numbers, but God and God alone can tell the multitude of His redeemed. I believe there will be more in Heaven than in hell. If anyone asks me why I think so, I answer, because Christ, in everything, is to "have the pre-eminence," and I cannot conceive how He could have the pre-eminence if there are to be more in the dominions of Satan than in Paradise. Moreover, I have never read that there is to be in hell a great multitude, which no man could number. I rejoice to know that the souls of all infants, as soon as they die, speed their way to Paradise. Think what a multitude there is of them! Then there are already in Heaven unnumbered myriads of the spirits of just men made perfect—the redeemed of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues up till now; and there are better times coming, when the religion of Christ shall be universal; when— "He shall reign from pole to pole,
With illimitable sway;"
when whole kingdoms shall bow down before Him, and nations shall be born in a day, and in the thousand years of the great millennial state there will be enough saved to make up all the deficiencies of the thousands of years that have gone before. Christ shall be Master everywhere, and His praise shall be sounded in every land. Christ shall have the pre-eminence at last; His train shall be far larger than that which shall attend the chariot of the grim monarch of hell.

Some persons love the doctrine of universal atonement because they say, "It is so beautiful. It is a lovely idea that Christ should have died for all men; it commends itself," they say, "to the instincts of humanity; there is something in it full of joy and beauty." I admit there is, but beauty may be often associated with falsehood. There is much which I might admire in the theory of universal redemption, but I will just show what the supposition necessarily involves. If Christ on His cross intended to save every man, then He intended to save those who were lost before He died. If the doctrine be true, that He died for all men, then He died for some who were in hell before He came into this world, for doubtless there were even then myriads there who had been cast away because of their sins. Once again, if it was Christ's intention to save all men, how deplorably has He been disappointed, for we have His own testimony that there is a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and into that pit of woe have been cast some of the very persons who, according to the theory of universal redemption, were bought with His blood. That seems to me a conception a thousand times more repulsive than any of those consequences which are said to be associated with the Calvinistic and Christian doctrine of special and particular redemption. To think that my Saviour died for men who were or are in hell, seems a supposition too horrible for me to entertain. To imagine for a moment that He was the Substitute for all the sons of men, and that God, having first punished the Substitute, afterwards punished the sinners themselves, seems to conflict with all my ideas of Divine justice. That Christ should offer an atonement and satisfaction for the sins of all men, and that afterwards some of those very men should be punished for the sins for which Christ had already atoned, appears to me to be the most monstrous iniquity that could ever have been imputed to Saturn, to Janus, to the goddess of the Thugs, or to the most diabolical heathen deities. God forbid that we should ever think thus of Jehovah, the just and wise and good!

There is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do, and if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer—I wish to be called nothing but a Christian; but if you ask me, do I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin, I reply, I do in the main hold them, and rejoice to avow it. But far be it from me even to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians within her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views. Most atrocious things have been spoken about the character and spiritual condition of John Wesley, the modern prince of Arminians. I can only say concerning him that, while I detest many of the doctrines which he preached, yet for the man himself I have a reverence second to no Wesleyan; and if there were wanted two apostles to be added to the number of the twelve, I do not believe that there could be found two men more fit to be so added than George Whitefield and John Wesley. The character of John Wesley stands beyond all imputation for self-sacrifice, zeal, holiness, and communion with God; he lived far above the ordinary level of common Christians, and was one "of whom the world was not worthy." I believe there are multitudes of men who cannot see these truths, or, at least, cannot see them in the way in which we put them, who nevertheless have received Christ as their Saviour, and are as dear to the heart of the God of grace as the soundest Calvinist in or out of Heaven.

I do not think I differ from any of my Hyper-Calvinistic brethren in what I do believe, but I differ from them in what they do not believe. I do not hold any less than they do, but I hold a little more, and, I think, a little more of the truth revealed in the Scriptures. Not only are there a few cardinal doctrines, by which we can steer our ship North, South, East, or West, but as we study the Word, we shall begin to learn something about the North-west and North-east, and all else that lies between the four cardinal points. The system of truth revealed in the Scriptures is not simply one straight line, but two; and no man will ever get a right view of the gospel until he knows how to look at the two lines at once. For instance, I read in one Book of the Bible, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Yet I am taught, in another part of the same inspired Word, that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." I see, in one place, God in providence presiding over all, and yet I see, and I cannot help seeing, that man acts as he pleases, and that God has left his actions, in a great measure, to his own free-will. Now, if I were to declare that man was so free to act that there was no control of God over his actions, I should be driven very near to atheism; and if, on the other hand, I should declare that God so over-rules all things that man is not free enough to be responsible, I should be driven at once into Antinomianism or fatalism. That God predestines, and yet that man is responsible, are two facts that few can see clearly. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is fore-ordained, that is true; and if I find, in another Scripture, that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other. I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in eternity. They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.

It is often said that the doctrines we believe have a tendency to lead us to sin. I have heard it asserted most positively, that those high doctrines which we love, and which we find in the Scriptures, are licentious ones. I do not know who will have the hardihood to make that assertion, when they consider that the holiest of men have been believers in them. I ask the man who dares to say that Calvinism is a licentious religion, what he thinks of the character of Augustine, or Calvin, or Whitefield, who in successive ages were the great exponents of the system of grace; or what will he say of the Puritans, whose works are full of them? Had a man been an Arminian in those days, he would have been accounted the vilest heretic breathing, but now we are looked upon as the heretics, and they as the orthodox. We have gone back to the old school; we can trace our descent from the apostles. It is that vein of free-grace, running through the sermonizing of Baptists, which has saved us as a denomination. Were it not for that, we should not stand where we are today. We can run a golden line up to Jesus Christ Himself, through a holy succession of mighty fathers, who all held these glorious truths; and we can ask concerning them, "Where will you find holier and better men in the world?" No doctrine is so calculated to preserve a man from sin as the doctrine of the grace of God. Those who have called it "a licentious doctrine" did not know anything at all about it. Poor ignorant things, they little knew that their own vile stuff was the most licentious doctrine under Heaven. If they knew the grace of God in truth, they would soon see that there was no preservative from lying like a knowledge that we are elect of God from the foundation of the world. There is nothing like a belief in my eternal perseverance, and the immutability of my Father's affection, which can keep me near to Him from a motive of simple gratitude. Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth. A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life. I believe the one thing naturally begets the other. Of all men, those have the most disinterested piety, the sublimest reverence, the most ardent devotion, who believe that they are saved by grace, without works, through faith, and that not of themselves, it is the gift of God. Christians should take heed, and see that it always is so, lest by any means Christ should be crucified afresh, and put to an open shame.
Culled from http://www.spurgeon.org/spsrmns.htm
THE SECRET OF FAILURE BY Spurgeon.Hi everyone, Below is another wonderful sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Spurgeon was so much saturated with the wonderful truths of the faith that whenever he spoke they seem to burst out of him. Enjoy it and feel free to make your own comments.

The Secret of Failure

February 25, 1886
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)

"Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."—Matthew 17:19-21.

"And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting."—Mark 9:28, 29.

I put these two texts together for this reason. Those of you who are acquainted with the Revised Version know that the 21st verse in the 17th chapter of Matthew is left out. There seems to be little doubt that it was inserted in certain copies by persons who thought that it ought to be there because it was in Mark's narrative. It is put in the margin of the Revised Version, but it is left out of the text. It is, therefore, very satisfactory to find that the omission from Matthew's account makes no real difference, because we have the words in the 29th verse of the 9th of Mark, "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." Only there is this fact to be noticed, in the Revised Version this verse runs, according to Mark, "This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer." Whether the fasting was originally there, or not, I cannot tell; but putting together the two accounts in Matthew and Mark, we believe we have a full and true report of what the Master did actually say on this occasion.

I. Observe then, dear friends, at the outset, without any further preface, that WE MAY BE THE SERVANTS OF GOD, AND YET WE MAY BE OCCASIONALLY DEFEATED.

Those nine disciples, who remained at the foot of the mountain when the Savior took the other three to behold his transfiguration, had each of them a true commission from the Lord Jesus Christ. They were nine of his chosen apostles. He had elected them in his own good pleasure, and there was no doubt about their being really called to the apostleship. They were not only elected, but they were also qualified, for on former occasions they had healed the sick, they had cast out devils, and they had preached the Word of Christ with great power. Upon them rested miraculous influences, and they were able to do great wonders in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; and they were not only qualified to do this, but they had actually performed many marvels of healing. When they went forth, girded with divine power, they healed the sick, and cast out devils everywhere; yet on this occasion you perceive that they were completely baffled and beaten. A poor father had brought to them his epileptic son, who was also possessed with an evil spirit; and they could neither cast out the evil spirit nor heal the epileptic boy. They came, as it were, to a great difficulty which quite nonplussed them; and the scoffing scribes were there, ready enough to take advantage of them, and to say in scorn and contempt, "You cannot cure this child, for the power you have received from your Master is limited. He can do some strange things, but even he cannot do all things. Perhaps he has lost his former power, and now, at last, a kind of devil has appeared that he cannot master. You see, you are mistaken in following him; your faith has been fixed upon an impostor, and you had better give it up." Oh, how ready the evil spirit ever is to suggest dark thoughts if we cannot always be successful in our work of faith and labor of love! I believe that it was for this very reason that our Lord gave us this record of the defeat of the nine apostles in order to let us feel that it is not so great a wonder if, sometimes, we have to come back and say, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" It is no new thing that we should be made a laughingstock to the enemies of the cross of Christ because we cannot even do what we have formerly done, and are beaten in the very field where aforetime we have achieved great and notable victories for our Master.

Brethren, why do you think that the Lord allows his servants to be beaten at all? Well, of course, the chief reason in this case was—and of that we will speak presently,—because God gives the victory to faith, and if we will not believe, neither shall we be established. If we fall, as those disciples probably had fallen, into an unspiritual frame of mind and a low state of grace, our commission will not be worth much, our former qualifications will be of little value, and all successes we have had in earlier days will not take away the effect of present failures. We shall be like Samson, who went out and shook himself as he had done aforetime; but the Spirit of God had departed from him; and the Philistines soon overcame him,—those very Philistines whom, if his Lord had still been with him, he would have smitten hip and thigh with great slaughter. If we are to do the Lord's work, and to do it successfully, we must have faith in him, we must look beyond ourselves, we must look beyond our commission, we must look beyond our personal qualifications, we must look beyond our former successes, we must look for a present anointing by the Holy Spirit, and by faith we must hang upon the living God from day to day.

Apart from that, however,—which we will dwell upon directly,—I think our Lord intends that we should often have something fresh come across our path to keep us from getting into ruts. It is a very bad thing for anyone when even the Christian life gets to be merely mechanical; you know what state of things that is, you may have come here to this service just as a matter of course, almost without thinking what you were doing. I have known many persons, in the public worship of God, sing simply because the time far singing has come; and they frequently prove that they are singing only in a mechanical fashion, for they sit down before the hymn has come to an end, showing that they are not sufficiently interested to find out how it closes. So we may kneel apparently in prayer, and not really be praying, for the mind is gadding to and fro. The minister also can get into a way of preaching that is almost like a parrot repeating by rote what it has been taught to say. This will not do, brothers and sisters. The Lord will not have us always moving in ruts, so he does what men do sometimes in our roads when they put great blocks of timber to turn travelers off from one side of the road an to the other. In that way, this lunatic child was put right in the disciples' road, so that they should not go on sleepily doing the same work without heart and without thought. This strange case wakes them up; they have something to deal with now that is very different from that they have had before, it is not a common fever, or even an ordinary case of Satanic possession, but it is a dreadful demoniac who is now before them, foaming, and raging, and wallowing in their presence, and altogether beyond their power to heal. This wakes them up; and the Lord permits us sometimes to have trouble in the church, or a shock in the family, that we may wake right up, and not go on mechanically with no spiritual life in us.

Next, it was to make the disciples see the infinite superiority of their Master. Had he been there, there would have beep no devil that would have nonplussed him. Whatever needed to be accomplished, he spoke, and it was done. The soft utterance of his voice, the gentle uplifting of his hand, nay,-the very glance of his eye, or the willing in his mind, was sufficient to work his marvellous cures. But the disciples had to come to him, and say, "We could not do it; we could not cast him out." No, and it is the same still; He cannot, but he can; wherefore, let us worship before the omnipotent Christ, to whom nothing is difficult, much less impossible.

Then they were driven to wish for more of his company. They were made to see that they could not do without him. Soldiers, without their ever-victorious Captain, driven before the enemy, they now felt that their strength must lie in him, and that they must keep close to him, and entreat him not to leave them again.

This experience also drove them to him in prayer. They now want their Master, and they begin to cry to him. "Why could not we cast him out?" was now their humiliating confession and enquiry; and there was, within the heart of their question, this earnest prayer, "O Master, help us to cast out devils again! Take not thy Spirit from us, but renew in us our former strength, and give us even more." I am sure that anything that makes us often came back to our Lord must be a blessing to us. It is very humiliating to have so long preached in vain; to have gone to that village so many times and yet to see no conversions; to visit that lodging-house so often, and apparently to have made no impression upon the careless inmates, or to have gone into that dark garret, and told out the story of the cross, only to find that the hearer is just as dark, and, possibly, just as brutal as ever. It seems as if our hearts must break, when we are really in earnest, yet we cannot achieve the blessed purpose that we feel sure must be dear to the Savior's own heart; but it may be that our non-success has much of divine instruction in it, and it may be the preface and preparation for future success that shall greatly honor the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a part of the training of the twelve. They were at college now, with Christ as their Tutor. They were being prepared for those grand days, when they should do even greater things than he had done, because he had gone back again to his Father, and had received still greater power, and had given it to them. "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." It is good for you, young brethren in college, when you go to your first pastorate, to get battered about, to have all manner of troubles, to go through fire and through water. It will make men of you; you will be all the grander and the better servants of God in after years, when your own weakness shall have driven you back upon the divine strength, and you shall have learned to trust, not in man, much less in yourself, but to cast yourself confidently on God.

II. The next thing to be learned from this narrative is that, when Christ's servants do get baffled, they should make haste to their Master, and ask him this question, which his disciples put to him, "Why could not we cast him out?" That is to be our second division. WHEN WE ARE BAFFLED, THERE MUST BE A CAUSE, and it is well for us to try and find it out. We must go to the Master, and ask, "Why could not we cast him out?"

This enquiry, if it leads up to a correct answer, is evidently a very wise one, for every man ought to try to know all he can about himself. If I am successful, why is it that I succeed? Let me know the secret, that I may put the crown on the right head. If I do not succeed, let me know the reason why, that I may at any rate try to remove any impediment, if it be an impediment of my own making. If I am a vessel that is not fit for the Master's use, let me know why I as not fit, that I may, as much as lieth in me, prepare myself for the great Master's service. I know that, if I am fit to be used, he is sure to use me; and if he does not use me, it will most probably be because there is some unfitness in me. Try to know, brethren and sisters, why you get baffled in holy service, for it will be wise to know.

Probably, it may tend very greatly to your humiliation. It may make you go, with tears in your eyes, to the mercy-seat. You may not yet know all that is in your own heart; there may be a something, which to you seems to be a very trifling affair, which is grieving your God, and weakening your spiritual power. It may seem to you to be a little thing, but in that little thing may lie the eggs of so much mischief that God will not tolerate it, and he will not bless you until you are altogether clear of it. It will be wise and right, therefore, even though it be to your sorrow and regret, that you should find the answer to the question, "Why could not we cast him out?"

For, whatever may be the reason of your failure, it may be cured. In all probability, it is not a great matter, certainly not an insuperable difficulty to the Lord. By the grace of God, this hindrance may be taken away from you, and no longer be allowed to rob you of your power. Search it out, then; look with both your eyes, and search with the brightest light that you can borrow, that you may find out everything that restrains the Spirit of God, and injures your own usefulness.

I would at the present time earnestly put into the mouths of a great many people this question, "Why could not we cast him out?" Let the Church of God get to the windows of her sanctuaries, and look out, and say, "Why do not these thousands of people come to hear the gospel that we preach?" There is all the harlotry in our streets; why has not the Church of God swept that away? The vilest sin is rampant,—sin of which we dare not speak, it is so vile; how is it that we cannot cast this out? And all this social discord, this complaining and confusion, this aiming at the disruption of everything; what have we been at that all this unrest has come? Why could we not cast these vile forces out? Then, perhaps, in your family there is a son, and you cannot bring him even to respect religion. It is not so very long ago since you nursed him on your knee; you did not think then that he would live to be an opponent of the Christ in whom your soul delights. There are in your family certain evils that you pray against, and yet they remain there. Father, you are responsible for your family, and you cannot get rid of your responsibility. Mother, much responsibility for your children's characters must lie with you; if they are not what you would have them to be, oh, ask the question, "Why could not we cast the evils out of them?" That question each teacher may ask concerning his class, and each worker concerning his sphere of labor. I ask it concerning my hearers, when I remember some of them who have made a profession of religion, and then have foully fallen, and others who have backslidden into coldness or lukewarmness, and many who, after years of preaching, remain just the same as ever. What devil is this that has got into them? Why cannot we cast him out?

I will tell you another time when you may well ask this question; it is, when you realize the evil that is within your own heart. There are certain sins there that have cost you much pain, and they are not cast out yet. In your life, they have no rightful place; in your heart of heart, they have no welcome place, for you desire your heart to be clean before God. Still, those sins do come. Perhaps, in your case, a hasty temper is the demon that takes possession of you; or possibly you have a spirit tending to despondency. I do not know what your particular sins are, but do you not sometimes ask the question, "Why could not we cast them out?" We have got rid of some sins, "bag and baggage;" they never torment us now. It is long since we had a temptation to certain forms of sin, we sent them adrift in the name of the Lord; but there are certain others of these Diabolonians that hide away in dens and caves and corners, and we cannot rout them out. Why could not we cast them out? It is a question that may be asked from so many quarters and so many points, and it ought to be pressed home. I have put it to you; but let each one's own conscience get alone with Christ, and ask him; "Why am I baffled and defeated? Why cannot I cast this evil out?"

III. Now, in the third place, consider OUR LORD'S ANSWER, upon which I cannot dwell very long, because our time is short.

The first answer that the Lord Jesus gave to his disciples was, "Because of your unbelief." He told them that their failure was due to their want of faith. He did not say, "Because of the devil, and his peculiar character, and the strength of his entrenchment within the poor sufferer's nature;" but he said, "Because of your unbelief." They might have said, and it would have been true, "This demon has been long in possession." The father said that the affliction came upon him when he was a child. You know that it is not easy to turn out a devil that has lived in any place, say, for twenty years; he says, "I have been in possession three, seven, twenty-one years, and I am not going. Does not even the law of the land give me a right to remain after I have held undisputed possession so long? I am not going; and especially, I am not going for anything you say or do!" So, the long duration of a sin makes it all the more difficult matter to deal with it. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." It is a difficult thing to cast out evils of long standing; still, if we have faith, there will be no difficulty in overcoming even those sins that have held possession of the sinner for a great length of time.

Moreover, in this case, there was the strength of this devil as well as the length of his possession. He took this poor child, and threw him into the fire or into the water, and hurled him to and fro at his cruel and wicked pleasure. He did this even before the disciples' eyes. Yes, but if they had had faith, they would have understood that, though Satan is strong, Christ is far stronger. The devil is mighty, but God is almighty. If the disciples had only believed, they might have overcome the demon by the power of Christ.

In addition to the length and the strength of this possession, there was a tremendous fury shown by this evil spirit. The child was not simply vexed as in ordinary cases of epilepsy, but he was tremendously tossed and torn; and I think there was in this case a feature of sullenness also, it was apparently so, at any rate, for it was a dumb spirit. The child could not or did not speak; whatever happened to him, he was still silent. When people can speak of their troubles of soul, when they can tell you their grief of heart, and ask your prayers, you can get on with them. But here was one who could not speak, yet there was the devil rending and tearing him. It was a horrible case, yet the failure did not lie in the child; it lay mainly, as the Savior put it, in the disciples' want of faith: "Why could not we cast him out?" "Because of your unbelief."

You see, the want of faith breaks the connection between us sad Christ. We are like the telegraphic wire, which can convey the message as long as the electricity can travel along it; but if you break the connection, it is useless. Faith is our connection with Christ; break the connection, and then what can we do? It is by faith that God works in us and through us; but if unbelief comes in, we are unfit for him to work with us. Would you have God to bless the man who will not believe in him? Would you have God to set his seal to the works of the unbelieving? That cannot be. The first condition of success in any work for God must be hearty faith in the God for whom we are working. "Trust me," says he, "and I will do anything for you." If we distrust him, what can happen to us but what happened to the children of Israel whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? Now, you know that even the body of a child of God is precious in his sight; for there is faith in him, and he is precious in the sight of the Lord; but as for those who have no faith, Paul calls their bodies carcases! "Whose carcasses fell in the wilderness." If you have no faith in God why, what are you? Like brute beasts-"carcases." But faith gives God somewhat of his due; it trusts him, and God says, "I will never let you trust me beyond what I will do for you. If you trust me, I will be as good as your faith." Would you have him change a condition which is so natural, so proper, so beneficial for ourselves? O brethren, we shall do great things when God gives us more faith!

Looking now upon the condition of our times, and upon the work allotted to each one of us, I feel that what we want is more faith. Never mind how firmly fixed are the mountains of iniquity; they must move if faith be strong. Never mind how deep have gone the root of the sycamore tree; it shall be plucked up by its roots, if faith be strong. O brethren, we do not half believe! Drive the sword in up to the hilt. Believe in God to the uttermost; dare and venture, and yet find no daring and no venturing in it, as you simply trust your God as a child trusts his father. Many of us must feel, brethren, that we have often failed because of our unbelief.

I must not dwell longer on that point because I want you to notice that the Savior added that, in some cases, faith must rise to prayer, and must manifest itself mainly by prayer, or else it will do nothing. I am afraid that these disciples were so satisfied with their commission, and their qualifications, and with what they had already done, that they proceeded to work upon this epileptic child without prayer. The Savior says, "This kind—this sort of devil—this peculiarly furious kind of demon—will not go out by the exercise of ordinary faith. It must be faith that rises into prayer." You will frequently meet with persons to whom you desire to be blessed, but you never will be blessed to them till first of all you pray for them; and it may be that you will have to pray long and earnestly, and that the praying will have to rise to wrestling, and the wrestling may have to be continued all night, as in the case of Jacob, and you may have to go to God as often as the importunate widow went to the unjust judge. It may be that there are cases in which God will not yield to your faith until your faith works in prayer; and then, when prayer has wrought to its utmost, you shall get the blessing.

I think that I can understand some of God's reasons for acting thus. First, he wants to make us see the greatness of the mercy, so he occupies our thoughts with the greatness of the distress that needs to be relieved, and with this impossibility of that distress being relieved except by his own power and Godhead. That experience does us good, dear friends, does it not? It makes us feel that the mercy, when it does come, will be remarkably precious to us.

The Lord intends also to excite our desires, and that, likewise, does us good. To be all aglow with holy desires is, in itself, a healthy exercise. Then the Lord means to create in us unity of action. One brother finds that he cannot get on alone, so he will call in another to help him in prayer; and much holy united supplication will be called forth by the very desperateness of the case which cannot be met by simple faith, or even by the prayer of one. Let us always seek the united prayers of many brethren and sisters. You remember that man who was carried by four, and let down from the roof into Christ's presence. Oh, I wish that, in your houses, brethren, you met frequently, in two's and three's, for united prayer! I should like to hear of little bands formed of Christian men and women, who pledged themselves to pray, four at a time, for somebody possessed by a devil of the kind that will not go out by ordinary means, and must be ejected by four of you. Get together, and say to yourselves, "We will not rest until this soul, and that soul, shall have the devil cast out, and shall sit, clothed, and in their right mind, at Jesus Christ's feet." "This kind"—these certain kinds of devils are not to be driven out, except by special, importunate, continued, united prayer. They can be cast out if you only believe and pray; there is never a devil but will have to go, if you have faith enough and prayer enough to drive him out.

But then my text says, "By prayer and fasting." Our Lord Jesus Christ never made much of fasting. He very seldom spoke about it; and when the Pharisees exaggerated it, he generally put them off by telling them that the time had not come for his disciples to fast, because the Bridegroom was still with them, and while he was with them their days were to be days of joy. But, still, Holy Scripture does speak of fasting, in certain cases it advises fasting, and there were godly men and godly women, such as Anna, the prophetess, who "served God with fastings and prayer night and day." I do not mean to spiritualize this away. I believe, literally, that some of you would be a great deal the better if you did occasionally have a whole day of fasting and prayer. There is a lightness that comes over the frame, especially of bulky people like myself; we begin to feel ourselves quite light and ethereal. I remember one day of fasting and prayer, in which I realized to myself, spiritually, the meaning of a Popish picture, which I have sometimes seen, of a saint floating in the air. Well, that, of course, was impossible; and I do not suppose that, when the picture was painted, it was believed in its literal sense; but there is a lightness, an elevation of the spirit above the flesh, that will come over you after some hours of waiting upon God in fasting and prayer. I can advise brethren sometimes to try it; it will be good for their health, and it certainly will not harm them. If we only ate about half what is ordinarily eaten, we should probably all of us be in better health; and if, occasionally, we put ourselves on short commons, not because there is any virtue in that, but in order to get our brains more clear, and to help our hearts to rest more fully upon the Savior, we should find that prayer and fasting have great power.

But I will take the fasting in another sense, for I believe that this also is what is meant by our Lord Jesus. Suppose that we have such cases as these to pray for, a church full of discord, a nation or an individual full of sin. We might say to one another, "We will appoint such-and-such a time for prayer." Fast or not, according as your body would be the better or the worse for it. To some, it would be mischievous and injurious to fast; but say to yourselves, "We are going to take a whole day to ourselves. Two or three of us have agreed to devote an evening, or a whole night if it is a hard case, and we are going to meet together for no purpose but just to pray about that one matter; and if that does not do, we will meet again." I have often heard of instances in which persons, who knew that they were thus made specially the object of some remarkable occasions of prayer, have been impressed by the fact, or, if not by the fact, yet the outcome of that special, particular, marked season of prayer has been that, before long, they have been brought to Christ. There is a kind of devil that will not go out by ordinary prayer, there must be added to that pleading something by which our zeal shall be yet further increased; there must be "prayer and fasting."

I think also that I may spiritualize this expression now, and say that, when your mind gets into such a condition that you begin to sorrow over a lost soul, when you realize the meaning of that agonizing cry of Jeremiah, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!"—it is then that the devil will have to go. When your soul is clothed in sackcloth and ashes, and you go mourning, without the light of the sun, saying, "I could die rather than that soul should die; I could wish myself accursed rather than that soul were accursed; I put myself in the dust before God, even in the dust of self-abasement on account of that soul, that I may win it to Christ," then that sort of devil will have to go out. Starving him out by starving yourself, and making your own spirit wretched and miserable for the poor sinner's sane, you will make that devil find the person untenable any longer as a lodging-place.

Permit me to say just one thing more. I believe that the devil of drunkenness will not go out of some men, unless some of you Christian people, who pray for them, and talk with them, will practice fasting in the matter of total abstinence. I do mean this, not that it is wrong for you to take what you do take, but that there are some souls that you cannot win unless you say to them, "For your sakes we are going to give up what might be lawful to us, that we may save you from the public-house and all its temptations. Come, Jack, I intend to take the pledge; I never was drunk, and probably never shall be, but I will sign the pledge for your sake." There are some devils that will not go out till you act like that; and, brothers, we ought to do anything that may result in the saving of a soul. We ought to deny ourselves anything of which we can deny ourselves, if it be necessary to bring one single person to the cross of Christ. Let us see to it that we are quite clear in this matter, for there are still many devils that will not go out without prayer and fasting. Well then, say, "I will not fast to please the devil, or to please other people; but I will fast to spite the devil, and to get him out of that man. I will fast from anything so that I may but bring him to the feet of Jesus, that he may be saved." We who love the Lord are, I trust, all agreed on that matter, that no cost on our part should be spared to win a soul from the dominion of Satan, and bring him into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

O you who are not saved, see how concerned we are about you! It seems nothing to you to lose your souls, but it seems everything to us, and it was everything to Christ. You would not suffer even a little self-denial that you might be saved; yet Christ died—so highly did he value the souls of sinners,—rather than that you should perish. Oh, may that love of his make you begin to love yourselves so as to trust him, and love him, and find in him eternal life! God bless you, for Christ's sake! Amen.
Taken from http://www.biblebb.com/ WARRANT OF FAITH by Spurgeon. Here is another hitting sermon from the Prince of Preachers. Hope you will enjoy it with me. I love Spurgeon for his passion, devotedness, earnestness and grace-orientation. Enjoy the sermon and feel free to make comments about it.

The Warrant of Faith
By Charles H. Spurgeon
(No. 531)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, September 20th, 1863
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 longing 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."

Taken from http://www.seegod.org/