Sovereign Grace and Man's Responsibility
by C. H. Spurgeon
(1834-1892)
August 1, 1858
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an English Baptist preacher. He was known as the "Prince of Preachers." He was a leader in the Reformed Baptist tradition. He was in full agrement with the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. He was pastor of the New Park Street Chapel, and the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for 38 years. He founded Spurgeon's College, and a Christian charity organization now called Spurgeon's which has a global ministry. Many of Spurgeon's sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his life time. His sermons were powerful with penetrating thought and precise exposition. You will find many of his books in print in Christian book stores and on the internet.
"But Esaias is very bold,
and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I
was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
But to Israel he saith, all day long I have
stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and
gainsaying people."--Romans 10:20-21.
Doubtless these words
primarily refer to the casting away of the Jews, and
to the choosing of the Gentiles. The Gentiles were a
people who sought not after God, but lived in
idolatry; nevertheless, Jehovah was pleased in these
latter times to send the gospel of his grace to
them: while the Jews who had long enjoyed the
privileges of the Word of God, on account of their
disobedience and rebellion were cast away. I
believe, however, that while this is the primary
object of the words of our text, yet, as Calvin
says, the truth taught in the text is a type of a
universal fact. As God did choose the people who
knew him not, so hath he chosen, in the abundance of
his grace, to manifest his salvation to men who are
out of the way; while, on the other hand, the men
who are lost, after having heard the Word, are lost
because of their wilful sin; for God doth all the
day long "stretch forth his hands unto a disobedient
and gainsaying people."
The system of truth is
not one straight line, but two. No man will ever get
a right view of the gospel until he knows how to
look at the two lines at once. I am taught in one
book to believe that what I sow I shall reap: I am
taught in another place, that "it is not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy." I see in one place, God presiding
over all in providence; and yet I see, and I cannot
help seeing, that man acts as he pleases, and that
God has left his actions to his own will, in a great
measure. Now, if I were to declare that man was so
free to act, that there was no precedence of God
over his actions, I should be driven very near to
Atheism; and if, on the other hand, I declare that
God so overrules all things, as that man is not free
enough to be responsible, I am driven at once into
Antinomianism. or fatalism. That God predestines,
and that man is responsible, are two things that few
can see. They are believed to be inconsistent and
contradictory; but they are not. It is just the
fault of our weak judgment. Two truths cannot be
contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught
in one place that everything is fore-ordained, that
is true; and if I find in another place that man is
responsible for all his actions, that is true; and
it is my folly that leads me to imagine that two
truths can ever contradict each other. These two
truths, I do not believe, can ever be welded into
one upon any human anvil, but one they shall be in
eternity: they are two lines that are so nearly
parallel, that the mind that shall pursue 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.
Now, this morning I am
about to consider the two doctrines. In the 20th
verse, we have taught us the doctrines of sovereign
grace--"But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was
found of them that sought me not; I was made
manifest unto them that asked not after me." In the
next verse, we have the doctrine of man's guilt in
rejecting God. "To Israel he saith, all day long I
have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and
gainsaying people."
I. First, then, DIVINE
SOVEREIGNTY AS EXEMPLIFIED IN SALVATION.
If any man be saved, he
is saved by Divine grace, and by Divine grace alone;
and the reason of his salvation is not to be found
in him, but in God. We are not saved as the result
of anything that we do or that we will; but we will
and do as the result of God's good pleasure, and the
work of his grace in our hearts. No sinner can
prevent God; that is, he cannot go before him,
cannot anticipate him; God is always first in the
matter of salvation. He is before our convictions,
before our desires, before our fears, before our
hopes. All that is good or ever will be good in us,
is preceded by the grace of God, and is the effect
of a Divine cause within.
Now in speaking of God's
gracious acts of salvation, this morning, I notice
first, that they are entirely unmerited. You will
see that the people here mentioned certainly did not
merit God's grace. They found him, but they never
sought for him; he was made manifest to them, but
they never asked for him. There never was a man
saved yet who merited it. Ask all the saints of God,
and they will tell you that their former life was
spent in the lusts of the flesh; that in the days of
their ignorance, they revolted against God and
turned back from his ways, that when they were
invited to come to him they despised the invitation,
and, when warned, cast the warning behind their
back. They will tell you that their being drawn by
God, was not the result of any merit before
conversion; for some of them, so far from having any
merit, were the very vilest of the vile: they
plunged into the very kennel of sin; they were not
ashamed of all the things of which it would be a
shame for us to speak; they were ringleaders in
crime, very princes in the ranks of the enemy; and
yet sovereign grace came to them, and they were
brought to know the Lord. They will tell you that it
was not the result of anything good in their
disposition, for although they trust that there is
now something excellent implanted in them, yet in
the days of their flesh they could see no one
quality which was not perverted to the service of
Satan. Ask them whether they think they were chosen
of God because of their courage; they will tell you,
no; if they had courage it was defaced, for they
were courageous to do evil. Question them whether
they were chosen of God because of their talent;
they will tell you, no; they had that talent, but
they prostituted it to the service of Satan.
Question them whether they were chosen because of
the openness and generosity of their disposition;
they will tell you that that very openness of
temper, and that very generosity of disposition, led
them to plunge deeper into the depths of sin, than
they otherwise would have done, for they were "hail
fellow, well met," with every evil man, and ready to
drink and join every jovial party which should come
in their way.
There was in them no
reason whatever why God should have mercy upon them,
and the wonder to them is that he did not cut them
down in the midst of their sins, blot out their
names from the book of life, and sweep them into the
gulf where the fire burneth. that shall devour the
wicked. But some have said that God chooses his
people because he foresees that after he chooses
them, they will do this, that, and the other, which
shall be meritorious and excellent. Refer again to
the people of God, and they will tell you that since
their conversion they have had much to weep over.
Although they can rejoice that God has begun the
good work in them, they often tremble lest it should
not be God's work at all. They will tell you that if
they are abundant in faith yet there are times when
they are superabundant in unbelief; that if
sometimes they are full of works of holiness, yet
there are times when they weep many tears to think
that those very acts of holiness were stained with
sin. The Christian will tell you that he weeps over
his very tears; he feels that there is filth even in
the best of desires; that he has to pray to God to
forgive his prayers, for there is sin in the midst
of his supplications, and that he has to sprinkle
even his best offerings with the atoning blood, for
he never else can bring an offering without spot or
blemish. You shall appeal to the brightest saint, to
the man whose presence in the midst of society is
like the presence of an angel, and he will tell you
that he is still ashamed of himself. "Ah!" he will
say, "you may praise me, but I cannot praise myself,
you speak well of me, you applaud me, but if you
knew my heart you would see abundant reason to think
of me as a poor sinner saved by grace, who hath
nothing whereof to glory, and must bow his head and
confess his iniquities in the sight of God." Grace,
then is entirely unmerited.
Again, the grace of God
is sovereign. By that word we mean that God has an
absolute right to give that grace where he chooses,
and to withhold it when he pleases. He is not bound
to give it to any man, much less to all men; and if
he chooses to give it to one man and not to another,
his answer is, "Is thine eye evil because mine eye
is good? Can I not do as I will with mine own? I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." Now, I
want you to notice the sovereignty of Divine grace
as illustrated in the text: "I was found of them
that sought me not, I was made manifest to them that
asked not after thee." You would imagine that if God
gave his grace to any he would wait until he found
them earnestly seeking him. You would imagine that
God in the highest heavens would say, "I have
mercies, but I will leave men alone, and when they
feel their need of these mercies and seek me
diligently with their whole heart, day and night,
with tears, and vows, and supplications, then will I
bless them, but not before." But, beloved, God saith
no such thing. It is true he doth bless them that
cry unto him, but he blesses them before they cry,
for their cries are not their own cries, but cries
which he has put into their lips; their desires are
not of their own growth, but desires which he has
cast like good seed into the soil of their hearts.
God saves the men that do not seek him. Oh, wonder
of wonders! It is mercy indeed when God saves a
seeker; but how much greater mercy when he seeks the
lost himself! Mark the parable of Jesus Christ
concerning the lost sheep; it does not run thus: "A
certain man had a hundred sheep, and one of them did
go astray. And he tarried at home, and lo, the sheep
came back, and he received it joyfully and said to
his friends, rejoice, for the sheep that I have lost
is come back." No; he went after the sheep: it never
would have come after him; it would have wandered
farther and farther away. He went after it; over
hills of difficulty, down valleys of despondency he
pursued its wandering feet, and at last he laid hold
of it; he did not drive it before him, he did not
lead it, but he carried it himself all the way, and
when he brought it home he did not say, the sheep is
come back," but, "I have found the sheep which was
lost." Men do not seek God first; God seeks them
first; and if any of you are seeking him to-day it
is because he has first sought you. If you are
desiring him he desired you first, and your good
desires and earnest seeking will not be the cause of
your salvation, but the effects of previous grace
given to you. "Well," says another, "I should have
thought that although the Saviour might not require
an earnest seeking and sighing and groaning, and a
continuous searching, after him, yet certainly he
would have desired and demanded that every man,
before he had grace, should ask for it." That,
indeed, beloved, seems natural, and God will give
grace to them that ask for it; but mark, the text
says that he was manifested "to them that asked not
for him." That is to say, before we ask, God gives
us grace. The only reason why any man ever begins to
pray is because God has put previous grace in his
heart which leads him to pray. I remember, when I
was converted to God, I was an Arminian thoroughly.
I thought I had begun the good work myself, and I
used sometimes to sit down and think, "Well, I
sought the Lord four years before I found him," and
I think I began to compliment myself upon the fact
that I had perseveringly entreated of him in the
midst of much discouragement. But one day the
thought struck me, "How was it you came to seek
God?" and in an instant the answer came from my
soul, "Why, because he led me to do it; he must
first have shown me my need of him, or else I should
never have sought him; he must have shown me his
preciousness, or I never should have thought him
worth seeking;" and at once I saw the doctrines of
grace as clear as possible. God must begin. Nature
can never rise above itself. You put water into a
reservoir, and it will rise as high as that, but no
higher if let alone. Now, it is not in human nature
to seek the Lord. Human nature is depraved, and
therefore, there must be the extraordinary pressure
of the Holy Spirit put upon the heart to lead us
first to ask for mercy. But mark, we do not know an
thing about that, while the Spirit is operating; we
find that out afterwards. We ask as much as if we
were asking all of ourselves. Our business is to
seek the Lord as if there were no Holy Spirit at
all. But although we do not know it, there must
always be a previous motion of the Spirit in our
heart, before there will be a motion of our heart
towards him.
"No sinner can be
beforehand with thee,
Thy grace is most
sovereign, most rich, and most free."
Let me give you an
illustration. You see that man on his horse
surrounded by a body of troopers. How proud he is,
and how he reins up his horse with conscious
dignity. Sir, what have you got there? What are
those despatches you treasure up with so much care?
"Oh, sir, I have that in my hand that will vex the
church of God in Damascus. I have dragged the
fellows into the synagogue, both men and women; I
have scourged them, and compelled them to blaspheme;
and I have this commission from the high priest to
drag them to Jerusalem, that I may put them to
death." Saul! Saul! have you no love for Christ?
"Love to him! No. When they stoned Stephen, I took
care of the witnesses' clothes, and I rejoiced to do
it. I wish I had had the crucifying of their Master,
for I hate them with perfect hatred, and I breathe
out threatenings and slaughter against them." What
do you say of this man? If he be saved, will you not
grant that it must be some Divine sovereignty that
converts him? Look at poor Pilate, how much there
was that was hopeful in him. He was willing to save
the Master, but he feared and trembled. If we had
had our choice, we should have said, "Lord, save
Pilate, he does not want to kill Christ, he labours
to let him escape; but slay the bloodthirsty Saul,
he is, the very chief of sinners." "No," says God,
"I will do as I will with mine own." The heavens
open, and the brightness of glory descends--brighter
than the noon-day sun. Stunned with the light he
falls to the ground, and a voice is heard addressing
him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is
hard for thee to kick against the pricks." He rises
up; God appears to him: "Lo, I have made thee a
chosen vessel to bear my name among the Gentiles."
Is not that sovereignty--sovereign grace, without
any previous seeking? God was found of him that
sought not for him; he manifested himself to one
that asked him not. Some will say, that was it
miracle; but it is one that is repeated every day in
the week. I knew a man once, who had not been to the
house of God for a long time; and one Sunday
morning, having been to market to buy a pair of
ducks for his Sunday dinner, he happened to see a
house of God opened as he was passing by. "Well," he
thought, "I will hear what these fellows are up to."
He went inside; the hymn that was being sung struck
his attention; he listened to the sermon, forgot his
ducks, discovered his own character, went home, and
threw himself upon his knees before God, and after a
short time it pleased God to give him joy and peace
in believing. That man had nothing in him to begin
with, nothing that could have led you to imagine he
ever would be saved, but simply because God would
have it so, he struck the effectual blow of grace,
and the man was brought to himself. But we are, each
of us who are saved, the very people who are the
best illustrations of the matter. To this day, my
wonder is, that ever the Lord should have chosen
thee. I cannot make it out; and my only answer to
the question is, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight."
I have now, I think,
stated the doctrine pretty plainly. Let me only say
a few words about it. Some people are very much
afraid of this truth. They say, "It is true, I dare
say, but still you ought not to preach it before a
mixed assembly; it is very well for the comfort of
God's people, but it is to be very carefully
handled, and not to be publicly preached upon." Very
well, sir, I leave you to settle that matter with my
Master. He gave me this great book to preach from,
and I cannot preach from anything else. If he has
put anything in it you think is not fit, go and
complain to him, and not to me. I am simply his
servant, and if his errand that I am to tell is
objectionable, I cannot help it. If I send my
servant to the door with a message, and he delivers
it faithfully, he does not deserve to be scolded.
Let me have the blame, not the servant. So I say;
blame my Master, and not me, for I do but proclaim
his message. "No," says one, "it is not to be
preached." But it is to be preached. Every word of
God is given by inspiration, and it is profitable
for some good end. Does not the Bible say so? Let me
tell you, the reason why many of our churches are
declining is just because this doctrine has not been
preached. Wherever this doctrine has been upheld. it
has always been "Down with Popery." The first
reformers held this doctrine and preached it. Well
said it Church of England divine to some who railed
at him, "Look at your own Luther. Do you not
consider him to be the teacher of the Church of
England? What Calvin and the other reformers taught
is to be found in his book upon the freedom of the
will." Besides, we can point you to a string of
ministers from the beginning even until now. Talk of
apostolic succession! The man who preaches the
doctrines of grace has an apostolic succession
indeed. Can we not trace our pedigree through a
whole line of men like Newton, and Whitfield, and
Owen, and Bunyan, straight away on till we come to
Calvin, Luther, and Zwingle; and then we can go back
from them to Savonarola, to Jerome of Prague, to
Huss, and then back to Augustine, the mighty
preacher of Christianity; and from St. Augustine to
Paul is but one step. We need not be ashamed of our
pedigree; although Calvinists are now considered to
be heterodox, we are and ever must be orthodox. It
is the old doctrine. Go and buy any puritanical
book, and see if you can find Arminianism in it.
Search all the book stalls over, and see if you can
find one large folio book of olden times that
anything in it but the doctrine of the free grace of
God. Let this once be brought to bear upon the minds
of men, and away go the doctrines of penance and
confession, away goes paying for the pardon of your
sin. If grace be free and sovereign in the hand of
God, down goes the doctrine of priestcraft, away go
buying and selling indulgences and such like things;
they are swept to the four winds of heaven, and the
efficacy of good works is dashed in pieces like
Dagon before the ark of the Lord. "Well," says one,
"I like the doctrine; still there are very few that
preach it, and those that do are very high." Very
likely; but I care little what anybody calls me. It
signifies very little what men call you. Suppose
they call you a "hyper," that does not make you
anything wicked, does it? Suppose they call you an
Antinomian, that will not make you one. I must
confess, however, that there are some men who preach
this doctrine who are doing ten thousand times more
harm than good, because they don't preach the next
doctrine I am going to proclaim, which is just as
true. They have this to be the sail. but they have
not the other to be the ballast. They can preach one
side but not the other. They can go along with the
high doctrine, but they will not preach the whole of
the Word. Such men caricature the Word of God. And
just let me say here, that it is the custom of a
certain body of Ultra-Calvinists, to call those of
us who teach that it is the duty of man to repent
and believe, "Mongrel Calvinists." If you hear any
of them say so, give them my most respectful
compliments, and ask them whether they ever read
Calvin's works in their lives. Not that I care what
Calvin said or did not say; but ask them whether
they, ever read his works; and if they say "No," as
they must say, for there are forty-eight large
volumes, you can tell them, that the man whom they
call "a Mongrel Calvinist," though he has not read
them all, has read a very good share of them, and
knows their spirit; and he knows that he preaches
substantially what Calvin preached--that every
doctrine he preaches may be found in Calvin's
Commentaries on some part of Scripture or other. We
are TRUE Calvinists, however. Calvin is nobody to
us. Jesus Christ and him crucified, and the old
fashioned Bible, are our standards. Beloved, let us
take God's Word as it stands. If we find high
doctrine there, let it be high; if we find low
doctrine, let it be low; let us set up no other
standard than the Bible affords.
II. MAN'S
RESPONSIBLITY
Now then for the second
point. "There now," says my ultra friend, "he is
going to contradict himself." No, my friend, I am
not, I am only going to contradict you. The second
point is MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY. "But to Israel he
saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands
unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." Now,
these people whom God had cast away had been wooed,
had been sought, had been entreated to be saved; but
they would not, and inasmuch as they were not saved,
it was the effect of their disobedience and their
gainsaying. That lies clearly enough in the text.
When God sent the prophets to Israel, and stretched
forth his hands, what was it for? What did he wish,
them to come to him for? Why, to be saved. "No,"
says one, "it was for temporal mercies." Not so, my
friend; the verse before is concerning spiritual
mercies, and so is this one, for they refer to the
same thing. Now, was God sincere in his offer? God
forgive the man that dares to say he was not. God is
undoubtedly sincere in every act he did. He sent his
prophets, he entreated the people of Israel to lay
hold on spiritual things, but they would not, and
though he stretched out his hands all the day long,
yet they were "a disobedient and gainsaying people,"
and would not have his love; and on their head rests
their blood.
Now let me notice the
wooing of God and of what sort it is. First, it was
the most affectionate wooing in the world. Lost
sinners who sit under the sound of the gospel are
not lost for the want of the most affectionate
invitation. God says he stretched out his hands. You
know what that means. You have seen the child who is
disobedient and will not come to his father. The
father puts out his hands, and says, "Come, my
child, come; I am ready to forgive you." The tear is
in his eye, and his bowels move with compassion, and
he says, "Come, come." God says this is what he
did--"he stretched out his hands." That is what he
has done to some of you. You that are not saved
to-day are without excuse, for God stretched out his
hands to you, and he said, "Come, come." Long have
you sat beneath the sound of the ministry, and it
has been a faithful one, I trust, and a weeping one.
Your minister has not forgotten to pray for your
souls in secret or to weep over you when no eye saw
him, and he has endeavoured to persuade you as an
ambassador from God. God is my witness, I have
sometimes stood in this pulpit, and I could not have
pleaded harder for my own life than I have pleaded
with you. In Christ's name, I have cried, "Come unto
me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest." I have wept over you as the
Saviour did, and used his words on his behalf, "O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have
gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." And
you know that your conscience has often been
touched; you have often been moved; you could not
resist it. God was so kind to you; he invited you so
affectionately by the Word; he dealt so gently with
you by his providence; his hands were stretched out,
and you could hear his voice speaking in your ears,
"Come unto me, come: come now, let us reason
together; though your sins be as scarlet they shall
be as wool; though they be red like crimson they
shall be whiter than snow." You have heard him cry,
"Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters." You have heard him say with all the
affection of a father's heart, "Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts, and let him turn unto the Lord, and he
will have mercy upon him, and unto our God, for he
will abundantly pardon." Oh! God does plead with men
that they would be saved, and this day he says to
every one of you, "Repent, and be converted for the
remission of your sins. Turn ye unto me. Thus saith
the Lord of hosts; consider your ways." And with
love divine he woos you as a father woos his child,
putting out his hands and crying, "Come unto me,
come unto me." "No," says one strong-doctrine man,
"God never invites all men to himself; he invites
none but certain characters." Stop, sir, that is all
you know about it. Did you ever read that parable
where it is said, My oxen and my fatlings are
killed, and all things are ready; come unto the
marriage." And they that were bidden would not come.
And did you never read that they all began to make
excuse, and that they were punished because they did
not accept the invitations. Now, if the invitation
is not to be made to anybody, but to the man who
will accept it, how can that parable be true? The
fact is, the oxen and fatlings are killed; the
wedding feast is ready, and the trumpet sounds, "Ho
every one that thirsteth, come and eat, come and
drink." Here are the provisions spread, here is an
all-sufficiency; the invitation is free; it is a
great invitation. "Whosoever will, let him come and
take of the water of life freely." And that
invitation is couched in tender words, "Come to me,
my child, come to me." "All day long I have
stretched forth my hands."
And note again, this
invitation was very frequent. The words, "all the
day long," may be translated "daily"--"Daily have I
stretched forth my hands." Sinner, God has not
called you once to come, and then let you alone, but
every day has he been at you; every day has
conscience spoken to you; every day has providence
warned you, and every Sabbath has the Word of God
wooed you. Oh! how much some of you will have to
account for at God's great bar! I cannot now read
your characters, but I know there are some of you
who will have a terrible account at last. All the
day long has God been wooing you. From the first
dawn of your life, he wooed you through your mother,
and she used to put your little hands together, and
teach you to say,
"Gentle Jesus meek and
mild,
Look upon a little child,
Pity my simplicity;
Suffer me to come to
thee."
And in your boyhood God
was still stretching out his hands after you. How
your Sunday-school teacher endeavoured to bring you
to the Saviour! How often your youthful heart was
affected; but you put all that away, and you are
still untouched by it. How often did your mother
speak to you, and your father warn you; and you have
forgotten the prayer in that bed-room when you were
sick, when your mother kissed your burning forehead,
knelt down and prayed to God to spare your life, and
then added that prayer, "Lord, save my boy's soul!"
And you recollect the Bible she gave you, when you
first went out apprentice, and the prayer she wrote
on that yellow front leaf. When she gave it, you did
not perhaps know, but you may now; how earnestly she
longed after you, that you might be formed anew in
Christ Jesus; how she followed you with her prayers,
and how she entreated with her God for you. And you
have not yet surely forgotten how many Sabbaths you
have spent, and how many times you have been warned.
Why you have had waggon-loads of sermons wasted on
you. A hundred and four sermons you have heard every
year, and some of you more, and yet you are still
just what you were.
But sinners, sermon
hearing is an awful thing unless it is blessed to
our souls. If God has kept on stretching out his
hands every day and all the day, it will be a hard
thing for you when you shall be justly condemned not
only for your breaches of the law, but for your
wilful rejection of the gospel. It is probable that
God will keep on stretching out his hands to you
until your hairs grow grey, still continually
inviting you: and perhaps when you are nearing death
he will still say, "Come unto me, come unto me." But
if you still persist in hardening your heart, if
still you reject Christ, I beseech you let nothing
make you imagine that you shall go unpunished. Oh! I
do tremble sometimes when I think of that class of
ministers who tell sinners that they are not guilty
if they do not seek the Saviour. How they shall be
found innocent at God's great day I do not know. It
seems to be a fearful thing that they should be
lulling poor souls into sleep by telling them it is
not their duty to seek Christ and repent, but that
they may do as they like about that, and that when
they perish they will be none the more guilty for
having heard the Word. My Master did not say that.
Remember how he said, "And thou, Capernaum, which
art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to
hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done
in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have
remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it
shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the
day of judgment, than for thee." Jesus did not talk
thus when he spoke to Chorazin and Bethsaida; for he
said, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee,
Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done
in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I
say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre
and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you."
It was not the way Paul
preached. He did not tell sinners that there was no
guilt in despising the cross. Hear the apostle's
words once more: "For if the word spoken by angels
was stedfast, and every transgression and
disobedience received a just recompence of reward,
how shall we escape, if we neglect so great
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by
the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that
heard him." Sinner, at the great day of God thou
must give an account for every warning thou hast
ever had, for every time thou hast read thy Bible,
ay, and for every time thou hast neglected to read
it; for every Sunday when the house of God was open
and thou didst neglect to avail thyself of the
opportunity of hearing the Word, and for every time
thou didst hear it and didst not improve it. Ye who
are careless hearers, are tying faggots for your own
burning for ever. Ye that hear and straightway
forget, or hear with levity, are digging for
yourselves a pit into which ye must be cast.
Remember, no one will be responsible for your
damnation but yourself, at the last great day. God
will not be responsible for it. "As I live saith the
Lord"--and that is a great oath--"I have no pleasure
in the death of him that dieth. but had rather that
he should turn unto me and live." God has done much
for you. He sent you his Gospel. You are not born in
a heathen land; he has given you the Book of Books;
he has given you an enlightened conscience; and if
you perish under the sound of the ministry, you
perish more fearfully and terribly, than if you had
perished anywhere else.
This doctrine is as much
God's Word as the other. You ask me to reconcile the
two. I answer, they do not want any reconcilement; I
never tried to reconcile them to myself, because I
could never see a discrepancy. If you begin to put
fifty or sixty quibbles to me, I cannot give any
answer. Both are true; no two truths can be
inconsistent with each other; and what you have to
do is to believe them both. With the first one, the
saint has most to do. Let him praise the free and
sovereign grace of God, and bless his name. With the
second, the sinner has the most to do. O sinner,
humble thyself under the mighty hand of God, when
thou thinkest of how often he hath shown his love to
thee, by bidding thee come to himself, and yet how
often thou hast spurned his Word and refused his
mercy, and turned a deaf ear to every invitation,
and hast gone thy way to rebel against a God of
love, and violate the commands of him that loved
thee.
And now, how shall I
conclude? My first exhortation shall be to Christian
people. My dear friends, I beseech you do not in any
way give yourselves lip to any system of faith apart
from the Word of God. The Bible, and the Bible
alone, is the religion of Protestants; I am the
successor of the great and venerated Dr. Gill, whose
theology is almost universally received among the
stronger Calvinistic churches; but although I
venerate his memory, and believe his teachings, yet
he is not my Rabbi. What you find in God's Word is
for you to believe and to receive. Never be
frightened at a doctrine; and above all, never be
frightened at a name. Some one said to me the other
day, that he thought the truth lay somewhere between
the two extremes. He meant right, but I think he was
wrong, I do not think the truth lies between the two
extremes, but in them both. I believe the higher a
man goes the better, when he is preaching the matter
of salvation. The reason why a man is saved is
grace, grace, grace; and you may go as high as you
like there. But when you come to the question as to
why men are damned, then the Arminian is far more
right than the Antinomian. I care not for any
denomination or party, I am as high as Huntingdon
upon the matter of salvation, but question me about
damnation, and you will get a very different answer.
By the grace of God I ask no man's applause, I
preach the Bible as I find it. Where we get wrong is
where the Calvinist begins to meddle with the
question of damnation, and interferes with the
justice of God; or when the Arminian denies the
doctrine of grace.
My second exhortation
is,--Sinners, I beseech every one of you who are
unconverted and ungodly, this morning to put away
every form and fashion of excuse that the devil
would have you make concerning your being
unconverted. Remember, that all the teaching in the
world can never excuse you for being enemies to God
by wicked works. When we beseech you to be
reconciled to him, it is because we know you will
never be in your proper place until you are
reconciled. God has made you; can it be right that
you should disobey him? God feeds you every day: can
it be right that you should still live in
disobedience to him? Remember, when the heavens
shall be on a blaze, when Christ shall come to judge
the earth in righteousness and his people with
equity, there will not be one excuse that you can
make which will be valid at the last great day. If
you should attempt to say, "Lord, I have never heard
the word;" his answer would be, "Thou didst hear it;
thou heardest it plainly." "But Lord, I had an evil
will." "Out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee;
thou hadst that evil will, and I condemn thee for
it. This is the condemnation, that light is come
into the world, and men love darkness rather than
light, because their deeds are evil." "But Lord,"
some will say, "I was not predestinated." "What
hadst thou to do with that? Thou didst; do according
to thine own will when thou didst rebel. Thou
wouldest not come unto me, and now I destroy thee
for ever. Thou hast broken my law--on thine own head
be the guilt." If a sinner could say at the great
day, "Lord, I could not be saved anyhow his torment
in hell would be mitigated by that thought: but this
shall be the very edge of the sword, and the very
burning of the fire"--Ye knew your duty and ye did
it not: ye trampled on everything that was holy; ye
neglected the Saviour, and how shall ye escape if ye
neglect so great salvation?"
Now, with regard to
myself; you may some of you go away and say, that I
was Antinomian in the first part of the sermon and
Arminian at the end. I care not. I beg of you to
search the Bible for yourselves. To the law and to
the testimony; if I speak not according to this
Word, it is because there is no light in me. I am
willing to come to that test. Have nothing to do
with me where I have nothing to do with Christ.
Where I separate from the truth, cast my words away.
But if what I say be God's teaching, I charge you,
by him that sent me, give these things your
thoughts, and turn unto the Lord with all your
hearts.
** SOLI DEO GLORIA **
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