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Election
A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, Sept. 2, 1855, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
"But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."2 Thessalonians 2:13-14.
If there were no other text in the sacred Word except
this one, I think we should all be bound to receive and acknowledge the truthfulness of
the great and glorious doctrine of God's ancient choice of his family. But there seems to
be an inveterate prejudice in the human mind against this doctrine; and although most
other doctrines will be received by professing Christians, some with caution, others with
pleasure, yet this one seems to be most frequently disregarded and discarded. In many of
our pulpits it would be reckoned a high sin and treason to preach a sermon upon election,
because they could not make it what they call a "practical" discourse. I believe
they have erred from the truth therein. Whatever God has revealed, he has revealed for a
purpose. There is nothing in Scripture which may not, under the influence of God's Spirit,
be turned into a practical discourse: for "all Scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable" for some purpose of spiritual usefulness. It is true, it may
not be turned into a free-will discoursethat we know right wellbut it can be
turned into a practical free-grace discourse: and free-grace practice is the best
practice, when the true doctrines of God's immutable love are brought to bear upon the
hearts of saints and sinners. Now, I trust this morning some of you who are startled at
the very sound of this word, will say, "I will give it a fair hearing; I will lay
aside my prejudices; I will just hear what this man has to say." Do not shut your
ears and say at once, "It is high doctrine." Who has authorized you to call it
high or low? Why should you oppose yourself to God's doctrine? Remember what became of the
children who found fault with God's prophet, and exclaimed, "Go up, thou bald-head;
go up, thou bald-head." Say nothing against God's doctrines, lest haply some evil
beast should come out of the forest and devour you also. There are other woes beside the
open judgment of heaven take heed that these fall not on your head. Lay aside your
prejudices: listen calmly, listen dispassionately: hear what Scripture says; and when you
receive the truth, if God should be pleased to reveal and manifest it to your souls, do
not be ashamed to confess it. To confess you were wrong yesterday, is only to acknowledge
that you are a little wiser to-day; and instead of being a reflection on yourself, it is
an honour to your judgment, and shows that you are improving in the knowledge of the
truth. Do not be ashamed to learn, and to cast aside your old doctrines and views, but to
take up that which you may more plainly see to be in the Word of God. But if you do not
see it to be here in the Bible, whatever I may say, or whatever authorities I may plead, I
beseech you, as you love your souls, reject it; and if from this pulpit you ever hear
things contrary to this Sacred Word, remember that the Bible must be the first, and God's
minister must lie underneath it. We must not stand on the Bible to preach, but we must
preach with the Bible above our heads. After all we have preached, we are well aware that
the mountain of truth is higher than our eyes can discern; clouds and darkness are round
about its summit, and we cannot discern its topmost pinnacle; yet we will try to preach it
as well as we can. But since we are mortal, and liable to err, exercise your judgment;
"Try the spirits whether they are of God"; and if on mature reflection on your
bended knees, you are led to disregard electiona thing which I consider to be
utterly impossiblethen forsake it; do not hear it preached, but believe and confess
whatever you see to be God's Word. I can say no more than that by way of exordium.
Now, first, I shall speak a little concerning the truthfulness of this doctrine:
"God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation." Secondly, I shall try to
prove that this election is absolute: "He hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation," not for sanctification, but "through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth." Thirdly, this election is eternal,
because the text says, "God hath from the beginning chosen you."
Fourthly, it is personal: "He hath chosen you." Then we will look
at the effects of the doctrinesee what it does; and lastly, as God may enable
us, we will try and look at its tendencies, and see whether it is indeed a terrible
and licentious doctrine. We will take the flower, and like true bees, see whether there be
any honey whatever in it; whether any good can come of it, or whether it is an unmixed,
undiluted evil.
I. First, I must try and prove that the doctrine is TRUE. And let me begin with an argumentum
ad hominem; I will speak to you according to your different positions and stations.
There are some of you who belong to the Church of England, and I am happy to see so many
of you here. Though now and then I certainly say some very hard things about Church and
State, yet I love the old Church, for she has in her communion many godly ministers and
eminent saints. Now, I know you are great believers in what the Articles declare to be
sound doctrine. I will give you a specimen of what they utter concerning election,
so that if you believe them, you cannot avoid receiving election. I will read a portion of
the 17th Article upon Predestination and Election:
"Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the
foundations of the world were laid) he hast continually decreed by his counsel secret to
us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of
mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour.
Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to
God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through grace obey the calling:
they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the
image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at
length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity."
Now, I think any churchman, if he be a sincere and honest believer in Mother Church, must
be a thorough believer in election. True, if he turns to certain other portions of the
Prayer Book, he will find things contrary to the doctrines of free-grace, and altogether
apart from scriptural teaching; but if he looks at the Articles, he must see that God hath
chosen his people unto eternal life. I am not so desperately enamoured, however, of that
book as you may be; and I have only used this Article to show you that if you belong to
the Establishment of England you should at least offer no objection to this doctrine of
predestination.
Another human authority whereby I would confirm the doctrine of election, is, the old
Waldensian creed. If you read the creed of the old Waldenses, emanating from them in the
midst of the burning heat of persecution, you will see that these renowned professors and
confessors of the Christian faith did most firmly receive and embrace this doctrine, as
being a portion of the truth of God. I have copied from an old book one of the Articles of
their faith:
"That God saves from corruption and damnation those whom he has chosen from the
foundations of the world, not for any disposition, faith, or holiness that he foresaw in
them, but of his mere mercy in Christ Jesus his Son, passing by all the rest according to
the irreprehensible reason of his own free-will and justice."
It is no novelty, then, that I am preaching; no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these
strong old doctrines, which are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and
verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus. By this truth I make a
pilgrimage into the past, and as I go, I see father after father, confessor after
confessor, martyr after martyr, standing up to shake hands with me. Were I a Pelagian, or
a believer in the doctrine of free-will, I should have to walk for centuries all alone.
Here and there a heretic of no very honourable character might rise up and call me
brother. But taking these things to be the standard of my faith, I see the land of the
ancients peopled with my brethrenI behold multitudes who confess the same as I do,
and acknowledge that this is the religion of God's own church.
I also give you an extract from the old Baptist Confession. We are Baptists in this
congregationthe greater part of us at any rateand we like to see what our own
forefathers wrote. Some two hundred years ago the Baptists assembled together, and
published their articles of faith, to put an end to certain reports against their
orthodoxy which had gone forth to the world. I turn to this old bookwhich I have
just published [The Baptist Confession
of Faith (1689)] and I find the following as the
3rd Article: "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and
angels are predestinated, or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ to the
praise of his glorious grace; others being left to act in their sin to their just
condemnation, to the praise of his glorious justice. These angels and men thus
predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their
number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished. Those of
mankind that are predestinated to life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid,
according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure
of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory out of his mere free grace and
love, without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving him
thereunto."
As for these human authorities, I care not one rush for all three of them. I care not what
they say, pro or con, as to this doctrine. I have only used them as a kind
of confirmation to your faith, to show you that whilst I may be railed upon as a heretic
and as a hyper-Calvinist, after all I am backed up by antiquity. All the past stands by
me. I do not care for the present. Give me the past and I will hope for the future. Let
the present rise up in my teeth, I will not care. What though a host of the churches of
London may have forsaken the great cardinal doctrines of God, it matters not. If a handful
of us stand alone in an unflinching maintenance of the sovereignty of our God, if we are
beset by enemies, ay, and even by our own brethren, who ought to be our friends and
helpers, it matters not, if we can but count upon the past; the noble army of martyrs, the
glorious host of confessors, are our friends; the witnesses of truth stand by us. With
these for us, we will not say that we stand alone, but we may exclaim, "Lo, God hath
reserved unto himself seven thousand that have not bowed the knee unto Baal." But the
best of all is, God is with us.
The great truth is always the Bible, and the Bible alone. My hearers, you do not believe
in any other book than the Bible, do you? If I could prove this from all the books in
Christendom; if I could fetch back the Alexandrian library, and prove it thence, you would
not believe it any more; but you surely will believe what is in God's Word.
I have selected a few texts to read to you. I love to give you a whole volley of texts
when I am afraid you will distrust a truth, so that you may be too astonished to doubt, if
you do not in reality believe. Just let me run through a catalogue of passages where the
people of God are called elect. Of course if the people are called elect, there
must be election. If Jesus Christ and his apostles were accustomed to style
believers by the title of elect, we must certainly believe that they were so, otherwise
the term does not mean anything. Jesus Christ says, "Except that the Lord had
shortened those days, no flesh should be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom he
hath chosen, he hath shortened the days." "False Christs and false prophets
shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect."
"Then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the
four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven"
(Mark 13:20,22,27). "Shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry day and night
unto him, though he bear long with them?" (Luke 18:7). Together with many other
passages which might be selected, wherein either the word "elect," or
"chosen," or "foreordained," or "appointed" is mentioned; or
the phrase "my sheep" or some similar designation, showing that Christ's people
are distinguished from the rest of mankind.
But you have concordances, and I will not trouble you with texts. Throughout the epistles,
the saints are constantly called "the elect." In the Colossians we find Paul
saying, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of
mercies." When he writes to Titus, he calls himself, "Paul, a servant of God,
and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect." Peter
says, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Then if
you turn to John, you will find he is very fond of the word. He says, "The elder to
the elect lady"; and he speaks of our "elect sister." And we
know where it is written, "The church that is at Babylon, elected together
with you." They were not ashamed of the word in those days; they were not afraid to
talk about it. Now-a-days the word has been dressed up with diversities of meaning, and
persons have mutilated and marred the doctrine, so that they have made it a very doctrine
of devils, I do confess; and many who call themselves believers, have gone to rank
Antinomianism. But notwithstanding this, why should I be ashamed of it, if men do wrest
it? We love God's truth on the rack, as well as when it is walking upright. If there were
a martyr whom we loved before he came on the rack, we should love him more still when he
was stretched there. When God's truth is stretched on the rack, we do not call it
falsehood. We love not to see it racked, but we love it even when racked, because we can
discern what its proper proportions ought to have been if it had not been racked and
tortured by the cruelty and inventions of men. If you will read many of the epistles of
the ancient fathers, you will find them always writing to the people of God as the
"elect." Indeed the common conversational term used among many of the churches
by the primitive Christians to one another was that of the "elect." They would
often use the term to one another, showing that it was generally believed that all God's
people were manifestly "elect."
But now for the verses that will positively prove the doctrine. Open your Bibles and turn
to John 15:16, and there you will see that Jesus Christ has chosen his people, for he
says, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should
go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask
of the Father in my name, he may give it you." Then in the 19th verse, "If ye
were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but
I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Then in the 17th
chapter and the 8th and 9th verses, "For I have given unto them the words which thou
gavest me; and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee,
and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine." Turn to Acts 13:48:
"And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the
Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." They may try to split
that passage into hairs if they like; but it says, "ordained to eternal life" in
the original as plainly as it possibly can; and we do not care about all the different
commentaries thereupon. You scarcely need to be reminded of Romans 8, because I trust you
are all well acquainted with that chapter and understand it by this time. In the 29th and
following verses, it says, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" It would also be unnecessary to
repeat the whole of the 9th chapter of Romans. As long as that remains in the Bible, no
man shall be able to prove Arminianism; so long as that is written there, not the most
violent contortions of the passage will ever be able to exterminate the doctrine of
election from the Scriptures. Let us read such verses as these"For the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; it was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger." Then read the 22nd verse, "What if God,
willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. And that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory." Then go on to
Romans 11:7"What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but
the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." In the 5th verse of the
same chapter, we read"Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant
according to the election of grace." You, no doubt, all recollect the passage in I
Corinthians 1:26-29: "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and
things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to
nought things which are: that no flesh should glory in his presence." Again, remember
the passage in I Thessalonians 5:9"God hath not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." And then you have my text, which
methinks would be quite enough. But, if you need any more, you can find them at your
leisure, if we have not quite removed your suspicions as to the doctrine not being true.
Methinks, my friends, that this overwhelming mass of Scripture testimony must stagger
those who dare to laugh at this doctrine. What shall we say of those who have so often
despised it, and denied its divinity; who have railed at its justice, and dared to defy
God and call him an Almighty tyrant, when they have heard of his having elected so many to
eternal life? Canst thou, O rejector! cast it out of the Bible? Canst thou take the
penknife of Jehudi and cut it out of the Word of God? Wouldst thou be like the woman at
the feet of Solomon, and have the child rent in halves, that thou mightest have thy half?
Is it not here in Scripture? And is it not thy duty to bow before it, and meekly
acknowledge what thou understandest notto receive it as the truth even though thou
couldst not understand its meaning? I will not attempt to prove the justice of God in
having thus elected some and left others. It is not for me to vindicate my Master. He will
speak for himself, and he does so:"Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest
against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour
and another unto dishonour?" Who is he that shall say unto his father, "What
hast thou begotten?" or unto his mother, "What hast thou brought forth?"
"I am the LordI form the light and create darkness I, the Lord, do all these
things." Who art thou that repliest against God? Tremble and kiss his rod; bow down
and submit to his sceptre; impugn not his justice, and arraign not his acts before thy
bar, O man!
But there are some who say, "It is hard for God to choose some and leave
others." Now, I will ask you one question. Is there any of you here this morning who
wishes to be holy, who wishes to be regenerate, to leave off sin and walk in holiness?
"Yes, there is," says some one, "I do." Then God has elected you. But
another says, "No; I don't want to be holy; I don't want to give up my lusts and my
vices." Why should you grumble, then, that God has not elected you to it? For if you
were elected you would not like it, according to your own confession. If God this morning
had chosen you to holiness, you say you would not care for it. Do you not acknowledge that
you prefer drunkenness to sobriety, dishonesty to honesty? You love this world's pleasures
better than religion; then why should you grumble that God has not chosen you to religion?
If you love religion, he has chosen you to it. If you desire it, he has chosen you
to it. If you do not, what right have you to say that God ought to have given you what you
do not wish for? Supposing I had in my hand something which you do not value, and I said I
shall give it to such-and-such a person, you would have no right to grumble that I did not
give to you. You could not be so foolish as to grumble that the other has got what you do
not care about. According to your own confession, many of you do not want religion, do not
want a new heart and a right spirit, do not want the forgiveness of sins, do not want
sanctification; you do not want to be elected to these things: then why should you
grumble? You count these things but as husks, and why should you complain of God who has
given them to those whom he has chosen? If you believe them to be good and desire them,
they are there for thee. God gives liberally to all those who desire; and first of all, he
makes them desire, otherwise they never would. If you love these things, he has elected
you to them, and you may have them; but if you do not, who are you that you should find
fault with God, when it is your own desperate will that keeps you from loving these
thingsyour own simple self that makes you hate them? Suppose a man in the street
should say, "What a shame it is I cannot have a seat in the chapel to hear what this
man has to say." And suppose he says, "I hate the preacher; I can't bear his
doctrine; but still it's a shame I have not a seat." Would you expect a man to say
so? No: you would at once say, "That man does not care for it. Why should he trouble
himself about other people having what they value and he despises?" You do not like
holiness, you do not like righteousness; if God has elected me to these things, has he
hurt you by it? "Ah! but," say some, "I thought it meant that God elected
some to heaven and some to hell." That is a very different matter from the gospel
doctrine. He has elected men to holiness and to righteousness and through that to heaven.
You must not say that he has elected them simply to heaven, and others only to hell. He
has elected you to holiness, if you love holiness. If any of you love to be saved by Jesus
Christ, Jesus Christ elected you to be saved. If any of you desire to have salvation, you
are elected to have it, if you desire it sincerely and earnestly. But, if you don't desire
it, why on earth should you be so preposterously foolish as to grumble because God gives
that which you do not like to other people?
II. Thus I have tried to say something with regard to the truth of the doctrine of
election. And now, briefly, let me say that election is ABSOLUTE: that is, it does not
depend upon what we are. The text says, "God hath from the beginning chosen us unto
salvation"; but our opponents say that God chooses people because they are good, that
he chooses them on account of sundry works which they have done. Now, we ask in reply to
this, what works are those on account of which God elects his people? Are they what we
commonly call "works of law,"works of obedience which the creature can
render? If so, we reply to youIf men cannot be justified by the works of the law, it
seems to us pretty clear that they cannot be elected by the works of the law: if they
cannot be justified by their good deeds, they cannot be saved by them. Then the decree of
election could not have been formed upon good works. "But," say others,
"God elected them on the foresight of their faith." Now, God gives faith,
therefore he could not have elected them on account of faith, which he foresaw. There
shall be twenty beggars in the street, and I determine to give one of them a shilling; but
will any one say that I determined to give that one a shilling, that I elected him to have
the shilling, because I foresaw that he would have it? That would be talking nonsense. In
like manner to say that God elected men because he foresaw they would have faith, which is
salvation in the germ, would be too absurd for us to listen to for a moment. Faith is the
gift of God. Every virtue comes from him. Therefore it cannot have caused him to elect
men, because it is his gift. Election, we are sure, is absolute, and altogether apart from
the virtues which the saints have afterwards. What though a saint should be as holy and
devout as Paul; what though he should be as bold as Peter, or as loving as John, yet he
would claim nothing from his Maker. I never knew a saint yet of any denomination, who
thought that God saved him because he foresaw that he would have these virtues and merits.
Now, my brethren, the best jewels that the saint ever wears, if they be jewels of his own
fashioning, are not of the first water. There is something of earth mixed with them. The
highest grace we ever possess has something of earthliness about it. We feel this when we
are most refined, when we are most sanctified, and our language must always be
"I the chief of sinners am;
Jesus died for me."
Our only hope, our only plea, still hangs on grace as exhibited in the person of Jesus Christ. And I am sure we must utterly reject and disregard all thought that our graces, which are gifts of our Lord, which are his right-hand planting, could have ever caused his love. And we ever must sing
"What was there in us that could
merit esteem
Or give the Creator delight?
'Twas even so Father we ever must sing,
Because it seemed good in thy sight."
"He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy": he saves because he will save. And if you ask me why he saves me, I can only say, because he would do it. Was there anything in me that should recommend me to God? No; I lay aside everything, I had nothing to recommend me. When God saved me I was the most abject, lost, and ruined of the race. I lay before him as an infant in my blood. Verily, I had no power to help myself. O how wretched did I feel and know myself to be! If you had something to recommend you to God, I never had. I will be content to be saved by grace, unalloyed, pure grace. I can boast of no merits. If you can do so, I cannot. I must sing
"Free grace alone from the first to
the last,
Hath won my affection and held my soul fast."
III. Then, thirdly, this election is
ETERNAL. "God hath from the beginning chosen you unto eternal life." Can any man
tell me when the beginning was? Years ago we thought the beginning of this world was when
Adam came upon it; but we have discovered that thousands of years before that God was
preparing chaotic matter to make it a fit abode for man, putting races of creatures upon
it, who might die and leave behind the marks of his handiwork and marvellous skill, before
he tried his hand on man. But that was not the beginning, for revelation points us to a
period long ere this world was fashioned, to the days when the morning stars were
begotten; when, like drops of dew, from the fingers of the morning, stars and
constellations fell trickling from the hand of God; when, by his own lips, he launched
forth ponderous orbs; when with his own hand he sent comets, like thunderbolts, wandering
through the sky, to find one day their proper sphere. We go back to years gone by, when
worlds were made and systems fashioned, but we have not even approached the beginning yet.
Until we go to the time when all the universe slept in the mind of God as yet unborn,
until we enter the eternity where God the Creator lived alone, everything sleeping within
him, all creation resting in his mighty gigantic thought, we have not guessed the
beginning. We may go back, back, back, ages upon ages. We may go back, if we might use
such strange words, whole eternities, and yet never arrive at the beginning. Our wing
might be tired, our imagination would die away; could it outstrip the lightnings flashing
in majesty, power, and rapidity, it would soon weary itself ere it could get to the
beginning. But God from the beginning chose his people; when the unnavigated ether was yet
unfanned by the wing of a single angel, when space was shoreless, or else unborn when
universal silence reigned, and not a voice or whisper shocked the solemnity of silence;
when there was no being and no motion, no time, and nought but God himself, alone in his
eternity; when without the song of an angel, without the attendance of even the cherubim,
long ere the living creatures were born, or the wheels of the chariot of Jehovah were
fashioned, even then, "in the beginning was the Word," and in the beginning
God's people were one with the Word, and "in the beginning he chose them into eternal
life." Our election then is eternal. I will not stop to prove it, I only just run
over these thoughts for the benefit of young beginners, that they may understand what we
mean by eternal, absolute election.
IV. And, next, the election is PERSONAL. Here again, our opponents have tried to overthrow
election by telling us that it is an election of nations, and not of people. But here the
Apostle says, "God hath from the beginning chosen you." It is the most
miserable shift on earth to make out that God hath not chosen persons but nations, because
the very same objection that lies against the choice of persons, lies against the choice
of a nation. If it were not just to choose a person, it would be far more unjust to choose
a nation, since nations are but the union of multitudes of persons, and to choose a nation
seems to be a more gigantic crimeif election be a crimethan to choose one
person. Surely to choose ten thousand would be reckoned to be worse than choosing one; to
distinguish a whole nation from the rest of mankind, does seem to be a greater
extravaganza in the acts of divine sovereignty than the election of one poor mortal and
leaving out another. But what are nations but men? What are whole peoples but combinations
of different units? A nation is made up of that individual, and that, and that. And if you
tell me that God chose the Jews, I say then, he chose that Jew, and that Jew, and that
Jew. And if you say he chooses Britain, then I say he chooses that British man, and that
British man, and that British man. So that is the same thing after all. Election then is
personal: it must be so. Every one who reads this text, and others like it, will see that
Scripture continually speaks of God's people one by one and speaks of them as having been
the special subjects of election.
"Sons we are through God's election,
Who in Jesus Christ believe;
By eternal destination
Sovereign grace we here receive."
We know it is personal election.
V. The other thought isfor my time
flies too swiftly to enable me to dwell at length upon these pointsthat election
produces GOOD RESULTS. "He hath from the beginning chosen you unto sanctification of
the spirit, and belief of the truth." How many men mistake the doctrine of election
altogether! and how my soul burns and boils at the recollection of the terrible evils that
have accrued from the spoiling and the wresting of that glorious portion of God's glorious
truth! How many are there who have said to themselves, "I am elect," and have
sat down in sloth, and worse than that! They have said, "I am the elect of God,"
and with both hands they have done wickedness. They have swiftly run to every unclean
thing, because they have said, "I am the chosen child of God, irrespective of my
works, therefore I may live as I list, and do what I like." Oh, beloved! let me
solemnly warn every one of you not to carry the truth too far; or, rather not to turn the
truth into error, for we cannot carry it too far. We may overstep the truth; we can make
that which was meant to be sweet for our comfort, a terrible mixture for our destruction.
I tell you there have been thousands of men who have been ruined by misunderstanding
election; who have said, "God has elected me to heaven, and to eternal life";
but they have forgotten that it is written, God has elected them "through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." This is God's
electionelection to sanctification and to faith. God chooses his people to be holy,
and to be believers. How many of you here then are believers? How many of my congregation
can put their hands upon their hearts and say, "I trust in God that I am
sanctified"? Is there one of you who says, "I am elect"?I remind that
you swore last week. One of you says, "I trust I am elect"but I jog your
memory about some vicious act that you committed during the last six days. Another of you
says, "I am elect"but I would look you in the face and say, "Elect!
thou art a most cursed hypocrite! and that is all thou art." Others would say,
"I am elect"but I would remind them that they neglect the mercy-seat and
do not pray. Oh, beloved! never think you are elect unless you are holy. You may come to
Christ as a sinner, but you may not come to Christ as an elect person until you can see
your holiness. Do not misconstrue what I saydo not say "I am elect," and
yet think you can be living in sin. That is impossible. The elect of God are holy. They
are not pure, they are not perfect, they are not spotless; but, taking their life as a
whole, they are holy persons. They are marked, and distinct from others: and no man has a
right to conclude himself elect except in his holiness. He may be elect, and yet lying in
darkness, but he has no right to believe it; no one can see it, there is no evidence of
it. The man may live one day, but he is dead at present. If you are walking in the fear of
God, trying to please him, and to obey his commandments, doubt not that your name has been
written in the Lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world.
And, lest this should be too high for you, note the other mark of election, which is
faith, "belief of the truth." Whoever believes God's truth, and believes on
Jesus Christ, is elect. I frequently meet with poor souls, who are fretting and worrying
themselves about this thought"How, if I should not be elect!" "Oh,
sir," they say, "I know I put my trust in Jesus; I know I believe in his name
and trust in his blood; but how if I should not be elect?" Poor dear creature! you do
not know much about the gospel, or you would never talk so, for he that believes is
elect. Those who are elect, are elect unto sanctification and unto faith; and if you
have faith you are one of God's elect; you may know it and ought to know it, for it is an
absolute certainty. If you, as a sinner, look to Jesus Christ this morning, and say
"Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling,"
you are elect. I am not afraid of election
frightening poor saints or sinners. There are many divines who tell the enquirer
"election has nothing to do with you." That is very bad, because the poor soul
is not to be silenced like that. If you could silence him so, it might be well, but he
will think of it, he can't help it. Say to him then, if you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ you are elect. If you will cast yourself on Jesus, you are elect. I tell
youthe chief of sinnersthis morning, I tell you in his name, if you will come
to God without any works of your own, cast yourself on the blood and righteousness of
Jesus Christ; if you will come now and trust in him, you are electyou were loved of
God from before the foundation of the world, for you could not do that unless God had
given you the power, and had chosen you to do it. Now you are safe and secure if you do
but come and cast yourself on Jesus Christ, and wish to be saved and to be loved by him.
But think not that any man will be saved without faith and without holiness. Do not
conceive, my hearers, that some decree, passed in the dark ages of eternity, will save
your souls, unless you believe in Christ. Do not sit down and fancy that you are to be
saved without faith and holiness. That is a most abominable and accursed heresy, and has
ruined thousands. Lay not election as a pillow for you to sleep on, or you may be ruined.
God forbid that I should be sewing pillows under armholes that you may rest comfortably in
your sins. Sinner! there is nothing in the Bible to palliate your sins. But if thou art
condemned O man! if thou art lost O woman! thou wilt not find in this Bible one drop to
cool thy tongue, or one doctrine to palliate thy guilt; your damnation will be entirely
your own fault, and your sin will richly merit it, because ye believe not ye are
condemned. "Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep." "Ye wilt not
come to me that ye might have life." Do not fancy that election excuses sindo
not dream of itdo not rock yourself in sweet complacency in the thought of your
irresponsibility. You are responsible. We must give you both things. We must have divine
sovereignty, and we must have man's responsibility. We must have election, but we must ply
your hearts, we must send God's truth at you; we must speak to you, and remind you of
this, that while it is written, "In me is thy help"; yet it is also written,
"O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself."
VI. Now, lastly, what are the true and legitimate tendencies of right conceptions
concerning the doctrine of election. First, I will tell you what the doctrine of election
will make saints do under the blessing of God; and, secondly what it will do for sinners
if God blesses it to them.
First, I think election, to a saint, is one of the most stripping doctrines in all
the world to take away all trust in the flesh, or all reliance upon anything except
Jesus Christ. How often do we wrap ourselves up in our own righteousness, and array
ourselves with the false pearls and gems of our own works and doings. We begin to say
"Now I shall be saved, because I have this and that evidence." Instead of that,
it is naked faith that saves; that faith and that alone unites to the Lamb, irrespective
of works, although it is productive of them. How often do we lean on some work, other than
that of our own Beloved, and trust in some might, other than that which comes from on
high. Now if we would have this might taken from us, we must consider election. Pause my
soul, and consider this. God loved thee before thou hadst a being. He loved thee when thou
wast dead in trespasses and sins, and sent his Son to die for thee. He purchased thee with
his precious blood ere thou couldst lisp his name. Canst thou then be proud?
I know nothing, nothing again, that is more humbling for us than this doctrine of
election. I have sometimes fallen prostrate before it, when endeavouring to understand it.
I have stretched my wings, and, eagle-like, I have soared towards the sun. Steady has been
my eye, and true my wing, for a season; but, when I came near it, and the one thought
possessed me,"God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation," I
was lost in its lustre, I was staggered with the mighty thought; and from the dizzy
elevation down came my soul, prostrate and broken, saying, "Lord, I am nothing, I am
less than nothing. Why me? Why me?"
Friends, if you want to be humbled, study election, for it will make you humble under the
influence of God's Spirit. He who is proud of his election is not elect; and he who is
humbled under a sense of it may believe that he is. He has every reason to believe that he
is, for it is one of the most blessed effects of election that it helps us to humble
ourselves before God.
Once again. Election in the Christian should make him very fearless and very bold.
No man will be so bold as he who believes that he is elect of God. What cares he for man
if he is chosen of his Maker? What will he care for the pitiful chirpings of some tiny
sparrows when he knoweth that he is an eagle of a royal race? Will he care when the beggar
pointeth at him, when the blood royal of heaven runs in his veins? Will he fear if all the
world stand against him? If earth be all in arms abroad, he dwells in perfect peace, for
he is in the secret place of the tabernacle of the Most High, in the great pavillion of
the Almighty. "I am God's," says he, "I am distinct from other men. They
are of an inferior race. Am not I noble? Am not I one of the aristocrats of heaven? Is not
my name written in God's book?" Does he care for the world? Nay: like the lion that
careth not for the barking of the dog, he smileth at all his enemies; and when they come
too near him, he moveth himself and dasheth them to pieces. What careth he for them? He
walks about them like a colossus; while little men walk under him and understand him not.
His brow is made of iron, his heart is of flintwhat doth he care for man? Nay; if
one universal hiss came up from the wide world, he would smile at it, for he would
say,
"He that hath made his refuge God,
Shall find a most secure abode."
"I am one of his elect. I am chosen of
God and precious; and though the world cast me out, I fear not." Ah! ye time-serving
professors, some of you can bend like the willows. There are few oaken-Christians
now-a-days, that can stand the storm; and I will tell you the reason. It is because you do
not believe yourselves to be elect. The man who knows he is elect will be too proud to
sin; he will not humble himself to commit the acts of common people. The believer in this
truth will say, "I compromise my principles? I change my doctrines? I
lay aside my views? I hide what I believe to be true? No! since I know I am one of
God's elect, in the very teeth of all men I shall speak God's truth, whatever man may
say." Nothing makes a man so truly bold as to feel that he is God's elect. He shall
not quiver, he shall not shake, who knows that God has chosen him.
Moreover, election will make us holy. Nothing under the gracious influence of the
Holy Spirit can make a Christian more holy than the thought that he is chosen. "Shall
I sin," he says, "after God hath chosen me? Shall I transgress after such love?
Shall I go astray after so much lovingkindness and tender mercy? Nay, my God; since thou
hast chosen me, I will love thee; I will live to thee
'Since thou, the everlasting God,
My Father art become;'
I will give myself to thee to be thine for
ever, by election and by redemption, casting myself on thee, and solemnly consecrating
myself to thy service."
And now, lastly, to the ungodly. What says election to you? First, ye ungodly ones, I will
excuse you for a moment. There are many of you who do not like election, and I cannot
blame you for it, for I have heard those preach election, who have sat down, and said,
"I have not one word to say to the sinner." Now, I say you ought to
dislike such preaching as that, and I do not blame you for it. But, I say, take courage,
take hope, O thou sinner, that there is election. So far from dispiriting and discouraging
thee, it is a very hopeful and joyous thing that there is an election. What if I told thee
perhaps none can be saved, none are ordained to eternal life; wouldst thou not tremble and
fold thy hands in hopelessness, and say, "Then how can I be saved, since none are
elect?" But, I say, there is a multitude elect, beyond all countinga host that
no mortal can number. Therefore, take heart, thou poor sinner! Cast away thy
despondencymayest thou not be elect as well as any other? for there is a host
innumerable chosen. There is joy and comfort for thee! Then, not only take heart, but go
and try the Master. Remember, if you were not elect, you would lose nothing by it. What
did the four Syrians say? "Let us fall unto the host of the Syrians, for if we stay
here we must die, and if we go to them we can but die." O sinner! come to the throne
of electing mercy, Thou mayest die where thou art. Go to God; and, even supposing he
should spurn thee, suppose his uplifted hand should drive thee awaya thing
impossibleyet thou wilt not lose anything; thou wilt not be more damned for that.
Besides, supposing thou be damned, thou wouldst have the satisfaction at least of being
able to lift up thine eyes in hell and say, "God, I asked mercy of thee and thou
wouldst not grant it; I sought it, but thou didst refuse it." That thou never shalt
say, O sinner! If thou goest to him, and askest him, thou shalt receive; for he ne'er has
spurned one yet! Is not that hope for you? What though there is an allotted number, yet it
is true that all who seek belong to that number. Go thou and seek; and if thou shouldst be
the first one to go to hell, tell the devils that thou didst perish thustell the
demons that thou art a castaway, after having come as a guilty sinner to Jesus. I tell
thee it would disgrace the Eternalwith reverence to his nameand he would not
allow such a thing. He is jealous of his honour, and he could not allow a sinner to say
that.
But ah, poor soul! not only think thus, that thou canst not lose anything by coming; there
is yet one more thoughtdost thou love the thought of election this morning? Art thou
willing to admit its justice? Dost thou say, "I feel that I am lost; I deserve it;
and that if my brother is saved I cannot murmur. If God destroy me, I deserve it, but if
he saves the person sitting beside me, he has a right to do what he will with his own, and
I have lost nothing by it." Can you say that honestly from your heart? If so, then
the doctrine of election has had its right effect on your spirit, and you are not far from
the kingdom of heaven. You are brought where you ought to be, where the Spirit wants you
to be; and being so this morning, depart in peace; God has forgiven your sins. You would
not feel that if you were not pardoned; you would not feel that if the Spirit of God were
not working in you. Rejoice, then, in this. Let your hope rest on the cross of Christ.
Think not on election but on Christ Jesus. Rest on JesusJesus first, midst, and
without end.
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