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REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens
"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him."—John 6:44.
Coming to Christ" is a very common phrase in Holy
Scripture. It is used to express those acts of the soul wherein, leaving at once our
self-righteousness, and our sins, we fly unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive his
righteousness to be our covering, and his blood to be our atonement. Coming to Christ,
then, embraces in it repentance, self-negation, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it
sums within itself all those things which are the necessary attendants of these great
states of heart, such as the belief of the truth, earnestness of prayer to God, the
submission of the soul to the precepts of God's gospel, and all those things which
accompany the dawn of salvation in the soul. Coming to Christ is just the one essential
thing for a sinner's salvation. He that cometh not to Christ, do what he may, or think
what he may, is yet in "the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity."
Coming to Christ is the very first effect of regeneration. No sooner is the soul quickened
than it at once discovers its lost estate, is horrified thereat, looks out for a refuge,
and believing Christ to be a suitable one, flies to him and reposes in him. Where there is
not this coming to Christ, it is certain that there is as yet no quickening; where there
is no quickening, the soul is dead in trespasses and sins, and being dead it cannot enter
into the kingdom of heaven. We have before us now an announcement very startling, some say
very obnoxious. Coming to Christ, though described by some people as being the very
easiest thing in all the world, is in our text declared to be a thing utterly and entirely
impossible to any man, unless the Father shall draw him to Christ. It shall be our
business, then, to enlarge upon this declaration. We doubt not that it will always be
offensive to carnal nature, but, nevertheless, the offending of human nature is sometimes
the first step towards bringing it to bow itself before God. And if this be the effect of
a painful process, we can forget the pain and rejoice in the glorious consequences.
I shall endeavour this morning, first of all, to notice man's inability, wherein it
consists. Secondly, the Father's drawings—what these are, and how they are
exerted upon the soul. And then I shall conclude by noticing a sweet consolation
which may be derived from this seemingly barren and terrible text.
I. First, then, MAN'S INABILITY. The text says, "No man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him." Wherein does this inability lie?
First, it does not lie in any physical defect. If in coming to Christ, moving the
body or walking with the feet should be of any assistance, certainly man has all physical
power to come to Christ in that sense. I remember to have heard a very foolish Antinomian
declare, that he did not believe any man had the power to walk to the house of God unless
the Father drew him. Now the man was plainly foolish, because he must have seen that as
long as a man was alive and had legs, it was as easy for him to walk to the house of God
as to the house of Satan. If coming to Christ includes the utterance of a prayer, man has
no physical defect in that respect, if he be not dumb, he can say a prayer as easily as he
can utter blasphemy. It is as easy for a man to sing one of the songs of Zion as to sing a
profane and libidinous song. There is no lack of physical power in coming to Christ. All
that can be wanted with regard to the bodily strength man most assuredly has, and any part
of salvation which consists in that is totally and entirely in the power of man without
any assistance from the Spirit of God. Nor, again, does this inability lie in any mental
lack. I can believe this Bible to be true just as easily as I can believe any other book
to be true. So far as believing on Christ is an act of the mind, I am just as able to
believe on Christ as I am able to believe on anybody else. Let his statement be but true,
it is idle to tell me I cannot believe it. I can believe the statement that Christ makes
as well as I can believe the statement of any other person. There is no deficiency of
faculty in the mind: it is as capable of appreciating as a mere mental act the guilt of
sin, as it is of appreciating the guilt of assassination. It is just as possible for me to
exercise the mental idea of seeking God, as it is to exercise the thought of ambition. I
have all the mental strength and power that can possibly be needed, so far as mental power
is needed in salvation at all. Nay, there is not any man so ignorant that he can plead a
lack of intellect as an excuse for rejecting the gospel. The defect, then, does not lie
either in the body, or, what we are bound to call, speaking theologically, the mind. It is
not any lack or deficiency there, although it is the vitiation of the mind, the corruption
or the ruin of it, which, after all, is the very essence of man's inability.
Permit me to show you wherein this inability of man really does lie. It lies deep in
his nature. Through the fall, and through our own sin, the nature of man has become so
debased, and depraved, and corrupt, that it is impossible for him to come to Christ
without the assistance of God the Holy Spirit. Now, in trying to exhibit how the nature of
man thus renders him unable to come to Christ, you must allow me just to take this figure.
You see a sheep; how willingly it feeds upon the herbage! You never knew a sheep sigh
after carrion; it could not live on lion's food. Now bring me a wolf; and you ask me
whether a wolf cannot eat grass, whether it cannot be just as docile and as domesticated
as the sheep. I answer, no; because its nature is contrary thereunto. You say, "Well,
it has ears and legs; can it not hear the shepherd's voice, and follow him whithersoever
he leadeth it ?" I answer, certainly; there is no physical cause why it cannot do so,
but its nature forbids, and therefore I say it cannot do so. Can it not be tamed?
cannot its ferocity be removed? Probably it may so far be subdued that it may become
apparently tame; but there will always be a marked distinction between it and the sheep,
because there is a distinction in nature. Now, the reason why man cannot come to Christ,
is not because he cannot come, so far as his body or his mere power of mind is concerned,
but because his nature is so corrupt that he has neither the will nor the power to come to
Christ unless drawn by the Spirit. But let me give you a better illustration. You see a
mother with her babe in her arms. You put a knife into her hand, and tell her to stab that
babe to the heart. She replies, and very truthfully, "I cannot." Now, so far as
her bodily power is concerned, she can, if she pleases; there is the knife, and there is
the child. The child cannot resist, and she has quite sufficient strength in her hand
immediately to stab it to its heart. But she is quite correct when she says she cannot do
it. As a mere act of the mind, it is quite possible she might think of such a thing as
killing the child, and yet she says she cannot think of such a thing; and she does not say
falsely, for her nature as a mother forbids her doing a thing from which her soul revolts.
Simply because she is that child's parent she feels she cannot kill it. It is even so with
a sinner. Coming to Christ is so obnoxious to human nature that, although, so far as
physical and mental forces are concerned, (and these have but a very narrow sphere in
salvation) men could come if they would: it is strictly correct to say that they cannot
and will not unless the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them. Let us enter a little
more deeply into the subject, and try to show you wherein this inability of man consists,
in its more minute particulars.
I. First, it lies in the obstinacy of the human will. "Oh!" saith the
Arminian, "men may be saved if they will." We reply, "My dear sir, we all
believe that; but it is just the if they will that is the difficulty. We assert
that no man will come to Christ unless he be drawn; nay, we do not assert
it, but Christ himself declares it—"Ye will not come unto me that ye
might have life;' and as long as that "ye will not come' stands on record
in Holy Scripture, we shall not be brought to believe in any doctrine of the freedom of
the human will." It is strange how people, when talking about free-will, talk of
things which they do not at all understand. "Now," says one, "I believe men
can be saved if they will." My dear sir, that is not the question at all. The
question is, are men ever found naturally willing to submit to the humbling terms of the
gospel of Christ? We declare, upon Scriptural authority, that the human will is so
desperately set on mischief, so depraved, and so inclined to everything that is evil, and
so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful. supernatural,
irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained towards
Christ. You reply, that men sometimes are willing, without the help of the Holy Spirit. I
answer—Did you ever meet with any person who was? Scores and hundreds, nay, thousands
of Christians have I conversed with, of different opinions, young and old, but it has
never been my lot to meet with one who could affirm that he came to Christ of himself,
without being drawn. The universal confession of all true believers is this—"I
know that unless Jesus Christ had sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of
God, I would to this very hour have been wandering far from him, at a distance from him,
and loving that distance well." With common consent, all believers affirm the truth,
that men will not come to Christ till the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them.
2. Again, not only is the will obstinate, but the understanding is darkened. Of
that we have abundant Scriptural proof. I am not now making mere assertions, but stating
doctrines authoritatively taught in the Holy Scriptures, and known in the conscience of
every Christian man—that the understanding of man is so dark, that hecannot by any
means understand the things of God until his understanding has been opened. Man is by
nature blind within. The cross of Christ, so laden with glories, and glittering with
attractions, never attracts him, because he is blind and cannot see its beauties. Talk to
him of the wonders of the creation, show to him the many-coloured arch that spans the sky,
let him behold the glories of a landscape, he is well able to see all these things; but
talk to him of the wonders of the covenant of grace, speak to him of the security of the
believer in Christ, tell him of the beauties of the person of the Redeemer, he is quite
deaf to all your description; you are as one that playeth a goodly tune, it is true; but
he regards not, he is deaf, he has no comprehension. Or, to return to the verse which we
so specially marked in our reading, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they
are spiritually discerned;" and inasmuch as he is a natural man, it is not in his
power to discern the things of God. "Well," says one, "I think I have
arrived at a very tolerable judgment in matters of theology; I think I understand almost
every point." True, that you may do in the letter of it; but in the spirit of it, in
the true reception thereof into the soul, and in the actual understanding of it, it is
impossible for you to have attained, unless you have been drawn by the Spirit. For as long
as that Scripture stands true, that carnal men cannot receive spiritual things, it must be
true that you have not received them, unless you have been renewed and made a spiritual
man in Christ Jesus. The will, then, and the understanding, are two great doors, both
blocked up against our coming to Christ, and until these are opened by the sweet
influences of the Divine Spirit, they must be for ever closed to anything like coming to
Christ.
3. Again, the affections, which constitute a very great part of man, are depraved.
Man, as he is, before he receives the grace of God, loves anything and everything above
spiritual things. If ye want proof of this, look around you. There needs no monument to
the depravity of the human affections. Cast your eyes everywhere—there is not a
street, nor a house, nay, nor a heart, which doth not bear upon it sad evidence of this
dreadful truth. Why is it that men are not found on the Sabbath Day universally flocking
to the house of God? Why are we not more constantly found reading our Bibles? How is it
that prayer is a duty almost universally neglected? Why is it that Christ Jesus is so
little beloved? Why are even his professed followers so cold in their affections to him?
Whence arise these things? Assuredly, dear brethren, we can trace them to no other source
than this, the corruption and vitiation of the affections. We love that which we ought to
hate, and we hate that which we ought to love. It is but human nature, fallen human
nature, that man should love this present life better than the life to come. It is but the
effect of the fall, that man should love sin better than righteousness, and the ways of
this world better than the ways of God. And again, we repeat it, until these affections be
renewed, and turned into a fresh channel by the gracious drawings of the Father, it is not
possible for any man to love the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Yet once more—conscience, too, has been overpowered by the fall. I believe
there is no more egregious mistake made by divines, than when they tell people that
conscience is the vicegerent of God within the soul, and that it is one of those powers
which retains its ancient dignity, and stands erect amidst the fall of its compeers. My
brethren, when man fell in the garden, manhood fell entirely; there was not one single
pillar in the temple of manhood that stood erect. It is true, conscience was not
destroyed. The pillar was not shattered; it fell, and it fell in one piece, and there it
lies along, the mightiest remnant of God's once perfect work in man. But that conscience
is fallen, I am sure. Look at men. Who among them is the possessor of a "good
conscience toward God," but the regenerated man? Do you imagine that if men's
consciences always spoke loudly and clearly to them, they would live in the daily
commission of acts, which are as opposed to the right as darkness to light? No, beloved;
conscience can tell me that I am a sinner, but conscience cannot make me feel that I am
one. Conscience may tell me that such-and-such a thing is wrong, but how wrong it is
conscience itself does not know. Did any man s conscience, unenlightened by the Spirit,
ever tell him that his sins deserved damnation? Or if conscience did do that, did it ever
lead any man to feel an abhorrence of sin as sin? In fact, did conscience ever bring a man
to such a self-renunciation, that he did totally abhor himself and all his works and come
to Christ? No, conscience, although it is not dead, is ruined, its power is impaired, it
hath not that clearness of eye and that strength of hand, and that thunder of voice, which
it had before the fall; but hath ceased to a great degree, to exert its supremacy in the
town of Mansoul. Then, beloved, it becomes necessary for this very reason, because
conscience is depraved, that the Holy Spirit should step in, to show us our need of a
Saviour, and draw us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Still," says one, "as far as you have hitherto gone, it appears to me that
you consider that the reason why men do not come to Christ is that they will not, rather
than they cannot." True, most true. I believe the greatest reason of man's inability
is the obstinacy of his will. That once overcome, I think the great stone is rolled away
from the sepulchre, and the hardest part of the battle is already won. But allow me to go
a little further. My text does not say,"No man will come," but it says, "No
man can come." Now, many interpreters believe that the can here, is but a
strong expression conveying no more meaning than the word will. I feel assured that
this is not correct. There is in man, not only unwillingness to be saved, but there is a
spiritual powerlessness to come to Christ; and this I will prove to every Christian at any
rate. Beloved, I speak to you who have already been quickened by the divine grace, does
not your experience teach you that there are times when you have a will to serve God, and
yet have not the power? Have you not sometimes been obliged to say that you have wished to
believe. but you have had to pray, Lord, help mine unbelief?" Because, although
willing enough to receive God's testimony, your own carnal nature was too strong for you,
and you felt you needed supernatural help. Are you able to go into your room at any hour
you choose, and to fall upon your knees and say,"Now, it is my will that I should be
very earnest in prayer, and that I should draw near unto God ?" I ask, do you find
your power equal to your will? You could say, even at the bar of God himself, that you are
sure you are not mistaken in your willingness; you are willing to be wrapt up in devotion,
it is your will that your soul should not wander from a pure contemplation of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but you find that you cannot do that, even when you are willing, without the
help of the Spirit. Now, if the quickened child of God finds a spiritual inability, how
much more the sinner who is dead in trespasses and sin? If even the advanced Christian,
after thirty or forty years, finds himself sometimes willing and yet powerless—if
such be his experience,—does it not seem more than likely that the poor sinner who
has not yet believed, should find a need of strength as well as a want of will?
But, again, there is another argument. If the sinner has strength to come to Christ, I
should like to know how we are to understand those continual descriptions of the sinner's
state which we meet with in God's holy Word? Now, a sinner is said to be dead in
trespasses and sins. Will you affirm that death implies nothing more than the absence of a
will? Surely a corpse is quite as unable as unwilling. Or again, do not all men see that
there is a distinction between will and power: might not that corpse be
sufficiently quickened to get a will, and yet be so powerless that it could not lift as
much as its hand or foot? Have we never seen cases in which persons have been just
sufficiently re-animated to give evidence of life, and have yet been so near death that
they could not have performed the slightest action? Is there not a clear difference
between the giving or the will and the giving of power? It is quite certain, however, that
where the will is given, the power will follow. Make a man willing, and he shall be made
powerful; for when God gives the will, he does not tantalize man by giving him to wish for
that which he is unable to do; nevertheless he makes such a division between the will and
the power, that it shall be seen that both things are quite distinct gifts of the Lord
God.
Then I must ask one more question: if all that were needed to make a man willing, do you
not at once degrade the Holy Spirit? Are we not in the habit of giving all the glory of
salvation wrought in us to God the Spirit? But now, if all that God the Spirit does for me
is to make me willing to do these things for myself, am I not in a great measure a sharer
with the Holy Spirit in the glory? and may I not boldly stand up and say, "It is true
the Spirit gave me the will to do it, but still I did it myself, and therein will I glory;
for if I did these things myself without assistance from on high, I will not cast my crown
at his feet; it is my own crown, I earned it, and I will keep it." Inasmuch as the
Holy Spirit is evermore in Scripture set forth as the person who worketh in us to will and
to do of his own good pleasure, we hold it to be a legitimate inference that he must do
something more for us than the mere making of us willing, and that therefore there must be
another thing besides want of will in a sinner—there must be absolute and actual want
of power.
Now, before I leave this statement, let me address myself to you for a moment. I am often
charged with preaching doctrines that may do a great deal of hurt. Well, I shall not deny
the charge, for I am not careful to answer in this matter. I have my witnesses here
present to prove that the things which I have preached have done a great deal of hurt, but
they have not done hurt either to morality or to God's Church; the hurt has been on the
side of Satan. There are not ones or twos but many hundreds who this morning rejoice that
they have been brought near to God; from having been profane Sabbath-breakers, drunkards,
or worldly persons, they have been brought to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ; and if
this be any hurt may God of his infinite mercy send us a thousand times as much. But
further, what truth is there in the world which will not hurt a man who chooses to make
hurt of it? You who preach general redemption, are very fond of proclaiming the great
truth of God's mercy to the last moment. But how dare you preach that? Many people make
hurt of it by putting off the day of grace, and thinking that the last hour may do as well
as the first. Why, if we never preached anything which man could misuse, and abuse, we
must hold our tongues for ever. Still says one, "Well then, if I cannot save myself,
and cannot come to Christ, I must sit still and do nothing." If men do say so, on
their own heads shall be their doom. We have very plainly told you that there are many
things you can do. To be found continually in the house of God is in your power; to study
the Word of God with diligence is in your power; to renounce your outward sin, to forsake
the vices in which you indulge, to make your life honest, sober, and righteous, is in your
power. For this you need no help from the Holy Spirit; all this you can do yourself; but
to come to Christ truly is not in your power, until you are renewed by the Holy Ghost. But
mark you, your want of power is no excuse, seeing that you have no desire to come, and are
living in wilful rebellion against God. Your want of power lies mainly in the obstinacy of
nature. Suppose a liar says that it is not in his power to speak the truth, that he has
been a liar so long, that he cannot leave it off; is that an excuse for him? Suppose a man
who has long indulged in lust should tell you that he finds his lusts have so girt about
him like a great iron net that he cannot get rid of them, would you take that as an
excuse? Truly it is none at all. If a drunkard has become so foully a drunkard, that he
finds it impossible to pass a public—house without stepping in, do you therefore
excuse him? No, because his inability to reform, lies in his nature, which he has no
desire to restrain or conquer. The thing that is done, and the thing that causes the thing
that is done, being both from the root of sin, are two evils which cannot excuse each
other, What though the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots? It is
because you have learned to do evil that you cannot now learn to do well; and instead,
therefore, of letting you sit down to excuse yourselves, let me put a thunderbolt beneath
the seat of your sloth, that you may be startled by it and aroused. Remember, that to sit
still is to be damned to all eternity. Oh! that God the Holy Spirit might make use of this
truth in a very different manner! Before I have done I trust I shall be enabled to show
you how it is that this truth, which apparently condemns men and shuts them out, is, after
all, the great truth, which has been blessed to the conversion of men.
II. Our second point is THE FATHER'S DRAWINGS. "No man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him." How then does the Father draw men? Arminian
divines generally say that God draws men by the preaching of the gospel. Very true; the
preaching of the gospel is the instrument of drawing men, but there must be some thing
more than this. Let me ask to whom did Christ address these words? Why, to the people of
Capernaum, where he had often preached, where he had uttered mournfully and plaintively
the woes of the law and the invitations of the gospel. In that city he had done many
mighty works and worked many miracles. In fact, such teaching and such miraculous
attestation had he given to them, that he declared that Tyre and Sidon would have repented
long ago in sack-cloth and ashes, if they had been blessed with such privileges. Now, if
the preaching of Christ himself did not avail to the enabling these men to come to Christ,
it cannot be possible that all that was intended by the drawing of the Father was simply
preaching. No, brethren, you must note again, he does not say no man can come except the minister
draw him, but except the Father draw him. Now there is such a thing as being
drawn by the gospel, and drawn by the minister, without being drawn by God. Clearly, it is
a divine drawing that is meant, a drawing by the Most High God—the First Person of
the most glorious Trinity sending out the Third Person, the Holy Spirit, to induce men to
come to Christ. Another person turns round and says with a sneer, "Then do you think
that Christ drags men to himself, seeing that they are unwilling!" I remember meeting
once with a man who said to me, Sir, you preach that Christ takes people by the hair of
their heads and drags them to himself" I asked him whether he could refer to the date
of the sermon wherein I preached that extraordinary doctrine, for if he could, I should be
very much obliged. However, he could not. But said I, while Christ does not drag people to
himself by the hair of their heads, I believe that, he draws them by the heart quite as
powerfully as your caricature would suggest. Mark that in the Father's drawing there is no
compulsion whatever; Christ never compelled any man to come to him against his will. If a
man be unwilling to be saved, Christ does not save him against his will. How, then, does
the Holy Spirit draw him? Why, by making him willing. It is true he does not use
"moral suasion;" he knows a nearer method of reaching the heart. He goes to the
secret fountain of the heart, and he knows how, by some mysterious operation, to turn the
will in an opposite direction, so that, as Ralph Erskine paradoxically puts it, the man is
saved "with full consent against his will;" that is, against his old will he is
saved. But he is saved with full consent, for he is made willing in the day of God's
power. Do not imagine that any man will go to heaven kicking and struggling all the way
against the hand that draws him. Do not conceive that any man will be plunged in the bath
of a Saviour's blood while he is striving to run away from the Saviour. Oh, no. It is
quite true that first of all man is unwilling to be saved. When the Holy Spirit hath put
his influence into the heart, the text is fulfilled—"draw me and I will run
after thee." We follow on while he draws us, glad to obey the voice which once we had
despised. But the gist of the matter lies in the turning of the will. How that is done no
flesh knoweth; it is one of those mysteries that is clearly perceived as a fact, but the
cause of which no tongue can tell, and no heart can guess. The apparent way, however, in
which the Holy Spirit operates, we can tell you. The first thing the Holy Spirit does when
he comes into a man's heart is this: he finds him with a very good opinion of himself: and
there is nothing which prevents a man coming to Christ like a good opinion of himself.
Why, says man, "I don't want to come to Christ. I have as good a righteousness as
anybody can desire. I feel I can walk into heaven on my own rights." The Holy Spirit
lays bare his heart, lets him see the loathsome cancer that is there eating away his life,
uncovers to him all the blackness and defilement of that sink of hell, the human heart,
and then the man stands aghast. "I never thought I was like this. Oh! those sins I
thought were little, have swelled out to an immense stature. What I thought was a
mole-hill has grown into a mountain; it was but the hyssop on the wall before, but now it
has become a cedar of Lebanon. Oh," saith the man within himself, "I will try
and reform; I will do good deeds enough to wash these black deeds out." Then comes
the Holy Spirit and shows him that he cannot do this, takes away all his fancied power and
strength, so that the man falls down on his knees in agony, and cries, "Oh! once I
thought I could save myself by my good works, but now I find that
"Could my tears for ever flow,
Could my zeal no respite know,
All for sin could not atone,
Thou must save and thou alone.'"
Then the heart sinks, and the man is ready to
despair. And saith he, "I never can be saved. Nothing can save me." Then, comes
the Holy Spirit and shows the sinner the cross of Christ, gives him eyes anointed with
heavenly eye-salve, and says, "Look to yonder cross. that Man died to save sinners;
you feel that you are a sinner; he died to save you." And he enables the heart to
believe, and to come to Christ. And when it comes to Christ, by this sweet drawing of the
Spirit, it finds "a peace with God which passeth all understanding, which keeps his
heart and mind through Jesus Christ our Lord." Now, you will plainly perceive that
all this may be done without any compulsion. Man is as much drawn willingly, as if he were
not drawn at all; and he comes to Christ with full consent, with as full a consent as if
no secret influence had ever been exercised in his heart. But that influence must be
exercised, or else there never has been and there never will be, any man who either can or
will come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. And, now, we gather up our ends, and conclude by trying to make a practical
application of the doctrine; and we trust a comfortable one. "Well," says one,
"if what this man preaches be true, what is to become of my religion? for do you know
I have been a long while trying, and I do not like to hear you say a man cannot save
himself. I believe he can, and I mean to persevere; but if I am to believe what you say, I
must give it all up and begin again." My dear friends, it will be a very happy thing
if you do. Do not think that I shall be at all alarmed if you do so. Remember, what you
are doing is building your house upon the sand, and it is but an act of charity if I can
shake it a little for you. Let me assure you, in God's name, if your religion has no
better foundation than your own strength, it will not stand you at the bar of God. Nothing
will last to eternity, but that which came from eternity. Unless the everlasting God has
done a good work in your heart, all you may have done must be unravelled at the last day
of account. It is all in vain for you to be a church-goer or chapel-goer, a good keeper of
the Sabbath, an observer of your prayers: it is all in vain for you to be honest to your
neighbours and reputable in your conversation; if you hope to be saved by these things, it
is all in vain for you to trust in them. Go on; be as honest as you like, keep the Sabbath
perpetually, be as holy as you can. I would not dissuade you from these things. God
forbid; grow in them, but oh, do not trust in them, for if you rely upon these things you
will find they will fail you when most you need them. And if there be anything else that
you have found yourself able to do unassisted by divine grace, the sooner you can get rid
of the hope that has been engendered by it the better for you, for it is a foul delusion
to rely upon anything that flesh can do. A spiritual heaven must be inhabited by spiritual
men, and preparation for it must be wrought by the Spirit of God. "Well," cries
another, "I have been sitting under a ministry where I have been told that I could,
at my own option, repent and believe, and the consequence is that I have been putting it
off from day to day. I thought I could come one day as well as another; that I had only to
say, "Lord, have mercy upon me,' and believe, and then I should be saved. Now you
have taken all this hope away for me, sir; I feel amazement and horror taking hold upon
me." Again, I say, "My dear friend, I am very glad of it. This was the effect
which I hoped to produce. I pray that you may feel this a great deal more. When you have
no hope of saving yourself, I shall have hope that God has begun to save you. As soon as
you say "Oh, I cannot come to Christ. Lord, draw me, help me,' I shall rejoice over
you. He who has got a will, though he has not power, has grace begun in his heart, and God
will not leave him until the work is finished." But, careless sinner, learn that thy
salvation now hangs in God's hand. Oh, remember thou art entirely in the hand of God. Thou
hast sinned against him, and if he wills to damn thee, damned thou art. Thou canst not
resist his will nor thwart his purpose. Thou hast deserved his wrath, and if he chooses to
pour the full shower of that wrath upon thy head, thou canst do nothing to avert it. If,
on the other hand, he chooses to save thee, he is able to save thee to the very uttermost.
But thou liest as much in his hand as the summer's moth beneath thine own finger. He is
the God whom thou art grieving every day. Doth it not make thee tremble to think that thy
eternal destiny now hangs upon the will of him whom thou hast angered and incensed? Dost
not this make thy knees knock together, and thy blood curdle? If it does so I rejoice,
inasmuch as this may be the first effect of the Spirit's drawing in thy soul. Oh, tremble
to think that the God whom thou hast angered, is the God upon whom thy salvation or thy
condemnation entirely depends. Tremble and "kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye
perish from the way while his wrath is kindled but a little,"
Now, the comfortable reflection is this:—Some of you this morning are conscious that
you are coming to Christ. Have you not begun to weep the penitential tear? Did not your
closet witness your prayerful preparation for the hearing of the Word of God? And during
the service of this morning, has not your heart said within you, "Lord, save me, or I
perish, for save myself I cannot?" And could you not now stand up in your seat, and
sing,
"Oh, sovereign grace my heart subdue;
I would be led in triumph, too,
A willing captive of my Lord,
To sing the triumph of his Word"?
And have I not myself heard you say in your heart—"Jesus, Jesus, my whole trust Is in thee: I know that no righteousness of my own can save me, but only thou, O Christ—sink or swim, I cast myself on thee?" Oh, my brother, thou art drawn by the Father, for thou couldst not have come unless he had drawn thee. Sweet thought! And if he has drawn thee, dost thou know what is the delightful inference? Let me repeat one text, and may that comfort thee: "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Yes, my poor weeping brother, inasmuch as thou art now coming to Christ, God has drawn thee; and inasmuch as he has drawn thee, it is a proof that he has loved thee from before the foundation of the world. Let thy heart leap within thee, thou art one of his. Thy name was written on the Saviour's hands when they were nailed to the accursed tree. Thy name glitters on the breast-plate of the great High Priest to-day; ay, and it was there before the day-star knew its place, or planets ran their round. Rejoice in the Lord ye that have come to Christ, and shout for joy all ye that have been drawn of the Father. For this is your proof, your solemn testimony, that you from among men have been chosen in eternal election, and that you shall be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto the salvation which is ready to be revealed.
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