The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon
When the Lord works repentance, he does not repent: what has he to repent of? He makes us repent. The Lord brought Lot out of Sodom, but did not Lot use his own two legs to run to the mountain? And so it must be with us. Christ does all, but he makes us the instruments. He tells us to stretch out our own withered hand, and yet we do not stretch out that withered hand by ourselves. He tells us to do it, and we do it through his strength. Tell a sinner to sit still! What does hell desire more than that? Tell a sinner to wait; would not Satan approve of such a ministry? And does he not approve of it? Ah, my brethren, he who loves his Master, he who loves the gospel, he who loves men’s souls cannot preach such untruthful and unchristian doctrine. He feels that the humanity within him, is much more the grace within him, revolts against a thing so barbarous and so inhuman as that. No, when we preach to the sinner, we must say to him, “You know your need, you feel that you cannot be saved except through mercy in Christ. Look to him, believe on him, seek him, and you shall find him.”
17. But I have heard it said, that if a sinner seeks Christ without Christ seeking him he will perish. Now what an absurd thing for anyone to say. Because, did a sinner, or could a sinner ever seek Christ without Christ first seeking him? I never like to suppose an impossibility, and then draw an inference from it. “Suppose,” said one, I know of — “a sinner should come to Christ without Christ coming to him, he would be lost.” Well, that is very clear, only it is supposing a thing that cannot happen; and what is the good of that? Sometimes people have asked me this question — “Suppose a child of God should live in sin, and die in sin, would he be saved?” The thing is impossible. If you suppose yourself into a difficulty, you must suppose yourself out of it. It is like the old supposition, “Suppose the moon were cream cheese, what would become of us on a dark night?” So, suppose a sinner should come to Christ without Christ coming to him, what would be the result? It is supposing an impossibility, and then drawing an absurdity from it. Christ said, “No man can come to me, except the Father who has sent me draws him.” If a sinner comes, he is drawn, or he would not have come. It is mine, therefore, to exhort the sinner to come to Christ; it is the Holy Spirit’s work to enforce the exhortation, and draw the sinner to Christ.
18. Lastly, let me ask this question, “Why do you look at one another?” Why do you sit still? Flee to Christ, and find mercy. Oh, one says, “I cannot get what I expect to have.” But what do you expect? I believe some of our hearers expect to feel an electric shock, or something of that kind, before they are saved. The gospel says simply, “Believe.” That they will not understand. They think there is to be something so mysterious about it. They cannot make out what it is; but they are going to wait for it and then believe. Well, you will wait, until doomsday; for if you do not believe this simple gospel, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” God will not work signs and wonders to please your foolish desires. Your position is this — you are a sinner, lost, ruined; you cannot help yourself. Scripture says, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Your immediate business, your instantaneous duty is to cast yourself on that simple promise, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that since he came into the world to save sinners, he has therefore come to save you. This you have to do, that simple command — “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall he saved.” Now take the sons of Jacob as your example. No sooner had their father told them what they had to do than the first thing they did was, they went and fetched their empty sacks. Now do the same. “What is the good of them?” you say; “there is no grain in them.” No I know there is not, still you must take your empty sacks and have them filled. Bring out your sins; bring out all the aggravation of your sins; cast them all at the feet of Christ, and make your confession. There is no salvation in confession, but still you cannot have salvation without it. You must make a full and free confession of your sins. “What, tell them to you, sir?” I am extremely obliged to you. I would not hear your sins on any account. No sum of money would be sufficient compensation for the impurity that must accrue to any man who shall hear another’s sins. I would not tell you mine; much less hear your’s. No, make your confessions to God. Go to your closet; shut your door; then pull out your empty sacks — that is, make a full confession of your sins; tell the Lord that you are a wretch undone without his sovereign grace. When you have done that, you say, what next? Then cast away all hope you ever had or have, put away all trust in your good works and everything else; and what next? Cast yourself simply on this great truth, that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, and you shall rise from your knees a happier man. Or if that is not the case, try it again, and again, and again, and it shall not fail you. Prayer and faith were never lost. He who confessed his sins and sought the Saviour never sought in vain. When I was first convicted of sin, yet a lad, I went to God and I cried for mercy with all my might, but I did not find it. I do not think I knew what the gospel was. For three years I persevered in that; and many a day, in every room of the house in which I lived, as each room became unoccupied, upon an occasion, I have spent hours in prayer, the tears rolling down my cheeks, and straining myself in an agony of desire to find Christ and find salvation. But it never came. It was not until I heard that simple doctrine, “Look to me and be saved.” I then found that my prayers were a kind of righteousness of my own; that I was relying on them, and consequently was on the wrong road. Then the Holy Spirit enabled me to look to Christ hanging on the cross. I did not give up my prayers, but I did put the Lord Jesus, the object of my faith, far above all prayers, and then when I had looked to him hanging, dying, bleeding, my soul rejoiced, and I fell upon my knees no more to cry with agony, but to exclaim with delight, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” But if in that day, instead of simply looking to Christ, I had said, “No, Lord, I will not wash in Jordan and be clean; I will wait until Elijah comes out and strikes the leper with his hand; I will not look to the brazen serpent. That is legal preaching, that is Arminian doctrine. I will wait until the serpent knocks right against my eyes,” it would have never come. But having looked simply to Christ, I cast all my other trust away; and how my soul rejoices in the liberty by which Christ makes his people free. So shall it be with you. The gospel is this day freely preached to you. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down from heaven, was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate; and was crucified for sin. Turn your eyes now to that cross. Behold a God expiring. Behold the Infinite hanging on the tree in pangs. Those sufferings must save you; will you rely upon them? Without any other trust, shall the cross be the unbuttressed pillar of your hope? It so, you are saved. The moment you believe in Jesus, the Redeemer, you are saved, your sins are forgiven; God has accepted you as his child; you are in a state of grace; you are passed from death to life. Not only are you not condemned but you never shall be. There is for you a crown, a harp, a mansion, in the realms of the glorified. Oh that God may help you now to go down into Egypt for heavenly grain, and may you return with your sacks full to the brim.
19. In conclusion, I make this last remark. — Did you notice the argument Jacob used why the sons should go to Egypt? It was this — “That we may live, and not die.” Sinner, this is my argument with you this morning. My dear hearers, the gospel of Christ is a matter of life and death with you. It is not a matter of little importance, but of all importance. There is an alternative before you; you will either be eternally damned, or everlastingly saved. Despise Christ, and neglect his great salvation, and you will be lost, as sure as you live. Believe in Christ; put your trust alone in him, and everlasting life is yours. What argument can be more potent than this to men who love themselves? Are you prepared for everlasting burnings? Friend, are you ready to make your bed in hell, and to be lost? If so, reject Christ. But if you desire to be blessed for ever, to be accepted by God in the tremendous day of judgment, and to be crowned by him in the day of the reward, I beseech you, hear again the gospel, and obey it. “He who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and is baptized, shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be damned.” For this is the gospel; it is yet again preached to you, and this is its solitary mandate — “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” Oh Lord, help us now to believe, if we have not believed before, for Jesus’ sake!
Just published, No. 7 of the New Park Street Tracts, entitled, “SO MANY CALLS,” being the Anecdote to referred to in No. 227 of the “New Park Street Pulpit.” Price 1s 4d. per 100.
The Fainting Warrior
No. 235-5:81. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, January 23, 1859,