The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon
you yourself say it — you are quite conscious of it, and if not conscious of it, it is notwithstanding a dreadful fact, that the reason why you are what you are, is because you wish to be what you are. It is your own will that keeps you where you are, the blame lies at your own door, your being still in a state of sin is voluntary. You are a captive, but you are a voluntary captive. You will never be willing to get free until God makes you willing. But you are willing to be a bondslave. There is no disguising the fact, that man loves sin, loves evil, and does not love God. You know, though heaven is preached to you through the blood of Christ, and though hell is threatened to you as the result of your sins, that still you cleave to your iniquities; you will not leave them, and will not flee to Christ. And when you are cast away, at last it will be said of you, “you have lost your birthright.” But you yourself sold it. You know that the ballroom suits you better than the house of God; you know that the public house suits you better than the prayer meeting; you know you trust yourself rather than trust Christ; you know you prefer the joys of the present time to the joys of the future. It is your own choice — keep it. Your damnation is your own election, not God’s; you richly deserve it.
15. But, one says, “Esau repented.” Yes, he did, but what sort of a repentance was it? Did you ever notice his repentance? Every man who repents and believes will be saved. But what sort of a repentance was his? As soon as he found that his brother had taken the birthright, he sought it again with repentance; he sought it with tears, but he did not get it back. You know he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage; and he thought he would buy it back by giving his father a mess of pottage. “There,” he says, “I will go and hunt venison for my father. I will win him over with my savoury meat, and he will readily give me my birthright again.” That is what sinners say: “I have lost heaven by my evil works: I will easily get it again by reforming. Did I not lose it by sin? I will get it back by giving up my sins.” “I have been a drunkard,” one says, “I will give up drinking, and I will now be a teetotaller.” Another says, “I have been an awful swearer; I am very sorry for it, indeed; I will not swear any more.” So all he gives to his father is a mess of pottage, the same as that for which he sold it. No, sinner, you may sell heaven for a few carnal pleasures, but you cannot buy heaven by merely giving them up. You can only get heaven in one way, that is, the ground of free grace. You lose your soul justly, but you cannot get it back by good works, or by the renunciation of your sins.
16. You think that Esau was a sincere penitent. Just let me tell you another thing. This blessed penitent, when he failed to get the blessing, what did he say? “The days of mourning for my father are at hand: then I will kill my brother Jacob.” There is a penitent for you. That is not the repentance that comes from God the Holy Spirit. But there are some men like that. They say they are very sorry they should have been such sinners as that, very sorry that they should have been brought into such a sad condition as that; and then they go and do the same things that they did before. Their penitence does not deliver them from their sin, but it leaves them in it, and, perhaps, plunges them still deeper into guilt. Now, look at the character of Esau. The only redeeming trait in it was that he began with repentance, but even that repentance was an aggravation of his sin, because it was without the results of evangelical repentance. And I say, if Esau sold his birthright he deserved to lose it; and, therefore, am I not right in saying, that if God hated Esau, it was because he deserved to be hated. Do you observe how Scripture always guards this conclusion? Turn to the ninth chapter of Romans, where we have selected our text; see how careful the Holy Spirit is here. “What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory.” {Romans 9:22,23} But it does not say anything about preparing men for destruction; they prepared themselves. They did that: God had nothing to do with it. But when men are saved, God prepares them for that. All the glory to God in salvation; all the blame to men in damnation.
17. If any of you want to know what I preach every day, and any stranger should say, “Give me a summary of his doctrine,” say this, “He preaches salvation all of grace, and damnation all of sin. He gives God all the glory for every soul that is saved, but he will not have it that God is to blame for any man that is damned.” I cannot understand that teaching and my soul revolts at the idea of a doctrine that lays the blood of man’s soul at God’s door. I cannot conceive how any human mind, at least any Christian mind, can hold any such blasphemy as that. I delight to preach this blessed truth — salvation by God, from first to last — the Alpha and the Omega; but when I come to preach damnation, I say, damnation by man, not by God; and if you perish, your blood must be required at your own hands. There is another passage. At the last great day, when all the world shall come before Jesus to be judged, have you noticed, when the righteous go on the right side, Jesus says, “Come, you blessed by my Father,” — (“by my Father,” note) — “inherit the kingdom prepared” — (note the next word) — “for you, from before the foundation of the world.” What does he say to those on the left? “Depart, you cursed.” He does not say, “you cursed by my Father,” but, “you cursed.” And what else does he say? “into everlasting fire, prepared” — (not for you, but) — “for the devil and his angels.” Do you see how it is guarded? Here is the salvation side of the question. It is all by God. “Come, you blessed by my Father.” It is a kingdom prepared for them. There you have election, free grace in all its length and breadth. But, on the other hand, you have nothing said about the Father — nothing about that at all. “Depart, you cursed.” Even the flames are not said to be prepared for sinners, but for the devil and his angels. There is no language that I can possibly conceive that could more forcibly express this idea, supposing it to be the mind of the Holy Spirit, that the glory should be for God, and that the blame should be laid at man’s door.
18. Now, have I not answered these two questions honestly? I have endeavoured to give a scriptural reason for the dealings of God with man. He saves man by grace, and if men perish they perish justly by their own fault. “How,” says someone, “do you reconcile these two doctrines?” My dear brethren, I never reconcile two friends, never. These two doctrines are friends with one another; for they are both in God’s Word, and I shall not attempt to reconcile them. If you show me that they are enemies, then I will reconcile them. “But,” one says, “there is a great deal of difficulty with them.” Will you tell me what truth there is that does not have difficulty with it? “But,” he says, “I do not see it.” Well, I do not ask you to see it; I ask you to believe it. There are many things in God’s Word that are difficult, and that I do not understand, but they are there, and I believe them. I cannot see how God can be omnipotent and man be free; but it is so, and I believe it. “Well,” one says, “I cannot understand it.” My answer is, I am bound to make it as plain as I can, but if you do not have any understanding, I cannot give you any; I must leave it there. But then, again, it is not a matter of understanding; it is a matter of faith. These two things are true; I do not see that they at all differ. However, if they did, I should say, if they appear to contradict one another, they do not really do so, because God never contradicts himself. And I should think in this I exhibited the power of my faith in God, that I could believe him, even when his word seemed to be contradictory. That is faith. Did not Abraham believe in God even when God’s promise seemed to contradict his providence? Abraham was old, and Sarah was old, but God said Sarah would have a child. How can that be? said Abraham, for Sarah is old, and yet Abraham believed the promise, and Sarah had a son. There was a reconciliation between providence and promise; and if God can bring providence and promise together, he can bring doctrine and promise together. If I cannot do it, God can even in the world to come.
19. Now, let me for one minute just preach this practically. Oh, sinners, if you perish, your doom must be on your own head. Conscience tells you this and the Word of God confirms it. You shall not be able to lay your condemnation at any man’s door but your own. If you perish you perish by suicide. You are your own destroyers, because you reject Christ, because you despise the birthright and sell it for that miserable mess of pottage — the pleasures of the world. It is a doctrine that thrills me through and through. Like a twoedged sword, I would make it pierce to the dividing asunder of the joints