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Christ’s Love for Sinners by Thomas Brooks

January 18, 2010 by ADMIN

Let us stand still, and admire and wonder at the love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners; that Christ should rather die for us, than for the angels. They were creatures of a more noble extract, and in all probability might have brought greater revenues of glory to God: yet that Christ should pass by those golden vessels, and make us vessels of glory—oh, what amazing and astonishing love is this!  This is the envy of devils and the admiration of angels and saints.

The angels were more honorable and excellent creatures than we.  They were celestial spirits; we earthly bodies, dust and ashes.  They were immediate attendants upon God, they were, as I may say, of his privy chamber; we servants of his in the lower house of this world, farther remote from his glorious presence: their office was to sing hallelujahs, songs of praise to God in the heavenly paradise; ours to dress the garden of Eden, which was but an earthly paradise.  They sinned but once, and but in thought, as is commonly thought; but Adam sinned in thought by lusting, in deed by tasting, and in word by excusing.  Why did not Christ suffer for their sins, as well as for ours?  Or if for any, why not for theirs rather than ours?  “Even so, O Father, for so it pleased thee,” Matthew 11:26.  We move this question, not as being curious to search thy secret counsels, O Lord, but that we may be the more swallowed up in the admiration of the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.”

The apostle, being in a holy admiration of Christ’s love, affirms it [beyond understanding], Ephesians 3:18, 19; that God, who is the eternal Being, should love man when he had scarce a being, Proverbs 8:30, 31, that he should be enamoured with deformity, that he should love us when in our blood, Ezekiel 16, that he should pity us when no eye pitied us, no, not our own.  Oh, such was Christ’s transcendent love, that man’s extreme misery could not abate it.  The deploredness of man’s condition did but heighten the holy flame of Christ’s love.  It is as high as heaven—who can reach it?  It is as low as hell—who can understand it?  Heaven, through its glory, could not contain him, man being miserable, nor hell’s torments make him refrain, such was his perfect matchless love to fallen man.  That Christ’s love should extend to the ungodly, to sinners, to enemies that were in arms of rebellion against him, Romans 5:6, 8, 10.  Yea, not only so, but that he should hug them in his arms, lodge them in his bosom, dandle them upon his knees, and lay them to his breasts, that they may suck and be satisfied, is the highest improvement of love, Isaiah 66:11-13.

That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father, to a region of sorrow and death (John 1:18).  That God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature (Isaiah. 53:4).  That he that was clothed with glory, should be wrapped with rags of flesh (1 Timothy 3:16).  That he that filled heaven should be cradled in a manger, John 17:5.  That the God of Israel should flee into Egypt (Matthew 2:14).  That the judge of all flesh should be condemned; that the God of life should be put to death (John 19:41).  That he that is one with his Father should cry out of misery, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).  That he that had the keys of hell and death (Rev. 1:18) should lie imprisoned in the sepulchre of another, having, in his lifetime, nowhere to lay his head; nor after death, to lay his body (John 19:41, 42).  And [that] all this [is] for man, for fallen man, for miserable man, for worthless man, is beyond the thoughts of created natures.  The sharp, the universal and continual sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the cradle to the cross, does above all other things speak out the transcendent love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners.  That wrath, that great wrath, that fierce wrath, that pure wrath, that infinite wrath, that matchless wrath of an angry God, that was so terribly impressed upon the soul of Christ, quickly spent his natural strength, and turned his moisture into the drought of summer, Psalm 32:4; and yet all this wrath he patiently underwent, that sinners might be saved, and that “he might bring many sons unto glory” (Hebrews 2:10).

Oh wonder of love!  Love is submissive, it enables to suffer.  As the pelican, out of her love to her young ones, when they are bitten with serpents, feeds them with her own blood to recover them again; so when we were bitten by the old serpent, and our wound incurable, and we in danger of eternal death, then did our dear Lord Jesus, that he might recover us and heal us, feed us with his own blood (Genesis 3:15; John 7:53-56).  Oh love unspeakable!  This made [Bernard] cry out, “Lord, thou hast loved me more than thyself; for thou hast laid down thy life for me.”

It was only the golden link of love that fastened Christ to the cross (John 10:17), and that made him die freely for us, and that made him willing “to be numbered among transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12), that we might be numbered among [the] “general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven” Hebrews 12:23).  If Jonathan’s love to David was wonderful (2 Samuel 1:26), how wonderful must the love of Christ be to us, which led him by the hand to make himself an offering for us (Hebrews 10:10), which Jonathan never did for David.

Christ’s love is like his name, and that is Wonderful (Isaiah. 9:6); yea, it is so wonderful, that it is supra omnem creaturam, ultra omnem measuram, contra omnem naturam, above all creatures, beyond all measure, contrary to all nature.  It is above all creatures, for it is above the angels, and therefore above all others.  It is beyond all measure, for time did not begin it, and time shall never end it; place doth not bound it, sin doth not exceed it, no estate, no age, no sex is denied it, tongues cannot express it, understandings cannot conceive it: and it is contrary to all nature; for what nature can love where it is hated?  What nature can forgive where it is provoked?  What nature can offer reconciliation where it receiveth wrong?  What nature can heap up kindness upon contempt, favor upon ingratitude, mercy upon sin?  And yet Christ’s love hath led him to all this; so that well may we spend all our days in admiring and adoring of this wonderful love, and be always ravished with the thoughts of it.

Posted in Thomas Brooks |

God’s Sovereignty in the Salvation of Men by Jonathan Edwards

January 18, 2010 by ADMIN

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Romans 9:18

The apostle, in the beginning of this chapter, expresses his great concern and sorrow of heart for the nation of the Jews, who were rejected of God.  This leads him to observe the difference which God made by election between some of the Jews and others, and between the bulk of that people and the Christian Gentiles.  In speaking of this, he enters into a more minute discussion of the sovereignty of God in electing some to eternal life, and rejecting others, than is found in any other part of the Bible; in the course of which he quotes several passages from the Old Testament, confirming and illustrating this doctrine.  In the ninth verse, he refers us to what God said to Abraham, showing his election of Isaac before Ishmael – “For this is the word of promise; At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.”  Then to what God had said to Rebecca, showing his election of Jacob before Esau; “The elder shall serve the younger.”  In the thirteenth verse, to a passage from Malachi, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  In the fifteenth verse, to what God said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  And [in] the verse preceding the text, to what God says to Pharaoh, “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.”

In what the apostle says in the text, he seems to have respect especially to the two last-cited passages: to what God said to Moses in the fifteenth verse, and to what he said to Pharaoh in the verse immediately preceding. God said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.”  To this the apostle refers in the former part of the text. And we know how often it is said of Pharaoh, that God hardened his heart.  And to this the apostle seems to have respect in the latter part of the text; “and whom he will he hardeneth.”  We may observe in the text,

1.  God’s different dealing with men. He hath mercy on some, and hardeneth others.  When God is here spoken of as hardening some of the children of men, it is not to be understood that God by any positive efficiency hardens any man’s heart.  There is no positive act in God [i.e., God does not actively harden], as though he put forth any power to harden the heart.  To suppose any such thing would be to make God the immediate author of sin.

God is said to harden men in two ways: by withholding the powerful influences of his Spirit, without which their hearts will remain hardened, and grow harder and harder; in this sense he hardens them, as he leaves them to hardness.  And again, by ordering those things in his providence which, through the abuse of their corruption, become the occasion of their hardening.  Thus God sends his word and ordinances to men which, by their abuse, prove an occasion of their hardening.  So the apostle said, that he was unto some “a savoir of death unto death

2.  The foundation of his different dealing with mankind; viz. his sovereign will and pleasure. “He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”  This does not imply, merely, that God never shows mercy or denies it against his will, or that he is always willing to do it when he does it.  A willing subject or servant, when he obeys his lord’s commands, may never do any thing against his will, nothing but what he can do cheerfully and with delight; and yet he cannot be said to do what he wills in the sense of the text.  But the expression implies that it is God’s mere will and sovereign pleasure, which supremely orders this affair.  It is the divine will without restraint, or constraint, or obligation.

Doctrine. God exercises his sovereignty in the eternal salvation of men.

He not only is sovereign, and has a sovereign right to dispose and order in that affair; and he not only might proceed in a sovereign way, if he would, and nobody could charge him with exceeding his right; but he actually does so; he exercises the right which he has. In the following discourse, I propose to show,

I. What is God’s sovereignty.
II. What God’s sovereignty in the salvation of men implies.
III. That God actually doth exercise his sovereignty in this matter.
IV. The reasons for this exercise.

I.  I would show what is God’s sovereignty.

The sovereignty of God is his absolute, independent right of disposing of all creatures according to his own pleasure.  I will consider this definition by the parts of it.

The will of God is called his mere pleasure …

1.  In opposition to any constraint. Men may do things voluntarily, and yet there may be a degree of constraint.  A man may be said to do a thing voluntarily, that is, he himself does it; and, all things considered, he may choose to do it; yet he may do it out of fear, and the thing in itself considered be irksome to him, and sorely against his inclination.  When men do things thus, they cannot be said to do them according to their mere pleasure.

2. In opposition to its being under the will of another. A servant may fulfil his master’s commands, and may do it willingly, and cheerfully, and may delight to do his master’s will; yet when he does so, he does not do it of his own mere pleasure.  The saints do the will of God freely.  They choose to do it; it is their meat and drink.  Yet they do not do it of their mere pleasure and arbitrary will; because their will is under the direction of a superior will.

3.  In opposition to any proper obligation. A man may do a thing which he is obliged to do, very freely; but he cannot be said to act from his own mere will and pleasure.  He who acts from his own mere pleasure, is at full liberty; but he who is under any proper obligation, is not at liberty, but is bound.  Now the sovereignty of God supposes, that he has a right to dispose of all his creatures according to his mere pleasure in the sense explained.  And his right is absolute and independent.

Men may have a right to dispose of some things according to their pleasure.  But their right is not absolute and unlimited.  Men may be said to have a right to dispose of their own goods as they please.  But their right is not absolute; is has limits and bounds.  They have a right to dispose of their own goods as they please, provided they do not do it contrary to the law of the state to which they are subject, or contrary to the law of God.  Men’s right to dispose of their things as they will, is not absolute, because it is not independent.  They have not an independent right to what they have, but in some things depend on the community to which they belong, for the right they have; and in every thing depend on God.  They receive all the right they have to any thing from God.  But the sovereignty of God imports that he has an absolute, and unlimited, and independent right of disposing of his creatures as he will.  I proposed to inquire,

II.  What God’s sovereignty in the salvation of men implies.

It implies that God can either bestow salvation on any of the children of men, or refuse it, without any prejudice to the glory of any of his attributes, except where he has been pleased to declare, that he will or will not bestow it.  It cannot be said absolutely, as the case now stands, that God can, without any prejudice to the honor of any of his attributes, bestow salvation on any of the children of men, or refuse it; because, concerning some, God has been pleased to declare either that he will or that he will not bestow salvation on them; and thus to bind himself by his own promise.  And concerning [at least] some he has been pleased to declare, that he never will bestow salvation upon them; viz. those who have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost.  Hence, as the case now stands, he is obliged; he cannot bestow salvation in one case, or refuse it in the other, without prejudice to the honor of his truth.  But God exercised his sovereignty in making these declarations.  God was not obliged to promise that he would save all who believe in Christ; nor was he obliged to declare, that he who committed the sin against the Holy Ghost should never be forgiven.  But it pleased him so to declare.  And had it not been so that God had been pleased to oblige himself in these cases, he might still have either bestowed salvation, or refused it, without prejudice to any of his attributes.  If it would in itself be prejudicial to any of his attributes to bestow or refuse salvation, then God would not in that matter act as absolutely sovereign.  Because it then ceases to be a merely arbitrary thing.  It ceases to be a matter of absolute liberty, and is become a matter of necessity or obligation.  For God cannot do any thing to the prejudice of any of his attributes, or contrary to what is in itself excellent and glorious. Therefore,

1.  God can, without prejudice to the glory of any of his attributes, bestow salvation on any of the children of men, except on those who have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. The case was thus when man fell, and before God revealed his eternal purpose and plan for redeeming men by Jesus Christ.  It was probably looked upon by the angels as a thing utterly inconsistent with God’s attributes to save any of the children of men.  It was utterly inconsistent with the honor of the divine attributes to save any one of the fallen children of men, as they were in themselves.  It could not have been done had not God contrived a way consistent with the honor of his holiness, majesty, justice, and truth.

But since God in the gospel has revealed that nothing is too hard for him to do, nothing beyond the reach of his power, and wisdom, and sufficiency; and since Christ has wrought out the work of redemption, and fulfilled the law by obeying, there is none of mankind whom he may not save without any prejudice to any of his attributes, excepting those who have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost.  And those he might have saved without going contrary to any of his attributes, had he not been pleased to declare that he would not.  It was not because he could not have saved them consistently with his justice, and consistently with his law, or because his attribute of mercy was not great enough, or the blood of Christ not sufficient to cleanse from that sin.  But it has pleased him for wise reasons to declare that that sin shall never be forgiven in this world, or in the world to come.

And so now it is contrary to God’s truth to save such.  But otherwise there is no sinner, let him be ever so great, but God can save him without prejudice to any attribute; if he has been a murderer, adulterer, or perjurer, or idolater, or blasphemer, God may save him if he pleases, and in no respect injure his glory.  Though persons have sinned long, have been obstinate, have committed heinous sins a thousand times, even till they have grown old in sin, and have sinned under great aggravations: let the aggravations be what they may; if they have sinned under ever so great light; if they have been backsliders, and have sinned against ever so numerous and solemn warnings and strivings of the Spirit, and mercies of his common providence: though the danger of such is much greater than of other sinners, yet God can save them if he pleases, for the sake of Christ, without any prejudice to any of his attributes.  He may have mercy on whom he will have mercy.  He may have mercy on the greatest of sinners, if he pleases, and the glory of none of his attributes will be in the least sullied.  Such is the sufficiency of the satisfaction and righteousness of Christ, that none of the divine attributes stand in the way of the salvation of any of them.  Thus the glory of any attribute did not at all suffer by Christ’s saving some of his crucifiers.

2.  God may save any of them without prejudice to the honor of his holiness. God is an infinitely holy being.  The heavens are not pure in his sight.  He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity.  And if God should in any way countenance sin, and should not give proper testimonies of his hatred of it, and displeasure at it, it would be a prejudice to the honor of his holiness.  But God can save the greatest sinner without giving the least countenance to sin.  If he saves one, who for a long time has stood out under the calls of the gospel, and has sinned under dreadful aggravations; if he saves one who, against light, has been a pirate or blasphemer, he may do it without giving any countenance to their wickedness; because his abhorrence of it and displeasure against it have been already sufficiently manifested in the sufferings of Christ.  It was a sufficient testimony of God’s abhorrence against even the greatest wickedness, that Christ, the eternal Son of God, died for it.  Nothing can show God’s infinite abhorrence of any wickedness more than this.  If the wicked man himself should be thrust into hell, and should endure the most extreme torments which are ever suffered there, it would not be a greater manifestation of God’s abhorrence of it, than the sufferings of the Son of God for it.

3.  God may save any of the children of men without prejudice to the honor of his majesty.  If men have affronted God, and that ever so much, if they have cast ever so much contempt on his authority; yet God can save them, if he pleases, and the honor of his majesty not suffer in the least.  If God should save those who have affronted him, without satisfaction, the honor of his majesty would suffer.  For when contempt is cast upon infinite majesty, its honor suffers, and the contempt leaves an obscurity upon the honor of the divine majesty, if the injury is not repaired.  But the sufferings of Christ do fully repair the injury. Let the contempt be ever so great, yet if so honorable a person as Christ undertakes to be a Mediator for the offender, and in the mediation suffer in his stead, it fully repairs the injury done to the majesty of heaven by the greatest sinner.

4.  God may save any sinner whatsoever consistently with his justice. The justice of God requires the punishment of sin.  God is the Supreme Judge of the world, and he is to judge the world according to the rules of justice.  It is not the part of a judge to show favor to the person judged; but he is to determine according to a rule of justice without departing to the right hand or left.  God does not show mercy as a judge, but as a sovereign. And therefore, when mercy sought the salvation of sinners, the inquiry was how to make the exercise of the mercy of God as a sovereign, and of his strict justice as a judge, agree together.  And this is done by the sufferings of Christ, in which sin is punished fully, and justice answered. Christ suffered enough for the punishment of the sins of the greatest sinner that ever lived.  So that God, when he judges, may act according to a rule of strict justice, and yet acquit the sinner, if he be in Christ.  Justice cannot require any more for any man’s sins, than those sufferings of one of the persons in the Trinity, which Christ suffered. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood; to declare his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Christ” (Rom. 3:25,26).

5.  God can save any sinner whatsoever, without any prejudice to the honor of his truth. God passed his word, that sin should be punished with death, which is to be understood not only of the first, but of the second death.  God can save the greatest sinner consistently with his truth in this threatening.  For sin is punished in the sufferings of Christ, inasmuch as he is our surety, and so is legally the same person, and sustained our guilt, and in his sufferings bore our punishment.  It may be objected, that God said, If thou eatest, thou shalt die; as though the same person that sinned must suffer; and therefore why does not God’s truth oblige him to that?  I answer, that the word then was not intended to be restrained to him, that in his own person sinned.  Adam probably understood that his posterity [was] included, whether they sinned in their own person or not.

6.  But, God may refuse salvation to any sinner whatsoever, without prejudice to the honor of any of his attributes. There is no person whatever in a natural condition, upon whom God may not refuse to bestow salvation without prejudice to any part of his glory.  Let a natural person be wise or unwise, of a good or ill natural temper, of mean or honorable parentage, whether born of wicked or godly parents; let him be a moral or immoral person, whatever good he may have done, however religious he has been, how many prayers soever he has made, and whatever pains he has taken that he may be saved; whatever concern and distress he may have for fear he shall be damned; or whatever circumstances he may be in; God can deny him salvation without the least disparagement to any of his perfections.  His glory will not in any instance be the least obscured by it.

(a) God may deny salvation to any natural person without any injury to the honor of his righteousness.  If he does so, there is no injustice nor unfairness in it.  There is no natural man living, let his case be what it will, but God may deny him salvation, and cast him down to hell, and yet not be chargeable with the least unrighteous or unfair dealing in any respect whatsoever.  This is evident, because they all have deserved hell: and it is no injustice for a proper judge to inflict on any man what he deserves.  And as he has deserved condemnation, so he has never done any thing to remove the liability, or to atone for the sin.  He never has done any thing whereby he has laid any obligations on God not to punish him as he deserved.

(b) God may deny salvation to any unconverted person whatever without any prejudice to the honor of his goodness.  Sinners are sometimes ready to flatter themselves, that though it may not be contrary to the justice of God to condemn them, yet it will not consist with the glory of his mercy.  They think it will be dishonorable to God’s mercy to cast them into hell, and have no pity or compassion upon them.  They think it will be very hard and severe, and not becoming a God of infinite grace and tender compassion.  But God can deny salvation to any natural person without any disparagement to his mercy and goodness.  That, which is not contrary to God’s justice, is not contrary to his mercy.  If damnation be justice, then mercy may choose its own object.  They mistake the nature of the mercy of God, who think that it is an attribute, which, in some cases, is contrary to justice.  Nay, God’s mercy is illustrated by it, as in the twenty-third verse of the context: “That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.”

(c) It is in no way prejudicial to the honor of God’s faithfulness.  For God has in no way obliged himself to any natural man by his word to bestow salvation upon him.  Men in a natural condition are not the children of promise; but lie open to the curse of the law, which would not be the case if they had any promise to lay hold of.

III.  God does actually exercise his sovereignty in men’s salvation.

We shall show how he exercises this right in several particulars.

1.  In calling one people or nation, and giving them the means of grace, and leaving others without them.

According to the divine appointment, salvation is bestowed in connection with the means of grace.  God may sometimes make use of very unlikely means, and bestow salvation on men who are under very great disadvantages; but he does not bestow grace wholly without any means.  But God exercises his sovereignty in bestowing those means.  All mankind are by nature in like circumstances towards God.  Yet God greatly distinguishes some from others by the means and advantages which he bestows upon them.  The savages, who live in the remote parts of this continent, and are under the grossest heathenish darkness, as well as the inhabitants of Africa, are naturally in exactly similar circumstances towards God with us in this land.  They are no more alienated or estranged from God in their natures than we; and God has no more to charge them with.  And yet what a vast difference has God made between us and them!  In this he has exercised his sovereignty.

He did this of old, when he chose but one people, to make them his covenant people, and to give them the means of grace, and left all others, and gave them over to heathenish darkness and the tyranny of the devil, to perish from generation to generation for many hundreds of years.  The earth in that time was peopled with many great and mighty nations.  There were the Egyptians, a people famed for their wisdom.  There were also the Assyrians and Chaldeans, who were great, and wise, and powerful nations.  There were the Persians, who by their strength and policy subdued a great part of the world.  There were the renowned nations of the Greeks and Romans, who were famed over the whole world for their excellent civil governments, for their wisdom and skill in the arts of peace and war, and who by their military prowess in their turns subdued and reigned over the world.  Those were rejected.  God did not choose them for his people, but left them for many ages under gross heathenish darkness, to perish for lack of vision; and chose one only people, the posterity of Jacob, to be his own people, and to give them the means of grace—”He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments, they have not known them” (Psal. 147:19,20).  This nation was a small, inconsiderable people in comparison with many other people—”The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people” (Deut. 7:7).  So neither was it for their righteousness; for they had no more of that than other people—”Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people” (Deut. 9:6).  God gives them to understand, that it was from no other cause but his free electing love, that he chose them to be his people. That reason is given why God loved them; it was because he loved them (Deut. 7:8).  Which is as much as to say, it was agreeable to his sovereign pleasure, to set his love upon you.

God also showed his sovereignty in choosing that people, when other nations were rejected, who came of the same progenitors.  Thus the children of Isaac were chosen, when the posterity of Ishmael and other sons of Abraham were rejected.  So the children of Jacob were chosen, when the posterity of Esau were rejected: as the apostle observes in the seventh verse, “Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called:” and again in verses 10-13.  “And not only this; but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; the children moreover being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the promise 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. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  The apostle has not respect merely to the election of the persons of Isaac and Jacob before Ishmael and Esau; but of their posterity.  In the passage already quoted from Malachi, God has respect to the nations, which were the posterity of Esau and Jacob—”I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob; and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness” (Mal. 1:2,3).

God showed his sovereignty, when Christ came, in rejecting the Jews, and calling the Gentiles.  God rejected that nation who were the children of Abraham according to the flesh, and had been his peculiar people for so many ages, and who alone possessed the one true God, and chose idolatrous heathen before them, and called them to be his people.  When the Messiah came, who was born of their nation, and whom they so much expected, he rejected them. He came to his own, and his own received him not (John 1:11).  When the glorious dispensation of the gospel came, God passed by the Jews, and called those who had been heathens, to enjoy the privileges of it.  They were broken off, that the Gentiles might be grafted on (Rom. 11:17).  She is now called beloved, that was not beloved. And more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife (Isa. 54:1).  The natural children of Abraham are rejected, and God raises up children to Abraham of stones.  That nation, which was so honored of God, has now been for many ages rejected, and remains dispersed all over the world, a remarkable monument of divine vengeance.  And now God greatly distinguishes some Gentile nations from others, and all according to his sovereign pleasure.

2.  God exercises his sovereignty in the advantages he bestows upon particular persons.

All need salvation alike, and all are, naturally, alike undeserving of it; but he gives some vastly greater advantages for salvation than others.  To some he assigns their place in pious and religious families, where they may be well instructed and educated, and have religious parents to dedicate them to God, and put up many prayers for them.  God places some under a more powerful ministry than others, and in places where there are more of the outpourings of the Spirit of God.  To some he gives much more of the strivings and the awakening influences of the Spirit, than to others.  It is according to his mere sovereign pleasure.

3.  God exercises his sovereignty in sometimes bestowing salvation upon the low and mean and denying it to the wise and great.

Christ in his sovereignty passes by the gates of princes and nobles, and enters some cottage and dwells there, and has communion with its obscure inhabitants.  God in his sovereignty withheld salvation from the rich man, who fared sumptuously every day, and bestowed it on poor Lazarus, who sat begging at his gate.  God in this way pours contempt on princes, and on all their glittering splendor.  So God sometimes passes by wise men, men of great understanding, learned and great scholars, and bestows salvation on others of weak understanding, who only comprehend some of the plainer parts of Scripture, and the fundamental principles of the Christian religion.  Yea, there seem to be fewer great men called, than others.  And God in ordering it thus manifests his sovereignty.  “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 that are” (1 Cor. 1:26, 27, 28).

4.  In bestowing salvation on some who have had few advantages, God sometimes will bless weak means for producing astonishing effects, when more excellent means are not succeeded.

God sometimes will withhold salvation from those who are the children of very pious parents, and bestow it on others, who have been brought up in wicked families.  Thus we read of a good Abijah in the family of Jeroboam, and of a godly Hezekiah, the son of wicked Ahaz, and of a godly Josiah, the son of a wicked Amon. But on the contrary, of a wicked Amnon and Absalom, the sons of holy David, and that vile Manasseh, the son a good Hezekiah.  Sometimes some, who have had eminent means of grace, are rejected, and left to perish, and others, under far less advantages, are saved.  Thus the scribes and Pharisees, who had so much light and knowledge of the Scriptures, were mostly rejected, and the poor ignorant publicans saved.  The greater part of those, among whom Christ was much conversant, and who heard him preach, and saw him work miracles from day to day, were left; and the woman of Samaria was taken, and many other Samaritans at the same time, who only heard Christ preach, as he occasionally passed through their city.  So the woman of Canaan was taken, who was not of the country of the Jews, and but once saw Jesus Christ.  So the Jews, who had seen and heard Christ, and saw his miracles, and with whom the apostles labored so much, were not saved.  But the Gentiles, many of them, who, as it were, but transiently heard the glad tidings of salvation, embraced them, and were converted.

5.  God exercises his sovereignty in calling some to salvation, who have been very heinously wicked, and leaving others, who have been moral and religious persons.

The Pharisees were a very strict sect among the Jews.  Their religion was extraordinary.  They were not as other men, extortioners, unjust, or adulterers (Luke 18:11).  There was their morality.  They fasted twice a week, and gave tithes of all that they possessed.  There was their religion.  But yet they were mostly rejected, and the publicans, and harlots, and openly vicious sort of people, entered into the kingdom of God before them.  The apostle describes his righteousness while a Pharisee—”Touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless” (Philip. 3:6).  The rich young man, who came kneeling to Christ, saying, Good Master, what shall I do, that I may have eternal life, was a moral person.  When Christ bade him keep the commandments, he said, and in his own view with sincerity, “All these have I kept from my youth up.”  He had obviously been brought up in a good family, and was a youth of such amiable manners and correct deportment, that it is said, “Jesus beholding him, loved him.”  Still he was left; while the thief, that was crucified with Christ, was chosen and called, even on the cross.  God sometimes shows his sovereignty by showing mercy to the chief of sinners, on those who have been murderers, and profaners, and blasphemers.  And even when they are old, some are called at the eleventh hour.  God sometimes shows the sovereignty of his grace by showing mercy to some, who have spent most of their lives in the service of Satan, and have little left to spend in the service of God.

6.  In saving, some of those who seek salvation, and not others.

Some who seek salvation, as we know both from Scripture and observation, are soon converted; while others seek a long time, and do not obtain at last.  God helps some over the mountains and difficulties which are in the way; he subdues Satan, and delivers them from his temptations: but others are ruined by the temptations with which they meet.  Some are never thoroughly awakened; while to others God is pleased to give thorough convictions.  Some are left to backsliding hearts; others God causes to hold out to the end.  Some are brought off from a confidence in their own righteousness; others never get over that obstruction in their way, as long as they live.  And some are converted and saved, who never had so great strivings as some who, notwithstanding, perish.

IV.  I come now to give the reasons, why God does thus exercise his sovereignty in the eternal salvation of the children of men.

1.  It is agreeable to God’s design in the creation of the universe to exercise every attribute, and thus to manifest the glory of each of them.

God’s design in the creation was to glorify himself, or to make a discovery of the essential glory of his nature.  It was fit that infinite glory should shine forth; and it was God’s original design to make a manifestation of his glory, as it is.  Not that it was his design to manifest all his glory to the apprehension of creatures; for it is impossible that the minds of creatures should comprehend it.  But it was his design to make a true manifestation of his glory, such as should represent every attribute.  If God glorified one attribute, and not another, such manifestation of his glory would be defective; and the representation would not be complete.  If all God’s attributes are not manifested, the glory of none of them is manifested as it is: for the divine attributes reflect glory on one another.  Thus if God’s wisdom be manifested, and not his holiness, the glory of his wisdom would not be manifested as it is; for one part of the glory of the attribute of divine wisdom is, that it is a holy wisdom.  So if his holiness were manifested, and not his wisdom, the glory of his holiness would not be manifested as it is; for one thing which belongs to the glory of God’s holiness is, that it is a wise holiness.

So it is with respect to the attributes of mercy and justice.  The glory of God’s mercy does not appear as it is, unless it is manifested as a just mercy, or as a mercy consistent with justice.  And so with respect to God’s sovereignty, it reflects glory on all his other attributes.  It is part of the glory of God’s mercy, that it is sovereign mercy. So all the attributes of God reflect glory on one another.  The glory of one attribute cannot be manifested, as it is, without the manifestation of another.  The glory of God eminently appears in his absolute sovereignty over all creatures, great and small.  If the glory of a prince be his power and dominion, then the glory of God is his absolute sovereignty.  Herein appear God’s infinite greatness and highness above all creatures.  Therefore it is the will of God to manifest his sovereignty.  And his sovereignty, like his other attributes, is manifested in the exercises of it.  He glorifies his power in the exercise of power.  He glorifies his mercy in the exercise of mercy.   So he glorifies his sovereignty in the exercise of sovereignty.

2.  The more excellent the creature is over whom God is sovereign, and the greater the matter in which he so appears, the more glorious is his sovereignty.

The sovereignty of God in his being sovereign over men, is more glorious than in his being sovereign over the inferior creatures.  And his sovereignty over angels is yet more glorious that his sovereignty over men.  For the nobler the creature is, still the greater and higher doth God appear in his sovereignty over it.  It is a greater honor to a man to have dominion over men, that over beasts; and a still greater honor to have dominion over princes, nobles, and kings, than over ordinary men.  So the glory of God’s sovereignty appears in that he is sovereign over the souls of men, who are so noble and excellent creatures.  God therefore will exercise his sovereignty over them.  And further, [if] the dominion of any one extends over another, the greater will be [his] honor.  If a man has dominion over another only in some instances, he is not therein so much exalted, as in having absolute dominion over his life, and fortune, and all he has.

So God’s sovereignty over men appears glorious [in] that it extends to everything which concerns them.  He may dispose of them with respect to all that concerns them, according to his own pleasure.  His sovereignty appears glorious, that it reaches their most important affairs, even the eternal state and condition of the souls of men.  Herein it appears that the sovereignty of God is without bounds or limits, in that it reaches to an affair of such infinite importance.  God, therefore, as it is his design to manifest his own glory, will and does exercise his sovereignty towards men, over their souls and bodies, even in this most important matter of their eternal salvation.  He has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens.

APPLICATION.

1.  Hence we learn how absolutely we are dependent on God in this great matter of the eternal salvation of our souls.

We are dependent not only on his wisdom to contrive a way to accomplish it, and on his power to bring it to pass, but we are dependent on his mere will and pleasure in the affair.  We depend on the sovereign will of God for every thing belonging to it, from the foundation to the top-stone.  It was of the sovereign pleasure of God, that he contrived a way to save any of mankind, and gave us Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, to be our Redeemer.  Why did he look on us, and send us a Savior, and not the fallen angels?  It was from the sovereign pleasure of God.  It was of his sovereign pleasure what means to appoint.  His giving us the Bible, and the ordinances of religion, is of his sovereign grace.  His giving those means to us rather than to others, his giving the awakening influences of his Spirit, and his bestowing saving grace, are all of his sovereign pleasure.  When he says, “Let there be light in the soul of such an one,” it is a word of infinite power and sovereign grace.

2.  Let us with the greatest humility adore the awful and absolute sovereignty of God.

As we have just shown, it is an eminent attribute of the Divine Being, that he is sovereign over such excellent beings as the souls of men, and that in every respect, even in that of their eternal salvation.  The infinite greatness of God, and his exaltation above us, appears in nothing more, than in his sovereignty.  It is spoken of in Scripture as a great part of his glory.  “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand” (Deut. 32:39).  “Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he pleased” (Psal. 115:3).  “Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.  And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou” (Daniel 4:34,35)?  Our Lord Jesus Christ praised and glorified the Father for the exercise of his sovereignty in the salvation of men—”I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Matt. 11:25,26).  Let us therefore give God the glory of his sovereignty, as adoring him, whose sovereign will orders all things, beholding ourselves as nothing in comparison with him.  Dominion and sovereignty require humble reverence and honor in the subject.  The absolute, universal, and unlimited sovereignty of God requires, that we should adore him with all possible humility and reverence.  It is impossible that we should go to excess in lowliness and reverence of that Being, who may dispose of us to all eternity, as he pleases.

3.  Those who are in a state of salvation are to attribute it to sovereign grace alone, and to give all the praise to him, who maketh them to differ from others.

Godliness is no cause for glorying, except it be in God (1 Cor. 1:29-31).  Such are not, by any means, in any degree to attribute their godliness, their safe and happy state and condition, to any natural difference between them and other men, or to any strength or righteousness of their own.  They have no reason to exalt themselves in the least degree; but God is the being whom they should exalt.  They should exalt God the Father, who chose them in Christ, who set his love upon them, and gave them salvation, before they were born, and even before the world was.  If they inquire, why God set his love on them, and chose them rather than others, if they think they can see any cause out of God, they are greatly mistaken.  They should exalt God the Son, who bore their names on his heart, when he came into the world, and hung on the cross, and in whom alone they have righteousness and strength.  They should exalt God the Holy Ghost, who of sovereign grace has called them out of darkness into marvellous light; who has by his own immediate and free operation, led them into an understanding of the evil and danger of sin, and brought them off from their own righteousness, and opened their eyes to discover the glory of God, and the wonderful riches of God in Jesus Christ, and has sanctified them, and made them new creatures.  When they hear of the wickedness of others, or look upon vicious persons, they should think how wicked they once were, and how much they provoked God, and how they deserved for ever to be left by him to perish in sin, and that it is only sovereign grace which has made the difference. The people of God have the greater cause of thankfulness, more reason to love God, who hath bestowed such great and unspeakable mercy upon them of his mere sovereign pleasure.

4.  Hence we learn what cause we have to admire the grace of God that he should condescend to become bound to us by covenant.

That he, who is naturally supreme in his dominion over us, who is our absolute proprietor, and may do with us as he pleases, and is under no obligation to us; that he should, as it were, relinquish his absolute freedom, and should cease to be merely sovereign in his dispensations towards believers, when once they have believed in Christ, and should, for their more abundant consolation, become bound.  So that they can challenge salvation of this Sovereign; they can demand it through Christ, as a debt.  And it would be prejudicial to the glory of God’s attributes, to deny it to them; it would be contrary to his justice and faithfulness.  What wonderful condescension is it in such a Being, thus to become bound to us, worms of the dust, for our consolation!  He bound himself by his word, his promise.  But he was not satisfied with that; but that we might have stronger consolation still, he hath bound himself by his oath (Heb. 6:13, etc). Let us, therefore, labor to submit to the sovereignty of God.  God insists, that his sovereignty be acknowledged by us, and that even in this great matter, a matter which so nearly and infinitely concerns us, as our own eternal salvation.  This is the stumbling-block on which thousands fall and perish; and if we go on contending with God about his sovereignty, it will be our eternal ruin.  It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God, as our absolute sovereign, and the sovereign over our souls; as one who may have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and harden whom he will.

5.  We may make use of this doctrine to guard those who seek salvation from two opposite extremes – presumption and discouragement.

Do not presume upon the mercy of God, and so encourage yourself in sin.  Many hear that God’s mercy is infinite, and therefore think, that if they delay seeking salvation for the present, and seek it hereafter, that God will bestow his grace upon them.  But consider, that though God’s grace is sufficient, yet he is sovereign, and will use his own pleasure whether he will save you or not.  If you put off salvation till hereafter, salvation will not be in your power.  It will be as a sovereign God pleases, whether you shall obtain it or not.  Seeing, therefore, that in this affair you are so absolutely dependent on God, it is best to follow his direction in seeking it, which is to hear his voice today: “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart.”

Beware also of discouragement.  Take heed of despairing thoughts, because you are a great sinner, because you have persevered so long in sin, have backslidden, and resisted the Holy Ghost.  Remember that, let your case be what it may, and you ever so great a sinner, if you have not committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, God can bestow mercy upon you without the least prejudice to the honor of his holiness, which you have offended, or to the honor of his majesty, which you have insulted, or of his justice, which you have made your enemy, or of his truth, or of any of his attributes.  Let you be what sinner you may, God can, if he pleases, greatly glorify himself in your salvation.

Posted in Jonathan Edwards |

Fishers of Men by Charles Spurgeon

January 18, 2010 by ADMIN

“And Jesus saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

When Christ calls us by his grace we ought not only to remember what we are, but we ought also to think of what he can make us.  It is, “Follow me, and I will make you.”  We should repent of what we have been, but rejoice in what we may be.  It is not “Follow me, because of what you are already.”  It is not “Follow me, because you may make something of yourselves;” but, “Follow me, because of what I will make you.”  Verily, I might say of each one of us as soon as we are converted, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.”  It did not seem a likely thing that lowly fishermen would develop into apostles; that men so handy with the net would be quite as much at home in preaching sermons and in instructing converts.  One would have said, “How can these things be?  You cannot make founders of churches out of peasants of Galilee.”

That is exactly what Christ did; and when we are brought low in the sight of God by a sense of our own unworthiness, we may feel encouraged to follow Jesus because of what he can make us.  O you, who see in yourselves at present nothing that is desirable, come you and follow Christ for the sake of what he can make out of you.  Do you not hear his sweet voice calling to you, and saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men?”

Note, next, that we are not made all that we shall be, nor all that we ought to desire to be, when we are ourselves fished for and caught.  This is what the grace of God does for us at first; but it is not all.  We are like the fishes, making sin to be our element; and the good Lord comes, and with the gospel net he takes us, and he delivers us from the life and love of sin.  But he has not wrought for us all that he can do, nor all that we should wish him to do, when he has done this; for it is another and a higher miracle to make us who were fish to become fishers – to make the convert into a converter – the receiver of the gospel into an imparter of that same gospel to other people.

I think I may say to every person whom I am addressing – If you are saved yourself, the work is but half done until you are employed to bring others to Christ.  You are as yet but half formed in the image of your Lord.  You have not attained to the full development of the Christ-life in you unless you have commenced in some feeble way to tell to others of the grace of God: and I trust that you will find no rest to the sole of your foot till you have been the means of leading many to that blessed Savior who is your confidence and your hope.  His word is–Follow me, not merely that you may be saved, nor even that you may be sanctified; but, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  Be following Christ with that intent and aim; and fear that you are not perfectly following him unless in some degree he is making use of you to be fishers of men.  The fact is that every one of us must take to the business of a mancatcher.  If Christ has caught us, we must catch others.  If we have been apprehended of him, we must be his constables, to apprehend rebels for him.  Let us ask him to give us grace to go a-fishing, and so to cast our nets that we may take a great multitude of fishes.  Oh that the Holy Ghost may raise up from among us some master-fishers, who shall sail their boats in many a sea, and surround great shoals of fish!

My teaching at this time will be very simple, but I hope it will be eminently practical; for my longing is that not one of you that love the Lord may be backward in his service.   What says the Song of Solomon concerning certain sheep that come up from the washing?  It says, “Every one beareth twins, and none is barren among them.”  May that be so with all the members of this church and all the Christian people that hear or read this sermon!

The fact is, the day is very dark.  The heavens are lowering with heavy thunder-clouds.  Men little dream of what tempests may soon shake this city, and the whole social fabric of this land, even to a general breaking up of society.  So dark may the night become that the stars may seem to fall like blighted fruit from the tree.  The times are evil.  Now, if never before, every glow-worm must show its spark.  You with the tiniest farthing candle must take it from under the bushel, and set it on a candlestick.  There is need of you all.  Lot was a poor creature.  He was a very, very wretched kind of believer; but still, he might have been a great blessing to Sodom had he but pleaded for it as he should have done.  And poor, poor Christians, as I fear many are, one begins to value every truly converted soul in these evil days, and to pray that each one may glorify the Lord.  I pray that every righteous man, vexed as he is with the conversation of the wicked, may be more importunate in prayer than he has ever been, and return unto his God, and get more spiritual life, that he may be a blessing to the perishing people around him.  I address you, therefore, at this time first of all upon this thought.  Oh that the Spirit of God may make each one of you feel his personal responsibility!

Here is for believers in Christ, in order to their usefulness, something for them to do: “Follow me.”  But, secondly, here is something to be done by their great Lord and Master: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  You will not grow into fishers of yourselves, but this is what Jesus will do for you if you will but follow him.  And then, lastly, here is a good illustration, used according to our great Master’s wont; for scarcely without a parable did he speak unto the people.  He presents us with an illustration of what Christian men should be – fishers of men.  We may get some useful hints out of it, and I pray the Holy Spirit to bless them to us.

I. First, then, I will take it for granted that every believer here wants to be useful. If he does not, I take leave to question whether he can be a true believer in Christ.  Well, then, if you want to be really useful, here is SOMETHING FOR YOU TO DO TO THAT END: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

What is the way to become an efficient preacher?  “Young man,” says one, “go to college.”  “Young man,” says Christ, “follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men.” How is a person to be useful?  “Attend a training-class,” says one.  Quite right; but there is a surer answer than that—Follow Jesus, and he will make you fishers of men.  The great training-school for Christian workers has Christ at its head; and he is at its head, not only as a tutor, but as a leader: we are not only to learn of him in study, but to follow him in action.  “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  The direction is very distinct and plain, and I believe that it is exclusive, so that no man can become a fisherman by any other process.  This process may appear to be very simple; but assuredly it is most efficient.  The Lord Jesus Christ, who knew all about fishing for men, was himself the Dictator of the rule, “Follow me, if you want to be fishers of men.  If you would be useful, keep in my track.”

I understand this, first, in this sense: be separate unto Christ.  These men were to leave their pursuits; they were to leave their companions; they were, in fact, to quit the world, that their one business might be, in their Master’s name, to be fishers of men.  We are not all called to leave our daily business, or to quit our families.  That might be rather running away from the fishery than working at it in God’s name.  But we are called most distinctly to come out from among the ungodly, and to be separate, and not to touch the unclean thing.  We cannot be fishers of men if we remain among men in the same element with them.  Fish will not be fishers.  The sinner will not convert the sinner.  The ungodly man will not convert the ungodly man; and, what is more to the point, the worldly Christian will not convert the world.  If you are of the world, no doubt the world will love its own; but you cannot save the world.  If you are dark, and belong to the kingdom of darkness, you cannot remove the darkness.  If you march with the armies of the wicked one, you cannot defeat them.  I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.

The first lesson which the church has to learn is this: Follow Jesus into the separated state, and he will make you fishers of men.  Unless you take up your cross and protest against an ungodly world, you cannot hope that the holy Jesus will make you fishers of men.

A second meaning of our text is very obviously this: abide with Christ, and then you will be made fishers of men.  These disciples whom Christ called were to come and live with him.  They were every day to be associated with him.  They were to hear him teach publicly the everlasting gospel, and in addition they were to receive choice explanations in private of the word which he had spoken.  They were to be his body-servants and his familiar friends.  They were to see his miracles and hear his prayers; and, better still, they were to be with himself, and become one with him in his holy labor.  It was given to them to sit at the table with him, and even to have their feet washed by him.  Many of them fulfilled that word, “Where thou dwellest I will dwell.”  They were with him in his afflictions and persecutions.  They witnessed his secret agonies; they saw his many tears; they marked the passion and the compassion of his soul, and thus, after their measure, they caught his spirit, and so they learned to be fishers of men.

At Jesus’ feet, we must learn the art and mystery of soul-winning to live with Christ is the best education for usefulness.  It is a great boon to any man to be associated with a Christian minister whose heart is on fire.  The best training for a young man is that which pastors were wont to give, when each old man had a young man with him who walked with him whenever he went up the mountainside to preach, and lived in the house with him, and marked his prayers and saw his daily piety.  This was a fine instruction.  Was it not?  But it will not compare with that of the apostles who lived with Jesus himself, and were his daily companions.  Matchless was the training of the twelve.  No wonder that they became what they were with such a heavenly tutor to saturate them with his own spirit!  And now to-day his bodily presence is not among us; but his spiritual power is perhaps more fully known to us than it was to those apostles in those two or three years of the Lord’s corporeal presence.

There be some of us to whom he is intimately near.  We know more about him than we do about our dearest earthly friend.  We have never been able quite to read our friend’s heart in all its twistings and windings, but we know the heart of the Well Beloved.  We have leaned our head upon his bosom, and have enjoyed fellowship with him such as we could not have with any of our own kith and kin.  This is the surest method of learning how to do good.  Live with Jesus, follow Jesus, and he will make you fishers of men.  See how he does the work, and so learn how to do it yourself.  A Christian man should be bound apprentice to Jesus to learn the trade of a Savior.  We can never save men by offering a redemption, for we have none to present; but we can learn how to save men by warning them to flee from the wrath to come, and setting before them the one great effectual remedy.

See how Jesus saves, and you will learn how the thing is done: there is no learning it anyhow else.  Live in fellowship with Christ, and there shall be about you an air and a manner as of one who has been made in heart and mind apt to teach, and wise to win souls.

A third meaning, however, must be given to this “Follow me,” and it is this: “Obey me, and then you shall know what to do to save men.”  We must not talk about our fellowship with Christ, or our being separated from the world unto him, unless we make him our Master and Lord in everything.  Some public teachers are not true at all points to their convictions, and how can they look for a blessing?  A Christian man anxious to be useful, ought to be very particular as to every point of obedience to his Master.  I have no doubt whatever that God blesses our churches even when they are very faulty, for his mercy endureth forever.

When there is a measure of error in the teaching, and a measure of mistake in the practice, he may still vouchsafe to use the ministry, for he is very gracious.  But a large measure of blessing must necessarily be withheld from all teaching which is knowingly or glaringly faulty.  God can set his seal upon the truth that is in it, but he cannot set his seal upon the error that is in it.  Out of mistakes about Christian ordinances and other things, especially errors in heart and spirit, there may come evils which we never looked for.  Such evils may even now be telling upon the present age, and may work worse mischief upon future generations.  If we desire as fishers of men to be largely used of God we must copy our Lord Jesus in everything, and obey him in every point.  Failure in obedience may lead to failure in success.

Again, I think that there is a great lesson in my text to those who preach their own thoughts instead of preaching the thoughts of Christ.  These disciples were to follow Christ that they might listen to him, hear what he had to say, drink in his teaching, and then go and teach what he had taught them.  Their Lord says, “What I tell you in darkness, speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.”  If they will be faithful reporters of Christ’s message, he will make them “fishers of men.”

But you know the boastful method nowadays is this: “I am not going to preach this old, old gospel, this musty Puritan doctrine.  I will sit down in my study, and burn the midnight oil, and invent a new theory; then I will come out with my brand-new thought, and blaze away with it.”  Many are not following Christ, but following themselves, and of them the Lord may well say, “Thou shalt see whose word shall stand, mine or theirs.”  Others are wickedly prudent, and judge that certain truths which are evidently God’s word had better be kept back.  You must not be rough, but must prophesy smooth things.  To talk about the punishment of sin, to speak of eternal punishment, why, these are unfashionable doctrines.  It may be that they are taught in the Word of God, but they do not suit the genius of the age.  We must pare them down. Brothers in Christ, I will have no share in this.  Will you? O my soul, come not thou into their secret!

To a great degree I attribute the looseness of the age to the laxity of the doctrine preached by its teachers.  From the pulpit they have taught the people that sin is a trifle.  From the pulpit these traitors to God and to his Christ have taught the people that there is no hell to be feared.  A little, little hell, perhaps, there may be; but just punishment for sin is made nothing of.  The precious atoning sacrifice of Christ has been derided and misrepresented by those who were pledged to preach it.  They have given the people the name of the gospel, but the gospel itself has evaporated in their hands.  From hundreds of pulpits, the gospel is as clean gone as the dodo from its old haunts; and still the preachers take the position and name of Christ’s ministers.  Well, and what comes of it?  Why, their congregations grow thinner and thinner; and so it must be.  Jesus says, “Follow me, I will make you fishers of men;” but if you go in your own way, with your own net, you will make nothing of it, and the Lord promises you no help in it.  The Lord’s directions make himself our leader and example.  It is, “Follow me, follow me.  Preach my gospel.  Preach what I preached.  Teach what I taught, and keep to that.”  With that blessed servility which becomes one whose ambition it is to be a copyist, and never to be an original, copy Christ even in jots and tittles.  Do this, and he will make you fishers of men; but if you do not do this, you shall fish in vain.

I close this head of discourse by saying that we shall not be fishers of men unless we follow Christ in one other respect; and that is, by endeavoring, in all points, to imitate his holiness.  Holiness is the most real power that can be possessed by men or women.  We may preach orthodoxy, but we must also live orthodoxy.  God forbid that we should preach anything else; but it will be all in vain, unless there is a life at the back of the testimony.  An unholy preacher may even render truth contemptible.  In proportion as any of us draw back from a living and zealous sanctification, we shall draw back from the place of power.

Our power lies in this word, “Follow me.”  Be Jesus-like.  In all things endeavor to think, and speak, and act as Jesus did, and he will make you fishers of men.  This will require self-denial.  We must daily take up the cross.  This may require willingness to give up our reputation — readiness to be thought fools, idiots, and the like, as men are apt to call those who are keeping close to their Master.  There must be the cheerful resigning of everything that looks like honor and personal glory, in order that we may be wholly Christ’s and glorify his name.  We must live his life and be ready to die his death, if need be.  O brothers, sisters, if we do this and follow Jesus, putting our feet into the footprints of his pierced feet, he will make us fishers of men.  If it should so please him that we should even die without having gathered many souls to the cross, we shall speak from our graves.  In some way or other, the Lord will make a holy life to be an influential life.  It is not possible that a life which can be described as a following of Christ should be an unsuccessful one in the sight of the Most High.  “Follow me,” and there is an “I will” such as God can never draw back from: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Thus much on the first point.  There is something for us to do: we are graciously called to follow Jesus.  Holy Spirit, lead us to do it.

II. But secondly, and briefly, there is SOMETHING FOR THE LORD TO DO.

When his dear servants are following him, he says, “I will make you fishers of men;” and be it never forgotten that it is he that makes us follow him; so that if the following of him be the step to being made a fisher of men, yet this he gives us.  ‘Tis all of his Spirit.  I have talked about catching his spirit, and abiding in him, and obeying him, and hearkening to him, and copying him; but none of these things are we capable of apart from his working them all in us.  “From me is thy fruit found,” is a text which we must not for a moment forget.  So, then, if we do follow him, it is he that makes us follow him; and so he makes us fishers of men.

But, further, if we follow Christ, he will make us fishers of men by all our experience. Keep close to your Lord and he will make every step a blessing to you.  If God in providence should make you rich, he will fit you to speak to those ignorant and wicked rich who so much abound in this city, and so often are the cause of its worst sin.  And if the Lord is pleased to let you be very poor you can go down and talk to those wicked and ignorant poor people who so often are the cause of sin in this city, and so greatly need the gospel.  The winds of providence will waft you where you can fish for men.  The wheels of providence are full of eyes, and all those eyes will look this way to help us to be winners of souls.  You will often be surprised to find how God has been in a house that you visit: before you get there, his hand has been at work in its chambers.  When you wish to speak to some particular individual, God’s providence has been dealing with that individual to make him ready for just that word which you could say, but which nobody else but you could say.  Oh, be you following Christ, and you will find that he will, by every experience through which you are passing, make you fishers of men.

Further than that, if you will follow him he will make you fishers of men by distinct monitions in your own heart. There are many monitions from God’s Spirit which are not noticed by Christians when they are in a callous condition; but when the heart is right with God and living in communion with God, we feel a sacred sensitiveness, so that we do not need the Lord to shout, but his faintest whisper is heard.  Nay, he need not even whisper. “Thou shalt guide me with thine eye.”  The Christian who follows his Lord shall be tenderly guided. I do not say that the Spirit of God will say to you, “Go and join yourself unto this chariot,” or that you will hear a word in your ear; but yet in your soul, as distinctly as the Spirit said to Philip, “Go and join yourself to this chariot,” you shall hear the Lord’s will.  As soon as you see an individual, the thought shall cross your mind, “Go and speak to that person.”  Every opportunity of usefulness shall be a call to you.  If you are ready, the door shall open before you, and you shall hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk ye in it.”  If you have the grace to run in the right way you shall never be long without an intimation as to what the right way is.  That right way shall lead you to river or sea, where you can cast your net, and be a fisher of men.

Then, too, I believe that the Lord meant by this that he would give his followers the Holy Ghost.  They were to follow him, and then, when they had seen him ascend into the holy place of the Most High, they were to tarry at Jerusalem for a little while, and the Spirit would come upon them and clothe them with a mysterious power.  This word was spoken to Peter and Andrew; and you know how it was fulfilled to Peter.  What a host of fish he brought to land the first time he cast the net in the power of the Holy Ghost!   Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Brethren, we have no conception of what God could do by this company of believers gathered in the Tabernacle to-night.  If now we were to be filled with the Holy Ghost there are enough of us to evangelize London.  There are enough here to be the means of the salvation of the world.  God saveth not by many nor by few.  Let us seek a benediction; and if we seek it let us hear this directing voice, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

You men and women that sit before me, you are by the shore of a great sea of human life swarming with the souls of men.  You live in the midst of millions; but if you will follow Jesus, and be faithful to him, and true to him, and do what he bids you, he will make you fishers of men.  Do not say, “Who shall save this city?”  The weakest shall be strong enough. Gideon’s barley cake shall smite the tent, and make it lay along.  Samson, with the jawbone, taken up from the earth where it was lying bleaching in the sun, shall smite the Philistines.  Fear not, neither be dismayed.  Let your responsibilities drive you closer to your Master.  Let horror of prevailing sin make you look into his dear face who long ago wept over Jerusalem, and now weeps over London.  Clasp him, and never let go your hold.  By the strong and mighty impulses of the divine life within you, quickened and brought to maturity by the Spirit of God, learn this lesson from your Lord’s own mouth: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  You are not fit for it, but he will make you fit.  You cannot do it of yourselves, but he will make you do it.  You do not know how to spread nets and draw shoals of fish to shore, but he will teach you.  Only follow him, and he will make you fishers of men.

I wish that I could somehow say this as with a voice of thunder, that the whole church of God might hear it.  I wish I could write it in stars athwart the sky, “Jesus saith, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  If you forget the precept, the promise shall never be yours.  If you follow some other track, or imitate some other leader, you shall fish in vain.  God grant us to believe fully that Jesus can do great things in us, and then do great things by us for the good of our fellows!

III. The last point you might work out in full for yourselves in your private meditations with much profit. We have here A FIGURE FULL OF INSTRUCTION.  I will give you but two or three thoughts which you can use.

A fisher is a person who is very dependent, and needs to be trustful. He cannot see the fish.  One who fishes in the sea must go and cast in the net, as it were, at a peradventure.  Fishing is an act of faith. I have often seen in the Mediterranean men go with their boats and enclose acres of sea with vast nets; and yet, when they have drawn the net to shore, they have not had as much result as I could put in my hand.  A few wretched silvery nothings have made up the whole take.  Yet they have gone again and cast the great net several times a day, hopefully expecting something to come of it.  Nobody is so dependent upon God as the minister of God. Oh, this fishing from the Tabernacle pulpit!  What a work of faith!  I cannot tell that a soul will be brought to God by it.  I cannot judge whether my sermon will be suitable to the persons who are here, except that I do believe that God will guide me in the casting of the net.  I expect him to work salvation, and I depend upon him for it.  I love this complete dependence, and if I could be offered a certain amount of preaching power, by which I could save sinners, which should be entirely at my own disposal, I would beg the Lord not to let me have it, for it is far more delightful to be entirely dependent upon him at all times.  Go to work, you who would be fishers of men, and yet feel your insufficiency.  You that have no strength, attempt this divine work.  Your Master’s strength will be seen when your own has all gone.  A fisherman is a dependent person, he must look up for success every time he puts the net down; but still he is a trustful person, and therefore he casts in the net joyfully.

A fisherman who gets his living by it is a diligent and persevering man. The fishers are up at dawn.  At day-break our fishermen off the Doggerbank are fishing, and they continue fishing till late in the afternoon.  As long as hands can work men will fish.  May the Lord Jesus make us hard-working, persevering, unwearied fishers of men!  “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that.”

The fisherman in his own craft is intelligent and watchful. It looks very easy, I dare say, to be a fisherman, but you would find that it was no child’s play if you were to take a real part in it.  There is an art in it, from the mending of the net right on to the pulling it to shore.  How diligent the fisherman is to prevent the fish leaping out of the net!  They are very crafty, these fish, and they use this craftiness in endeavoring to avoid salvation.  We shall have to be always at our business, and to exercise all our wits, and more than our own wits, if we are to be successful fishers of men.

The fisherman is a very laborious person. It is not at all an easy calling.  He does not sit in an armchair and catch fish.  He has to go out in rough weathers.  If he that regardeth the clouds will not sow, I am sure that he that regardeth the clouds will never fish.  If we never do any work for Christ except when we feel up to the mark, we shall not do much.  We must be always at it, until we wear ourselves out, throwing our whole soul into the work in all weathers, for Christ’s sake.

The fisherman is a daring man. He tempts the boisterous sea.  A little brine in his face does not hurt him; he has been wet through a thousand times, it is nothing to him.  He never expected when he became a deep-sea fisherman that he was going to sleep in the lap of ease.  So the true minister of Christ who fishes for souls will never mind a little risk.  He will be bound to do or say many a thing that is very unpopular; and some Christian people may even judge his utterances to be too severe.  He must do and say that which is for the good of souls.  It is not his to entertain a question as to what others will think of his doctrine, or of him; but in the name of the Almighty God he must feel, “If the sea roar and the fullness thereof, still at my Master’s command I will let down the net.”

Now, in the last place, the man whom Christ makes a fisher of men is successful. “But,” says one, “I have always heard that Christ’s ministers are to be faithful, but that they cannot be sure of being successful.”  Yes, I have heard that saying, and one way I know it is true, but another way I have my doubts about it.  He that is faithful is, in God’s way and in God’s judgment, successful, more or less.  For instance, here is a brother who says that he is faithful.  Of course, I must believe him, yet I never heard of a sinner being saved under him.  Indeed, I should think that the safest place for a person to be in if he did not want to be saved would be under this gentleman’s ministry, because he does not preach anything that is likely to arouse, impress, or convince anybody.

Well, if any person in the world said to you, “I am a fisherman, but I have never caught anything,” you would wonder how he could be called a fisherman.  A farmer who never grew any wheat, or any other crop – is he a farmer?  When Jesus Christ says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” he means that you shall really catch men – that you really shall save some; for he that never did get any fish is not a fisherman.  He that never saved a sinner after years of work is not a minister of Christ.  If the result of his life-work is nil, he made a mistake when he undertook it.  Go thou and scatter the good seed: it may not all fall in fruitful places, but some of it will.  Be thou sure of that.  Do but shine, and some eye or other will be lightened thereby.

Thou must, thou shalt succeed.  But remember this is the Lord’s word –“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  Keep close to Jesus, and do as Jesus did, in his spirit, and he will make you fishers of men.

Perhaps I speak to an attentive hearer who is not converted at all.  Friend, I have the same thing to say to you.  You also may follow Christ, and then he can use you, even you.  I do not know but that he has brought you to this place that you may be saved, and that in after years he may make you speak for his name and glory.  Remember how he called Saul of Tarsus, and made him the apostle of the Gentiles.  Reclaimed poachers make the best gamekeepers; and saved sinners make the ablest preachers.  Oh, that you would run away from your old master to-night, without giving him a minute’s notice; for if you give him any notice, he will hold you.  Hasten to Jesus, and say, “Here is a poor runaway slave!  My Lord, I bear the fetters still upon my wrists. Wilt thou set me free, and make me thine own?”

Remember, it is written, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”  Never runaway slave came to Christ in the middle of the night without his taking him in; and he never gave one up to his old master.  If Jesus makes you free, you shall be free indeed.  Flee away to Jesus, then, on a sudden.  May his good Spirit help you, and he will by-and-by make you a winner of others to his praise!  God bless you.  Amen.

Edited from a sermon preached by Spurgeon in 1886.

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

Teaching Resources Update August 6th, 2000

January 18, 2010 by ADMIN

August 6

The last few weeks have been very good for Debbie.  She has generally had only 2-3 headaches each week and has been able to have about 4 good days each week.  She was able to attend the SB Founder’s Conference in Birmingham, although she was only strong enough to attend a couple of the evening sessions.

Please continue to pray regarding the headaches.  Debbie currently takes chemotherapy every Monday and seems to respond well to the treatments.  She is also taking large doses of vitamins and her counts are improving even though she is taking chemo.  We ask for you to continue praying for healing, but, most of all, that the Lord may be glorified in all we do during this time.

Posted in Ministry Updates |

Teaching Resources Update July 13, 2000

January 18, 2010 by ADMIN

July 13 Update

Debbie has been home for about 3 weeks and has shown much improvement.  She continues to have occasional headaches, but these seem to be manageable.  She has been taking chemotherapy once a week and, according to the doctors, should do so indefinitely.  We are currently planning to attend the Southern Baptist Founder’s Conference in Birmingham, July 18-21.  Debbie feels she will be strong enough to travel and attend most of the sessions.  The theme this year is on providence and many of the messages center on suffering and providence.  Pray that Debbie will travel well and be encouraged by these messages.

Posted in Ministry Updates |

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