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The Final Perseverance of the Saints by C. H. Spurgeon

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“The righteous also shall hold on his way.”- Job 17:9

The man who is righteous before God has a way of his own.  It is not the way of the flesh, nor the way of the world; it is a way marked out for him by the divine command, in which he walks by faith.  It is the King’s highway of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it; only the ransomed of the Lord shall walk there, and these shall find it a path of separation from the world.  Once entered upon the way of life, the pilgrim must persevere in it or perish, for thus saith the Lord, “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”  Perseverance in the path of faith and holiness is a necessity of the Christian, for only “he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.”  It is in vain to spring up quickly like the seed that was sown upon the rock, and then by-and-by to wither when the sun is up; that would but prove that such a plant has no root in itself, but “the trees of the Lord are full of sap,” and they abide and continue and bring forth fruit, even in old age, to show that the Lord is upright.  There is a great difference between nominal Christianity and real Christianity, and this is generally seen in the failure of the one and the continuance of the other.

Now, the declaration of the text is that the truly righteous man shall hold on his way; he shall not go back, he shall not leap the hedges and wander to the right hand or the left, he shall not lie down in idleness, neither shall he faint and cease to go upon his journey; but he “shall hold on his way.”  It will frequently be very difficult for him to do so, but he will have such resolution, such power of inward grace given him, that he will “hold on his way,” with stern determination, as though he held on by his teeth, resolving never to let go.  Perhaps he may not always travel with equal speed; it is not said that he shall hold on his pace, but he shall hold on his way.  There are times when we run and are not weary, and anon when we walk are thankful that we do not faint; ay, and there are periods when we are glad to go on all fours and creep upward with pain; but still we prove that “the righteous shall hold on his way.”  Under all difficulties, the face of the man whom God has justified is steadfastly set towards Jerusalem; nor will he turn aside till his eyes shall see the King in his beauty.

This is a great wonder.  It is a marvel that any man should be a Christian at all, and a greater wonder that he should continue so.  Consider the weakness of the flesh, the strength of inward corruption, the fury of Satanic temptation, the seductions of wealth and the pride of life, the world and the fashion thereof; all these things are against us, and yet behold, “greater is he that is for us than all they that be against us,” and defying sin, and Satan, and death, and hell, the righteous holds on his way.

I take our text as accurately setting forth the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints.  “The righteous shall hold on his way.”  Years ago, when there was an earnest, and even a bitter controversy between Calvinists and Arminians, it was the habit of each side to caricature the other.  Very much of the argument is not directed against the real sentiment of the opposite party, but against what had been imputed to them.  They made a man of straw, and then they burned him, which is a pretty easy thing to do, but I trust we have left these things behind.  The glorious truth of the final perseverance of the saints has survived controversy, and in some form or other is the cherished belief of the children of God.

Take care, however, to be clear as to what it is.   The Scripture does not teach that a man will reach his journey’s end without continuing to travel along the road; it is not true that one act of faith is all, and that nothing is needed of daily faith, prayer, and watchfulness.  Our doctrine is the very opposite, namely, that the righteous shall hold on his way; or, in other words, shall continue in faith, in repentance, in prayer, and under the influence of the grace of God.  We do not believe in salvation by a physical force which treats a man as a dead log, and carries him whether he will it or not towards heaven.  No, “he holds on,” he is personally active about the matter, and plods on up hill and down dale till he reaches his journey’s end.

We never thought, nor even dreamed, that merely because a man supposes that he once entered on this way he may therefore conclude that he is certain of salvation, even if he leaves the way immediately.  No, but we say that he who truly receives the Holy Ghost, so that he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, shall not go back, but persevere in the way of faith.  It is written, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” and this he cannot be if he were left to go back and delight in sin as he did before; and, therefore, he shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.  Though the believer to his grief will commit many a sin, yet still the tenor of his life will be holiness to the Lord, and he will hold on in the way of obedience.  We detest the doctrine that a man who has once believed in Jesus will be saved even if he altogether forsook the path of obedience.  We deny that such a turning aside is possible to the true believer, and therefore the idea imputed to us is clearly an invention of the adversary.  No, beloved, a man, if he be indeed a believer in Christ, will not live after the will of the flesh.  When he does fall into sin, it will be his grief and misery, and he will never rest till he is cleansed from guilt; but I will say this of the believer, that if he could live as he would like to live he would live a perfect life.   If you ask him if, after believing, he may live as he lists, he will reply, “Would God I could live as I list, for I desire to live altogether without sin.  I would be perfect, even as my Father in heaven is perfect.”  The doctrine is not the licentious idea that a believer may live in sin, but that he cannot and will not do so.  This is the doctrine, and we will first prove it; and, secondly, in the Puritanic sense of the word, we will briefly improve it, by drawing two spiritual lessons therefrom.

I. LET US PROVE THE DOCTRINE.

Please to follow me with your Bibles open.  You, dear friends, have most of you received as a matter of faith the doctrines of grace, and therefore to you the doctrine of final perseverance cannot require any proving, because it follows from all the other doctrines.

We believe that God has an elect people whom he has chosen unto eternal life, and that truth necessarily involves the perseverance in grace.  We believe in special redemption, and this secures the salvation and consequent perseverance of the redeemed.  We believe in effectual calling, which is bound up with justification, a justification which ensures glorification.  The doctrines of grace are like a chain – if you believe in one of them you must believe the next, for each one involves the rest; therefore I say that you who accept any of the doctrines of grace must receive this also, as involved in them.  But I am about to try to prove this to those who do not receive the doctrines of grace; I would not argue in a circle, and prove one thing which you doubt by another thing which you doubt, but “to the law and to the testimony,” to the actual words of Scripture we shall refer the matter.

Before we advance to the argument, it will be well to remark that those who reject the doctrine frequently tell us that there are many cautions in the word of God against apostatizing, and that those cautions can have no meaning if it be true that the righteous shall hold on his way.  But what if those cautions are the means in the hand of God of keeping his people from wandering?   What if they are used to excite a holy fear in the minds of his children, and so become the means of preventing the evil which they denounce?  I would also remind you that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which contains the most solemn warnings against apostasy, the apostle always takes care to add words which show that he did not believe that those whom he warned would actually apostatize.  Turn to Hebrews 6:9.  He has been telling these Hebrews that if those who had been once enlightened should fall away, it would be impossible to renew them again into repentance, and he adds, “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.”

In the 10th chapter, he gives an equally earnest warning, declaring that those who should do despite to the spirit of grace are worthy of sorer punishment than those who depised Moses’ law, but he closes the chapter with these words, “Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”  Thus he shows what the consequences of apostasy would be, but he is convinced that they will not choose to incur such a fearful doom.

Again, objectors sometimes mention instances of apostasy which are mentioned in the word of God, but, on looking into them, it will be discovered that these are cases of persons who did but profess to know Christ, but were not really possessors of the divine life.  John, in his first Epistle, 2:19, fully describes these apostates; “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”  The like is true of that memorable passage in John, where our Savior speaks of branches of the vine which are cut off and cast into the fire; these are described as branches in Christ that bear no fruit.  Are those real Christians?  How can they be so if they bear no fruit?  “By their fruits ye shall know them.”  The branch which bears fruit is purged, but it is never cut off.  Those which bear no fruit are not figures of true Christians, but they fitly represent mere professors.  Our Lord, in Matthew 7:22, tells us concerning many who will say in that day “Lord, Lord,” that he will reply, “I never knew you.”  Not “I have forgotten you,” but “I never knew you”; they were never really his disciples.

But now to the argument itself.  First, we argue the perseverance of the saints, most distinctly from the nature of the life which is imparted at regeneration. What saith Peter concerning this life? (1 Peter 1:23.)  He speaks of the people of God as “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”  The new life which is planted in us when we are born again is not like the fruit of our first birth, for that is subject to mortality, but it is a divine principle, which cannot die nor be corrupt; and, if it be so, then he who possesses it must live for ever, must, indeed, be evermore what the Spirit of God in regeneration has made him.

So in 1 John 3:9, we have the same thought in another form.  “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”  That is to say, the bent of the Christian’s life is not towards sin.  It would not be a fair description of his life that he lives in sin; on the contrary, he fights and contends against sin, because he has an inner principle which cannot sin.  The new life sinneth not; it is born of God, and cannot transgress; and though the old nature warreth against it, yet doth the new life so prevail in the Christian that he is kept from living in sin.  Our Savior, in his simple teaching of the gospel to the Samaritan woman, said to her (John 4:13), “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”  Now, if our Savior taught this to a sinful and ignorant woman, at his first interview with her, I take it that this doctrine is not to be reserved for the inner circle of full-grown saints, but to be preached ordinarily among the common people, and to be held up as a most blessed privilege.  If you receive the grace which Jesus imparts to your souls, it shall be like the good part which Mary chose, it shall not be taken away from you; it shall abide in you, not as the water in a cistern, but as a living fountain springing up unto everlasting life.  We all know that the life given in the new birth is intimately connected with faith.  Now, faith is in itself a conquering principle.  In the First Epistle of John, which is a great treasury of argument (1 John 5:4), we are told, “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”  See, then, that which is born of God in us, namely, the new life, is a conquering principle; there is no hint given that it can ever be defeated; and faith, which is its outward sign, is also in itself triumphant evermore.  Therefore of necessity, because God has implanted such a wondrous life in us in bringing us out of darkness into his marvelous light, because he has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, because the eternal and ever blessed Spirit hath come to dwell in us, we conclude that the divine life within us shall never die.  “The righteous shall hold on his way.”

The second argument to which I shall call your attention shall be drawn from our Lord’s own express declarations. Here we shall look to the gospel of John again, and in that blessed third of John, where our Lord was explaining the gospel in the simplest possible style to Nicodemus, we find him laying great stress upon the fact that the life received by faith in himself is eternal.  Look at that precious verse, the fourteenth: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Do men therefore believe in him and yet perish?  Do they believe in him and receive a spiritual life which comes to an end?  It cannot be, for “God gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish;” but he would perish if he did not persevere to the end; and therefore he must persevere to the end.  The believer has eternal life, how then can he die, so as to cease to be a believer?  If he does not abide in Christ, he evidently has not eternal life, therefore he shall abide in Christ, even to the end.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

To this some reply that a man may have everlasting life and lose it.  To which we answer, the words cannot so mean.  Such a statement is a self-evident contradiction.  If the life be lost, the man is dead; how, then, did he have everlasting life?  It is clear that he had a life which lasted only for a while; he certainly had not everlasting life, for if he had it he must live everlastingly.   “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36).  The saints in heaven have eternal life, and no one expects them to perish.  Their life is eternal; but eternal life is eternal life, whether the person possessing it dwells on earth or in heaven.

I need not read all the passages in which the same truth is taught; but further on, in John 6:47, our Lord told the Jews, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life;” not temporary life, but “everlasting life.”  And in the 51st verse he said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.”  Then comes that famous declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ, which, if there were no other at all, would be quite sufficient to prove our point.  John 10:28: “And I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any” (the word “man” is not in the original) “pluck them out of my hand.  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”  What can he mean but this – that he has grasped his people, and that he means to hold them securely in his mighty hand?

“Where is the power can reach us there,

Or what can pluck us thence?”

Over and above the hand of Jesus which was pierced comes the hand of the omnipotent Father as a sort of second grasp.  “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”  Surely this must show that the saints are secure from anything and everything which would destroy them, and consequently safe from total apostasy.

Another passage speaks to the same effect – it is to be found in Matthew 24:24, where the Lord Jesus has been speaking of the false prophets that should deceive many.  “There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect;” which shows that it is impossible for the elect to be deceived by them.  Of Christ’s sheep, it is said, “A stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers,” but, by divine instinct, they know the voice of the Good Shepherd, and they follow him.

Thus has our Savior declared, as plainly as words possibly can express it, that those who are his people possess eternal life within themselves, and shall not perish, but shall enter into everlasting felicity.  “The righteous shall hold on his way.”

A very blessed argument for the safety of the believer is found in our Lord’s intercession.  You need not turn to the passage, for you know it well, which shows the connection between the living intercession of Christ and the perseverance of his people: “Wherefore also he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).  Our Lord Jesus is not dead; he has risen, he has gone up into the glory, and now before the eternal throne he pleads the merit of his perfect work, and as he pleads there for all his people whose names are written on his heart, as the names of Israel were written on the jeweled breastplate of the high priest, his intercession saves his people even to the uttermost.  If you would like an illustration of it, you must turn to the case of Peter which is recorded in Luke 22:31 where our Lord said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”  The intercession of Christ does not save his people from being tried, and tempted, and tossed up and down like wheat in a sieve, it does not save them even from a measure of sin and sorrow, but it does save them from total apostasy.  Peter was kept, and though he denied his Master, yet it was an exception to the great rule of his life.  By grace he did hold on his way, because not only then, but many a time besides, though he sinned, he had an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

If you desire to know how Jesus pleads, read at your leisure at home that wonderful 17th of John – the Lord’s prayer.  What a prayer it is!  “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name; those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”  Judas was lost, but he was only given to Christ as an apostle and not as one of his sheep.  He had a temporary faith, and maintained a temporary profession, but he never had eternal life or he would have lived on.  Those groans and cries of the Savior which accompanied his pleadings in Gethsemane were heard in heaven, and answered.  “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me;” the Lord does keep them by his word and Spirit, and will keep them.  If the prayer of Christ in Gethsemane was answered, how much more that which now goeth up from the eternal throne itself!

“With cries and tears he offered up

His humble suit below;

But with authority he asks,

Enthroned in glory now.

“For all that come to God by him,

Salvation he demands;

Points to their names upon his breast,

And spreads his wounded hands.”

Ah, if my Lord Jesus pleads for me I cannot be afraid of earth or hell; that living, intercessory voice hath power to keep the saints, and so hath the living Lord himself, for he hath said: “Because I live ye shall live also.” (John 14:19.)

Now for a fourth argument.  We gather sure confidence of the perseverance of the saints from the character and work of Christ. I will say little about that, for I trust my Lord is so well known to you that he needeth no word of commendation from me to you; but if you know him you will say what the apostle does in 2 Timothy 1:12: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”  He did not say “I know in whom I have believed,” as most people quote it, but, “I know whom I have believed.”  He knew Jesus, he knew his heart and his faithfulness, he knew his atonement and its power, he knew his intercession and its might; and he committed his soul to Jesus by an act of faith, and he felt secure.  My Lord is so excellent in all things that I need give you but one glimpse of his character and you will see what he was when he dwelt here among men.  At the commencement of John 13, we read, “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”  If he had not loved his disciples to the end when here, we might conclude that he was changeable now as then.  But if he loved his chosen to the end while yet in his humiliation below, it bringeth us the sweet and blessed confidence that now he is in heaven he will love to the end all those who confide in him.

Fifthly, we infer the perseverance of the saints from the tenor of the covenant of grace.  Would you like to read it for yourselves?  If so, turn to the Old Testament, Jeremiah 32, and there you will find the covenant of grace set forth at some length.  We shall only be able to read the fortieth verse: “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.”  He will not depart from them, and they shall not depart from him!  What can be a grander assurance of their perseverance even to the end?  Now, that this is the covenant of grace under which we live is clear from the Epistle to the Hebrews, for the apostle in the 8th chapter quotes that passage to this very end.  The question runs thus: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead. them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”  The old covenant had an “if” in it, and so it suffered shipwreck; it was – “If you will be obedient then you shall be blessed;” and hence there came a failure on man’s part, and the whole covenant ended in disaster.  It was the covenant of works, and under it we were in bondage, until we were delivered from it and introduced to the covenant of grace, which has no “if” in it, but runs upon the strain of promise; it is “I will” and “You shall” all the way through.  “I will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”  Glory be to God, this covenant will never pass away, for see how the Lord declares its enduring character in the book of Isaiah (54:10): “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.”

And again in Isaiah 55:3: “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”  The idea of falling utterly away from grace is a relic of the old legal spirit, it is a going away from grace to come under law again, and I charge you who have once been manumitted slaves, and have had the fetters of legal bondage struck from off your hands, never consent to wear those bonds again.  Christ has saved you, if indeed you are believers in him, and he has not saved you for a week, or a month, or a quarter, or a year, or twenty years, but he has given to you eternal life, and you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out of his hands.   Rejoice ye in this blessed covenant of grace.

The sixth most forcible argument is drawn from the faithfulness of God. Look at Romans 11:29.  What saith the apostle there, speaking by the Holy Ghost? “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” which means that he does not give life and pardon to a man and call him by grace and afterwards repent of what he has done, and withdraw the good things which he has bestowed.  “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.”  When he putteth forth his hand to save he doth not withdraw it till the work is accomplished.  His word is, “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6).  “The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent” (1 Samuel 15:29).  The apostle would have us ground our confidence of perseverance upon the confirmation which divine faithfulness is sure to bestow upon us.

He says in 1 Corinthians 1:8, “Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”  And again he speaks to the same effect in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”  It was of old the will of God to save the people whom he gave to Jesus, and from this he has never turned, for our Lord said (John 6:39), “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”  Thus you see from these passages, and there are numbers of others, that God’s faithfulness secures the preservation of his people, and “the righteous shall hold on his way.”

The seventh and last argument shall be drawn from what has already been done in us. I shall do little more than quote the Scriptures, and leave them to sink into your minds.  A blessed passage is that in Jeremiah 31:3: “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”  If he did not mean that his love should be everlasting he would never have drawn us at all, but because that love is everlasting therefore with lovingkindness has he drawn us.  The apostle argues this in a very elaborate manner in Romans 5:9-10: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”  I cannot stop to show how every word of this passage is emphatic, but so it is; if God reconciled us when we were enemies, he certainly will save us now we are his friends, and if our Lord Jesus has reconciled us by his death, much more will he save us by his life; so that we may be certain he will not leave nor forsake those whom he has called.

Do you need me to bring to your minds that golden chapter, the 8th of Romans, the noblest of all language that was ever written by human pen?  “Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.  Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”  There is no break in the chain between justification and glory; and no supposable breakage can occur, for the apostle puts that out of all hazard, by saying, “ Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?  It is God that justifieth.  Who is he that condemneth?  It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”  Then he heaps on all the things that might be supposed to separate, and says, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  In the same manner, the apostle writes in Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  I cannot stay to mention the many other Scriptures in which what has been done is made an argument that the work shall be completed, but it is after the manner of the Lord to go through with whatever he undertakes.  “He will give grace and glory,” and perfect that which concerneth us.

One marvelous privilege which has been bestowed upon us is of peculiar significance; we are one with Christ by close, vital, spiritual union. We are taught of the Spirit that we enjoy a marriage union with Christ Jesus our Lord – shall that union be dissolved?  We are married to him.  Has he ever given a bill of divorce?  There never has been such a case as the heavenly bridegroom divorcing from his heart a chosen soul to whom he has been united in the bonds of grace.  Listen to these words from the prophecy of Hosea 2:19-20. “And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.  I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord.”

This marvelous union is set forth by the figure of the head and the body; we are members of the body of Christ.  Do the members of his body rot away?  Is Christ amputated?  Is he fitted with new limbs as old ones are lost?  Nay, being members of his body, we shall not be divided from him.  “He that is joined unto the Lord,” says the apostle, “is one spirit,” and if we are made one spirit with Christ, that mysterious union does not allow of the supposition of a separation.

The Lord has wrought another great work upon us, for he has sealed us by the Holy Spirit.  The possession of the Holy Ghost is the divine seal which sooner or later is set upon all the chosen.  There are many passages in which that seal is spoken of, and is described as being an earnest, an earnest of the inheritance.  But how an earnest if after receiving it we do not attain the purchased possession?  Think over the words of the apostle in 1 Corinthians 1:21-22; “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.”  To the same effect the Holy Spirit speaks in Ephesians 1:13-14; “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”  Beloved, we feel certain that if the Spirit of God dwelleth in us, he that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead will keep our souls and will also quicken our mortal bodies and present us complete before the glory of his face at the last.

Therefore we sum up the argument with the confident expression of the apostle when he said (2 Timothy 4:18), “The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.”

II. Now, how shall we IMPROVE THE DOCTRINE PRACTICALLY?  THE FINAL PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS.

The first improvement is for encouragement to the man who is on the road to heaven. “The righteous shall hold on his way.”  If I had to take a very long journey, say from London to John o’ Groats, with my poor tottering limbs to carry me, and such a weight to carry too, I might begin to despair, and, indeed, the very first day’s walking would knock me down; but if I had a divine assurance unmistakably saying, “You will hold on your way, and you will get to your journey’s end,” I feel that I would brace myself up to achieve the task.  One might hardly undertake a difficult journey if he did not believe that he would finish it, but the sweet assurance that we shall reach our home makes us pluck up courage.  The weather is wet, rainy, blusterous, but we must keep on, for the end is sure.  The road is very rough, and runs up hill and down dale; we pant for breath, and our limbs are aching; but as we shall get to our journey’s end we push on.  We are ready to creep into some cottage and lie down to die of weariness, saying, “I shall never accomplish my task;” but the confidence which we have received sets us on our feet, and off we go again.  To the right-hearted man, the assurance of success is the best stimulus for labor.  If it be so, that I shall overcome the world, that I shall conquer sin, that I shall not be an apostate, that I shall not give up my faith, that I shall not fling away my shield, that I shall come home a conqueror, then will I play the man, and fight like a hero.

This is one of the reasons why British troops have so often won the fight, because the drummerboys did not know how to beat a retreat, and the rank and file did not believe in the possibility of defeat.  They were beaten oftentimes by the French, so the French tell us, but they would not believe it, and therefore would not run away.  They felt like winning, and so they stood like solid rocks amidst the dread artillery of the foe till victory declared on their side.  Brethren, we shall do the same if we realize that we are preserved in Christ Jesus, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.  Every true believer shall be a conqueror, and hence the reason for warring a good warfare.  There is laid up for us in heaven a crown of life that fadeth not away.  The crown is laid up for us, and not for chance comers.  The crown reserved for me is such that no one else can wear it; and if it be so, then will I battle and strive to the end, till the last enemy is overcome, and death itself is dead.

Another improvement is this; what an encouragement this is to sinners who desire salvation. It should lead them to come and receive it with grateful delight.  Those who deny this doctrine offer sinners a poor twopenny-halfpenny salvation, not worth having, and it is no marvel that they turn away from it.  As the Pope gave England to the Spanish king – if he could get it – so do they proffer Christ’s salvation if a man will deserve it by his own faithfulness.  According to some, eternal life is given to you, but then it may not be eternal; you may fall from it, it may last only for a time.  When I was but a child I used to trouble myself because I saw some of my young companions, who were a little older than myself, when they became apprentices and came to London, become vicious; I have heard their mothers’s laments, and seen their tears about them; I have heard their fathers expressing bitterest sorrow over the boys whom I knew in my class to be quite as good as ever I had been, and it used to strike me with horror that I perhaps might sin as they had done.  They became Sabbath-breakers; in one case, there was a theft from the till to go into Sunday pleasuring.  I dreaded the very thought; I desired to maintain an unsullied character, and when I heard that if I gave my heart to Christ he would keep me, that was the very thing which won me; it seemed to be a celestial life assurance for my character, that if I would really trust Christ with myself he would save me from the errors of youth, preserve me amid the temptations of manhood, and keep me to the end. I was charmed with the thought that if I was made righteous by believing in Christ Jesus, I should hold on my way by the power of the Holy Spirit.  That which charmed me in my boyhood is even more attractive to me in middle life; I am happy to preach to you a sure and everlasting salvation.  I feel that I have something to bring before you this morning which is worthy of every sinner’s eager acceptance.  I have neither “if” nor “but” with which to dilute the pure gospel of my message.  Here it is; “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

I dropped a piece of ice upon the floor yesterday, and I said to one who was in the room, “Is not that a diamond?”  “Ah,” he said, “you would not leave it on the floor, I warrant you, if it were a diamond of that size.”  Now I have a diamond here – eternal life, everlasting life!  Methinks you will be in haste to take it up at once, to be saved now, to be saved in living, to be saved in dying, to be saved in rising again, for ever and ever, by the eternal power and infinite love of God.  Is not this worth having?  Grasp at it, poor soul; thou mayest have it if thou dost but believe in Jesus Christ, or, in other words, trust thy soul with him.  Deposit thine eternal destiny in this divine bank, then thou canst say, “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.”  The Lord bless you, for Christ’s sake.  Amen.

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

True Faith by A. W. Pink

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6)—“But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Heb. 4:2).  The linking together of these verses shows us the worthlessness of all religious activities where faith is lacking.  The outward exercise may be performed diligently and correctly, but, unless faith is in operation, God is not honored and the soul is not profited.  Faith draws out the heart unto God, and faith it is which receives from God—not a mere intellectual assent to what is revealed in Holy Writ, but a supernatural principle of grace which lives upon the God of Scripture.  This the natural man, no matter how religious or orthodox he be, lacks; and no labors of his, no act of his will, can acquire it.  It is the sovereign gift of God.

Faith must be operative in all the exercises of the Christian if God is to be glorified and the believer is to be edified.  First, in the reading of the Word: “But these are written that ye might believe” (John 20:31).  Second, in listening to the preaching of God’s servants: “The hearing of faith” (Gal. 3:2).  Third, in praying: “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering” (James 1:6).  Fourth, in our daily life: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7); “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).  Fifth, in our exit from this world: “These all died in faith” (Heb. 11:13).  What the breath is to the body, faith is to the soul; for one who is destitute of faith to seek to perform spiritual actions is like putting a spring within a wooden dummy and making it go through mechanical motions.

Now an unregenerate professor may read the Scriptures and yet have no spiritual faith. Just as the devout Hindu peruses the Upanishads and the Mohammedan his Koran, so many in “Christian” countries take up the study of the Bible, and yet have no more of the life of God in their souls than have their heathen brethren.  Thousands in this land read the Bible, believe in its Divine authorship, and become more or less familiar with its contents.  A mere professor may read several chapters every day, and yet never appropriate a single verse.  But faith applies God’s Word: it applies His fearful threats and trembles before them; it applies His solemn warnings, and seeks to heed them; it applies His precepts, and cries unto Him for grace to walk in them.

It is the same in listening to the Word preached.  A carnal professor will boast of having attended this conference and that, of having heard this famous teacher and that renowned preacher, and be no better off in his soul than if he had never heard any of them.  He may listen to two sermons every Sunday, and fifty years hence be as dead spiritually as he is today.  But the regenerated soul appropriates the message and measures himself by what he hears.  He is often convicted of his sins and made to mourn over them.  He tests himself by God’s standard, and feels that he comes so far short of what he ought to be, that he sincerely doubts the honesty of his own profession.  The Word pierces him, like a two-edged sword, and causes him to cry “O wretched man that I am.”

So in prayer—The mere professor often makes the humble Christian feel ashamed of himself.  The carnal religionist who has “the gift of the gab” is never at a loss for words: sentences flow from his lips as readily as do the waters of a babbling brook—verses of Scripture seem to run through his mind as freely as flour passes through a sieve, whereas the poor burdened child of God is often unable to do any more than cry “God be merciful to me a sinner.”  Ah, my friends, we need to distinguish sharply between a natural aptitude for “making” nice prayers and the spirit of true supplication: the one consists merely of words, the other of  “groanings  which  cannot  be uttered”—the one is acquired by religious education, the other is wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit.

Thus it is too in conversing about the things of God.  The frothy professor can talk glibly and often orthodoxy of “doctrines,” yes, and of worldly things, too: according to his mood, or according to his audience, so is his theme.  But the child of God, while being swift to hear that which is unto edification is “slow to speak.”  Ah, my reader, beware of talkative people; a drum makes a lot of noise, but it is hollow inside!  “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness; but a faithful man who can find?” (Prov. 20:6).  When a saint of God does open his lips about spiritual matters, it is to tell of what the Lord, in His infinite mercy, has done for him; but the carnal religionist is anxious for others to know what he is “doing for the Lord.”

The difference is just as real between the genuine Christian and the nominal Christian in connection with their daily lives: while the latter may appear outwardly righteous, yet within they are “full of hypocrisy, and iniquity” (Matt. 23:28).  They will put on the skin of a real sheep, but in reality they are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”  But God’s children have the nature of sheep, and learn of Him who is “meek and lowly in heart,” and, as the elect of God, they put on “mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering” (Col. 3:12).  They are in private what they appear in public.  They worship God in spirit and in truth, and have been made to know wisdom in the hidden parts of the heart.

So it is on their passing out of this world.  An empty professor may die as easily and as quietly as he lived—deserted by the Holy Spirit, undisturbed by the Devil; as the Psalmist says, “There are no bands in their death” (73:4).  But this is very different from the end of one whose deeply-plowed and consciously-defiled conscience has been “sprinkled” with the precious blood of Christ—“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (Psa. 37:37).  Yes, [with] a peace which “passeth all understanding” having lived the life of the righteous, he dies “the death of the righteous” (Num. 23:10).

And what is it which distinguishes the one character from the other—wherein lies the difference between the genuine Christian and he who is one in name only?  This—a God-given, Spirit-wrought faith in the heart.  Not a mere head-knowledge and intellectual assent to the truth, but a living, spiritual, vital principle in the heart—a faith which “purifies the heart” (Acts 15:9), which “worketh by love” (Gal. 5:6), which “overcometh the world” (1 John 5:4).  Yes, [it is] a faith which is Divinely sustained amidst trials within and opposition without; a faith which exclaims “though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15).

True, this faith is not always in exercise, nor is it equally strong at all times. The favored possessor of it must be taught by painful experience that as he did not originate it neither can he command it; therefore does he turn unto its Author, and say, “Lord I believe, help Thou mine unbelief.”  And then it is that, when reading the Word he is enabled to lay hold of its precious promises—that when bowing before the Throne of Grace, he is enabled to cast his burden upon the Lord—that when he rises to go about his temporal duties, he is enabled to lean upon the everlasting arms—and that when he is called upon to pass through the valley of the shadow of death, he triumphantly cries, “I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.” “Lord, increase our faith.”

From Studies in the Scriptures, February 1933.

Posted in A. W. Pink | 1 Comment »

Another Conversation on Assurance by A. W. Pink

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

Mr. Humble Heart: “Good morning, Sir.  May I beg the favor of an hour of your valuable time?”

Editor: “Come in, and welcome.  What can I do for you?”

Humble Heart: “I am sore troubled in spirit: I long so much to be able to call God ‘my father,’ but I fear I might be guilty of lying were I to do so.  There are many times when I have a little hope that He has begun a good work within me, but alas, for the most part, I find such a mass of corruption working within, that I feel sure that I have never been made a new creature in Christ.  My heart is so cold and hard toward God, that it seems impossible the Holy Spirit could have shed abroad God’s love in me; unbelief and doubtings so often master me, that it would be presumptuous to think I possess the faith of God’s elect.  Yet I want to love Him, trust Him, serve Him, but it seems I cannot.”

Editor: “I am very glad you called.  It is rare indeed to meet with an honest soul these days.”

Humble Heart: “Excuse me, Sir, but I do not want you to form a wrong impression of me: an honest heart is the very blessing I crave, but I am painfully conscious, from much clear evidence, that I possess it not.  My heart is deceitful above all things, and I am full of hypocrisy.  I have often begged God to make me holy, and right after, my actions proved that I did not mean what I said. I have often thanked God for His mercies, and then have soon fretted and murmured when His providence crossed my will.  I had quite a battle before I came here to see you tonight, as to whether I was really seeking help, or as to whether my secret desire was to win your esteem: and I am not sure now which was my real motive.”

Humble Heart: “To come to the point, Sir, if I am not intruding.  I have read and re-read your articles on “Assurance” which appeared in last year’s magazines.  Some things in those articles seemed to give me a little comfort, but other things almost drove me to despair.  Sometimes your description of a born-again soul agreed with my own experience, but at other times I seemed as far from measuring up to it as the poles are asunder.  So I do not know where I am.  I have sought to heed 2 Corinthians 13:5 and ‘examine’ myself, and when I did so, I could see nothing but a mass of contradictions; or, it would be more accurate to say, for each one thing I found which seemed to show that I was regenerate, I found ten things to prove that I could not be so.  And now, Sir, I’m mourning night and day, for I feel of all men the most miserable.”

Editor: “Hypocrites are not exercised about their motives, nor troubled over the deceitfulness of their hearts!  At any rate, I am thankful to see you are so deeply concerned about your soul’s eternal interests.”

Humble Heart: “Alas, Sir, I am not half as much concerned about them as I ought to be.  That is another thing which occasions me much anguish.  When the Lord Jesus tells us that the human soul is worth more than the whole world put together (Mark 8:36), I feel that I must be thoroughly blinded by Satan and completely under the dominion of sin, seeing that I am so careless.  It is true that at times I am alarmed about my state and fearful that I shall soon be in Hell; at times too, I seem to seek God more earnestly and read His Word more diligently; but alas, my goodness is ‘as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away’ (Hos. 6:4).  The cares of this life so soon crowd out thoughts of the life to come.  O, Sir, I want reality, not pretense; I want to make sure, yet cannot.”

Editor: “That is not so simple a task as many would have us believe.”

Humble Heart: “It certainly is not. I have consulted several Bible teachers, only to find them ‘physicians of no value’ (Job 13:4).  I have also conferred with some who boasted that they never have a doubt, and they quoted to me Acts 16:31, and on telling them I did believe, they cried ‘Peace, peace,’ but there was no peace in my heart.”

Editor: “Ah, dear friend, it is not without reason that God has bidden us ‘give diligence to make your calling and election sure’ (2 Peter 1:10).  And even after we have given diligence, we still need the Holy Spirit to ‘bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God’ (Rom. 8:16).  Moreover, spiritual assurance may easily be lost, or at least be clouded, as is evident from the case of him who wrote the 23rd Psalm, for at a later date he had to cry unto God, ‘Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.’

Editor: “Before proceeding further, had we not better ask the help of the Lord?  His Holy Word says, ‘In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths’ (Prov. 3:6).  And now, dear Brother, for such I am assured you really are, what is it that most causes you to doubt that you have passed from death unto life?”

Humble Heart: “My inward experiences, the wickedness of my heart, the many defeats I encounter daily.”

Editor: “Perhaps you are looking for perfection in the flesh.”

Humble Heart: “No, hardly that, for I know the ‘flesh’ or old nature is still left in the Christian.  But I have met with some who claim to be living ‘the victorious life,’ who say they never have a doubt, never a rising of anger, discontent, or any wicked feelings or desires; that Christ so controls them that unclouded peace and joy are theirs all the time.”

Editor: “Bear with me if I speak plainly, but such people are either hypnotized by the Devil, or they are fearful liars.  God’s Word says, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8).  And again, ‘There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not’ (Eccl. 7:20).  And again, ‘In many things, we offend all’ (James 3:2).  The beloved Apostle Paul when well advanced in the Christian life, declared, ‘I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members’ (Rom. 7:21-23).

Humble Heart: “That relieves my mind somewhat, yet it scarcely reaches the root of my difficulty.  What troubles me so much is this: when God regenerates a man, he becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus: the change wrought in him is so great that it is termed a ‘passing from death unto life.’  It is obvious that if God the Holy Spirit dwells in a person, that there must be a radical difference produced, both inwardly and outwardly, from what he was before.  Now it is this which I fail to find in myself.  Instead of being any better than I was a year ago, I feel I am worse.  Instead of humility filling my heart, so often pride rules it; instead of lying passive like clay in the Potter’s hand to be molded by Him, I am like a wild colt; instead of rejoicing in the Lord always, I am frequently filled with bitterness and repinings.”

Editor: “Such experiences as you describe are very sad and humbling, and need to be mourned over and confessed to God.  They must never be excused nor glossed over.  Nevertheless, they are not incompatible with the Christian state.  Rather they are so many proofs that he who is experimentally [by experience] acquainted with the ‘plague of his own heart’ (1 Kings 8:38) is one in experience with the most eminent of God’s saints.  Abraham acknowledged he was ‘dust and ashes’ (Gen. 18:27).  Job said, ‘I abhor myself’ (42:6).  David prayed ‘Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed’ (Psa. 6:2).  Isaiah exclaimed, ‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips’ (6:5).  In the anguish of his heart, Jeremiah asked, ‘Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?’ (20:18).  Daniel once owned, ‘There remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption’ (10:8).  Paul cried, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (Rom. 7:24).

“One of the principal things which distinguishes a regenerate person from an unregenerate one may be likened unto two rooms which have been swept but not dusted.  In one, the blinds are raised and the sunlight streams in, exposing the dust still lying on the furniture.  In the other, the blinds are lowered, and one walking through the room would be unable to discern its real condition.  Thus it is in the case of one who has been renewed by the Spirit: his eyes have been opened to see the awful filth which lurks in every corner of his heart.  But in the case of the unregenerate, though they have occasional twinges of conscience when they act wrongly, they are very largely ignorant of the awful fact that they are a complete mass of corruption unto the pure eyes of the thrice holy God.  It is true that an unregenerate person may be instructed in the truth of the total depravity of fallen man, and he may ‘believe’ the same, yet his belief does not humble his heart, fill him with anguish, make him loathe himself, and feel that Hell is the only place which is fit for him to dwell in.  But it is far otherwise with one who sees light in God’s light (Psa. 36:9); he will not so much as lift up his eyes to Heaven, but smites upon his leprous breast, crying, ‘God be merciful to me the sinner’.”

Humble Heart: “Would you kindly turn to the positive side, and give me a brief description of what characterizes a genuine Christian?”

Editor: “Among other gifts, every real Christian has such a knowledge of God in Christ, as works by love, that he is stirred up to earnestly inquire after the will of God, and studies His Word to learn that will, having a sincere desire and making an honest endeavor to live in the faith and practice of it.”

Humble Heart: “I cannot boast of my knowledge of God in Christ, yet by Divine grace this I may say: that I desire no other Heaven on earth than to know and to do God’s will, and be assured that I have His approval.”

Editor: “That is indeed a good sign that your soul has been actually renewed, and doubtless He who has begun a work of grace in your heart, will make the great change manifest in your life and actions.  No matter what he thinks or says, no unregenerate man really desires to live a life which is pleasing to God.”

Humble Heart: “God forbid that I should flatter myself, yet I hope I have often found delight when reading God’s Word or hearing it preached, and I do sincerely meditate upon it, and long that I may ‘grow in grace.’  Yet, at times, I am tempted with vain and vile thoughts, and I strive to banish them, my heart rising up against them; yet sometimes I yield to them.  I loathe lying and cursing, and cannot endure the company of those who hate practical godliness; yet my withdrawal from them seems nothing but pharisaic hypocrisy, for I am such a miserable failure myself.  I pray to God for deliverance from temptation and for grace to resist the Devil, but I fear that I do not have His ear, for more often than not I am defeated by sin and Satan.”

Editor: “When you thus fall in your duty, or fall into sin, what do you think of yourself and your ways?  How are you affected therewith?”

Humble Heart: “When I am in this deplorable condition, my soul is grieved, my joy of heart and peace of conscience gone.  But when I am a little recovered out of this sinful lethargy, my heart is melted with sorrow over my folly, and I address myself to God with great fear and shame, begging Him to forgive me, pleading 1 John 1:9, and humbly imploring Him to ‘renew a right spirit within me’.”

Editor: “And why is it that you are so troubled when sin conquers you?”

Humble Heart: “Because I truly wish to please the Lord, and it is my greatest grief when I realize that I have dishonored and displeased Him. His mercy has kept me, thus far, from breaking out into open and public sins, yet there is very much within which I know He hates.”

Editor: “Well, my dear brother and companion in the path of tribulation, God has ordained that the Lamb shall be eaten with ‘bitter herbs’ (Exo. 12:8).  So it was with the Apostle: ‘As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ (2 Cor. 6:10) summed up his dual experience: ‘sorrowful over his sinful failures, both of omission and commission; yet ‘rejoicing’ over the provisions which Divine grace has made for us while we are in this dreary desert – the Mercy Seat ever open to us, whither we may draw near, unburden our heavy hearts, and pour out our tale of woe; the Fountain which has been ‘opened for sin and for uncleanness’ (Zech. 13:1), whither we may repair for cleansing.  I am indeed thankful to learn that your conscience confirms what your tongue has uttered.  You have expressed enough to clearly evidence that the Holy Spirit has begun a good work in your soul.  But I trust you also have faith in the Lord Jesus, the Mediator, by whom alone any sinner can draw near unto God.”

Humble Heart: “By Divine grace, I do desire to acknowledge and embrace the Lord Jesus upon the terms on which He is proclaimed in the Gospel: to believe all His doctrine as my Teacher, to trust in and depend upon the atoning sacrifice which He offered as the great High Priest, and to submit to His rule and government as King. But, alas, in connection with the last, ‘to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not’ (Rom. 7:18).

Editor: “No real Christian ever attains his ideal in this life; he never reaches that perfect standard which God has set before us in His Word, and which was so blessedly exemplified in the life of Christ.  Even the Apostle Paul, near the close of his life, had to say, ‘Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 3:12).  But may I ask if you are sensible of how you arrived at the good desires you mentioned?  Do you suppose that such a disposition is natural to you, or that it has resulted from your own improvement of your faculties?”

Humble Heart: “No, Sir, I dare not ascribe to nature that which is the effect and fruit of Divine grace.  If I have any measure of sanctification (which is what I long to be assured of), then it can only be by the gift and operation of God.  I am too well acquainted with my wretched self: I know too well that by nature I am alive to vanity and sin but dead to God and all real goodness; that folly possesses my soul, darkness shrouds my understanding; that I am utterly unable to will or to do what is pleasing in God’s sight, and that my natural heart is set contrary to the way of salvation proposed in the Gospel, rising up against its flesh-condemning precepts and commandments.  I see, I know, I feel that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.”

Editor: “Then do you realize what must be the outcome if God were to leave you unto yourself?”

Humble Heart: “Yes, indeed.  Without the assistance of His Holy Spirit, I should certainly make shipwreck of the faith.  My daily prayer is ‘Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe’ (Psa. 119:117).  My earnest desire is that I may watch and pray against every temptation.  There is nothing I dread more than apostatizing, relaxing in my duty, returning to wallow in the mire.”

Editor: “These are all plain evidences of the saving grace of God at work within you, which I beseech Him to continue, so that you may be preserved with a tender conscience, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and obtain a full assurance of His love for you.”

Humble Heart: “I thank you kindly, Sir, for your patience and help.  What you have said makes me feel lighter in heart, but I wish to go home and prayerfully ponder the same, for I dare not take any man’s word for it.  I want God Himself ‘to say unto my soul, I am thy salvation’ (Psa. 35:3).  Will you not pray that it may please Him so to do?”

Editor: “You shall certainly have a place in my feeble petitions.  The Lord be very gracious unto you.”

Excerpted and edited from A.W. Pink, Studies in the Scriptures, October, 1932.

Posted in A. W. Pink |

Coming to Christ by Solomon Stoddard

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

What we are to preach

The gospel—In Isaiah, it is good tidings, and so the Greek word signifies, so our word “gospel” signifies.  It comes from two Saxon words: God, that signifies good; and Spell, that signifies a word.  There are other good tidings, but the gospel is so by way of eminency.  The gospel brings tidings of the love of God to men, and of a glorious way of reconciliation and salvation.  They are much to blame who slight the gospel and reject it.  They carry on as if the gospel were not good tidings.

To whom we are to preach

To the poor–There are two sorts of poor:

1. They that are low in the world; that are destitute of riches, and the invitations of the gospel are sent to them as well as others, and they who receive it are more generally of that sort.  1 Corinthians 1:28, God hath chosen the base things of the world, and things that are despised.  James 2:5, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom.  Matthew 11:5, The poor have the gospel preached unto them.

2. Those that are poor in spirit, who are sensible that they have nothing to purchase heaven, who are sensible that they have no money nor price for their salvation.  And they are of two sorts:

(a)   Such as are legally poor, as those in Matthew 11:28, That labor and are heavy laden, who are convinced of the wretchedness of their hearts, and that God may justly condemn them.

(b)  Such as are evangelically poor in spirit, such as have the grace of humility, and live upon the mercy of God in Christ spoken of in Matthew 5:3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Those who are called poor here are called meek in Isaiah 60:1.  Their hearts are meekened, either by conviction or by grace.  I do not exclude the latter, but it seems to have a particular respect to the former.

DOCTRINE. The gospel is especially to be preached to the poor in spirit.  They are particularly to be invited. Consider here these two propositions.

FIRST PROPOSITION.  The gospel is to be preached to all. Though there is no expectation that all will receive it, yet it is to be preached to all.  Ministers are not bound to preach it to everyone in the world, for that is impossible, but they are to preach to all as they have opportunity.  They may not designedly hide the gospel from any.  There are many differences among men, in respect of their estates, age, covenant, interest and sinfulness; but the gospel is to be preached to them all.  Christ forbade His disciples to go into the way of the Gentiles, or to enter into any city of the Samaritans, Matthew 10:5, but this was a temporary command.  But now, the gospel is to be preached unto all, Mark 16:15, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, that is, every human creature.  Acts 20:21, Testifying both to the Jew, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.  Galatians 3:28, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.  All are to be instructed in the gospel and to be invited to Christ.

The first reason is because the promise is to all.  There is a conditional promise made to all who believe in Christ.  There is no exception of any who believe in Christ.  The sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven, but the conditional promise is true of them, and no man knows that he has committed that sin.  The offer of the gospel is made to men without any exception. It is propounded in general terms so as to comprehend all.  Acts 10:43, Whosoever believeth on Him shall have remission of sins.  Men are ready to except themselves, but God makes no exceptions.  Sometimes the promise is propounded indefinitely, John 3:36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.  But sometimes it is propounded universally, for there is no other condition joined to this and, not only so, but the notes of universality are added to the promise, as “whosoever,” John 3:16, and “all,” Acts 13:39, or “any,” Revelation 3:20.  And, therefore, it must be preached to all.

The second reason is that they who are not poor in spirit may receive benefit by the gospel. The gospel is many ways useful to make men poor in spirit.  Preparation for Christ is carried on by the law and the gospel in conjunction.  When men hear that there is a way of salvation by Christ, that makes them more willing to see their danger, and not altogether so opposed to receiving conviction.  It encourages them to pray to God to show them their misery.  When men hear that Christ died for our sins, that makes them sensible that God is very angry for sin; that He will execute vengeance.  This is an evidence of the justice and severity of God.  Men may learn from thence that sin is a great offense and must be punished. Luke 23:31, If they do such things in a green tree, what shall be done in a dry? When men hear that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to suffer for them, this reveals the vile nature of sin whereby men abuse a God of such grace.  Psalm 130:4, There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest feared. When men hear that Christ has redeemed us from the curse, that may convince them that their own works cannot save them.  Galatians 2:21, If righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. When they hear the command to believe in Christ, that convinces them that, though they are civil and religious, yet if they do not believe, they are rebellious and in a miserable estate.

The third reason is because they who are not poor in spirit now may be poor in spirit afterwards. If men hear the gospel and do not make right use of it now, yet they will retain the knowledge of it and it may do them service afterwards, though they are not sensible of their lost condition now, but are senseless and carnally confident, yet they may be poor in spirit hereafter.  And then, what they have heard may come to mind and become powerful upon their hearts.  It may be, when they do not have an opportunity to hear the gospel, they will call to mind what they have heard some years before, and ponder on what has been preached to them formerly.

SECOND PROPOSITION.  The gospel is especially to be preached to the poor in spirit.  It is fit that ministers should make a particular application of the calls of the gospel to them.  It is true they may do so to young men, to ancient men, and to great sinners: but there is a peculiar reason to make particular application to them who are poor in spirit.  These persons are, in a particular manner, invited in the Scripture, Isaiah 55:1, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat, buy wine and milk without money, and without price.  They are thirsty who are parched up for want of something to quench their thirst. The like we have in Matthew 11:28, Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and ye shall find rest for your souls.  They are weary and heavy laden that are oppressed with the weight of God’s wrath.  So it is in Revelation 22:17, The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.  God is here teaching ministers to have  particular regard to such.  The invitations are not confined to these, but they are to be particularly applied to these.  Some others have special need to have the terrors of the law preached to them; but the invitations of the gospel are especially to be propounded to those that are poor in spirit.

The reason for this is not from any excellency in this poverty of spirit.  There is nothing of spiritual goodness in this.  It is indeed a reasonable thing.  It is according to the dictates of right reason, but there is nothing of piety or love to God, or godly sorrow in it.  It is a mere forced thing and, accordingly, it is not acceptable unto God.  The first good act that is done by the soul is believing in Christ and, accordingly, there is no promise made in the Scripture to this legal poverty of spirit.  No man is under any promise of salvation until he comes to Christ.  It is probable that God may give grace to all those who have this poverty of spirit; but there is no promise in the Word that he will.  Indeed, there is an inconsistency in it that there should be any promise made to it.  For when a man is poor in spirit, he owns that it is in God’s liberty to do with him as he pleases; and he continues some time in this frame and continues to acknowledge it.  But if there were any promise of salvation to it, then after the first act of submission, it would not be in God’s liberty to do with him as He pleased.  But he would be bound to bestow grace upon him, and he might challenge and lay claim to faith.  But the reason is because such men are prepared to receive the gospel.  This poverty of spirit brings men near to Christ, so that it is very hopeful that they will accept him.

Now they see a lack of salvation.  Men who are seeking their felicity in the world, and do not have a sense of the wrath of God, do not mind Christ.  They take more notice of the market and worldly opportunities than of gospel invitations. Matthew 22:5, They made light of it and went one to his farm, and another to his merchandise. But —

a)     When they are poor in spirit, they are like thirsty men who are even parched up.  Revelation 22:17, Let him that is thirst come. They tremble as Paul did, Acts 9:6.  This is some preparation.

b)     Now they see that they can get salvation in no other way.  If men have hope to work out their salvation themselves, they will not come to Christ.  If they can cure their own souls, they will not come to this Physician.  If the prodigal thinks that he can earn his living, he will not return to his father, Luke 15:15.  But he who is poor in spirit has tried all conclusions, and everything fails him.  He sees himself a dead man, Romans 7:9, Sin revived, and I died.  So he sees greater necessity.  This is a farther degree of preparation.

USE 1. The need to preach the law to those not “poor in spirit.”

Hence see that those who are not poor in spirit especially need to have the law preached to them.  It is useful to all sorts of men to hear the preaching of the law.  Saints stand in need of it to keep them humble, to put them upon it to renew their faith in Christ and to make them thankful; but especially such as are not poor in spirit.  They need to be brought to Mount Sinai, and to hear the thunderings, and to see the lightnings.  Secure sinners do not love to hear the terrors of the law.  They would rather be entertained with some more comfortable doctrines; but they are in great necessity to hear the law.  If there had been no law, there would have been no necessity of the gospel.  And men who are not sensible of the terrors of the law will not regard the invitations of the gospel.  Such as are not poor in spirit need to hear the law often so that they may be prepared to receive the gospel, that their hearts may be broken and humbled. Galatians 3:24, The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

(1) That they may be sensible of the terribleness of damnation. Many men are not aware what a terrible thing it is to be damned.  They have a deeper sense of poverty and reproach than they have a damnation.  They look upon hell as an uncomfortable place.  They think if it must be their portion to go to hell, they shall bear it as well as others.  They are not likely to go there alone.  They seldom think of it.  They look upon it as a remote thing, at a great distance, and it does not terrify them; but the law reveals that it is intolerable.  If the sense of the terribleness of damnation sinks into their hearts, they will not regard the world, they will not stick at their pains.  They will not think much to part with their sins.  They would rather undergo any sorrow than be damned.

(2) That they may be sensible of the great danger of damnation.  Men are wont to soothe themselves that God will not send them to hell.  He is kind and gracious, and they pray to Him.  They are in covenant and enjoy privileges; they live orderly and are sorry for their sins, and so they hope they are in no great danger.  But the law shows that sinners are under a sentence of condemnation.  Romans 6:23, The wages of sin is death.  The law shows that God is very angry with ungodly men, Psalm 50:21-22, I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thee. Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.  The law shows that the threatening must be executed.  The law must take place that the faithfulness of God is engaged for the fulfilling of the law.  Matthew 5:18, Not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law, but all shall be fulfilled.  Hence many men are afraid they shall not escape.  They are afraid there is no mercy for them.  They have a “fearful expectation of fiery indignation.”  They have a “dreadful sound in their ears,” as we find in Job 15:21.   And their hearts are meditating terror.  They confess, they reform, they cry, they plead, but yet it rings in their ears, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.

(3) That they may be sensible of the danger of sudden destruction.  There is an inclination in men to put far away the evil day, and then they think they may have a long opportunity to enjoy worldly comforts.  Men see that God exercises patience towards others, and they flatter themselves that He will be patient towards them.  But by the law, they see that God will destroy many sinners suddenly.   1 Thessalonians 5:3, When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. And the law shows them that God is very angry; that He sets their iniquities before Him, their secret sins in the light of His countenance.  And so they are afraid God will not wait upon them.  It is with them as in Deuteronomy 28:66-67, Thy life shall hang in suspense, and thou shall fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, “Would God it were evening;” and at evening thou shalt say, “Would God it were morning;” for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear.”

(4) That they may be sensible of the justice of their damnation.  Men have an abundance of objections against the justice of God.  They argue that sins do not hurt God; He is happy forever, notwithstanding their sins.  They object that they could not prevent their sins, they are according to the decree of God; that they did not consent to sin, it was imputed to them, and so they were conceived in sin and born in iniquity.  They object that they have done service and that the pains of hell are intolerable.  But the law shows that their damnation is just, Romans 3:19, Whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  It is very evident from the law that men have deserved destruction; that they are worthy of death for they have broken a holy law and, according to the sentence of it, which is a rule of justice, they have merited damnation.  It is evident that they are the proper causes of their own sins, and they have therein run upon the point of the sword, and have thrown themselves into a gulf of misery, Hosea 13:9, 0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.

USE 2.  Of warning to sinners.

Do not be afraid to see that you are poor.  There is he who makes himself rich, yet has nothing, Proverbs 13:7.  So it is with some in this case, Revelation 3:17, Thou sayest thou art rich, and increased in goods, and hast need of nothing, but art poor, and wretched, etc. Men miserably deceive themselves by such imaginations, Galatians 6:3, He that thinketh himself some thing when he is nothing deceiveth himself. It is awful for men to see themselves poor.  It is frightful but, if you are poor, it is best to see it.  The case of such men is doleful, but not desperate.  Such have no foundation to trust in themselves, but they have ground of encouragement, for the gospel is especially to be preached to them who are poor in spirit.  In the invitations of the gospel, he has a singular regard to them, Luke 4:8.  Your condition is not the more dangerous, but the more hopeful for seeing yourselves poor.

Consider:

1. You are wholly empty of goodness. Some of you have considerable shows of goodness.  There is an appearance of good desires, gracious sorrow, love to ordinances and Sabbaths, and there is care to avoid sin; but there is nothing of goodness in all this.  You are acted in your religion by a spirit of self-love.  Fear of hell and hopes of heaven are the great principles that influence you.  You are acted by a lust of self-love in all your religion.  You make a considerable profession, but God may say of you as of them in Deuteronomy 5:29, O that there were such an heart in them.  All that you do is for yourselves, Hosea 10:1.  If you are swept and garnished, yet you are empty.  There is some similitude of faith and love, but no reality.  There is not one spark of goodness in your heart.  Though corruption is restrained, yet it reigns and, as long as corruption reigns, there is a total lack of goodness.  Faith is the first good thing that is wrought in the heart.  You are afraid of judgment; so are the devils, James 2:19, The devils believe and tremble. You are much in prayer; so would the devils be if the had hopes of deliverance.

2. You have no power to do any good. You have power to do all manner of external duties, but you have no power to keep the law.  Romans 8:7, The natural mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. If you have the help of ordinances, of afflictions, of deliverances, of examples, yet you cannot work up any gracious frame in your own heart.  If there were a seed of grace in your heart, by being cherished it might grown and flourish, but there is none.  A man who is in a swoon may be brought to be sensible, and to walk and work, but a man that is dead cannot.

Thus it is with you. You are dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2:1.  A watch or a clock, by springs and weights, may move briskly, but it has no principle of life.  It is quite beyond you to do any spiritual good.  You cannot receive the gospel.  There is encouragement enough set before you, and it would be exceedingly profitable to you to receive it, but you cannot.  You do not have a heart to receive it, John 6:44, No man can come unto Me, except the Father that sent Me draw him.

3. God is not bound to change your heart. God is absolutely free.  He may help you but, if He will not, He is blessed forever.  It is true, He may help you without any wrong to Himself, but that lays Him under no necessity.  It is His choice whether He will glorify His justice or His mercy on you.  He may pass over you and take another.  Romans 9:16, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. God is under no constraint to change your heart.  His justice does not necessitate Him.  You have deserved condemnation, and your prayers and tears lay no bonds on the justice of God. His faithfulness does not necessitate Him.  He has promised to convert some, but there is no absolute promise to any natural man.  His mercy does not necessitate Him.  The merciful nature of man, many times, forces him to pity and help others, but God is wholly voluntary in the exercises of His mercy.  God is not of such a tender heart that he cannot bear to see men in misery.  God can take pleasure in the exercises of justice.  His honor does not necessitate Him to convert you.  It would have been as much for His honor to have converted Esau as Jacob, Judas as Peter, Saul as David.  If he does not convert you, He will be glorified forever.  You cannot bring God under any necessity to convert you.  If He does not, He does you no wrong; you are in His hands.  He is the potter and you are the clay.  He may make you a vessel of honor or dishonor, Romans 9:21.

USE 3. Of exhortation to them that are poor to receive the gospel.

If it were not offered to you, it would be obtrusion and presumption, a thrusting of yourselves upon Christ; it would be an impudent thing.  But God offers mercy to you; yes, in a special manner, as the message concerning Christ’s resurrection was sent in a particular manner to Peter.  So He charges His ministers to make a particular application of the gospel to you, Luke 4:18, Isaiah 55:1, Revelation 22:17. Consider:

1. It is not beyond His mercy to pardon you.  Salvation is a great work.  If your sins had been fewer in number, and smaller in their nature and aggravations, it would require great mercy to pardon and save you.  But as great as your sins are, it is not beyond the grace of God.  You must beware that you do not limit the holy One of Israel.  Ephesians 2:4, God is rich in mercy.  His grace is like the ocean, it is sufficient to cover all your sins.  Ephesians 3:18, to comprehend the breadth, and length, and height, and depth of the love of Christ. There are three dimensions that belong to bodies; here are four ascribed to mercy.  Thickness may be measured downwards, so it is depth; and upwards, so it is height.  Mercy brings sinners from deep misery to the pinnacle of happiness.  God’s mercy is greater than man’s.  God can find mercy for such as men cannot find mercy for.  Hosea 11:9, I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man.  God’s mercies are greater than your sins.  Men think if they had not sinned so much, or so long, their sin would not have been beyond God’s mercy.  But God’s mercy can conquer all their provocations.  Grace may prevail over all, Romans 5:21, Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.

The mercy of God is greater than we can conceive of.  The understanding of man is large.  We can conceive of how many minutes there are in a thousand years; how many inches there are to the center of the earth, but we cannot comprehend the love of Christ.  Ephesians 3:19, the love of Christ passeth knowledge.  We cannot comprehend the bitterness of the cup that He drank for our sakes.  We cannot comprehend the duration of His love.  We cannot comprehend the great good that He has procured for us.

2. God has designed to save many lost sinners.  It is the purpose of His heart to bring many poor sinners to heavenly glory.  If He had taken up a resolution against it, men might well be discouraged; but He has not resolved against it, neither is He at a loss what to do.  His not loath to do it; but it is His full determination.  He is resolved in His way, and He purposes to break over all objections and conquer all oppositions.  He is set in His way and will not be put out of it.  And He has done a great  deal in order to the salvation of such sinners.  The price of it is paid.  Sin laid a bar in the way, but that bar is removed by the death of Christ.  There is no need of any contrivance how to satisfy the law—that is done already by Christ.  God has sent Christ to save us. Galatians 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse, being made a curse for us.  And God makes a proposal to you, and gives you liberty to be saved, if you will accept Jesus Christ.  He does not tell you that His heart is hardened against you; but He tells you that you shall be welcome if you will come to Christ.  Revelation 22:17, Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.  Yes, He beseeches you to come for salvation.  God is of infinite majesty, yet He entreats you to be saved.  He condescends to your infirmity and stoops so low as to plead with you.  He becomes, as it were, a petitioner to you.  He begs you to come, and urges it as a courtesy to come, with tender-heartedness.  2 Corinthians 5:20, We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

3. This is a principal way wherein God glorifies Himself. The end of all things is God’s glory, and He has done many great things for His glory.  He made the world for His glory that His power and wisdom might be manifested.  He preserved the holy angels from sinning for the glory of His goodness.  He gave the law for the glory of His holiness.  He drowned the old world, saved Israel out of Egypt, destroyed Sodom, brought Judah from Babylon for His glory.  But this is a principal way wherein He glorifies Himself in working out the salvation of sinners by Christ.  There is a great manifestation of the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead.

There is a manifestation of the power, of the justice, and of the manifold wisdom of God and of His unsearchable grace.  In this way, He is greatly exalted. Micah 7:18, Who is a God like unto thee, pardoning iniquity, and passing by the transgression.  Revelation 5:12-13, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and honor, and strength, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and in the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.

From A Guide to Christ.

Posted in Solomon Stoddard |

Theme Study: Perseverance by Jim Ehrhard

January 16, 2010 by ADMIN

Preface to the Study

The Perseverance of the Saints is an essential corollary to the doctrine of Assurance.  Assurance places the emphasis upon what God has done to secure salvation for the believer – not what the believer has done or will do to secure it.  As such, assurance provides the believer with confidence that God’s work of salvation shall be completed – “He who began a good work in you is able to bring it forth until the day of completion.” (Philippians 1:6).   Some might even refer to this as the preservation of the saints, placing the emphasis on God continuing to keep believers, rather than on what believers do to keep themselves.

Perseverance emphasizes the result of God’s work of preservation.  Believers only persevere because of God’s preservation.  They are “kept by the power of God” (1 Peter 1:5) and they are presented faultless before His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24).  Our assurance is because of what God did in salvation; our preservation is because of what God continues to do in keeping all that He has saved.

Preservation is an essential doctrine.  In reality, it also has impact on our salvation.  For example, in John 6, Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me and he that comes to me, I will in no way cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him that sent me.  And this is the will of my Father who sent me, that of all that he has given me, I should lose none, but raise them up on the last day” (John 6:37-39).  Jesus not only saves us; He keeps us.  This is the Father’s will.  And if even one were to be lost eternally, all would be lost eternally, because Jesus would not have done the will of His Father!

In some ways, this issue is a continuance of the previous issue on Assurance.  Thus we begin this issue with another article by A. W. Pink which provides a conversation with “Mr. Humble Heart.”  Here Pink provides, through means of a dialogue, some helpful insights into the nature of true conversion.  We pray that this “conversation” will be helpful to those struggling to come to a full assurance of their faith.  Likewise, the article by J. C. Ryle, “Reasons Assurance is Not Attained,” is designed to provide help for those who wonder why they do not have “confidence to come boldly before the throne.”

The question of “falling from grace” is often presented as proof that some do fall away and lose their salvation.  Since this issue is often misunderstood by well-meaning believers, we have included the article “Falling from Grace” in this issue to help provide some answers to this theological question.

Finally, we have included two excellent sermons by Charles Spurgeon regarding the doctrine of Perseverance and a short section from the Miscellanies of Jonathan Edwards on Perseverance.  Spurgeon preached often on this glorious doctrine to the great comfort and encouragement of many believers.  The greatest task in preparing this issue was sorting through the many sermons he preached on perseverance to find a few to edit and reprint.  The volume was so large and the teaching so wonderful that we have included a number of additional sermons by Spurgeon on Perseverance on our website.  We pray that these will be a great encouragement to you as you read them.

Most of all, the Doctrine of Preservation gives credit where credit is due.  Like the emphasis on Assurance that rests solely on what God has done, the emphasis on Perseverance/Preservation also gives God the glory alone.  Those whom He by His grace has saved, He by His grace will be keep!  To God be the Glory, alone and forever!

By His Grace, Jim & Debbie

Posted in Jim Ehrhard |

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