After Christ’s death, there comes, in the next place, the work of the Holy
Spirit. Those whom the Father hath chosen, and whom the Son has redeemed,
in due time the Holy Spirit calls “out of darkness into marvelous light.”
Now, the calling of the Holy Spirit is without any regard to any, merit in
us. If this day the Holy Spirit shall call out of this congregation a
hundred men, and bring them out of their estate of sin into a state of
righteousness, you shall bring these hundred men, and let them march in
review, and if you could read their hearts, you would be compelled to say,
“I see no reason why the Spirit of God should have operated upon these. I
see nothing whatever that could have merited such grace as this–nothing
that could have caused the operations and motions of the Spirit to work in
these men.”
For, look ye here. By nature, men are said to be dead in sin. If the Holy
Spirit quickens, it cannot be because of any power in the dead men, or any
merit in them, for they are dead, corrupt and rotten in the grave of their
sin. If then, the Holy Spirit says, “Come forth and live,” it is not
because of anything in the dry bones, it must be for some reason in His own
mind, but not in us. Therefore, know ye this, men and brethren, that we all
stand upon a level. We have none of us anything that can recommend us to
God; and if the Spirit shall choose to operate in our hearts unto
salvation, He must be moved to do it by His own supreme love, for He cannot
be moved to do it by any good will, good desire, or good deed, that dwells
in us by nature.
To go a little further: this truth, which holds good so far, holds good all
the way. God’s people, after they are called by grace, are preserved in
Christ Jesus; they are “kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation;” they are not suffered to sin away their eternal inheritance,
but as temptations arise they have strength given with which to encounter
them, and as sin blackens them they are washed afresh, and again cleansed.
But mark, the reason why God keeps His people is the same as that which
made them His people–His own free sovereign grace. If, my brother, you
have been delivered in the hour of temptation, pause and remember that you
were not delivered for your own sake. There was nothing in you that
deserved the deliverance. If you have been fed and supplied in your hour of
need, it is not because you have been a faithful servant of God, nor
because you have been a prayerful Christian; it is simply and only because
of God’s mercy. He is not moved to anything He does for you by
anything .that you do for Him; His motive for blessing you lies wholly and
entirely in the depths of His own bosom. Blessed be God, His people shall
be kept.
“Nor death, nor Hell shall e’er remove
His favourites from His breast;
In the dear bosom of His love
They must forever rest.”
And to conclude my exposition of this text. This shall hold good in Heaven
itself. The day is coming when every blood-bought, blood-washed child of
God shall walk the golden streets arrayed in white. Our hands shall soon
bear the palm; our ears shall be delighted with celestial melodies, and our
eyes filled with the transporting visions of God’s glory. But mark, the
only reason why God shall bring us to Heaven shall be His own love, and not
because we deserved it. We must fight the fight, but we do not win the
victory because we fight it; we must labour, but the wage at the days’ end
shall be a wage of grace, and not a debt. We must honour God here, looking
for the recompense of the reward; but that recompense will not be given on
a legal ground, because we merited it, but given to us entirely because God
had loved us, for no reason that was in us.
When you and I and each of us shall enter Heaven, our song shall be, “Not
unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be all the glory;” and that shall
be true, it shall not be a mere exaggeration of gratitude. It shall be
true; we shall be compelled to sing it, because we could not sing anything
else. We shall feel that we did nothing, and that we were nothing, but that
God did it all–that we had nothing in us to be the motive of his doing it,
but that His motive lay in Himself; therefore unto Him shall be every
particle of the honour forever and ever.
Now, this, I take it, is the meaning of the text; distasteful it is to the
great majority, even of professing Christians in this age. It is a doctrine
that requires a great deal of salt, or else few people will receive it. It
is very unsavory to them. However, there It stands. “Let God be true, and
every man a liar.” His truth we must preach, and this we must proclaim.
Salvation is “not of men, neither by man; not of the will of the flesh, nor
of blood,” nor of birth, but of the sovereign will of God, and God alone.
II. And now, in the second place, I have to ILLUSTRATE AND ENFORCE THIS
TEXT.
Consider a moment man’s character. It will humble us, and it will tend to
confirm this truth in our minds. Let me take an illustration. I will
consider man as a criminal. He certainly is such in the sight of God, and I
shall not slander him. Suppose now that some great criminal is at last
overtaken in his sin, and shut up in Newgate. He has committed high
treason, murder, rebellion, and every possible iniquity. He has broken all
the laws of the realm–every one of them. The public cry is
everywhere–”This man must die; the laws cannot be maintained unless he
shall be made an example of their rigour. He who beareth not the sword in
vain must this time let the sword taste blood. The man must die; he richly
deserves it.” You look through his character: you cannot see one solitary
redeeming trait. He is an old offender; he has so long persevered in his
iniquity that you are compelled to say, “The case is hopeless with this
man; his crimes have such aggravation we cannot make an apology for him,
even should we try. Not jesuitical cunning itself could devise any pretence
of excuse, or any hope of a plea for this abandoned wretch; let him die!”
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
