PART I, SKETCH LXXVII: THE COVENANT

“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” (Hebrews 8.10.)

Introduction. The doctrine of the covenant lies at the root of all true theology. Man first stood before God under the covenant of works. A certain law was given to Adam. If he kept it, he and his posterity would be blessed. If he broke it, then he and we would be cursed. Because Adam failed, we too are ruined, for we are of him, and he represented all men. We have all failed in his failure. To be saved by the law is now impossible. But Divine mercy has stepped in and provided a plan of salvation from this fall by Christ Jesus, who is called “the second Adam.” He has accomplished this covenant of works, and gained what the first Adam lost. All blessings acquired by Christ through his work belong to those whom God has chosen to believe in him. This is the covenant of grace. 

(1) What are the Privileges of the Covenant of Grace? By nature we are dark towards God’s will. The first privilege under the covenant of grace is the illuminating of our mind by the Holy Spirit to know the will of God. The next blessing is that God writes his laws in our hearts, not just on them, but in them. This is gracious work! We then delight to do his will, and hate to oppose it. The preacher of the law tells you to do this and to not do that. But the preacher of the gospel tells you that Jesus Christ has done such a work for sinners that God, through Christ, makes them see right, love holiness, and follow after righteousness. A third blessing is that God is ours. This is unfathomable. What! Is God our father? A friend? A rock? A refuge? A fortress? A high tower? A home? A heaven? Yes, but “I will be their God” means all this and more! Comfort, provision, wisdom! Infinity itself is ours, and all that God is or can be! A fourth blessing is that we are God’s people. By God’s right, all men are his in a certain sense. But we are his peculiar people, his peculiar treasure for whom he keeps the world revolving. The world is just a scaffold for the church. Creation will be pulled down once the saints are done with it. 

(2) For Whom has God Made this Covenant? God made it with Christ as the representative of his people. But the question is, “Did Christ Jesus stand in for you?” Well, have you the enlightened mind? Have you a love for good and a hatred for evil? If so, the covenant is yours with all of Canaan’s milk and honey. If not, then I invite you to believe in Jesus. He who does that has eternal life, the blessing of the covenant, and therefore must be in the covenant. To believe in is to ‘trust.’ Whoever will cast away his self-righteousness and all that he depends on, and come and trust in the finished work of the exalted Saviour, is one of the elect. And Christ did not die on the tree to render men salvable, but to actually save them. And saving faith always comes with the new nature and God’s law in the heart. You must have an internal change in order to be saved. Baptism alone is an external washing, like washing the outside of an ink bottle. 

Selection from Conclusion. You may go to-night and renounce all your outward vices—I hope you will; you may go and practice all church ceremonies, and if they are Scriptural I wish you may; but they will do nothing for you, nothing whatever as to your entering heaven, if you miss one thing else, that is, getting the covenant blessing of the renewed nature, which can only be got as the gift of God through Jesus Christ, and as the result of a simple faith in him who died upon the tree…the new heart comes from the bleeding heart of Jesus, and the changed nature comes from the suffering nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look you alone to Jesus, for there all your help is laid.”  

PART I, SKETCH LXXVI: VERY SINGULAR

“He put his household in order and hanged himself” (2 Samuel 17.23.)

Introduction. Ahithophel was for years the friend and adviser of David. Then when David’s son, Absalom, tried to steal David’s throne, Ahithophel crossed over to the popular side, with Absalom. And when Absalom refused his advice, he put his affairs in order and hanged himself. That is very singular, to neatly put your house in order just before you foolishly commit suicide. Don’t laugh, this mixture of thoughtfulness and craziness is almost universal among us.

(1) The Hard Laborer. You may have plowed faithfully for your employer, but have you asked to have your heart plowed with the gospel? You delight in the rose that will wither, but take no thought for your undying nature? I understand and respect that you want to do well at your job, but work is a minor matter compared to eternal concerns. Do you know that your soul will outlast the sun? Will you be a faithful servant of men, and then die as unfaithful to God?

(2) The Careful Businessman. You are careful in business. That’s good. But be careful you are not like that woman who gathered gold coins from off the boat floor, wrapped them around her waist and then leaped off the sinking ship! Like a stone she went down—to her destruction!

(3) The Thoughtful Student. There you are with all your books to help you get the degree. You burn the midnight oil so you can be numbered among the intelligent. When will you look into the Bible? Will you be called into the academy of the smarts, and then miss the roll call of heaven?

(4) The Law-Changing Politician. It seems to me to be the greatest of all contradictions that a man would think himself able to govern the affairs of a country, province, or region, and yet lose his own soul; that he would angrily and forcefully condemn wars and all sorts of evils, and yet be at war with God and a slave to sin. He that preaches freedom should himself be free. 

(5) The Fiery Preacher. I pray God to show me if I am included in any way here. There are masters who preach and teach what they themselves have never experienced and felt. How inconsistent to tell of the fountain and not be washed in it!—to warn of hell and then go there! Let this caution also fall to Sunday-school teachers, Bible women, city missionaries, etc.

(6) The Loving Parent. You are so anxious to pamper your children with every good thing. Do you take as good care of your soul? Is it washed in Jesus’ blood and clothed with his righteousness? Look at your little ones in their cots tonight and say, “They are little sermons to me.”

(7) The Fake Christian. This is my last crayon sketch. It is the oddest and strangest one of all. Why promote a church unless you are spiritually in it? Why defend the faith when you are not justified by faith? Why keep the Sabbath and yet not enter into rest? An unsaved person who contributes to a church is like the men who helped Noah build his ark but refused to get into it.

Selection from Conclusion. “If thou puttest away from thee the Christ, who says, ‘Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth,’ you may be very wise, and you may arrange your business cleverly, but for all that, you are no wiser than the great fool of my text, who set his house in order and hanged himself. God teach hearers and readers to be wise ere yet this year is gone. Amen.”

PART I, SKETCH LXXV: ELECTION NO DISCOURAGEMENT TO SEEKING SOULS

“I will be gracious upon whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy upon whom I will show mercy” (Exodus 33.19.)

Introduction. Because God is the maker and creator and upholder of all things, he has a right to do as he wills with all his works. But God, being who he is, must act in accordance with the principles of kindness. And justice seems to demand that there shall be no punishment where there is no sin. But man has given his rights up as a creature. If he ever had any, he has sinned them away. All God owes us is wrath. Whether we agree about it or not, God should be sovereign, and God is sovereign. We Englishmen are as guilty of political crimes as other nations, like in our opium traffic with China. Yet we have lately had revival. Why not the Japanese? Divine sovereignty is why. In every conversion some beam of the absolute dominion of God shines forth upon mankind. 

(1) This Doctrine does not Oppose Other Scriptural Comforts. “As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but had rather that he should turn unto me and live.” There is no conflict at all between God’s sovereignty and God’s goodness. There is nothing in the sovereignty of God that prevents any seeker craving divine grace by humble prayer through Jesus Christ, to be a finder. But it is God who makes a man seek. And there is your evidence of divine election. It is written, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” This agrees with election. If someone says he will not come because he may not be elect, this is nothing but an idle excuse for not doing what he has no mind to do. If you cannot reconcile doctrines together, there is your swimming-room for faith. But for sure, whatever else may be false, the gospel is true, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” The doctrine of election says that God has chosen and has saved some of the greatest sinners who ever lived. 

(2) This Doctrine has a Most Beneficial Effect upon Sinners. To the awakened sinner, next to the doctrine of the cross, the doctrine of distinguishing grace is perhaps the one that blesses and comforts most of all. The doctrine of election, applied by the Holy Ghost, strikes dead forever all efforts of the flesh. Arminian preaching aims to make men active, to excite men to do what they can. Gospel preaching lays men as dead at the foot of God’s throne. “I kill and I make alive,” says God. When a man is killed the work is half done. To set a sinner laboring after eternal life by his own works is to be an ambassador of hell. The hammer of electing sovereignty dashes out the brains of all a man’s works, merits, doings, and willings. And nothing better than this can be done as a stepping-stone to the act of faith. If the world’s authorities were to decide to release from prison either a rich man or a poor man, the poor man would have little chance of being delivered. But when God is the great sovereign the case is different! He saves those who have no influence at all! This doctrine opens the door to the worst of the worst. Those who think to be saved by their own influence will be damned. The doctrine of election causes humility in the one who believes in it. “If God had left me, I had been in hell with others,” he says. And so he holds his opinions, but not savagely. He says, “Why should I blame those who cannot see?—for I could not have seen if God had not opened my own blind eyes.” 

Selection from Conclusion. “What do you say who have made up your minds not to repent…Why, you believe that any day you like you can turn to God…thinking it all depends upon you, and that you will get into heaven just at the eleventh hour. Ah, man! that is not your case…God can damn you now…You are condemned already…’Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.’”  

PART I, SKETCH LXXIV: BAPTISMAL REGENERATION

“And he said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach this gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16.15, 16.)

Introduction. In the verses above, we have the Lord’s orders for the preachers’ work, with the affirmation that some they preach to will believe and be saved, while others will not and be damned. It is necessary to our success in this work that we understand these verses. This morning I shall attempt, in the Lord’s name, to speak directly and to oppose error as the apostles did. I feel an overwhelming sense of duty to do it. I may provoke hostility—I cannot help it.

(1) Baptism without Faith Saves No One. The error I am opposing is baptismal regeneration. To my knowledge no Protestant church in England teaches it except that church which proudly calls itself the Church of England. The error is boldly declared in her Book of Common Prayer, and very plainly in her Catechism for youth: …in my baptism…I was made a member of Christ….Children, no matter how giddy, idle, or wicked, are caused to say that in baptism they were made members of Christ. I am not now dealing with the question of infant baptism, but with baptismal regeneration, whether in adults or infants, whether by sprinkling, pouring, or dipping. There are ministers of that Church who preach against her own teaching on this point. But to profess one thing in a declaration of faith to your Church, and the contrary thing in your preaching, is to live a lie! And this causes men to think truth must be unimportant. But let us drive at the matter. Jesus rebuked scribes and Pharisees for regarding outward rites more than inward grace. Now look at the facts. Is it not true that so many that have been baptized are now criminals? Is that regeneration? And what a joke when “a dear brother” who has died drunk is buried in a “sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.” Even Rome never perpetrated a grosser error than this! In baptism by the Prayer-Book a promise is made for a babe that he will renounce the devil and his works and keep God’s holy commandments. But the persons promising for the babe can’t even accomplish this themselves! And we are asked to believe that God accepts the wicked promise, and as a result, the child is regenerated! Why do I cry out against this? Because infants may grow up believing they are born again and saved when they are not! I used to disbelieve that Rome was making progress. But this teaching is just a stepping-stone to Rome, which believes in ceremony for salvation, a teaching which drags the soul to hell! Shake it off you and into the fire as Paul did the viper from his hand. 

(2) Faith is the Absolute Necessity for Salvation. You must believe the Son came into the world and was made flesh, lived a holy life for man, and was offered up to satisfy for sin. Then you must rely on his death and righteousness for your salvation. Do not rest on any ceremony whatsoever.  

(3) The Baptism in the Text is Certainly Connected with Faith. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Baptism follows belief. But I do not insist on the order of the words to convince anyone. Any man believing on Christ knows he has no right to be baptized until he is saved. Baptism is the outward sign of sin being washed away, just as the bread represents Jesus’ body. It is the Holy Spirit who does the rebirthing. Baptism is a testimony of one’s faith; one of the first acts of obedience; not a superstition; but an encouragement to faith.

Selection from Conclusion. “O my beloved friends…cling to the salvation of faith, and abhor the salvation of priests…Believe me, it is no trifle.”

PART I, SKETCH LXXIII: PIETY REPROVED AND JUSTIFIED

“…And Michal…said, how glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids…And David said unto Michal, it was before the Lord….” (2 Samuel 6.20-22.)

Introduction. You will recall that God killed Uzzah for touching the ark that was being improperly carried. Terror seized the minds of all. Three months later we see David dancing before the Lord in a linen ephod after the ark is carried safely. Passing by his house, he is accused of immodesty by his wife. David, not easily angered usually, is provoked, and the Lord strikes Michal with the worst curse an Eastern woman could know—she goes childless to the day of her death. Here is a lesson. David’s joy was on the threshold of grief. Up hill and down hill is the way to heaven. 

(1) David’s Trouble. It came from where it should have been least expected. The chief joy of our heart is often the means of causing us the most pain. The children of this world never did understand the children of the next, and never will. There must be conflicts while there are two natures in the world and two sorts of men. Natural affections are like delicate nerves that cannot be injured without causing a severe sensation. David might recollect that in his worst times, Michal had forgotten him. But he must recall, too, that she saved his life once. The delight of his heart became the foe of his spirit. Happy are the husband and wife who help each other on the path to heaven. When it is otherwise, as with some of you, that is a sore trial. It is curious that when men are going to hell no one will stop them. Get the dog out of his way! But here comes one who wants to go to heaven. Block his path; throw stones in front of him! Good people are employed by Satan to obstruct our way. They do not know any better. 

(2) David’s Justification. David’s justification was God’s election of him. God had chosen him before Michal’s father, Saul. Being lifted up, he stooped to praise and dance with common people. The Christian might be considered enthusiastic. But he has reason to be, for he is forgiven and blessed. Michal would act the same way if she felt as we feel. Be a missionary to the heathen? This is not extravagant for one who has been accepted in the Beloved. Ministers like Whitefield and Wesley, because they knew their calling, were not afraid to dance like David and degrade their clerical character by preaching in lowly places. They chose to suffer for the sake of Christ rather than reign without him. If you do not feel that God has done great things for you, then shun the cross. Tell Michal you are sorry you displeased her. Some of you are ready to object. Sovereign grace has made you give up the pipe and the beer for the Bible and prayer. 

(3) David’s Resolution. May God grant your resolution to be like David’s. If it be vile to serve Christ, serve him even more. An old writer says that in the old days they ate out of oaken bowls, and then they had oaken men. Now we have willow men who can bend every which way. Stand up for every grain of truth. Remember your forefathers: the Baptists, Waldenses, etc. Will you be cowardly sons of heroic fathers? If you are not called to suffer as a martyr, bear the spirit of one. If division happens in your family, be sure it is for faith and not fault. Never blush to suffer for Jesus’ sake. Let your adversary be the hammer. You be the anvil the hammer is broken upon. You may be a flower grown in a conservatory. Pray for those who have to be outside in the frost. This text has a warning for scoffers, hypocrites, and empty professors. 

Selection from Conclusion. “Brethren and sisters in the Lord, ‘stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, in nothing terrified by your adversaries…Amen.’”

PART I, SKETCH LXXII: THE TREASURES OF GRACE

“The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1.7.)

Introduction. As Isaiah spoke more of Christ than any other prophet, so Paul proclaimed the grace of God more than any other apostle. Not that we are at liberty to prefer one apostle over another. But Paul outstripped them all in declaring the grace that brings salvation. The sense of grace pervades his thoughts. He sees grace going before his conversion, attributes his ministry to grace, etc. Ministers who contend most for free, sovereign, unconditional grace are those who before conversion were gross sinners, like Bunyan and Newton. Strange indeed that God would have it so. 

(1) The Riches of his Grace. In the riches of grace there are mines too deep for man to fathom. In men, grace may grow into a habit. But God is gracious by nature. Grace is as necessary to his being as are the attributes of omnipotence and omniscience. Since every attribute of God is infinite, his grace is without bounds. He has grace enough to give anything and everything to the very chief of sinners. As his knowledge comprehends all, so his grace comprehends all the sins, trials, and infirmities of the people his heart is set upon. All that has been taken out of God’s mine of grace has not diminished his store by a particle. Come to the glittering treasury of divine grace. It is called the Covenant, written, signed, sealed, and ratified from old eternity by the Sacred Three. The Father willed to save his chosen; the Son agreed to bleed and die to satisfy justice; the Holy Spirit agreed to quicken, preserve, sanctify, and perfect those called by grace. God has led us to inspect mightier trophies than the monuments of ancient kings. Some trophies of grace come from harlotry, some from taverns, and some from shedding innocent blood. I see the men that nailed the Saviour to the tree. The neighbor you are sitting beside might be a trophy. I think God is gracious when I see others saved. I know he is because he saved me, a wayward, willful boy. The queen of Sheba was amazed at the sumptuousness of Solomon’s table. But just one saint requires so much grace for one day that only the Infinite can supply. And there are many saints, for many years, century upon century, race after race, all drinking to the full and living on the fullness of God in Christ. Even though the broken meat at God’s back door of grace would be enough, saints are all fed like Mephibosheth. And look how God’s people are clothed, each one with a robe divine and complete, better than Adam’s righteousness, and with a drop of blood in every throw of the shuttle. 

(2) The Forgiveness of Sins. The treasure of God’s grace is the measure of our forgiveness. God is as happy to give as we are to receive. Man sometimes forgives ungraciously. When God forgives he draws the mark through every sin, past and future. And when God forgives, he not only forgives all, but once for all. He never punishes afterwards, like a judge, though he chastises like a father. You would perhaps give your first-born as payment to be forgiven. But forgiveness is freely offered. Only acknowledge your sin and put your trust in Christ. 

(3) The Blessed Privileges which Follow. You will have peace of conscience. Instead of thinking of God as a consuming fire, you will feel as if you can talk to him as a friend. You will fear no hell. Even sinning daily, you will feel your sins atoned for. You will know that Jesus was punished instead of you. You will expect heaven. You will know that sudden death is sudden glory. 

Selection from Conclusion. “There is faith, dear brothers and sisters; may we all have it and receive forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Amen.” 

PART I, SKETCH LXXI: FAITH ILLUSTRATED

“…I know whom I have believed…he is able to keep that which I have committed….” (2 Timothy 1.12.)

Introduction. Better than any knife to spill the blood of our boasting is a remembrance of our safety in Christ. Assurance will not only keep us humble in prosperity, but it will preserve us from despair in adversity. Get then, Christian brethren and friends, get assurance. Don’t be content with hope, but get confidence too. Rest not in faith, but labor after the full assurance of faith. Don’t be content until you know your election, are sure of your redemption, and are certain of your preservation. I propose this morning to labor both for the edifying of the saint and the conversion of the sinner. 

(1) The Grandest Action of the Christian’s Life. Many churches and chapels do not give the anxious inquirer a clear idea of what must be done to be saved. I hope to be clear. When the apostle committed himself to Christ, he renounced dependence on his own efforts to save himself. He had been one of the very straightest of the straightest sect of his religion. Then grace intervened. And we hear him say, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” You cannot be saved with one hand on self and the other hand on Christ. Let go, sinner; renounce all dependence on works. There are only two steps to heaven: out of self, and into Christ. When Christ is your all, you’ll be safe. Next, the apostle had implicit confidence that Christ would save him. Some men relinquish self, but then cannot see that Christ will save them. They want an angel, a vision, or a voice. They may think themselves too vile. But the chief of sinners committed himself to Christ just as he was. Repose your all on Christ; lay hold on him. Joab was not safe when he laid hold on the altar. But if you lay hold on Christ, you will be safe from the sword of vengeance. When the guilty sinner flies to the cross, Christ lifts up his wounded hands and cries to Justice, “Stand back! in the secret place of my tabernacle do I hide him.” The viler you are, the more will you honor him by believing he is able to make you clean. The apostle also made a full and free surrender of himself to Christ. He became Christ’s property and servant forever. Salvation is through being bought with a price. You must not be your own, and no longer Satan’s. Like committing your gold to a bank to keep it from thieves, you must commit your soul to our Redeemer to keep it from sin and Satan. Will you now trust him entirely? This act of faith must be continual, through life and in death, in tempest, sunshine, poverty, and wealth. 

(2) The Justification of this Grand Act of Trust. The apostle did not rely upon one whose character he could suspect. Rome should not talk of pardoning others while fornication is licensed there. If you can’t trust a priest with your cash-box, don’t trust him with your soul. Will you be so foolish as to lay your soul at the feet of a man who is likely ten thousand times more wicked than you are? Trust not your soul with anyone but God. Jesus is your God. Paul was not wrong to trust Jesus. He knew Jesus’ Godhead, redemption, resurrection, power, love, etc. He knew these things by faith, but by experience also. Knowledge of Christ is like climbing a mountain. The higher we climb, the more we can see the expanse of his excellencies and beauties. 

(3) The Apostle’s Confidence. See this man. He is sure he shall be saved. But why? Let us catechize the apostle. O apostle, what if you should be chained to the stake? Yea, he says, Jesus will then hold me fast. Paul, Paul, what if a kingdom were offered to you? The world’s flatteries might soon move me to renounce my own soul, he says, but they could not move Jesus to give me up.  

Selection from Conclusion. “O poor sinner! come and put thy soul into the hands of Jesus.”