Sovereign
Grace Hated by the
Modern
Religionist
C. H. Spurgeon
If anything is hated bitterly, it is the out and out gospel of the grace
of God, especially if that hateful word "sovereignty" is mentioned with
it. Dare to say "He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and
he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion" (Romans
9:15), and furious critics will revile you without stint. The modern
religionist not only hates the doctrine of sovereign grace, but he raves
and rages at the mention of it. He would sooner hear you blaspheme than
preach election by the Father, atonement by the Son, or regeneration by
the Spirit. If you want to see a man worked up till the Satanic is clearly
uppermost, let some of the new divines hear you preach a free grace sermon.
A gospel which is after men will be welcomed by men; but it needs a divine
operation upon the heart and mind to make a man willing to receive into
his inmost soul this distasteful gospel of the grace of God.
My dear brethren, do not try to make it tasteful to carnal minds. Hide
not the of fence of the cross, lest you make it of none effect. The angles
and corners of the gospel are its strength: to pare them off is to deprive
it of power. Toning down is not the increase of strength, but the death
of it. Why, even among the sects, you must have noticed that their distinguishing
points are the horns of their power; and when these are practically omitted,
the sect is effete. Learn, then, that if you take Christ Out of Christianity,
Christianity is dead. If you remove grace out of the gospel, the gospel
is gone. If the people do not like the doctrine of grace, give them all
the more of it. Whenever its enemies rail at a certain kind of gun, a wise
military power will provide more of such artillery. A great general, going
in before his king, stumbled over his own sword. "1 see," said the king,
"your sword is in the way." The warrior answered, "Your majesty's enemies
have often felt the same." That our gospel offends the King's enemies is
no regret to us.
Metropolitan
Tabernacle Pulpit, 1891, page 49.
**********
I preach the doctrines of grace because I believe them to be true; because
I see them in the Scriptures; because my experience endears them to me;
and because I see the holy result of them in believers. I confess they
are none the less dear to me because the advanced school despises them:
I should never think it a recommendation of a doctrine that it was new.
Those truths which have enlightened so many ages appear to me to be ordained
to remain throughout eternity. The doctrine which I preach to you is that
of the Puritans: it is the doctrine of Calvin, the doctrine of Augustine,
the doctrine of Paul, the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. The Author and Finisher
of our faith himself taught most blessed truth which well agreed with our
text. (Ephesians 2:8). The doctrine of grace is the substance of
the testimony of Jesus.
The
Sword & The Trowel, January, 1887.
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