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I wish to present to you another sermon by that great prince of Baptist Pastors, C.H. Spurgeon. This is a sermon from a recent Bible study passage in the Reformed Room Bible study thread, found here. Ephesians is often a letter to which we look for the wisdom of God's wonder and grace in Election and Predestination, those great truths long hidden, but it is less often that we look for the gleanings of works. Yet, we must always take care that each has its place. Just as the stream owes its existence to the spring, our good works owe its existence to our salvation. Works are never the cause of our justification; they play no part here. Works are the outworking of our justification. The stream never says to the spring "you exist on account of me." The spring bubbles forth from the rock for no other reason than God was pleased to make it so. The stream flows from the spring.
Yet, many in the church today seem to think that our justification is by works and faith. It is as if to say that the stream gives birth to the spring. It is over this great confusion in the Church of God today that I wish to discuss.
I am a Reformer.
My salvation flows from a Rock; it has no other source than the fount of all grace.
I am a baren wasteland that is made into a garden.
My stream flows from a spring.
Salvation is by God's mercy alone, apart from any works of righteousness;
God imputes righteousness apart from any works.
It is upon him who does not work but believes on the One who justifies the ungodly that his faith will be accounted to him for righteousness.
Recognize that all true Christians will be Calvinists in glory....
THE AGREEMENT OF SALVATION BY GRACE WITH WALKING IN GOOD WORKS.
shall call your attention to the near neighborhood of these two phrases, Not of works, and Created in Christ Jesus unto good works. The text reads with a singular sound; for it seems strange to the ear that good works should be negatived as the cause of salvation, and then should be spoken of as the great end of it. You may put it down among what the Puritans called Orthodox Paradoxes, if you please; though it is hardly so difficult a matter as to deserve the name.
Yet, many in the church today seem to think that our justification is by works and faith. It is as if to say that the stream gives birth to the spring. It is over this great confusion in the Church of God today that I wish to discuss.
I am a Reformer.
My salvation flows from a Rock; it has no other source than the fount of all grace.
I am a baren wasteland that is made into a garden.
My stream flows from a spring.
Salvation is by God's mercy alone, apart from any works of righteousness;
God imputes righteousness apart from any works.
It is upon him who does not work but believes on the One who justifies the ungodly that his faith will be accounted to him for righteousness.
Recognize that all true Christians will be Calvinists in glory....
Your friendly neighborhood Cordial Calvinist
Woody.
Woody.
THE AGREEMENT OF SALVATION BY GRACE WITH WALKING IN GOOD WORKS.
NO. 2210
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORDS-DAY,
JUNE 28TH, 1891,
JUNE 28TH, 1891,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Ephesians 2:9, 10.
Not long ago, I tried to handle the point of difference supposed to exist between the doctrine of faith Believe, and thou shalt be saved, and the doctrine of the new birth and its necessity Ye must be born again. My method was on this wise: I did not explain the difficulties which appear to the logician and the doctor of metaphysics; but I tried to show that, practically, there were none. If we deal only with difficulties which block up the way to salvation, there are none. As for those matters which involve no real hindrance, I leave them where they are. A rock which is in nobodys way may stand where it is. He that believes in Jesus is born again. These two things are equally true: there must be a work of the Spirit within, yet he that believeth in the Lord Jesus hath everlasting life.
Now, there is a contention always going on about the doctrine of good works: and instead of taking one side or the other, we shall try to see whether there really is anything to quarrel over if we keep to the Scriptures. We insist upon it, with all our might, that salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast. But, on the other hand, we freely admit, and earnestly teach, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Where there are no good works, there is no indwelling of the Spirit of God. The faith which does not produce good works is not saving faith: it is not the faith of Gods elect: it is not faith at all in the Scriptural sense. I have just taken these two points, to bring them forward for the help and comfort of beginners. I seek not to instruct you who are well-taught already; but my aim at this time is to instruct beginners on this important subject. Salvation is not of works; but, at the same time, we, who are the subjects of divine grace, are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. This is plain to the enlightened believer; but babes in grace have weak eyes, and cannot at once perceive.
Before, in the gracious providence of God, Luther was raised up to preach the doctrine of justification by faith, the common notion among religious persons was, that men must be saved by works; and the result was that, knowing nothing of the root from which virtue springs, very few persons had any good works at all. Religion so declined that it became a mere matter of empty ceremony, or of useless seclusion; and, in addition, superstition overlaid the original truth of the gospel, so that one could hardly find it out at all. The reign of self-justification and priestcraft led to no good result upon the masses of religious people. Indulgences and forgivenesses of sins were hawked through the streets, and publicly sold. So much was charged for the pardon of one sin, and so much for another, and the exchequer of his holiness at Rome who might better have been called his unholiness was filled by payments for abating penalties in a purgatory of Romes inventing Luther learned from the sacred Volume, by the Spirit of the Lord, that we are saved by grace alone through faith; and, having found it out, he was so possessed by that one truth that he preached it with a voice of thunder. His witness on one point was so concentrated that it would be too much to expect equal clearness upon all other truths. I sometimes compare him to a bull who shuts his eyes, and goes straight on at the one object which he means to overthrow.
With a mighty crash, he broke down the gates of Papal superstition. He saw nothing he did not want to see anything except this, By grace are ye saved through faith. He made very clear and good work upon that point, faulty as he was upon certain others. The echoes of his manly voice rang down the centuries. I note that nearly all the sermons of Protestant divines, for long after Luther, were upon justification by faith; and, whatever the text might be, they somehow or other brought in that article of a standing or falling church. They seldom finished a sermon without declaring that salvation is not by works, but that it is by faith in Jesus Christ. I do not censure them for a moment; far rather do I commend them better too much than too little upon the central doctrine of the gospel. The times needed that point to be made clear to all comers; and the Reforming preachers made it clear. Justification by faith was the nail that had to be driven home, and clinched; and all their hammers went at that nail. They were nothing like so specific and clear upon many other doctrines as they were upon this; but then it was a foundation-stone, and they were occupied in laying it, and they did lay it, and laid it thoroughly, and laid it for ever. Still, they would have more fully completed the circle of revealed truth if sanctification had been as fully apprehended and as clearly explained as justification. It had been as well if the legs of the gospel of the Reformation had been equal, for one was a little longer and a little stronger than the other, and therefore there was a limp a halting like that of victorious Israel, as he came from Jabbok but still a limp, which it would be well to cure. We have passed beyond the stage of dwelling too much on the cardinal doctrine, and I greatly fear that in these times we do not have enough preaching of justification by faith. I could wish the Lutheran times back again, and that the old thunders of Wittemberg could be heard once more; and yet I shall be glad if everything that is practical in the gospel shall also have its full sphere allotted to it. Imputed righteousness, by all means; but let us hear of imparted righteousness also; for both are precious boons of grace. The duties let me rather say, the high and holy privileges which come to us as children and servants of God these should be maintained and fully preached, side by side with the blessed truth embodied in those lines
There is life in a look at the Crucified One:
There is life at this moment for thee.
I shall dwell, first of all, upon the first point of the text, which is this, Not of works, or the way of salvation. Not of works is negative description, but within the negative there lies very clearly the positive. The way of salvation is by something other than our own works. Secondly, I shall speak about the walk of salvation. We who are saved walk in holiness; for we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. It is a decree of the sovereign Lord that his chosen should be led to walk in holiness.
