New Park Street Pulpit · Sermon No. 324
Delivered on Sabbath Evening, April 22, 1860, by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark
Matthew 24:24.
I AM not about to enter upon any argument in proof of the Doctrine of Election tonight. That I have done at other times and am prepared to do so yet again. I purpose rather to speak of some of the practical effects which result from this article of the Believer’s faith. We cannot, however, pass over the text without observing that it is very certain there is an elect and that these elect are a special people; for they are here defined as being “the very elect”—those who are such in deed and in truth. It is equally clear that these elect ones cannot be deceived. The text informs us that if it were possible, those deceivers who had gone to the full stretch of great signs and wonders, doubtless adding thereto all kinds of eloquence and persuasion, were not able to deceive the elect; the simple reason being that it is not possible. They would have deceived them if there had been a possibility, but the elect were a people who could not possibly be turned from the steadfastness of their faith and be deceived. Moreover, we may add that in the 22nd verse, these same elect people are spoken of as being those for whose sake the rigor of God’s punishments is abated. “Then shall be a great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened.” God did not temper the rigor of His dispensations for the sake of all flesh, but for the elect’ssake. The piteous wail of manhood moves not the Almighty to spare His righteous dispensation of punishment upon the nations; it is the cry of the elect that moves His heart! For their sake He promises to shorten those days and sheath, as it were, His sword before its time.
We simply make these remarks to show that in the dealings of God’s Providence, and surely also in the dealings of His Grace, God has a special regard for His chosen and justified ones. For the elect’s sake, He does many things which otherwise would not enter into the plan of His government. If our Bibles were read by us in the original, we should be exceedingly struck with the prominence which is given to the Doctrine of Election; and if, my Brothers and Sisters, you were at all acquainted with the manners of the early Christian Church, or had read any of the letters which have been preserved of the first age of Christianity, you would be astonished to find how conspicuously this great Doctrine appears; so much so that Christians were accustomed to address each other as, “ElectOnes.” The term, far from being recondite, was common in daily conversation. And the Doctrine, far from being kept back—I do not hesitate to say, that great Doctrine of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of our most blessed Lord—even that Doctrine had not such prominence in the early Christian Church as the Doctrine of the Election of Grace. The word, “elect,” recurred so frequently in conversation and was so mixed up with all their preaching, with all their assembling together, and with all their Church acts—that it is impossible to conceive that its meaning could be obscured, or held in disesteem. Upon that matter, however, as I said before, it is not my present intention to enlarge; my simple endeavor will be to clear the Doctrine of sundry aspersions which have been cast upon it, by showing its proper practical influence—an influence which I hope as a Church we do not merely show in words by the lips of our minister, but in our daily life and conversation as a people!
It has often been objected to those who hold the Doctrine of Election, that it restricts ministers from earnestly preaching to sinners. Now, we are compelled to confess with the greatest sorrow, and I may add also with no little indignation, that there have been some men who have never been able to grasp the Gospel in its integrity in order to present the Grace of God to men’s minds at once in its Sovereignty and in its freeness. Though their sermons sometimes ring with the clear melodious note of the Grace of God, they are too often bent on qualifying the extent of its welcome, and inventing explanations of their own, to wrest the simple meaning of Scriptures. Calvinists, such men may call
themselves, but, unlike the Reformer, whose name they adopt, they bring a system of divinity to the Bible to interpret it, instead of making every system, be its merits what they may, yield and give place to the pure and unadulterated Word of God! They will not imitate their Master in inviting all men to Christ—they dare not preach a full Christ to empty sinners—they are ashamed to say, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come you to the water.” They have been obliged to cover up such a passage as this, because they could not understand it—“Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wing, but you would not.” They will not preach upon such a text as this—“As I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, but had rather that he should turn unto Me and live.” They are ashamed to say to men, “Turn you, turn you, why will you die?” They dare not come out and preach as Peter did—“Repent you, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” This, they say, would be to deny the Doctrine of Election at once! But, Beloved, we have not so learned Christ. I trust we have learned to prove practically, by our ministry, that it is possible to have all the heart of compassion which a man can feel for dying souls, and yet grasp with a firm hand the standard of the Doctrine of Grace. It has been our aim and objective—at least I can speak for myself—it has been myaim and objective in my ministry, to show that while I believe the Lord knows them who are His, it is, at the same time, written over the fountain of living waters, “Whoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.”