Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2737
“If you believe with all your heart, you may.” Acts 8:37.
IT is not my practice to preach what people commonly call “baptizing sermons.” It is very seldom that I even mention the subject of Baptism in my preaching, for I find that many of my hearers learn the Scriptural teaching concerning it without much help from me. Of those who have come to unite with us in Church fellowship, a very large proportion consists of persons who have searched out the Truth of God upon this matter for themselves and could in no wise trace their alteration in sentiment to any remark of mine, but they had seen the ordinance clearly revealed in Holy Scripture. This is a method of arriving at the Truth which I greatly prefer to any instruction imparted by myself, for, in the case of people thus Divinely taught, I know that their faith will “not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” I refused, on one occasion, to go to Ireland when invited to do so by a Brother who gave, as the reason why he wished me to go, that by going there I should greatly increase the Baptist denomination. “No,” I said, “I would not go across the street, much less across the sea, merely to make people Baptists.” Wherever I may be, I endeavor, as in the sight of God, so to deal with men as to bring them to Christ, leaving the Spirit of God further to take of the things of Christ and reveal them unto them.
Yet I dare not be altogether silent concerning Believers’ Baptism. If I would make full proof of my ministry and preach the whole Gospel as it is contained in the New Testament, I must proclaim the Truth of God with regard to that great ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He has, Himself, put in such an important position by coupling it with faith and salvation—“He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” Still, let me assure you, dear Friends, that I do not introduce this topic in any controversial spirit, for that I would abhor—but only because I feel it to be “the burden of the Lord” that presses upon me and, as it is a part of God’s Holy Word, I must preach thereon.
In the excellent and estimable Presbyterian Church, before the administration of the Lord’s Supper, it is usual to have a sermon for the purpose of what is called “fencing the Table.” That fencing is a great part of the duty of the Christian minister in many other matters beside the Communion. All Bible doctrines, all God’s promises and both Christ’s ordinances need to be fenced! In the fencing of the Lord’s Table, the principal topic of the preacher is—Who are the fit subjects for the reception of the Lord’s Supper? Who my draw near and partake of the symbolic bread and wine, and who may not approach?
Now, as the Communion Table should be fenced, so also should the Baptismal Pool, so should the promises of God and so should those great and glorious doctrines which are the essentials of our faith! And I believe that the only fence which is proper and Scriptural is that which is given in our text, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” If a man says to me, “May I reckon myself to be one of the elect?” I reply, “God certainly has an elect people, but you have no right to consider yourself as one of them unless you believe with all your heart.” Then there is the Doctrine of Effectual Calling—and if anyone asks me if he is effectually called, I answer, “If you believe with all your heart, then you certainly have an interest in this glorious Doctrine of God’s Grace.” Then, with regard to the Doctrine of Redemption by the blood of Christ, which is the basis and foundation of all our hopes, I see no warrant for telling any man that he is redeemed until I can get him to give a full and satisfactory reply to this enquiry, “Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
with all your heart?” It seems to me that the Doctrines of the Gospel have no truly comforting message to any man until he believes upon Christ with all his heart.
So also is it with the promises of God. They are rich, dainty, spiritual fare which He has spread upon the table of His banqueting house, but no one who does not believe in Christ with all his heart has any right to lay hold on the “exceedingly great and precious promises” which God has recorded for the comfort of His own people. I know that there are some loving and gracious invitations which are addressed to the sinner, and I thank God that it is so, but I also know that the sinner can never realize the sweetness of them until he believes in Jesus. I am sure that he cannot comply with the invitation except by believing with all his heart—and that he must be a stranger to the gracious promises and encouraging invitations until he comes and puts his trust in “Jesus only.”
I am fully persuaded that it is the same with the ordinances of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Table is not, on any pretense, to be approached by those who do not believe in Him with all their heart. “Away, you profane!” should be the cry of the Christian minister when he is about to dispense the sacred emblems. Believer in Christ, you are heartily welcome! You have a right to come to the Table of your Lord if you believe in Him with all your heart. Whoever and whatever you may be, the only barrier which we can rightly set before you bears upon it this inscription, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” No, if you believe, there is no barrier, so come and welcome! We dare not set up before the Table of our Lord any barrier which God Himself has not put there, so we invite to it all who have believed in Jesus—but we solemnly warn all those who come and partake of this ordinance without faith in Christ—that they are eating and drinking condemnation unto themselves, not discerning the Lord’s body, for none have the right to approach His Table but those who, with a true heart, believe in Christ and in Him alone.