Election

Sermon (No. 41-42)

Delivered on Sabbath Morning, September 2, 1855, by the

REV. C.H. SPURGEON

At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

"But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren

beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to

salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of

our Lord Jesus Christ."--2 Thessalonians 2:13-14.

IF there were no other text in the sacred Word except this one, I think

we should all be bound to receive and acknowledge the truthfulness of

the great and glorious doctrine of God's ancient choice of his family.

But there seems to be an inveterate prejudice in the human mind against

this doctrine; and although most other doctrines will be received by

professing Christians, some with caution, others with pleasure, yet

this one seems to be most frequently disregarded and discarded. In many

of our pulpits it would be reckoned a high sin and treason to preach a

sermon upon election, because they could not make it what they call a

"practical" discourse. I believe they have erred from the truth

therein. Whatever God has revealed, he has revealed for a purpose.

There is nothing in Scripture which may not, under the influence of

God's Spirit, be turned into a practical discourse: for "all Scripture

is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable" for some purpose of

spiritual usefulness. It is true, it may not be turned into a free-will

discourse--that we know right well--but it can be turned into a

practical free-grace discourse: and free-grace practice is the best

practice, when the true doctrines of God's immutable love are brought

to bear upon the hearts of saints and sinners. Now, I trust this

morning some of you who are startled at the very sound of this word,

will say, "I will give it a fair hearing; I will lay aside my

prejudices; I will just hear what this man has to say." Do not shut

your ears and say at once, "It is high doctrine." Who has authorized

you to call it high or low? Why should you oppose yourself to God's

doctrine? Remember what became of the children who found fault with

God's prophet, and exclaimed, "Go up, thou bald-head; go up, thou

bald-head." Say nothing against God's doctrines, lest haply some evil

beast should come out of the forest and devour you also. There are

other woes beside the open judgment of heaven-- take heed that these

fall not on your head. Lay aside your prejudices: listen calmly, listen

dispassionately: hear what Scripture says; and when you receive the

truth, if God should be pleased to reveal and manifest it to your

souls, do not be ashamed to confess it. To confess you were wrong

yesterday, is only to acknowledge that you are a little wiser to-day;

and instead of being a reflection on yourself, it is an honour to your

judgment, and shows that you are improving in the knowledge of the

truth. Do not be ashamed to learn, and to cast aside your old doctrines

and views, but to take up that which you may more plainly see to be in

the Word of God. But if you do not see it to be here in the Bible,

whatever I may say, or whatever authorities I may plead, I beseech you,

as you love your souls, reject it; and if from this pulpit you ever

hear things contrary to this Sacred Word, remember that the Bible must

be the first, and God's minister must lie underneath it. We must not

stand on the Bible to preach, but we must preach with the Bible above

our heads. After all we have preached, we are well aware that the

mountain of truth is higher than our eyes can discern; clouds and

darkness are round about its summit, and we cannot discern its topmost

pinnacle; yet we will try to preach it as well as we can. But since we

are mortal, and liable to err, exercise your judgment; "Try the spirits

whether they are of God"; and if on mature reflection on your bended

knees, you are led to disregard election--a thing which I consider to

be utterly impossible--then forsake it; do not hear it preached, but

believe and confess whatever you see to be God's Word. I can say no

more than that by way of exordium.

Now, first, I shall speak a little concerning the truthfulness of this

doctrine: "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation."

Secondly, I shall try to prove that this election is absolute: "He hath

from the beginning chosen you to salvation," not for sanctification,

but "through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."

Thirdly, this election is eternal, because the text says, "God hath

from the beginning chosen you." Fourthly, it is personal: "He hath

chosen you." Then we will look at the effects of the doctrine--see what

it does; and lastly, as God may enable us, we will try and look at its

tendencies, and see whether it is indeed a terrible and licentious

doctrine. We will take the flower, and like true bees, see whether

there be any honey whatever in it; whether any good can come of it, or

whether it is an unmixed, undiluted evil.

I. First, I must try and prove that the doctrine is TRUE. And let me

begin with an argumentum ad hominem; I will speak to you according to

your different positions and stations. There are some of you who belong

to the Church of England, and I am happy to see so many of you here.

Though now and then I certainly say some very hard things about Church

and State, yet I love the old Church, for she has in her communion many

godly ministers and eminent saints. Now, I know you are great believers

in what the Articles declare to be sound doctrine. I will give you a

specimen of what they utter concerning election, so that if you believe

them, you cannot avoid receiving election. I will read a portion of the

17th Article upon Predestination and Election:--

"Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby

(before the foundations of the world were laid) he hast continually

decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and

damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to

bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to

honour. Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of

God be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due

season: they through grace obey the calling: they be justified freely:

they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of

his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good

works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting

felicity."

Now, I think any churchman, if he be a sincere and honest believer in

Mother Church, must be a thorough believer in election. True, if he

turns to certain other portions of the Prayer Book, he will find things

contrary to the doctrines of free-grace, and altogether apart from

scriptural teaching; but if he looks at the Articles, he must see that

God hath chosen his people unto eternal life. I am not so desperately

enamoured, however, of that book as you may be; and I have only used

this Article to show you that if you belong to the Establishment of

England you should at least offer no objection to this doctrine of

predestination.

Another human authority whereby I would confirm the doctrine of

election, is, the old Waldensian creed. If you read the creed of the

old Waldenses, emanating from them in the midst of the burning heat of

persecution, you will see that these renowned professors and confessors

of the Christian faith did most firmly receive and embrace this

doctrine, as being a portion of the truth of God. I have copied from an

old book one of the Articles of their faith:--

"That God saves from corruption and damnation those whom he has chosen

from the foundations of the world, not for any disposition, faith, or

holiness that he foresaw in them, but of his mere mercy in Christ Jesus

his Son, passing by all the rest according to the irreprehensible

reason of his own free-will and justice."

It is no novelty, then, that I am preaching; no new doctrine. I love to

proclaim these strong old doctrines, which are called by nickname

Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as

it is in Christ Jesus. By this truth I make a pilgrimage into the past,

and as I go, I see father after father, confessor after confessor,

martyr after martyr, standing up to shake hands with me. Were I a

Pelagian, or a believer in the doctrine of free-will, I should have to

walk for centuries all alone. Here and there a heretic of no very

honourable character might rise up and call me brother. But taking

these things to be the standard of my faith, I see the land of the

ancients peopled with my brethren--I behold multitudes who confess the

same as I do, and acknowledge that this is the religion of God's own

church.

I also give you an extract from the old Baptist Confession. We are

Baptists in this congregation--the greater part of us at any rate--and

we like to see what our own forefathers wrote. Some two hundred years

ago the Baptists assembled together, and published their articles of

faith, to put an end to certain reports against their orthodoxy which

had gone forth to the world. I turn to this old book--which I have just

3rd Article: "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory,

some men and angels are predestinated, or foreordained to eternal life

through Jesus Christ to the praise of his glorious grace; others being

left to act in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of

his glorious justice. These angels and men thus predestinated and

foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their

number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or

diminished. Those of mankind that are predestinated to life, God,

before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal

and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his

will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory out of his mere free

grace and love, without any other thing in the creature as a condition

or cause moving him thereunto."

As for these human authorities, I care not one rush for all three of

them. I care not what they say, pro or con, as to this doctrine. I have

only used them as a kind of confirmation to your faith, to show you

that whilst I may be railed upon as a heretic and as a hyper-Calvinist,

after all I am backed up by antiquity. All the past stands by me. I do

not care for the present. Give me the past and I will hope for the

future. Let the present rise up in my teeth, I will not care. What

though a host of the churches of London may have forsaken the great

cardinal doctrines of God, it matters not. If a handful of us stand

alone in an unflinching maintenance of the sovereignty of our God, if

we are beset by enemies, ay, and even by our own brethren, who ought to

be our friends and helpers, it matters not, if we can but count upon

the past; the noble army of martyrs, the glorious host of confessors,

are our friends; the witnesses of truth stand by us. With these for us,

we will not say that we stand alone, but we may exclaim, "Lo, God hath

reserved unto himself seven thousand that have not bowed the knee unto

Baal." But the best of all is, God is with us.

The great truth is always the Bible, and the Bible alone. My hearers,

you do not believe in any other book than the Bible, do you? If I could

prove this from all the books in Christendom; if I could fetch back the

Alexandrian library, and prove it thence, you would not believe it any

more; but you surely will believe what is in God's Word.

I have selected a few texts to read to you. I love to give you a whole

volley of texts when I am afraid you will distrust a truth, so that you

may be too astonished to doubt, if you do not in reality believe. Just

let me run through a catalogue of passages where the people of God are

called elect. Of course if the people are called elect, there must be

election. If Jesus Christ and his apostles were accustomed to style

believers by the title of elect, we must certainly believe that they

were so, otherwise the term does not mean anything. Jesus Christ says,

"Except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be

saved; but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened

the days." "False Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew

signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect."

"Then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect

from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the

uttermost part of heaven" (Mark 13:20,22,27). "Shall not God avenge his

own elect, who cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with

them?" (Luke 18:7). Together with many other passages which might be

selected, wherein either the word "elect," or "chosen," or

"foreordained," or "appointed" is mentioned; or the phrase "my sheep"

or some similar designation, showing that Christ's people are

distinguished from the rest of mankind.

But you have concordances, and I will not trouble you with texts.

Throughout the epistles, the saints are constantly called "the elect."

In the Colossians we find Paul saying, "Put on therefore, as the elect

of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies." When he writes to Titus,

he calls himself, "Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus

Christ, according to the faith of God's elect." Peter says, "Elect

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Then if you turn to

John, you will find he is very fond of the word. He says, "The elder to

the elect lady"; and he speaks of our "elect sister." And we know where

it is written, "The church that is at Babylon, elected together with

you." They were not ashamed of the word in those days; they were not

afraid to talk about it. Now-a-days the word has been dressed up with

diversities of meaning, and persons have mutilated and marred the

doctrine, so that they have made it a very doctrine of devils, I do

confess; and many who call themselves believers, have gone to rank

Antinomianism. But notwithstanding this, why should I be ashamed of it,

if men do wrest it? We love God's truth on the rack, as well as when it

is walking upright. If there were a martyr whom we loved before he came

on the rack, we should love him more still when he was stretched there.

When God's truth is stretched on the rack, we do not call it falsehood.

We love not to see it racked, but we love it even when racked, because

we can discern what its proper proportions ought to have been if it had

not been racked and tortured by the cruelty and inventions of men. If

you will read many of the epistles of the ancient fathers, you will

find them always writing to the people of God as the "elect." Indeed

the common conversational term used among many of the churches by the

primitive Christians to one another was that of the "elect." They would

often use the term to one another, showing that it was generally

believed that all God's people were manifestly "elect."

But now for the verses that will positively prove the doctrine. Open

your Bibles and turn to John 15:16, and there you will see that Jesus

Christ has chosen his people, for he says, "Ye have not chosen me, but

I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth

fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask

of the Father in my name, he may give it you." Then in the 19th verse,

"If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye

are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore

the world hateth you." Then in the 17th chapter and the 8th and 9th

verses, "For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and

they have received them and have known surely that I came out from

thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them:

I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for

they are thine." Turn to Acts 13:48: "And when the Gentiles heard this,

they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were

ordained to eternal life believed." They may try to split that passage

into hairs if they like; but it says, "ordained to eternal life" in the

original as plainly as it possibly can; and we do not care about all

the different commentaries thereupon. You scarcely need to be reminded

of Romans 8, because I trust you are all well acquainted with that

chapter and understand it by this time. In the 29th and following

verses, it says, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to

be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born

among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also

called: and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he

justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these

things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his

own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him

also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of

God's elect?" It would also be unnecessary to repeat the whole of the

9th chapter of Romans. As long as that remains in the Bible, no man

shall be able to prove Arminianism; so long as that is written there,

not the most violent contortions of the passage will ever be able to

exterminate the doctrine of election from the Scriptures. Let us read

such verses as these--"For the children being not yet born, neither

having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to

election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; it was

said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger." Then read the 22nd

verse, "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power

known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to

destruction. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on

the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory." Then go

on to Romans 11:7--"What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he

seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were

blinded." In the 5th verse of the same chapter, we read--"Even so then

at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election

of grace." You, no doubt, all recollect the passage in I Corinthians

1:26-29: "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men

after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God

hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and

God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things

which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are

despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to

nought things which are: that no flesh should glory in his presence."

Again, remember the passage in I Thessalonians 5:9--"God hath not

appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus

Christ." And then you have my text, which methinks would be quite

enough. But, if you need any more, you can find them at your leisure,

if we have not quite removed your suspicions as to the doctrine not

being true.

Methinks, my friends, that this overwhelming mass of Scripture

testimony must stagger those who dare to laugh at this doctrine. What

shall we say of those who have so often despised it, and denied its

divinity; who have railed at its justice, and dared to defy God and

call him an Almighty tyrant, when they have heard of his having elected

so many to eternal life? Canst thou, O rejector! cast it out of the

Bible? Canst thou take the penknife of Jehudi and cut it out of the

Word of God? Wouldst thou be like the woman at the feet of Solomon, and

have the child rent in halves, that thou mightest have thy half? Is it

not here in Scripture? And is it not thy duty to bow before it, and

meekly acknowledge what thou understandest not--to receive it as the

truth even though thou couldst not understand its meaning? I will not

attempt to prove the justice of God in having thus elected some and

left others. It is not for me to vindicate my Master. He will speak for

himself, and he does so:--"Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest

against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast

thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same

lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?" Who is

he that shall say unto his father, "What hast thou begotten?" or unto

his mother, "What hast thou brought forth?" "I am the Lord--I form the

light and create darkness I, the Lord, do all these things." Who art

thou that repliest against God? Tremble and kiss his rod; bow down and

submit to his sceptre; impugn not his justice, and arraign not his acts

before thy bar, O man!

But there are some who say, "It is hard for God to choose some and

leave others." Now, I will ask you one question. Is there any of you

here this morning who wishes to be holy, who wishes to be regenerate,

to leave off sin and walk in holiness? "Yes, there is," says some one,

"I do." Then God has elected you. But another says, "No; I don't want

to be holy; I don't want to give up my lusts and my vices." Why should

you grumble, then, that God has not elected you to it? For if you were

elected you would not like it, according to your own confession. If God

this morning had chosen you to holiness, you say you would not care for

it. Do you not acknowledge that you prefer drunkenness to sobriety,

dishonesty to honesty? You love this world's pleasures better than

religion; then why should you grumble that God has not chosen you to

religion? If you love religion, he has chosen you to it. If you desire

it, he has chosen you to it. If you do not, what right have you to say

that God ought to have given you what you do not wish for? Supposing I

had in my hand something which you do not value, and I said I shall

give it to such-and-such a person, you would have no right to grumble

that I did not give to you. You could not be so foolish as to grumble

that the other has got what you do not care about. According to your

own confession, many of you do not want religion, do not want a new

heart and a right spirit, do not want the forgiveness of sins, do not

want sanctification; you do not want to be elected to these things:

then why should you grumble? You count these things but as husks, and

why should you complain of God who has given them to those whom he has

chosen? If you believe them to be good and desire them, they are there

for thee. God gives liberally to all those who desire; and first of

all, he makes them desire, otherwise they never would. If you love

these things, he has elected you to them, and you may have them; but if

you do not, who are you that you should find fault with God, when it is

your own desperate will that keeps you from loving these things--your

own simple self that makes you hate them? Suppose a man in the street

should say, "What a shame it is I cannot have a seat in the chapel to

hear what this man has to say." And suppose he says, "I hate the

preacher; I can't bear his doctrine; but still it's a shame I have not

a seat." Would you expect a man to say so? No: you would at once say,

"That man does not care for it. Why should he trouble himself about

other people having what they value and he despises?" You do not like

holiness, you do not like righteousness; if God has elected me to these

things, has he hurt you by it? "Ah! but," say some, "I thought it meant

that God elected some to heaven and some to hell." That is a very

different matter from the gospel doctrine. He has elected men to

holiness and to righteousness and through that to heaven. You must not

say that he has elected them simply to heaven, and others only to hell.

He has elected you to holiness, if you love holiness. If any of you

love to be saved by Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ elected you to be saved.

If any of you desire to have salvation, you are elected to have it, if

you desire it sincerely and earnestly. But, if you don't desire it, why

on earth should you be so preposterously foolish as to grumble because

God gives that which you do not like to other people?

II. Thus I have tried to say something with regard to the truth of the

doctrine of election. And now, briefly, let me say that election is

ABSOLUTE: that is, it does not depend upon what we are. The text says,

"God hath from the beginning chosen us unto salvation"; but our

opponents say that God chooses people because they are good, that he

chooses them on account of sundry works which they have done. Now, we

ask in reply to this, what works are those on account of which God

elects his people? Are they what we commonly call "works of

law,"--works of obedience which the creature can render? If so, we

reply to you--If men cannot be justified by the works of the law, it

seems to us pretty clear that they cannot be elected by the works of

the law: if they cannot be justified by their good deeds, they cannot

be saved by them. Then the decree of election could not have been

formed upon good works. "But," say others, "God elected them on the

foresight of their faith." Now, God gives faith, therefore he could not

have elected them on account of faith, which he foresaw. There shall be

twenty beggars in the street, and I determine to give one of them a

shilling; but will any one say that I determined to give that one a

shilling, that I elected him to have the shilling, because I foresaw

that he would have it? That would be talking nonsense. In like manner

to say that God elected men because he foresaw they would have faith,

which is salvation in the germ, would be too absurd for us to listen to

for a moment. Faith is the gift of God. Every virtue comes from him.

Therefore it cannot have caused him to elect men, because it is his

gift. Election, we are sure, is absolute, and altogether apart from the

virtues which the saints have afterwards. What though a saint should be

as holy and devout as Paul; what though he should be as bold as Peter,

or as loving as John, yet he would claim nothing from his Maker. I

never knew a saint yet of any denomination, who thought that God saved

him because he foresaw that he would have these virtues and merits.

Now, my brethren, the best jewels that the saint ever wears, if they be

jewels of his own fashioning, are not of the first water. There is

something of earth mixed with them. The highest grace we ever possess

has something of earthliness about it. We feel this when we are most

refined, when we are most sanctified, and our language must always be--

"I the chief of sinners am;

Jesus died for me."

Our only hope, our only plea, still hangs on grace as exhibited in the

person of Jesus Christ. And I am sure we must utterly reject and

disregard all thought that our graces, which are gifts of our Lord,

which are his right-hand planting, could have ever caused his love. And

we ever must sing--

"What was there in us that could merit esteem

Or give the Creator delight?

'Twas even so Father we ever must sing,

Because it seemed good in thy sight."

"He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy": he saves because he

will save. And if you ask me why he saves me, I can only say, because

he would do it. Was there anything in me that should recommend me to

God? No; I lay aside everything, I had nothing to recommend me. When

God saved me I was the most abject, lost, and ruined of the race. I lay

before him as an infant in my blood. Verily, I had no power to help

myself. O how wretched did I feel and know myself to be! If you had

something to recommend you to God, I never had. I will be content to be

saved by grace, unalloyed, pure grace. I can boast of no merits. If you

can do so, I cannot. I must sing--

"Free grace alone from the first to the last,

Hath won my affection and held my soul fast."

III. Then, thirdly, this election is ETERNAL. "God hath from the

beginning chosen you unto eternal life." Can any man tell me when the

beginning was? Years ago we thought the beginning of this world was

when Adam came upon it; but we have discovered that thousands of years

before that God was preparing chaotic matter to make it a fit abode for

man, putting races of creatures upon it, who might die and leave behind

the marks of his handiwork and marvellous skill, before he tried his

hand on man. But that was not the beginning, for revelation points us

to a period long ere this world was fashioned, to the days when the

morning stars were begotten; when, like drops of dew, from the fingers

of the morning, stars and constellations fell trickling from the hand

of God; when, by his own lips, he launched forth ponderous orbs; when

with his own hand he sent comets, like thunderbolts, wandering through

the sky, to find one day their proper sphere. We go back to years gone

by, when worlds were made and systems fashioned, but we have not even

approached the beginning yet. Until we go to the time when all the

universe slept in the mind of God as yet unborn, until we enter the

eternity where God the Creator lived alone, everything sleeping within

him, all creation resting in his mighty gigantic thought, we have not

guessed the beginning. We may go back, back, back, ages upon ages. We

may go back, if we might use such strange words, whole eternities, and

yet never arrive at the beginning. Our wing might be tired, our

imagination would die away; could it outstrip the lightnings flashing

in majesty, power, and rapidity, it would soon weary itself ere it

could get to the beginning. But God from the beginning chose his

people; when the unnavigated ether was yet unfanned by the wing of a

single angel, when space was shoreless, or else unborn when universal

silence reigned, and not a voice or whisper shocked the solemnity of

silence; when there was no being and no motion, no time, and nought but

God himself, alone in his eternity; when without the song of an angel,

without the attendance of even the cherubim, long ere the living

creatures were born, or the wheels of the chariot of Jehovah were

fashioned, even then, "in the beginning was the Word," and in the

beginning God's people were one with the Word, and "in the beginning he

chose them into eternal life." Our election then is eternal. I will not

stop to prove it, I only just run over these thoughts for the benefit

of young beginners, that they may understand what we mean by eternal,

absolute election.

IV. And, next, the election is PERSONAL. Here again, our opponents have

tried to overthrow election by telling us that it is an election of

nations, and not of people. But here the Apostle says, "God hath from

the beginning chosen you." It is the most miserable shift on earth to

make out that God hath not chosen persons but nations, because the very

same objection that lies against the choice of persons, lies against

the choice of a nation. If it were not just to choose a person, it

would be far more unjust to choose a nation, since nations are but the

union of multitudes of persons, and to choose a nation seems to be a

more gigantic crime--if election be a crime--than to choose one person.

Surely to choose ten thousand would be reckoned to be worse than

choosing one; to distinguish a whole nation from the rest of mankind,

does seem to be a greater extravaganza in the acts of divine

sovereignty than the election of one poor mortal and leaving out

another. But what are nations but men? What are whole peoples but

combinations of different units? A nation is made up of that

individual, and that, and that. And if you tell me that God chose the

Jews, I say then, he chose that Jew, and that Jew, and that Jew. And if

you say he chooses Britain, then I say he chooses that British man, and

that British man, and that British man. So that is the same thing after

all. Election then is personal: it must be so. Every one who reads this

text, and others like it, will see that Scripture continually speaks of

God's people one by one and speaks of them as having been the special

subjects of election.

"Sons we are through God's election,

Who in Jesus Christ believe;

By eternal destination

Sovereign grace we here receive."

We know it is personal election.

V. The other thought is--for my time flies too swiftly to enable me to

dwell at length upon these points--that election produces GOOD RESULTS.

"He hath from the beginning chosen you unto sanctification of the

spirit, and belief of the truth." How many men mistake the doctrine of

election altogether! and how my soul burns and boils at the

recollection of the terrible evils that have accrued from the spoiling

and the wresting of that glorious portion of God's glorious truth! How

many are there who have said to themselves, "I am elect," and have sat

down in sloth, and worse than that! They have said, "I am the elect of

God," and with both hands they have done wickedness. They have swiftly

run to every unclean thing, because they have said, "I am the chosen

child of God, irrespective of my works, therefore I may live as I list,

and do what I like." Oh, beloved! let me solemnly warn every one of you

not to carry the truth too far; or, rather not to turn the truth into

error, for we cannot carry it too far. We may overstep the truth; we

can make that which was meant to be sweet for our comfort, a terrible

mixture for our destruction. I tell you there have been thousands of

men who have been ruined by misunderstanding election; who have said,

"God has elected me to heaven, and to eternal life"; but they have

forgotten that it is written, God has elected them "through

sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." This is God's

election--election to sanctification and to faith. God chooses his

people to be holy, and to be believers. How many of you here then are

believers? How many of my congregation can put their hands upon their

hearts and say, "I trust in God that I am sanctified"? Is there one of

you who says, "I am elect"?--I remind that you swore last week. One of

you says, "I trust I am elect"--but I jog your memory about some

vicious act that you committed during the last six days. Another of you

says, "I am elect"--but I would look you in the face and say, "Elect!

thou art a most cursed hypocrite! and that is all thou art." Others

would say, "I am elect"--but I would remind them that they neglect the

mercy-seat and do not pray. Oh, beloved! never think you are elect

unless you are holy. You may come to Christ as a sinner, but you may

not come to Christ as an elect person until you can see your holiness.

Do not misconstrue what I say--do not say "I am elect," and yet think

you can be living in sin. That is impossible. The elect of God are

holy. They are not pure, they are not perfect, they are not spotless;

but, taking their life as a whole, they are holy persons. They are

marked, and distinct from others: and no man has a right to conclude

himself elect except in his holiness. He may be elect, and yet lying in

darkness, but he has no right to believe it; no one can see it, there

is no evidence of it. The man may live one day, but he is dead at

present. If you are walking in the fear of God, trying to please him,

and to obey his commandments, doubt not that your name has been written

in the Lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world.

And, lest this should be too high for you, note the other mark of

election, which is faith, "belief of the truth." Whoever believes God's

truth, and believes on Jesus Christ, is elect. I frequently meet with

poor souls, who are fretting and worrying themselves about this

thought--"How, if I should not be elect!" "Oh, sir," they say, "I know

I put my trust in Jesus; I know I believe in his name and trust in his

blood; but how if I should not be elect?" Poor dear creature! you do

not know much about the gospel, or you would never talk so, for he that

believes is elect. Those who are elect, are elect unto sanctification

and unto faith; and if you have faith you are one of God's elect; you

may know it and ought to know it, for it is an absolute certainty. If

you, as a sinner, look to Jesus Christ this morning, and say--

"Nothing in my hands I bring,

Simply to thy cross I cling,"

you are elect. I am not afraid of election frightening poor saints or

sinners. There are many divines who tell the enquirer "election has

nothing to do with you." That is very bad, because the poor soul is not

to be silenced like that. If you could silence him so, it might be

well, but he will think of it, he can't help it. Say to him then, if

you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you are elect. If you will cast

yourself on Jesus, you are elect. I tell you--the chief of

sinners--this morning, I tell you in his name, if you will come to God

without any works of your own, cast yourself on the blood and

righteousness of Jesus Christ; if you will come now and trust in him,

you are elect--you were loved of God from before the foundation of the

world, for you could not do that unless God had given you the power,

and had chosen you to do it. Now you are safe and secure if you do but

come and cast yourself on Jesus Christ, and wish to be saved and to be

loved by him. But think not that any man will be saved without faith

and without holiness. Do not conceive, my hearers, that some decree,

passed in the dark ages of eternity, will save your souls, unless you

believe in Christ. Do not sit down and fancy that you are to be saved

without faith and holiness. That is a most abominable and accursed

heresy, and has ruined thousands. Lay not election as a pillow for you

to sleep on, or you may be ruined. God forbid that I should be sewing

pillows under armholes that you may rest comfortably in your sins.

Sinner! there is nothing in the Bible to palliate your sins. But if

thou art condemned O man! if thou art lost O woman! thou wilt not find

in this Bible one drop to cool thy tongue, or one doctrine to palliate

thy guilt; your damnation will be entirely your own fault, and your sin

will richly merit it, because ye believe not ye are condemned. "Ye

believe not because ye are not of my sheep." "Ye wilt not come to me

that ye might have life." Do not fancy that election excuses sin--do

not dream of it--do not rock yourself in sweet complacency in the

thought of your irresponsibility. You are responsible. We must give you

both things. We must have divine sovereignty, and we must have man's

responsibility. We must have election, but we must ply your hearts, we

must send God's truth at you; we must speak to you, and remind you of

this, that while it is written, "In me is thy help"; yet it is also

written, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself."

VI. Now, lastly, what are the true and legitimate tendencies of right

conceptions concerning the doctrine of election. First, I will tell you

what the doctrine of election will make saints do under the blessing of

God; and, secondly what it will do for sinners if God blesses it to

them.

First, I think election, to a saint, is one of the most stripping

doctrines in all the world-- to take away all trust in the flesh, or

all reliance upon anything except Jesus Christ. How often do we wrap

ourselves up in our own righteousness, and array ourselves with the

false pearls and gems of our own works and doings. We begin to say "Now

I shall be saved, because I have this and that evidence." Instead of

that, it is naked faith that saves; that faith and that alone unites to

the Lamb, irrespective of works, although it is productive of them. How

often do we lean on some work, other than that of our own Beloved, and

trust in some might, other than that which comes from on high. Now if

we would have this might taken from us, we must consider election.

Pause my soul, and consider this. God loved thee before thou hadst a

being. He loved thee when thou wast dead in trespasses and sins, and

sent his Son to die for thee. He purchased thee with his precious blood

ere thou couldst lisp his name. Canst thou then be proud?

I know nothing, nothing again, that is more humbling for us than this

doctrine of election. I have sometimes fallen prostrate before it, when

endeavouring to understand it. I have stretched my wings, and,

eagle-like, I have soared towards the sun. Steady has been my eye, and

true my wing, for a season; but, when I came near it, and the one

thought possessed me,--"God hath from the beginning chosen you unto

salvation," I was lost in its lustre, I was staggered with the mighty

thought; and from the dizzy elevation down came my soul, prostrate and

broken, saying, "Lord, I am nothing, I am less than nothing. Why me?

Why me?"

Friends, if you want to be humbled, study election, for it will make

you humble under the influence of God's Spirit. He who is proud of his

election is not elect; and he who is humbled under a sense of it may

believe that he is. He has every reason to believe that he is, for it

is one of the most blessed effects of election that it helps us to

humble ourselves before God.

Once again. Election in the Christian should make him very fearless and

very bold. No man will be so bold as he who believes that he is elect

of God. What cares he for man if he is chosen of his Maker? What will

he care for the pitiful chirpings of some tiny sparrows when he knoweth

that he is an eagle of a royal race? Will he care when the beggar

pointeth at him, when the blood royal of heaven runs in his veins? Will

he fear if all the world stand against him? If earth be all in arms

abroad, he dwells in perfect peace, for he is in the secret place of

the tabernacle of the Most High, in the great pavillion of the

Almighty. "I am God's," says he, "I am distinct from other men. They

are of an inferior race. Am not I noble? Am not I one of the

aristocrats of heaven? Is not my name written in God's book?" Does he

care for the world? Nay: like the lion that careth not for the barking

of the dog, he smileth at all his enemies; and when they come too near

him, he moveth himself and dasheth them to pieces. What careth he for

them? He walks about them like a colossus; while little men walk under

him and understand him not. His brow is made of iron, his heart is of

flint--what doth he care for man? Nay; if one universal hiss came up

from the wide world, he would smile at it, for he would say,--

"He that hath made his refuge God,

Shall find a most secure abode."

"I am one of his elect. I am chosen of God and precious; and though the

world cast me out, I fear not." Ah! ye time-serving professors, some of

you can bend like the willows. There are few oaken-Christians

now-a-days, that can stand the storm; and I will tell you the reason.

It is because you do not believe yourselves to be elect. The man who

knows he is elect will be too proud to sin; he will not humble himself

to commit the acts of common people. The believer in this truth will

say, "I compromise my principles? I change my doctrines? I lay aside my

views? I hide what I believe to be true? No! since I know I am one of

God's elect, in the very teeth of all men I shall speak God's truth,

whatever man may say." Nothing makes a man so truly bold as to feel

that he is God's elect. He shall not quiver, he shall not shake, who

knows that God has chosen him.

Moreover, election will make us holy. Nothing under the gracious

influence of the Holy Spirit can make a Christian more holy than the

thought that he is chosen. "Shall I sin," he says, "after God hath

chosen me? Shall I transgress after such love? Shall I go astray after

so much lovingkindness and tender mercy? Nay, my God; since thou hast

chosen me, I will love thee; I will live to thee--

'Since thou, the everlasting God,

My Father art become;'

I will give myself to thee to be thine for ever, by election and by

redemption, casting myself on thee, and solemnly consecrating myself to

thy service."

And now, lastly, to the ungodly. What says election to you? First, ye

ungodly ones, I will excuse you for a moment. There are many of you who

do not like election, and I cannot blame you for it, for I have heard

those preach election, who have sat down, and said, "I have not one

word to say to the sinner." Now, I say you ought to dislike such

preaching as that, and I do not blame you for it. But, I say, take

courage, take hope, O thou sinner, that there is election. So far from

dispiriting and discouraging thee, it is a very hopeful and joyous

thing that there is an election. What if I told thee perhaps none can

be saved, none are ordained to eternal life; wouldst thou not tremble

and fold thy hands in hopelessness, and say, "Then how can I be saved,

since none are elect?" But, I say, there is a multitude elect, beyond

all counting--a host that no mortal can number. Therefore, take heart,

thou poor sinner! Cast away thy despondency--mayest thou not be elect

as well as any other? for there is a host innumerable chosen. There is

joy and comfort for thee! Then, not only take heart, but go and try the

Master. Remember, if you were not elect, you would lose nothing by it.

What did the four Syrians say? "Let us fall unto the host of the

Syrians, for if we stay here we must die, and if we go to them we can

but die." O sinner! come to the throne of electing mercy, Thou mayest

die where thou art. Go to God; and, even supposing he should spurn

thee, suppose his uplifted hand should drive thee away--a thing

impossible--yet thou wilt not lose anything; thou wilt not be more

damned for that. Besides, supposing thou be damned, thou wouldst have

the satisfaction at least of being able to lift up thine eyes in hell

and say, "God, I asked mercy of thee and thou wouldst not grant it; I

sought it, but thou didst refuse it." That thou never shalt say, O

sinner! If thou g