A Sermon by John Kennedy
Mark 16:16. He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Christ’s last work on earth was to make arrangements for the evangelisation of the world. How like Christ this was and how unlike every other! This was Jesus’ way of parting with the earth which was the scene of His humiliation, sufferings and death. And to His crucifiers the gospel was to be first preached. On them too the Spirit was to be first poured out. O verily He is a Prince and Saviour at the right hand of God, when this is the first use He makes of His power.
But how feeble seems the arrangement for evangelising the world. One in human nature stands in the midst of 11 illiterate and poor men, giving them a commission to go into all the world to preach. And this is all that appears to sense. And all the more weak and foolish does it seem when we think of what they are sent to preach: “the gospel”, “Christ crucified”. This to the Jews was a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. And yet this was to be preached, and by the preaching of it they were to make disciples of all nations.
And their preaching was not to be in vain. Some would believe and be saved, while even in the case of those who did not believe, it would be proved that the preaching of the Word was not without some effect. If its effect on them was not saving, they would find their condemnation sealed and aggravated by the abuse of it. The secret of success is in the promise of His presence who sent them. “The Lord” was “working with them” (v 20), and therefore the Word preached took effect and some believed and were saved.
This passage, of which our text is a part, presents to us the gospel as emanating from the authority, throne and heart of Christ; as resulting in the salvation of some and sealing the condemnation of others; and as accompanied by the presence and applied by the power of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of Christ. These three things we ought always to associate with the gospel as preached: It is Christ the risen Lord who speaks in the gospel; hearers cannot remain unaffected by it; and it is by the divine work of the Spirit alone that it can be made effectual unto salvation.
1Preached in Dingwall on 10 January 1864; taken, with slight editing, from Dr John Kennedy of Dingwall – Sermon Notes 1859-65, recently published by the James Begg Society (hardback, 318 pp, £18.00, available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom). The sermon is printed here with the kind permission of the Society. John Kennedy was minister of the Dingwall congregation of the Free Church of Scotland from 1844 until his death in 1884.
We are at present to consider what is here predicated of the results:
- Some believe, and some believe not.
- The believing are saved, and the unbelieving damned.
1. Some believe, and some believe not.
There are some who believe. Faith is the exercise of soul to which all are called to whom the gospel is preached. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). This exercise must be adapted to the gospel, must be such as consists with the freeness of divine grace, and must also be such as suits the sinful creature.
(1.) The exercise of faith is adapted to the gospel because:
[1.] The gospel is the gospel of God. It is spoken by Christ from heaven as He is there on His mediatorial throne. It is the truth of God under the authority of God. It is addressed to each individual to whom the gospel is sent. God is speaking in the gospel to you and to me. The gospel is to be believed by an individual as the testimony of God to him regarding Christ and salvation. Faith is therefore a believing God as speaking to me – a receiving of what is said as true because it is the testimony of God, and receiving it as true in its bearing on my own case as a sinner because it is addressed by God to me.
[2.] In the gospel the provision of God’s love for the salvation of sinners is revealed and offered. All that provision is summed up in Christ as Redeemer in His threefold offices of Prophet, Priest and King. Faith, in order to be adapted to the gospel in this aspect of it, must imply a willingness to be indebted to the grace of God for salvation, and a reception of the provision on terms of free grace. The provision as revealed in the gospel and as offered there is accepted willingly and cordially by the believer. It is only by reception it can become mine.
[3.] In the gospel Christ Jesus the Lord is presented unto sinners as an object of confidence, and God Himself in Him. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31). This is the terminating exercise of faith in reference to Christ. I am to believe the testimony, I am to accept of the provision, in order to trust in Him whom God has sent to seek and to save that which is lost. Belief, reception and trust are thus necessarily implied in the faith of the gospel. Thus appears the adaptation of faith to the gospel.
(2.) Its consistency with the freeness of divine grace in salvation may also become apparent if we consider it as just the reception of a salvation provided by God, without money and without price. Faith gives nothing. It takes all. Salvation through faith must be salvation by grace. And all the more is this true when we consider that faith itself is the gift of God. What is it but grace receiving grace? An implanted grace receiving provided grace; grace giving
and grace receiving. The gospel is just grace bringing salvation. Faith is just grace receiving the salvation which is brought nigh.
There are prevalent views of faith which are utterly inconsistent with the truth that “salvation is of the Lord”. The notion many have of the gospel is that it is a proclamation of an amnesty to all who believe, that at once the believer is fully saved, and that this faith is the condition on which the benefit of the amnesty is offered. Faith, in their opinion, is something to be done in order to secure this benefit. All the benefit is exemption from God’s wrath, and this is secured by an act of faith. What is this but converting the gospel into a legal dispensation? Christ the object is ignored. The provision of God in Christ with a view to His being a just God and a Saviour is kept out of sight. And sinners are urged to believe without reference to the agency of the Holy Ghost, just in order that they may win salvation by an act of their own.
- And how suitable is faith to the condition of the sinful creature! An act of homage to the truth of God, to the God of truth, is required by the authority of God. This is rendered by believing the testimony of God. And where it is rendered, it is the exercise of grace. Even if this homage were paid, what has the creature to boast of? Is it the part of a creature to boast of not blaspheming his Maker? But when he is brought to this by grace, surely all boasting is excluded. How suitable to a sinful creature is faith as the first act of homage to God – receiving as true the gospel which brings Christ as a free gift to the door of his heart, because the gospel is His.
How suitable to him as an act of reception! He has nothing, but Christ is and has all he needs. Without money and without price, he receives a complete salvation as offered to him by God.
How suitable to him as an act of trust in Christ! He leans on Him as God’s anointed, and on God in Him. Leaning is the attitude which becomes him – resting on Christ alone, trusting in the Lord and in His everlasting strength.
But there are some who believe not. And what view are we to take of their conduct? Are we to think of them merely as destitute of faith? Is this negative aspect of unbelief all that we are to think of? Is there no positive exercise of soul to be found in these in relation to the gospel? Verily there is. And whatever it be, it must be wherever there is no true faith. What does this unbelief imply? It implies:
(1.) A rejection of God’s testimony as unworthy of credit. It must be rejected if it is not received. This is the alternative. The gospel cannot be preached without either result on the part of those who hear. You either believe or do not believe. If you do not believe it is because you regard what is spoken as unworthy of credit.
For example, you hear a fellow creature speaking. He is not addressing
you though you are within hearing. You suspect that he is speaking what is not true. You feel no interest in what he is saying. Therefore you do not care to attend to what you hear. You say nothing in contradiction of what you hear. But in your heart you are uninterested and indifferent. You have said in your heart, “That man is a liar”. From that judgement in your heart flowed all the listlessness of your mind in hearing him. By that secret listlessness alone you betray your unbelief and, as this is a secret in your own mind, others do not know it. The man who spoke, as he could not know what was in your mind, could not know that in your heart you called him a liar.
But suppose you were lying helpless on your bed at dead of night, and one came to your bedside in all haste and urgency, told you that the house in which you lay was on fire and that he had come to carry you out of the flames; and that he stretched out his arms to take you up and carry you away. You heard him and remained unmoved. You said nothing and you did nothing, but just on that very account you proved that you did not believe. And by saying nothing you said to him, “Thou art a liar”.
Thus does the unbeliever act towards God. God comes to him by the gospel and addresses him regarding his instant need of salvation, and urges him to accept of Christ. He does not pay attention. He hears as if he heard not, and thus he “hath made Him a liar” (1 John 5:10). You may think that the unbelief in the gospel results from not knowing that it is God who speaks, and that ignorance of this is an excuse for unbelief. We know this idea is in hell. The rich man asked for a messenger from the dead to go to his brethren, but Abraham in heaven said, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31). Not believing that God speaks is just not believing what God speaks. For He tells you that He speaks. And it is not inability to realise that God is the speaker, but your enmity to God, which keeps you an unbeliever as to what is spoken. It is your suspicion of its divinity that causes your dislike to the gospel.
(2.) Unbelief is the rejection of the provision of God’s love for the salvation of sinners. Not to receive is to reject. There may be no consciousness of active rejection. There may be just an easy, indolent state of mind and feeling. But this is just rejecting with contempt. This is just to say, “Not only will I not receive, but it is to me so contemptible that I care not to think about it”. And what does this rejection imply?
[1.] In it there is the most offensive pride. I “have need of nothing” (Rev 3:17), is the language of the undone sinner. He speaks thus and yet he is “wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”. “If I have need I will not be indebted unto Thee.” And He with whom he has to do has made provision in His love – such a provision, at such a cost. He saw all this to be
necessary; He knew that less would not suffice. And yet, when the offer is made, it is refused. O think of such a sinner turning proudly away from God’s gift of His only begotten Son!
[2.] There is unrelenting hardness and enmity. Hardness is the result of enmity. Think of the boon presented. Think of the display given of His glory by God in the face of Jesus Christ. Think of the commendation given of His love. Think of the calls, counsels, entreaties and commands given by God to urge the sinner to accept Christ, and think of the sinner remaining unaffected, refusing after all this. Even all this will not win; all this will not move him. After all this, he shows no sign of relenting. O think of his standing out against all the wonders of God’s glory, all the riches of His grace, all the words of His mouth.
(3.) Unbelief is distrust of Christ and of God in Him. He the Son, as God’s anointed, is presented as a gift to the sinner. He is commended by God: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matt 17:5). But He is refused. He is regarded as unworthy of confidence. His person is refused. His love is suspected. His fulness is regarded as insufficient. His death is regarded as no proof of His willingness to save. And God is distrusted. He has proved that He has no pleasure in the death of a sinner. He appeals to the cross of His Son. He gives His oath. He displays the riches of His grace. He shows the glory of His name. But there is no tribute of homage or of trust from the unbeliever as he forsakes “the fountain of living waters”, and betakes himself to broken cisterns (Jer 2:13).
2. The believing are saved, and the unbelieving damned.
“He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved”. It is evident that baptism is to be taken into account here not as a rite but as a confession. Without the rite the thief was saved; but confession with the mouth is required as proof of believing with the heart.
(1.) “Shall be saved” from sin. Sin is to be viewed as a crime, and as a disease. He that believeth shall be saved from it both as a crime and as a disease.
[1.] He obtains an interest in salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. There is salvation in Christ. Receiving Christ, salvation is received. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to him, and he is pardoned and accepted. He is thus saved from sin as a crime. But, on the ground of Christ’s blood, he obtains an interest in the provision of the well-ordered covenant. All that God hath provided for the salvation of His people belongs to the believer in Christ. And all the provision made for the application of the redemption purchased by Christ is available now to him.
[2.] He is the subject of a saving work. He is not yet saved, but he shall be. His soul shall be sanctified by the Spirit through the truth. He shall be
kept from Satan’s deceit and violence and delivered from a present evil world. At death his soul shall be fully saved, but not his whole person. But at the last day, he shall be raised incorruptible and, in his whole person, he shall thereafter be for ever with the Lord. This is abundantly sure, because (a) God has said it and sworn it; (b) all God’s provision is his in Christ (c) it is to God’s glory to see to it that this provision is found sufficient.
(2.) “He that believeth not shall be damned“. How shall we enter on the consideration of these awful words? Who can tell the import of this awful word damned? It is to be under the infliction of the curse of the broken law of God. That sentence condemns the sinner:
[1.] To final and eternal excision from the favour of God and therefore from all rest and hope for ever.
[2.] To subjection to the pangs of an accusing conscience – that worm that dieth not.
[3.] To an outpouring of God’s wrath. How awful the fire of that wrath! How awful an experience of it in soul and body!
[4.] To everlasting companionship with the devil and his angels.
This is the inevitable result of unbelief:
(a) Because it is through faith in Christ alone that one can pass out of the estate of sin and misery. This is a state of condemnation. All who are in it are under sentence of death. Not to believe is just to remain in that state. Therefore “he that believeth not shall be damned“.
(b) Because the unbeliever refuses the great provision of God’s love. This is the only provision. This is a great and costly provision. Without it salvation is impossible. The ignorance men have of the gospel helps them to expect impunity.
(c) Because this of all sins is the greatest. He who goes with the weight of this on him to hell must sink deeper than all others in the lake of fire.
Application: The question arises: How are these different results to be accounted for? What makes the difference? Why do some believe and others not? We may try to solve this question apart from the sovereignty of God, and we shall fail. Those who believed heard the same gospel, were plied by the same instrumentality, had the same natural disposition, and were exposed to the same evil influences as others. And yet they believed. And why did they believe? How was this result secured? The answer is found in the gracious and almighty agency of God the Holy Ghost. He quickened them. He turned them from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God. And why these and not others? The only answer to this we find in the words of Christ: “Even so Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matt 11:26). The Spirit is sovereign in His working, but His work is sure according
to the working of the Covenant. “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me” (John 6:37).
How solemn an enquiry ought these words to excite! Salvation or damnation are the alternatives. Faith or unbelief. Who can estimate the blessedness of the saved? Think of eternal hell escaped, of all sin destroyed, of heaven reached in triumph, of God for ever glorified and enjoyed there. Think, on the other hand, of everlasting damnation. An endless eternity of despair, of remorse, of felt wrath, of scorching fire, of fiendish tormenting, of blaspheming of God. Endless, endless, endless misery! O what an alternative! How mad to be indifferent about it! How wicked as well as foolish to make light of it!
Faith in Christ is the essential matter. Do you have it? Instead of speculating about it, ask to be convinced of sin because you do not believe. This is what you first need. What am I as a sinner in the sight of God? – let this be your first question. An answer to this would shut you up to the gospel salvation – to Christ as the only name given under heaven whereby a sinner can be saved.
Your next question should be, “Who is Christ, that I may believe on Him?”
Hast thou faith? Show it by thy works. Faith without works is dead. Does thy faith work by love? Does thy faith purify the heart? Does thy faith overcome the world? These are the testing questions.