A Sermon by Andrew Thomson
Ephesians 2:8. For by grace are ye saved, through faith.
- The subject we have been considering should teach you humility. Were you permitted to think that you merited or wrought out any part of your salvation, however inconsiderable, this thought would make you complacent about yourselves. And from the natural tendency of the heart, you would so dwell on your own share in the work that even the far larger part of it, which you could not but ascribe to divine influence and interposition, would often be forgotten and always undervalued. Thus, though unworthy creatures, you would be high-minded and proud, and give place to that passion which is especially hateful to the sovereign God.
But the scriptural view of salvation, which we have been attempting to illustrate, excludes all boasting; it takes away all ground and all pretence for it. All that is good in you proceeds from the Father of mercies; nothing that is good is either produced or nourished by your own independent energies. Whatever therefore you have of excellence or of privilege or of happiness – whether it be much or little – reads you a lesson in humility. If a vain-glorious emotion rises in your breast at any time, it is an intruder and must be expelled, for it is certain that you do not possess one quality to warrant or to countenance it.
Thus, when you give to God the glory that is due to His grace, by which alone you are saved, you leave nothing in your own character but weakness, imperfection, ignorance, guilt and misery; then self-abasement must take procession of your minds, so that you shall lie low in dust and ashes before Him whose fallen, disobedient, helpless creatures you are. Then also He shall see in you that subdued tone of thinking and feeling, that freedom from all pretensions to worth and power, that genuine poverty of spirit, which will result in Him granting you more of His promised grace. He shall make you fit recipients of that undeserved bounty which He is so ready to pour out on His redeemed and penitent offspring.
Cherish fondly then the doctrine of salvation by free grace; it will make and keep you humble. This is, at all times and in all cases, your appropriate attitude in the presence of God. And while it is appropriate, it will also prove
1In the first part of this sermon, printed last month, the preacher expounded his text and gave the first point of his application to believers: the gratitude which they should have for grace. This sermon was preached at the introduction of John W Thomson to Moneydie parish, Perthshire, and is taken, with editing, from a posthumous volume of the preacher’s Sermons and Sacramental Exhortations.
advantageous by leading you, in the exercise of the humility it promotes, to seek for the blessings you need where alone they are to be found – in the rich, inexhaustible storehouse of His sovereign mercy.
Let your humility be deepened by frequently contemplating the Redeemer’s death. That death is a most moving demonstration of your helpless, undone condition by nature, and through wicked works, as well as of the riches of that grace which interposed on your behalf. If you had some merit, or resources, you cannot imagine that God would have given up His own dear Son to the shame and agony of the cross. Measure the depth of your own worthlessness by the depth of Christ’s humiliation. And give all your vain and lofty imaginations to the winds. Prostrate yourselves in your inmost spirit before the footstool of your God. And in that attitude, wait, watch and pray to have His grace granted you more abundantly, which alone can pardon, purify, exalt and save you.
- This view of the doctrine of salvation by free grace also imparts comfort. It does so, not merely because sinners have a merciful God to look to and to deal with, but also because the merciful God takes the whole management of your salvation. Just suppose that any part of it were under your own direction, that you had something to do either in forming or in executing the plan, that certain points in your treatment of it, or in its application to you, had been intrusted to your care. Would this not have made room for failure, either partial or total, and consequently for distrust and fearful apprehension?
But you know that the ignorance, the feebleness, the perversity and the corruption of fallen man have had no share in devising or in accomplishing it – though the cure of these evils is the very object at which salvation aims. You know, moreover, that the whole of it, from first to last, is the doing of the Lord, and there is no imperfection in Him. So all fear as to the result is out of place; there is the greatest encouragement to believe that it will prove to be a great salvation – as certainly as God’s promises that this is what it will be.
The grace of God is such that it will sustain the best and brightest hopes that fallen man can entertain. It is rich, tender, abundant and everlasting. There is no evil that it will not remove; there is no blessing that it will not confer. It delights in the salvation of those whom it blesses; it will withhold from them nothing that is good. God’s grace acts in union with all His other perfections. Its purposes are devised and executed in conjunction with a wisdom which does not err; a power which nothing can resist; a knowledge which embraces all the needs and all the circumstances of its objects; a justice which is satisfied by the Surety and so will not demand satisfaction from the sinner; and a faithfulness which will perform every promise that has been
made and will not leave the least and the poorest of those about whom it is concerned, till they are safely lodged in the mansions of the blessed.
Surely, Christian friends, you have in this a consolation which you could never have possessed, had any portion of the scheme of your salvation been committed to yourselves, or to the best, the wisest and the most perfect of created beings. The consolation is rich and precious, and free from all impurity. Take it then and enjoy it in all its fulness, amid the many vicissitudes of your Christian lot, amid the darkness that will sometimes envelop you, the convictions of sin and the sense of weakness that will often distress you, the temptations and the hostility that will occasionally threaten to overwhelm you, the difficulties in performing your duty and holding fast your integrity which will often perplex you, the misgivings of mind and the pressure of outward affliction which you will experience, the various hardships of life and the awful approach of death which necessarily await you.
Amid all these trials, and even when everything seems to wear a forbidding and frightening aspect, let this be your refuge: by grace you are saved; you are in the hands of God; He is keeping you as the apple of His eye. No event can frustrate the purposes of His love concerning you, and He will make all things – even the worst and the severest dispensations which may overtake you – work together for the advancement of your spiritual good and your eternal happiness. And receive continually the impression of the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that you may take this consolation with you as you travel through the wilderness, and that your joy may be full on account of it, even to overflowing.
It was the grace of God that appointed that method of redemption. Wonderful indeed must that grace have been which prompted Him to make such a sacrifice in order to save you. Trust in it now and be comforted; trust in it always and be for ever happy. Take this argument with you: if God “spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things” – all things that can contribute to your present safety and secure your entrance to the promised land? Take this argument along with you, and rejoice with a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.
- The subject we have been considering should constrain us to cheerful, universal obedience. If the grace of God has been so richly displayed towards you, it unquestionably becomes you to be most anxious and diligent in doing what pleases Him. Remember besides that one essential branch of that salvation which the grace of God has wrought out for you is the sanctification of your heart and life. Thus, if you indulge in sin or are careless in duty, you are doing what you can to counteract the great purpose which He in mercy offers to accomplish on your spiritual and eternal condition. And you have
this most powerful of all motives to influence you to activity and devotedness and perseverance in the path of righteousness: the grace which has promised and provided salvation will be imparted in abundant supply to purify your hearts, to regulate your conduct, to fortify you against temptation, and to bring you to perfect holiness in the fear of God.
Be resolved then not only to be holy, but to be holy in all manner of conversation: to consecrate yourselves to the service of Him who has loved you, to walk closely, constantly and obediently with God – and to live in this manner to “the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made you accepted in the Beloved”. And let your resolution to act thus, as those who have “tasted that the Lord is gracious”, be strengthened and confirmed by the death of Christ.
Since Christ died to fulfil the purpose of God’s mercy for your salvation, you have in this fact a solemn and moving proof, both of the greatness of that mercy, of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and of the necessity of personal purity. Thus you cannot rightly meditate on the death of Christ without feeling a powerful and constraining obligation to be holy. Bear this on your minds; strive to fulfill it faithfully and fully. And in every part of your future conduct, show that you not only admire the grace of God but also partake of it. Show that you sincerely ascribe all the honour of your salvation to His grace and that – depending, for strength as well as for righteousness, on that grace – you will study to obey God by being conformed to the image of Christ, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”.
Let me now address those who reject the salvation of the gospel and despise the free grace by which it is provided. Remember that, though the grace of God has had its perfect work, His justice will still punish those who rebel, and persist in their rebellion. To trample on and set at nought His grace can only tend to aggravate the offence by which His justice is already roused, and to increase the punishment which it has already determined. Though the grace of God by which sinners are saved is exceeding rich, there may be a period, though as yet unknown to us, beyond which it will not extend. And if you are obstinately resisting His kind invitations, He may at length abandon you to hopeless and final impenitence. Be persuaded then to submit to His saving power. “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?”
There are some of you, I fear, whose limbs are trembling with age, or whose heads are white, and to whom one pastor after another has addressed the message of salvation by free grace. But that message has been addressed to you in vain, and you continue to live as if there was no justice to punish you for your guilt, and as if there was no grace to redeem you from it. Once
more I bring this message to you and beseech you to listen to it, before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and death comes to put its seal on your everlasting fate. You have long been wandering away from God, mocking His judgments and despising the compassionate counsels which He has given you in His Word and by His servants.
If you persist in this thoughtless and rebellious course, you may never again hear a warning to flee from the wrath to come, and it is but a short time before you must go to that place where God forgets to be gracious and His mercy is clean gone for ever. But if you will be persuaded, if you will repent and believe and obey the gospel – long and obstinately as you have been fighting against the authority of God and resisting the calls of His pity – I am warranted to assure you of acceptance and salvation. This is because the blood of atonement, on which He beseeches you to rely, cleanses from all sin, and His mercy reaches far enough to embrace even the chief of sinners. Be reconciled to Him then by the death of His Son. Cast yourselves upon His unmerited but never-failing love. Lay hold of salvation as His free gift. Let His redeeming grace be your confidence, your rejoicing and your hope during the short evening of your pilgrimage, that it may bear you comfortably through the agonies of your departure and carry you away, as trophies of its riches and its power, to the glories of a better world.
Even if you are young and healthy, do not count on the years and the opportunities of a lengthened life. Whenever you are saved, it must be by grace. And if the grace of God is now bringing you salvation, offering it to you and pressing it upon you, why will you delay accepting it, as if it were not as valuable and necessary at this moment as it may become at some future time? The longer you defer embracing it, the more hardened you will become against the influences of the grace which confers and applies it, and the more difficult it will be to prevail on you to renounce the sins which now prevent you from receiving it, and to acquiesce in the only method by which you can become partakers of it. What security do you have that you will be spared till that chosen hour when you may have decided that you will seek its blessings, the hour after which you will never desist from the pursuit till they become yours?
You have, you can have no such security. Sickness of body, insanity of mind, sudden and unexpected death may come upon you, and eternally shut out your hope of making even one effort of reliance on that grace of God, by which alone you can be saved. It may eternally shut out your hope of ever again hearing the doctrine which we have been urging you to receive. “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation”. Listen to the voice of God today, and do not harden your heart. Do not let the sun go down on again on
your impenitence and unbelief. Resolve that you will be the Lord’s, that you will cleave to Him as your Saviour, your guide, your portion and your all. If you trust in Him in early life, He will make goodness and mercy follow you all your days. Whatever hour He calls you away to eternity, the arms of His kindness will be underneath you and around you. And as He gives you grace here, He will give you glory hereafter.
Let me beseech you all to think of the privileges you enjoy and the account you are to render. Let me especially remind you who belong to this parish of the new relationship into which you have lately been brought, and of the responsibility connected with it. No relationship can be more important; no responsibility can be more awesome. My young friend to whom, as a pastor in the Church of Christ, your spiritual interests have been committed, will deceive and disappoint me much if he does not preach to you faithfully and earnestly the sovereign grace of God, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the doctrine of salvation by divine mercy through faith in a crucified Redeemer, and the necessity of holiness produced by the renewing and sanctifying influences of the Spirit – extending to all the affections of the heart and to all the actions of the life.
I feel confident that he will devote himself to the momentous work which has been given him, that he will cheerfully spend and be spent in the service of his divine Master, that he will be active, agreeably to the Apostle’s exhortation, “in season and out of season”, that he will administer instruction, warning, reproof, encouragement and consolation according to the various characters and circumstances of his people. I feel confident that in all these things he will watch for your souls as one that must give an account and as one that loves you for Christ’s sake and for your own.
I trust he will feel the weight of the obligations he has come under as a minister of the Son of God and as your watchman and overseer in the Lord – not treating it as a subordinate work, but his paramount object, in which his whole affections are engaged and to which his whole energies are consecrated. I trust he will thus make it the business of his life to awaken perishing sinners from the sleep of death, to comfort them that mourn in Zion, to build up the saints in their most holy faith, and to prepare inhabitants for the mansions in his Father’s house above.
And I pray that, whatever difficulties and trials he may have to encounter in the arduous position he has taken up, he may be enabled, through help from on high, to sustain and to overcome them all. I pray that whatever he may have to suffer from objectors, he will not cease to love you, to pray for you, and to labour on your behalf. I pray too that none of these things will move him, and that he will not count even his life dear to him, so that he
may finish his course with joy, and the ministry which he has “received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God”.
But do not think that all the duty and all the accountability attach to him. If it is his duty to preach to you the doctrines of grace and of godliness, and to strive for your conversion, salvation and happiness, it is your duty to receive his doctrines in faith and obedience, and to listen to his voice as he calls you to glory and to virtue. It is your duty too to become all that the gospel, whose message he delivers, is intended to make you, and to show in your practical subjection to the righteousness and authority of Christ that you have not received the grace of God in vain.
If he must give an account of himself and his stewardship to the great Master of the vineyard, in a corner of which he has been appointed to work, so must each of you, whether old or young, whether rich or poor, whether in one relation or in another. Everyone of you must appear before the judgement seat of Christ, to answer for the spirit and the manner in which you have received His servant, and for the value which you have put on the redemption that your pastor presses upon you in his Master’s name. You must answer for the use you have made of all the undeserved benefits which, through the ministry of the gospel, you have been urged to receive by all the terrors of the Lord, and by all the compassion of Him who died for sinners like you.
Will you reject the provision which God in His grace has made for the life, the nourishment and the happiness of never-dying spirits? Or will you take no deep-felt interest in the scheme of everlasting salvation, which was devised in the eternal counsels of the Godhead, which was purchased with a price that exceeded all the riches of the universe, which prophets and apostles, evangelists and pastors have been ordained to proclaim to a guilty world? With a fulness of blessing that imagination cannot fathom, it comes as a suppliant to your door and knocks for admission to your heart.
Will you banish from your view, or will you esteem lightly, that time of coming retribution, when God will reckon with each one of you for the reception you have given to a preached gospel and an offered Saviour? He now beseeches you, by the agonies of His cross, to be reconciled. He will then sit on the throne of righteous judgement to award you your never-ending doom. Then assembled myriads will be looking on to see you taking your place on the right hand or on the left hand of the great white throne, and listening to the voice which, louder than a thousand thunders and irresistible as omnipotence, sends you to heaven or to hell.
Dear friends, I trust that none of you ignores what so deeply concerns you, now and for ever. Separate yourselves from the world that lies in wickedness; go to the foot of that cross on which Christ expiated the guilt of His
people; receive the redeeming power and the sanctifying grace of Jehovah; honour those whom He sends to bring you His message and to plead His cause; and, with grateful and rejoicing hearts, walk in the way that He points out as leading to life and immortality.
Then, when inward corruption or an ensnaring world or spiritual enemies interfere to weaken your faith and seduce you into sin, think of your obligations; think of the grace by which alone you can be saved; think of the wounds by which Jesus takes away your transgressions; think of the love of that Holy Spirit whom your backsliding will grieve; think of the sorrows of those who desire that you will be their crown of rejoicing, but must mourn when they see you falling away; think of the endless ages that lie before you. And let all these considerations forbid every unbelieving thought, every unholy desire and every forbidden gratification. Let them persuade you, under God, to remain steadfast in the faith of the gospel and inflexible in your adherence to that Saviour, who encourages His people to steadfastness and perseverance by this high promise, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne”.