The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

firstborn, whose names are written in heaven”; to be elected to be a companion with angels, to be a favourite of the living God, to dwell with the Most High, among the fairest of the sons of light, nearest to the eternal throne! Election in this world is only a short lived thing, but God’s election is eternal. Let a man be elected to a seat in the House: seven years must be the longest period that he can hold his election; but if you and I are elected according to the Divine purpose, we shall hold our seats when the daystar shall have ceased to burn, when the sun shall have grown dim with age, and when the eternal hills shall have bowed themselves with weakness. If we are chosen of God and precious, then we are chosen for ever, for God does not change in the objects of his election. Those whom he has ordained he has ordained to eternal life, “and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of his hand.” It is worth while to know ourselves to be elect, for nothing in this world can make a man more happy or more valiant than the knowledge of his election. “Nevertheless,” said Christ to his apostles, “do not rejoice in this, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven” — that being the sweetest comfort, the honeycomb that drops with the most precious drops of all, the knowledge of our being chosen by God. And this, too, beloved, makes a man valiant. When a man by diligence has attained to the assurance of his election, you cannot make him a coward, you can never make him cry craven even in the thickest battle, he holds the standard fast and firm, and cleaves his foes with the scimitar of truth. “Was not I ordained by God to be the standard bearer of this truth? I must, I will stand by it, despite you all.” He says to every enemy, “Am I not a chosen king? Can floods of water wash out the sacred unction from a king’s bright brow? No, never! And if God has chosen me to be a king and a priest to God for ever and ever, come what may or come what will — the lion’s teeth, the fiery furnace, the spear, the rack, the stake, all these things are less than nothing, seeing I am chosen by God to salvation.” It has been said that the doctrine of necessity makes men weak. It is a lie. It may seem so in theory, but in practice it has always been found to be the reverse. The men who have believed in destiny, and have held fast and firm by it, have always done the most valiant deeds. There is one point in which this is akin even with Mohammed’s faith. The deeds that were done by him were chiefly done from a firm confidence that God had ordained him to his work. Never had Cromwell driven his foes before him if it had not been in the stern strength of this almost omnipotent truth; and there shall scarcely be found a man strong to do great and valiant deeds unless, confident in the God of Providence, he looks upon the accidents of life as being steered by God, and gives himself up to God’s firm predestination, to be borne along by the current of his will, contrary to all the wills and all the wishes of the world. “Therefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.”

      8. II. Come, then, here is the second point GOOD ADVICE. “Make your calling and election sure.” Not towards God, for they are sure to him: make them sure to yourself. Be quite certain of them; be fully satisfied about them. In many of our dissenting places of worship very great encouragement is held out to doubting. A person comes before the pastor, and says, “Oh! sir, I am so afraid I am not converted; I tremble lest I should not be a child of God. Oh! I fear I am not one of the Lord’s elect.” The pastor will put out his hands to him, and say, “Dear brother, you are all right as long as you can doubt.” Now, I hold, that is altogether wrong. Scripture never says, “He who doubts shall be saved,” but “He who believes.” It may be true that the man is in a good state; it may be true that he needs a little comfort; but his doubts are not good things, nor ought we to encourage him in his doubts. Our business is to encourage him out of his doubts, and by the grace of God to urge him to “give all diligence to make his calling and election sure,” not to doubt it, but to be sure of it. Ah! I have heard some hypocritical doubters say, “Oh! I have had such doubts whether I am the Lord’s,” and I have thought to myself, “And so I have very great doubts about you.” I have heard some say they do tremble so because they are afraid they are not the Lord’s people; and the lazy fellows sit in their pews on the Sunday, and just listen to the sermon; but they never think of giving diligence, they never do good, perhaps are inconsistent in their lives, and then talk about doubting. It is quite right they should doubt, it is well they should; and if they did not doubt we might begin to doubt for them. Idle men have no right to assurance. The Scripture says, “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.”

      9. Full assurance is an excellent attainment. It is profitable for a man to be certain in this life, and absolutely sure of his own calling and election. But how can he be sure? Now, many of our more ignorant hearers imagine that the only way they have of being assured of their election is by some revelation, some dream, and some mystery. I have enjoyed very hearty laughs at the expense of some people who have trusted in their visions. Really, if you had passed among so many shades of ignorant professing Christians as I have; and had to resolve so many doubts and fears, you would be so infinitely sick of dreams and visions that you would say, as soon as a person began to speak about them, “Now, do just hold your tongue.” “Sir,” said a woman, “I saw blue lights in the front parlour when I was in prayer, and I thought I saw the Saviour in the corner, and I said to myself I am safe.” (Mr. Spurgeon here narrated a remarkable story of a poor woman who was possessed with a singular delusion.) And yet there are tens of thousands of people in every part of the country, and members too of Christian bodies, who have no better ground for their belief that they are called and elected, than some vision equally ridiculous, or the equally absurd hearing of a voice. A young woman came to me some time ago; she wanted to join the church, and when I asked her how she knew herself to be converted, she said she was down at the bottom of the garden, and she thought she heard a voice, and she thought she saw something up in the clouds that said to her so-and-so. “Well,” I said to her, “that thing may have been the means of doing good for you, but if you put any trust in it, it is all over with you.” A dream, indeed, and a vision, may often bring men to Christ; I have known many who have been brought to him by them, beyond a doubt, though it has been mysterious to me how it was; but when men bring these forward as a proof of their conversion, there is the mistake, because you may see fifty thousand dreams and fifty thousand visions, and you may be a fool for all that, and all the bigger sinner for having seen them. There is better evidence to be had than all this: “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.”

      10. “How, then,” one says, “am I to make my calling and election sure?” Why, thus: — If you would get out of a doubting state, get out of an idle state; if you would get out of a trembling state, get out of an indifferent lukewarm state; for lukewarmness and doubting, and laziness and trembling, very naturally go hand in hand. If you would enjoy the eminent grace of the full assurance of faith under the blessed Spirit’s influence and assistance, do what the Scripture tells you — “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.” In what shall you be diligent? Note how the Scripture has given us a list. Be diligent in your faith. Take care that your faith is of the right kind — that it is not a creed, but a credence — that it is not a mere belief of doctrine, but a reception of doctrine into your heart, and the practical light of the doctrine in your soul. Take care that your faith results from necessity — that you believe in Christ because you have nothing else to believe in. Take care it is simple faith, hanging alone on Christ, without any other dependence but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And when you have given diligence about that, give diligence next to your courage. Labour to get virtue; plead with God that he would give you the face of a lion, that you may never be afraid of any enemy, however much he may jeer or threaten you, but that you may with a consciousness of right, go on, boldly trusting in God. And having, by the help of the Holy Spirit, obtained that, study well the Scriptures, and get knowledge; for a knowledge of doctrine will tend very much to confirm your faith. Try to understand God’s Word; get a sensible, spiritual idea about it. Get, if you can, a system of divinity out of God’s Bible. Put the doctrines together. Get real, theological knowledge, founded upon the infallible word. Get a knowledge of that science which is most despised, but which is the most necessary of all, the science of Christ and of him crucified, and of the great doctrines of grace. And when you have done this, “Add to your knowledge temperance.” Take heed to your body: be temperate there. Take heed to your soul: be temperate there. Do not be drunk with pride; do not be lifted