Sermon Two in a series of six on
Galatians 2:21.
Do Not
Frustrate the Grace of God
"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Gal. 2:21.
I told you
the last day (what you may learn by your own reading), that the end in view of
the apostle in this epistle is, to teach and defend the doctrine of the
justification of a sinner by the righteousness of Christ, apprehended by faith
alone. In the text the apostle hath two arguments for this truth, against the
contrary error, with which the Galatians were plagued; and both arguments are
taken from the absurdities that follow upon the contrary doctrine.
1st,
That seeking righteousness by the works of law, doth frustrate and make void
the grace of God.
2dly, That it makes Christ's death to be in vain: and
there is nothing revealed by the Lord, in his word, more sacred, and more
solemnly majestic than these two the grace of God, and the death of Christ; and
therefore it must needs be a great wickedness to enervate, and overthrow both
these.
From the first part of these words I observed four things, and have
already spoken to the first of them, and would speak to the next at this time.
1st, The grace of God shines gloriously in the justifying of a sinner
through Christ's righteousness alone. All the revelations that are made of this
great way of God's justifying a sinner, are all made with a high deference to
the grace of God, as the original thereof.
2dly, I am now to speak to this
point ? that frustrating the grace of God is a great and horrible sin: the
apostle here brings it in as such, and denies his concern in it; "I do not
frustrate the grace of God." The scope of his discourse leads me to this head:
"If I seek righteousness by the works of the law, I should frustrate the grace
of God; but I do not seek righteousness that way, therefore I do not frustrate
the grace of God." Frustrating the grace of God is a great and horrible sin:
there are two things I would speak to upon this head to shew you how this sin
is committed and then, wherein its greatness doth appear; for there are many
that commit this sin, and when they have done, think nothing of it.
1st,
How is this sin committed that the apostle here vindicates himself from? "I do
not frustrate the grace of God." This sin is committed two ways:
1st, By
not receiving the grace of God when it is tendered.
2dly, By seeking other
ways and expedients for righteousness than the grace of God. First, Frustrating
the grace of God is not receiving it; the grace of God is frustrated when it is
not received: the right entertaining of it is by receiving it. The apostle
exhorts the Corinthians, "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you
also, that you receive not the grace of God in vain," (2 Cor. 6:1). I have told
you in what sense the grace of God might be received in vain, and in what sense
it could not. The doctrine of the grace of God, the offer of the grace of God,
may be received in vain, and rejected, as many times it is; but the grace of
God itself cannot be received in vain, for it always worketh its effect
wheresoever it lights. The grace of God is an irresistible principle of
salvation: never man had one mite of the grace of God, but he was saved by it.
Christ Jesus hath two quivers, if I may so say: there is a common quiver, out
of which he draws some arrows, and shoots them at sinners, and they can fence
against these well enough, and never be hurt by them; but then he hath other
arrows, that are marked with his love, and sent by his power, and there is no
guarding against them. As there are arrows of destruction, so there are arrows
of salvation: "Let thine arrows be sharp in the heart of the king's enemies,"
is the prayer, Psalm 45.
My work then is to shew how it is that the grace
of God is not received.
1st, The grace of God tendered in the gospel, and
the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, is not received when it is not minded.
There is little hope of that man's salvation that doth not think of salvation,
or when the matter is neglected. "How shall we escape," saith the apostle, "if
we neglect so great salvation?" (Heb. 2:3). The true sense of the original word
lies mainly in this, not so much in a stated formal enmity to it, but only in a
careless indifferency about it: the grace of God is not received when it is not
minded. Therefore, would you know when you profit by the gospel, know it this
way: if what you hear from the word doth not occasion many thoughts in your
hearts, you get no good at all. If the matter of salvation do not become the
matter of your serious meditation, you receive the grace of God in vain. God
may say concerning such men, "They will not so much as think of my proposals to
them."
2dly, People do not receive the grace of God when they do not see
their need of it, when they do not see their absolute need of it. As long as a
man hath this dream and every natural man falls into such a dream ? as long as
a man thinks in his vain mind that any thing else but the sovereign grace of
God can save him, this man wilt never receive the grace of God. It is
impossible that a man can receive it till he see that nothing else will do his
business. Woe be to them that think any thing but grace can save them: they are
in a forlorn state indeed!
3dly, They that do not believe that the grace of
God alone can save them, therefore they do not receive it; for as the grace of
God is sent to men as that which they do simply stand in need of, and as that
which nothing can supply the lack of, so it is sent as a sovereign remedy, that
whatsoever ails the root creature it will cure them.
So much for this first
thing: They that do not receive the grace of God, are guilty of this great sin
of frustrating the grace of God.
Secondly, This sin is also committed by
men's taking other methods and shifts to obtain the favour of God than this
grace alone; they frustrate the grace of God. I would speak a little to this
under two heads: 1st, I would shew you the cause of it. 2dly, I would shew the
effects that proceed from those causes.
I. Of the cause of it. The world is
full of it: this heresy, if I may so say, runs through the whole earth; no man
is quite free from it but only the sound believer. A man may be orthodox in his
judgment, and subscribe to the orthodox doctrine, and Protestant truth; but
every natural man is a heretic in this matter: he hath secretly something else
in his eye to recommend him to God, and to make his state safe before God,
besides the righteousness of Christ. Now the cause of this universal hankering
after ways of people's own devising to do their business with God, without this
grace of God through Christ, is what I would speak a little to. It flows from
nature: now nature is so strong a spring, that nothing but the mighty grace of
God can turn it, it is so strong a principle. I would shew this in a little.
1st, The grace of God in saving sinners by Christ Jesus is above nature in its
best state; it is above sinless nature. If you could suppose such a thing as
this, that there was a man as holy as the first Adam was; if God should create
another man as holy as the first Adam was, and bring to this man the doctrine
of the righteousness of Christ, and of the grace of God in him, it would be
above his nature. It is above sinless nature; it is that which Adam did not
know, neither was he bound to know it, for it was not revealed to him; nor did
he need to know it, for there was another way provided for his standing, that
he might have kept.
2dly, This way is not only above sinless nature, but it
is quite contrary to corrupt nature. If it be above sinless nature, it must
needs be far above corrupt nature; but not only is it so, but it is also cross
and contrary to it. There are in this corrupt nature four things that are its
strength, and from that strength comes this enmity to this way of salvation. 1.
There is in this corrupt nature dismal darkness and ignorance, expressed by the
apostle in the abstract, (Eph. 5:8). "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now
are ye light in the Lord." Not only are they dark and blind, but they are
darkness and blindness.
Now in this darkness, as to this matter, I will
name two or three things:
1st, There is ignorance of the righteousness and
holiness of God, (Rom. 10:3).
2dly, There is ignorance of the holy law of
God, (Rom. 7:10).
3dly, There is utter ignorance of God's righteousness in
Christ Jesus. A little to each of these: 1st, In every natural man there is an
ignorance of the righteousness and holiness of God. I know that in man's nature
there is a knowledge that there is a God, and that this God is a righteous and
a just God. The greatest heathens, by the mere light of nature, have arrived at
some competent knowledge of this; but the exactness of this righteousness of
God never did any natural men know. They do not know the unspottedness of His
righteousness, nor how unsufferable to him the least impurity is. Would any
bold sinners venture to present to God their rottenness and vileness, if they
knew God's righteousness? The righteousness of God is such an sublimely
magestic thing, that no natural man can understand it, but he must be presently
confounded. 2dly, Every natural man is ignorant of the strictness of the law of
God; the severity of God's law in forbidding every sin, and in condemning every
sinner, without any respect to any sin, or to any man that commits it. The law
of God is an impartial rule of righteousness, that condemns every
transgression; and it cannot do otherwise: it is the glory of the law so to do;
its strictness makes it judge all sin; and its righteousness makes it condemn
all sinners; and therefore, when this righteousness of God's law is once
revealed, it presently breaks all the confidence of a natural man. "I was alive
without the law once," saith the apostle Paul, Rom. 7:9, "but when the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died." How could the apostle Paul be said
to be without the law? I believe that the apostle Paul, even in his natural
state, was better acquainted with the law, and the Old Testament, than any man
in London now is; for the Jews, even to this day, teach their children with
great carefulness: now the apostle Paul was one of the best Jews in all that
country. How then could this man be said to be without the law? He had the law
in his mind, and in his memory, and in his hands, and was exceeding zealous for
it ? "I was," saith he, "touching the righteousness which is in the law,
blameless," (Phil. 3:6). Aye, but the man only thought so, when he did not know
the law of God; but when the commandment came, it made another manner of
discovery. It condemned those things in him that he never thought to be sin
before, and it made other things in him to be exceeding sinful. All natural men
are under utter darkness about this; and therefore it is no wonder that they
betake themselves to other ways than the grace of God in Christ. 3dly, All
natural men are ignorant of the righteousness of God in Christ.
2. In every
natural man there is pride. Every natural man is a proud man; proud towards
God. That which goes under the name of pride amongst men is greatly mistaken.
Pride towards man is a base thing; but it is pride towards God that I am
speaking of. The poor sinner thinks that he is not quite so bare and empty, but
that he hath something of his own wherein he may stand accepted before God.
Every natural man doth think so. It fares with a natural man as it doth with
some poor men that are born of great families, whose fathers left them, as we
use to say, a high birth, but a poor purse.
Now this proud gentleman
chooses a great deal rather to wear his own thread-bare coat, than another
man's livery. Just so it is with sinners: their father Adam was a great lord,
lord of this world, heir of righteousness, rich in stock enough to have made
all his posterity rich before God; but he broke and failed, and turned us all
beggars into the world. But there comes another person, God's own Son, and he
offers to clothe the poor beggar; but the poor proud man had rather go to hell
in the rags that his father Adam left him, than go to heaven in the robe that
Christ offers him, dyed in his own blood.
3. In every natural man there is
awful trifling about the great concerns of salvation. The truth is, people are
not thoroughly awakened, nor in good earnest about the matters of salvation. It
lies not near their heart as a weighty question, "What shall I do to be saved?"
These thoughts do not press them, "I am a poor man that must shortly die, and
this sickly carcass of mine will shortly moulder into the dust of the grave;
but my soul must live for ever in, and enter upon an eternal state, as soon as
the last breath of my body expires; and what shall become of me then?" The
greatest part of the world trifle about this great question, "What shall I do
to be saved, to be secure to eternity?" What a shameful thing is it to think of
this! I have often told them that I have spoken to, and it is to be told till
it be mended, that it were a happy thing if people would but spend half that
time, nay a quarter of that time, in secret thoughts about salvation, that they
spend in hearing the word of salvation; and it is a hard matter if people
cannot be prevailed with about this. I can well assure you, that all the solid
soul-thriving of the hearers of the gospel is not so much in what they hear, in
the preaching of the word, as in what they digest in their secret thoughts and
meditations about it. Now, is it any wonder that people take to any courses
about their salvation, when they thus trifle about it? For if the end be not
precious in a man's eyes, you can never expect to have him thoughtful about the
means.
4. In all natural men there is unbelief of God's word. It is a hard
question to resolve, What was the first sin? Any child can tell you, that the
first sin of mankind was eating the forbidden fruit: it is true, the first sin
was ripe in that action; but what was the first wandering thought from God?
Whether it was the man's discontent with the state that be was made in; or
aspiring after a higher state than that in which he was made; or a jealousy of
God; or unbelief of the word of God: that unbelief was in it is most certain.
The serpent began his temptation this way, "Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat
of every tree in the garden? Hath God said you shall surely die? Ye shall not
surely die," (Gen. 3:1,4). The scope of his temptation was this, to bring in
sin and ruin upon the world, by making sinless Adam to doubt of the truth of
God's threatening; and he well knew that if once the majestic faith of the
truth of God's threatening was weakened in their minds, that they would soon
make bold on the sin. God's threatening was as a kind of fence against the sin:
"In the day that thou eatest, thou shalt surely die." "Assure thyself of death
if ever thou meddle with the forbidden fruit." Satan knew that death was
terrible to man, and that he would not easily rush upon it; "aye, but," saith
he, "God hath not said ye shall surely die, but you shall live, and be as gods,
if you transgress." Sirs, the devil brought in the first sin and ruin upon
mankind, by the unbelief of God's word of threatening. And he brings in the
eternal ruin of men under the gospel by unbelief of God's word of promise:
every natural man hath an evil heart of unbelief in him, as the apostle warns
all to take heed of, (Heb. 3:12), "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of
you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." This matter of
unbelief is many ways spoken of in the word: the way of salvation by Jesus
Christ, and his righteousness, stands all in the word of God. If you ask the
last question concerning a man's faith, you must resolve it into the word of
God: there are, indeed, many questions that go before it, but this must be the
last.
If you ask, How may a sinner be saved? The answer is, By the
righteousness of Christ. If you ask again, Who is this Jesus Christ, whose
righteousness will be the salvation of all them that have it? He is the great
Son of God, that took our sins on him. Well, but how shall this righteousness
be mine? By faith alone: if I lay hold of it, and venture my soul on it, it is
mine? Aye, but the last question is, How do you know that it shall be so? God
hath said it in his word, Acts 10:43, "To him give all the prophets witness,
that, through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of
sins."
Now, every natural man having unbelief in him, God's word hath no
weight on him. We find they proclaim their unbelief in every thing. When God
commands, they proclaim their unbelief in disobeying; when God corrects them,
they proclaim their unbelief in rushing again upon the same courses that God
punishes them for; when God threatens and warns the sinner of his danger in
such a sin, the man proclaims his unbelief by staying still in it: and what are
all these but acts of gross unbelief? When God commands, the man thinks that
God means not as he speaks: when God threatens, the unbeliever thinks God will
not do as he threatens: when God promises, saith the same unbelief, "Though God
speaks fair, he will not be as good as his word." Now, is it any wonder that
every natural man takes another way of salvation besides the righteousness of
Christ, when every natural man hath these four woeful things in him? And,
indeed, none can do otherwise till these four things are overthrown in him till
the darkness is removed by the illumination of the Spirit of God and the pride
be brought down by humbling grace and the security of the conscience be brought
down by awakening grace and till the power of unbelief be broke by the Spirit's
working faith. So much for the causes of this. II. I am now to shew what the
effects are that flow from these causes; or, what flows from this woful natural
aversion in all men from the grace of God, and from their inclinations to
frustrate it.
1st, Hence it comes to pass that the world is filled with
fancies and devices of men to please God. This runs through the whole earth:
the religion (if I may call it by that name) of the Pagans, the religion of the
Turks and the Mahometans, and of the Papists, however they may differ in a
great many points of doctrine, and particular circumstances of worship, yet
they all agree in this; all these religions, and all religions in the world,
except the true, are filled with many devices of men to render themselves
acceptable to God. The Lord brings them in (Micah 6:6), making this inquiry,
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will
the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of
oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for
the sin of my soul?" Pray take notice here: one of the grossest idolatries that
ever was in the world, and the most abominable act of it, is this, when
parents, to pacify God for their sins, have offered their children in sacrifice
to their idols: this hath been frequently practised in the world, and, it may
be, is at this day in some parts of the world. Whence can this be, that there
should be so strange a violation of one of the strongest bonds of nature? It is
not to be supposed that these people did so because they did not love their
children: no doubt but they loved them as well as you do yours; but only, here
lay the matter: they were under a strong conviction of sin, and under strong
desires to please God; and they were ignorant of the true sacrifice, and
therefore they offer to God what they think best, and what they love best; and
that they hope God will accept most kindly from them. Sirs, you think there are
many fopperies in Popery, fit only to be laughed at, and so indeed there are:
their whipping themselves about that time of the year they call Lent; and great
persons do this, kings, and queens, and lords, and great men.
One would
think it strange that so many great people should play the fool so: the true
reason of it lies here, they have a conscience of sin, and they know they are
sinners, and they do not know the true way of peace with God through the
righteousness of Christ, and they are taught these foolish ways, and therefore
they pursue them. And truly, if the light of the gospel should be darkened yet
much more in England, I cannot tell how many poor, helpless professors amongst
us might be drawn even into this foppery. It is natural for all men ignorant of
the righteousness of God in Christ, to devise ways of their own to render
themselves acceptable in the sight of God.
2dly, The next effect of this
woeful aversion from the grace of God, in justifying us by the righteousness of
Christ, is in men's going to the law, and the works of it. I do but name this,
because I shall speak more largely to it by itself, under the third and next
doctrine.
3dly, I would speak something to the sad effects of this, that
are found even in them whom God saves. This aversion from the grace of God is
so natural, that it puts forth itself strongly in them that the Lord is at work
savingly upon; and I will name a few things about this, that some here can
witness to, and I am sure that many more can witness to them than are here. 1.
Hence it comes to pass that, in many who are saved in the issue, there is a
long sorrowful trouble of mind that they live under, and all the world shall
not persuade them what the true cause of it is. They are full of sorrow and
complainings; no other language to be heard to God or man, but many sorrowful
complaints; their corruptions are strong, their souls dead and dark, their
consciences disquieted. And what is the true reason of all this? They are yet
averse from giving glory to the sovereign grace of God in saving them by
Christ. Many sorrowful hours many of the elect of God have gone through in the
strength of this corruption, and they have never seen it till a long while
after. It is a shame and reproach to professors, and a dishonour to our Lord
Jesus Christ, that so many in whom the root of the matter is, have their hearts
sinking within them when relief is so plainly provided for them. The true
reason is, because they are averse, and not willing, nor inclined to be
indebted solely to grace, and to have all their supplies singly from it.
2.
From hence it also comes to pass, that there are so many outbreakings of sin,
or at least the working of it in the hearts of many that the Lord hath a mind
to save, and doth work savingly upon. How many poor creatures are there that
know this? That from the time that the Lord first began to deal with them, and
made them serious about salvation, their corruptions have grown more strong,
and Satan more formidable and vexing; and, it may be, they are left of God to
commit some gross sin, that they were never guilty of before. Whence comes
this? It is not only from the strength of temptation, nor is corruption grown
stronger; but here lies the reason: Now God hath begun to awaken them, and they
are not yet disposed kindly to yield themselves up unto the entire conduct of
grace; not willing to give the grace of God its proper employment: but this is
the way people generally take whensoever they are awakened, and made serious
about salvation; then they fall to work, and set about duty they pray, and
hear, and read, and repent, and labour to reform their conversation, and in the
mean time they are utterly unacquainted with employing Christ; and, therefore,
the Lord in his righteous judgment leaves them to themselves, and lets them see
that they must stand upon another bottom, or they will surely totter and fall;
that they must be quite weaned from themselves, and all things made new in
Christ, or nothing will be done rightly.
3. And thus some, as they live
sorrowfully all their days, so they also die sadly: they have been leaning on
their own righteousness as far as they could all their life long; sometimes
hanging upon one twig, and sometimes upon another; and one breaks, and the
other breaks, and here they get a fall, and there they get a fall; but at last,
if the Lord hath mercy upon them, they are made to see the vanity of all these
shifts, and then they betake themselves in earnest to that which is without
them, to a righteousness that they have no hand in, that is wrought out by
Christ alone, and given by pure grace. So much for this first head, How this
sin of frustrating the grace of God is committed.
2dly, I am now to shew
the sinfulness, and the greatness, of this sin of frustrating the grace of God.
The apostle is here vindicating himself from it: "I do not," saith he,
"frustrate the grace of God."
Now, there are two things especially that
aggravate all sins, and the more of them there be in any sin, the more
sinfulness is there in that sin.
1st, The direct tendency of any sin to
damnation.
2dly, The direct enmity that there is in any sin to the grace of
God; and wheresoever there is a sin that is especially framed both these ways,
that sin must needs be a great one.
1. This sin of frustrating the grace of
God is directly against man's salvation, and tends directly to damnation. All
sin against the law tends to damnation by its desert; every sin deserves hell.
Every sin against the law of God works out wrath by deserving; but sin against
the gospel works out wrath by special activity, by its apt acting; and there is
a great difference between these two: a man that commits a sin against the law,
he commits a sin that deserves death; but he that sins against the grace of the
gospel, in that very sin he works out his own death. Other sins expose a man to
the wrath of God as a judge, but this sin is like self-murder, the man executes
the law upon himself. Every man by nature is under a sentence of condemnation;
but rejecting the grace of God leaves and binds a man under that condemnation:
there is no other remedy for it, but only the grace of God through Christ;
therefore rejecting that, is rejecting the only remedy. 2. This sin is directly
against the glory of God. There is a great deal of the glory of God concerned
in his grace. This grace of God tendered to us through Jesus Christ, is God's
great plot and contrivance for his own glory; and frustrating of it is all that
man can do to frustrate God, and to disappoint him in his main design. Blessed
be God, no creature can do this; but woe be to them that do all they can
against it. The Pharisees "rejected the counsel of God against themselves,"
(Luke 7:30). Sirs, God would never have suffered the first Adam to have fallen,
unless he had had a greater contrivance for his own glory in raising him up
again. God would never have suffered the dishonour that sin's entrance brought
upon him in the world, unless he had designed the bringing about of greater
glory to himself by the manifestation of his grace. Therefore, "where sin hath
abounded, grace hath much more abounded;" and that brings a great deal more
honour to God than sin brings dishonour. The grace of God is the very heart and
the inmost character of God; and to frustrate this, is to kick against the very
heart of God. The grace of God is all through Jesus Christ; it flows through
him, and therefore all reflections upon the grace of God reflect upon him. The
grace of God is offered to men by the Holy Ghost; and, therefore, refusing and
frustrating the grace of God is rejecting of the Holy Ghost. In a word, this
grace of God is the great scope of the whole Bible; and to frustrate the grace
of God, is to make the whole Bible in vain, both Old and New Testament too. The
Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation, but it is through
faith that is in Christ Jesus, (2 Tim. 3:15).
APPLICATION. There are only
two words that I would speak to for the improving of this doctrine. Is
frustrating the grace of God such a horrible sin?
Then, 1st, Do you all
beware of it.
2dly, Receive this grace of God; for there is no other way to
avoid the frustrating of the grace of God, but only by receiving it.
1st, I
would have you all beware of this sin of frustrating the grace of God; but,
more especially, I would direct a warning of fear against this sin unto several
sorts of persons.
1. Unto moral, civil, well-natured people, good livers,
as we use to call them. Through the mercy of God, some are born of a better
nature, as we call it, than others; of a sweet easy temper; and it is a great
mercy to have a well-tempered mind, by a natural constitution, as well as it is
to have a well-framed body. Now, when this virtuous natural temper hath the
advantage of a godly education, these sort of people come quickly to look very
well; and, therefore, they ought to take great heed. You civil, well-natured
people, do you have a great care of frustrating the grace of God, for it is a
sin that you are especially tempted to. There are some people so ill-natured,
and of so bad a temper, that they need, as we use to say, a great deal of the
grace of God to save them. And are there any that do not need the grace of God?
The Lord save any of you from thinking so! He is in a woeful case indeed that
thinks he doth not need the grace of God. Moral, civil people are in great
danger of this sin: they think they have a good stock of their own to set up
with, and therefore they do not borrow of Christ.
2. People that have taken
upon them the profession of religion, had need to take heed of this sin of
frustrating the grace of God. They have taken upon them a profession, it may be
they know not how, nor wherefore; but it is come upon them. If you be clothed
with the garment of profession, have great care of this sin. There are many
that profess the grace of God, that yet are strangers to the thing itself, and
they are in a very dangerous case.
3. They that boast of outward privileges
should have a care of this sin of frustrating the grace of God: they were
baptized when they were children, and have heard the word, and attended upon
ordinances, and they begin to think themselves fair before God for the hope of
eternal life. They are blameless in their walk and conversation. Let such
people, in an especial manner, take heed of this sin. I can assure you that a
blameless conversation hath been a great temptation to a great many too
undervalue the grace of God, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. These sort
of people were never sick at heart. 4. Awakened souls; they whose consciences
are awakened, have great need to take heed of this sin of frustrating the grace
of God. The Lord sometimes makes both light and fire too to dart in upon the
consciences of poor sinners, and they begin to see and feel what they never saw
nor felt before; and when it is thus with them, sometimes, they think things
are a great deal better with them than they were before; and, sometimes, they
think it is a great deal worse with them; and they that in their awakening
think it to be a great deal worse with them than it was before, are in a more
hopeful state than they that think it is better with them; for it is not a
thorough awakening, if the person thinks that awakening to be enough.
Such
people should take heed of this sin, lest they frustrate the grace of God, for
there are two things that they are especially endangered by.
1. By the
force of this conviction they set about duty, and that pretty warmly; and these
are lovely things in the eyes of poor creatures that never knew before what
praying and reading the word of God were; but when once their consciences come
to be awakened, they begin to get alone, and cry to the Lord. Now, when the
soul is in this ease, it had need take great heed of this sin of frustrating
the grace of God. How many poor awakened sinners are there that have made a
pillow to sleep to hell upon with their own duties and performances, as if it
were by the righteousness of the law! And thus they do not submit to the
righteousness of God in Christ, nor do they attain to the rest that remains for
the people of God, (Rom. 10:3, Heb. 4:9).
2. If they do not sit down upon
their duties, then, on the other hand, they are apt to be quite discouraged,
and to give up all for lost. An awakened conscience, if it be thoroughly
awakened, is upon the point of despair; and the point of despair is the point
of ruin, or the point of salvation, as God pleases to issue it. It is the
turning point. When the poor sinner's conscience is awakened to see its lost
and undone condition, in that case he is just on the point of winning or losing
for evermore. If the man hearkens to God, and gives glory to his grace, by
trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, the bargain is made for evermore;
but if the poor sinner turns aside, and stops in any thing short of this, then
either the disease grows greater, or else a hardness comes in the room of it,
that is worse than the disease itself. That is the first exhortation:?Have a
great care of this sin of frustrating the grace of God.
And, to that end,
2dly, Give the grace of God a hearty welcome. There is no other way to prevent
the sin of frustrating the grace of God, but by receiving and welcoming it.
Welcome the grace of God for your work, but not for the devil's work. All God's
work, that which God craves of you; all that you may give to the grace of God
to do for you; all the work that you have to do with God, that you may give to
the grace of God to do for you; only do not set the grace of God to do the
devil's work; that is sinning, turning the grace of God into wantonness. The
grace of God will do every thing for us but the devil's work. And, if I may so
say, he hath a great deal of the spirit of the devil in him, that will give so
precious a thing as the grace of God to do the devil's work. Aye, but how shall
we receive the grace of God? I answer, three ways.
1st, Doubt not your need
of it.
2dly, Do not delay your accepting it.
3dly, Do not question your
title to it.
1. Doubt not your need of it. If the Lord hath a mind to save
you, I know very well there will be no great need of this caution. Every sinner
that God saves effectually, is a person that not only thinks he is needy of the
grace of God, but he thinks he is more needy of it than any body else in the
world; that if there was any such man in the world that could be saved without
grace, he was the farthest from such a one; that if there was any man in the
world that needed more grace than ordinary, he was the man.
2. Do not delay
your accepting of grace whensoever it is revealed to you. Whensoever you have
the offer of the grace of God, whensoever you are about the means of grace,
labour to get this grace itself, "Therefore the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if you
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." (Heb. 3:7). You may not hear his
voice to-morrow; hardness of heart grows mightily by delays.
3. Do not
question your title to it. I mean this, ? Make no doubt but that it is as
lawful and as allowable in God's sight for you to lay hold on the saving grace
of God, as ever it was for any sinner in the world. I do not mean that
graceless people should presently think that they have a title to the grace of
God; for no man hath a title to it till he receives it. But this I say, the
offer of the grace of God, in the gospel, gives fair warning and liberty for
every one to embrace it. "He that will, let him come, and take of the water of
life freely," (Rev. 22:17). And that which is thus freely offered, and freely
given, should be thankfully welcomed, and thankfully received, when it is
enjoyed.
Do Not Seek Righteousness by the
Law