SOVEREIGN GRACE

HATED

By The MODNERN RELIGIONIST

By Charles H. Spurgeon

 If anything is hated bitterly, it is the out‑and‑out gospel of the grace of God, especially if that hateful word is "sovereignty" is mentioned with it. Dare to say, "He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion" (Rom 9:15), and furious critics will revile you without stint. The modem religionist not only hates the doctrine of sovereign grace, but he raves and rages at the mention of it. He would sooner hear you blaspheme than preach election by the Father, atonement by the Son, or regeneration by the Spirit. If you want to see a man worked up till the Satanic is clearly uppermost, let some of the new divines hear you preach a free‑grace sermon. A gospel which is after men will be welcomed by men; but it needs a divine operation upon the heart and mind to make a man willing to receive into his inmost soul this distasteful gospel of the grace of God.

 My dear brethren, do not try to make it tasteful to carnal minds. Hide not the offence of the cross, lest you make it of none effect. The angles and corners of the gospel are its strength: to pare them off is to deprive it of power. Toning down is not the increase of strength, but the death of it. Why, even among the sects, you must have noticed that their distinguishing points are the horns of their power; and when these are practically omitted, the sect is effete. Learn, then, that if you take Christ out of Christianity, Christianity is dead. If you remove grace out of the gospel, the gospel is gone. If the people do not like the doctrine of grace, give them all the more of it. Whenever its enemies rail at a certain kind of gun, a wise military power will provide more of such artillery. A great general, going in before his king, stumbled over his own sword. "I see," said the king, "your sword is in the way." The warrior answered, Your majesty's enemies have often felt the same." That our gospel offends the King's enemies is no regret to us (M.T.P. 1891, p 49).

I preach the doctrines of grace because I believe them to be true, because I see them in the Scriptures; because my experience endears them to me, and because I see the holy result of them in believers. I confess they are nonetheless dear to me because the advanced school despises them: I should never think it a recommendation of a doctrine that it was new. Those truths which have enlightened so many ages appear to me to be ordained to remain throughout eternity. The doctrine which I preach to you is that of the Puritans: it is the doctrine of Calvin, the doctrine of Augustine, the doctrine of Paul, the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. The Author and Finisher of our faith Himself taught this most blessed truth which well agrees with our text (Eph 2.8). The doctrine of grace is the substance of the testimony of Jesus. (The Sword & Trowel, Jan 1887)

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