Sermon 14

_Isaiah 53:1_—And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

The way of the grace of God is a very difficult subject to be thought on or spoken of suitably and as it becomes, grace having a sovereign and unsearchable channel of its own wherein it runs; yet no doubt it is very useful now and then to consider it, if we knew how to make use of it aright; indeed even these steps of grace that are most cross and contrary to carnal reason, may not a little profit when duly pondered. Thus when the Prophet has been looking on the scarcity of faith, and on the paucity of true believers, he looks a little further than on the external preaching of the Gospel, even in upon the way of God's grace, not out of any curiosity, nor from a fretting humor, because of the unsuccessfulness of his ministry, but that he may thereby get himself stayed and composed, and that he may bring both himself and others, to reverence and adore the holy and sovereign way of God therein. To whom (says he) is the arm of the Lord revealed? It's a word like that which Christ had on the like occasion (John 6:44): Murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to me, except the Father who has sent me, draw him.

We opened up the meaning of the words the last day; in short they come to this, as if he had said, how few are they that believe the Gospel, and who take the Word off the hand of His sent ministers? And how few are they on whom the grace of God that only can make men believe, does effectually work; the Prophet pointing at a higher hand than that of the ministers in the success and fruitlessness of the Gospel, and coupling these two together, the preaching of the Word and the power of God's grace in the working of faith and conversion in sinners.

We proposed these three doctrines to be spoken to from the words. 1. That in the work of conversion and begetting of faith, beside the preaching of the Word, there is a powerful, internal, immediate work of the grace of God, exercised within men's hearts, as well as the Word is preached outwardly to the ear, wherever faith is begotten, these two go together, the Word without, and the power of grace within — the one of which is distinct from the other.

2. That this powerful, internal, and immediate work of grace within, is not common to all the hearers of the Gospel, but a rare, and peculiar thing to some, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? It's but one or few of many to whom it's revealed; to these we have spoken already.

3. The third is (which indeed holds out the scope of all,) that there is an inseparable connection between these two, the begetting of faith in the hearers of the Gospel, and the application of this powerful work of the grace of God for working of it, so that where this powerful work of grace is not, there is never faith nor conversion wrought, and where this powerful work of grace is, there is faith and conversion. The Prophet makes them reciprocal and commensurable; who is the believer? He to whom the Arm of the Lord is revealed; and who is the unbeliever? He to whom the Arm of the Lord is not revealed; these two are so conjoined and knit together, as they are never separated, and so they must stand or fall together.

That we may be the more clear, we shall take up the doctrine in two distinct branches. The first of which is, that except the powerful work of God's grace concur, the most powerful preaching of the Gospel will never beget faith in the hearts of the hearers of it. The second is, that wherever this powerful work of grace goes along with the preaching of the Gospel, or wherever the Lord applies His grace with the Word preached, there faith is begotten in the heart, and that soul is effectually united to Christ, and savingly changed. The one of these branches serves to show the necessity of God's grace from the consideration of our sinfulness and impotency or inability, and of the emptiness and ineffectualness of all outward means in themselves, and so to stop all men's mouths as being utterly unable to contribute anything to their own spiritual good or conversion, that being the product of the grace of God. The other branch serves mightily to commend the grace of God, as being the powerful Arm of the Lord, that brings to believe, that calls and converts such and such persons, according to a prior engagement and transaction between the Father and the Son.

As for the first of these, it will easily be believed among men and women that have any true sense and feeling of the corruption of their nature, and find daily something of the law of the members warring against the law of the mind; and we are persuaded, if all that ever received faith were brought to testify in this matter, they would bear witness, that there is no means that without the effectual power of the grace of God, can bring a stranger sinner to close with Christ and believe on Him; and if all that are now before the throne of God in heaven, were called to speak to this great truth, they would put their seal to it, and say, Not to us, but to your name be the glory of our believing, we had never believed if it had been left to the power of our own free will, and if the power of your grace had not wrought in us the very will as well as the deed or act of believing. Yet because this doctrine (as we said) serves to discover the sinfulness and impotency of nature, and how little we are obliged to ourselves in this great work; and to hold forth the absolute necessity of the grace of God, and how much we are obliged to it in the work of faith and conversion; and to hold forth also the emptiness and ineffectualness of all outward means without this grace, and because it lacks not its own considerable opposition from the enemies of the truth, we shall give you some grounds for confirmation of it. The first of which is drawn from these express instances of Scripture wherein it is clear, that there has been much powerful preaching, and by the most eminent preachers, and yet the generality of people have been fruitless under it, and their fruitlessness has been brought to this very ground, to wit, that the work of God's grace and His outstretched arm went not along with it. The first instance is Deuteronomy 29:4. That Moses was a skilled preacher, who will deny? He being faithful in all the house of God, yet says he, after much and long preaching, and after many signs and wonders wrought, the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear to this day; where he not only puts a difference between the preaching of the Word without, and the work of grace within, but shows the necessity of the [reconstructed: concurrence] of the work of grace, and lays the great weight of the people's profiting or not profiting, on the wanting or having of that. A second instance, is in this prophet Isaiah; were there any among all the preachers before or since, that preached in a more evangelic strain than he did? And yet when he has complained of the paucity of believers, saying, who has believed our report? He fixes and stays on this as the cause, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And Isaiah 6:9-10, he gives an account of the sad commission he had from the Lord, who said to him, Go and tell the people, Hear you indeed but understand not, and see you indeed but perceive not, make the heart of this people [reconstructed: fat], etc., where there is also a clear distinction made between the inward working of grace, and the outward ministry. A third instance, and one that is beyond all exception, is in our blessed Lord Jesus, who spoke as never man spoke, and preached with such power and life, that even carnal hearers wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, for he preached with authority and not as the scribes, and yet John 6:44, when they begin to murmur at Him, what says He? Murmur not at these things, none can come to me, except the Father draw him; none can believe, except the powerful grace of God work faith in him, there must be a higher hand than anything you see or hear, a more powerful work than any external preaching of mine as prophet of my church, before a soul can believe on me; and though his hearers were not free of the guilt of this their unbelief, but had their own sinful accession to their continuing in it, yet our Lord looks in on the sovereign way and work of grace, and holds there, telling them that his external ministry will not do the turn, but there must be an inward, powerful, immediate work of grace for the working of faith. We add a fourth instance, and it is of that chosen vessel Paul, who labored more abundantly than all the rest of the apostles, and yet when he is preaching, Acts 28:25, and some believed, and others believed not, before he dismisses the multitude, he adds this one word, Well spoke the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, Go to this people, and say, Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and not perceive, etc., where he expressly distinguishes his external preaching from God's inward working, and tells, that so long as there was a judicial stroke on the hearts of the people not taken away, no external preaching could do the turn as to their conversion and bringing of them to believe; which he also does to guard against any offense that might be taken at the unsuccessfulness of his ministry by any who would be ready to say, what ails these folk that they will not receive the gospel? To whom he answers, Isaiah long before told the reason of it, to wit, that there is a plague on their hearts and minds which God must remove before they can receive it.

2. To these plain and clear instances we may add two or three grounds or reasons, as 1. The exceeding greatness of the work of conversion, O how great and difficult is it! Therefore it's set out by the similitudes and expressions of raising the dead, creating a new heart, of removing the stony heart, and the like, all tending to set out the necessity of an omnipotent power or a powerful work of grace, in the begetting of souls to Christ; and if it be so great a work, what can the outward ministry do, if the power of God be not added? Or what can the man himself do here? Can a man quicken, raise, create, or beget himself? It's true, these comparisons are not to be extended and applied in every respect, yet they hold out that man being naturally dead, can no more contribute to his own quickening and raising, and to the begetting of spiritual life in himself, than a dead man can contribute to his own quickening and raising to his natural life; for which cause, the Holy Spirit has made choice of these expressions, even to hold out the exceeding greatness of the work. 2. Consider the condition that men are in when this work is wrought, and we will see they can contribute nothing to it, that they have no aptitude for it, except that they are subjects capable to be wrought upon, being as it is (Ephesians 2:1) dead in sins and trespasses; being as to their souls' estate, and as to their spiritual condition, like Adam's body before the Lord breathed in it the breath of life, and made him a living soul; as his body could not move, stir, nor act till then, no more can the natural man stir or act in the ways of God till a new principle of spiritual life be put in him. To clear it further, we would consider, that the Scripture speaks of these three in the natural man. 1. Of an utter inability and deadness as to that which is good, dead in sins (Ephesians 2:1). We are not sufficient (says the Apostle, 2 Corinthians 3:5) of ourselves as of ourselves to think anything, not so much as a good thought. 2. The Scripture holds him out not only as unable for good, but perverse and bent to everything that is evil (Colossians 1:21), alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works; the carnal mind being enmity against God (Romans 8:7), it's plainly opposite to anything that is good, and so to the way of faith. 3. Man's mind is not only naturally perverse and stuffed with enmity, but in an incapacity to be healed while it remains such (Romans 8:7), it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; and therefore in the work of conversion, there is not only an amending, but also a renewing of our nature called for; there is more requisite than the rectifying of something in the man, even the creating of new habits, and the infusing of the principles of spiritual life and motion into the soul. It is true, in some sense the whole image of God is not absolutely removed, the faculties of the rational soul still remain, for man has an understanding and a will, and some sort of reason, but without any tendency to spiritual life, or to any action for God; he has an understanding, but it's wholly darkened; he has a will, but wholly perverse, and not in the least inclined to good; he has affections, but wholly disordered and corrupted, and set wholly upon wrong objects; so that it's with man's soul as to good, as it is with spoiled wine; wine when wholesome, serves to cheer and refresh, but when it's spoiled, it's quite another thing, not only not conducing to health, but it's harmful and hurtful. It's just so we say with man's soul, it's by the fall quite spoiled and corrupted; it is not indeed annihilated or made to be nothing, for it retains the same faculties still; it has (to speak so) the same quantity still, but as to its qualities, it's utterly corrupted and carried close contrary to God; it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; and renovation by grace, is the taking away of the corrupt qualities in part in this life, and wholly in the other life, and the bringing in of new qualities for recovering the beauty of that image of God which man has lost. 4. Consider the end that God has in the administration of his grace, and the glory that he will needs have it getting in every gracious work, and more especially in the work of conversion, and the silence, as to any boasting, that he will have all put to that shall partake of it; his end in the administration of his grace, is to bring down pride, to stop all mouths, and to remove all grounds of boasting from the creature, that he only may have the glory of conversion; that whenever that question is proposed, What have you, O man, but what you have received? And if you have received it, why do you boast? Who made you to differ from another? The soul may answer, it was not external preaching, nor my own free will, nor anything in me, but the power of God's grace, I have nothing but what I have received. It is on this ground that the Apostle (Philippians 2:12-13) presses and encourages Christians to their great work, Work out (says he) your own salvation in fear and trembling, for it's God that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure; the Lord leaves not to man the working of the will in himself, and of him, says the same Apostle (1 Corinthians 1:30-31), are you in Christ Jesus, who is made of God to us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that he that glories should glory in the Lord, as he said before, verse 29, that no flesh should glory in his presence. There is one ground of boasting that the Lord will have removed in a sinner's justification and obtaining the pardon of sin by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ; but there is another ground or matter of boasting that man might have if he could reach out the hand to believe and receive that righteousness, and so put difference between himself and another, which in effectual calling the Lord puts to silence and quite removes; that man may have it to say, I have not only pardon of sin, but grace to believe, freely bestowed upon me; God made me to differ, and he only; he opened my heart as he did the heart of Lydia. Thus the Lord will have all the weight of the whole work of our salvation lying on his grace, that the mouths of all may be stopped, and that his grace may shine gloriously, that we may have it to say with the Psalmist (Psalm 57:2), it's the Lord that performs all things for me, and with Paul (1 Timothy 1:13-14), I obtained mercy, and the grace of God was exceeding abundant towards me.

The uses are these. 1. It writes to us in great and legible letters, the great emptiness and sinfulness of all flesh, who not only do not good, but have sinned themselves out of a capacity to do good; all men and women have brought themselves thus lamentably low by sin, that now if heaven were to be had by a wish, sincerely and singly brought forth, yet it is not in their power to perform that condition; and though it now stands upon the stretching forth of the hand of faith to receive Jesus Christ, yet of themselves they cannot even do this; how ought then sinners to be deeply humbled, who have brought themselves to this woeful pass? I am afraid that many of you do not believe that you are such as cannot believe, nor do any good till His grace work effectually in you.

2. It teaches you not to idolize any instrument or means of grace, how precious and promising soever; no preaching, if it were of a Prophet, or an Apostle, indeed of an Angel, will do the turn, without grace come with it; there is a necessity of the revelation of God's arm, and of the assistance of His grace, not only to your conversion, but to every duty you go about; you should therefore fear and tremble when you go about any ordinance, lest the arm of the Lord be not put forth in it.

3. It should make you more serious in dealing with God for His effectual blessing to every means and ordinance, seeing without that no ordinance can profit you.

4. It serves to reprove and repress pride, [reconstructed: and] to promote humility in all such who have [reconstructed: gotten] good by the Gospel; have you faith or any measure of holiness? What have you but what you have received? From where came your faith and your holiness? You have them not of yourselves, these are not fruits that grow upon the tree of nature, or in its garden, but on the tree, and in the garden of free grace, and you have not yourselves to thank for them.

5. The main use of it is for confirming and establishing you in the faith of the truth set forth in the doctrine, and for confuting and overturning the contrary error, that, as it were, in contempt of the grace of God, exalts proud nature, and gives man's free will so great a hand in the work of conversion; that the main thing that makes the difference shall not be attributed to the grace of God, but to the free will of the creature, which of itself chose the grace of God offered when another rejected it. It may indeed seem strange that the Devil should so far have prevailed with Christians that profess the faith of original sin, and of the necessity of a Saviour, as to make them look at grace as useless in this prime step of conversion and renewing of a sinner, that when the grace of God and man's free will come to be compared, man's will should have the preference and preeminence, the highest place and commendation in the work, and that the great weight of it should lie there, and that proud nature should be thus bolstered up that it shall stand in need of nothing for the man's conversion, but the right use-making of what it has in itself. And yet it's no wonder that the Devil drive this design vigorously, for what shorter cut can there be taken by him to ruin souls, than to make them drink in this error, that nature and free will will do their turn? And so take them off from all dependence on free grace, and on Jesus Christ, and give them ground of boasting in themselves; for when it is thus, of necessity they must ruin and perish; this should sure, make you loathe this error the more. And we are persuaded, that the day is coming, wherein the truth opposite to this error, shall be confirmed on the souls and consciences of all the opposers of it, and wherein, the maintaining of this error shall be found a confirmation of man's enmity at God's grace, which is not subject to His law, nor indeed can be.

But there are three questions that may be moved here, to which we would speak a word. 1. If the preaching of the Gospel cannot beget faith, without the powerful work of God's grace, what is the use of the Gospel, or why does it serve? 2. If men cannot believe without the work of grace, which the Lord sovereignly dispenses, why does He yet find fault and expostulate with men for their not believing? 3. If grace performs all, and men can make no means effectual, nor do any good without it, what then should men do to come by believing, and this work of His grace?

For the first, we shall not say much to it; only, seeing the Lord has made choice of the Gospel to be the ordinary external mean of grace, and of the begetting of faith, there is no reason to say that it's useless; for though it be not the main and only thing that turns the sinner, but the Lord has reserved it to Himself as His own prerogative, to convert and change the heart of a rebel-sinner, yet he has appointed it to be made use of, as He has appointed Baptism and the Lord's Supper, for many good and notable ends, uses, and advantages that are reached and come by the preaching of it. As, 1. By it the righteousness of God is manifested that before lay hid; you may by the preaching of the Gospel come to the knowledge of the Covenant of Redemption, and of the great design that the Lord has laid down for bringing about the salvation of lost sinners (Romans 1:17): "Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith." 2. By it the Lord reveals the duty He calls for from men, as well as His will concerning their justification and salvation; He lets them know what is wrong, what is right, what displeases Him, and what pleases Him. Indeed, 3. By the preaching of the Gospel, He holds out what men's ability is, or rather what is their inability, and by His external calling gives them in it occasion to know this their inability in not giving obedience to His call; and this is no small advantage, when by it they have occasion to know the necessity of a Mediator, and to seek after another way of justification than by their own works; for so it proves a notable mean to humble men, to stop their mouths, and to make them plead guilty before God. 4. It's profitable as the Lord is pleased to make use of it, to call and gather in so many as He has ordained to eternal life; for though in itself it be not able to convert, yet having the power of God going along with it, it is the instrument of conversion, and the Lord ordinarily makes use of it to the begetting of faith in them that believe, as it is (Romans 10:17): "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, preached;" and (1 Corinthians 1:24) it's called the power of God to salvation; and, it has pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe; for though God can work without it, yet He has thought good to make use of it, to inform the judgment, and to stir up the affections of hearers, and so it proves instrumental to the begetting of faith in them. 5. If it does not promote the salvation of all the hearers of it, yet it promotes it in all the elect, and serves to make others the more inexcusable, and in this respect it triumphs always (2 Corinthians 2:15-16): in some it is the savor of life to life, in others the savor of death to death, leaving them the more inexcusable, and the more obnoxious to wrath by their rejecting of the counsel of God against themselves.

I know this will be excepted against; we come therefore to consider the second question, which is this: how can the call of the gospel make men inexcusable, seeing they cannot without the effectual power of the grace of God believe? As Christ says (John 6:44), "No man can come to me" — that is, no man can believe in me — "except the Father who has sent me draw him;" yes, why does God find fault with men for their unbelief? For answer, it has been no new thing for men to start questions and objections against the grace of God, and to be always striving to rub affronts and disgrace upon it — see Romans 9:13-14, etc., where this same objection is started and answered again and again. For when the Apostle has said in verse 13, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated," the objection is moved: "Is there unrighteousness with God then?" People readily think that there is a sort of unrighteousness in God when He takes one and leaves another, especially considering that the leaving of the other infers (though it be not any culpable cause of) the ruin of the man's soul. He answers first with a "God forbid," as if it were an absurd thing so to assert; and then endeavors to answer it from God's sovereignty, as being debtor to none: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," and "it is not in him that wills, nor in him that runs, but in God that shows mercy." In God's administration of grace, He is debtor to no man, nor has He any rule by which He proceeds, but His own sovereign will. And if it shall yet be said, if God does walk by His own sovereign will in giving grace, why does He yet find fault or condemn — for who has resisted His will? Why is God angry that men will not believe, since none can come to Christ against the will of God? His indignation rises at this proud and petulant objection, and He answers, "But who are you, O man, that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why have you made me thus? Has not the potter power over the clay, to make of the same lump one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor?" By the Apostle's doubling of this answer, and his not setting himself to satisfy carnal reason and curiosity, there is ground given to silence us here. It is the Lord, He is our Potter, and we the clay; it is He in whose hand we are, who can do us no wrong, and this may sufficiently serve to put a stop to all reasoning and disputing against Him. Yet we may add a word further, seeing the Apostle proceeds to another reason. Therefore, second, consider where it is that this inability to believe or turn to God does come from — not from God surely; for if He had not made man perfect, there might be some ground for the objection. But seeing He did make man upright, and he has sought out many inventions, who is to be blamed? Has the Lord lost His right to exact His debt, because man has played the bankrupt and debauched, and turned insolvent, and unable to pay? Does not this very objecting prove us guilty, and evidence that we have lost that which God gave to us, and made us with at the beginning? When God made Adam, he had power to believe and give God credit as to every word revealed or to be revealed, and that now after the fall, he and his posterity want that power — they have not this privation from God's creating of them, but from their fall, they by their fall utterly incapacitating themselves for these duties that they owe to God, and for this among the rest. Third, if there were no more but simple inability among them that hear this gospel, they might have some pretext or ground of excuse, though it were not any real nor just excuse, as has been shown, but it never comes to this as the only or main cause of their not believing. There is always some maliciousness, perverseness, and depravity in the will; it is not "I cannot," but "I will not" — it is a willful and some way deliberate rejecting of the gospel, that is the ground of people not believing. And what excuse, I pray, can you have, who do not believe the gospel, when it shall be found that you maliciously and deliberately chose to reject it? To make this out, consider but these few things. First, men's neglecting of the very outward means that through God's blessing prove instrumental in the begetting of faith — such as hearing, reading, prayer, meditation, self-searching, stirring up themselves to repentance, etc., whereby the Lord ordinarily brings about and furthers the work of faith. Second, consider the carnal, careless, and lazy manner of men's going about these means and duties, which to their own conviction are within the reach of that power which they have. You might hear more often and more attentively; you might pray more frequently and more seriously than you often do; you want even much of that moral seriousness in hearing, prayer, reading, etc., that you have in other things of less concern. You will hear a proclamation at the cross with more attention than a preaching of the gospel; you will hear a threatening from man with more fear than you will hear a threatening from God's word; you will be more serious in seeking something from man than in asking grace from God. The reason is, because your heart is more to the one than to the other. Can you then rationally think that you are excusable, when believing is not a thing that is in your heart, and that takes you up, but you go about the means that lead to it unconcernedly, carelessly, and negligently? Third, consider how often you do willingly choose some other thing than Christ, to spend your time and set your affections upon, laying obstructions and bars in the way of God's grace, setting up idols in the heart, and filling Christ's room beforehand with such things as are inconsistent with His company — and all this is done willingly and deliberately. You have said in your hearts as these did (Jeremiah 2:25), "We have loved strangers, and after them we will go." And will you, or dare you, make that an excuse why you could not come to Christ, because your hearts were taken up with your lusts and idols? So then the matter will not hold here — that you were unable and had not power to believe — but it will come to this: that your conscience will have it to say that you willingly and deliberately chose to lie still in your unbelief, and that you preferred your idols to Christ Jesus. Fourth, consider that sometimes you have met with some more than an ordinary touch, motion, and work of the Spirit that has been borne in upon you, which you have slighted and neglected, if not quenched and put out, which is your great guilt before the Lord. Is there any of you but now and then at preaching, or when in some great hazard, or under sickness or some other sad cross, you have been under convictions of sin, and have had some little glances of the hazard you were in of the wrath of God, more than ordinarily you had at other times? And I would ask you: have these been entertained and cherished, or rather have they not been slighted and worn out by you? And may you not in this respect be charged with the guilt of resisting the Spirit of God, and marring the work of your own conversion and salvation? These things, and many more, which will cry loud in the consciences of men and women one day, will quite remove and take away this objection that you could not do better. You might have done better than you did; you might have abstained from many evils that you committed, and done many duties that you omitted, and done them with more moral seriousness than you did. But you were perverse, and did willingly and deliberately choose to continue in your natural condition, rejecting Christ and the offer of salvation through Him. This also serves to refute and remove that profane principle or tenet that many have in their minds and mouths — that they have no more grace than God has given them. Will you dare to come before God in the great day with any such objection? No certainly; or if you dare, God will aggravate your guilt by it, and beat it back again into your throat. Then — O then — all such subterfuges will be no shelter to you before Him, nor in the least able to ensconce your souls against the strong batteries of the wrath of God, that will be as a storm against the wall.