1642. “Truly, Truly”

No. 1642-28:61. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Morning, January 29, 1882, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word, and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life. {Joh 5:24}

Truly, Truly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. {Joh 6:47}

1. The words “Truly, truly,” as they were solemnly used by our divine Lord, indicate an utterance of special importance. If Jesus says, “Truly, truly,” there is something coming to which we should attend with all our hearts. The subject which he thus introduces is our possession of eternal life, and our being delivered from condemnation by faith in himself. Can any theme be more important? Many questions may be asked, but they can all afford to wait until we get the answer to that first enquiry, “What must I do to be saved?” What shall it profit a man if be traverses the whole world of knowledge and does not know the way of life? If he wins a world in this life, what will that avail him if he misses everlasting life? It is very considerate on our Lord’s part to call us with such great solemnity to think about our souls and eternal life. Let us attend to his appeal. Come here, dear hearer, and bend over the words which Jesus commends to you with a double NOTA BENE, saying, “Truly, truly.”

2. Our Lord used this “Truly, truly” to denote a clear and certain revelation. There must be an end to all doubt when Jesus says, “Truly, truly.” His ordinary word is true; for nothing except truth can come from him who is “the Truth”; but when he uses his strongest affirmation, “Truly, truly,” then we must regard the statement with special reverence if we are indeed his loyal subjects. When Jesus says, “Truly, truly,” we see two armies of verities gathered around his royal standard. His declaration is to be accepted as indisputable, immutable, infallible truth. Do you not agree with this?

3. Carefully notice where this certainty lies: it rests solely on the word of Jesus — “I say to you.” In the matter of our salvation carnal reason never arrives at certainty. Mere argument can never bring a troubled heart to a sure anchorage. The certainty which Christ sets before us rests on his own solemn assertion. Instead of proof, the incarnate Son of God gives us — “Truly, truly, I say to you.” If you are his disciples indeed, and would enjoy the benefits of his salvation, you must accept your Lord’s statement without question. Doubts and reasonings must lie down at his feet, and it must be enough that Jesus says it. The ipse dixit of a mere man is not enough; but those of us who adore the Lord Jesus as the Son of God desire no better assurance than the word of his lips. Here is our ultimate basis for faith, our main argument with mankind, our final answer to Satan, and the eternal discharge of every misgiving: — Jesus says it. We shall never arrive at certainty with respect to everlasting life except by the conviction that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is infallible in everything that he says. I would rather have one word from Jesus than volumes of human reasonings, however conclusive they may appear. Our judgment has often deceived us, even our senses trick us, and our emotions are no more to be depended on than the winds and waves; but here is a rocky foundation, firm as the pillars of heaven, — “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

4. It is clear that the teaching of this present verse must be accepted by all Christians. They must either believe it or reject their Lord, for he does, as it were, stake his own character for truth on this utterance by prefacing it with “I say to you.” Jesus does not leave the way of life a moot point, but decides it with all authority, states it in plain terms, and presents it formally in a declaration for which he will be responsible for ever. If you reject this teaching, you must reject the Teacher himself. Nothing of authority remains to Jesus if you take liberty to question this point; for he does not put it as a matter of report, or inference, but as a truth to be accepted on his own authority: “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

5. I have heard some who call themselves Christians talk about the doctrine of salvation through faith in Christ as if it were a mere theory of what they are pleased to call the Evangelical School: but is it so? Is it not our Lord’s own teaching? Our opponents have full liberty to canvass the particular tenets of a party, and the more they do so the better; but this teaching is not ours, it is the teaching of him whom these critics call Master and Lord. Is this their reverence for the Son of God? Do they challenge him to his face, and question what he asserts with a double truly, and certifies by the dignity of his person and the veracity of his character?

6. I am equally at odds with those who admit the doctrine of justification by faith and then add that it is to be guardedly stated and cautiously presented. Does Jesus teach dangerous doctrine? This truth is constantly assailed by the carnally wise; but is that a reason for doubting it when Jesus advances it in such a form? Understand clearly that if you reject the doctrine of life through believing you reject the authority of Jesus. It is useless to talk about being a Christian if you are not prepared to believe what Jesus Christ asserts; for one of the prerequisites for a true disciple is faith in his Master. What kind of follower can he be who takes liberty to question when his Master stands erect in all the dignity of his glorious perfection and cries, “Truly, truly, I say to you”? Are any of you such hypocrites as to call yourselves Christians and make Christ a liar? Dare you treat him as if he were one of yourselves, to be disputed with and criticized at pleasure? This is not reverence, but rejection — I might justly call it blasphemy.

7. Notice well the verse which precedes the text: “That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who has sent him.” On the heels of that claim comes this assertion of everlasting life through hearing his word and believing in him who sent him: as much as to say, “Believe what I am now about to say, even as if the Father spoke, for implicit faith is due to me. If you would honour me believe in me; but if you refuse what I say, you do me the greatest dishonour.” Jesus regards this point as being so vital that he pledges his own character for veracity as a guarantee for the doctrine. He as good as says, “If you would honour me, believe this truth which I now declare on my own authority.”

8. I feel this morning great peace of heart concerning what I have to say. I shall not speak haphazardly on a matter of opinion, speculation, or probability, nor shall I ask your consent and agreement to it as a matter of favour; I stand fair and square before you, and I demand the assent of all who profess and call themselves Christians on a point which Jesus has set at rest for ever by the solemn declaration, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life.” Such as are prepared to reject the authority of the Lord Jesus may do so, for them I have no word this morning; but to all such as acknowledge his Messiahship and Deity I present the doctrine of the text as worthy of all acceptance. May the Holy Spirit help me to present it with clarity, and enable you to receive it into your innermost souls.

9. Our Saviour is speaking of a great blessing, and our first point is the person to whom this blessing comes, — “He who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life.” We shall speak, secondly, on the blessing itself, — “He has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life”; and thirdly, and this will be the point I shall lay the most stress on, the exceptional assurance with which it is stated, the wonderful firmness and distinctness with which it is asserted by the Master, and backed up with, “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

10. I. First, then, THE PERSON TO WHOM THIS BLESSING COMES.

11. Read the passage, and you notice, first, that the privileged individual is a hearer who is also a believer. “He who hears my word, and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life.” It does not appear from our text that everlasting life is communicated by drops of water, or in any other ceremonial manner; but the command is, “Hear, and your soul shall live.” Men are not expected to believe what they have never heard; they are not to take the articles of the church rolled up, as it were, into a pill, silver-coated, and to swallow them, whatever they may be, without instruction. We are to act towards saving truth as we do in reference to other information: we are to hear it with attention, and so receive it. Those who find everlasting life first hear of Jesus, his mission, his person, his work, his sufferings, his offices, his power, and the blessings he has come to communicate: listening to all this, they are grateful for being permitted to hear things which kings and prophets desired to hear but have not heard. Do not expect that you can be saved if you plug your ears to the gospel. Do not imagine that the same blessing will come to you if you carelessly walk the streets on the Sabbath as might come to you if you were diligent in listening to the word of the Redeemer. Hear what the Lord says, and let your whole heart yield itself to the truth.

12. But these people, while they are hearers to begin with, do not stop there; they become believers. They believe that Jesus is the appointed Saviour, and they accept him as such for themselves. They believe that his blood cleanses men from sin, and therefore they trust in his blood to cleanse them, and are cleansed by it. Since his righteousness justifies, they are glad to accept that righteousness, and so to be justified. Theirs is not a dreamy, inactive hearing; but when they know the truth, they practise what they know. They not only know that the bronze snake will heal, but they look at it and are healed. I am talking to some of the best hearers in the world, and yet I fear that many of you come short, because you are only hearers, and not doers of that word which says, “Believe and live.”

13. Notice again, these favoured people are believers who remain hearers in the fullest sense. These people believe in God who has sent the Lord Jesus into the world, and consequently they believe that what Jesus says must be true, and then they hear his voice with a discerning, spiritual ear. Our Lord uses the word “hear” in a special sense when he says, “My sheep hear my voice.” They hear their Shepherd, but they do not know the voice of strangers. “Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound. They shall walk, oh Lord, in the light of your countenance.” Believers are taught by the Lord to perceive the difference between truth and error, between the teachings of mere legalists and the voice of the gospel of grace. Of others it is said, “their ears are hard of hearing”; but on these a miracle of grace has been performed, so that they hear the voice of the Son of God. Dear friend, is this your case? Is the name of Jesus sweet to you? Is a promise pronounced by his voice most comforting to your soul? Then be of good cheer, for you have everlasting life and shall not come under condemnation. You are resting on the faithful promise of the Father, brought to you by the word of his own Son, and because of this you are quickened and justified. Jesus declares it is so. Do not doubt him, lest you do despite to that blessed “Truly, truly” with which he prefaces the word.

14. The quickened ones are described in our second text as believers in the Lord Jesus. “He who believes in me has everlasting life.” They have a personal faith in a personal Saviour. They believe that God must punish sin, that God has punished sin in the person of Jesus, and that he has therefore presented his Son Jesus Christ to be a propitiation for sin, so that “whoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life.” They believe this and they lean the full weight of their souls on this. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; and they come to him for rest, and receive rest. This is the main point in the character of those who have everlasting life: they are not said here to do anything, or achieve anything, but they believe in Jesus the Christ.

15. The saved are also described as believers in Jesus because of the witness of the Father. “He who hears my word, and believes in him who sent me.” Why do I believe that Jesus Christ is my Saviour? Because the Father has sent him, and borne witness to him. I am sure that he can save me, for he is divinely commissioned, divinely equipped, and the pleasure of the Lord must prosper in his hand. I believe today that he who came to the waters of Jordan to be baptized was the Son of God, for the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” I believe that he who went up to the mountain, and was transfigured in the presence of his three disciples, was the Son of God; for once again the Father said in an audible voice, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him.” I believe that Jesus Christ can save me; for when he prayed a voice was heard from heaven bearing witness that he was heard by the Father. The people who stood by did not know the meaning, but said that it thundered: yet there were some who heard that voice, and knew it to be the witness of the Lord. Those who have everlasting life believe in Jesus as the Christ of God, because the Father has given witness to him in many ways — by an audible voice, by miracles, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and by constantly fulfilling in the ministry of Christ’s word the promises which he made to us in connection with it. This faith in God our Father and in our Lord Jesus Christ saves the soul.

16. But notice, that our Lord has spoken these words about every such believer: “He who hears my word, and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life.” Whatever else he may have or may not have, this is the vital point. “But, Lord, he is full of fault and imperfection.” There is no exception made on that criteria; for “by him all who believe are justified from all things.” “But the believing man makes many mistakes in points of theology.” Nothing is said in the text concerning errors on other points; but the text positively says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word, and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life.” If there is genuine faith in Jesus, there will be a sincere desire to understand all his teachings, and a readiness to believe them; but as for ignorances and mistakes, they are covered with all our other sins by the great atonement which is received by faith. “But, Lord, he is himself afraid that he has not attained to everlasting life. He trembles lest he should be found wanting when put into the balances.” No exception is made on account of timidity and doubt. If any man believes in Christ Jesus, the statement is made absolutely about him and about everyone like him, that he “has everlasting life.” Old or young, rich or poor, learned or illiterate, talented or obscure, there is no difference: all believers have everlasting life.

17. But notice that there is no statement made concerning the salvation of any other kind of person. Nothing is said about the baptized person who is not a believer. He has been made a member of Christ, an heir of God, and an heir of the kingdom of heaven in baptism, according to the Prayer Book; but is it true? Our text says nothing about the baptized, confirmed, and sacramented unbeliever having everlasting life: there is not a word like it from Genesis to Revelation. Other books may say what they wish; but this Book of God makes no account of any man who is devoid of faith. Did you tell me that such a one has been a professor of religion for many years, and his outward life has been most commendable? So far, so good; but that is not all. Indeed, it is beside the point concerning the teaching now before us; for the text says absolutely nothing about outward morality and correctness of conduct. These things are sure to be found where faith is found; but alone and by themselves they do not meet the qualification laid down by our Lord. If a man does not believe in Christ there is no cheering word for him, no matter who he may be. No one is left without eternal life who believes in Jesus, and no unbeliever is blessed with that life. What do the Scriptures say? “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life: and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God rests on him.”

18. We now know the people to whom the blessings of salvation have come; I hope that many of us are numbered with them.

19. II. Very briefly let us notice THE BLESSINGS WHICH BELONG TO BELIEVING.

20. First, our Lord asserts that the believer “has everlasting life.” He was condemned to die and considered a dead man; but he is now acquitted, and his life is granted to him. He was spiritually dead; but the fact that he believes in Jesus is sufficient evidence that he has received spiritual life. John tells us in his epistle, “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God; so that you may know that you have eternal life.” This spiritual life is not a thing of time only, it is expressly called “everlasting.” Those who in these days make out that “everlasting” does not mean unending, will, I dare say, squeeze the life-blood out of our text; but most of us take the word to mean what it says, and to mean life which will never end. If I have received life in Jesus Christ I have received a life which will endure as long as the everlasting covenant, as long as everlasting love, as long as the everlasting God. According to a certain theology a man may have life in Christ one day and lose it the next: how, then, is it everlasting life? If a man has lost his life that life could not have been everlasting: that is clear. What comes to an end could not have been everlasting. But we teach with the authority of Christ that the man who believes in Christ has at this moment within him a life that can never expire. The man may die after the flesh, but he can never die after the Spirit. There is for him no second death possible, unless the Bible expression is a mere trifling with language. The believer has within him a life which is derived from Christ himself, — “I in them”; and this life depends on the life of Christ, even as he has expressed it, “Because I live you shall also live.” The believer has this everlasting life now; for it is not said, “shall have,” but “has everlasting life.” What a blessing this is! To be born in the image of God; to be a partaker of his nature; to be placed beyond all reach of the second death. Glory be to God for this!

21. Notice, next, that the believer is in a condition of non-condemnation. He “shall not come into condemnation.” The translation would be more accurate if it were put, “and does not come into judgment”: that is to say, as soon as a man has believed in Christ he receives the benefit of Christ’s substitution, and is no longer under judgment, much less condemnation. In Christ the believer has been judged, condemned, and punished, and the believer is therefore clear of the law and all its penalties. If we have by our Surety answered all the demands of justice, what has the law to do with us? How can it bring us into judgment? How can it cause us to know condemnation? But will not the righteous be present in the judgment of the last day? Undoubtedly we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; but the judgment of that day will not be a judgment for us in the dreadful sense of the term. When a man is perfectly clear, and called into court on purpose to be publicly acquitted, it is not judgment for him. “The Lord shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, so that he may judge his people”; and this is our joy, that “our God shall come, and shall not keep silence.” It will be no penalty, but a great delight, to stand before the great King and hear him say, “Come, you blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

22. Our text has another sentence of privilege, — he “has passed from death to life.” Notice where judgment is. See, here is death! Over there is life and resurrection! Judgment, as it were, stands between the two. We have passed from death to life, and so we have passed by the judgment. There is a doctrinal error which cannot be too much condemned, that the resurrection is already past: but there is a blessed spiritual truth that cannot be too firmly grasped, that believers are already the children of the resurrection by having received quickening concerning their spirits. In regeneration lies the essence and major portion of resurrection. We have already passed from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of life, and so have passed by the judgment, since Jesus was judged for us, condemned for us, and made to die in our place. Abraham was called a Hebrew, or passer-over, and we, too, are Hebrews, having passed from one kingdom to another, being delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, and through him we live. If Christ has suffered in our place we cannot suffer for sin; justice demands that we go free. What a miracle of mercy this is, that everyone who has believed in Jesus has left death behind him, never to return to it; has entered the realm of life, never to be banished from it; and has on the road passed under the rod of judgment and the sword of condemnation, so that neither of these can further afflict him in time or in eternity.

23. Did I hear some one object, “You make too much of so small a matter as believing. You claim that simply by trusting in Jesus Christ there is a difference made between one man and another of a most extraordinary kind, and that it is made at once”? Yes, I do say that, exactly that, and as far as I am concerned I do not care how much you quarrel with it, I shall not tone down the statement: “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be damned.”

24. I hear you mutter, “I think you are very uncharitable.” Say so, if you please; I shall prove my charitableness by bearing it. But see! Here is a person standing right in the middle of a railway track, and I say to him, “My dear fellow, if you do not get off of that tract you will be smashed to pieces within the next five minutes, for an express train is thundering along the line.” He laughs and answers, “Do you mean to say that my changing the position of my body a couple of feet will make all that difference? Do you tell me that if I move I shall be safe, and that if I stand here I shall be cut to pieces?” “Yes, I do say it; and say it with tears; begging you to believe me, and get off of the track.” “Then,” he says, “you are very uncharitable.” “Yes,” I reply, “and you are very insane.” What more can I say? It is never uncharitable to speak the truth for the good of the person concerned. A small matter may suffice to mould the destiny of an immortal soul. In those bad times, when there were slaves across the Atlantic, a lady went down to one of our ships, accompanied by her negro slave. The lady remarked to the captain that if she were to go to England and take this black woman with her, she would become free as soon as she landed. The captain replied, “Madam, she is already free. The moment she came on board a British vessel she was free.” When the negro woman knew this, do you think she went on shore with her mistress? By no means; she chose to keep her liberty. But what made her rise from a slave to a free woman? Why, only a few inches of separation from the shore. I do not know how far the ship was from land; the distance may have been very little; still it made all the difference; she was free on board, and a slave on land. How slight the change of place; but how great the difference involved; do not marvel that faith involves such great things.

25. I heard a grumbler say, “We do not want this doctrine. What we want is more morality and honesty.” Just so. You remind me of a poor little child. His father planted bulbs to come up in the spring, and make the garden bright with golden flowers; but the boy said, “We do not want bulbs; we want crocus cups and daffodils.” The child forgot that flowers never grow without roots. You, too, good sir, forget that holy lives cannot grow without a cause, and faith is the root of virtue. Flowers stuck into the ground without roots are babes’ follies, and good works without faith are childish vanities. We preach faith in order that good works may follow, and they do follow, and are the fruits of that eternal life which men receive by faith. Are you not willing to get the flowers through the roots? Go, silly children, and grow wiser.

26. III. I close within my last point, which is, THE ASSURANCE WITH WHICH THIS DOCTRINE IS STATED in my text. It was what attracted me to it.

27. First, the doctrine of this text is certified to us by the terms in which our Lord utters it. I have already told you this, but I intend to go over it again. Our Lord Jesus, whose name is Faithful and True, here pledges his honour as God, his veracity as man, on the certainty of this doctrine. He says, “Truly, truly.” These two words sound to me like great guns levelled against unbelief. Like the two bronze pillars called Jachin and Boaz, these two verities stand in the portico of mercy’s temple, and show us where there is establishment and strength in the word of the Son of man.

28. Our Lord then adds, “I say to you.” Then it must be so, or else the Lord speaks in error, and no one thinks that for a moment, for he is Wisdom itself. Is he not the only wise God, our Saviour? Do you dream that these words may mean less than they say? That would be to charge the Lord with insincerity, mocking poor souls within great words and small meanings? No, you would consider it profane to imagine such a thing. “He who believes in me has everlasting life” must, then, mean what it says. Christ knows what is everlasting life and who has it; for there is no eye like his that can discern life wherever it may be, and discriminate between the false and the true. Others might be mistaken and deceived; but Christ knows what is the true life, being himself the living and true God. Jesus also knows whether we shall be judged and condemned or not; for he himself is the Judge. The Father has committed all judgment to the Son, and if your Judge himself says that we shall never come into condemnation we can have no reason for fear. Who is he who condemns? Christ who died, who is sitting at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us? Impossible!

29. Our Lord Jesus also knows the future; it is before him as if it were present. He foresees everything that can possibly happen; and so if he testifies concerning the believer “he shall never come into condemnation,” then depend on it the fact is certain. If a prophet speaks, you believe him, — shall you not much more believe the Son of God? The believer has everlasting life: it is true, it is most surely true.

30. The question may be raised, “Why does our Lord like to put it so very, very positively?” Did I hear any one of you grumbling in your hearts just now at my going over the same ground? I did it on purpose, because it is with such great difficulty that you can get men to accept this humbling truth. Human nature revolts against it. As for the unconverted, even when they begin to feel their need of a Saviour they cannot think it is true that by believing in Jesus Christ they will pass from death to life. Salvation must be by faith so that it may be by grace, and it must be by grace or not at all; but proud souls will not have it so. A man must be driven to self-despair before he will agree to be saved by faith in Christ. You who deal much with souls know how they try to escape their own mercy and avoid the lovingkindness of the Lord. Even you who have believed and are saved are not half as sure as you ought to be. Are there not times with you when you say, “I do not feel as I wish, and therefore I am not saved”? What argument is there in that? Can your feelings make Christ untrue? Remember the evidence of your being saved as a believer lies entirely in that “I say to you.” Perhaps you are not sure that you have everlasting life, and yet you are sure that you are a believer in Jesus. How is this? This is a questioning of Christ’s veracity. His strongest affirmation is, “Truly, truly.” Is he not to be believed in this? You, as his dear disciple, lover, and friend, would be very indignant if anyone cast a suspicion on his truthfulness — why will you do it yourself? Accept the truth heartily. Never doubt it, but let it stand as a fact most sure and steadfast that your faith has saved you.

31. It is, then, if you are a believer, absolutely certain that you shall never be condemned, but have passed from death to life: the Lord puts it so positively that we may be very positive about it. Why are you not, as a believer, absolutely certain of your possession of eternal life? The Master, who knew our unbelief, has put the matter so straight and plain that no one can get over it without rejecting his word. It is certain that he who believes in him has everlasting life: certain, then, that we are saved if we are believers. We need not be afraid to believe this with great confidence, and to rejoice because of it. Someone says, “Ah, but it might be presumption.” Presumption to believe that Jesus speaks the truth! I will tell you what is presumption, and that is, to question anything that our Lord has said. Is he your Master and Lord? If he is not, say so; but if he is so, will you dare to sit on the throne and judge your sayings of your own Lord, and say, “This may be true, and that may be false”?

32. Another objector cries, “But I think a person may be too certain.” A person may be a great deal too certain if the argument is based on inference; but if a statement is based on the personal testimony of the Lord Jesus, we cannot be too certain of it. Circumstantial evidence is often very powerful, and to some minds irresistible; yet the inference drawn from it may be false; but your witness of a person who cannot err is worth all the circumstantial evidence in the world. Jesus Christ cannot be suspected of falsehood or error, either in his divine character or in his perfect human character, and therefore the basis of our confidence cannot be shaken. Our rest must be found entirely in that grand word, “I say to you.” The weight of your doubt, if you have any, must fall on his personal character, and there also the stress of your faith must be fixed. If Jesus speaks the truth, then the believer has everlasting life; if the believer questions whether he has life or not, he questions the veracity of Christ. We are bound by our discipleship to be at rest. Happiness becomes a duty, and peace a matter of obligation. Happy men, who are under bonds to be joyful! We are partakers of eternal life, we do not come into condemnation. What delight, what peace flows through our spirits. If it is indeed so that we have begun the very same life which is to be developed in eternal glory, then what gratitude ought to fill us, and how that gratitude should urge us to holiness, and to perfect obedience to him who has given us this inestimable blessing! Come, let us not play with these things, but act as it behoves us to act, since these things are indeed so. If they were mere myths or dreams we might treat them carelessly; but accepting them as true, let us feel the force of their truth, and let us rejoice today in him who has called us with so high a calling.

33. One thing I want you to notice, and that is that our Lord does not desire us to keep this doctrine in the background. This doctrine that “whoever believes in him has everlasting life,” is not for our own private comfort alone, it is to be proclaimed on your house-tops. Those Jews in Christ’s day were a company of cross-grained fault-finders, who picked holes in him about everything and nothing. Very harpies1 they were, full of spite at his excellence. They had just been finding fault with his healing a man on the Sabbath day, and he had answered them plainly without reserve; and when he had their ear, he told them a truth which would cut them to the quick. It was not a wanton casting of pearls before swine, and yet the men were not worthy to hear so divine a truth. Jesus tells it to them so that we may tell it to all. Never let us conceal what Jesus unveiled like this. There stands the precious Master, and he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you quarrelsome Jews, whose grovelling minds cannot comprehend me, that he who believes in me has everlasting life. Your hands even now are near the ground seeking for stones to hurl at me; but I say it to you, as a thing I intend for you to know, even if you gnash your teeth over it, that he who believes in me has everlasting life.” Oh, brothers, let that be our answer to the present critical age: let us turn the bull’s-eye of our lantern full in its face. Let us cry again and again, “Believe in Jesus and live.” They will reply to you with philosophical deduction and learned quibble, and they will dig all kinds of pits for you, hoping to entrap you. Never mind their pits, or their quibbles, or their deductions, but just go on proclaiming the truth that “whoever believes in Jesus has everlasting life.”

34. But why tell it to these Jews who were so angry with him? Perhaps some of them would be converted by it. Tell it to all men with this intention; for your gospel often creates faith in violent opposers. But if they were not converted they would be left without excuse, and this is something. Whatever may come of it, this truth is meant to be written across the brow of heaven; it is to be proclaimed throughout all nations, so that all may know it. One of our ministers years ago, travelling by coach, asked an erroneous preacher who was on the same coach this question — “How is a sinner justified in the sight of God?” This gentleman replied, “Ah, I know you: if I were to let you know my views, you would put them in your sermon and spread them all over England.” “Ah,” cried our friend, “you are ashamed of your notions, are you? Well, I will give you the answer, and I will be glad if you will put it in all your lectures and proclaim it all the world over — a man is justified in the sight of God by faith in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.” Our doctrine is not special truth for the elite and initiated, to be dubiously taught in a back room among a handful of students; it is the everlasting gospel, and we wish to have it proclaimed in market and street, before learned Brahmins and ignorant Hottentots: we wish to have it proclaimed in the back slums of London, and preached before lords and ladies and royalty itself. It does not matter where: salvation by faith is never out of place. This is a doctrine never to be covered up, nor veiled, nor qualified. “He who believes in him has everlasting life,” — out with it and do not hesitate.

35. It is a pretty thing which is told about the father of Mr. Namium Hall, and the author of “The Sinner’s Friend,” that his common seal that he always delighted to use was a crown with an anchor fixed into it, with just these words, “Other refuge have I none.” Well, if you do not use that seal, if you do not write the words over the door of your house, still take care that you bear their meaning in your hearts. Have my text written in your hearts by the Spirit, so that you are sure and certain of it beyond all doubt on the matter, and also so glory over it that you never hesitate on any occasion to confess that you are saved by faith in Christ Jesus.

36. Dear hearers, do you really know this truth in your own souls, “Have you believed in Jesus, or have you not?” Are any of you trying to establish a righteousness of your own? Are you labouring as in the very fire to get peace where you will never find it? Oh, come away from your ceremonies and your sacraments; come away from your feelings, come away even from your prayers and your alms-givings; come away from everything on which you rely, and believe in Jesus, the appointed Saviour. Come away even from your own faith, for you must not rely on it. Come and trust in Jesus alone, who, being very God of very God, made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and in that servant form bled even to the death in the sinner’s room and place, so that whoever will trust him may be justified in the sight of God. Rest there, one and all of you. Oh may God help you at this very moment to do so, and then all of us will meet in heaven; if there is no exception to the believing there shall be no exception in the salvation, for “He who believes in him has everlasting life.”

[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Joh 5]

912 — The Eternal Sabbath Anticipated L.M.

   1 Lord of the Sabbath, hear our vows,

    On this thy day, in this thy house;

    And own, as grateful sacrifice,

    The songs which from the desert rise.

   2 Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love,

    But there’s a nobler rest above;

    To that our labouring souls aspire,

    With ardent pangs of strong desire.

   3 No more fatigue, no more distress,

   Nor sin nor hell shall reach the pace;

   No groans to mingle with the songs

   Which warble from immortal tongues.

   4 No rude alarms of raging foes;

    No cares to break the long repose;

    No midnight shade, no clouded sun;

    But sacred, high, eternal noon.

   5 Oh long-expected day, begin;

    Dawn on these realms of woe and sin:

    Fain would we leave this weary road,

    And sleep in death, to rest with God.

     Philip Doddridge, 1755.

397 — Righteousness L.M.

   1 Jesus, thy blood and righteousness

    My beauty are, my glorious dress;

    Midst flaming worlds, in these array’d,

    With joy shall I lift up my head.

   2 When from the dust of death I rise,

    To take my mansion in the skies,

    E’en then shall this be all my pea,

    “Jesus hath lived and died for me.”

   3 Bold shall I stand in that great day,

   For who aught to my charge shall lay?

   While through thy blood absolved I am

   From sin’s tremendous curse and shame.

   4 This spotless robe the same appears

    When ruin’d nature sinks in years;

    No age can change its glorious hue,

    The robe of Christ is ever new.

   5 Oh let the dead now hear thy voice;

    Bid, Lord, thy banish’d ones rejoice;

    Their beauty this, their glorious dress,

    Jesus, the Lord, our righteousness.

     Count Zinzendorf, 1739; tr. by John Wesley, 1740, a.

551 — Christ Is All L.M.

   1 Jesus, lover of my soul,

    Let me to thy bosom fly,

    While the nearer waters roll,

    While the tempest still is high!

    Hide me, oh my Saviour, hide,

    Till the storm of life be past;

    Safe into the haven guide;

    Oh receive my soul at last.

   2 Other refuge have I none,

    Hangs my helpless soul on thee!

    Leave, ah! leave me not alone,

    Still support and comfort me!

     All my trust on thee is stay’d

    All my help from thee I bring;

    Cover my defenceless head

    With the shadow of thy wing.

   3 Thou, oh Christ, art all I want;

   More than all in thee I find:

   Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,

   Heal the sick, and lead the blind.

    Just and holy is thy name,

    I am all unrighteousness,

    False and full of sin I am;

    Thou art full of truth and grace.

   4 Plenteous grace with thee is found,

    Grace to cover all my sin;

    Let the healing streams abound,

    Make and keep me pure within;

    Thou of life the fountain art,

    Freely let me take of thee!

    Spring thou up within my heart,

    Rise to all eternity!

     Charles Wesley, 1740.

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