SERMON EXCERPTS
BY C. H. SPURGEON
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL
SOUTHWARK
ON A THURSDAY EVENING
IN THE SUMMER OF 1859
SALVATION BY GRACE

Grace, Not Graces

Personal experience bears similar testimony. Our own graces can never satisfy as does God’s Grace. He who is not far from the kingdom, nevertheless inquires, “What lack I yet?” One might as well think to lift himself by hauling at his boots, as expect to win heaven by the deeds of the law. The fact is, that fallen human nature is incapable of perfectly keeping the perfect law of God. It is well when this is understood and humbly acknowledged; it may be the dawn of better things, even as it was with one of whom I have heard, who was brought to Christ by the Spirit’s application of the words, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

“They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” That was good advice given to a seeker: “You’ll never know peace till you give up looking at self, and let all your graces go for nothing.”

The black devil of unrighteousness has slain its thousands, but the white devil of selfrighteousness hath slain its tens of thousands. Salvation is by Grace, not by graces.

Sound aloud this truth, for it is glad tidings, for all save Pharisees. They, indeed, prefer another Gospel, which is not another, and a modern one which is as old as Cain’s offering. Their watchword is, “Believe in yourself,” but for those who have seen themselves as God sees them, for such as can by no means lift up themselves, who are shut up under sin, and condemned already, oh! for these, this is summer news, in truth.

If salvation is by Grace, the graceless may be saved, prodigals may venture home, the vilest may be cleansed. Ah! yes, and there is a sense in which the guiltier, the better. Then is there less fear of the intrusion of other trust, and the glory gotten to God’s Grace is greater. I do perceive that if salvation be by works, then can none be saved. Equally sure am I that if salvation be by Grace, none need be lost, for it is omnipotent, and greatly rejoiceth to be tested to the full. I read this sentence in a riveter’s shop-window the other day: “No article can be broken beyond repair the more it is smashed the better we like it,” and I said within myself: “Thus it is with the Grace of God, and long as I live I will tell poor sinners so.”

As for the proud Pharisee, “God grant him grace to groan.”

What Says the Book?

What has the Word of God to say about this all-important matter? It declares most plainly that all have sinned, that sin is exceeding sinful, that retribution follows iniquity as the Cart-wheel follows the footprints of the ox that draws it, that none can make his hands clean or renew his own heart. It tells us also that God, in His infinite mercy, has devised a way of salvation, and that none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. Behold the bleeding victims and the smoking altars of the old dispensation! They speak of sin that needed to be put away, and they foreshadowed a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they, the only Sacrifice which can make the comers thereunto perfect. Hearken to David as he cries: “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no flesh living be justified.”

The prophets tell the selfsame tale.
¹¹By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:11 NIV).

Then there is the wonderful word which broke the fetters that were on Luther’s soul as he climbed the holy staircase on his knees: “The just shall live by faith.” The Apostles bear similar witness. Peter tells of Jesus of Nazareth, and declares,
¹²Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12 NKJV).

Paul is insistent on justification by faith alone.
²⁰Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin (Romans 3:20 NIV).
⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.⁹not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV).
⁵ not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:5-7).
(See also Galatians 3:11; Philippians 3:8-9; Acts 13:39, and 2 Timothy 1:9).

Salvation By Grace
By Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, London, England 1859
Source links further reading: Reference 1 Reference 2