Spurgeon’s Gospel from Three Sermons

Part 2 The Gospel for believers.

By

Richard C. Schadle

Preface

This is the second article in this short series examining three sermons of Spurgeon’s. His Gospel to the unconverted, His gospel to the saved sinners (professors) and his understanding of propitiation which is at the heart of any gospel. In the sermon examined here he expressly preaches to believers. I refer the reader to my detailed review of his sermon preached to the unsaved. It can be found here: https://www.surreytabernaclepulpit.com/files/Non%20James%20Wells The three I have chosen are just examples of this overall teaching and preaching. I chose them because of the titles he gave each sermon and with no prior knowledge of what was in them. My comments toward him are in relation to the doctrines he held and not to anything personal. I have no doubt that many have been genuinely saved by his ministry both past and present. The point here is how much harm has been done during the same time frame. When we all come to the final judgment how many will be on the wrong side of Christ? Satan is delighted to let 10 people be saved if he can deceive 1000 so they are sent to hell at the same time.

Part One: His introduction to the sermon “The Gospel’s Power In A Christians Life.”[1]

Spurgeon gave as his passage for this sermon part of Philippians 1:27. That however is only 1:27a, the whole verse, which I have bolded reads in context as follows:

27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. 29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Paul informs them in the previous verse of his great desire to visit the Church at Philippi again. Then comes his admonition in the verses above. Paul explicitly states the purpose of his exhortation as well as its subjects. The church at Philippi was being persecuted for their standing for the truth of the gospel. They needed strengthening to suffer for the truth as it is in Jesus. By extension this applies to us today and through out time. His focus is corporate, believers as a body. The context is suffering for the truth. The goal is contending for the “faith of the gospel”. The means used are striving for the truth by the Holy Spirits power and striving together. The King James words “striving together” translate the Greek word sunathlĕō. According to Strong’s dictionary means: “4866. συναθλέω sunathlĕō, soon-ath-leh´-o; from 4862 and 118; to wrestle in company with, i.e. (fig.) to seek jointly:— labour with, strive together for.”[2]

While corporate action is stressed this naturally implies the personal walk of each believer. This personal walk however is founded in the gospel itself. It is not what we are able to do in and of ourselves but what God through the person and work of Christ has done for us in the gospel. It is all of grace, there is nothing at all that we can claim as our own. Robert Hawker brings this out beautifully while commenting on verse 27:

Reader! do not overlook that precious verse, and the doctrine contained in it, that it is given to the Church, in behalf of CHRIST, not only to believe on him, but also, if needful, to suffer for his sake. Yes! faith and fortitude are the LORD'S gifts, and not our graces. When a child of GOD believes to the salvation of his soul, the strength of that faith, and all the parts of that faith, are from the LORD. It is blessed to believe, blessed to be firm in that belief: blessed to believe always. But the largest portions of faith are all the LORD'S gifts. And wherein no man's faith differs from another, the diligent measures of grace are His, who is both the Author, and Finisher of faith. So that the strong in faith, when taught of GOD, in the exercise of it, will always rejoice in the great object of faith, the LORD JESUS; and not in themselves, from the fruits and effects of it. Oh! for grace both to believe in CHRIST; and, if needs be, to suffer for his sake.[3]

Therefore, in verse 27 Paul stresses the importance of the gospel. That is of all that the Bible teaches us about the gospel. As Robert Hawker stated above “the doctrine contained in it.” Spurgeon professes to believe in the doctrines of grace which he calls “good high doctrine” His purpose in this sermon is to preach “good high practice”. Here is how he puts it:

We are delighted to preach good high doctrine, and to insist upon it that salvation is of grace alone; but we are equally delighted to preach good high practice and to insist upon it, that that grace which does not make a man better than his neighbors, is a grace which will never take him to heaven, nor render him acceptable before God.[4]

I have shown in Part One of this series that his “high doctrine”, at least in that sermon, was false doctrine. We will find the same to be true in this sermon as well. His “high practice” could mean many different things. We get some idea of his meaning by the biblically untruthful and bizarre illustration that immediately follows the quote above. He uses heathen idolaters in a frenzy of idol worship to the devil as inspiration to “high practice” by Christians! He continues then saying:

I have already remarked that the exhortation is given in a form which is highly reasonable. The followers of any other religion, as a rule, are conformed to their religion. No nation has ever yet risen above the character of its so-called gods. Look at the disciples of Venus, were they not sunk deep in licentiousness? Look at the worshippers of Bacchus; let their Bacchanalian revels tell how they entered into the character of their deity. The worshippers to this day of the goddess Kale — the goddess of thieves and murderers-the Thugs-enter most heartily into the spirit of the idol that they worship. We do not marvel at the crimes of the ancients when we recollect the gods whom they adored; Moloch, who delighted in the blood of little children; Jupiter, Mercury, and the like, whose actions stored in the classical dictionary, are enough to pollute the minds of youth. We marvel not that licentiousness abounded, for “like gods-like people:” “a people are never better than their religion,” it has often been said, and in most cases, they are rather worse. It is strictly in accordance with nature that a man’s religion should season his conversation. Paul puts it, therefore, to you who profess to he saved by Jesus Christ, “Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.”

Please look very carefully at what he is telling his congregation. He is speaking as if these false gods came first and then the people followed their example. For instance: “Look at the worshippers of Bacchus; let their Bacchanalian revels tell how they entered into the character of their deity.” He sums up saying: “like gods-like people:” The earliest example of that saying that can find is from The Rev. John Cumming D.D. in the preface of his book “Lectures on the Book of Daniel”

Cumming’s says: What were the deities in heathen times? Jupiter was a monster, Mercury a thief, Mars a sort of cannibal, who drank the blood of his victims. Such were the gods of the heathen; and like gods, like people. [5] He however uses it for better purposes then Spurgeon. However, it is my belief that that saying should read “Like people, like gods” Fallen mankind is in bondage to Satan. They imagines a god or gods, be it the sun, moon, ancestors, or a block of wood. The various false gods then take on the character which the people impose upon them. Remember all mankind knows only evil and that continually prior to salvation. They hate God and suppress any truth becoming more and more vile. The God of the bible is the only true God. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Apart for the revelation given to us in the Bible and in nature he is incomprehensible, his ways are past finding out. God condemns all idols, and he condemns the use Spurgeon tries to make of them. Remember also that those who worship idols worship demons (Deuteronomy 32:16-17 and Leviticus 17:7). In Isaiah 44:9-20 God reveals just how absurd it is to worship idols. 2 Corinthians 6:16-17 commands us to have nothing to do with idols.

Just think for a moment of Elijah and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20-40). What if Elijah instead of confronting the Israelites as he did said something like this to them. “Now Israelites you see before you the zeal and dedication these prophets have for Baal. Look what a fine example they are of following out their religion you need to do the same.” His use of this particular illustration is very noteworthy. What type of “high practice” is he telling Christians to do? All his examples are based on a works-based religion. He strongly disavows works yet choses works to illustrate his teaching. This will become obvious as we look deeper in his sermon.

He seems to have forgotten Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6 where such a comparison of evil to good is denounced. Paul says in verses 11 to 18:

O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Just like Spurgeon Paul is addressing believers not unbelievers. He said as we saw above: “Paul puts it, therefore, to you who profess to he saved by Jesus Christ, ‘Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.’,” Spurgeon, apparently delighted with his illustration goes on to tell believers: “To get at this we must meditate for two or three minutes upon what the gospel is then take up the points in which our conversation ought to be like to the gospel…”

Part Two: “The GOSPEL OF CHRIST!” WHAT IS IT?[6]

Section one: What does the Bible say that the gospel is?

As I showed above verse 27 contains not one but two references to the gospel both of which refer to the same gospel. In fact, the one true gospel is given many titles in the Bible. One list in the Public Domain gives some examples:

It is termed "the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24), "the gospel of the kingdom" (Matthew 4:23), "the gospel of Christ" (Romans 1:16), "the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15), "the glorious gospel," "the everlasting gospel," "the gospel of salvation" (Ephesians 1:13).[7]

This one gospel is defined from Genesis to Revelation: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:18) “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,” (Revelation 14:6) where we again have it titled “the everlasting gospel”.

Paul elsewhere describes that gospel in this way:

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:[8]

In another place, speaking about his apostleship he says:

Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Paul in Titus 3 speaks of the part of the Holy Spirit

5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Clearly than the gospel of our salvation, by whatever name it is called is a work of all three members of the trinity.

The author of Hebrews tells us what the purpose of the Lord Jesus was: “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”[9] The English words in the King James “to put away sin” translates the Greek word “athĕtēsis” As Strong puts it: “ ἀθέτησις athĕtēsis, ath-et´-ay-sis; from 114; cancellation (lit. or fig.):— disannulling, put away.[10]

Again, from Hebrews we learn: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”[11] We are also told: “(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)”[12]

Isaiah in his 53 chapter preaches the gospel in the clearest possible terms saying:

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Many more Old and New Testament passages could be given here. Paul sums them all up in a passage that Spurgeon uses. The verse in the KJV reads: “1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”[13] When the Bible speaks of the gospel five factors, among many others, are preeminent. So important are they that a gospel without these factors is no gospel at all but a counterfeit gospel. In fact, there are many more actual facts from scripture that could be brough forward as well as these. These five however, are: 1. The gospel is the work of the triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together from all eternity. 2. The central feature of the gospel is the Atonement (Christ crucified) 3. Christ is prophet, priest, and king: Both the sacrifice and the priest who offered the sacrifice. 4. Christ paid the exact price for the sins of his people and for those only. 5. Salvation is all of God including our sanctification. Whatever his commands he gives grace to perform. Nothing is ours; all is of God. It is a judicial act where he bears his elects sin, they receive his righteousness. When scripture speaks of the atonement the central feature is Christ’s atoning death as well as his incarnation, life death and resurrection. That is what the scriptures reveal to us of the sacrifice of Christ and of his becoming sin and our being as righteous as he is in God’s sight. This is why it’s called “the gospel of Christ” It’s the proclamation of what God has done through Christ, for the salvation of his own chosen people.

Before we look at Spurgeon’s gospel in this sermon will be profitable to look at a couple more scriptures. These have to do with our sanctification. First Ephesians 2:1-10

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Secondly 1 Corinthians 1:30,31 “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

Section Two: How Spurgeon portrays the gospel in this sermon?

In this, his section 1, he first takes for his text just two words of verse 27: “of Christ”. Not “the gospel of Christ” but just those two words. After saying that the gospel is “Jesus Christ and him crucified,” Spurgeon goes on with good sounding words to say the following:

The sum total, the pith, the marrow-what the old puritans would have called the quintessence of the gospel is, Christ Jesus; so that when we have done preaching the gospel we may say, “Now of the things which we have spoken he is the sum,”

Again, in good sounding words he stresses this when he says:

It is impossible to preach the gospel without preaching the person, the work, the offices, the character of Christ. If Christ he preached the gospel is promulgated, and if Christ be put in the background, then there is no gospel declared. “God forbid that I should know anything among you,” said the Apostle, “save Jesus Christ and him crucified,”

In spite of this clear statement Spurgeon, in this sermon virtually ignores “the person, the work, the offices, the character of Christ.” For example, there is only the slightest mention of the atonement. Also, there are only brief superficial references to his character and offices. The fact is that he spends well over half this section separating Christ from the gospel and Christ from the Father and Holy Spirit. He concentrates on the Lord Jesus alone, apart from the trinity seeking to show that, in effect, Christ alone is the owner of the gospel. Where do we find here any mention of the Eternal Covenant of Grace? He says for instance: “It is the gospel of Jesus Christ-his property; it glorifies his person, it is sweet with the savor of his name. Throughout it bears the mark of his artistic fingers.” And again: “He is the author of it as its architect and as its builder.” We must not confuse what Spurgeon is saying here with what the author of the Book of Hebrews says: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”[14] Christs entire ministry, and especially his death and resurrection are the source of our faith.

Scripture does refer to Christ as the author of eternal salvation. Hebrews 5:7-10 says:

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

The Greek word translated ‘author” in the King James version is aitiŏs. It has the meaning of the causative force. As we saw in Hebrews 12:2. He is the author and finisher of the salvation of his elect and only to those who believe in him. Jesus himself says in Revelation 1:8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” These passages clearly revealed that he is not the author in isolation but in his humanity as subject to the Father working with the other members of the trinity.

Also, Hebrews 2:10 tells us that Christ is the pioneer of our salvation: “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” The King James version translates the Greek word “archēgos” as captain the idea here is of Christ being our leader, or supreme example. These along with the other scriptures noted above give a well-rounded appreciation of the work of the triune God in our salvation. The gospel can be called “The gospel of Christ” because without Christ there would be no gospel at all. Paul sums it up in one phrase: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”[15] Any supposed gospel that denies or negates the fact that Christ took and bore the actual sins of his elect on the one hand and they the elect become as righteous as he is righteous is not the true gospel.

As I noted Spurgeon in this sermon gives very few references to that atonement. Here in this section, they are “on the cross” and possibly “As his hand first tore away the sin which doth so easily beset us, and helped us to run the race with patience …” Christ did much more than this, he accomplished a full and free salvation for his elect.

After just taking the words “of Christ” he switches to “the gospel of Jesus Christ,” The way he presents the Lord Jesus is subtle. It gives the impression that he is preaching up the name of the Lord, making Christ the sum and substance of the gospel. As can be seen in this sermon the Lord Jesus he envisions is not the Christ of the Bible.

He speaks of the gospel as “good news” which indeed it is. Here however is how he explains the atonement:

It is the “goodspell,” the “good news” of Jesus Christ, and it is “good news” emphatically, because it clears away sin — the worst evil on earth. Better still, it sweeps away death and hell! Christ came into the world to take sin upon his shoulders and to carry it away, hurling it into the red sea of his atoning blood. Christ, the scape-goat, took the sin of his people upon his own head and bore it all away into the wilderness of forgetfulness, where, if it be searched for, it shall be found no more forever.

He closes that brief section in this way:

The “good news,” put simply into a few words, is just this, “that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”-” This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” So much, then, for what is the gospel?

I looked in some depth as Spurgeon’s doctrine of the Atonement in part one of this series. Part 3 will address this issue in detail as well. Here we simply need to note that he carefully chose the terms he used as well as the scriptures. They are deliberately ambiguous. What does he actually mean by “Christ came into the world to take sin upon his shoulders and to carry it away,”? That question has intimate relationship to how he views propitiation (again this will be coved in part 3).

Paul in Ephesians 1:1-14 gives us the true meaning of the gospel and Christ’s central but not singular place in it. He grounds it squarely in the Covenant of Grace.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel, all that he is in his humanity and his being God, the God-man. He is both the son of man and the Son of God. Remember Spurgeon said of Christ: “He is the author of it as its architect and as its builder.” Paul as we saw in the verses above correctly ascribes this honor to God the Father, as does all the bible. The gospel is good new only for those given to the Son by the Father in the Covenant of Grace.

Also comparing Spurgeon’s gospel in this sermon to even the brief overview of the scriptures given above one thing stands out very clearly. Along with the brief quotations given above he also says “he, in the fullness of time, wrought out eternal redemption for as many as his Father had given him.” He speaks of “high doctrine” to match “high practice”. There is only these slender threads of evidence of any such doctrine. Even this is somewhat negated by his stressing scriptures that appear to advocate a general atonement and of love to others. Where is the “Christ and him crucified” of the Bible? Why separate Christ first and then turn to the work of Christ in the way he did? I think the answer is because he had a very specific aim in view. This is evidenced in the absurd illustration he used above. This becomes clearer in his next section.

Section Three: The Christians Conversation

In his section 2 he takes up the phrase “Let our conversation be such as becometh the gospel” As I mentioned earlier Spurgeon ignores the context of both vs 27 and the rest of this part of Philippians. He takes vs 27a and breaks it into three parts. Of course, there is nothing in and of itself that is wrong with doing that. Spurgeon however is not doing so to expound the passage and its context. He wants to build up in his hearers minds a particular image of Christ and the gospel. As I said above, we gain some insight into this from end of his introduction. After his illustration in the introduction of his sermon, which as we saw is based on heathen practices and heathen gods, he went on to say:

It is strictly in accordance with nature that a man’s religion should season his conversation. Paul puts it, therefore, to you who profess to he saved by Jesus Christ, “Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.”

Astonishingly he tells us that Paul is speaking about the realm of nature. Spurgeon does not say that because of our new Spirit filled nature in Christ and our new heart but simply “in accordance with nature”. The fact that we are dealing more with nature and not spiritual things becomes more obvious as we look at what Spurgeon tells his congregation in this section. He seeks as much as possible to bring Christ and the gospel down to a level that, with a little help from God, man can accomplish himself. He is in fact giving Christians a list of things they can and must do to order their lives to be like his Christ and his gospel.

He starts off in this way:

What sort of conversation then shall we have? In the first place the gospel is very simple; it is unadorned; no meretricious ornaments to clog time pile. It is simple — “not with enticing words of man’s wisdom;” it is grandly sublime in its simplicity. Let the Christian be such. Again, because the gospel is simple “He should he a transparent man like Nathaniel,” “an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.”

The Bible nowhere speaks of the gospel as being simple in the way Spurgeon portrays it. As is so often the case the key is in how words are used. How should we understand the word “simple”. Proverbs chapter 9 compares the Lord Jesus Christ (wisdom) with what all the world values against Christ (a prostitute). Each calls out from the highest point of the city. The one for salvation and the other for damnation. In verse four the Lord Jesus cries out saying: “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,” The world in verse 16 calls out in the same words: “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,” The Hebrew word translated in both cases as ‘simple’ is pethiy meaning simple or folly. Keil & Delitzsch in their commentary on verse 16 explain the meanings:

p|tiy <heb> (folly, simplicity) has a side accessible to good and its contrary: Wisdom is connected with the one side, and Folly with the other. And as the chcr-lb offers a vacuum to Wisdom which may perhaps be filled with the right contents, so is this vacuum welcome to Folly, because it meets there no resistance. In this sense, v. 16 is like v. 4 (excepting the addition of a connecting and of a concluding w: et si quis excors, tum dicit ei); the word is the same in both, but the meaning, according to the two speakers, is different. That to which they both invite is the pleasure of her fellowship, under the symbol of eating and drinking; in the one case it is intellectual and spiritual enjoyment, in the other sensual.[16]

Turning to the New Testament, Paul speaking to the Corinthians says:

Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.[17]

The Greek word translated ‘simplicity” is haplŏtēs. Its meaning is sincere dedication to Christ. Its not that its simple but that it is pure and sincere. Spurgeon used 1 Corinthians 2:4 to stress that the gospel is simple in sense of its being childlike and unadorned. In context however, Paul is taking about something very different.

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:[18]

The gospel is the power of God: it accomplishes all the Father ordained. Isaiah speaking of Christ says: “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”[19]

After carefully reading the Book of Romans how many Christians would call the gospel as presented by Paul simple? Profound would be a suitable word. Think also of 1 Peter 1:15-17 and 1 Timothy 2:8-10 as quoted below. These are commands not something that comes to a Christian by human nature as Spurgeon says. Indeed, why are the letters to the different churches so full of commands and advice on how we should conduct ourselves in the Church and in the world? It’s because our old sinful nature wars against the spiritual life that has been implanted in us by the Holy Spirit. Romans 7 is a prime example of this waring. Any work of ours of any kind that we put towards our salvation is a false claim and is of the devil. As the following verses show we should be holy because God is holy.

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works

Spurgeon continues to tell his congregation to set to work making themselves be like little children because Christ himself was a little child: “a child-man, a man-child”: Christ in the Bible is always the Lord first then the savior. To my mind, at least, Spurgeon’s words belittle the Son of God.

He puts man in the drives. seat having us catch the spirit of Christ:

The man who catches the spirit of his master is, like Christ, a child-man, a man-child. You know they called him “that holy child Jesus;” so let us be, remembering that, “Except we he converted and become as little children,” who are eminently simple and childlike, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.

He misinterprets and misapplies the passage from Acts 4:27: “For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,” By making the gospel something that man can do he belittles Christ to an awful degree. John Gill correctly expounds this passage in his comments on this verse:

Ver. 27. For of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus, &c.] This is the interpretation of the above passages in Psalm 2:1, 2 and the application of them to Jesus; who is called the child of God, because the human nature of Christ was taken into union with the second person, who is the son of God: unless the word should rather be rendered servant, as it is in ver. 25 and which is a character that belongs to Christ, and is often given him as Mediator, who, as such, is God’s, righteous servant; and he is called holy, because he was so in his conception and birth, and in his life and conversation, being free both from original sin, and actual transgression; and which is an aggravation of the sin and guilt of these men, that they should rise up, and gather together against him; and yet it was a clear case, a notorious fact, a certain truth, that could not be denied: and for the further aggravation of their crime, as well as for the sake of explaining the phrase his Christ, ’tis added, whom thou hast anointed; with the oil of gladness, above his fellows. Christ was, in some sense, anointed to be prophet, priest, and King, from eternity, being so early set up as Mediator, or called unto, and invested with that office; see Prov. 8:22; Psalm 2:6 and he was anointed in time, both at his incarnation and baptism, having the spirit without measure given unto him, which is that anointing, that teacheth all things.[20]

Also, wise as serpents

Ver. 3. And said, verily I say unto you, &c.] You may take it for a certain truth, and what may be depended upon, that except ye be converted or turned; from that gross notion of a temporal kingdom, and of enjoying great grandeur, and outward felicity in this world; and from all your vain views of honour, wealth, and riches, and become as little children: the Arabic renders it, as this child: that is, unless ye learn to entertain an humble, and modest opinion of yourselves, are not envious at one another, and drop all contentions about primacy and pre-eminence, and all your ambitious views of one being greater than another, in a vainly expected temporal kingdom; things which are not to be found in little children, though not free from sin in other respects, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven:[21]

Seeking to set the professor upon a morally outward appearance Spurgeon says, “He should make his conversation true.” This is because the gospel is true. “Let our conversation be such as becometh the gospel of Christ, and then it will he invariably truthful; or, if there be error in it, it will always be through misadventure, and never from purpose or from carelessness.” And again: “It is for him so to live and speak that he shall be in good repute in all society; if not for the suavity of his manners, certainly for the truthfulness of his utterances.”

After this he continues going through the following list to things that the Christian (professor) must do.

· The Christian must be true. “He should make his conversation true.”

· The Christian must be fearless. “As the gospel is very fearless in what it has to say, so let the Christian always be. It strikes me that a “living” which becomes the gospel of Christ, is always a bold and fearless kind of living.”

· The Christian must be gentle. “Be firm, be bold, be fearless; but be cautious. If you have a lion’s heart, have a lady’s hand; let there be such a gentleness about your carriage that the little children may not be afraid to come to you, and that the publican and harlot may not be driven away by your hostility, but invited to goodness by the gentleness of your words and acts.”

· Because the gospel is very loving the Christian must be loving. The problem here is that he negated the importance of truth (doctrine) Jesus, speaking of the Father said: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”[22] Love sacrificed to truth or without the truth is not love in the Biblical sense at all. Again, also Spurgeon speaks of the love as something we can do in and of ourselves:

We ought to love all our hearers, and the gospel is to be preached by us to every creature. I hate sin everywhere, but I love and wish to love yet more and more every day, the souls of the worst and vilest of men. Yes, the gospel speaks of love, and I must breathe it forth too, in every act and deed. If our Lord was love incarnate, and we are his disciples, “let all take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus and learned of him.”

· Because the gospel is a gospel of mercy, we must be men of mercy.

· Finally, because the gospel is holy, we must be holy. Again, for these last to the emphasis is on what man can and must do.

What struck me forcibly about this section in particular is how it deals primarily in outward forms. As if it were not a spiritual battle between Satan and angles: between our old man and our new man, but a matter of outward appearance and moral upright behavior. Many of the unsaved of the world who are hateful to God manifest the attributes Spurgeon lists in outward form. God however looks upon the inward heart.

Philippians 2 places our outward walk in very God glorifying spiritual terms in contrast to Spurgeon’s morality.

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 16Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

Section Four: Why we should order our conversation aright.

Near the beginning of his final point (section 3) Spurgeon says: “Having just indicated what Christian life ought to be, I must in a few words plead within you, that by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, you will seek to make your lives such.” It very noteworthy that there is only one other place in the sermon where he possibly refers to the Holy Spirit. Later in this section he says: “May the eternal Spirit, who still winnows his Church, blow away the chaff, and heave only the good golden wheat upon the floor!” Because he has stressed so heavily Jesus’ spirit, I’m not sure if he means that Holy Spirit or Jesus’ spirit in this second reference. In any event these are the only references.

Here are the motives he that gives while charging the Christian to be sinless. As his words show he expects the Christian to live without any outward signs of sinfulness.

· “The first is, if you do not live like this, you will make your fellow-members, who are innocent of your sin, to suffer. This ought to be a very cogent motive. If a Christian man could dishonor himself, and bear the blame alone, why he might put up with it, but you cannot do it. I say, sir, if you are seen intoxicated, or if you are known to fall into some sin of the flesh, you will make the life of every poor girl in the Church harder than it is, and every poor young man who has to put up with persecution will feel that you have put a sting into the arrows of the wicked, which could not otherwise have been there.”

· “Again, do not you see how you make your Lord to suffer, for they do not lay your sins at your door merely, but they say that springs from your religion.”

· “And then, remember, dear friends, unless your conversation is such, you will pull down all the witness that you have ever borne for Christ. How can your Sunday-school children believe what you tell them, when they see your actions contradict your teaching? How can your own children at home believe in your religion, when they see the godlessness of your life?” “I charge you, if there are any of you whose lives are not consistent, give up your profession, or else make your lives what they should be.” He than closed his address to the converted in his congregation in these words: “And if you know yourselves to be living in any sin, may God help you to mourn over it, to loathe it, to go to Christ about it to-night; to take hold of him, to wash his feet with your tears, to repent unfeignedly, and then to begin anew in his strength, a life which shall be such as becometh the gospel.”

In these and the rest of his comments here his “moral” gospel is clearly unmasked for all to see. He is dealing only with gross noticeable sins and driving believers to live an outwardly moral life. Seemingly to Spurgeon this is an easily obtainable goal with some help from God. In fact, he is putting believers back under the Law and not under grace. I showed above how in his section 2 he gave a long list of things that the believer must do: must be fearless, true, merciful etc. Lip service is given to God, but all the emphasis is placed on works. The true gospel for believers is really the gospel of a new heart, new life, new Holy Spirit given power, new love, and adoration to God through Jesus Christ. Now, after God saves us, we have two natures waring against each other the old and new man, law vs. grace, power vs. slavish fear.

The Holy Spirit, in giving us the Word of God carefully preserved the sins of God’s people King David is of course a prime example. Obviously and without question, as true Christians none of us wants to sin. Like God we hate sin and love righteousness. The fact is, however, the world, our flesh and the devil are in league against us. 1 John 1:5-10 says:

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Do you think for moment that Peter wanted to not only deny Christ but to vehemently swear on top of that? Of course, he did not want to do that, but it was beyond his ability to not do so. His sin is not excusable, but it certainly was forgiven and used by God for God’s own glory. Our sin should teach us about our inability and humble us under God’s mighty hand. By the power of the Holy Spirit Peter was a changed man after this episode: not by something he did but by the Holy Spirit. Our sin is in no way excused, nor does it go unpunished. Christ bore it on the cross along with all our sins, past present and future. God uses all things to work together for our good. Look at what Paul says about a Christian desiring to sin:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 0For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.[23]

It’s not a matter of outward fleshly works but of our new life under grace by the Holy Spirit within us.

Look how Paul deals with the immoral man in 1 Corinthians 5. He disciplines both the man and the church:

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.[24]

Then in 2 Corinthians 2:1-11 Paul referring to this man says:

But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

All true Christians are God’s children. We are all part of the body of Christ, him being our head. Part of being one body and one spirit means that we all will be subject to God’s discipline or as the KJV has it his chastisement.

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:[25]

God’s salvation is a complete salvation. It is a powerful salvation. It is a salvation to and for the elect alone. The Lord Jesus Christ is our motivation but not in the way Spurgeon implies. Paul in Romans 15:1-18 tells believers how to live by pointing us correctly to God:

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

In conclusion of this part, we have the author of the book of Hebrews telling us that the Gospel is like a two-edged sword:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.[26]

Its not a question of the laws do and do not. Nor it is a fear of man, of shame or taking matters into our own hands as Spurgeon would have us believe. It’s a matter of daily faith in God, his promises, his power, his glory, and his finished work especially as seen in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to take up or cross and bear it, knowing that we will fail and fail many times, but that God will use all things for our good.

At the close of his sermon Spurgeon makes a persuasive appeal not the saved but to those who make no profession of godliness. Concentrating again on what men (unsaved in this case) can and must do while giving lip service to God’s part he finishes his sermon in this way:

Now I put that strongly that you may recollect it; will you go home and just meditate on this “I never made a profession of being saved. I never made a profession of repenting of my sins, and therefore I am every day making a profession of being God’s enemy, of being impenitent, of being unbelieving; and when the devil comes to look for his own, he will know me, for I make a profession of being one of his, by not making a profession of being one of Christ’s.” The fact is, I pray God to bring us all here, first to be Christ’s and then to make a profession of it. Oh, that your heart might be washed in Jesus’ blood, and then, having given it to Christ, give it to Christ’s people. The Lord bless these words of mimic for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

All this by “nature” as he, himself laid out in this sermon.

THE GOSPEL’S POWER IN A

CHRISTIAN’S LIFE.

NO. 640

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

“Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.” —

Philippians 1:27.

THE word “conversation” does not merely mean our talk and converse one

with another, but the whole course of our life and behavior in the world.

The Greek word signifies the actions and the privileges of citizenship, and

we are to let our whole citizenship, our actions as citizens of the new

Jerusalem, be such as becometh the gospel of Christ. Observe, dear friends,

the difference between the exhortations of the legalists and those of the

gospel. He who would have you perfect in the flesh, exhorts you to work

that you may be saved, that you may accomplish a meritorious

righteousness of your own, and so may be accepted before God. But he

who is taught in the doctrines of grace, urges you to holiness for quite

another reason. He believes that you are saved, since you believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ, and he speaks to as many as are saved in Jesus, and then

he asks them to make their actions conformable to their position; he only

seeks what he may reasonably expect to receive; “Let your conversation be

such as becometh the gospel of Christ. You have been saved by it, you

profess to glory in it, you desire to extend it; let then your conversation he

such as becometh it.” The one, you perceive, bids you to work that you

may enter heaven by your working; the other exhorts you to labor because

heaven is yours as the gift of divine grace, and he would have you act as

one who is made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in

light. Some persons cannot hear an exhortation without at once crying out

that we are legal. Such persons will always find this Tabernacle the wrong

place for them to feed in. We are delighted to preach good high doctrine,

and to insist upon it that salvation is of grace alone; but we are equally

498

delighted to preach good high practice and to insist upon it, that that grace

which does not make a man better than his neighbors, is a grace which will

never take him to heaven, nor render him acceptable before God.

I have already remarked that the exhortation is given in a form which is

highly reasonable. The followers of any other religion, as a rule, are

conformed to their religion. No nation has ever yet risen above the

character of its so-called gods. Look at the disciples of Venus, were they

not sunk deep in licentiousness? Look at the worshippers of Bacchus; let

their Bacchanalian revels tell how they entered into the character of their

deity. The worshippers to this day of the goddess Kale — the goddess of

thieves and murderers-the Thugs-enter most heartily into the spirit of the

idol that they worship. We do not marvel at the crimes of the ancients

when we recollect the gods whom they adored; Moloch, who delighted in

the blood of little children; Jupiter, Mercury, and the like, whose actions

stored in the classical dictionary, are enough to pollute the minds of youth.

We marvel not that licentiousness abounded, for “like gods-like people:” “a

people are never better than their religion,” it has often been said, and in

most cases they are rather worse. It is strictly in accordance with nature

that a man’s religion should season his conversation. Paul puts it, therefore,

to you who profess to he saved by Jesus Christ, “ Let your conversation he

as it becometh the gospel of Christ.”

To get at this we must meditate for two or three minutes upon what the

gospel is; then take up the points in which our conversation ought to he

like to the gospel; and finally, utter a few earnest words to press upon

professors of religion here, the stern necessity of letting their conversation

be such as becometh the gospel of Christ.

I. “The GOSPEL OF CHRIST!” WHAT IS IT? We catch at the last two words,

“of Christ.” Indeed, if you understand Christ you understand the gospel.

Christ is the author of it; he, in the council chamber of eternity proposed to

become the surety for poor fallen man; he, in the fullness of time, wrought

out eternal redemption for as many as his Father had given him. He is the

author of it as its architect and as its builder. We see in Christ Jesus the

Alpha and the Omega of the gospel He has provided in the treasury of

grace all that is necessary to make the gospel the gospel of our salvation.

And as he is the author of it, so he is the matter of it. It is impossible to

preach the gospel without preaching the person, the work, the offices, the

character of Christ. If Christ he preached the gospel is promulgated, and if

499

Christ be put in the background, then there is no gospel declared. “God

forbid that I should know anything among you,” said the Apostle, “save

Jesus Christ and him crucified,” and so saying, he was carrying out his

commission to preach the gospel both to Jews and to Gentiles. The sum

total, the pith, the marrow-what the old puritans would have called the

quintessence of the gospel is, Christ Jesus; so that when we have done

preaching the gospel we may say, “Now of the things which we have

spoken he is the sum,” and we may point to him in the manger, to him on

the cross, to him risen, to him coming in the second advent, to him reigning

as prince of the kings of the earth, yea, point to him everywhere, as the

sum total of the gospel.

It is also called “the gospel of Christ,” because it is he who will be the

finisher of it; he will put the finishing stroke to the work, as he laid the

foundation stone. The believer does not begin in Christ and then seek

perfection in himself. No, as we run the heavenly race, we are still looking

unto Jesus. As his hand first tore away the sin which doth so easily beset

us, and helped us to run the race with patience, so that same hand shall

hold out the olive branch of victory, shall weave it into a chaplet of glory,

and put it about our brow. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ-his property; it

glorifies his person, it is sweet with the savor of his name. Throughout it

bears the mark of his artistic fingers. If the heavens are the work of God’s

fingers, and the moon and the stars are by his ordinance, so we may say of

the whole plan of salvation-the whole of it, great Jesus! is thy

workmanship, and by thy ordinance it standeth fast.

But then it is “the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and though hundreds of times

this has been explained it will not be amiss to go over it. It is the “goodspell,”

the “good news” of Jesus Christ, and it is “good news”

emphatically, because it clears away sin — the worst evil on earth. Better

still, it sweeps away death and hell! Christ came into the world to take sin

upon his shoulders and to carry it away, hurling it into the red sea of his

atoning blood. Christ, the scape-goat, took the sin of his people upon his

own head and bore it all away into the wilderness of forgetfulness, where,

if it he searched for, it shall he found no more for ever. This is “good

news,” for it tells that the cancer at the vitals of humanity has been cured;

that time leprosy which rose even to the very brow of manhood has been

taken away; Christ has filled a better stream than the river Jordan, and now

says to the sons of men, “Go, wash and be clean.”

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Besides removing the worst of ills, the gospel is “good news,” because it

brings the best of blessings. What doth it but give life to the dead? It opens

dumb lips, unstops deaf ears, and unseals blind eyes. Doth it not make

earth time abode of peace? Has it not shut the doors of hell upon believers,

and opened the gates of heaven to all who have learned to trust in Jesus’

name? “Good news!” why that word “good” has got a double meaning

when it is applied to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well were angels employed

to go and tell it, and happy are the men who spend and are spent in the

proclamation of such glad tidings of great joy. “God is reconciled!”-”Peace

on earth!”-”Glory to God in the highest!” “Good-will towards men!” God

is glorified in salvation, sinners are delivered from the wrath to come and

hell does not receive the multitudes of men, but heaven is filled with the

countless host redeemed by blood.

It is “good news,” too, because it is a thing that could not have been

invented by the human intellect. It was news to angels!-they have not

ceased to wonder at it yet, they still stand looking upon the mercy-seat,

and desiring to know more of it. It will be news in eternity; we shall

“Sing with rapture and surprise,

His lovingkindness in the skies.”

The “good news,” put simply into a few words, is just this, “that God was

in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses

unto them.” “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting

life”-” This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ

Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” So much, then, for what is the

gospel?

II. Now I am not going to speak to those who do not welcome the gospel-

I will speak to them another time; I pray God help them to believe it; but I

have specially to speak to believers. The text says, we are to LET OUR

CONVERSATION BE SUCH AS BECOMETH THE GOSPEL.

What sort of conversation then shall we have? In the first place the gospel

is very simple; it is unadorned; no meretricious ornaments to clog time pile.

It is simple — “not with enticing words of man’s wisdom;” it is grandly

sublime in its simplicity. Let the Christian be such. It does not become the

Christian minister to be arrayed in blue, and scarlet, and fine linen, and

vestments, and robes, for these belong to Antichrist, and are described in

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the book of the Revelation, as the sure marks of the whore of Babylon. It

does not become the Christian man or the Christian woman to be guilty of

spending hours in the. adornment of his or her person. Our adornment

should he “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.” There should be about

our manner, our speech, our dress, our whole behavior, that simplicity,

which is the very soul of beauty. Those who labor to make themselves

admirable in appearance, by meretricious ornaments, miss the road; beauty

is its own adornment, and “she is most adorned when unadorned the

most.” The Christian man ought ever to be simple in all respects. I think,

wherever you find him, you ought not to want a key to him. He should not

he like certain books that you cannot make out without having somebody

to tell you the hard words. He should he a transparent man like Nathaniel,

“an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.” The man who catches the

spirit of his master is, like Christ, a child-man, a man-child. You know they

called him “that holy child Jesus;” so let us be, remembering that, “ Except

we be converted and become as little children,” who are eminently simple

and childlike, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.

In time next place, if our conversation is such as becometh the gospel, we

shall remember that the gospel is pre-eminently true. There is nothing in

the gospel which is false-no admixture, nothing put in as an argumentum

ad hominem to catch the popular ear; it tells the truth, the naked truth, and

if men dislike it, the gospel cannot help it, but it states it. It is gold without

dross; pure water without admixture. Now such should the Christian be.

He should make his conversation true. The saints are men of honor, but

sometimes, brethren, I think that many of us talk too much to speak

nothing but the truth. I do not know how people could bring out

broadsheets every morning with so much news, if it were all true; I

suppose there must he a little wadding to fill it up, and some of that is very

poor stuff. And people that keep on talking, talking, talking, cannot grind

all meal; surely it must be, some of it, rather coarse bran. And in the

conversation of a good many professing Christians, how munch there is

that is scandal, if not slander, uttered against other Christians. How much

uncharitableness, if not wilful falsehood, is spoken by some professors;

because too often a rebuke is taken up heedlessly, and repeated without

any care being taken to ascertain whether it he true or not. The Christian’s

lips should keep truth when falsehood drops from the lips of all other men.

A Christian man should never need to take an oath, because his word is as

good us an oath; his “yea,” should he “yea;” and his “nay, nay.” It is for

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him so to live and speak that he shall he in good repute in all society; if not

for the suavity of his manners, certainly for the truthfulness of his

utterances. Show me a man that is habitually or frequently a liar, and you

show me a man who will have his portion in the lake that burneth with fire

and brimstone. I do not care to what denomination of Christians he may

belong, if a man speaks the thing that is not, I am sure he is none of

Christ’s; and it is very sad to know that there are some in all fellowships

who have this great and grievous fault, that you cannot trust them in what

they say. God deliver us from that! Let our conversation he such as

becometh the gospel of Christ, and then it will he invariably truthful; or, if

there be error in it, it will always be through misadventure, and never from

purpose or from carelessness.

In the next place, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a very fearless gospel. It is

the very reverse of that pretty thing called “modern charity.” The last

created devil is “modern charity.” “Modern charity” goes cap in hand

round to us all, amid it says “You are all right, every one of you. Do not

quarrel any longer; Sectarianism is a horrid thing, down with it! down with

it!” and so it tries to induce all sorts of persons to withhold a part of what

they believe, to silence the testimony of all Christians upon points wherein

they differ. I believe that that thing called Sectarianism now-a-days is none

other than true honesty. Be a Sectarian, my brother, he profoundly a

Sectarian. I mean by that, hold everything which you see to he in God’s

Word with a tighter grasp, and do not give up even the little pieces of

truth. At the same time, let that Sectarianism which makes yon hate

another man because he does not see with you-let that he far from you! but

never consent to that unholy league and covenant which seems to he rife

throughout our country, which would put a padlock on the mouth of every

man and send us all about as if we were dumb: which says to me, “You

must not speak against the errors of such a Church,” and to another, “ You

must not reply.” We cannot but speak! If we did not, the stones in the

street might cry out against us. That kind of charity is unknown to the

gospel. Now hear the Word of God! “He that believeth and is baptized

shall be saved; he that believeth not”-What? “shall get to heaven some

other way?”-”shall be damned;” that is the gospel. You perceive how

boldly it launches out its censure. It does not pretend, “you may reject me

and go by another road, and at last get safely to your journey’s end!” No,

no, no; you “shall be damned” it says. Do you not perceive how Christ puts

it? Some teachers come into the world and say to all others, “Yes,

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gentlemen, by your leave, you are all right, I have a point or two that you

have not taught, just make room for me; I will not turn you out; I can stand

in the same temple as yourself.” But hear what Christ says:-”All that ever

came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear

them.” Hear what his servant Paul says, “Though we or an angel from

heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have

preached unto you,”-what then? “Let him be excused for his mistake?” No;

but, “ Let him he accursed.” Now, this is strong language, but mark you,

this is just how the Christian ought to live. As the gospel is very fearless in

what it has to say, so let the Christian always be. It strikes me that a

“living” which becomes the gospel of Christ, is always a bold and fearless

kind of living. Some people go crawling through the world as if they asked

some great man’s heave to live. They do not know their own minds; they

take their words out of their mouths and look at them, and ask a friend or

two’s opinion. “What do you think of these words?” and when these

friends censure them they put them in again and will not say them. Like

jelly-fish, they have no backbone. Now God has made men upright, and it

is a noble thing for a man to stand erect on his own feet; and it is a nobler

thing still for a man to say that in Christ Jesus he has received that freedom

which is freedom indeed, and therefore he will not he the slave of any man.

“O God,” says David, “I am thy servant, for thou hast loosed my bonds.”

Happy is he whose bonds are loosed! Let your eye be hike that of an eagle,

yea, let it he brighter still; let it never be dimmed by the eye of any other

man. Let your heart he like that of the lion, fearless, save of yourself: —

“Careless, myself a dying man,

Of dying men’s esteem,” — I must live as in the sight of God, as I believe I

should hive, and then let man say his best or say his worst, and it shall he

no more than the chirping of the grasshopper, when the sun goeth down.

“Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, or the

son of man that is but a worm?” Quit yourselves hike men! Be strong! Fear

not! for only so will your conversation he such as becometh the gospel of

Christ.

But again, the gospel of Christ is very gentle. Hear it speak! “Come unto

me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Here is

its spirit in its founder:-”He will not quench the smoking flax, a bruised

reed he will not break.” Moreover, bad temper, snapping off of people’s

heads, making men offenders for a word, all this is quite contrary to the

gospel. There are some people who seem to have been suckled upon

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vinegar, and whose entire aspect far better suits Sinai than Zion; you might

think that they had always come to the mount that might he touched, which

burneth with fire, for they seem themselves to burn with fire. I may say to

them, that the best of them is sharper than a thorn hedge. Now, dear

friends, let it never be so with us. Be firm, he bold, he fearless; but he

cautious. If you have a lion’s heart, have a lady’s hand; let there be such a

gentleness about your carriage that the little children may not he afraid to

come to you, and that the publican and harlot may not he driven away by

your hostility, but invited to goodness by the gentleness of your words and

acts.

Again, the gospel of Christ is very loving. It is the speech of the God of

love to a lost and fallen race. It tells us that “God so loved the world, that

he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not

perish, but have everlasting life.” It proclaims in every word the grace of

him “who loved us and gave himself for us.” “Greater love bath no man

than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” This same mind

which was in Christ Jesus should dwell richly in us. His last command to

his disciples was, “Love one another.” He that loveth is born of God, while

without this grace,

whatever we may think of ourselves, or others may think of us, we are

really, in God’s sight, nothing better than sounding brass and tinkling

cymbals. Is not this an age in which we shall do well to direct our attention

to the flower of paradise? The atmosphere of the Church should foster this

heavenly plant to the highest perfection. The world ought to point to us

amid say, “See how these Christians love one another. Not in word only,

but in deed and in truth.” I care not for that hove which calls me a dearly

beloved brother, and then if I happen to differ in sentiment and practice,

treats me as a schismatic, denies me the rights of the brotherhood, and if I

do not choose to subscribe to an arbitrarily imposed contribution to its

funds, seizes my goods and sells them in the name of the law, order, and

Church of Christ. From all such sham love good Lord deliver us. But oh!

for more real hearty union and love to all the saints-for more of that

realisation of the fact that we are one in Christ Jesus. At the same time

pray for more love to all men. We ought to love all our hearers, and the

gospel is to be preached by us to every creature. I hate sin everywhere, but

I love and wish to love yet more and more every day, the souls of the

worst and vilest of men. Yes, the gospel speaks of love, and I must breathe

it forth too, in every act and deed. If our Lord was love incarnate, and we

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are his disciples, “let all take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus

and learned of him.”

The gospel of Christ, again, is the gospel of mercy, and if any man would

act as becometh the gospel, he must be a man of mercy. Do I see him? He

is praying. He has been to the sacramental table, and he has been drinking

time wine which betokens the Savior’s blood- what a good man he is! See

him on Monday — he has got his hand on his brother’s throat, with, —

“Pay me that thou owest!” Is that such as becometh the gospel of Christ?

There he sits; he will give his subscription to a charity, but he will grind

down the needle-woman, he will fatten on liner blood and bones; he will

take a grasp if he can of the poor, and sell them, and devour them as

though they were bread, and yet, at the same time, “for a pretense he will

make long prayers.” Is this such as becometh the gospel of Christ? I trow

not. The gospel of Christ is mercy, generosity, liberality. It receiveth the

beggar and heareth his cry; it picketh up even the vile and undeserving, and

scattereth lavish blessings upon them, and it filleth the bosom of the naked

and of the hungry with good things. Let your conversation he such as

becometh the gospel of Christ. Your miserly people, your stingy people,

have not a conversation such as becometh the gospel of Christ. There

might he plenty of money in God’s treasury, for God’s Church and for

God’s poor, if there were not some who seem to live only to amass, and to

hoard; their life is diametrically opposed to the whole current and spirit of

the gospel of Christ Jesus. Forgive all who offend you, help all as far as

you are able to do it, live a life of unselfishness; he prepared, as much as

lieth in you, to do good unto all men, and especially to the household of

faith, and so shall our conversation be such as becometh the gospel of

Christ.

I must not, however, omit to say that the gospel of Christ is holy. You

cannot find it excusing sin. It pardons it, but not without an atonement so

dreadful, that sin never seems so exceeding sinful as in the act of mercy

which puts it away. “Holy! Holy! Holy!” is the cry of the gospel, and such

is the cry of cherubim and seraphim. Now, if our conversation is to he like

the gospel, we must he holy too. There arc some things which the Christian

must not even name, much less indulge inn. The grosser vices are to him

things to be hidden behind the curtain, and totally unknown. The

amusements and pleasures of the world, so far as they may be innocent, are

his, as they are other men’s; but wherein they become sinful or doubtful, he

discards them with disgust, for he has secret sources of joy, and needs not

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therefore to go and drink of that muddy river of which thirsty worldlings

are so fond. He seeks to he holy, as Christ is holy; and there is no

conversation which becometh the gospel of Christ except that.

III. Dear friends, I might thus continue, for the subject is a very wide one,

and I only stop because, unhappily for me, though perhaps happily for your

patience, my time has gone. Having just indicated what Christian life ought

to be, I must in a few words plead within you, that by the power of God’s

Holy Spirit, (NOTE: this is the only time in this sermon that he mentions the Holy Spirit) you will seek to make your lives such. I could mention many

reasons-I will only give you one or two. The first is, if you do not live like

this, you will make your fellow-members, who are innocent of your sin, to

suffer. This ought to be a very cogent motive. If a Christian man could

dishonor himself, and bear the blame alone, why he might put up with it,

but you cannot do it. I say, sir, if you are seen intoxicated, or if you are

known to fall into some sin of the flesh, you will make the life of every

poor girl in the Church harder than it is, and every poor young man who

has to put up with persecution will feel that you have put a sting into the

arrows of the wicked, which could not otherwise have been there. You sin

against the congregation of God’s people. I know there are some of you

here that have to suffer a good deal for Christ’s sake. The jeer rings in your

ear from morning to night, and you learn to put up with it manfully; but it

is very hard when they can say to you, “Look at So-and-so-he is a Church

member, see what he did-you are all a parcel of hypocrites together.” Now,

my dear friends, you know that is not true; you know that there are many

in our churches of whom the world is not worthy-the excellent, the devout,

the Christ-like; do not sin, then, for their sakes, lest you make them to be

grieved and sore vexed.

Again, do not you see how you make your Lord to suffer, for they do not

lay your sins at your door merely, but they say that springs from your

religion. If they would impute the folly to the fool I might not care, but

they impute it to the wisdom which must have made that fool wise, if he

could have learned. They will lay it to my door — that does not matter

much — I have long lost my character; but I cannot bear it should he laid

at Christ’s door-at the door of the gospel. When I said just now that I had

lost my character, I meant just this, that the world loathes me, and I would

not have it do otherwise, so let it, I say, there is no love host between us. If

the world bates Christ’s minister, he can only say he desires that he may

never inherit the curse of those who love the world, “in whom the love of

the Father is not.” Yet it has ever been the lot of the true Christian minister

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to be the butt of slander, and, nevertheless, to glory in the cross with all its

shame. But I know, dear friends, you would not, any of you, wish that I

should bear the reproach of your sins, and yet I have to do it very often-not

very often for many, but for some There are those, of whom I might tell

you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; and

some others whom we would pluck out of the fire, hating the garment

spotted with the flesh, but they bring sad dishonor upon us, upon the

ministry, upon the gospel, and upon Christ himself. You do not want to do

that, at least, I hope you do not; then let your conversation be such as

becometh the gospel of Christ.

And then, remember, dear friends, unless your conversation is such, you

will pull down all the witness that you have ever borne for Christ. How can

your Sunday-school children believe what you tell them, when they see

your actions contradict your teaching? How can your own children at

home believe in your religion, when they see the godlessness of your life?

The men at the factory will not believe in your going to prayer-meeting,

when they see you walking inconsistently among them. Oh! the great thing

the Church wants is more holiness. The worst enemies of the Church are

not the infidels-really one does not know who the infidels are, now-a-days;

they are so small a fry, and so few of them, that one would have to hunt to

find them out; but the worst enemies of the Church are the hypocrites, the

formalists the mere professors, the inconsistent walkers. You, if there he

any such here-you pull down the walls of Jerusalem, you open the gates to

her foes, and, as much as lieth in you, you serve the devil. May God

forgive you! May Christ forgive you! May you he washed from this

atrocious sin! May you be brought humbly to the foot of the cross, to

accept mercy, which, until now, you have rejected!

It is shocking to think how persons dare to remain members of Christian

churches, and even to enter the pulpit, when they are conscious that their

private life is foul. Oh, how can they do it? How is it that their hearts have

grown so hard? What! hath the devil bewitched them? Hath he turned them

away from being men, and made them as devilish as himself, that they

should dare to pray in public, and to sit at the sacramental table, and to

administer ordinances, while their hands are foul, and their hearts unclean,

and their lives are full of sin? I charge you, if there are any of you whose

lives are not consistent, give up your profession, or else make your lives

what they should be. May the eternal Spirit, who still winnows his Church,

blow away the chaff, and heave only the good golden wheat upon the

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floor! And if you know yourselves to he living in any sin, may God help

you to mourn over it, to loathe it, to go to Christ about it to-night; to take

hold of him, to wash his feet with your tears, to repent unfeignedly, and

then to begin anew in his strength, a life which shall be such as becometh

the gospel.

I think I linear some ungodly person here saying, “Well I do not make any

profession, I am all right.” Now, listen, dear friend, listen! I have got a

word for you. A man is brought up before the magistrates, and he says,

“Well, I never made any profession of being an honest man.” “Oh,” says

the magistrate, “there is six months for you then:” you see he is a villain

outright. And you that say “Oh, I never made any profession,” why, by

putting yourselves on that ground, you place yourselves among the

condemned ones. But some people make a boast of it. “I never made a

profession.” Never made a profession of doing your duty to your maker?

Never made a profession of being obedient to the God in whose hands

your breath is? Never made a profession of being obedient to the gospel?

Why, it will be very short work with you, when you come to he tried at the

last; there will need to be no witnesses, for you never made a profession,

you never pretended to he right. What would you think of a man who said,

“Well, I never made a profession of speaking the truth.” “Well,” says

another, “I never made a profession of being chaste.” Why, you would say,

“Let us get out of this fellow’s company, because, evidently nothing but

evil can come from him, for he is not good enough even to make a

profession!” Now I put that strongly that you may recollect it; will you go

home and just meditate on this-”I never made a profession of being saved.

I never made a profession of repenting of my sins, and therefore I am every

day making a profession of being God’s enemy, of being impenitent, of

being unbelieving; and when the devil comes to look for his own he will

know me, for I make a profession of being one of his, by not making a

profession of being one of Christ’s.” The fact is, I pray God to bring us all

here, first to he Christ’s and then to make a profession of it. Oh that your

heart might he washed in Jesus’ blood, and then, having given it to Christ,

give it to Christ’s people. The Lord bless these words of mimic for Jesus’

sake. Amen.

---

[1] Number 640 Date: 1865 Preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

[2] Strong, J. (1996). In The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words. Thomas Nelson.

[3] Hawker, R. (n.d.). Poor Mans Commentary New Test. Hawker.

[4] All bolding etc. is mine. The original text was plain.

[5] Philadelphia, Lindsay and Blakiston 1854 page 10

[6] This is his title for this section

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_gospel

[8] 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

[9] Hebrews 9:26

[10] Strong, J. (1996). In The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words. Thomas Nelson.

[11] Hebrews 9:14

[12] Hebrews 7:21

[13] 1 Corinthians 2:1,2

[14] Hebrews 12:2

[15] 2 Corinthians 5:21

[16] Keil & Delitzsch. (n.d.). Commentary on the Old Testament.

[17] 2 Corinthians 13:1-6

[18] 1 Corinthians 2:1-7

[19] Isaiah 53:11

[20] Gill, J. (1809). An Exposition of the New Testament (Vol. 2, p. 176). Mathews and Leigh.

[21] Gill, J. (1809). An Exposition of the New Testament (Vol. 1, p. 200). Mathews and Leigh.

[22] John 4:23,24

[23] Romans 6:1-14

[24] 1 Corinthians chapter 5

[25] Hebrews 12:8-14

[26]Hebrews 4:12-16