Charles Spurgeon versus Hyper-Calvinism.

The following are some edited excerpts of a modern-English version of a sermon, "The Warrant of Faith", first preached by Charles H. Spurgeon of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, in 1863. This was Spurgeon refuting certain hyper-Calvinists of his day.

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The warrant [justification, rightful basis] for a sinner to believe in Christ is in the fact that God commands him to.

In our day, certain preachers tell us a man must be regenerated before we may bid him believe in Jesus Christ. This is false. Others say that the warrant for a sinner to believe in Christ is his own election. Since election cannot be known by any man until after he has believed, this is nonsense.

If I am [only] to preach faith in Christ to a man who is regenerated, then the man, being regenerated, is saved already. It is unnecessary and ridiculous thing to preach Christ to him, when he is saved already, since he is regenerated. Absurd! Is not this waiting till the man is cured and then bringing him the medicine? 

If I lean on Christ because I feel this and that, then I am leaning on my feelings and not on Christ alone. 

Any other way of preaching the Gospel than that of exhorting the sinner to believe because God commands him to, is boasting. If my right to trust in Jesus is based in myself, then the man say, "I had the prerequisites and conditions first, and therefore let these share the praise." 

Any other basis for believing on Jesus is also changeable. 

If my warrant to believe lies in my [heart] experiences, then if today I have a melting heart, I have a warrant to believe in Christ. But tomorrow my heart may be as hard as a stone. Since everything within us changes more frequently than an English sky, consequently I am lost and saved alternately.

I want a sure basis for faith. I want a warrant to believe in Jesus which will serve me when the devil's blasphemy comes pouring into my ears like a flood. I want a warrant to believe in Christ which will comfort me when I have no holy feelings. 

If holy convictions of soul are necessary qualifications for calling on Christ, we ought to know to the ounce how much of these qualifications are needed. If a certain amount of humblings, and tremblings, and convictions, and heart-searchings must be felt, in order to have the right to come to Christ, I demand to know the exact degree required.

What does such an incomprehensible gospel do for a dying man? He tells me that he has no good thought or feeling. There is but a step between him and death. What am I to tell him? I tell him, "Believe. brother; trust your soul with Jesus, and you shall be saved." Any other plan but that of a sinner coming to Christ as a sinner is utterly incomprehensible.

Often the most penitent men are those who think themselves to be the most impenitent. If I preached the gospel only to the penitent, and not to every sinner, then those types of penitent persons are the very ones who will never dare to touch it.

Sinners, let me address you: Jesus wants nothing of you. Nothing whatsoever. Nothing done, nothing felt. Ragged, penniless, just as ye are, lost, forsaken, desolate, with no good feelings, and no good hopes, still Jesus comes to you, and in these words of pity he addresses you, "Him that comes to me I will in no way cast out." If you believe in Him you shall never be confounded.