Charles Spurgeon in many places preached outward conformity before grace could be applied, as well as law preaching. View this exerpt from his sermon, The Need And Nature of Conversion. The link to the complete sermon is http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons48.ii.html:
" Is your way the way of the drunkard? Now, no drunkard can ever inherit the kingdom of God as long as he continues a drunkard, so you cannot be saved if you remain in that condition. Are you a thief? Do you privately cheat in business? All that kind of thing must be given up. It is no use for you to say, "I will do it, and yet go to heaven." You will be damned unless that sin, as well as others, be given up. Or have you been a blasphemer? Do you talk profanely or filthily? You must wash all that foulness out of your mouth if you would be saved: "Let the wicked forsake his way." Am I addressing any who have practised vice in unmentionable forms? Oh, how many there are who do that, and yet are not ashamed! You must forsake all that, young man, or old man either; it is no use mincing matters with you. If you mean to go to hell, go on with your wickedness; but if you would be forgiven for the past, you must cut all connection with these evil things for the future. I most solemnly assure you, in the name of God, that there can be no compromise about this and every other sin. 'Let the wicked forsake his way, a fleshly way, a way of lust, a way of self-indulgence, any way of sin,—it must be forsaken. You must abandon it, or else you must abandon all hope of ever getting to heaven.
"That is pretty strong language," says someone. Do you think so? I shall have to use still stronger expressions presently, for the next point concerning the nature of this repentance is that it deals with the man's thoughts: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." "But thoughts are free," says some unthinking person; "I shall never be hanged for my thoughts." No, perhaps not; but have you never heard that old saying, "A man may not be hanged for his thoughts, but he may be damned for his thoughts;" for, in thought, is often the very essence of sin. A deed might in itself be colourless; but the motive for doing it—the thought at the back of it—puts the venom, and virus, and guilt into the deed.
As that is the case, what sort of thoughts must the unrighteous man give up? He must give up a great many fine opinions of which he is very proud;—his opinion about God, for instance. It is possible that he has thought nothing of him; or if he has thought of him at all, he has dared even to judge his Creator, and to find fault with what God does. Ah, sir! You must give up all such thoughts of God, and you must come to reverence him, and to regard him as so great that you are less than nothing in comparison with him. You will also have to give up your opinion concerning God's law. You thought it was too severe, too stringent, and that you could improve it a great deal. You will have to confess, with the apostle Paul, that the law is spiritual, and that you are "carnal, sold under sin." You will have to change your mind upon a great many subjects if you really wish to be saved. You will have to forsake your old thoughts concerning sin. You said, "Oh, it is a mere trifle,—a peccadillo! Poor helpless creatures as we are, God won't be angry with us for such a little thing as that." You will have to feel that sin is exceedingly sinful, a great and deadly evil, or you will never be likely to seek and to find peace with God. You will also have to change your mind about the Lord Jesus Christ. He is nothing to you now; but he will have to be everything to you if you are to be saved by him. You will have to change your mind about yourself; you fancy that you are a fine fellow now, but you will have to regard yourself as less than nothing before you come to your right position before God. If ever you are to find mercy at his hands, you will have to forsake your present thoughts on all these matters.
Do you ask, "What other thoughts shall we have to forsake?" I reply,—A whole set of thoughts in which many people indulge. To the ungodly man, it is often quite a treat to sit down, and think of what he calls the jolly days of his youth when he sowed his wild oats. He wishes that he had a handful or two of them left. Ah, sir! You will have to give up all thoughts of that sort; but you will have to think of those past days with bitter tears of sorrow over the sins that you then committed. The ungodly man often pictures to himself scenes of carnal delight; and if he cannot have a share in such scenes, he often wishes that he could. I would remind any of you, who have ever done so, that you may commit every sin forbidden in the Decalogue, without having actually committed any one of them, by simply revelling in them in your thoughts. Remember that solemn affirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the seventh commandment, "I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart;" and learn from it how our Lord meant his interpretation to apply to the whole law, so that we should understand that the very thought of evil is sin; and to suck it down as a sweet morsel to think upon, even though we never dared to perpetrate the act, is still a gross evil; and if we would be forgiven, we must forsake all these vile, flesh-delighting thoughts.
We must also forsake our thoughts in the sense of turning from all purposes of evil. That, indeed, is the main meaning of the Hebrew word used here: "Let the unrighteous man forsake his purposes." You say that you will do this or that, without any thought of whether God would have it so or not. Possibly it is your purpose, as you express it, "to have your fling." You have come up from the country, young man, you are pleased that you have got away from your mother's apron strings, and now you are going to have your own way. Forsake all such thoughts, I implore you; and, if any, whom I am now addressing, have formed any purpose of sin,—if you have resolved to indulge in this or that evil, whatever it may be, I charge you, if you desire to have eternal life, to hate all such purposes and thoughts of sin. The garment spotted by the flesh must be flung away from us, and the very thought of evil must be banished from our minds as far as it is possible for us to do so.
Nor is this all, for the text further says, "and let him return unto the Lord," so that this conversion deals with the sinner in his relation to God. He who would find mercy must return to God to obtain it. Do you ask how you are to do so? Well, first, you must begin to think about God. I really believe that some of you do not think half as much about God as you do about the Sultan of Turkey; and with some of you, almost anybody is a greater factor in your life than God is. With some of you, it would not make any difference if there were no God at all, except that you would be rather glad if that could be proved to be the case, for you would feel easier in your mind, and could, in such a case, go on in your sin without any of the compunction that you now feel. Yet, is it not a singular state of mind for a man, who knows that he is a creature made by God, but who really cares so little about him that, if he could be assured that there were no such being, he would be better pleased than he is now? Oh, what a wretched state your heart must be in if it feels like that! It will have to be greatly altered if you are ever to be saved.
So, first, you must begin to think of God; and then, thinking of him, you must yield to him, give up your will to his will; and, doing that, you must pray to him, cry to him for mercy; and then you must trust him. Especially, you must accept his way of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ; and when you do that, then you will be sure to love him. When you get as far as that, you will be a new creature altogether. Then, God will delight in you; then, it will be misery to you to be out of his presence, and it will be the highest joy of your life to have constant communion with him.III. Now I finish with the third part of our subject, that is, THE GOSPEL OF THIS CONVERSION.Possibly, somebody says, "You have been preaching to us the law, sir." No, I have not."
Liar! If this is not a false use of the law then the world is flat. It is interesting to note that Spurgeon is implying that if you are a drunkard and give up your drinking you will then put yourself in the way of grace. This putting oneself in the way of grace is a Puritan doctrine that smacks of works and free will. Another similar sermon is found in the book "Soul Winner" published by Associated Authors and Publishers of Grand Rapids, Michigan 49315. On page 40 Spurgeon makes the following amazing comments: "There are some men who are guilty of dishonest transactions in business; you will not see them saved all the while they continue to act so. If they will not give up that trickery, they cannot be saved. There are others who are drinking to excess. People who drink, you know, are often very easily affected under our preaching: they have a watery eye, their drinking has made them sore headed...but as long as a man clings to 'the cup of devils' he will not be likely to come to Christ. With others it is some secret sin, or some hidden lust that is the great difficulty."
Of course, the cup of devils spoken of in 1 Corinthians 10:21 refers to demon worship rather than to the sin of drunkenness. Spurgeon, as Protestants have historically done, substituted pettiness for the serious evil which is the worship of demons. Spurgeon's concerns, as first said, were petty indeed compared to the concern of the preachers in the book of Acts. (See Acts 2:22-39, Acts 3:12-19, Acts 5:42, Acts 7:52, Acts 8:5, Acts 9:5, Acts 10:34-43, Acts 17:23-34.)
The power of the gospel does not bog down in a seeking of secret sins on the part of the Apostles. Nor is a repudiation of drunkenness or adultery, or false business practice a prerequisite for the power of the gospel. I am not proud about it, but as a young man of 21 I was saved and the gospel came upon me when I was not looking for it when I was living with a woman who had been divorced 3 times! If this gospel that comes to sinners, not reformed sinners, makes you uncomfortable then may God have mercy on you. If Jesus' hanging around prostitutes and tax collectors makes you uncomfortable, then again, may God have mercy on you.
After the elect are born from above, after repentance and faith had become a reality in their hearts, I have no doubt that virtue was added to their faith. Certainly, adultery, murder, hatred, false business practices, and drunkenness are wicked works, which Christians cannot pursue. But Spurgeon puts the cart before the horse, the outward reformation before the gospel itself, and the law before the gospel in power!
The Protestants including Spurgeon, are the new Pharisees, and they strain out gnats all the while they swallow camels! Scripture teaches that opposition to the truth manifests itself in false doctrine, idol worship, false gods, murder of the Savior and of those who testify in His name. Those who oppose the truth as a result fall into evil passions. But, even homosexuality, which Romans chapter 1 shows as an example of the great corruption of mankind, is a result of a weightier sin, idolatry. The gospel confronts men and women with their religious views which oppose the truth leading to conviction of unbelief. If they have no specific false religious view it confronts them with the ultimate weighty sin of unbelief.Therefore, it is evil teaching to confront sinners with the less weighty sins (drunkenness, adultery, homosexuality, false business practices) in order to get a repentance out of them which does not bring the "convert" into a union with Christ!
Finally, a passage from Spurgeons sermons concerning the sin of unbelief:
"2. But secondly; unbelief not only begets, but fosters sin. How is it that men can keep their sin under the thunders of the Sinai preacher? How is it that, when Boanerges stands in the pulpit, and, by the grace of God, cries aloud, "Cursed is every man that keepeth not all the commands of the law,"—how is it that when the sinner hears the tremendous threatenings of God's justice, still he is hardened, and walks on in his evil ways? I will tell you; it is because unbelief of that threatening prevents it from having any effect upon him. When our sappers and miners go to work around Sebastopol, they could not work in front of the walls, if they had not something to keep off the shots; so they raise earthworks, behind which they can do what they please. So with the ungodly man. The devil gives him unbelief; he thus puts up an earthwork, and finds refuge behind it. Ah! sinners, when once the Holy Ghost knocks down your unbelief—when once he brings home the truth in demonstration and in power, how the law will work upon your soul. If man did but believe that the law is holy, that the commandments are holy, just, and good, how he would be shaken over hell's mouth; there would be no sitting and sleeping in God's house; no careless hearers; no going away and straightway forgetting what manner of men ye are. Oh! once get rid of unbelief, how would ever ball from the batteries of the law fall upon the sinner, and the slain of the Lord would be many. Again, how is it that men can hear the wooing of the cross of Calvary, and yet come not to Christ? How is it that when we preach about the sufferings of Jesus, and close up by saying, "yet there is room,"—how is it that when we dwell upon his cross and passion, men are not broken in their hearts? It is said,
"Law and terrors do but harden,
All the while they work alone:
But a sense of blood-bought pardon
Will dissolve a heart of stone.""
Of course Spurgeon, in the above sermon, totally misuses the concept of unbelief. Instead of understanding how the GOSPEL will work upon your soul we see Spurgeon saying that once your unbelief is cured you will then see how the LAW works upon your soul. I cannot say this in more forceful terms: This interpretation by Spurgeon is Satan himself talking. It is evil, it is wrong, and alas, if Spurgeon believed this (and I see no reason to see where he didn't go to his grave with this) then he is not resting in the arms of the Savior, but instead is reaping the fruit of his evil and gospel dishonoring doctrine for all eternity.
I repeat: Spurgeon says here that if you have faith, the law will convict you in a saving way. This is double talk. Here he is putting faith before law conviction. Whatever works is his method of gaining converts who have no true faith. In truth faith comes by gospel conviction, and there is no law conviction, only natural conscience that all men have, which cannot cut like gospel conviction, and cannot save.
I wish it were otherwise, but there is no other conclusion that I can accept regarding the historical defenders of Covenant Theology other than that they were created for destruction from the presence of the Lord. They come as angels of light, as did the circumcision in the time of Paul.
This Neo Circumcision, ie the teachers of Covenant Theology and law preaching, are false apostles, disguised as servants of righteousness. (2 Cor. 11:1-23) Many of you view these men of Covenant Theology as being heroes, but you are accepting a gospel that you did not receive if indeed you are truly saved. You are accepting a different spirit than you received, if indeed you were saved. (2 Cor 11:4) Therefore, you must reject this Neo Circumcision as Paul commanded the Corinthians to reject the original circumcision party! This is a commandment of the Apostle to discern the Circumcision for what it was. His command to us regarding the Neo Circumcision is no less.
Indeed, this Covenant Theology misuse of law reveals that Spurgeon knew absolutely nothing about the gospel, flowing oratory notwithstanding.
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