# Great Sermon Opening



## bookslover (Jan 27, 2007)

Now this is what I call whacking your congregation across the head with a 2 by 4! This is a sermon called "A Clear Conscience", the text is Psalm 119:6 (_Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments_), and Spurgeon hits the ground running, all cylinders pumping at full speed:

_Any attempt to keep the law of God with the view of being saved thereby is sure to end in failure. So contrary is it to the express warnings of the divine Lawgiver, and so much does it run counter to the whole gospel, that he who ventures to seek justification by his own merits ought to be ashamed of his presumption. When God tells us that salvation is not by the works of the law, art thou not ashamed of trying to procure it by thy obedience to its precepts? When He declares that by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight, art thou not ashamed to go and seek after justification where He tells thee it never can be found? When He over and over again declares that salvation is by faith, and that it is a matter of grace to be received, dost thou not blush for thyself that thou shouldst give the lie to God, and propound a righteousness of thine own conceit, in which thou hast vainly tried to keep up a respectable appearance, screening the palpable delinquencies of thy life under a thin veil of piety toward God and charity toward men? Eternal life is not to be earned by any trade you can carry on in the works of the flesh; because, however estimable in the opinion of men, they are simply execrable in the sight of God. If a man seeks to keep the commandments of God in order that he might attain eternal life thereby, he will be ashamed and confounded. He had better at once renounce the folly of attempting so insane, so futile, so impossible a task as that of defending his own cause and justifying his own soul._

And that's just the first portion of the very first paragraph of his sermon! Spurgeon hasn't even begun his exposition yet!

Man! If we had more preaching like that today, perhaps the Federal Vision would have died aborning...

(The sermon can be found in _The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 24 [for 1878], pp. 625-636.)


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## Ivan (Jan 27, 2007)

Awesome quote! I need to read Spurgeon even more!


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