C.H. Spurgeon – Words of Warning for Daily Living

brucesbiblepage

April 2

Once I thought there was salvation in good works, and I labored hard, and strove
diligently to preserve a character for integrity and uprightness; but when the Spirit of
God came into my heart, "sin revived and I died," that which I thought had been good
proved to be evil; wherein I thought I had been holy I found myself to be unholy. I
discovered that my very best actions were sinful, that my tears needed to be wept
over, and that my very prayers needed God's forgiveness. I discovered that I was
seeking after salvation by the works of the law, that I was doing all my good works
from a selfish motive, namely, to save myself, and therefore they could not be
acceptable to God. I found out that I could not be saved by good works for two very
good reasons: first, I had not got any; and secondly, if I had any, they could not save
me. After that I thought, surely salvation might be obtained, partly by reformation, and
partly by trusting in Christ; so I labored hard again, and thought if I added a few
prayers here and there, a few tears of penitence, and a few vows of improvement, all
would be well. But after fagging on for many a weary day, like a poor blind horse
toiling round the mill, I found I had got no farther, for there was still the curse of God
hanging over me: "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are
written in the book of the law to do them;" and there was still an aching void in my
heart the world could never fill — a void of distress and care, for I was sorely troubled
because I could not attain unto the rest which my soul desired. Have you tried those
two ways of getting to heaven? If you have, I trust the Lord, the Holy Spirit, has made
you heartily sick of them, for you shall never enter the kingdom of heaven by the right
door, until you have first of all been led to confess that all the other doors are barred
in your teeth. No man ever did come to God through the strait and narrow way until
he had tried all the other ways; and when we find ourselves beaten, and foiled, and
defeated, then it is that, pressed by sore necessity, we betake ourselves to the one
open fountain, and there wash ourselves, and are made clean.