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The sermon defines saving faith as knowledge of biblical truth, assent to Scripture as God’s Word, and personal reliance upon Christ for salvation. Spurgeon strongly rejects confidence in moral effort or religious duty, emphasizing that Christ alone opens heaven. Faith unites the believer to Christ and therefore produces love, obedience, holiness, and perseverance under persecution. The hearer is urged to examine whether such genuine faith is present.
Theological center: Salvation comes through faith’s union with Christ, not through human works, and true faith necessarily produces obedience.
Applications: Know and receive Scripture · Rest on Christ alone · Test your faith · Understand faith’s three elements
Primary texts: Hebrews 11:4-6 · John 5:39 · Genesis 4:4-5
“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Hebrews 11:6 THE old Assembly’s Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” And its answer is, “To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” The answer is exceedingly correct. But it might have been equally truthful if it had been shorter. The chief end of man is “to please God,” for in so doing—we need not say it, because it is an undoubted fact—in so doing He will please Himself. The chief end of man, we believe, in this life and in the next, is to please God, his Maker. If any man pleases God, he does that which conduces most to his own temporal and eternal welfare. Man cannot please God without bringing to himself a great amount of happiness, for if any man pleases God, it is because God accepts him as His son, gives him the blessings of adoption, pours upon him the bounties of His grace, makes him a blessed man in this life, and insures him a crown of everlasting life, which he shall wear, and which shall shine with unfading lustre when the wreaths of earth’s glory have all been melted away. While, on the other hand, if a man does not please God, he inevitably brings upon himself sorrow and suffering in this life. He puts a worm and a rottenness in the core of all his joys. He fills his death pillow with thorns and he supplies the eternal fire with faggots of flame which shall forever consume him. He who pleases God, is, through divine grace, journeying onward to the ultimate reward of all those who love and fear God. But he who is not pleasing to God, must, for Scripture has declared it, be banished from the presence of God and consequently from the enjoyment of happiness. If then, we be right in saying that to please God is to be happy, the one important question is, how can I please God? And there is something very solemn in the utterance of our text, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” That is to say, do what you may, strive as earnestly as you can, live as excellently as you please, make what sacrifices you choose, be as eminent as you can for everything that is lovely and of good repute, yet none of these things can be pleasing to God unless they be mixed with faith. As the Lord said to the Jews, “With all your sacrifices, you must offer salt.” So He says to us, “With all your doings you must bring faith, or else ‘without faith it is impossible to please God.’” This is an old law of God. It is as old as the first man. No sooner were Cain and Abel born into this world, and no sooner had they attained to manhood, than God gave a practical proclamation of this law, that, “Without faith…