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The sermon distinguishes justification by grace from salvation by works while insisting that grace never leaves a person unchanged. Spurgeon confronts respectable, formal, and conscience-soothing religion, directing hearers to living faith in Christ, repentance, pardon, and the work of the Holy Spirit. Christians must lay aside worldly anxieties, avoid judging others, and continue in prayer, worship, and obedience throughout life. The appeal is urgent because death exposes false profession, while Christ’s cross and promised crown provide the motivation and hope to persevere.
Theological center: Salvation is entirely by God’s grace through faith in Christ, yet genuine saving faith necessarily produces holy living and persevering obedience.
Applications: Seek salvation through Christ · Repent and trust Christ · Lay aside worldly weights · Persevere to the end
Primary texts: 1 Corinthians 9:24 · Ephesians 2:8-9 · Matthew 24:13
“So run, that ye may obtain.” 1 Corinthians 9:24 WE are continually insisting upon it from day to day that salvation is not of works, but of grace. We lay this down as one of the very first doctrines of the Gospel. “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” “By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.” But we find that it is equally necessary to preach the absolute necessity of a religious life for the attainment of heaven at last. Although we are sure that men are not saved for the sake of their works, yet are we equally sure that no man will be saved without them. And he that leads an unholy life, who neglects the great salvation— can never inherit that crown of life which fades not away. In one sense, true religion is wholly the work of God. Yet there are high and important senses in which we must ourselves “strive to enter in at the strait gate.” We must run a race. We must wrestle even to agony. We must fight a battle before we can inherit the crown of life. We have in our text the course of religion set down as a race. And inasmuch as there are many who enter upon a profession of religion, with very false motives, the apostle warns us that although all run in a race, yet all do not obtain the prize. They all run, but only one is rewarded. And he gives us, therefore, the practical exhortation to run, that we may obtain, for unless we are the winners, we had better not have been runners at all. He who is not a winner is a loser. He who makes a profession of religion and does not at last obtain the crown of life, is a loser by his profession, for his profession was hypocrisy or else a formality, and he had better not have made a profession than fall therein. And now, in entering upon the text, I shall have to notice what it is we are to run for. “So run, that ye may obtain.” Secondly, the mode of running to which we must attend—“So run, that ye may obtain.” And then I shall give a few practical exhortations to stir those onward in the heavenly race who are flagging and negligent, in order that they may at last “obtain.” I. In the first place, then, WHAT IS IT THAT WE OUGHT TO SEEK TO OBTAIN? Some people think they must be religious in order to be respectable. There are a vast number of people in the world who go to church and to chapel, because everybody else does so. It is disreputable to waste your Sundays, not to be found going up to the house of God—therefore they take a pew and attend the services, and they think they have done their duty. They have obtained all that they sought for, when they can hea…