Author: Sherry
The Crime of Crimes
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. – John 3:19
In many love of sin rather than any boasted self-righteousness keeps them from the Savior. They do not believe in Jesus, not because they have any doubt about the truths of Christianity, but because they have an enslaving love for their favorite sin.
“Why,” says one, “if I were to believe in Christ, of course, I must obey Him—to trust and to obey go together. Then I could not be the drunkard I am, I could not trade as I do, I could not practice secret licentiousness, I could not frequent the haunts of the ungodly, where laughter is occasioned by sin and mirth by blasphemy. I cannot give up these my darling sins.” Perhaps this sinner hopes that one day, when he cannot any longer enjoy his sin, he will meanly sneak out of it and try to cheat the devil of his soul. But meanwhile he prefers the pleasures of sin to obedience to God, and unbelief to acceptance of his salvation.
O sweet sin! O bitter sin! How are you murdering the souls of men! As certain serpents before they strike their prey fix their eyes upon it and fascinate it, and then at last devour it, so does sin fascinate the foolish sons of Adam. They are charmed with it and perish for it. It yields but a momentary joy, and the wage thereof is eternal misery, yet are men enamored of it. The ways of the strange woman and the paths of uncleanness lead most plainly to the chambers of death yet are men attracted thereto as moths to the blaze of the candle, and so are they destroyed…The preference of a lust to God is a greater insult still. To obey our passions rather than His will, and to prefer sin to His mercy, this is the crime of crimes. May God deliver us from it, for His mercy’s sake. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1012.cfm
The Unbeliever’s Ease
…he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. – John 3:36
Oh man, I pray you as your fellow creature let me speak with you a word of expostulation. God declares that His wrath abides upon you as an unbeliever, and do you call that nothing? God says, “I am angry with you,” and you say to Him, “I do not care, it is of very small importance to me. The rise or fall of the government bonds is of much more consequence than whether God is angry with me or not. My dinner being done to a turn concerns me a great deal more than whether the infinite God loves me or hates me.” A man who is able to take pleasure and be at ease while God is angry with him shows that his heart is harder than steel.
In certain cases, the root of this unbelief lies in another direction. It is fed by pride. The person who is guilty of it does not believe that he needs a Savior. His notion is that he will do his very best, attend the church or the meeting house very regularly, subscribe occasionally or frequently, and go to heaven partly by what he does, and partly by the merits of Christ…God believed it needful, in order to save man, that the Redeemer should die. Yet you self-righteous ones evidently think that death a superfluity, but if a man could save himself, why did the Lord descend and die to save him? If there is a way to heaven by respectability and morality without Christ, what is the good of Christ? It is utterly useless to have an expiator and a mediator, if men are so good that they do not require them. You tell God to His face that He lies to you, that you are not so sinful as He would persuade you, that you do not need a substitute and sacrifice as He says you do. Oh, sirs, this pride of yours is an arrogant rebellion against God. Look at your fine actions, you who are so good—your motives are base, your pride over what you have done has defiled, with black fingers, all your acts. In as much as you prefer your way to God’s way, and prefer your righteousness to God’s righteousness, the wrath of God abides on you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1012.cfm
The Well-known News
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. – Acts 16:31
In a great many, unbelief may be ascribed to a careless ignorance of the way of salvation. Now, I should not wonder if many of you imagine that if you do not understand the Gospel, you are therefore quite excused for not believing it. But, sirs, it is not so. There are places of worship all around you, which you can without difficulty attend. The Book of God is very cheap. You have it in your houses. You can all read it or hear it read.
Is it so, then, that the King has been pleased to reveal Himself to you, and tell you the way to salvation, and yet you, at the age of twenty, thirty, or forty do not know the way of salvation? What do you mean, sir? What can you mean? Has God been pleased to reveal Himself in Scripture, and tell you how to escape from hell and fly to heaven, and yet have you been too idle to inquire into that way? Dare you say to God, “I do not think it worth my while to learn what You have revealed, neither do I care to know of the gift which You have bestowed on men.”
How can you think that such ignorance is an excuse for your sin? What could be a more gross aggravation of it? If you do not know, you ought to know. If you have not learned the Gospel message, you might have learned it, for there are some of us whose language it is not difficult for even the most illiterate to understand, and who would, if we caught ourselves using a hard word, retract it, and put it into little syllables, so that not even a child’s intellect need be perplexed by our language. Salvation’s way is plain in the Book. Those words, “Believe and live,” are in this Christian England almost as legible and as universally to be seen as though they were printed on the sky. That trust in the Lord Jesus saves the soul is well-known news. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1012.cfm
Unbelievers are Enemies of the Triune God
…he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. – 1 John 5:10
Oh, unbeliever, it appears to be nothing to you that Christ has died. His wounds attract you not. His groans for His enemies have no music in them to you. You turn your back upon the incarnate God who bleeds for men, and in so doing you shut yourselves out of hope, judging yourselves unworthy of eternal life.
Furthermore, the willful rejection of Christ is an insult to God the Father. “He that believes not has made God a liar, because he has not believed the record that God gave of His Son.” God has Himself often borne testimony to His dear Son. “Him has God the Father set forth to be a propitiation for our sins.” In rejecting Christ, you reject God’s testimony and God’s gift. It is a direct assault upon the truthfulness and lovingkindness of the gracious Father when you trample on or cast aside His priceless, peerless gift of love.
As for the Blessed Spirit, it is His office here below to bear witness to Christ. In the Christian ministry, daily the Holy Spirit cries to the sons of men to come to Jesus. He has striven in the hearts of many of you, given you a measure of conviction of sin, and a degree of knowledge of the glory of Christ, but you have repressed it, you have labored to your utmost to do despite to the Spirit of God. Believe me, this is no slight sin. An unbeliever is an enemy to God the Father, to God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Against the Blessed Trinity in Unity, O unbeliever, your sin is a standing insult. You are now to God’s face insulting Him, by continuing an unbeliever. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1012.cfm
Offending the Persons of the Trinity
He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. – Isaiah 53:12 (read Isaiah 53)
The unbeliever perpetrates an offense against every person of the blessed Trinity. He may think that his not believing is a very small business, but indeed, it is a barbed shaft shot against the Deity. Take the persons of the blessed Trinity, beginning with the Son of God who comes to us most nearly. It is to me the most surprising thing I ever heard of that, “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” I do not wonder that in India the missionaries are often met with this remark: “It is too good to be true that God ever took upon Himself the nature of such a thing as man.”
Yet, more wonderful does it seem to be that, when Christ became man, He took all the sorrows and infirmity of man, and in addition, was made to bear the sin of many. The most extraordinary of all facts is this that the infinitely Holy should be “numbered with the transgressors,” and in the words of Isaiah, should “bear their iniquities.” The Lord has made Him who knew no sin, to be made sin for us. Wonder of wonders! It is beyond all degree amazing that He who distributes crowns and thrones should hang on a tree and die, the just for the unjust, bearing the punishment due to sinners for guilt.
Now, knowing this, as most of you do, and yet refusing to believe, you do, in effect, say, “I do not believe that the incarnate God can save.” “Oh no,” you reply, “We sincerely believe that He can save.” Then it must be that you feel, “I believe He can, but I will not have Him save me.” Wherein I excuse you in the first place, I must bring the accusation more heavily in the second. You answer that “(I) do not say (I) will not believe Him.” Why do you then remain in unbelief? The fact is you do not trust Him; you do not obey Him. I pray you account for the fact. If there be any barrier, it is not with God, it is not with Christ, it is with your own sinful heart. You are welcome to the Savior now, and if you trust Him now, He is yours forever. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1012.cfm
God’s Wrath Upon the Despisers of Christ
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent… – Acts 17:30
God’s ways are as high above our ways as the heavens are above the earth, but Scripture, I think, will warrant me in saying,
“That in the grace which rescued man
His brightest form of glory shines;
Here on the cross ’tis fairest writ,
In precious blood and crimson lines.”
Now, the man who says, “There is no God” is a fool, but he who denies God the glory of redemption, in addition to his folly, has robbed the Lord of the choicest jewel of His regalia, and aimed a deadly blow at the divine honor. I may say of him who despises the great salvation, that in despising Christ, he touches the apple of God’s eye. “This is my beloved Son,” says God, “hear ye Him.” Out of heaven He says it, and yet men stop their ears and say, “We will not have Him.” Nay, they wax wrath against the cross and turn away from God’s salvation.
Do you think that God will always bear this? The times of your ignorance He has winked at, but “now commands all men everywhere to repent.” Will you stand out against His love. His love that has been so inventive in ingenious plans by which to bless the sons of men? Shall His choicest work be utterly contemned by you? If so, it is little wonder that it is written, “The wrath of God abides on him.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1012.cfm
He Hath Said 