Christian Life

The Unbeliever’s Ease

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

…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

Unbelievers are Enemies of the Triune God

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…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

God’s Wrath Upon the Despisers of Christ

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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

Rejection of this Gift is No Small Sin

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

…he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. – John 3:36

What is this peculiar sin which entails the wrath of God upon these people? It is that they have not believed the Son of God. What does that amount to? It amounts to this, first of all, that they refuse to accept the mercy of God. God made a law, and His creatures were bound to respect and obey it. We rejected it and turned aside from it. It was a great display of the heart’s hatred, but it was not in some respects so thoroughly and intensely wicked a manifestation of enmity to God as when we reject the Gospel of grace.

God has now presented not the law, but the Gospel to us. He has said, “My creatures, you have broken My law, you have acted very vilely towards Me. I must punish your sin, else I were not God, and I cannot lay aside My justice, but I have devised a way by which, without any injury to any of My attributes, I can have mercy upon you. I am ready to forgive the past, and to restore you to more than your lost position, so that you shall be My sons and My daughters. My only command to you is, believe in My Son. If this command be obeyed, all the blessings of My new covenant shall be yours. Trust Him and follow Him, for behold, I give Him as leader and commander to the people. Accept Him as making atonement by His substitution and obey Him.”

Now, to reject the law of God shows an evil heart of unbelief, but who shall say what a depth of rebellion must dwell in that heart which refuses not only the yoke of God, but even the gift of God? The provision of a Savior for lost men is the free gift of God, by it all our wants are supplied, all our evils are removed, peace on earth is secured to us, and glory forever with God—the rejection of this gift cannot be a small sin.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1012.cfm

The One Thing Needful

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

…he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. – John 3:36

It must be admitted that not a few of these (unbelieving) persons are blameless as to their morals. You could not, with close observation, find either dishonesty, falsehood, uncleanness, or malice in their outward life. They are not only free from these blots, but they manifest positive excellences. Much of their character is commendable. They frequently are courteous and compassionate, generous and gentle-minded. Often times they are so amiable and admirable, that while looking upon them, we understand how our Lord, in a similar case, loved the young man who asked, “What lack I yet?” The one thing needful they are destitute of is they have not believed in Christ Jesus, and loath as the Savior was to see them perish, yet it cannot be helped, one doom is common to all who believe not. They shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on them. “God is angry with the wicked every day.”

In many cases these persons are, in addition to their morality, religious persons after a fashion. They would not absent themselves from the usual service of the place of worship. They are most careful to respect the Sabbath, they venerate the Book of God, they use a form of prayer, they join in the songs of the Sanctuary, they sit as God’s people sit and stand as God’s people stand. But alas, there is a worm in the center of that fair fruit, they have missed the one essential thing, which, being omitted, brings certain ruin. They have not believed on the Son of God. Ah, how far a man may go, and yet, for lack of this one thing, the wrath of God may still abide upon him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1012.cfm

The Discriminator John the Baptist

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 2 Comments

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. – John 3:36.

John the Baptist was evidently a preacher who knew how to discriminate—a point in which so many fail—he separated between the precious and the vile, and therefore he was as God’s mouth to the people. He does not address them as all lost nor as all saved, but he shows the two classes. He keeps up the line of demarcation between him that fears God and him that fears Him not. We have not many sermons by that mighty preacher, but we have just sufficient to prove that he knew how to lay the axe at the root of the tree by preaching the law of God most unflinchingly; and also that he knew how to declare the gospel, for no one could have uttered sentences which more clearly contain the way of salvation than those in the text before us.

He plainly declares the privileges of the believer, he says he has even now eternal life, and with equal decision he testifies to the sad state of the unbeliever, “He shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John the Baptist might usefully instruct many professedly Christian preachers. Although he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist, and ought, therefore, more clearly to bear witness to the truth, yet there are many who muddle the Gospel, who teach philosophy, who preach a mingle-mangle, which is neither law nor Gospel, and these might well go to the school of this rough preacher of the wilderness, and learn from him how to cry, “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1012.cfm

We Must Continue Marching

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

I delight to do Thy will, O my God. – Psalm 40:8

Brethren, I believe it is the duty of the Christian church to go on working quite as earnestly and zealously and believingly, if there be no conversions, as if half the world were transformed in a twelve month. Our business is not to create a harvest but to sow the seed; if the wheat does not come up, if we have sown it aright, our Master does not hold us responsible. If missions had been an utter failure it would be no sort of reason why we should give them up. There was a great failure when the hosts of Israel, on the first occasion, went round Jericho; a dreadful failure when they marched round the city twice, and the walls shook not; it was an aggravated failure when they had compassed it four times; it was a most discouraging defeat when they had tramped round it five times; and, on the whole, a breakdown, almost enough to drive them to despair, when they had performed the circuit six times and not a single brick had stirred in the wall. Yes; but then the seventh day made amends, when the people shouted and all the walls fell flat to the ground. Brethren, it is not yet time to shout, but we must continue marching and say, “Let God be magnified.” The longer the walls stand, and the longer we wait, the louder will be our shout when they lie prostrate before us, as they shall; for, “Verily, verily, I say unto you there shall not be one stone left upon another that shall not be cast down.”

Let us still continue to attack the adversary. We are few, but strength lies not in numbers. The Eternal One has used the few where He has put aside the many. In our weakness lies part of our adaptation to the divine work; only let us gather up fresh faith, and renew our courage and industry, and we shall see greater things than these. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1013.cfm