the unbelieving life

Don’t Be Almost In

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. – Mark 12:34

“So near to the Kingdom! yet what dost thou lack?
So near to the Kingdom! what keepeth thee back?
Renounce every idol, tho’ dear it may be,
And come to the Savior now pleading with thee. “

What will the cowards do in that day who, to please men, forsook their Lord? …What will they feel when He shall say, “Depart! Depart! I know you not. You knew not Me in the day of My humiliation. You were ashamed of Me in the world. You blushed at My name. You covered up what was in your conscience in order to avoid man’s laughter and rebuke. You knew not Me, and now I know not you. Depart! Depart!” In proportion to the light against which you have shut your eyes will be your horror when that light shall blind you into eternal night. In proportion to the violence which you have done to your consciences will be the terror which your awakened consciences will work in you. In proportion to the nearness of the kingdom within which you came shall be the dreadful distance to which you will be driven.

I was thinking that, if the Lord were to pay men in their own coin, what an awful thing it would be if those who are now not far from the kingdom were told by the Lord, “You shall stay there for ever. You, who heard the gospel, and did not accept it, must stop where you are.” Halt, sir! not a step more! Close to the gates of heaven-you stop there! To hear its music for ever, and to gnash your teeth for ever, because you cannot join in it! To hear the songs of the righteous, while you wail for ever! To know the brightness of bliss, but to be yourself in the black darkness for ever! To be within an inch of heaven, and yet in hell! The living water flowing at your feet, and yet your tongue for ever parched! The bread of life nigh at hand, and yet you cannot eat! Oh, think of it! Eternally not far from the kingdom! If you would not wish to be so, oh, be not out of Christ another minute! May God’s Spirit enable you to leap right away from your undecided condition into living faith and loving obedience to Christ. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1517.cfm

His Goodness Leads to Repentance

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

Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? – Romans 2:4

Now there are many who know as a matter of doctrine that the goodness of God leads them to repentance, and yet they do not know it as a practical truth affecting their lives: indeed, they so act that it is not true to them at all. Yet, if they do not know this, they are wilfully ignorant; not willing to retain in their minds a fact so disagreeable to them. None are so blind as those who will not see: but he who does not see, and yet hath eyes, has a criminality about his blindness which is not found in that of those who have no sight. Dear hearer, whether you know this truth or not, I would remind you that God’s patience with you is meant to lead you to repentance. “How?” say you. Why, first by giving you an opportunity to repent. These years, which are now coming to a considerable number with you, have been given you in order that you might turn to God…Are you still out of Christ? Then you are worse than you were; for you have sinned more deeply and you have provoked the Lord more terribly. You have now had space enough. What more do you need? When the child has offended, you say, “Child, unless you beg pardon at once, I must punish you”: would you give a boy so many minutes to repent in as God has given you years? I think not…It seems to me that every morning when a man wakes up still impenitent, and finds himself out of hell, the sunlight seems to say, “I shine on thee yet another day, as that in this day thou mayest repent.” When your bed receives you at night, I think it seems to say, “I will give you another night’s rest, that you may live to turn from your sins and trust in Jesus.” This know that His forbearance gives you an opportunity to repent; do not turn it into an occasion for hardening your heart. “The times of your ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth men everywhere to repent.” Do not life and death, and heaven and hell, call upon you so to do? Thus, you have in God’s goodness space for repentance, and a suggestion to repent. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1714.cfm

Answering to the Righteous Judgment of God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds. – Romans 2:5,6

When we offend a man, if we are right-minded, we not only note the fact with regret, but we sit down and weigh the matter and seek to rectify it; for we would not be unjust to any person, and if we felt that we had been acting unfairly it would press upon our minds until we could make amends. But are there not some of you who have never given half an hour’s consideration to your relation to your God? He has spared you all this while, and yet it has never occurred to you to enter into your chamber and sit down and consider your conduct towards Him. It would seem to be too much trouble even to think of your Creator. His longsuffering leads you to repentance, but you have not repented; in fact, you have not thought it worth your while to consider the question at all: you have thought it far more important to enquire, “What shall I eat and what shall I drink?” Bread and broadcloth have shut out the thought of God. Thou think that God is altogether such an one as thyself, and that He will wink at thy transgression and cover up thy sin; but thou shalt not find it so. That base thought proves that thou despisest His longsuffering. Ah me, you will stand at His judgment bar before long-and then? Perhaps ere this week is finished you may have to answer, not to me, but unto Him that sits upon the throne; therefore, I do implore you now, for the first time give this matter thought. Despise no longer the goodness and longsuffering of God…Will you not care about the saving of your own souls? Oh, strange infatuation-that men will not consent to be themselves saved; but foolishly, madly, hold out against the mercy of God which leads them to repentance. Oh, that hearts may be touched with pity for their slighted Saviour, that they may seek His face! Here is the way of salvation: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” ~ C. H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1714.cfm

Grieving the Sovereign God

Sherry Attributes of God, confession of sin, prayer, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering..? – Romans 2:4

“What the eye does not see the heart does not rue,” is a truthful proverb; but every transgression is committed in the very presence of God, so that penitent David cried, “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” Transgression is committed in the sight of God, from whose eyes nothing is hidden. Remember also, that the Lord never can forget; before His eyes all things stand out in clear light, not only the things of to-day, but all the transgressions of a life. Yet for all this He doth forbear. With evil reeking before His face, He is slow to anger, and waiteth that He may be gracious.

Some are patient because they are powerless: they bear and forbear because they cannot well help themselves; but it is not so with God. Had He but willed it, you had been swept into hell; only a word from Him and the impenitent had fallen in the wilderness, and their spirits would have passed into the realms of endless woe. In a moment the Lord could have eased Himself of His adversary; He could have stopped that flippant tongue and closed that lustful eye in an instant. That wicked heart would have failed to beat if God had withdrawn His power, and that rebellious breath would have ceased also. Had it not been for longsuffering you unbelievers would long since have known what it is to fall into the hands of an angry God. Will you continue to grieve the God who so patiently bears with you?

Here let us pause; and oh, that each one who is still unsaved would sing most sincerely the words of Watts:-

“Lord, we have long abused Thy love,
Too long indulged our sin,
Our aching hearts e’en bleed to see
What rebels we have been.

“No more, ye lusts, shall ye command,
No more will we obey;
Stretch out, O God, Thy conqu’ring hand,
And drive Thy foes away.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1714.cfm

God’s Forbearance

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

Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering..? – Romans 2:4

Forbearance comes in when men, having offended, God withholds the punishment that is due to them; when men, having been invited to mercy, have refused it, and yet God continues to stretch out His hands, and invite them to come to Him. Patient endurance of offenses and insults has been manifested by God to many of you, who now hear these words of warning. The Lord knows to whom I speak, and may He make you, also, know that I am speaking to you, even to you. Some men have gone back to the very sin of which for a while they repented; they have suffered for their folly but have turned again to it with suicidal determination. They are desperately set on their own ruin, and nothing can save them. The burnt child has run to the fire again; the singed moth has plunged again into the flame of the candle; who can pity such self-inflicted miseries? They are given over to perdition, for they will not be warned. They have returned to the haunt of vice, though they seemed to have been snatched from the deep ditch of its filthiness. They have wantonly and wilfully returned to their cups, though the poison of former draughts is yet burning in their veins. Yet, despite this folly, God shows forbearance towards them.

Did you ever think what is included in the riches of forbearance. There are quick tempered individuals who only need to be a little provoked, and hard words and blows come quick and furious: but, oh, the forbearance of God when He is provoked to His face by ungodly men! By men, I mean, who hear His word, and yet refuse it! They slight His love, and yet He perseveres in it. Justice lays its hand on the sword, but mercy holds it back in its scabbard. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1714.cfm

God’s Multiplied Mercies Upon the Ungodly

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

Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? – Romans 2:4

Let me speak this morning to thee, O unregenerate, impenitent man: Men may be without the fear of God, and yet, for all that, God may be pleased to prosper their endeavours in business…He allows them to enjoy good health, vigour of mind, and strength of constitution: they are happy in the wife of their youth, and their children are about them. Theirs is an envied lot…I know that it is thus with many who do not love God and have never yielded to the entreaties of His grace. They love not the hand which enriches them, they praise not the Lord who daily loadeth them with benefits. How is it that men can receive such kindness, and yield no return? O sirs, you are to-day blessed with all that need requires; but I pray you remember that you might have been in the depths of poverty. An illness would have lost you your situation; or a slight turn in trade would have left you bankrupt. You are well to-day; but you might have been tossing to and fro upon a bed of sickness; you might have been in the hospital, about to lose a limb. Shall not God be praised for health and freedom from pain? You might have been shut up in yonder asylum, in the agonies of madness. A thousand ills have been kept from you; you have been exceedingly favoured by the goodness of the Most High. Is it not so? And truly it is a wonderful thing that God should give His bread to those that lift up their heel against Him, that He should cause His light to shine upon those who never perceive His goodness therein, that He should multiply His mercies upon ungodly men who only multiply their rebellions against Him and turn the gifts of His love into instruments of transgression…I wonder that the Lord does not sweep away the moral nuisance of a guilty race from off the face of earth. Man’s sin must have been terribly offensive to God from day to day, and yet still He shows kindness, love, forbearance. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1714.cfm

Pleading with the Sinners

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, repentance, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren… – Romans 9:3

Do you know what is the greatest of sins? It is to be at enmity with God! The most damning of iniquities is to refuse Christ! Did God send out of His bosom His only-begotten Son to die for men and do men reject Him? Ah, this is worse than rejecting the Law! This is worse than rejecting the Gospel! It is a direct personal insult to the loving God—this rejecting the Son of God, His only Son, His bleeding, dying Son! Here sin reaches its climax and surpasses itself in infamy! These men rejected Christ and set up their phylacteries, their paying of tithes of anise and mint and cumin, their fasting thrice in the week and I know not what trifles besides, in insulting competition with the Savior! In the same manner at this hour, many persons value their external religiousness above faith in Jesus. They attend to the ceremonies of this church or of the other and refuse the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ! The greatest of sins lies there!

This grieved the Apostle, that they were mad against Him whom they ought to have loved, and were violent against Him in whom they should have believed, so that they had become a race anathematized from Christ! Paul says he could wish that he himself could stand in their place and take that anathema upon himself which he felt was upon them…Some in these days describe the penalty of sin as though it were a trifle. I beseech you, do not regard it as such! There is no hope of blessing for those who die impenitent anyhow or anywhere! They must depart, depart, depart, and that forever! O my Hearer, I beseech you, do not run the risk of the everlasting wrath of God! May God help you, by His infinite mercy, to feel how terrible a thing it is to be out of Christ, for our God is a consuming fire and it is written, “Beware you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver.” My brother, my sister, it is now or never with you. Seek the Lord while He may be found! Call upon Him while He is near! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm