the unbelieving life

Are We Found Wanting?

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

“And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.”- Matthew 22:11-14

Whenever there is a revival and many are brought to Christ, it seems inevitable that at the same time a proportion of unworthy persons should enter the church. However diligent may be the oversight there will be pretenders creeping in unawares who have no true part or lot in the matter, and hence, when the preacher is most earnest for the ingathering of souls to Christ, he needs to couple therewith a holy jealousy, lest those who come forward to make a profession of faith should be moved by carnal motives and should not really have given their hearts to God. We must use the net to draw in the many, but all are not good fishes that are taken therein…It is most needful in times of religious excitement, to remind men that godliness does not consist in profession but must be proved by inward vitality and outward holiness. Everything will have to be tested by a heart-searching God, and if, when He comes to search us, we are found wanting, we shall be expelled even from the marriage feast itself; for there is a way to hell from the very gates of Heaven. In a word, it is well for all to be reminded that the enemies of the great King are not only outside the Church, but they are even in it; while a part refuse to come to the wedding of His Son, others press into the banquet and are still His foes. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0976.cfm

Christ Died for the Impious

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

“Christ died for the ungodly” – Romans 5:6

“Christ died for the ungodly“; not for the righteous, not for the reverent and devout, but for the ungodly…”Christ died for the impious,” for those who have no reverence for God. Christ died for the godless, who, having cast off God, cast off with Him all love for that which is right…Christ did not die because men were good, or would be good, but died for them as ungodly or, in other words, “He came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Observe, then, that when the Son of God determined to die for men, He viewed them as ungodly, and far from God by wicked works…looking on them all, He whose judgment is infallible returned this verdict, “They are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Putting them down at that estimate, and nothing better, Christ died for them…Full well He knew that, left to itself, the world would grow worse and worse, and that by its very wisdom it would darken its own eyes. It was not because a golden age would come by natural progress, but just because such a thing was impossible, unless He died to procure it, that Jesus died for a race which, apart from Him, could only develop into deeper damnation. Jesus viewed us as we really were, not as our pride fancies us to be; He saw us to be without God, enemies of our own Creator, dead in trespasses and sins, corrupt, and set on mischief, and even in our occasional cry for good, searching for it with blinded judgment and prejudiced heart, so that we put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. He saw that in us was no good thing, but every possible evil, so that we were lost,-utterly, helplessly, hopelessly lost apart from Him: yet viewing us as in that graceless and Godless plight and condition, He died for us.

The gospel does not come to us as a premium for virtue, but it presents us with forgiveness for sin. It is not a reward for health, but a medicine for sickness. Therefore, to meet all cases, it puts us down at our worst, and, like the good Samaritan with the wounded traveller, it comes to us where we are. “Christ died for the impious” is a great net which takes in even the leviathan sinner; and of all the creeping sinners innumerable which swarm the sea of sin, there is not one kind which this great net does not encompass. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1191.cfm

Oh, Brothers and Sisters, Dread Unthankfulness!

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

…when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. – Romans 1:21

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. – Colossians 3:15

If your spirit is not sweetened by the adoration and the love of God, it will grow bitter. If love does not reign, hate will rule. Look at unthankful people. Hear them talk. Nobody’s character is safe. There is no neighbour whom they will not slander. There is no Christian man whom they will not misrepresent. The very angels of God would not be safe from suspicion if they lived near to people of that kind. But when you glorify God as God, and are thankful for everything-when you can take up a bit of bread and a cup of cold water, and say with the poor Puritan, “What, all this, and Christ too?”-then are you happy, and you make others happy. A godly preacher, finding that all that there was for dinner was a potato and a herring, thanked God that he had ransacked sea and land to find food for His children. Such a sweet spirit breeds love to everybody, and makes a man go through the world cheerfully. If you give way to the other order of feeling, and do not glorify God, but quarrel with Him, and have no thankfulness for His mercies, then you will suck in the spirit of the devil, and you will get into Satan’s mind, and be of his temper, and by-and-by his works you will do. Oh, brothers and sisters, dread unthankfulness! Perhaps you did not think that it was so bad, but it is horrible! God help you to escape from it! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm

The Way of Vain Imaginings

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, The Holy Spirit, the unbelieving life 1 Comment

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. – Romans 1:21

They knew God, but they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful. And the result of it was that they fell into vain imaginings. If we do not glorify God, the true God, we shall soon be found setting up another god. This vain-imagination business is being done quite as extensively now as in Paul’s days. Depart from the inspiration of the Bible, and from the infallibility of the Spirit of God who wrote it, and where will you go? Well I cannot tell you where you will go. One wanders into one vain imagination, and one into another, till the dreamers are on all sides. Our thinkers have introduced an age of inventions, wherein everything is thought of but the truth of God. We do not want these novelties. We are satisfied with the word of God as we find it. But if we do not glorify God as God, and are not thankful to Him for all His teachings, then away you go into vain imaginations.

A heart that cannot feed at God’s table will riot somewhere. He that is not satisfied with the cup that God has filled will soon be a partaker of the cup of devils. An unthankful spirit is, at bottom, an atheistic spirit. If God were God to us, we should not be unthankful to Him. If God were glorified in our hearts, and we were thankful for everything that He did, we should walk in holiness, and live in submission. And if we do not thus behave ourselves, the tendency will be for us to go from bad to worse, and from worse to very worst. May the Lord tether us fast to Himself, and even nail us to the cross. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm

Is the Harp Never to Give Forth a Joy-Note?

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

…when they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were they thankful. – Romans 1:21

Some live in the presence of God, so they tell us, and they are full of divine delights, but yet they are greatly afflicted with aches and pains, and all the dolors of rheumatism, and therefore they murmur. I admit that rheumatism is a dreadful pain enough, but at the same time to dwell always on the dark side of things, and to forget our mercies, is a sad instance of ingratitude. We are few of us as thankful as we ought to be; and there are some people who are not thankful at all, for instead of a song concerning their mercies, their life is one long dirge for their miseries. Must we always hear the sackbut? Is the harp never to give forth a joy-note?

Some show their unthankfulness by fretting under their supposed ills. They know from Scripture that even their afflictions are working for their good, yet they do not rejoice in the prospect, or feel any gratitude for the refining process through which the Lord is passing them. Heaven and perfection are left unsung, but the present processes are groaned over without ceasing. Their monotonous note is always this pain, this loss, this burden, this uncomfortable sensation, this persecution from the world, this unkindness from the saints, and so on; all this goes to show that, though they know God, they do not glorify Him as God, neither are they thankful.

We can be guilty of unthankfulness, also, by never testifying to the goodness of God. A great many people come in and out of your houses; do you ever tell them about God’s goodness to you? Did you ever take up a single ten minutes with the tale of the Lord’s lovingkindness to you? Oh, what backwardness there is to testify to God as God, and to all His goodness and love! Our mouths are full of anything rather than the goodness of the Lord. Shame on our wicked lips! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm

Inexcusable Unthankfulness

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

For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful… – Romans 1:20, 21

Unthankfulness is a sin for which there is no excuse if it be attended with knowledge. I tremble both for myself and you when I see want of thankfulness thus set in the front rank of sins.

There is in some a want of gratitude for mercies possessed. They receive many blessings without making a note of them, or even seeming to know that they have them. The Lord continues to bless them in things temporal, to keep them in health and strength, ay, and to give them the means of grace and spiritual opportunities; and they live as if these things were so commonplace that they were not worth thanking God for. Many professors are of that kind, recipients of countless mercies, but destitute of such common thankfulness as even beast might manifest. From them God hears no song of gratitude, no chirp of praise, though birds would charm the woodlands with their minstrelsy: these are worse than the dumb driven cattle, or the fishes in the brook, which do at least leap up, and mean their Maker’s praise.

God deliver us from such a state of heart as that; and may we never, in any of these senses, be found amongst those professors, of whom it is said that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm

Trust the Merciful God

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

The LORD redeemeth the soul of His servants: and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate. – Psalm 34:22

…when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God… – Romans 1:21

In revelation God has presented Himself as the object of trust to His creatures, and He has promised that all who trust in Him shall be forgiven their transgressions through the atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ. Such as trust Him He declares shall be saved; and he sends out a messenger of mercy to all mankind, proclaiming-“He that believeth in Him is not condemned.” He bids sinners come and trust under the shadow of His wing; and He declares that none that come to Him will ever be cast out. Revealing Himself in Christ Jesus, He pleads with guilty men. Asking nothing of them, He entreats them to accept His mercy, which He freely presents to them without money and without price. Making no distinction in the gospel-call, He bids men come to Him, saying, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and besides Me there is none else.” When proud man replies, “No, I shall trust in myself, trust in my own works, trust in my own prayers, but I shall not trust in Christ,” then he knows God, but he glorifies him not as God, and when he perishes he will be without excuse. What kind of God is that whom we will not trust? How do we honour Him when we refuse to believe Him? Do we accept His Godhead, and yet refuse His mercy? This cannot be. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm