(Because of the wretched state of Red Deer’s
pulpit space, it is now, as predicted by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3, the time to
‘pluck up that which is planted…a time to break down…a time to weep…a time to
cast away stones’ and even ‘a time to refrain from embracing.’ And it is
certainly more ‘a time to speak’ than ‘a time to keep silence.’ Be that as it
may, the wrecking ball of negative criticism should be followed by the laying
down of truth. To this end, we introduce the sermon sketch as an intermittent
blog feature. As the term ‘sketch’ implies, this kind of post, in distinction
from the usually lengthy analysis, will be pithy. The source for each sketch
will be indicated at the bottom of each post.)
The
Sin of Unbelief
“And
that lord answered the man of God…behold, if
the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said,
behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof” (2 Kings
7. 19.)
Introduction. One wise man may deliver a whole city. There was one
righteous man in the city of Samaria —Elisha,
the servant of the Lord. Piety was extinct in the court. The king was a sinner
of the blackest dye. The people of Samaria
had gone astray from Jehovah. A prophecy of cannibalism was fulfilled in the
streets (Deuteronomy 28.56-58.) For Elisha’s sake, the Lord sent the promise of
food. But the lord on whom the king leaned did not believe the promise.
Whereupon God pronounced his doom. And Providence
fulfilled the pronouncement. He saw but did not enjoy.
(1) The Sin. Either the man questioned God’s truthfulness or doubted
his power. Unbelief has more phases than the moon and more colors than the
chameleon. Unbelief will lead the sinner to distrust the ability of Christ to
save him, or to doubt the willingness of Jesus to accept him. But infidelity,
deism, and atheism are the most terrific eruptions of the volcano of unbelief.
Some professing Christians do not even believe unbelief is a sin. Oh! sirs,
believe me, could you roll all sins into one mass, they would not equal the sin
of unbelief. The damning sin of sinners is that they do not believe on Christ.
The word declares unbelief to be a sin. “He that believeth not is condemned
already, because he believeth not on the Son of God.” This is the monarch sin,
the masterpiece of Satan, the chief work of the devil. Unbelief is the parent of all
iniquity. The fall of man is very much owing to it. “Yea, hath God
said?”—this insinuated the doubt. Curiosity and the other sins followed.
Unbelief has sharpened the knife of suicide. It has mixed many a cup of poison.
Unbelief became a deicide, and murdered Jesus. It is the egg of all crime, the
seed of every offence. Everything that is evil and vile is couched in unbelief.
Unbelief in the Christian, though pardoned, is especially heinous. I would
always fulfill the precept if I always believed the promise. Unbelief fosters sin. Is it nothing to
you that Jesus died? Then there is unbelief between you and the cross. Only
when the Holy Spirit strikes at unbelief will sinners come to trust in Jesus. Unbelief disables a man. Morality is a
good thing. But your own goodness will never get you to heaven. Virtues without
faith are whitewashed sins. Peter once walked on waves. Faith was his
lifejacket; it kept him up; but unbelief sent him down. Faith fosters every
virtue; unbelief murders every one. Thousands of prayers have been strangled in
infancy by unbelief. Many a man would have been a missionary; but he had
unbelief. Make a giant unbelieving, and he becomes a dwarf. Unbelief has been severely punished. By
faith Noah escaped the flood. By unbelief the rest were drowned. Unbelief
caused the Jews to murder Christ. It aims a blow at divinity. Unbelief is the damning sin. There is
one sin for which Christ never died: the sin against the Holy Ghost. There is
no mercy for anyone dying in unbelief.
(2) The Punishment. “Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not
eat thereof.” That is the doom of unbelievers. As for Christians who turn their
heads from the dish prepared for them, they will have some affliction; they
will be made to eat by means of bitters in their mouths. They will be put in
prison until their appetite returns. The majority of our congregations come
just to see. A great work is going on in this chapel, but some of you do not
know anything about it.
Selection from Conclusion. “Unbelief makes you sit here in times of
revival, and of the outpourings of God’s grace, unmoved, uncalled, unsaved…Oh,
the hell of hells will be to see our friends in heaven and ourselves lost…If
you are lost, it will be because you believed not on Christ.”
{This sermon by C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) is sketched
by M. H. Gaboury.}
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