A Solemn Impeachment of Unbelievers

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1 John 5:9-10

If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he has testified of his Son.…

It is always well for every man to know exactly what he is at. On the sea of life the oftener we take observations as to our longitude and latitude the better. I believe there is such a thing as pitying sinners and comforting them till they consider themselves to be no longer blameworthy, and even regard themselves as unhappy people who deserve sympathy.

I. THE SINNER'S INABILITY TO BELIEVE DISSECTED. He pleads that he cannot believe. He often says this, and quiets his conscience with it. Let me take your unbelief to pieces and show why it is that you cannot believe.

1. The inability of many of you lies in the fact that you do not care to think about the matter at all. You give your mind to your business, your pleasure, or your sin: you dream that there is time enough yet to think of heavenly things, and you think them to be of secondary importance. Many, however, say, "Oh, yes, I believe the Bible, I believe it is God's book, I believe the gospel to be God's gospel." Why, then, do you not believe in Jesus? It must be because you do not think the gospel message important enough to be obeyed; and in so doing you are giving God the lie practically, for you tell Him that your soul is not so precious as He says it is, neither is your state so perilous as He declares it to be.

2. A second reason of the sinner's inability to believe lies in the fact that the gospel is true. "No," you reply, "that is precisely why we would believe it." Yes, but what does Jesus say in John 8:45? When religious impostures have arisen, the very men who have heard the gospel from their youth up, and have not received it because it is true, have become dupes of imposition at once. The truth did not suit their nature, which was under the dominion of the father of lies, but no sooner was a transparent lie brought under their notice than they leaped at it at once like a fish at a fly. The monstrous credulity of unbelief amazes me!

3. There are persons who do not receive the gospel because it is despised among men. Sinner, this is no small offence, to be ready to accept the verdict of your fellow men, but not ready to accept the declaration of your God.

4. Many, however, do not receive the gospel because they are much too proud to believe it. The gospel is a very humbling thing.

5. Another reason why men cannot believe God's testimony concerning Jesus lies in the holiness of the gospel. The gospel proclaims Jesus, who saves men from their sins, but you do not want that.

II. THE NATURE OF THE SIN OF UNBELIEF, in that it makes God a liar. Those are guilty of this sin who deny that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised Saviour, the Son of God. When a man says that Jesus is not God, and the Father says He is, the lie direct is given; but, as I believe there are very few of that kind of unbelievers, I will leave such persons and pass on. A poor trembling, weeping sinner comes to me, and amongst other things he says, "My sins are so great that I do not believe they can be pardoned." I meet him thus. God says, "Though your sins be as scarlet," etc. "But, sir, my sin is very great indeed." "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." "But my transgressions have been exceedingly aggravated." "Let the wicked forsake his way," etc. "Sir, I cannot believe it." Stand up, then, and tell the Lord so in the plainest manner. Another will say, "Oh, but my heart is so hard I cannot believe in the power of God to make a new man of me and deliver me from the love of sin." Yet God declares in His Word, "A new heart also will I give them," etc. In many there exists a doubt about the willingness of God to save. They say, "I believe that the blood of Jesus Christ does blot out sin, but is He willing to pardon me?" Now, listen to what Jehovah says: "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but had rather that He turn unto Me and live." "Alas," cries one, "my ground for doubt is deeper; I hear that God can pardon, regenerate, and all that, and I believe it, but then I cannot see that any of this is for me. I do not see that these things are meant for me." Listen, then, to what God says, "Ho everyone that thirsteth," etc. You adroitly reply, "But I do not thirst." More shame for you, then! Listen again, "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give, you rest." "But I do not labour." Do not labour? How do you get your living? I am sorry for you if you are such a lazy man that you have no labour. That text includes every labouring man and every heavy laden man under heaven. Listen yet again, "Whosoever will, let him come." Does not that invite every living man who is willing to come? If you say, "I am not willing," then I leave you, for you confess that you are unwilling to be saved, and that is exactly what I am trying to prove — you cannot believe because you are unwilling to do so. Yet hear me once again. Jesus has said to His disciples, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Are you a creature? "Yes, I am a creature." Well, man, God has put it as plain as it can be put that the gospel is to be preached to you, and, therefore, it has a relation to you. Would God send it to you to tantalise you? When you say, "It is not for me," you give God the lie. "Well," says one, "but I cannot see how simply trusting in Christ, and believing God's witness of Him, would save my soul." Are you never to believe anything but what you can see, and how are you to see this thing till you have tried it? The faith which is commanded in the gospel is faith in the record which God has given concerning His Son, a faith which takes God at His word. Believe, then, on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have believed God to be true: refuse to trust in Jesus Christ, unless you get some other evidence beyond the witness of God, and you have practically said that God's testimony is not enough, that is to say, you have made God a liar.

III. THE EXECRATION OF HIS SIN. To disbelieve God is a sin indeed! It was the mother sin of all, the door by which all other evil came into the world. Oh, accursed unbelief! How can the absolutely true submit to be charged with falsehood? This sin of making God a liar I do pray you look at it very solemnly, for it is a stab at God Himself. Then, remember, this unbelief insults God on a very tender point. He comes to the guilty sinner and says, "I am ready to forgive." The sinner says, "I do not believe Thee." "Hear Me," says the Lord. "What proof do you ask? See, I have given My only-begotten Son — He has died upon the tree to save sinners." "Still I do not believe Thee," says the unbeliever. Now, what further evidence can be given? Infinite mercy has gone its utmost length in giving the Saviour to bleed and die: God has laid bare His inmost heart in the wounds of His dying Son, and still He is not believed. Surely man has reached the climax of enmity to God in this: nothing proves the utter baseness of man so much as this refusal to believe his God, and nothing proves so much the greatness of almighty grace as that God should after all this condescend to work faith in a heart so depraved.

IV. THE FATE OF THE UNBELIEVER. If this man continues to say he cannot believe God, and that Christ is not to be trusted, what will happen to him? I wonder what the angels think must befall a being who calls God a liar? They see His glory, and as they see it they veil their faces, and cry, "Holy, holy, holy"; what horror would they feel at the idea of making God untrue! The saints in heaven when they see the glory of God fall down on their faces and adore Him. Ask them what they think must happen to those who persist in calling God a liar, and a liar in the matter of His mercy to rebels through Jesus Christ. As for me, I cannot conceive any punishment too severe for final unbelief. Nothing on earth or in heaven can save you except you believe in Jesus. Not only will the unbeliever be lost, but he will be lost by his unbelief. Thus saith the Lord, "He that believeth not is condemned already." Why? "Because he hath not believed on the Sod of God." Has he not committed a great deal else that will condemn him? Oh, yes, a thousand other sins are upon him, but justice looks for the most flagrant offence, that it may be written as a superscription over his condemned head, and it selects this monster sin and writes "condemned, because he hath not believed on the Son of God."

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