Nominal Christians -- Real Infidels

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John 8:38-47

I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do that which you have seen with your father.…

We mourn over the professed unbelief of the age, but the practical unbelief of professed Christians is more dangerous and lamentable. This is seen in the number of theoretical believers who are still an. converted, and in those Protestant Churches who say, "The Bible alone is our religion," and yet adopt practices which are not found in it or which it condemns. To deal with the former class:

I. THE TEXT SETS FORTH YOUR INCONSISTENCY. If you say,I am not converted because I do not believe in the mission of Christ and in the inspiration of Scripture, your position is consistent though terrible, but where you believe in both and remain unconverted, your position is extraordinarily inconsistent. Remember that —

1. Christ has revealed your need —

(1)  Of regeneration.

(2)  Of conversion.

(3)  Of returning to God. And you believe it all. Why, then, not act upon it?

2. Christ has set forth His claims. He demands:

(1)  Repentance — change of mind with reference to sin, holiness, Himself.

(2)  Faith which will accept Him as the sole Saviour and possessor of the soul. Are these demands hard? If they be just, why not accede to them?

3. Christ provides the remedy for your soul. He did not preach a gospel out of the reach of sinners, but a real, ready and available salvation. You profess this is true. Why not then receive it? The medicine offered will cure you, and you will not receive it, although you know its healing virtue.

4. Christ reveals the freeness of His grace. You say Yes." Why then stand shivering and refusing to lay hold? If the gospel were hedged with thorns or guarded with bayonets, you would do well to fling yourself upon them, but when the door is opened and Christ woos you to come, how is it you do not enter?

5. Christ points out the danger of unregenerate souls. No preacher was ever so awfully explicit on future punishment. You do not suspect Him of exaggeration. Why then do ye not believe Him? Ye do not; that is clear. You would not sit so quietly if you really believed that in an instant you might be in hell.

6. Christ has brought life and immortality to light. What glowing pictures does the Word of God give of the state of the blessed. You believe that Jesus has revealed what eye hath not seen, etc. If you believed it you would strive to enter into the straight gate. If Christ's word be no fiction, how can you remain as you are?

II. YOU OFFER SOME DEFENCE OF YOUR INCONSISTENCY, BUT IT DOES NOT MEET THE CASE.

1. "I do not feel myself entitled to come to Christ, because I do not feel my need as I should." This is no excuse. In matters relating to the body we feel first, and then believe. My hand smarts, and therefore I believe it has been wounded. But in soul matters we believe first and feel afterwards. A mother cannot feel grief for the loss of her child till she believes she has lost it, and it is impossible for her to believe that and not to weep. So if you believed in your heart sin to be as dreadful as God says it is, you would feel conviction and repentance necessary.

2. "I do not see how faith can save me." Here, again, is no excuse. Who says that faith saves? The Bible says Christ saves whom faith accepts.

3. You think the good things promised too good to be true; that conscious of being a lost sinner you have not the presumption to believe that if you were to trust Christ now you would be forgiven. What is this but to think meanly of God? You think He has but little mercy, whereas the Book which you allow to be true tells you that "though your sins be as scarlet," etc.

4. You are not quite sure that the promise is made to you. But God did not send you the Bible to play with you, and do not the invitations say, "Whosoever will?"

5. You will think of this, but the time has not yet come. If you believed as the Bible describes that life is short, death certain, and eternity near, you would cry out, "Lord, save, or I perish."

III. THE REAL REASON WHY SOME DO NOT BELIEVE (ver. 45). Some of you do not believe the truth.

1. Simply because it is the truth. Some make it because it is too severe, e.g., "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

2. The Pharisees hated God's truth deliberately. You say, "I do not do that." But how long does it take to make an action deliberate. Some of you have heard the gospel forty years, and prove that you hate the truth by living in sin. You, young man, were impressed the other Sunday that you must yield to God. A companion meets you, and you did deliberately choose your own damnation when you chose sin.

3. But the Pharisees scoffed at it. Yes; and is your silent contempt any better. Conclusion: If these things be true, why not believe in them? What hinders?

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