The Two Effects of the Gospel

worlddic.com

2 Corinthians 2:15-16

For we are to God a sweet smell of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:…

I. THE GOSPEL PRODUCES DIFFERENT EFFECTS. There is scarcely ever a good thing in the world of which some little evil is not the consequence. Let the sun pour down floods of light on the tropics, and the choicest fruits shall ripen, and the fairest flowers shall bloom, but who does not know that there the most venomous reptiles are also brought forth? So the gospel, although it is God's best gift.

1. The gospel is to some men "a savour of death unto death."(1) Many men are hardened in their sins by hearing it. Those who can dive deepest into sin, and have the most quiet consciences, are some who are to be found in God's own house. There are many who make even God's truth a stalking-horse for the devil, and abuse God's grace to palliate their sin. There is nothing more liable to lead men astray than a perverted gospel. A truth perverted is generally worse than a doctrine which all know to be false.

(2) It will increase some men's damnation at the last great day.

(a) Because men sin against greater light; and the light we have is an excellent measure of our guilt. What a Hottentot might do without a crime would be the greatest sin to me, because I am taught better. If he who is blind falls into the ditch we can pity him, but if a man with the light on his eyeballs dashes himself from the precipice and loses his own soul, is not pity out of the question?

(b) It must increase your condemnation if you oppose the gospel. If God devises a scheme of mercy and man rises up against it, how great must be his sin!

(3) It makes some men in this world more miserable than they would be. How happily could the libertine drive on his mad career, if he were not told, "The wages of sin is death, and after death the judgment!"The gospel is to others "a savour of life unto life."

(1)  Here it confers spiritual life on the dead in trespasses and sins.

(2)  In heaven it issues in eternal life.

II. THE MINISTER IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS SUCCESS. He is responsible for what he preaches; he is accountable for his life and actions, but he is not responsible for other people. "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, as well in them that perish as in the saved." An ambassador is not responsible for the failure of his embassy of peace, nor a fisherman for the quantity of fish he catches, nor a sower for the harvest, but only for the faithful discharge of their respective duties. So the gospel minister is only responsible for the faithful delivery of his message, for the due lowering of the gospel net, for the industrious sowing of the gospel seed.

worlddic.com