“The wage of sin is
death,
but the free gift of God is eternal
through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, NLT)
It is amazing that preachers today hesitate to talk
about the wrath of God and the consequence of sinners breaking the Law of God,
for fear of making sinners feel (rightly) fearful. Often times we heard the message of grace without
knowing the real conditions of the sinners without Christ. No Law. No sin. Only
grace. Only forgiveness. What kind of preaching
is that? Charles Haddon Spurgeon is not like that. Even though he is long
dead, his sermons and writings are full of the Scripture knowledge and wisdom
that when I read it, I always moved and touched by his words. This long quote
is one of those, he wrote about the reason sinners live (as you know by God’s
holy standards we should all be dammed and die!). He pleads the people and
maybe to you today to:
“Read the Ten Commandments, pause at each one, and confess that you have
broken it in either thought or words or deeds. Remember that by a glance, we
may commit adultery; by a thought, we may be guilty of murder; by a desire, we
may steal. Sin is any want to conformity to perfect holiness, and that want of
conformity is justly chargeable upon every one of us.
Yet the Lord does not, under the Gospel dispensation,
deal with us according to the Law. He does not now sit on the throne of
judgment, but He looks down upon us from the throne of grace. Not the iron rod,
but the silver scepter, is held over us. The long-suffering of God rules the
age, and Jesus the Mediator is the gracious Lord – lieutenant of the
dispensation. Instead of destroying
offending man from off the face of the earth, the Lord comes near to us in
loving condescension, and pleads with us by His Spirit, saying, ‘You have
sinned, but my Son has died. In Him, I am prepared to deal with you in a way of
pure mercy and unmingled grace.’
O sinner, the fact that you are alive proves that God
is not dealing with you according to strict justice, but in patient
forbearance; every moment you live is another instance of omnipotent
long-suffering. It is the sacrifice of Christ that arrests the axe of justice,
which else must execute you. The barren tree is separated because the great
Dresser of the vineyard, who bled on Calvary ,
intercedes and cries, ‘Let it alone this year also.’
O my hearer, it is through the shedding
of the blood and the mediatorial reign of the Lord Jesus that you are at this
moment on praying ground and pleading terms with God! Apart from
the blood of atonement, you would now be past hope, shut up forever in the
place of doom. But see how the great Father bears with you! He stands prepared
to hear your prayer, to accept you confession of sin, to honor your faith, and
to save you from your sin through the sacrifice of His dear Son.”
[Taken from Ray Comfort’s Spurgeon Gold: Pure. Refined (Alachua , USA
To this I say, ‘Amen.’
THINK
BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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