You spit into the very face of God!
(Charles Spurgeon, "The Essence of the Gospel")
Do you not see, O unbeliever, how the matter stands? The infinite Lord of mercy, that you might not perish, has devised a wondrous way of salvation, which has astonished cherubim and seraphim, and made heaven ring with song; and this you utterly reject!
When you imagine that your church goings and good works will save you, you set a low estimate upon what Jesus did. These very actions of yours, which you think to be good, are setting up an Antichrist in opposition to Him, upon which He looks with abhorrence.
God says He will save by Christ, and in no other way!
And so long as you seek salvation another way, you do as it were, spit into the very face of God by the insolence of your self righteousness!
That God should send a Savior, His one and only Son, the Lord of heaven and earth; and that He should come with testimony of love, the love of God to sinners, and seal that testimony with His blood; and that men should refuse to believe in Him, is the most monstrous iniquity that could be imagined!
O sinner! Will you spurn almighty love?
Can you turn away from boundless mercy?
You must be infinitely wicked, you must be enormously, monstrously, diabolically at enmity with God, or else surely a blessing so precious you would not slight, a plan of mercy so adapted to your condition you could not have the impertinence to reject.
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." John 3:36
Solemn words! Hear them and tremble!
This is no idle threat!
The Lord has power to fulfill His sentence.
What power have you to resist it?
Who is there that can help you to withstand Him?
You are utterly in His hands, you cannot break prison and escape. If you climbed up to heaven He is there; if you dived to hell He is there; the whole universe is but one great prison for an enemy of God!
You cannot escape Him, neither can you resist Him. If your bones were granite and your heart were steel, His fires would melt down your spirit. Against Him you can no more stand than the chaff against the fire, or the dust against the whirlwind.
O that you would feel this and desist from your insane rebellion!
O unbeliever! God is angry with you now. This statement is no invention of mine, it is written by the pen of inspiration that "God is angry with the wicked every day: if he does not turn, He will whet His sword: He has bent His bow, and made it ready."
God is more angry with some of you than He is with some already in hell!
An angry God holds you over the gulf of hell; justice demands that you fall into it, and it is nothing but His mercy that keeps you out of it. He has but to will it, and before the clock shall tick again, you who are condemned already would be forever where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched!
God's wrath, though it has not come on you yet, is like a stream that is dammed up. Every moment it gathers force, every hour it is swelling the dyke. Each day, and each moment of each day in which you remain an unbeliever, you are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath when the measure of your iniquity is full.
How earnestly would I persuade you to escape from condemnation!
It is not within the power of thought to conceive what God's wrath is! No language, even though it should make both the ears to tingle, can ever fully express it.I am not one of those who would so delude your poor souls, O unbelievers, as to make you think it a light thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
O turn! turn! turn! Why will you die?
Oh, why do you stand out against Jesus, and pull down upon your heads the wrath of an angry God?
"I will think about it," says one. Think about it! You will think yourself into hell before long!