|
Nominal Christians...
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"A SERMON TO OPEN NEGLECTERS AND NOMINAL
FOLLOWERS OF RELIGION"
Many give a 'notional assent' to the gospel.
If I were to mention any doctrine, they would say, "Yes, that is
true- I believe that." But their 'heart' does not believe- they do
not believe the gospel in the core of their nature, for if they did,
it would have an 'effect' upon them.
A man may say, "I believe my house is on fire," but if he goes
to bed and falls to sleep, it does not look as if he believed it,
for when a man's house is on fire he tries to escape.
If some of you really believed that there is a hell, and that
there is a heaven, (as you believe other secular things),
you would act very differently from what you now do.
You know that you must be born again, but you are still
strangers to the new birth. You are as religious as the seats you
sit on, but no more; and you are as likely to get to heaven as
those seats are, but not one whit more, for you are dead in sin,
and death cannot enter heaven.
You are like dunghills with snow upon them--
while the snow lasts you look white and fair, but when
the snow melts, the dunghill remains a dunghill still!
|