Suppose a cup of sweet poison were put into our hands

(Charles Simeon)  LISTEN to audio!  Download Audio

"They do not consider in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness.
 Now their own sinful deeds have engulfed them. They are before My face!" Hosea 7:2

The unsaved think, "God does not see us. Neither will the Almighty regard it!"
But God both sees all their wickedness, and will remember it in order to a future retribution!

That the unsaved do not consider either the omnipresence of God, nor His omniscience, is obvious. For could they sin with so much abandon, if they did? Or could they maintain such tranquility of mind, after having committed sin? Would not the thought of God's eye being always upon them, cast some restraint upon their sinful pleasures? Would not the expectation of a future recompense, occasion some uneasiness?

Suppose a cup of sweet poison were put into our hands, and we were informed that within a few hours after we drank it, we would be racked with inexpressible agony; and in the space of one day, we would die in excessive torment! Would we not ponder for a moment, before we ventured to drink it?

And supposing us foolish enough to sacrifice our lives for this momentary sweet gratification, would we not put the cup to our lips with a trembling hand? And after we had swallowed the contents, would we not feel some concern, some regret, some sense of our folly? Could we go away and laugh at what we had done, and boast of it, and encourage our friends to do the same? Would not a few moments of consideration, turn us from the fatal temptation?

Much more therefore, should we be affected with a dread of future sin, and a sorrow for past sins—if we considered that God is privy to our thoughts and actions, and that He will certainly remember them to our everlasting dismay!

Nor is it only the act of of theft, or murder, or adultery, that God will remember—but the look, the desire, the thought; yes all our wickednesses, of whatever kind or whatever degree!

Remember! God sees us, though we think ourselves to be hidden from His sight.
God marks our every thought, though we have no regard of Him.

Unbeliever! God has an iron memory! However long ago any of your sins may have been committed, they are as fresh in God's memory, and as hateful in His sight—as if they are being committed this very moment before His face!

Remember that your thoughtlessness in this life, will certainly result in continued and painful reflections in Hell. Yes, as soon as you come into the eternal world, you shall have a perfect view of all your past wickedness! You shall see sin as God sees it, in all its enormity and with all its aggravations.

The sins of thought, as well as of act; the sins of omission, as well as of commission—will all be open to your view; and there will be no possibility of diverting your attention from them.

God bids you now to consider; and you will not. But what shall you do in that day when He shall answer your cries for mercy with this severe rebuke, "Son, remember!" Luke 16:25

Lifting up your eyes in torment, you will then remember:
  all the sins you have committed,
  all the warnings you have neglected,
  and all the mercies you have abused!

O sad remembrance! O dreary prospect of unalterable and irremediable misery!

Christian! A sense of the Divine presence will be an excellent preservative from sin. If at the close of every day, we would call ourselves to an account of how we have spent the day, and what God had recorded concerning us in His book of remembrance—then we would certainly abstain from many sins which we now commit without thought or remorse!

In the name of God then, I entreat you all, "Consider your ways!" Haggai 1:5, 7