The Spurgeon Series 1855 & 1856. Charles H. Spurgeon
places and faith in Christ do seldom well agree. This great man said, “Impossible!,” and, with an insult to the prophet, he added, “If the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be.” His sin lay in the fact, that after having seen many miracles in Elisha’s ministry, he still disbelieved the assurances uttered by the prophet on God’s behalf. He had, doubtless, seen the marvellous defeat of Moab; he had been startled at tidings of the resurrection of the Shunammite’s son; he knew that Elisha had revealed Benhadad’s secrets and smitten his marauding hosts with blindness; he had seen the bands of Syria decoyed into the heart of Samaria; and he probably knew the story of the widow, whose oil filled all the vessels, and redeemed her sons; at all events the cure of Naaman was common conversation at court; and yet, in the face of all this accumulated evidence, in the teeth of all these credentials of the prophet’s mission, he still doubted, and insultingly told him that heaven must become an open casement, before the promise could be performed. Whereupon God pronounced his doom by the mouth of the man who had just now proclaimed the promise: “You shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it.” And providence — which always fulfils prophecy, just as the paper takes the stamp of the type — destroyed the man. Trodden down in the streets of Samaria, he perished at its gates, beholding the plenty, but not tasting it. Perhaps his attitude was haughty, and insulting to the people; or he tried to restrain their eager rush; or, as we would say, it might have been by mere accident that he was crushed to death; so that he saw the prophecy fulfilled, but never lived to enjoy it. In his case, seeing was believing, but it was not enjoying.
3. I shall this morning invite your attention to two things — the man’s sin and his punishment. Perhaps I shall say only a little about this man, since I have detailed the circumstances, but I shall discourse upon the sin of unbelief and the punishment of it.
4. I. And first, the SIN. His sin was unbelief. He doubted the promise of God. In this particular case unbelief took the form of a doubt of the divine veracity, or a mistrust of God’s power. Either he doubted whether God really meant what he said, or whether it was within the range of possibility that God would fulfil his promise. Unbelief has more phases than the moon, and more colours than the chameleon. Common people say about the devil, that he is seen sometimes in one shape, and sometimes in another. I am sure this is true of Satan’s firstborn child — unbelief, for its forms are legion. At one time I see unbelief decked out as an angel of light. It calls itself humility, and it says, “I would not be presumptuous; I would not dare to think that God would pardon me; I am too great a sinner.” We call that humility, and thank God that our friend is in so good a condition. I do not thank God for any such delusion. It is the devil dressed as an angel of light; it is unbelief after all. At other times we detect unbelief in the shape of a doubt of God’s immutability: “The Lord has loved me, but perhaps he will cast me off tomorrow. He helped me yesterday, and under the shadow of his wings I trust; but perhaps I shall receive no help in the next affliction. He may have cast me off; he may he unmindful of his covenant, and forget to be gracious.” Sometimes this infidelity is embodied in a doubt of God’s power. We see every day new problems, we are involved in a net of difficulties, and we think “surely the Lord cannot deliver us.” We strive to get rid of our burden, and finding that we cannot do it, we think God’s arm is as short as ours, and his power as little as human might. A fearful form of unbelief is that doubt which keeps men from coming to Christ; which leads the sinner to distrust the ability of Christ to save him, to doubt the willingness of Jesus to accept such a great transgressor. But the most hideous of all is the traitor, in its true colours, blaspheming God, and madly denying his existence. Infidelity, deism, and atheism, are the ripe fruits of this pernicious tree; they are the most terrific eruptions of the volcano of unbelief. Unbelief has become of full stature, when putting off the mask and laying aside the disguise, it profanely stalks the earth, uttering the rebellious cry, “No God,” striving in vain to shake the throne of the divinity, by lifting up its arm against Jehovah, and in its arrogance would
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Rejudge his justice — be the god of God.
Then truly unbelief has come to its full perfection, and then you see what it really is, for the least unbelief is of the same nature as the greatest.
5. I am astonished, and I am sure you will be, when I tell you that there are some strange people in the world who do not believe that unbelief is a sin. Strange people I must call them, because they are sound in their faith in every other respect; only, to make the articles of their creed consistent, as they imagine, they deny that unbelief is sinful. I remember a young man going into a circle of friends and ministers, who were disputing whether it was a sin in men that they did not believe the gospel. While they were discussing it, he said, “Gentlemen am I in the presence of Christians? Are you believers in the Bible, or are you not?” They said, “We are Christians of course.” “Then,” he said, “does not the Scripture say, ‘of sin, because they believed not on me?’ And is it not the damning sin of sinners, that they do not believe on Christ?” I could not have thought that people should be so foolhardy as to venture to assert that “it is no sin for a sinner not to believe on Christ.” I thought that, however far they might wish to push their sentiments, they would not tell a lie to uphold the truth, and, in my opinion, this is what such men are really doing. Truth is a strong tower and never requires to be buttressed with error. God’s Word will stand against all man’s devices. I would never invent a sophism to prove that it is no sin on the part of the ungodly not to believe, for I am sure it is, when I am taught in the Scriptures that, “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light,” and when I read, “He that does not believe is condemned already, because he does not believe on the Son of God,” I affirm, and the Word declares it, unbelief is a sin. Surely with rational and unprejudiced people, it cannot require any reasoning to prove it. Is it not a sin for a creature to doubt the word of its Maker? Is it not a crime and an insult to the Divinity, for me, an atom, a particle of dust, to dare to deny his words? Is it not the very summit of arrogance and extremity of pride for a son of Adam to say, even in his heart, as “God I doubt your grace; God I doubt your love; God I doubt your power?” Oh! sirs believe me, if you could roll all sins into one mass, — if you could take murder, and blasphemy, and lust, adultery, and fornication, and everything that is vile, and unite them all into one vast globe of black corruption, they would not equal even then the sin of unbelief. This is the monarch sin, the quintessence of guilt, the mixture of the venom of all crimes; the dregs of the wine of Gomorrha; it is the A 1 sin, the masterpiece of Satan, the chief work of the devil.
6. I shall attempt this morning, for a little while, to show the extremely evil nature of the sin of unbelief.
7. 1. And first the sin of unbelief will appear to be extremely heinous when we remember that it is the parent of every other iniquity. There is no crime which unbelief will not produce. I think that the fall of man is very much owing to it. It was in this point that the devil tempted Eve. He said to her, “Yes, has God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” He whispered and insinuated a doubt, “Yes, has God said so?” as much as to say, “Are you quite sure he said so?” It was by means of unbelief — that thin part of the wedge — that the other sin entered; curiosity and the rest followed; she touched the fruit, and destruction came into this world. Since that time, unbelief has been the prolific parent of all guilt. An unbeliever is capable of the vilest crime that ever was committed. Unbelief, sirs! why it hardened the heart of Pharaoh — it gave licence to the tongue of blaspheming Rabshakeh — yes, it became a deicide, and murdered Jesus. Unbelief! — it has sharpened the knife of the suicide! it has mixed many a cup of poison; thousands it has brought to the gallows; and many to a shameful grave, who have murdered themselves and rushed with bloody hands before their Creator’s tribunal, because of unbelief! Give me an unbeliever — let me know that he doubts God’s word — let me know that he distrusts his promise and his threatening; and with that for a premise, I will conclude that the man shall, by and by unless there is amazing restraining power exerted upon him, be guilty of the foulest and blackest crimes. Ah! this is a Beelzebub sin; like Beelzebub, it is the leader of all evil spirits. It is said of Jeroboam that he sinned and made Israel to sin; and