By Charles Spurgeon
It is not optional to men to accept or refuse it at pleasure. "Now God commands all people everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). He also commands them to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).
To refuse to believe is to incur great sin (John 16:8).
There is a death penalty attached to disobedience (Mark 16:16).
It is so put:
- To secure the honor of God. It is not the offer of an equal to an equal, but of the great God to a condemned sinner.
- To embolden the proclaimer of it. The minister now speaks boldly with his Master's authority.
- To remind man of his obligations. Repentance and faith are natural duties from which the gospel does not exonerate a man, although it blesses him by bestowing them upon him.
- To encourage the humble seeker. He must be at full liberty to believe in Jesus, since he is commanded to do so and threatened if he does not do so.
- To suggest to men the urgent duty of seeing to their soul's welfare. Suicide, whether of the body or of the soul, is always a great crime. To neglect the great salvation is a grave offense.
The gospel is set forth as a feast, to which men are bound to come under penalty of the King's displeasure (Matt. 22:1-7).
The prodigal was right in returning to his father; and if he was right in doing so, so would each one of us be in doing the same.
HT: The Resurgence
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