UNBELIEVERS
It is greatly
to be feared that there are multitudes in Christendom who verily imagine and
sincerely believe that they are among the saved, yet who are
total strangers to a work of divine grace in their hearts. It is one thing to have clear intellectual
conceptions of God's truth, it is quite another matter
to have a personal, real heart acquaintance with it. It is one thing to believe that sin is the
awful thing that the Bible says it is, but it is quite another matter to have a
holy horror and hatred of it in the soul.
It is one thing to know that God requires repentance,
it is quite another matter to experimentally mourn and groan over our vileness. It is one thing to believe that Christ is the
only Savior for sinners, it is quite another matter to
really trust Him from the heart. It is
one thing to believe that Christ is the sum of all excellency',
it is quite another matter to LOVE HIM above all others. It is one thing to believe that God is the
great and holy One, it is quite another matter to
truly reverence and fear Him. It is one
thing to believe that salvation is of the Lord, it is quite another matter to
become an actual partaker of it through His gracious workings.
No one, not
even the unredeemed, are ultimately outside the will
of God (Pr. 16:4; Rom. 9:14-18; 1 Pet. 2:7-8).
They are not forced to be lost, but choosing to reject God’s offer of
mercy does not somehow free them from the control of God. Even their rejection has been included in the
eternal plan of God. This is perhaps the
worst part of it for them. In their
attempt to be free from God by rejecting Him, even if at the cost of their own
souls, they find that there is no such thing.
The net of God’s providence includes even the vain attempt to be outside
the net.
Walter Elwell
Evangelical Dictionary of the Bible, Baker,
1996, p. 653.
God is not
hostile to sinners, but only to unbelievers.
Martin Luther
Leadership, v. 6, n. 1.
When we look
at the ungodly, we are not to hate them – but to pity them, mourn over them,
and pray for them. Nor have we any right
to boast over them; for, by nature, and of ourselves, we are no better than
they.
John Newton
Letters.
The average
person in the world today, without faith and without God and without hope, is
engaged in a desperate personal search throughout his lifetime. He does not
really know where he has been. He does
not really know what he is doing here and now. He does not know where he is
going. The sad commentary is that he is doing it all on borrowed time and
borrowed money and borrowed strength; and he already knows that in the end he
will surely die! Man, made more like God than any other creature, has become less
like God than any other creature. Created to reflect the glory of God, he has
retreated sullenly into his cave; reflecting only his own sinfulness. Certainly
it is a tragedy above all tragedies in this world that man, made with a soul to
worship and praise and sing to God's glory, now sulks silently in his cave.
A.W. Tozer
He is angry
with you this moment – and always. You
go to sleep with an angry God gazing into your face. You wake in the morning, and if your eye were
not dim, you would perceive His frowning countenance. He is angry with you even when you are
singing His praises, for you mock Him with solemn sounds upon a solemn
tongue. He is angry with you on your
knees, for you only pretend to pray; you utter words without heart. As long as you are not a believer, He must be
angry with you every moment (see Psalm 7:11).
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 17.538.
Tragedy
is anything that happens to a non-believer
Author Unknown
For
an act to be good, it must arise from good motives. And one of those motives
must be the glory of God. Where that motive is missing, every act has a fatal
flaw. An unsaved man may have some good motives in what he does. That is, he
may do something for the sake of others. That is fine, as far as it goes. We do
not want to deny that. But it does not go far enough. God
commands, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory
of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). But each thing the unbeliever does breaks this command. For that reason, he never once pleases
God.
Tom Wells
Christian: Take Heart! By Permission of the
Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. 1987, p. 86-87.
Scripture tells us that the state of an unconverted man
is this: he sees no great felicity in the love and communion of God in the life
to come, which may draw his heart thither from this present world; but he lives
to his carnal self, or to the flesh; and the main bent of his life is, that it
may go well with him on earth; and that religion which he has is but a little
by the by, lest he should be damned when he can keep the world no longer; so
that the world and the flesh are highest in his esteem, and nearest to his heart,
and God and glory stand below them, and all their service of God is but a
giving him that which the world and flesh can spare. This is the case of every
unconverted man; and all who are in this case are in a state of misery.
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 3, Part 3.
In all their jollity
in this world, they are but as a book fairly bound, which when it is opened is
full of nothing but tragedies. So when
the book of their consciences shall be once opened, there is nothing to be read
but lamentations and woes.
Richard Sibbes
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 308.
An unbeliever
shall have a double condemnation; one from the law which he hath transgressed,
and another from the gospel, which he hath despised: as a malefactor, that
being condemned and dead in law, rejecteth
his prince’s pardon. But it is otherwise
with these that are in Christ Jesus. The
law cannot condemn them, because they have appealed; the gospel cannot because
they have believed.
John Trapp
A Puritan
Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by
permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 309.