I now speak to all the ungodly men and women now present in this place of worship, it is a very solemn fact that you are at enmity with God—you are hostile to God; that having sinned against God, God is angry with you—not angry with you today, but angry with you every day, angry with you every hour and every moment. It is, moreover, a most sad and solemn fact that there is a day coming, when this anger of God will burst out, and when God will utterly destroy and devour you. Now listen to me for a moment, while I try to make all nature preach to you a solemn warning, and the wide world itself a great high priest, holding up its finger and calling you to flee for mercy to Jesus Christ, the King of kings.
Sinner, have you ever seen the clouds as they roll along the sky? Those clouds are the dust of the feet of Jehovah. If these clouds are but the dust, what is he himself? And then, I ask you, are you not extremely foolish to be at war with such a God as this? If “the clouds are the dust of his feet, how foolish you are to be his enemy. Do you think you can stand before his majesty? I tell you, he will snap your spear as if it were nothing but a reed. Will you hide yourself in the mountains? They will be melted at his presence; and though you cry to the rocks to hide you, they would fail to give you any concealment before his burning eyes. O, do but consider, my dear fellow creatures, you who are at war with God, wouldn’t it be folly if you were to oppose an angel? Would it not be the utmost stupidity if you were to commence a war even with her majesty the Queen? I know it would, because you have no power to stand against them; but consider how much more mighty is the Eternal God. Why, he could put his finger upon you at this moment and crush you as I could an insect. Yet this God is your enemy; you are hating him, you are at war with him!
Moreover, consider, unsaved man and unsaved woman, that you have grievously rebelled against him; that you have incensed his soul, and he is angry, and jealous, and furious against every sinner. Consider what you will do in that great day of wrath, when God will fall upon you. Some of you believe in a god that has no anger, and no hatred towards the wicked. Such a god is not the God of Scripture? He is a God who punishes the ungodly. Let me ask you sinner: Can you stand before his indignation? Can you endure the fierceness of his anger? When his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him, will it be a good thing to be in the hands of the Almighty, who will tear you apart? Will you think it easy to lie down in hell with the breath of the Eternal fanning the flames? Will you delight yourself to think that God will create new torments for you, sinner, to make your doom most cursed if you do not repent and turn to him? What, wicked man and wicked woman, are the terrors of Jehovah nothing to you? Don’t you tremble and shake before the fierceness of his fury? Ah! you may laugh now; you may go away, my listener, and smile at what I have said; but the day will declare it: the hour is coming—and it may be soon—when the iron hand of the Almighty will be upon you; when all your senses will be the gates of misery, your body the house of weeping, and your soul the epitome of woe. Then you will not laugh and despise God.
But now to finish up, let me just give you one word more; for, beloved, why do we use these threats; why do we speak of them? It is only the words of the angel, who, grabbing Lot by the shoulder, said, “Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” [Genesis 19:17], and then pointing to the fire behind, said, Run! run! lest the fire overtakes you, and the hail of the Eternal will overwhelm you! We only mentioned that fire behind, that the Spirit might make you flee to the mountain lest you should be consumed. Do you ask where that mountain is? We tell you there is a cleft in the Rock of Ages where the chief of sinners may yet hide himself—Jesus Christ came down from heaven for us men and women, in order to provide salvation for us; and whoever here this morning is an unsaved sinner, we now invite to come to Christ. You Pharisees who don’t believe you need a savior, I preach no gospel to you; you self-righteous, self-sufficient ones, I have nothing whatever to say to you, except what I have said—the voice of threatening. But, whoever will confess themselves a sinner, has the warrant this morning to come to Jesus Christ. Knowing that you are a sinner in need of a Savior is the gate to salvation. If you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners, Christ died for you. And if you put your trust in him, and believed that he died for you, you may rely upon him, and say, “Lord, I will be saved by your grace.” Your own “good works” are good for nothing; you can get no benefit by them. Your own work is useless; you error like the man in the prison working the treadmill—you never get anything by it—grinding oyster shells without any benefit to yourself. Come to Jesus Christ. Believe in him; and after you have believed in him, he will set you working—working a new work. He will give you works, if you will have but faith—even faith is his gift to you. O may he give it to you now, my listeners, for; “He gives generously to all without finding fault” [James 1:5]. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be baptized, and you will be saved.”
Charles Spurgeon
