THE APPALLING SIN OF UNBELIEF IN JESUS CHRIST

"He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God."— John iii. 18.

The failure to put faith in Jesus Christ is not a mere misfortune, it is a sin, a grievous sin, an appalling sin, a damning sin. " He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Men will tell you very lightly and laughingly, " I do not believe in Jesus Christ." Indeed, men will tell you with an airy toss of the head, as if it were something of which they were quite proud, " I do not believe in Jesus Christ." Few men are so foolish and so blind, or so utterly depraved, as to tell you laughingly or proudly, " I am a murderer," or, " I am an adulterer," or, " I am an habitual liar," yet none of these is a sadder nor darker confession than " I am an unbeliever in Jesus Christ." Believing or not believing in Jesus Christ is largely a matter of the will, and not altogether nor largely a matter of intellectual conviction. There are those who imagine it is wholly a matter of intellectual conviction whether one believes or does not believe in Jesus Christ. The one who thinks so is a very superficial thinker. There are very few people in this audience to-night who have not sufficient evidence that Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of those who really believe in Him, if they were only willing to yield themselves to the evidence. The will plays a very large part in what a man believes politically, and the will plays a still larger part in believing on Jesus Christ. The men and women who believe on Jesus Christ believe on Him because they will to yield to the truth, and to believe on Him who is so clearly and so abundantly proven to be God's Son. Those who do not believe on Jesus Christ do not believe on Him because they, for the love of sin, or for some other reason, will not yield to the truth and accept Him as Saviour and Lord, who is so abundantly proven to be the Son of God. Most of you who do not believe on Jesus Christ know that this is true of yourselves. You know that your refusal to accept Jesus Christ is not because you have grave reasons for believing that Jesus Christ is not what He claims to be. You know it is because you do not want to accept Him, and surrender your life to Him and confess Him. Now, this is a great sin; a greater sin than any you can commit against any fellowman, either by lying to him, or stealing from him, or killing him; a greater sin than falsehood, theft, or murder. If you will give me your honest attention, I will prove to you that this is so. Now don't try to get away from the truth by getting out of the house, or whispering to someone else, or refusing to listen, or laughing contemptuously. If you do, you will do it to your own eternal ruin. If I am right in this matter, and if the Bible is right, it is of infinite importance that you know it: so listen carefully and candidly.

I. Unbelief in Jesus Christ is an appalling sin because of whom Jesus Christ is, because of the dignity of His person. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The only begotten Son of God. He is the Son of God in a sense that no other person is the Son of God. He is the effulgence of His Father's glory, and the express image of His person (Heb. i. 3, R.V.). In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead in a bodily form (Col. ii. 9). He is the One of whom God the Father said, " Let all the angels of God worship Him" (Heb. i. 6). Of Him the Father says that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father (John v. 23). A dignity attaches to the person of Jesus Christ that attaches to no angel or archangel, to none of the principalities or powers in the heavenly places. His is the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. ii. 10). An injury done to Jesus Christ is then a sin of vastly greater magnitude than a sin done to man. A horse, a cow, or a mule has rights, but the rights of a horse, or a cow, or a mule are of very inconsiderable moment when compared to the rights of a man. The law recognises the rights of a mule, but the wilful killing of a mule is not regarded as so serious as the wilful putting out of a man's eye. But the rights of a man, even of the purest, noblest, greatest of men, pale into more utter insignificance before the rights of that infinite being whom we call God, and His infinite Son Jesus Christ, than do the rights of a horse, or cow, or mule, or earthworm before the rights of man. To realise the enormity of a sin committed against Jesus Christ we must strive to get some adequate conception of the dignity and majesty of His person. When we do, then we see that to rob this infinitely glorious Person by our unbelief of that honour which is His due is a sin in comparison with which the rankest injustice or enormity committed against man is as nothing. What was it that struck conviction to the hearts of 3000 men on the Day of Pentecost and made them cry out in agony, " Men and brethren, what must we do? " (Acts ii. 37). It was this — Peter, filled with the Spirit, told them who Jesus was. He said, " Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts ii. 36). Their eyes were opened at last to see the glory, the dignity, the majesty of the Person of Him whom they had so outrageously wronged. All the sins of their lifetime were instantly seen to be nothing in comparison with this sin. And if you to-night will permit God to open your eyes to see who Jesus is, to see the infinite dignity, glory, and majesty of His Divine Person, you will see that every conceivable wrong done to any mere man is nothing to the wrong done to this august Person. You may refuse to-night to let God open your eyes to the infinite glory of Jesus, you may say I don't see that He is essentially greater than other men or that His rights are more sacred than those of Longfellow, or Lincoln, or Washington, or my next-door neighbour, but the day will come when you will have to see. The day will come when the full glory of Jesus will be unveiled to the whole universe, and in that day, if you will not repent now and receive pardon for your awful sin of unbelief in this glorious Son of God, you will be overwhelmed with eternal shame. You will cry for the rocks and the hills to fall upon you and hide you from the wrath of Him that sitteth upon the throne of the universe, and the wrath of the Lamb. You will wish to rush out from the presence of that ineffable glory even into eternal darkness if it shall only be away from the presence of Him whom you have so grievously wronged. On and on and on you would wish to flee, away, away, away, eternally away from the outraged Son of God. One night God gave me such a vision of the glory of Jesus Christ that I saw the appalling nature of sin against Him, this infinitely glorious One. Men and women, you may not have had such a vision, nor do you need to have it, for you know what God's own testimony regarding Jesus is. That testimony is in His book. In the light of that testimony you may know, if you will, that the most grievous wrong against man — theft, adultery, murder — is as nothing. It is for this reason that our text says, " He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

II. In the second place, unbelief in Jesus Christ is an appalling sin, not only because of the dignity of Christ's person, but also because faith is the supreme thing which is His due. Jesus is worthy of many things. He is worthy of our admiration, He is worthy of our attention, He is worthy of our obedience, He is worthy of our service, He is worthy of our testimony, He is worthy of our love — all these things are His due. Not to give Him these things is to rob Him of His due, to rob a Being of infinite importance of His due. But first of all, underlying all else, above all else, Jesus Christ is worthy of faith; man's confidence is due Jesus Christ. He is infinitely worthy of the surrender to Himself of the confidence of our intellects, our feelings, our wills. It is due to Him that you go to Him and say, " Lord Jesus, thou infinite Son of God, I surrender to Thee my mind's utter faith, the utter confidence of my heart and of my will." He is worthy of that, that is His due, His first great due. If you refuse to do that — and many of you have refused to do it, week after week, and month after month, and year after year — you have robbed Jesus Christ. You have robbed this glorious Divine Person of His first and greatest right, robbed a Divine Person of His supreme due. So it is written in our text, " He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

III. In the third place, unbelief in Jesus Christ is an appalling sin, because Jesus Christ is the incarnation of all the infinite moral perfections of God's own being. " God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." This infinite, absolute light which God is, this infinite holiness and love and truth, is incarnate in Jesus Christ, and the refusal to accept Him is the refusal of light, and choice of darkness. It is the clearest possible proof that the one who rejects Him loves darkness rather than light. Nothing more clearly proves what a man is at heart than what he chooses and what he rejects. A man who chooses foul books, foul pictures, foul friends, is a foul man whatever his pretensions maybe. A man who rejects the good, the pure, the true, is bad, is impure, is false. To reject Christ is to reject the infinite light of God, and reveals a heart that is so corrupt that it loves darkness rather than light. So it is written in our text, " He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.)" Unbelief in Jesus Christ is indeed an appalling sin.

IV. Unbelief in Jesus Christ is an appalling sin, in the fourth place, because it is trampling under foot the infinite love and mercy of God. Jesus Christ is the supreme expression of God's love and mercy to sinners. (John iii. 16: " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.") We have all broken God's holy laws and thus brought the wrath of the Holy One upon ourselves, but God still loves us and, instead of banishing us for ever from His presence into the outer darkness where there is only agony and despair, He has provided a way of salvation for us. He provided that way at infinite cost to Himself. His saving love had no limit, it stopped at no sacrifice, He gave His best, His only begotten Son, to redeem us. All that we need to do to be saved is to believe on that Son, to put our trust in the pardoning mercy and love of God thus revealed. But instead of believing, and thus obtaining eternal life, what are many of you here to-night doing? You are not believing, you are rejecting this love and its provision. You are despising and trampling under foot the salvation which God has so dearly purchased and offered to you. You are scorning and insulting infinite love and mercy. That is what unbelief in Jesus Christ is, it is scorn and contempt and insult to infinite, pardoning love. Every man or woman here to-night, young and old, who does not render the faith of their whole being to Jesus Christ, who does not receive Him as the Son of God, as their Lord and Saviour, is guilty of scorning and insulting the infinite, pardoning love of God. Some of you go even beyond that; you try to make yourselves believe that Jesus is not the Son of God; you try to make yourselves believe that there is no need of an atonement; you laugh at the sacrifice the loving Father has made in order that you, His guilty, hell-deserving subjects, might be saved. Yes, there are men and women in this very audience that do this. There are thousands in Birmingham who do it. One sometimes almost wonders why the outraged love of God does not turn to blazing wrath, and why God does not blast the world of Christ-rejecting men with the breath of His mouth. Unbelief in Jesus Christ is an appalling sin because it is scorn and contempt for infinite love.

There are other reasons why unbelief in Jesus Christ is an appalling sin, but here are four tremendous reasons and they are enough: — First, Because of the infinite dignity of His person. Second, Because that faith is His supreme due, and not to give it is to rob a Divine person of His supreme due. Third, Because Jesus Christ is the incarnation of all the infinite moral perfection of God's own being. Fourth, Because it is trampling under foot the infinite love and mercy of God.

Men and women, it is as clear as day that unbelief in Jesus Christ is an appalling sin. Theft is a gross sin, adultery is worse, murder is shocking, but when our eyes are opened we see that all these are as nothing to the violation of the dignity and majesty of the person of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, by our unbelief. How God must abhor the sin of unbelief! How the holy angels in heaven must abhor the sin of unbelief! How all holy men and women must abhor the sin of unbelief! And of this awful, appalling sin, many of you whom I address to-night are guilty. Not only the gross infidel and the refined sceptic are guilty of this sin, but everyone who holds back from giving to Jesus the whole-hearted surrender of his whole self, mind, affections, and will, all who fail to gladly welcome Him as Saviour and Lord, all of you are guilty of this appalling sin tonight. Do not some of you cry out as did the 3000 at Pentecost, "What must we do?" Then it is because of the hardness of your heart. Soften those hearts of stone; publicly confess your awful sin tonight; forsake it to-night. Don't rest another day under such awful guilt. We see why it is that unbelief leads to eternal doom. We see why it is that no matter how many good things a man may do, if he refuses to believe in Jesus Christ he must forever perish. Men and women, give up your awful unbelief in Jesus Christ, and accept Him to-night.