The gospel is the good news about the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. It is the truth that God has not abandoned us to our sins but has acted through the sending of his Son who became man in the incarnation to die for sinners. It is the proclamation that Jesus is God incarnate and the risen Lord of all. He is the only way to God because he alone died for sinners on the cross. By his death and resurrection, he defeated sin, death, and Satan. The gospel calls all men to faith and repentance because there is no other way to God. Christ is now seated at the right hand of God the Father and will come again one day to judge the living and the dead.
Our Need for the Gospel
We are desperately in need of the gospel because sin has alienated us from God and made us his enemies (Rom 5:10). All sin is heinous because it is the rebellion of the creature against his creator. It is divine treason against the one who has only shown love to us.[1] Man’s rebellion against his maker demands punishment because a just judge must punish sin. No sin is small because every sin is against a great God.[2] Your worst enemy is inside of you, not outside you.[3] Man’s greatest problem is not ignorance, but rebellion. While Eastern and gnostic religions teach that there is a secret knowledge that leads to salvation, Christianity teaches that we need a person to save us. We cannot be our own saviors.
Often, when people speak about sin, they will talk about their “personal demons” that they are trying to get rid of. While it might sound biblical, it is a way for them to remove responsibility for their sins. The message being communicated is that it is not them who are in rebellion against God, but the demons inside them. It is another way of saying, “The devil made me do it.” But this emphasis on the demonic nature of sin and addiction is more true than they realize. Every sin is against God himself who is by nature holy, righteous, and good. John Bunyan once said, “Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.”[4] While we are much better at seeing other people’s sins than our own, we must admit that we are our own worst enemy. This is what led Augustine to pray, “Lord, deliver me from an evil man, myself.”[5]
Every sin turns the gifts of God into idols which turn us away from God. Idolatry is at the root of every sin and self-centered pride is the motivation for this idolatry. As John Piper reminds us, God has made a separation between sin and joy:
“What makes the gospel good news is not that Christ can be buried in our TV-saturated lives without the loss of joy. What makes it good news is that God is long-suffering and willing to forgive and start over with us again and again.”[6]
Seeking to find our happiness in entertainment instead of God is an act of idolatry because we are exchanging God for something in creation. As Paul David Tripp explains:
“Human beings always worship someone or something. This is not a situation where some people worship and some don’t. If God isn’t ruling my heart, someone or something else will. It is the way we were made. . . . Sin is fundamentally idolatrous. I do wrong things because my heart desires something more than the Lord.”[7]
Sin deceives us into thinking that we are either gods or beasts.[8] We are deluded into thinking that we determine our own destiny and therefore have the right to give into every appetite as an animal would without fear of judgment. As Tripp explains, sin turns us into practical atheists: “Sin is functionally atheistic and anti-social. Because it reduces my focus to me, it blinds me both to God and to others.”[9] Imagine a world in which you were the only person who mattered. If the world revolved around us, that would be a terrible world to live in. Pretending to live as if this is true creates an environment that is loveless, cold, shallow, and indifferent to the suffering of others. Addiction turns our focus inward as if maximizing our pleasure is the only thing that matters. This quest for pleasure has then consumed our mind and become an idol. As Charles Spurgeon proclaims:
“Whatever a man depends upon, whatever rules his mind, whatever governs his affections, whatever is the chief object of his delight, is his god. . . . If you love anything better than God you are idolaters: if there is anything you would not give up for God it is your idol: if there is anything that you seek with greater fervor than you seek the glory of God, that is your idol, and conversion means a turning from every idol.”[10]
We have turned from God to other things to find meaning, purpose, and identity. We have become content without God as we bury ourselves in the many different entertainment options available to us while neglecting the one who alone can give us lasting happiness. This is the message of C. S. Lewis:
“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”[11]
The worst thing God could do to you is to give you over to your sin so that you keep on making mud pies in the slum. As God said through Hosea: “I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery. . . . Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone” (Hos 4:14, 17). This is why Jeremiah Burroughs teaches, “The greatest misery of all is for God to give you up to your heart’s lusts and desires, to give you up to your own counsels.”[12] By not correcting your sin, God is allowing you to wallow in it until the day of judgment.
The Reality of Self-Deception
There are multitudes in hell now who thought they would be in heaven. They thought they were Christians, but did not understand that true Christianity is a matter of the heart. As Thomas Watson warns us, “The hypocrite deceives others while he lives, but deceives himself when he dies.”[13] Those who are born again desire to walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:5-6). This is not sinless perfection, but an ever-increasing love for God throughout the course of our life. It is moving away from love of sin toward love of God. Our actions reveal the condition of our heart (Matt 15:19). The difference between a Christian and a hypocrite is that a Christian repents of his sins. As William Gurnall says, “A sheep may fall into a ditch, but it is the swine that wallows in it.”[14] It is only through the miracle of regeneration that a pig can become a child of God. Those who never repent of their sins demonstrate that they have never experienced the new birth just as a pig keeps on going back into the mud after washing (2 Pet 2:22). A pig acts like a pig because he is a pig. A sinner acts like a sinner because he is a sinner by nature. His nature must be changed in order to love God and his law (Rom 8:5-9). As a tree is known by its fruit, a hypocrite is known by his unrepentant sin (Luke 6:43-46).
No one wants to go to hell. But how many of them want to go to heaven to worship and serve God? We have created a folklore version of heaven that revolves around us and all the fun things we get to do. But where is God in all this? Heaven is centered around the worship of Christ (Rev 5:12-14). The saints in glory will be content with Christ because he is the only one who can give them contentment. But the hypocrite has no relish for the things of God. Watson elaborates on the differences between a hypocrite and a true believer:
“The hypocrite seems to have his eyes nailed to heaven, but his heart is full of impure lustings. He lives in secret sin against his conscience. He can be as his company is and act both the dove and the vulture. He hears the word, but is all ear. He is for temple-devotion, where others may look upon him and admire him, but he neglects family and closet prayer. Indeed, if prayer does not make a man leave sin, sin will make him leave prayer. The hypocrite feigns humility, but it is that he may rise in the world. He is a pretender to faith, but he makes use of it rather for a cloak than a shield. He carries his Bible under his arm, but not in his heart.”[15]
The hypocrite does not make war against sin, but coddles and protects it. As Watson illustrates: “Augustine saith, before his conversion, he prayed against sin, but his heart whispered, Not yet Lord; he was loath to leave his sin too soon; how many love their disease better than their physician! While sin is loved, Christ’s medicines are loathed.”[16] The sinner wishes that God did not exist so that there would be no future day of judgment for when he must give an account for the time he has been given. Sinners are secretly hostile toward God for his sovereignty and holiness. Burroughs gets to the heart of the matter with these words:
“Now a hypocrite may be brought to fear and tremble at the Word of God, but he never loves it. First, fear and love do not join together in them. They fear God’s Word, but they hate it. They wish that there were no such Word of God, and that it was not so strict and holy as it is. And that’s as much as to say that God were not so holy, which is as much to say, ‘I wish there were no God at all.’ And yet a wicked heart is so in love with his lusts that, rather than that he should not have his lusts, he would have no God at all.”[17]
This is why Psalm 14:1 says, “the fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Notice that it says “in his heart.” He may not openly say this is what he believes, but this is what he truly believes based on his actions. He lives as if there is no God. If God is dead, then they can sin to their heart’s desire without consequences. They deny God’s existence so that they can live as if there is no God to whom we must give an account. This is the real motivation behind atheism. It is not a matter of the head, but of the heart. Man intrinsically knows that God exists, but he denies his existence as a way to get back at him and deprive God of the worship he deserves. It is like the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 who wishes that his father was dead so that he can squander away his wealth.
If our actions and desires reveal our heart, then we must examine ourselves in light of Scripture to see if we are truly trusting in Christ alone for salvation (2 Cor 13:5). It is hard to pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” when we live contrary to the desires of those in heaven (Matt 6:10). As Paul Washer explains:
“Further proof that most people desire a heaven without God is that the desires and ambitions of most here on earth are totally contrary to those of heaven. Why would a person who has no desire for worship on earth desire to go to heaven where everything is worship? Why would one who is apathetic about righteousness desire a place where perfect righteousness dwells? Why would one who is unconcerned with the will of God desire a place where the will of God is everything?”[18]
The focus of most men is to forget about the miseries of life: to pretend as if the world in which we live is not really fallen. This is why suffering is a gift from God to rouse us from our slumber and point us to eternity. But Satan wants us to forget that we are desperately in need of a savior. As A. W. Pink saw, the gospel of Satan “aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed.”[19] The gospel of addiction tells us that heaven on earth can be found apart from communion with God. It calls into question God’s character and his ability to satisfy. But those who love God know that only he can fill their soul.[20]
Do not delude yourself into thinking that you can dance with the devil all day and then dine with Christ at night.[21] Real Christianity is a supernatural and experiential religion. It is a personal relationship with the triune God. As Burroughs writes:
“No soul shall ever come to Heaven, but the soul which has Heaven come to it first. When you die, you hope you will to go to Heaven; butif you will go to Heaven when you die, Heaven will come to you before you die.”[22]
Hindrances to Conversion
There are many things that can keep a person from embracing Christ. Jesus teaches that in many cases, “The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). The inordinate love for other things prevent many from taking up their cross and following Jesus. Richard Baxter warns us about this danger:
“Worldliness keeps man from repentance and coming home to God. Is there any other thing that so hinders the conversion of sinners as earthly things? The love of riches destroys holy meditation by turning it to worldly things. It steals the heart in its necessary preparation for death and judgment until it is too late. . . . Is the world more loved, sought, delighted in, and faster held? Does it have more of your heart, delights, and industry? If you cannot let go of all for heaven, you cannot be Christ’s true disciples (Luke 14:26-33). To overcome the love of the world you must mortify the flesh, for the world is desired for its pleasures. A mortified man has no need for the cravings of the sensual. You will be thankful to God when you look upon other men’s wealth that you do not have need of these things. How much better you can enjoy God and yourself in a more retired and quiet state of life.”[23]
Satan seeks to keep men and women asleep in their sins so they will never think of eternity. Man uses entertainment as an opium to make him forget about his troubles rather than turning to the only one who can help him. Others turn to pleasure to silence of the voice of their conscience. But we cannot keep it buried forever. Eventually, it will resurface since we can only hold it down for so long (Rom 1:18). Pleasures and riches can never satisfy divine justice, pacify divine wrath, or quiet a guilty conscience.[24]
There are two ways to live: the broad way which leads to destruction and the narrow way which leads to life (Matt 7:13-14). Washer explains why there are so many people on the broad road:
“The broad way is filled with every sort of superficial distraction designed to keep people from concerning themselves with what really matters. It offers temptations that create and increase cravings in carnal people’s hearts while at the same time decreasing their capacity for satisfaction.”[25]
On the other hand, the narrow road is difficult and hard, but full of joy. This is the same teaching as Watson: “The devil delights men with the music of the world, that the noise of this should drown the noise of the day of judgment, and make them forget the sound of the last trump.”[26]
There is no lasting comfort in this life until you have made peace with God. You must trust in Christ alone for salvation because he is the only way to the Father (John 14:6). But if the gospel is false and we have no future hope, then there is no reason not to live for sin and pleasure. As Russell Moore concludes: “If all that awaits you is unconsciousness in a worm-filled tomb, then, yes, tickling every sensory node and exciting every gland and feeling every urge is probably the only alternative left.”[27] But no one can consistently live this way. To do so is to live contrary to the purpose for which we were made. We were made to love God and one another, not to be absorbed in ourselves. Society could not function if everyone constantly lived for pleasure. A world dominated by selfishness is one that has no compassion for the hurting.
Our greatest need is to know Christ in order to be rescued from the dominion of sin. The great preacher Robert Murray M’Cheyne exhorts us to flee to Christ without delay:
“I never will deny that there are pleasures to be found out of Christ. The song and the dance, and the exciting game, are most engaging to young hearts. But ah! think a moment. Is it not an awful thing to be happy when you are unsaved? Would it not be dreadful to see a man sleeping in a house all on fire? And is it not enough to make one shudder to see you dancing and making merry when God is angry with you every day? . . . The pleasures of sin are only “for a season;” they do not last. But to be brought to Christ is like the dawning of an eternal day; it spreads the serenity of heaven over all the days of our pilgrimage. . . . Last of all, in a dying day, what will the world do for you? The dance and the song, and the merry companion, will then lose all their power to cheer you.”[28]
It is impossible to have peace with God too soon.[29]
Remember that you cannot hide from God (Heb 4:13). He knows everything and is always watching. Your sins will find you out (Num 32:23). While sinners may feel safe and secure, one day it will all come crashing down (Amos 6:1; 1 Thess 5:3). While you may think that you can put off repentance, know that it is no easy thing to repent.[30] The longer you go without repentance, the stronger your sin will become and the more difficult it will be to repent.[31] But there is also a danger in false repentance that does not bring about change. Paul warns us of this false repentance in 2 Corinthians 7:10: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” But true repentance comes from the Holy Spirit and is a repentance never to be repented of.[32]
Resolve to turn away from all sin because all sin is offensive to God. Even one sin unforsaken and unhated can keep us from trusting Christ. As Richard Sibbes argues, “Satan does not care how many sins one forsakes if he still lives in any one sin, for by one sin he has him and can pull him in.”[33] God commands us to do things we have no power to do in our own strength. He tells us to circumcise our heart (Jer 4:4), to make for ourselves a new heart (Ezek 18:31), and to be perfect as God is perfect (Matt 5:48). But it is God who circumcises our heart (Deut 30:6), gives us a new heart (Ezek 36:26-27), and in Christ find the righteousness of God (1 Cor 1:30). It is through the call to repentance that God works to bring about regeneration by opening our eyes to see the beauty of Christ (Acts 16:14; Jas 1:18).
Putting off repentance will only make repentance more difficult. As Watson warns us, “The longer men go on in sin, the more full possession Satan hath of them; the longer poison stays in the stomach, the more mortal.”[34] None of us know how long we have to live. Your inability to save yourself from your addictions and sins should drive you to Christ in prayer because he alone has the power to change your heart. It is pride that keeps men from coming to Christ when they say they do not feel worthy enough. As Ebenezer Erskine saw, “It is a devilish humility that keeps you from believing; for the more unworthy you are of the grace or favour of God, the more fit you are for receiving the grace of God.”[35] As the old hymn says, “If you tarry until you’re better, you will never come at all.”[36] This was the same message as Watson:
“If we never come to Christ to be healed till we are worthy, we must never come; and let me tell you, this talking of worthiness savours of pride, we would have something of our own; had we such preparations and self-excellencies, then we think Christ would accept us.”[37]
Our Only Hope
Because we cannot save ourselves, God must be the hero of our story. Our sins have made a separation between us and God (Isa 59:2). Only God can save us from his just wrath through his Son (Rom 5:9). This means God’s justice for our sins had to be satisfied by the death of Christ. As the Bible says:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:23-28).
God’s justice for those who believe in Christ had to be satisfied in order for God to be just when he justifies us. God cannot pardon our sin without his justice being satisfied or else he would be an unjust judge (Prov 17:15; Rom 4:5).
Salvation by faith in Christ excludes all boasting because salvation is the work of God, not our own. God will not allow the glory of our salvation to be shared between us and him. If we contribute anything to our salvation except the faith by which we believe, then we would have a ground for boasting. But even our faith has been granted to us by God (Phil 1:29). Our hope is not in our good works or what we have done, but in God’s mercy to undeserving sinners (Titus 3:5). Salvation is a free gift of God (Rom 6:23). And while we are justified by faith alone (Rom 4:4-6), that faith which justifies always results in good works (Eph 2:10).[38] Our trust in Christ is the instrumental cause of salvation by which we lay hold of Christ, but the ground or basis upon which we are declared righteous by God is the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom 4:25).
Because it was our sin that nailed Christ to the cross, that should make us hate it even more. It was sin that slew my savior. But in the cross, we see the supreme demonstration of the Father’s love for sinners (John 3:16). There is no greater example of love than seeing a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). But none of my idols ever died for me. Only Christ is worthy of my hope, my life, and my all because he alone died a bloody death to secure my salvation.[39] Nothing else in this world is worth living for. My idols cannot love me, but Christ will never leave me or forsake me in spite of my many sins (Heb 13:5). The early Christian writing Epistle to Diognetus has a wonderful section on Christ’s death for sinners:
“But when our wickedness had reached its height, and it had been clearly shown that its reward, punishment and death, was impending over us; and when the time had come which God had before appointed for manifesting His own kindness and power, how the one love of God, through exceeding regard for men, did not regard us with hatred, nor thrust us away, nor remember our iniquity against us, but showed great long-suffering, and bore with us, He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! that the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!” (9:2-5).[40]
Because our sins have been covered by Christ’s blood, we no longer need to try to cover over our sins with fig leaves (Gen 3:7). We can go to God knowing that Christ is at his right hand interceding for us. Because Christ’s righteousness is now ours, we have confidence before God. While sin still lingers within us, we will be free from all sin with Christ one day. And we know that the sufferings of this life are only temporary as God uses them to make us more like his Son (2 Cor 4:17). There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). All of our sins have been forgotten by God because they have been forgiven in Christ never to be brought up again (Heb 8:12). As Brooks reminds us, “Your sins shall never provoke Christ, nor prevail with Christ so far, as to give you a bill of divorce.”[41] He has promised to finish the work he has started (Phil 1:6).
Closing with Christ will be the beginning of the end for your pain and shame. But embracing Christ will also be the beginning of your suffering as a Christian (Matt 16:24-25). This is the way of the cross, but there is no other way to lasting happiness. This was the hope of Spurgeon to which he invites us:
“My sole hope for heaven lies in the full atonement made upon Calvary’s cross for the ungodly. On that I firmly rely. I have not the shadow of a hope anywhere else. You are in the same condition as I am; for we, neither of us, have anything of our own in which we can trust. Let us join hands and stand together at the foot of the cross, and trust our souls once and for all time to Him who shed His blood for the guilty. We will be saved by one and the same Saviour. If you perish trusting Him, I must perish too. What can I do more to prove my own confidence in the gospel which I set before you?”[42]
How the Gospel Transforms Our Life
The Gospel is not just for lost people, it’s for Christians as well. We need to be saved every day from the deceptive power of sin by remembering the gospel daily. The same power by which Christ was raised from the dead is the same power which changes our hearts to love the things of God and hate the things he hates. We must hate sin, not just because of its consequences, but because it is against God himself. This desire must be supernaturally implanted in our heart by the Holy Spirit in regeneration and sanctification.
Our beliefs are shaped by compelling stories that we pass down from one generation to the next. And we have the greatest story of all. But unlike the fictional stories found in games and movies, this one is real. That means we surrender the right to please ourselves for the good of a lost world that needs to hear the message of the one who is all-satisfying. Christ surrendered his right to be served and instead laid down his life for our salvation (Matt 20:28). Now we who follow Christ are called to die to our sinful desires and lay down our lives for the spread of his kingdom. We deny ourselves because Christ denied himself. As Brooks writes, “It is the very nature of grace to make a man strive to be most eminent in that particular grace which is most opposed to his bosom sin.”[43]
As fallen human beings, we have an identity crisis. Some people deny that they are made in the image of God and instead live like animals. They say, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (Isa 22:13). Sin attempts to find joy and happiness apart from living for God’s glory. Others find their identity in their favorite hobby, sports team, employment, or family. But if that is where your identity is, what happens when that is taken away from you? For those who are Christians, their identity is found in Christ with whom they are in union as his bride. As Brooks teaches:
“And therefore, saith the weak saint, because Christ is perfectly and infinitely holy above all other, I prize Christ above all. Ordinances are sweet, but Christ is more sweet to my soul. Saints are precious, but Christ is far more precious. Heaven is glorious, but Christ is infinitely more glorious. The first thing that I would ask, if I might have it, saith the weak saint, is Christ. And the next thing that I would ask, if I might have it, is more of Christ. And the last thing that I would ask, if I might have it, is that I might be satiated and filled with the fullness of Christ. Let the ambitious man take the honours of the world, so I may but have Christ. Let the voluptuous man swim in all the pleasures of the world, so I may have Christ. And let the covetous man tumble up and down in all the gold and silver of the world, so I may have Christ, and it shall be enough to my soul. . . . I can truly say, when the Lord gives me any strength against sin, and any power to serve him, and walk close with him in his ways, it is a greater joy and comfort to my soul, than all the blessings of this life.”[44]
We grow in Christlikeness by meditating on Scripture (Ps 119:11). It is one thing to read the Bible, and another to chew on it: to think about it throughout the day and ask yourself how to apply it to every situation you encounter. It is one thing to think about eternity, and another to walk the road that leads to it.[45] To find joy in Christ, you must look upon your sins as sorrows instead of sources of pleasure. You must write them a bill of divorce and vow to be done with them forever. You cannot be happy with God until you have been made holy like God (Heb 12:14).[46] That means we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily because we are so prone to forget.[47] Its means denying ourselves sinful pleasures and worldly lusts as the early Christian sermon Second Clement exhorts us:
“This is the reason why a man is unable to find peace: they instill human apprehensions, preferring the pleasure of the present to the promise of the future. For they do not know what great torment the pleasure of the present brings, and what delight the promise of the future brings” (10:3-4).[48]
Living out the gospel means taking risks to share Christ’s love with others. The missionary C. T. Studd tells us about the time that he was convicted to begin living consistently as a Christian:
“About this time I met with a tract written by an atheist. It read as follows: ‘Did I firmly believe, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, religion would mean to me everything. I would cast away all earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Religion would be my first waking thought, and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I should labor in its cause alone. I would take thought for the tomorrow of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequences should never stay my hand, nor seal my lips. Earth, its joys and its griefs, would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon eternity alone, and on the immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable. I would go forth to the world and preach it in season and out of season and my text would be, ‘what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’’ . . . I at once saw that this was the truly consistent Christian life. When I looked back upon my own life I saw how inconsistent it had been. I therefore determined that from that time forth my life should be consistent, and I set myself to know what was God’s will for me. But this time I determined not to consult with flesh and blood, but just waiting until God should show me.”[49]
This was the same motivation that drove Paul to go to hell on earth to bring the gospel to the lost (Rom 9:1-3; 10:1-3).
Because nothing is too difficult for God, he has the power to transform the desires of your heart (1 Cor 6:11). God not only forgives our sins, he gives us a new heart. This results in a reorientation of where our treasure is (Matt 6:21). Your behavior is determined by what rules your heart. If your heart is set on the things of God, your desire will be to do that which pleases him. You cannot have Christ as savior without also having him as your king. We will only deny ourselves sinful pleasures if we believe there is a greater joy awaiting us in the future. Therefore, look by faith to a crucified savior for deliverance from sin. Do you desire your sin more than communion with Christ? Pray that God would take from you these addictive desires that are consuming your life. Then replace them with new ones that build up his kingdom.
Now ask yourself, what good did your sin ever do for you? What lasting joy have you ever gotten out of it? No addiction can give lasting satisfaction. It is the nature of addiction to always leave the person who is enslaved to it wanting more. It is like the scroll of Revelation 10:9-10 which is as sweet as honey in your mouth, but then makes you want to vomit later. Why then should you envy those who are enjoying that which can never make you happy? Their portion is in this life (Ps 17:14). But we look forward to the one to come.
The addict is getting heaven on earth now and forfeiting the one to come. But his heaven on earth is really a hell of his own making. He cannot find satisfaction while he wanders from one pleasure to the next. But true happiness cannot be found in ourselves, but in Christ who accomplished everything necessary for the salvation of his people. Christ must reign supreme in the soul because he refuses to have his glory divided between himself and idols. He will be all or nothing as Brooks proclaims, “Christ will be all in all, or he will be nothing at all. Though his coat was once divided, yet he will never suffer his crown to be divided.”[50] We are no longer free to determine how we will live our lives. We now live under the lordship of Christ who gave up everything for us. Faith in him and love for sin can never consistently go together.[51]
The Reality of Hell
If the gospel is true, then the existence of hell is also true (Matt 25:41-46; Mark 9:47-48; Luke 16:22-28; Rev 14:9-11; 20:10-15). Hell is just because every sin is against a perfectly holy and righteous God. If we will not worship and serve him, then there is no other place for us. One of the most important principles you can learn is that not wanting something to be true does not make it false. If hell is true, then not wanting it to be true has no influence on whether or not it exists. If hell exists, then we should meditate on it to avoid going to it.[52] As Watson warns us, “It will be so much the worse to go to hell with hopes of heaven”[53]
By indulging in sinful pleasure, you may be excluded from lasting pleasure. Our desires reveal the condition of our heart. A man who is saved will get two heavens, one here and one hereafter. But the lost will receive two hells, one here and one hereafter. Sin will make you miserable in this life and in the next.[54] As Augustine once said, “A man bothered by his conscience is his own punishment.”[55] But trusting in Christ will make you happy in this life and in the next. Hell is a place of eternal grief and regret for sin. As Spurgeon preached:
“Suppose you are a drunkard. Drunkenness was your happiness on earth. Will you be drunk in hell? There it would afford you no gratification. Here the theater was your pastime: will you find a theater in heaven? The songs of foolish lasciviousness were here your delight: will you find such songs in eternity? Will you be able to sing them amidst unutterable burnings? Can you hum those lascivious notes when you are drinking the fearful gall of eternal woe? Oh! surely, no; the things in which you once trusted, and found your peace and comfort, will have gone forever. Oh! what is your happiness to-night, my friends? Is it a happiness that will last you? Is it a joy that will endure? Or are you holding in your hand an apple of Sodom, and saying, ‘It is fair, it is passing fair,’ when you know that you only look on it now, but will have to eat it in eternity?”[56]
The Urgency of the Gospel
You do not know if you will even have tomorrow. Every day is a gift from God. Every day is another opportunity to find peace with God. We enter the world crying and we will leave it the same way if we die without peace with God. But you can leave it with joy if your nature has been changed by God. That will be your true heaven on earth. It will be like heaven because heaven is when our communion with God will be perfected. Worship and prayer are foretastes of heaven where we see glimpses of the majesty of Christ.
Solomon warns the young man who walks as a stranger to God:
“Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment” (Ecclesiastes 11:9).
One day, you will be brought into judgment whether you like it or not. You will always be miserable until you find peace with God through Christ. All of your idols must fall before him, either now or on the day of judgment (Isa 2:20-21). My lament is the same as that of Brooks: “Ah it is sad when men had rather live in darkness, and die in darkness, and go to hell in darkness – rather than see the light, enjoy the light, and walk in the light!”[57] May you, dear reader, never be among those who perish in their sin. It would be horrible to be tormented by the thought of this book throughout all eternity.
[1]See the article “Cosmic Treason” by R. C. Sproul at http://www.ligonier.org.
[2]Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1968), 45.
[3]“Young men, your worst enemies are within you” (Thomas Brooks, Apples of Gold, in A Mute Christian Under the Rod & Apples of Gold, ed. Jay P. Green [Mulberry, IN: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 2001], 212).
[4]I. D. E. Thomas, The Golden Treasury of Puritan Quotations (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1977), 260.
[5]Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 163.
[6]John Piper, When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What We Can While We Wait for God – and Joy (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006), 66.
[7]Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Phillipsburg, PA: P&R Publishing, 2002), 66.
[8]Russell D. Moore, Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2015), 116.
[9]Paul David Tripp, A Quest for More: Living for Something Bigger Than You (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2007), 90.
[10]Stephen McCaskell, ed. Through the Eyes of C. H. Spurgeon: Quotes from A Reformed Baptist Preacher (Brenham, TX: Lucid Books, 2012), 100.
[11]C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, in The Essential C. S. Lewis, ed. Lyle W. Dorsett (New York: Collier Books, 1988), 361-62.
[12]Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1964), 109.
[13]Thomas Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture, Drawn with a Scripture-Pencil, in The Sermons of Thomas Watson, 2 vols. (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 1:389.
[14]Thomas, The Golden Treasury of Puritan Quotations, 271.
[15]Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987), 68.
[16]Thomas Watson, “The Soul’s Malady and Cure,” in The Sermons of Thomas Watson, 2 vols. (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 2:61.
[17]Jeremiah Burroughs, Gospel Fear, ed. Don Kistler (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1991), 36.
[18]Paul Washer, Gospel Assurance and Warnings, Recovering the Gospel (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 2014), 163.
[19]A. W. Pink, “Another Gospel” available at http://www.gracegems.org.
[20]“He had rather see the face of God, and live in his everlasting love and praises, than have all the wealth or pleasures of the world. He seeth that all things else are vanity, and nothing but God can fill the soul.” (Richard Baxter, A Call to the Unconverted [Lafayette, IN: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 2000], 16).
[21]Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 211.
[22]Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 75.
[23]Richard Rushing, ed. Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Readings (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2009), 297.
[24]Thomas Brooks, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, in The Works of Thomas Brooks, 6 vols., ed. Alexander B. Grosart (Edinburgh: John Greig and Son, 1866), 3:160.
[25]Washer, Gospel Assurance and Warnings, 199.
[26]Thomas Watson, A Christian on the Mount, or a Treatise concerning Meditation, in The Sermons of Thomas Watson, 2 vols. (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 1:227.
[27]Russell D. Moore, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 71.
[28]Robert Murray M’Cheyne, “Reasons Why Children Should Fly to Christ without Delay,” in Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, ed. Andrew A. Bonar (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1966), 587-89.
[29]Thomas Brooks, The Crown and Glory of Christianity, in The Works of Thomas Brooks, 6 vols., ed. Alexander B. Grosart (Edinburgh: John Greig and Son, 1866), 4:246.
[30]Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 60.
[31]Ibid., 220.
[32]Thomas Brooks, Heaven on Earth: A Treatise on Christian Assurance (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1961), 224.
[33]Richard Sibbes, Glorious Freedom: The Excellency of the Gospel above the Law (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2000), 55.
[34]Thomas Watson, “The One Thing Necessary,” in The Sermons of Thomas Watson, 2 vols. (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 1:366.
[35]Horatius Bonar, ed. Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of All Ages (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1994), 261.
[36]See the hymn “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy” by Joseph Hart.
[37]Watson, “The Soul’s Malady and Cure,” 2:70-71.
[38]“Friendship with Jesus is costly. Faith alone saves, but saving faith is never alone. It is always accompanied by great sacrifices for Christ’s sake” (Richard Wurmbrand, The Overcomers [Orlando, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2006], 273).
[39]See the hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” by Isaac Watts.
[40]Michael W. Holmes, ed. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 547.
[41]Brooks, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, 3:70.
[42]Charles Spurgeon, All of Grace (Lexington, KY: Trinity Press, 2013), 28.
[43]Thomas Brooks, Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks, ed. Charles Spurgeon (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1996), 14.
[44]Brooks, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, 3:80-81.
[45]As Augustine once said, “It is one thing to see the land of peace from a wooded ridge . . . and another to tread the road that leads to it” (As cited in C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life [Orlando, FL: Harcourt Books, 1955], 230).
[46]“Thou canst not make me happy with thyself, till thou hast made me holy like thyself” (Arthur Bennet, ed. The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1975], 171).
[47]See the article “Preach the Gospel to Yourself” by David Mathis at http://www.desiringgod.org.
[48]Holmes, ed. The Apostolic Fathers, 117.
[49]Norman P. Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1982), 35-36.
[50]Brooks, Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks, 97.
[51]“Faith and the love of sin can no more stand together, than light and darkness” (Thomas Watson, The Christian’s Character: Showing the Privileges of a Believer, in The Sermons of Thomas Watson, 2 vols. [Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990], 1:113).
[52]“Meditate much on hell. Let us go into hell by contemplation, that we may not go into hell by condemnation” (Watson, A Christian on the Mount, 1:230).
[53]Thomas Watson, The Upright Man’s Character, in The Sermons of Thomas Watson, 2 vols. (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 1:348.
[54]Brooks, The Crown and Glory of Christianity, 4:211.
[55]As cited in Richard Wurmbrand, The Oracles of God (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 1995), 119.
[56]Charles Spurgeon, “Simeon,” in vol. 11 of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, in The C. H. Spurgeon Collection [CD-ROM] (Rio, WI: AGES Software, 2001), 795.
[57]Brooks, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, 3:232.
James Attebury 
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