NO. 3
A SERMON
DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, JANUARY 14, 1855
BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK

“And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes but shalt not eat thereof.”
2 Kings 7:19

One wise man may deliver a whole city; one good man may be the means of safety to a thousand others. The holy ones are “the salt of the earth,” the means of the preservation of the wicked. Without the godly as a conserve, the race would be utterly destroyed. In the city of Samaria there was one righteous man—Elisha, the servant of the Lord.

Piety was altogether extinct in the court. The king was a sinner of the blackest dye, his iniquity glaring and infamous. Jehoram walked in the ways of his father Ahab and made unto himself false gods. The people of Samaria, like their monarch, had gone astray from JEHOVAH and forsaken the God of Israel. They remembered not the watchword of Jacob, “The LORD thy God is one God,” and in wicked idolatry bowed before the idols of the heathen. Therefore, the Lord of Hosts suffered their enemies to oppress them until the curse of Ebal was fulfilled in the streets of Samaria, so that “the tender and delicate woman who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness,” had an evil eye to her own children and devoured her offspring by reason of fierce hunger (Deut 28:56-58).

In this awful extremity, the one holy man was the medium of salvation. The one grain of salt preserved the entire city; the one warrior for God was the means of the deliverance of the whole beleaguered multitude. For Elisha’s sake, the Lord sent the promise that the next day, food which could not be obtained at any price would be had at the cheapest possible rate—at the very gates of Samaria.

We may picture the joy of the multitude when first the seer uttered this prediction. They knew him to be a prophet of the Lord, with divine credentials, and all his past prophecies had been fulfilled. Surely the monarch’s eyes would glisten with delight, and the emaciated multitude would leap for joy at the prospect of so speedy a release from famine. “Tomorrow,” they would shout, “tomorrow our hunger shall be over and we shall feast to the full.”

However, the lord on whom the king leaned expressed his disbelief. Not any of the common people, but an aristocrat did so. Strange it is, that God has seldom chosen the great men of this world. High places and faith in Christ do seldom well agree. This great man said, “Impossible!” and with an insult to the prophet, added, “If the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be?”

His sin lay in the fact that after repeated seals of Elisha’s ministry, he yet disbelieved the assurances uttered by the prophet on God’s behalf. He had likely seen the marvelous defeat of Moab, heard of the resurrection of the Shunamite’s son, knew Elisha had revealed Benhadad’s secrets and smitten his marauding hosts with blindness, and had seen the bands of Syria decoyed into the heart of Samaria. He probably knew the story of the widow whose oil filled all the vessels and redeemed her sons. At all events, the cure of Naaman was common conversation at court, and yet, in the face of all this accumulated evidence, he doubted and insultingly told Elisha that heaven must become an open casement before the promise could be performed.

Whereupon God pronounced his doom by the mouth of the man who had just now proclaimed the promise: “Thou shalt see it with thine eyes but shalt not eat thereof.” And providence—which always fulfills prophecy, just as the paper takes the stamp of the type—destroyed the man. Trodden down in the streets of Samaria, he perished at its gates, beholding the plenty but tasting not of it. Perhaps his carriage was haughty and insulting to the people, or he tried to restrain their eager rush, or it may have been by mere accident that he was crushed to death, so that he saw the prophecy fulfilled but never lived to enjoy it. In his case, seeing was believing, but it was not enjoying.

This morning, I invite your attention to two things—the man’s sin and his punishment. I shall discourse upon the sin of unbelief and the punishment thereof.

I. The Sin

His sin was unbelief. He doubted the promise of God. In this particular case, unbelief took the form of a doubt of the divine veracity or a mistrust of God’s power. Either he doubted whether God really meant what He said, or whether it was within the range of possibility that God should fulfill His promise.

Unbelief has more phases than the moon and more colors than the chameleon. Common people say of the devil that he is seen sometimes in one shape and sometimes in another. This is true of Satan’s first-born child—unbelief, for its forms are legion. At one time, unbelief appears as an angel of light, calling itself humility: “I would not be presumptuous. I dare not think that God would pardon me. I am too great a sinner.” We call that humility and thank God for our friend’s condition, but it is the devil dressed as an angel of light—it is unbelief after all.

At other times, we detect unbelief as a doubt of God’s immutability: “The Lord has loved me, but perhaps He will cast me off tomorrow. He helped me yesterday, but perhaps I shall receive no help in the next affliction.” Sometimes this infidelity is embodied in a doubt of God’s power: “We are involved in difficulties, and we think, ‘Surely the Lord cannot deliver us.’” A fearful form of unbelief is that which keeps men from coming to Christ, leading the sinner to distrust the ability of Christ to save him, or to doubt the willingness of Jesus to accept so great a transgressor.

But the most hideous of all is the traitor in its true colors, blaspheming God and madly denying His existence. Infidelity, deism, and atheism are the ripe fruits of this pernicious tree. Unbelief has come to its full stature when, quitting the mask and laying aside disguise, it profanely stalks the earth, uttering the rebellious cry, “No God,” striving in vain to shake the throne of divinity by lifting up its arm against JEHOVAH.

Even the least unbelief is of the same nature as the greatest. I am astonished that there are some who do not believe that unbelief is a sin. Some, sound in their faith in every other respect, deny that unbelief is sinful. But the Scriptures say, “of sin, because they believed not on me,” and, “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he believeth not on the Son of God.” Unbelief is a sin.

Is it not a sin for a creature to doubt the word of its Maker? Is it not a crime and an insult to the Divinity for me, an atom, to dare to deny His words? Is it not the very summit of arrogance for a son of Adam to say, “God, I doubt Your grace, I doubt Your love, I doubt Your power”?

If you could roll all sins into one mass—murder, blasphemy, lust, adultery, fornication, and everything vile—they would not equal the sin of unbelief. This is the monarch sin, the quintessence of guilt, the mixture of the venom of all crimes. It is the masterpiece of Satan, the chief work of the devil.

Let me show the extremely evil nature of the sin of unbelief:

  1. Unbelief is the Parent of Every Other Iniquity.
    There is no crime which unbelief will not beget. The fall of man is very much owing to it. The devil tempted Eve by insinuating a doubt: “Yea, hath God said so?” Unbelief was the thin part of the wedge; curiosity and the rest followed. Since that time, unbelief has been the prolific parent of all guilt. Unbelief hardened Pharaoh’s heart, gave license to blaspheming Rabshakeh, and became a deicide and murdered Jesus. Unbelief has sharpened the knife of the suicide, mixed many a cup of poison, brought thousands to the gallows, and many to a shameful grave.

    Unbelief in the Christian is of the same nature as in the sinner. If there is one sin more heinous than the unbelief of a sinner, it is the unbelief of a saint. For a saint to doubt God after innumerable instances of His love exceeds everything. In a saint, unbelief is the root of other sins.

  2. Unbelief Fosters Sin.
    How is it that men can keep their sin under the thunders of the Sinai preacher? Because unbelief of that threatening prevents it from having any effect upon him. The devil gives him unbelief, and he finds refuge behind it. When the Holy Ghost knocks down your unbelief, the law will work upon your soul. Unbelief is the sin which keeps the power of the Gospel from working in the sinner.

  3. Unbelief Disables a Man for Good Works.
    “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Morality, honesty, and sobriety are commendable, but without faith, they will not do in heaven. Virtues without faith are whitewashed sins. Obedience without faith is gilded disobedience. Without faith, all the virtues of purity, benevolence, kindness, talent, and bravery are nothing. Even Christians themselves are disabled by unbelief.

    Consider Peter: while he had faith, he walked on the waves. But when he doubted, he sank. A Christian’s life is always walking on water; faith keeps him up, but unbelief sends him down.

  4. Unbelief Has Been Severely Punished.
    Turn to the Scriptures: the flood came upon the world because of unbelief. By faith, Noah escaped; by unbelief, the rest were drowned. Unbelief kept Moses and Aaron out of Canaan. The Israelites’ carcasses whitened the desert because they could not enter due to unbelief. Zechariah doubted and was struck dumb. The destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews are lasting monuments to the punishment of unbelief.

    Unbelief dishonors God, aims a blow at His divinity, impeaches His veracity, denies His goodness, blasphemes His attributes, and maligns His character. God hates unbelief above all.

  5. Unbelief is the Damning Sin.
    There is one sin for which Christ never made atonement: final unbelief. For the man who died in unbelief, there is no mercy. If he had believed, he would have been pardoned, but this is the damning exception—he had no faith.

II. The Punishment

“You shall see it with thine eyes but shalt not eat thereof.” Listen, unbelievers! You have heard your sin, now listen to your doom. It is often so with God’s own saints: when they are unbelieving, they see the mercy with their eyes but do not eat it.

Some of God’s people come to worship and say, “I do not know whether the Lord will be with me or not.” They are always doubting and fearing. When asked if they received a good meal, they reply, “Nothing for me.” Of course not. You could see it with your eyes, but did not eat it, because you had no faith.

Let me apply this chiefly to the unconverted. They often see great works of God done with their eyes, but do not eat thereof. Many come to see, but not to partake. Some are converted, some are called by grace, but others remain unmoved, uncalled, unsaved—because unbelief makes them sit unmoved in times of revival and outpouring of God’s grace.

But the worst fulfillment of this doom is to come. There shall be a day when “ye shall see it with your eyes but shall not eat thereof.” On the last great day, the saints will rejoice in Christ’s triumph, but the unbelievers will see it and not partake. The marriage banquet is spread, but you cannot eat thereof.

In hell, the greatest torment will be to see the saints in heaven while you are lost. To see your loved ones in heaven, while you are cast out, will be the hell of hells.

I beseech you, by the death of Christ, by His agony and bloody sweat, by His cross and passion, by all that is holy and sacred, by all that is solemn in time or eternity, by all that is horrible in hell or glorious in heaven, by that awful thought, “forever”—lay these things to heart, and remember that if you are damned, it will be unbelief that damns you. If you perish, this shall be the bitterest drop—that you did not trust in the Savior.

*Taken from The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit C. H. Spurgeon Collection. Only necessary changes have been made, such as correcting spelling errors, some punctuation usage, capitalization of deity pronouns, and minimal updating of a few archaic words. The content is unabridged. Additional Bible-based resources are available at www.spurgeongems.org.*

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