Human Responsibility

Spurgeon argues that rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a passive or neutral act but an active sin — in fact, the most serious sin a person can commit — because when a preacher faithfully delivers God's Word, it is essentially Christ himself speaking, and to dismiss it is to reject Christ directly. He explains that hearing the gospel and turning away actually makes a person more guilty, not less, because it strips away every possible excuse: they cannot claim ignorance of the law, ignorance of the punishment, ignorance of how to be saved, or lack of a good example. Spurgeon closes with a solemn warning that those who die having repeatedly heard and rejected Christ will face the heaviest judgment of all, and urgently pleads with his listeners to believe on Jesus now, before it is too late.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on May 16, 1858.