Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3152
“For if our heart condemns, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” 1 John 3:20,21.
[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, on verse 21, is #1855, Volume 31—WHAT IS THE VERDICT?.]
THE fault of a very large number of persons is that they will not lay spiritual things to heart at all, but treat them in a very superficial manner—or, if they exercise any judgment concerning them, it is of the most superficial kind. Now this is very foolish because, to say the least, the soul is of some value. And if men lay to heart the loss of their bodily health or of their estate, much more ought they to lay to heart anything which concerns their soul. It is very wicked as well as very foolish because, in refusing to lay spiritual matters to heart, we virtually tell the God who made us that He is of no account to us, that we are quite indifferent to His Being, to His Character, or to His commands. It is telling Him that we do not desire to be obedient to Him and that if we have been disobedient to Him, we do not trouble ourselves about that. It is also as dangerous as it is foolish and wicked to be unconcerned about spiritual matters, for God will not be trifled with and, one of these days, those who would not lay eternal things to heart will find their souls full of anguish—and with remorse they will be visited for this lightness of theirs. Whereas, today, like those of old who were invited to the wedding of the king’s son, they make light of it and go their way to their farm or to their merchandise, there will come a day when they would give all their farms and their merchandise if they might have but another hour’s respite, another invitation of mercy and another opportunity to seek and find the Savior. I do pray that if any here have been among those who do not lay to heart the things that concern their immortal souls, they may not any longer be allowed to remain in the company of such vain and sinful persons, but may come out from that congregation of the foolish and begin to lay to heart the things which make for their eternal peace.
Then, beloved Friends, there is another class of persons, very much superior to those of whom I have spoken, who nevertheless make a mistake of another kind. They do lay the things of God to heart and they are constantly weighing themselves in the balances of conscience. They look within again and again—they are not afraid of heart-searching— indeed, they spend the most of their time in that stern occupation. Am I about to blame these friends? I must answer, “No and yes.” I will not blame them for what they do, for they do the right thing—but I shall blame them for what they leave undone! Namely this—they forget that the tribunal of conscience, though a very important one, is not the supreme court and that, although it is well to try matters before the heart to see whether it condemns or acquits, yet there is another court, far higher than the court of the human heart—“God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” There are some good Christian people who are always distressed because they never take their cases into the supreme court and, on the other hand, I fear that there are some ungodly professors who are always presumptuously at ease because they have been satisfied with the verdict of the lower court, which is very liable to err in its judgment—and so they have never presented their case before the great Judge who cannot by any means make a mistake.
I am going to speak of these two courts. First, of the lower court of the heart or conscience, and then of the higher court where He presides who is “greater than our heart, and knows all things.” In speaking upon this subject, I shall mention four forms of verdict which may be given in the court of the heart. The first is a correct verdict against ourselves. The second is an incorrect verdict against ourselves, (the first verse of our text applies to both of these). The third is a
correct verdict of acquittal, (that is in the second verse of our text). And then, lastly, I will say something about an incorrect verdict of acquittal, which, perhaps, our heart may sometimes give.
I. First, then, the Apostle speaks of A CORRECT VERDICT AGAINST OURSELVES—“If our heart condemn
us.”
There are some persons whose hearts justly condemn them and the voice of conscience is, in them, the Voice of God. The echo of the Divine sentence, “Depart, you cursed,” is heard by them in the halls of conscience before the Voice of God has spoken it—strangely contrary to echoes among men, which always followthe voice. Conscience is saying, “You will be driven, O Man, from the Presence of God!” Now, in this case, the court of conscience sits under the King’s arms with the marks of Divine Authority displayed above its head. And conscience sitting thus as a judge, judges rightly when it judges by the Word of God. Righteous judgment must not be according to man’s whim or fancy, but according to the supreme Law of God—and the verdict of conscience is worth nothing unless it is so formed. The charge against the culprits is that they have broken God’s Law and, in the case of many of them, that they have also rejected God’s mercy. They have offended against the Law and the Gospel!