KNOWLEDGE. WORSHIP. GRATITUDE. – Charles Spurgeon
KNOWLEDGE. WORSHIP. GRATITUDE.
“So that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.” Romans 1:20, 21. THOSE who boast of their knowledge betray their ignorance. Knowledge is not a possession to be proud of, since it brings with it so great a responsibility that a nurse might as well be proud of watching over a life in peril. Knowledge may become good or evil according to the use which is made of it. If men know God, for instance, and then glorify Him as God and are thankful, their knowledge has become the means of great blessing to them. But if they know God and fail to glorify Him, their knowledge turns to their condemnation. There is a knowledge which does not puff up the mind, but builds up the soul, being joined with holy love. Did not our Lord say, “And this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent”? But for men to know God and not to glorify Him as God, and to be unthankful, is, according to our text, no benefit to them—on the contrary, it becomes a savor of death unto them because it leaves them without excuse. Our Savior could plead for some, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But what plea is to be used for those who know what they do and yet do evil? Who know what they ought to do and do it not? These have the Light of God and close their eyes or, to use another figure, they have the Light of God and use it to sin. They take the golden candlestick of the Sanctuary into their hands and, by its help, they perform their evil deeds the more dexterously—and run in the way of wickedness the more swiftly. Accursed is that man who heaps to himself knowledge till he becomes wise as Solomon and then prostitutes it to base ends by using it to aggrandize his wealth, to pamper his appetites, to bolster his unbelief, or to conceal his vices! A man may, by knowing more, become all the more a devil. His growing information may only increase his condemnation. It is clear, then, that knowledge is not a possession of such unmingled good that we may grow vain of it—better far will it be if the more we know, the more we watch and pray. Go on and read, young man. Go on and study with the utmost diligence. The more knowledge you can acquire, the better, but take care that you do not, like Sardanapalus, heap up your treasures to be your own funeral pile. Do not, by a rebellious pride, curdle the sweet milk of knowledge and sour your precious blessing into an awful curse. It is soon done, but not so soon undone. It was the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil—the eating of which brought all this evil upon us which you see this day. You may still eat of that tree, if it so pleases you, but if you taste not of the Tree of Life at the same time, your knowledge shall only open to you the gates of Hell! Knowledge of itself is as land which may either become a blooming garden or a howling wilderness! It is a sea out of which you shall bring pearls or dead men’s bones. Life and death, Heaven and Hell are here—if it were said of old, “Take heed what you hear”—I will also say, “Take heed what you know.” The people mentioned by Paul in our text fell into two great evils, or rather into two forms of one great evil—atheism—the atheism of the heart and the atheism of the life. They knew God, but they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful. We will first consider the first sin mentioned here and then the second. I shall not look at these two evils as if you were Romans, because I know that you are not, but I shall adapt the text to your own case and speak of these sins as Englishmen are too apt to commit them. Thirdly, let us view the consequences, or, what comes of men not glorifying God and not being thankful. Then, fourthly, let us fly from these sins immediately, God helping us. O Holy Spirit, help the preacher, now, for all his help is in You!
I. THE FIRST SIN: NOT GLORIFYING GOD AS GOD
At once, then, let us look at this first sin—a sin very common in these days. THEY KNEW GOD, BUT THEY GLORIFIED HIM NOT AS GOD. Even in old Rome, with all its darkness, there was some knowledge of God—how can the creature quite forget its Creator? Of course, the people had not that spiritual knowledge which the Holy Spirit communicates to the renewed in heart, for the carnal mind cannot know God spiritually—its fleshly ideas cannot come near to His holy spirituality. But Paul means that they perceived the eternal power and Godhead of the Great Former of all things; and they might have perceived much more of His Divine Character and Glory if their foolish hearts had not been darkened by their evil passions. When you go among the heathen, whether they are Pantheists or Polytheists, or whatever they may be, there is still a notion in the background of all their mythology of some one great superior being, elevated above those whom they call gods, some serenely just father, preserver, avenger, and rewarder of men. The most debased of mankind are still found to have some measure of knowledge of the great Creator—they hold the Truth, though they hold it in unrighteousness. They can as soon shut their eyes to the sun, as completely blind their minds to the fact that there is a God! Some among the heathen, no doubt, attained to a very considerable knowledge of God, or at least they walked upon the borders of marvelous discoveries of the Godhead. We are greatly surprised at the language of Socrates, Plato, Seneca, and others—such men have lately been held up as patterns—but if their lives are studied, they will be found to be sadly defaced with what Paul fitly calls “vile affections.” These were wise men, but the world, by wisdom, knew not God. They were great thinkers, but a clear revelation of God was not in all their thoughts. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge and so they remained steeped in loathsome vice which we dare not mention, for it is a shame, even, to speak of the things which were of the most enlightened of them in secret. They had knowledge, but they forgot its responsibilities. They knew God, but they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful. We may now let all the heathen go, for it is more true of us than it is of them, that we know God. Those to whom I am speaking, tonight, dwell where the name of God is familiar; where the Gospel of God sounds like a trumpet in their streets; where the Character of God is painted with the finger of light upon the blessed pages of the Bible and where the Spirit of God takes care that the consciences of men shall be enlightened. We know God, but I am afraid that there are many thousands and millions of our fellow creatures who glorify Him not as God! Let us see to it that we do not, ourselves, belong to the unhappy number. Those do not glorify God as God who do not trace all their good things to God. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,” but many ungrateful hearts forget this Truth of God and receive the blessings of this life with dumb mouths and cold hearts. In the old times there were those who traced everything they saw to what they called, “chance”—that misinformed deity has been laid aside and on its pedestal, men have set up another idol known as “Nature.” Nowadays swarms of people attribute everything that is great and wonderful to “Nature”—they talk forever of “the beauties of Nature,” “the grandeur of Nature,” “the laws of Nature.” But God is as little spoken of as if He were not alive! As to laws of Nature, these occupy with moderns much the same place as the deities of Olympus with the ancients! What are laws of Nature but the ordinary ways in which God works? I know of no other definition of them. But these people attribute to them a sort of power apart from the Presence of the Creator. One standing up in the street, venting his infidelity, said that we could not do better on Sunday than go abroad and worship Nature. There was nothing that was so refining and elevating to the mind as Nature. Nature did everything. A Christian man in the crowd ventured to ask, “What is Nature?” And the gentleman said, “Well, Nature—well—it is Nature! Don’t you know what it is? It is Nature.” No further definition was forthcoming! I fear the term is only useful as enabling men to talk of creation without being compelled to mention the Creator. I find, nowadays, that people talk about “Providence” and yet discard God. Among the vulgar and the ungodly, this is another subterfuge to avoid the ascribing of their blessings to the Giver of them. A farmer, whose crops had failed a second time, was consoled by a clergyman because he suffered from the hand of Providence.
“Yes,” he said, “that Providence is always treating me shamefully—but there’s one above that will stop him.” The poor soul had heard of Providence till he thought it an evil power and hoped that the good God would curb its mischievous influence! This comes of not speaking plainly of God.
II. THE SECOND SIN: UNTHANKFULNESS
We now come to consider the second sin. May what I have to say about it be blessed to many of my hearers by the power of the Holy Spirit! The second sin is—“NEITHER WERE THANKFUL.” Did you know, dear Friends, that unthankfulness was such a sin as this? Have you ever thought of it in this light before—that men were without excuse because when they knew God they were not thankful? Unthankfulness is a sin for which there is no excuse if it is attended with knowledge. I fear there are thousands who call themselves Christians who are not thankful—and yet they never thought themselves guilty on that account! Yet, you see, these sinners were without excuse because they were guilty of a great sin before God—and that sin was unthankfulness. I tremble both for myself and you when I see lack of thankfulness thus set in the front rank of sins! How is it that we may be unthankful? I answer, first, there is in some a lack of gratitude for mercies possessed. They receive many blessings without making a note of them, or even seeming to know that they have them. Their daily mercies seem to come in always by the back door—where the servants take them in and never tell their master or mistress that they have arrived. They never receive their mercies at the front door with grateful acknowledgments. They still continue as dumb debtors, daily owing more, but making no attempt at a return. The Lord continues to bless them in things temporal; to keep them in health and strength—yes, and to give them the means of Grace and spiritual opportunities—and they live as if these things were so commonplace that there were no reason to thank God! Many professors are of that kind—recipients of countless mercies, but destitute of such common thankfulness as even beasts might manifest. From them God hears no song of gratitude, no chirp of praise, though birds would charm the woodlands with their minstrelsy—these are worse than the dumb driven cattle, or the fishes in the brook which do, at least, leap up and mean their Maker’s praise. Some show this unthankfulness in another way, for they always dwell most on what they have not. They have manna and that is angels’ food—but then they have no fish—and this is a ready theme for grumbling. They talk very loudly of “the fish we ate in Egypt” and lament those ample feasts provided by the muddy Nile. Moreover, they have none of those delightful vegetables—the leeks, the garlic and the onions.
They have none of these rank luxuries and therefore they murmur and call the manna, “light bread.” They put this complaint over and over again to Moses, till Moses must have been sick of them and their garlic! They said that they could not get leeks, cucumbers and onions—and they were, therefore, most hardly done by, and would not much longer put up with it. Thankless rebels! And have I not known some of God’s servants say that they enjoy much of the Presence of their Lord, but they have no riches—and so they are not among the favored ones? Over their poverty they fetch a deep groan! Some live in the Presence of God, so they tell us, and they are full of Divine delights, but yet they are greatly afflicted with aches and pains and all the problems of rheumatism and, therefore, they murmur. I admit that rheumatism is a dreadful pain, but at the same time, to dwell always on the dark side of things and to forget our mercies is a sad instance of ingratitude! We are, few of us, as thankful as we ought to be. And there are some people who are not thankful at all, for instead of a song concerning their mercies, their life is one long dirge for their miseries! Must we always hear the sackbut? Is the harp never to give forth a note of joy? Some show their unthankfulness by fretting under their supposed ills. They know from Scripture that even their afflictions are working for their good, yet they do not rejoice in the prospect, or feel any gratitude for the refining process through which the Lord is passing them. Heaven and perfection are left unsung, but the present processes are groaned over without ceasing! Their monotonous note is always this pain, this loss, this burden, this uncomfortable sensation, this persecution from the world, this unkindness from the saints and so on—all this goes to show that, though they know God, they do not glorify Him as God, neither are they thankful! We can be guilty of unthankfulness, also, by never testifying to the goodness of God. A great many people come in and out of your houses. Do you ever tell them about God’s goodness to you? Did you ever take up a single 10 minutes with the tale of the Lord’s lovingkindness to you? Oh, what backwardness there is to testify to God as God and to all His goodness and love! Our mouths are full of anything rather than the goodness of the Lord! Shame on our wicked lips! Some fail, also, in their singing of God’s praises. I love to be singing in my heart, if I may not sing with my tongue. Is it not a good thing for you housewives, when you are about the house, to sing over everything? I remember a servant that used to sing at the washtub and sing in the kitchen—and when someone asked her why she was always singing, she said that if it did not do anything else, it kept bad thoughts out of her mind. There is a great deal of wisdom in that, for bad thoughts are bad tenants who pay no rent and foul the house. I knew a dear old Methodist preacher, who is now in Heaven, who, when he came downstairs each morning, was always singing a bit of a hymn. And he did the same in the barn and the field. I have passed him in the street and noted his happy melody—indeed, he was always singing! He never took much notice of anybody, so as to be afraid of being overheard. Whether people heard him or not did not make much difference to him. He was singing to the Lord, not to them—and so he went on singing! I do not think that he had much of a voice, or an ear for music—but his soul was made up of praise and that is better than a musical education! God does not criticize our voice, but He accepts our heart. Oh, to be singing the praises of God every minute of our lives and never ceasing! Do you not think that many fail in this respect? They are not preparing for Heaven, where all is praise, or they would take up the joyful employment at once. It is plain that many are not thankful to God, for they never praise Him with their substance. Yet when the Jew was thankful, he took care to give a portion to the House of the Lord. Before he would eat his corn, he would send his sheaf to the sanctuary. If we are grateful to God, we shall feel that the first thing to do is to give of our substance as an offering of thanksgiving to the Most High. But this does not strike some people, whose religion is so spiritual that they cannot endure to hear of money—and they faint at the sound of a collection! Their thankfulness rises to singing an occasional hymn, but it never goes as far as giving a button to the cause of God! I am afraid their thankfulness is not worth more than what they pay to express it—that is to say, nothing at all. God deliver us from such a state of heart as that and may we never, in any of these senses, be found among those professors, of whom it is said that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful.
III. THE RESULT OF THE SINS
Listen carefully to me, now, for two or three minutes while, in the third place, I mention, very briefly and solemnly, what was THE RESULT OF THIS. They knew God, but they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful. And the first result of it was that they fell into vain imaginings. If we do not glorify God, the true God, we shall soon be found setting up another god. This vain imagination business is being done quite as extensively, now, as in Paul’s days. Depart from the Inspiration of the Bible—and from the Infallibility of the Spirit of God who wrote it—and where will you go? Well, I cannot tell where you will go. One wanders into one vain imagination and then into another, till the dreamers are on all sides. I expect to see a new doctrine every day of the week now. Our thinkers have introduced an age of inventions, wherein everything is thought of but the Truth of God. We do not want these novelties. We are satisfied with the Word of God as we find it. But if you do not glorify God as God and are not thankful to Him for His teaching, then away you go into vain imaginations! And what next? Well, away goes the mind of man into all sorts of sins. The chapter describes unnatural lusts and horribly fierce passions. Men that are not satisfied and thankful—men that have no fear of God before their eyes—it were a shame for us to think, much more to speak, of what they will do! A heart that cannot feed at God’s table will riot somewhere. He that is not satisfied with the cup that God has filled will soon be a partaker of the cup of devils. An unthankful spirit is, at bottom, an atheistic spirit. If God were God to us, we should not be unthankful to Him. If God were glorified in our hearts and we were thankful for everything that He did, we should walk in holiness and live in submission. And if we do not thus behave ourselves, the tendency will be for us to go from bad to worse, and from worse to the very worst! This has been done on a large scale by nations whose downward course of crime began with lack of thankfulness to God. It is done on a smaller scale by individuals, to whom departure from God is the beginning of a vicious career. Get away from God and where have you gone? If you do not love Him and delight in Him, where will you stray? May the Lord tether us fast to Himself and even nail us to the Cross! It seems that these people, of whom Paul wrote, fell into all kinds of bitterness, such as envy, murder, deceit, malignity, whispering, backbiting, hating of God. They became spiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things and so forth. Well, if your spirit is not sweetened by the adoration and the love of God, it will grow bitter. If love does not reign, hate will rule.
Look at unthankful people. Hear them talk. Nobody’s character is safe. There is no neighbor whom they will not slander. There is no Christian man or woman whom they will not misrepresent. The very angels of God would not be safe from suspicion if they lived near people of this kind! But when you glorify God as God and are thankful for everything— when you can take up a bit of bread and a cup of cold water and say with the poor Puritan, “What, all this, and Chris, too?”—then are you happy and you make others happy! A godly preacher, finding that all that there was for dinner was a potato and a herring, thanked God that He had ransacked sea and land to find food for his children. Such a sweet spirit breeds love to everybody and makes a man go cheerfully through the world. If you give way to the other order of feeling and do not glorify God, but quarrel with Him, and have no thankfulness for His mercies, then you will suck in the spirit of the devil—and you will get into Satan’s mind and be of his temper—and, by-and-by, you will do his works. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, dread unthankfulness! Perhaps you did not think that it was so bad, but it is horrible! God help you to escape from it!
IV. FLY FROM THESE SINS
And that you may escape from it, let us finish up by this exhortation. LET US FLY, BY THE HELP OF GOD’S SPIRIT, FROM THESE TWO SINS. Let us glorify God, as God, every one of us! “Oh,” says one, “I am full of sin.” Come and glorify God, then, by confessing it to Him. “Oh, but I am not pardoned.” Come and glorify Him by accepting pardon through the blood of His dear Son. “Oh, but I am of an evil heart.” Come and glorify Him by telling Him so and asking His Spirit to renew your mind. Come, yield yourself to His sweet Gospel! May His blessed Spirit incline you to do so! Come, take Him, now, to be your God. Have you forgotten Him? Remember Him! Have you neglected Him? Seek Him! Have you offended Him? Mourn before Him! Say, “I will arise and go to my Father.” Your Father waits to receive you! Glorify Him as God! And then, next, let us begin to be very thankful if we have not been so before. Let us praise God for common mercies, for they prove to be uncommonly precious when they are once taken away. Bless God that you were able to walk here and are able to walk home again. Bless God for your reason—bless Him for your existence. Bless God for the means of Grace, for an open Bible, for the Throne of Grace, for the preaching of the Word. You that are saved must lead the song. “Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.” Bless Him for His Son! Bless Him for His Spirit! Bless Him for His Fatherhood! Bless Him that you are His child! Bless Him for what you have received! Bless Him for what He has promised to give! Bless Him for the past, the present, and the future! Bless Him in every way, for everything, at all times and in all places! Let all that is within you bless His holy name! Go your way rejoicing! May His Spirit help you to do so!