Spurgeon: "Absolutely certain"
Some things are true and some are false: for me this is an axiom, a truth so evident that it does not need to be demonstrated. However, there are many people who obviously don't think so. In fact, today it is the most popular to say: “Some things are either true or false depending on the perspective from which you look at them. White is white and black is black according to the circumstances, and it doesn't really matter what you call it. The truth, naturally, it's true, but it would be rude, in bad taste, to say that the opposite is a lie. We must not be intolerant, but we must remember the motto: “So many heads, many brains” .
Our ancestors were very careful to respect the border signs; they had very precise ideas about the fixed points of revealed truth, and they were very persistent in affirming what they believed to be scriptural. Their fields were protected by hedges and ditches, but their children have pulled up the hedges, filled the ditches, leveled everything and use the border stones to play leapfrog. Modern schools of thought laugh at the unshakable certainties of the Reformers and the Puritans. They want to gloriously advance in what they consider broad-mindedness and in a while’ they will make public a pact of great alliance between heaven and hell or, better, they will reach a compromise between the two institutions in terms of mutual concessions, allowing the truth to walk side by side with the lie like the lion with the lamb. Nonetheless, as far as I'm concerned, I will continue to stick to the old-fashioned belief that some doctrines are true, and that their diametrically opposed claims are false.
We have a fixed truth to preach, my brothers, and we have been sent by God to the world with a well-defined message. We have not been sent by our Master with a general mandate formulated in these terms: “What your heart leads you to think and what your head invents, that you preach. Keep up to date with the times. Anything people will want to hear, tell him, and they will be saved!”.
In the Bible, however, there is something well defined: it is not a mass of wax ready to be modeled to our liking, or a roll of cloth to be cut according to the prevailing fashion.
Therefore believe that there is something that is truth, and something else that is a lie, that there are truths in the Bible and that the Gospel consists of something well defined that must be believed by all, determines what we teach, as well as the well-defined way of teaching. We are dealing with people who will either be saved or lost, and certainly these will not be saved with erroneous doctrines. We are dealing with God, of which we are servants, and we will not be honored by him because we have served untruths, nor will we receive a reward with this commendation: “Well done, good and faithful servant, you have wreaked havoc on the Gospel more judiciously than all those who came before you”. We are in an extremely serious position, and we should say instead, in the spirit of ancient Micah: “How true it is that the Lord lives, I'll just say exactly what the Lord will tell me”.
Brothers, in what we must be absolutely certain? Well, there are gentlemen around who imagine that there are no fixed principles on which to rely. “Maybe some doctrine”, one said to me one day, “Perhaps we could consider two or three doctrines as indisputable, perhaps that in fact a God exists. However, we shouldn't be too dogmatic about his personality. E’ It is possible to say a lot in favor of pantheism”. There are many today who sneak into the ranks of preachers and hold similar views, but they are generally smart enough to hide the breadth of their beliefs under the traditional phraseology of Christianity.
As for us instead, O, anyhow, what about me, I am sure there is a God, and I intend to preach it as a person who is absolutely certain of it. He is the Creator of heaven and earth, the Lord of providence and grace. May his name be blessed forever! We will not raise any question or debate about you.
Furthermore we are equally certain that the book called “the Bible” it's His Word, and it is inspired, not how any other valuable literary work can be inspired, but in an infinitely higher sense. God guard us not to be trapped in all those twisted reasoning and sophistry of those who, skilled in intellectual games they interpret it in such a way as to ultimately deny any evidence of it. E’ a book of divine production, it is perfect and it is the last court of appeal. I would never dream of questioning the infallibility of His Word, because for me this would only amount to a blasphemy.
I know, my brothers, we are in communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot be led to doubt the fundamental points of the Gospel, nor can we be uncertain. A look at that head crowned with thorns and those pierced hands is the most effective medicine to cure me “Modern Doubt” with all its reveries. As a famous preacher on his deathbed said to a friend one day: “I was able to get a glimpse of eternity. Oh, if I could go back and preach some more, how I would preach differently than before!”.
If you want to be sure, brothers, take a quick look at eternity too!