Condemned or Forgiven?
Charles Spurgeon:
Will you do me a favor? I asked it once, and it was blessed to the conversion of several. Will you take a little time alone this evening, and after you have weighed your own condition before the Lord, write down one of two words? If you feel that you are not a believer, write down Condemned. And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ and put your trust in Him alone, write down Forgiven. Do it, even if you have to write down the word Condemned.
We received into church fellowship a young man who said, “Sir, I wrote down the word Condemned, and I looked at it. There it was. I had written it myself — Condemned.” As he looked, the tears began to flow and the heart began to break. And before long he fled to Christ, put the paper in the fire, and wrote down Forgiven.
This young man was about the sixth who had been brought to the Lord in the same way. So I ask you to try it. Remember, you are either one or the other — condemned or forgiven. Do not stand between the two. Let it be decided. And remember, if you are condemned today, yet you are not in hell. There is still hope!
John 3:16-21 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (17) For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (19) And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (20) For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (21) But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.