What God Cannot Do!

What God Cannot Do!

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 8, 1864, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"God, that cannot lie." Titus 1:2.

TRUTH once reigned supreme upon our globe and then earth was Paradise.
Man knew no sorrow while he was ignorant of falsehood. The Father of
Lies invaded the garden of bliss and with one foul lie he blighted Eden
into a wilderness and made man a traitor to his God. Cunningly he
handled the glittering falsehood and made it dazzle in the woman's
eyes–"God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

Proud ambition rode upon that lie as a conqueror in his chariot and the
city of Mansoul opened its gates to welcome the fascinating enemy. As
it was a lie which first subjugated the world to Satan's influences, so
it is by lies that he secures his throne. Among the heathen his kingdom
is quiet and secure, because the minds of the people are deluded with a
false mythology. The domains of Mahomet and the Pope are equally the
kingdom of Satan and his reign is undisturbed, for human merit,
priestly efficacy, and a thousand other deceptions buttress his throne.
The darkness of ignorance, the dungeons of falsehood and the chains of
superstition are the main reliance of that monster who oppresses all
the nations with his infernal tyranny.

Since by the lie Satan now holds the world and maintains his power, he
everywhere encourages lies and aids their propagation. Look about you
and see what a prolific family falsehood has! The children of the
untrue are as many as the frogs of Egypt, and like those plagues, they
intrude into every chamber. The slime of falsehood may be seen upon
most things, both in secular and religious life. You have lying news
and garbled reports in print. And as for the flying gossip of the
tongue, if it touches the characters of good men, beware of believing a
word it utters. If you would not have complicity with those who make
the lie, be not hasty to entertain it.

From the high places of the earth falsehood is not excluded. The
untruth glides right royally from the kingly tongue, but is as much a
lie as if the ragged mendicant had blurted it forth with low-lived
oaths and curses. What is diplomacy for the most part? Is it not "the
art of lying"? Was not he thought to be the best politician who used
language to conceal his thoughts? In how many a conference have the
plenipotentiaries labored which could overreach, dissimulate and
intrigue to the greatest degree?

In the commerce of courts who knows not that flatteries and lies are
the most abundant commodities? The art of king-craft, as practiced by
the most high and mighty Prince James, whose name dishonors our English
Bible, was only and simply the science of lying in the neatest possible
manner. In these modern times, the difference between the promises of
the politicians and the performances in the House of Commons proves
that the lie is still commonly patronized. Falsehood is everywhere. It
is entertained both by the lowest and the highest. It permeates all
society. It has ruined the whole of our race and so defiled the entire
world that upright men exclaim, "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech,
that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!"

In the so-called religious world, which should be as the Holy of
Holies, here, too, the lie has insinuated itself. Of old there were
prophets who prophesied lies and dreamers of false dreams. And there
were others who spoke the Word of God with such bated breath and after
such a fashion that it was no longer the Truth as it came from God, but
truth alloyed with human falsehood. It is so today. There are those
wearing the vestments of God's priests who do not hesitate to profess
what they do not believe. Such men are the priests of Hell. To wear a
bishop's miter and teach infidelity–how shall I stigmatize it? It is
nothing less than detestable hypocrisy and robbery.

And what shall I say of men of all creeds, all subscribing to the same
articles and catechism when all the world knows they cannot all
honestly believe the same thing and yet differ as much from one another
as light from darkness? What shall I say but that shame covers my face
that there should be so many ministers of God who are untrue to their
convictions and continue to do and say what they feel to be
unscriptural? In other quarters philosophy is believed and Christianity
professed–the traditions of men are put in the place of God's Truth.
The prophets prophesy lies and the people love to have it so.

Brethren, we have everywhere to battle with falsehood and if we are to
bless the world we must confront it with sturdy face and zealous
spirit. God's purpose is to drive the lie out of the world and let this
be your purpose and mine. His Holy Spirit has undertaken to drive
falsehood out of our hearts–be this our determination, in His
strength–that it shall be cut up root and branch and utterly consumed.
Then let us walk in the Truth of God. "Buy the Truth and sell it not,"
hold fast the Truth, speak the Truth in love and act the Truth in all
our deeds, for so shall we be known to be the children of that God of
whom our text asserts that He is "God, that cannot lie."

After wandering over the sandy desert of deceit, how pleasant is it to
reach our text and feel that one spot, at least, is verdant with
eternal Truth! Blessed be You, O God, for You cannot lie!

We will use our text in the following manner this morning–first, while
we do not attempt to prove it, we will remind you of a few things which
may confirm your confidence that God cannot lie so that our opening
remarks shall be upon the truth of the text. Then secondly, we will
speak upon the breadth of the text, endeavoring to show that we must
give no narrow interpretation to the words before us, but must receive
them with an extent of meaning not usual to the expression. And then,
thirdly, we will try to use the text for our own improvement, arguing
from it that if God cannot lie He ought to receive our loving
confidence.

I. First, then, let us commune together awhile concerning THE TRUTH OF
THE TEXT, not, as we have said, to prove it, because we all believe it,
but to confirm our confidence of it. I think we shall feel assured that
God cannot lie when we remember that He is not subject to those
infirmities which lead us into falsehood. Lord Bacon has said, "There
are three parts in truth–first, the enquiry, which is the wooing of
it. Secondly, the knowledge of it, which is the presence of it. And
thirdly, the belief, which is the enjoyment of it."

In each of these three points, by reason of infirmity, men fail to be
perfectly true. In the search after truth, our moral eye is not
altogether clear and therefore we fail to see what we love not. We do
not follow truth in a straight line, but are very liable to turn aside
to the right hand or to the left, either to obey our prejudices or
advance our profit. "Truth lies in a well," said the old philosopher.
Many go down into that well to find Truth, but looking into the water
they see their own faces and become so desperately enamored of their
own beauty that they forget poor Truth, or dream that she is the
counterpart of themselves.

Now the great God cannot be liable to this error, because there is no
discovery of truth with Him. He needs not to search anything out, for
"all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have
to do." When in Scripture that term is sometimes used–"Shall not God
search this out?"–when we hear Him spoken of as "searching the heart
and trying the reins of the children of men," it is not because He is
not perfectly acquainted with all things, but only to set forth the
certainty and accuracy of Divine knowledge.

God has no need to search, or if He had, having nothing in Him which
should lead Him to make a dishonest search, He does not lie. When we
have searched out the Truth of God there is the knowing of it. And here
the falsehood gets a footing in the form of a sin of omission, for we
often refuse to know all that we might know. It would be inconvenient,
perhaps, for us to be too well acquainted with certain arguments, for
then our prejudices must be given up and therefore we close our eyes to
them for fear of knowing the truth.

Do not many men leave passages of Scripture altogether unread because
they have no wish to receive the doctrines which are taught in them?
Every time you refuse to give a hearing to God's Truth, you do in
effect lie because you prefer not to know the Truth of God, which is
really to prefer to hold error. Now nothing of this kind can ever
happen with our only wise God. He knows all Truth, seeing it all at a
glance and retaining it ever in His mind. In nothing is He ignorant,
either willfully or otherwise.

He receives Truth as His own Beloved and when the world casts her out,
she finds a happy shelter beneath His shield. We are quite clear that
we frequently fall into the lie through a defect in our believing, for
we sometimes know more than we care to believe. Truth is grasped by the
understanding but thrust out by the affections. We know her as Peter
knew his

Lord and yet deny it after the same fashion as that disciple did his
Master. Moreover, through weakness, we are led to doubt what we know to
be God's Truth and even to speak unadvisedly with our lips.

Now this can never occur with God, since God is One and is not to be
divided into parts and passions and His tongue can never be diverse
from His heart. God's tongue is His heart and God's heart is His hand.
God is One. You and I are such that we can know in the heart, and yet
with the tongue deny. But God is One and indivisible. God is Light, and
in Him is no darkness at all. With Him is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning.

Then again, the Scriptural idea of God forbids that He should lie. Just
review your thoughts about God, if you can. What idea have you formed
of Him? If you have read Holy Scripture and have gotten the slightest
shadow of an idea of God, I think you will see that it is utterly
inconsistent with the thrice Holy One, whose kingdom is over all, that
He should lie. Admit the very possibility of His speaking an untruth
and to the Christian there would be no God at all. The depraved mind of
the heathen may imagine a monster to be a god who can live in adultery
and in theft and in lying, for such the gods of the Hindus are
described as being. But the enlightened mind of the Christian can
conceive no such thing. The very word "God" comprehends everything
which is good and great. Admit the lie and to us at once there would be
nothing but the black darkness of Atheism. I could neither love,
worship, nor obey a lying God.

Again, we all know that God is too wise to lie. Falsehood is the
expedient of a fool. It is only a short-sighted man who lies. For some
present advantage the poor creature who cannot see the end as well as
the beginning states that which is not. But no wise man who can look
far into the future ever thinks a lie to be profitable. He knows that
Truth may suffer loss at first but that in the long run she is always
successful. He endorses that worldly-wise proverb, that, "Honesty is
the best policy" after all. And the man, I say, who has anything like
foresight, or judgment, or wisdom, prefers always the straight line to
the curve and goes directly to the mark, believing that this is in the
end the best.

Do you suppose that God, who must know this, with an intensity of
knowledge infinitely greater than ours, will choose the policy of the
witless knave? Shall God, only wise, who sees the end from the
beginning, act as only brainless fools will choose to behave
themselves? Oh, it cannot be, my Brethren! God, the All-Wise, must also
be All-True. And the lie, again, is the method of the little and the
mean. You know that a great man does not lie. A good man can never be
false. Put goodness and greatness together and a lie is altogether
incongruous to the character.

Now God is too great to need the lie and too good to wish to do such a
thing! Both His greatness and His goodness repel the thought. My dear
Friends, what motive could God have for lying? When a man lies it is
that he may gain something, but "the cattle on a thousand hills" are
God's and all the beasts of the forest and all the flocks of the
meadows. He says, "if I were hungry I would not tell you." Mines of
inexhaustible riches are His and treasures of infinite power and
wisdom. He cannot gain anything by untruth, for "the earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof." Why, then, should

He lie?

Men are false, oftentimes, to win applause. See how the sycophant
cringes to the tyrant's foot and spawns his villainy. But God needs no
honor and no fame, especially from the wicked. To Him it were the
greatest disgust of His righteous soul to be loved by unholy creatures.
His Glory is great enough even if there were no creatures! His own
self-contained Glory is such that if there were no eyes to see it and
no ears to hear it, He would be infinitely glorious. He asks
nothing–no respect and no honor of man–and therefore has He no need
to stoop to the lie to gain it. And of whom, again, could He be afraid?
Men will sometimes, under the impulse of fear, keep back or even
contradict the truth, but can fear ever enter into the heart of the
eternal God?

He looks down upon all nations who are in rebellion against Him and He
does not even care to rise to put them down. "He that sits in the
heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision!" Are not the
chariots of the Lord twenty thousand, even thousands of angels? Even
these are but as a drop in a bucket, when compared with the deep and
infinite sea of His own power. Who, then, shall think that Jehovah
needs to be afraid? "Fear," and "Jehovah," are two words which cannot
meet together. Therefore, since there can be no motive whatever which
should possibly lead God to lie, we feel well assured that the
declaration of Paul is most certainly true–"God, that cannot lie."

Moreover, dear Friends, we may add to all this the experience of men
with regard to God. It has been evident enough in all ages that God
cannot lie. He did not lie when Adam fell. It seemed a strange thing,
that after all the skill and labor which had been spent in making such
a world as this, so fair and beautiful, God should resign it to the
dominion of Satan and drive the man whom He had made in His own image,
out of his home, his Eden, to labor in sweat and toil and suffer- ing
until he came to his grave. But God did it and the fiery sword at the
gate of Eden was proof that God could not and would not lie.

He might come to Adam and bemoan himself, crying, "Adam, where are
you?" as if He pitied him and would, if it had been possible, have
spared the stroke. But still it must be done and Eden is blasted and
Adam becomes a wanderer upon the fruitless earth. Then afterwards, to
quote a notable instance of God's faithfulness, when the flood swept
away the race of men and Noah came forth the heritor of a new Covenant,
we have clear proof that God cannot lie. No flood has ever destroyed
the earth since then. Partial floods there have been and parts of
provinces have been inundated, but no flood has ever come upon the
earth of such a character as that which Noah saw–therefore the
rainbow, every time it is painted upon the cloud–is an assurance to us
that God cannot lie.

Then He made an oath with Abraham that he should have a son and that
his seed should become possessors of all the land in which the
Patriarch had sojourned. Did not that come true? They waited in Egypt
two hundred years. They smarted under the tyrant's lash. They lay among
the pots and yet, after all, with a high hand and with an outstretched
arm He brought forth His people, led them through the wilderness and
divided Canaan by lot to them, having driven out the inhabitants of the
land before them. Since that time He made His Covenant with David and
how fast has that stood! All the threats which He has uttered against
the enemies of Israel–how surely have they been fulfilled!

Last of all and best of all, when the fullness of time was come, did
not God send forth His own Son, born of a woman, made under the Law?
Did He not, according to His ancient promise, lay upon Him the iniquity
of us all? Were not the Incarnation and death of our Lord Jesus the
grandest proof of the truthfulness of God which could be afforded? His
own Son must leave Heaven emptied of His Glory, must be given up to be
despised and rejected of men, must be nailed to the accursed wood and
be forsaken in the hour of His bitterest grief–herein is Truth,
indeed! I say if this must be according to the promise and if this was
according to the fact, then we have the clearest and the surest
evidence that God cannot by any possibility be false to His own Word.
Rightly has He earned the title which His Nature claims–"God, that
cannot lie."

May I not add as another argument that you have found Him true? You
have been to Him, dear Friends, in many times of trial. You have taken
His promise and laid it before His Mercy Seat. What do you say–has He
ever broken His promise? You have been through the floods–did He leave
you? You have passed through the fires–were you burned? You have cried
to Him in trouble–did He fail to deliver you? O you poor and needy
ones, you have been brought very low, but has He not been your Helper?
You have passed hard by the gates of the grave and Hell has opened its
horrid jaws to swallow you up, but are you not today the living
monuments of the fidelity of God to His promise and the veracity of
every Word of the Most High God? Let these things, then, refresh your
memories that you may the more confidently know that He is "God, that
cannot lie."

II. Let us pass on to look at THE BREADTH OF MEANING IN THE TEXT. When
we are told in Scripture that

God cannot lie there is usually associated with the idea the thought of
immutability. As for instance–"He is not a man that He should lie, nor
the son of man that He should repent." The word "lie," here includes
beyond its ordinary meaning the thought of change, so that when we read
that God cannot lie, we understand by it not only that He cannot say
what is untrue, but that having said something which is true, He never
changes from it and does not by any possibility alter His purpose or
retract His Word.

This is very consolatory to the Christian, that whatever God has said
in the Divine purpose is never changed. The Decrees of God were not
written upon sand, but upon the eternal brass of His unchangeable
Nature. We may truly say of the sealed Book of the Decrees, "Has He
said and shall He not do it? Has He purposed and shall it not come to
pass?" We read in Scripture of several instances where God apparently
changed, but I think the observation of the old Puritan explains all
these, He says, "God may will a change, but He cannot change His will."
Those changes of operation which we sometimes read of in Scripture did
not involve any change in the Divine purpose!

God, for instance, sent to warn Hezekiah that according to the common
course of nature he must die, and yet afterwards fifteen years were
added to his life–God's purpose having been all along that Hezekiah
should live till the end of the fifteen years. But still His purpose
equally included that Hezekiah should be brought so near to the gates
of death that in the ordinary course of nature he must die. And then
that the miracle should come in was still part of the purpose, that
Hezekiah might be cured in a supernatural manner and be made to live
nearer to his God in consequence. God wills a change, but He never
changes His will.

And when the Last Great Day shall come, you and I shall see how
everything happened according to that hidden roll wherein God had
written with His own wise finger every thought which man should think,
every word which he should utter and every deed which he should do.
Just as it was in the Book of Decree, so shall it transpire in the roll
of human history. God never changes, then, as to His purpose and here
is our comfort. If He has determined to save us and we know He has, for
all who believe in Him are His elect, then we shall be saved. Heaven
shall never by any possibility be defeated by Hell. Hell and earth may
combine together to destroy a soul which rests upon Christ, but while
God's Decree stands fast and firm, that chosen soul is safe! And since
that Decree never can be removed, let us take confidence and rejoice.

No promise has ever been altered and no threat, either. Still is His
promise sure. "I have not said unto the seed of Jacob, seek you My face
in vain." No new decrees have been passed repealing the past. We can
never say of God's Book, as we can of old law books, that such-and-such
an act is obsolete. There is no obsolete Statute in God's Book. There
stand promises, as fresh, as new, as vigorous and as forceful today as
when they first dropped from the mouth of God. The words, then, "God,
that cannot lie," include the very gracious and precious doctrine that
He cannot by any possibility change.

But we must not, while talking in this manner, forget the primary
meaning, that He cannot be false in His thoughts, Words, or actions.
There is no shadow of a lie upon anything which God thinks, or speaks,
or does. He cannot lie in His prophecies. How solemnly true have they
been! Ask the wastes of Nineveh! Turn to the mounds of Babylon! Let the
traveler speak concerning Idumea and Petra. Turn even to the rock of
Sidon and to Your land, O Immanuel! We may boldly ask the traveler,
"Has He said and has He not done it? Have His words fallen to the
ground? Has God's curse been an idle Word?" No, not in one single case.

All the words of the Lord are sure. The prophecies will be as true as
they have been and the Book of Revelation, though we may not comprehend
it today, will doubtless be fulfilled in every stroke and in every line
and we shall marvel how it was that we did not know its meaning. But at
present it is enough for us to know its Truth–its meaning shall only
be learned as the events explain the prophesy. As God is true in His
prophecies, so is He faithful to His promises. Have you and I, dear
Friends, a confidence in these? If so, let us try them this morning.

Sinner, weeping and bemoaning yourself, God will forgive you your sin
if you believe in Jesus! If you will confess that He is faithful and
just to forgive you, He has promised to do so and He cannot lie.
Christian, if you have a promise today laid upon your heart, if you
have been pleading it, perhaps for months and it has not been
fulfilled, I pray you gather fresh courage this morning and again renew
your wrestling. Go and say, "Lord, I know You cannot lie, therefore
fulfill Your Word unto Your servant."

If the promises of God were not kept, God would lie. They must,
therefore, be fulfilled. And let us believe that they will be and go to
God, not with a wavering spirit which half hopes that the Words may be
true, but with the full assurance that they cannot fail! As certainly
as we know that day and night shall not cease and that summer will not
fail, so surely let us be convinced that every Word of the Lord shall
stand!

His threats are true, also. Ah, Sinner, you may go on in your ways for
many a day, but your sin shall find you out at last. Seventy years
God's long-suffering may wait over you, but when you shall come into
another world you shall find every terrible Word of Scripture
fulfilled. You shall then know that there is a place, "where their worm
dies not and the fire is not quenched." You shall then experience the
"wailing and gnashing of teeth" unless you repent. If you will believe
in Jesus you shall find the promise true! But if you will not, equally
sure shall be the threat.

This is a dreadful part of the subject to those who are out of Christ,
who have never been partakers of the Holy Spirit. It will be in vain
for you to cry to Him, then, and ask Him, then, to change His mind. No,
though you should weep oceans of tears, Hell's flames cannot be
quenched nor can your soul escape from the place to which it is finally
doomed! Today, while mercy is preached to you, lay hold upon it! But
remember, if you do not, as God cannot lie He cannot suffer you to
escape–you must feel the weight and terror of His arm.

We might thus go through everything which concerns God, from prophesy
to promises and threats and onwards and multiply observations but we
choose to close this point by observing that every word of instruction
from God is most certainly true. It is astounding how much sensation is
caused in the Christian Church by the outbreak, every now and then, of
fresh phases of infidelity. I do not think that these alarms are at all
warranted. It is what we must expect to the very end of this
dispensation.

If all carnal minds believed the Bible, I think the spiritual might
almost begin to doubt it. But as there are always some who will attack
it, I shall feel none the less confident in it. Really, the Book of God
has stood so many attacks from such different quarters that to be at
all alarmed about it shows a very childish fear. When a rock has been
standing all our lifetime and has been known to stand firmly throughout
all the ages of history, none but foolish people will think that the
next wave will sweep it away.

Within our own short life–say some five-and-twenty years'
recollection–have we not remembered, I was about to say almost as many
as five-and-twenty shapes of infidelity? You know it must change about
every twenty years at least, for no system of infidelity can live
longer than that! There was the witty system of objection which
Voltaire introduced. And how short-lived was that! Then came the
bullying, low-lived, blackguard system of Tom Paine. And how
short-lived was its race! Then, in more modern times, unbelief took the
shape of Secularism–what particular shapes it takes now we scarcely
know–perhaps Colensoism is the most fashionable–but that is dying out
and something else will follow it.

These creations of an hour just live their little day and they are
gone. But look at belief in Scripture and at Scripture itself. The
Bible is better understood, more prized, and I believe, on the whole,
more practiced than ever it was since the day when its Author sent it
abroad into the world. It is still onward. And after all which has been
done against it, no visible effect has been produced upon the granite
wall of Scriptural Truth by all the pickaxes and boring rods which have
been broken upon it.

Walking through our Museums nowadays, we smile at those who think that
Scripture is not true. Every block of stone from Nineveh, every relic
which has been brought from the Holy Land speaks with a tongue which
must be heard even by the deaf adder of Secularism and which says,
"Yes, the Bible is true and the Word of God is no fiction." Beloved, we
may rest assured that we have not a Word in the Book of God which is
untrue. There may be an interpolation or two of man's which ought to be
revised and taken away, but the Book, as it comes from God, is Truth
and nothing but Truth–not only containing God's Word, but being God's
Word–being not like a lump of gold inside a mass of quartz, but all
gold and nothing but gold!

And being Inspired to the highest degree–I will not say verbally
inspired, but more than that–having a fullness more than that which
the letter can convey! Having in it a profundity of meaning such as
words never had when used by any other being, God having the power to
speak a multitude of Truths at once. And when He means to teach us one
thing according to our capability of receiving it, He often teaches us
twenty other things which, for the time, we do not comprehend but
which, by-and-by, as our senses are exercised, reveal themselves by the
Holy Spirit. Every time I open my Bible I will read it as the Word of
"God, that cannot lie." And when I get a promise or a threat, I will
either rejoice or tremble because I know that these stand fast.

Dear Friends, this leads us, in closing this point, to say that when we
read that passage–"God, that cannot lie"– we understand that His very
Nature cannot lie, for He hates lies! Wherever there is a lie God is
its Enemy. It was to overcome the lie of sin that God sent His Son to
bleed. And every day the thoughts of God are centered upon the
extermination of evil and the extension of His own Truth. Nothing can
set forth in words to us the hatred and detestation which God has in
His heart of anything which is untrue. O that we knew and felt this and
would glow with the same anger, seeking to exterminate the false,
slaying it in our own hearts and giving it nothing to feed upon in our
temper, our conversation, or our deeds!

III. But I shall now come to make a practical use of the text, in the
third place, by observing HOW WE OUGHT TO ACT TOWARDS GOD IF IT IS TRUE
THAT HE IS A "GOD THAT CANNOT LIE." Brethren, if it is so that God
cannot lie, then it must be the natural duty of all His creatures to
believe Him. I cannot resist that conclusion. It seems to me to be as
clear as noonday that it is every man's duty to believe the Truth of
God, and that if God must speak and act Truth and Truth only, it is the
duty of all intelligent creatures to believe Him.

Here is "Duty-faith" again, which some are railing at, but how they can
get away from it and yet believe that God cannot lie, I cannot
understand. If it is not my duty to believe in God, then it is no sin
for me to call God a liar. Will anyone subscribe to that–that God is a
liar? I think not. And if to think God to be a liar would be a most
atrocious piece of blasphemy, then it can only be so on the ground that
it is the natural and incumbent duty of every creature understand- ing
the truthfulness of God to believe in God! If God has set forth the
Lord Jesus Christ as the Propitiation for sin and has told me to trust
Christ, it is my duty to trust Christ, because God cannot lie.

And though my sinful heart will never believe in Christ as a matter of
duty but only through the work of the Holy Spirit, yet faith does not
cease to be a duty. And whenever I am unbelieving and have doubts
concerning God, however moral my outward life may be, I am living in
daily sin! I am perpetrating a sin against the first principles of
morality. If I doubt God, as far as I am able I rob Him of His honor
and stab Him in the vital point of His Glory. I am, in fact, living an
open traitor and a sworn rebel against God upon whom I heap the daily
insult of daring to doubt Him.

my Hearers, there are some of you who do not believe in Christ! I wish
you would look at your character and position in this light. You are
not trusting in Christ for your salvation. Remember, "He that believes
not God, has made Him a liar." Those are John's own Inspired Words and
you are, every day that you are not a Believer in Christ, virtually
writing upon your doorpost and saying with your mouth, "God is a liar.
Christ is not able to save me. I will not trust Him. I do not believe
God's promise. I do not think He is sincere in His invitation to me to
come to Christ. I do not believe what God says."

Remember that you are living in such a state as this and may God the
Holy Spirit impress you with a sense of the sin of that state. And
feeling this your sin and misery, I pray God to lead you to cry, "Lord,
I believe, help You my unbelief!" This, then, is our first practical
conclusion from the fact that God cannot lie. Other thoughts suggest
themselves. If we were absolutely sure that there lived on earth a
person who could not lie, how would you treat him? You know there
cannot be such a man! There may be a man who will not lie, but there
cannot be a man of whom it may be said that he cannot lie, for alas, we
have all the power of evil in us and we can lie and to a certain degree
it is quite true that "all men are liars."

But if you could be certain that there was a man out of whose heart the
black drop had been wrung and that he could not lie–how would you act
towards him? Well, I think you would cultivate his acquaintance. If you
are true yourselves, you would desire his friendship. You would say,
"He is the friend for me! I have trusted in such-and-such a man and he
has played the Judas. I asked counsel of another, and he was an
Ahithophel. But if this man cannot lie, he shall be my bosom companion
if he will accept me. And he shall be my counselor if he will but have
the goodness to direct me."

1 should expect to see a levee of all the good in the world waiting at
the man's door! You know how the world, with all its sinfulness, does
reverence the man who is true! We had an instance in our streets the
other day of the good man and the true, who received homage of all and
yet that man could lie. But inasmuch as we never have seen that he did,
but his life has been straightforward, therefore have we paid him honor
and deservedly so. Well now, if such is the case, should not all
Christians seek more and more the friendship of God. "O Lord, be You my
familiar Friend, my Counselor, my Guide. If You cannot lie I will lay
bare my heart to You. I will tell You all my secrets. I will trust You
with all the desires of my heart. I know You can never betray me, or be
unfaithful. Let there be a union established between my soul and Yours,
and let it never be broken." Let communion with God be the desire of
your hearts on the ground that He cannot lie.

If we knew a man who could not lie we should believe him, I think,
without an oath. I cannot suppose that when he came into the court of
justice they would pass him the Bible. No, his word would be better
than the oath of ordinary men if he could not lie. You would not need
any sign or evidence to prove what he said. You would take his word at
once. So should it be with God. Ah, dear Friends, God has given us more
than His Word, He has given us His Oath. And yet, strange is it that we
who profess to be His children are vile enough to distrust our own
Father. And sometimes, if He does not give us signs and evidences, we
begin to distrust Him so that, after all, I am afraid we rather trust
the signs than trust God and put more confidence in frames and
evidences than we do in the naked promise, which is an atrocious sin,
indeed!

Many Believers cannot be comfortable without signs and evidences. When
they feel in a good frame of mind–ah, then God's promise is true! When
they can pray heartily, when they can feel the love of God shed abroad
in their hearts, then they say, "How God has kept His promise." Ah,
but, my Brothers and Sisters, that is a seeing faith. "Blessed are they
that have not seen and yet have believed." Faith is to believe in God
when my heart is as hard as the nether millstone! When my frames are
bad, when I cannot pray, when I cannot sing, when I can do nothing
good. To say, "He has promised and will perform. He has said that
whoever believes in Christ is not condemned. I do believe in Christ and
therefore I am not condemned"–this is genuine faith.

Again, if we knew a man who could not lie we should believe him in the
teeth of fifty witnesses the other way. Why, we should say, "they may
say what they will, but they can lie." You might have good evidence
that they were usually honest men, but you would say, "They can lie.
They have the power of lying. But here is a man who stands alone and
cannot lie. Then his word must be true!"

This shows us, Beloved, that we ought to believe God in the teeth of
every contradiction. Even if outward Providence should come to you and
say that God has forsaken you, that is only one. And even if another
and another and another should come and fifty trials should all say
that God has forsaken you, yet, as God says, "I will never leave you,
nor forsake you," which will you take–the one promise of God who
cannot lie, or the fifty outward Providences which you cannot
interpret? I know what the devil has been whispering in your ear–

"The Lord has quite forsaken you, Your God will be gracious no more."

But then, remember who has said, "Fear you not, for I am with you: be
not dismayed, for I am your God." Which will you believe–the devil's
insinuation, or God's own testimony? My dear Sister, you have been
praying for a certain thing for years? You pray, you pray, and you pray
again, and now discouragement arises! Unbelief says, "God will not hear
that prayer! That prayer of yours does not come up before the Throne of
God and there will be no answer." But the Lord has said, "Ask and it
shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be
opened unto you." Which will you believe–your unbelief–the long
months of weariness and the anxieties which prompted you to
discouragement? Or will you believe in the naked promise?

Why, if God cannot lie, let us give Him what we would give to a man if
he were of the same character–our full confidence even in the teeth of
contradiction–for He is "God, that cannot lie." If a man were
introduced to us and we were certain that he could not lie, we should
believe everything he said, however incredible it might appear to us. I
shall have an appeal to every soul here present. It does seem very
incredible at first sight that God should take a sinner, full of sin
and forgive all his iniquities in one moment simply and only upon the
ground of the sinner believing in Christ! I remember the time when it
seemed to me utterly impossible that I could ever have my sins
forgiven.

I had a clear sense of the value of pardon and this thought would be
always ringing in my ears–"It is too good to be true that you should
be pardoned. That you, an enemy, should be made into a child! That you
who have gone on sinning against light and against knowledge, should
yet rejoice in union to Christ. The thing is too good to be true!" But,
beloved Friends, supposing it should seem too good to be true, yet,
since you have it upon the testimony of One who "cannot lie," I pray
you believe it.

"But, Sir." No! None of your "buts"! He cannot lie. "Ah, but." Away
with your "ahs" and your "buts," for Jehovah cannot lie! He has said
it, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." To believe is to
trust Christ. If therefore you are trusting Christ, you must be saved.
And whatever you may be, or whatever you may have done, if you will now
trust Jesus Christ you have God's Word for it–and He cannot lie–that
you shall be saved! Come now, will you kick against the promise because
of its greatness? Do not! Let your doubts and fears be hushed to sleep
and now, with the promise of God as your pillow and God's faithfulness
as your support, lie down in peace and behold in faith's open vision
the ladder, the top of which leads to Heaven!

Trust the promise of God in Christ and depend upon it that He will be
as good to you, even to you, as His own Word, and in Heaven you shall
have to sing of the "God, that cannot lie." I would that these weak
words of mine, for I am very conscious of their feebleness this
morning, may nevertheless have comfort in them for any who have been
doubting and fearing–that they may trust my Lord. And sure I am that
if they begin a life of faith, they will begin a life of happiness and
of security! "The just shall live by faith," and well may they do so,
when they have trust in a "God, that cannot lie."

Adapted from The C.H. Spurgeon Collection, Version 1.0, Ages Software,
1.800.297.4307