Disobedience to the Gospel: Click | View Series Romans 10:16—"But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?'" Man is the same disobedient creature under all dispensations. We bemoan his rejection of the gospel, and so did Isaiah, who spoke in the name of the whole company of the prophets. It is one of the greatest proofs of the depravity of man's heart that he will no more obey the gospel than the law, but disobeys his God, whether he speaks to him in love or in law. When any receive the gospel it is a work of grace: "the arm of the Lord is revealed." But when they refuse it, it is their own sin: "they have not obeyed the gospel."

THE GOSPEL IS A COMMAND

It is not optional to men to accept or refuse it at pleasure. "Now God commands all people everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). He also commands them to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). To refuse to believe is to incur great sin (John 16:8). There is a death penalty attached to disobedience (Mark 16:16). It is so put:

1. To secure the honor of God. It is not the offer of an equal to an equal, but of the great God to a condemned sinner.
2. To embolden the proclaimer of it. The minister now speaks boldly with his Master's authority.
3. To remind man of his obligations. Repentance and faith are natural duties from which the gospel does not exonerate a man, although it blesses him by bestowing them upon him.
4. To encourage the humble seeker. He must be at full liberty to believe in Jesus, since he is commanded to do so and threatened if he does not do so.
5. To suggest to men the urgent duty of seeing to their soul's welfare. Suicide, whether of the body or of the soul, is always a great crime. To neglect the great salvation is a grave offense.

The gospel is set forth as a feast, to which men are bound to come under penalty of the King's displeasure (Matt. 22:1-7). The prodigal was right in returning to his father; and if he was right in doing so, so would each one of us be in doing the same. Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.