Latest / Reformed Thinking / Turn or Burn (Psalm 7:12) | Charles Spurgeon

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Turn or Burn (Psalm 7:12) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking, the show where we really get into
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the source materials and pull out the key insights.
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We're aiming to give you a solid understanding, sort of a
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shortcut to being well informed on these important texts and
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ideas. And hopefully have a bit of an
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engaging chat along the way. Today we're looking at a really
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powerful message from, well, a giant in Christian history.
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We sure are. We're delving into Charles
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Haddon Spurgeon sermon Turn or Burn?
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He delivered this back in December 1856.
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Yeah, and it's based on Psalm 7.1.
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Well, if he turned not he will wet his sword.
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He has been his bow and made it ready Pretty intense.
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It sets the tone right away. Our mission today, our deep
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dive, is to really understand Spurgeon's definitions of true
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repentance, why he was so convinced divine punishment was
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certain for the impenitent, and how, in his view, someone could
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find that genuine repentance leading to salvation.
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It's a message that doesn't really mince words, not at all.
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And, you know, this really taps into that stream of Reformed
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thought, doesn't it? That emphasis on God's
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character, his sovereignty, and, well, the seriousness of human
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sin, right? Spurgeon was reacting to
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something he saw happening in his time, a tendency to kind of
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gloss over God's justice. People wanted to focus almost
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entirely on His mercy. So this sermon was a kind of
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corrective. Exactly.
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A sharp warning, really a direct call to action.
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He lays out a very clear choice, a stark alternative it.
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Definitely makes you ask, like you said.
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What did he actually mean by turn?
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And what happens if you don't? Those are the key questions we
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need to unpack. OK, let's start with the
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setting, the historical context. Spurgeon was quite aware of the
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trends in preaching. He was.
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He had a keen sense of history. And he looked back about two
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centuries before his time, so mid 1600s, and he said the main
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tone from the pulpit then was one of, well, he called it
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terror. Figures like Richard Baxter,
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John Bunyan, the Puritan. Exactly.
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Those guys, their messages, Spurgeon said, were just full of
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warnings, divine wrath, judgment to come, very direct about it.
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They didn't shy away from the difficult doctrines.
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They really foregrounded God's displeasure with sin.
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But in Spurgeon's own time, the mid 1800s, he saw something very
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different. Oh, completely.
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He noticed this widespread desire to, you know, just forget
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those harder aspects of God's nature.
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The cry was God is merciful, God is love.
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Which is true, of course. Absolutely true, but Spurgeon
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argued it was being used in a way that sort of ignored God's
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other attributes. His justice, for instance.
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He pushed back against that one sided view.
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He did very strongly. He insisted that while God is
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merciful and loving, He is also just severely and inflexibly
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just. He saw justice as essential to
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God's being. Completely essential, he
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famously said. God we're not God if he were not
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just. He even argued God could not be
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merciful if he were not just. How did he explain that?
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That seems counterintuitive at first.
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Well, his reasoning was that punishing the wicked is actually
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required by what he called the highest mercy to the rest of
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mankind. Ah, so justice creates a safe
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space for mercy to operate, protects the innocent.
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Precisely if there's no accountability, then mercy
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becomes meaningless or even enables more harm.
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So for Spurgeon, justice wasn't the opposite of mercy.
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It was its necessary foundation. So to imagine God as just all
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love was for Spurgeon. It was to undeify him in his
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words, to make him no longer God.
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A God unable to uphold justice wouldn't be capable of governing
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the world righteously. And he backed this up with
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Scripture. Oh yes, he'd quote verses like
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the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that
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forget God or God is angry with the wicked every day.
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He was determined to present the whole picture, not just the
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parts people found comforting. So justice wasn't just a
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characteristic, but fundamental to God's rule and even his
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ability to be merciful. That's quite a statement.
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It is, and it explains the context for his sermon.
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Now you mention how preachers back in Baxter's times Book of
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terror what happened when ministers in Spurgeon's day
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talked about consequences? They often got accused of trying
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to bully people or frighten them into religion, as he put it.
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Spurgeon saw it differently. Entirely, he felt it was a
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minister's duty, a solemn responsibility to be honest,
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that sin leads to certain destruction.
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He believes preaching God's mercy actually lost its power if
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you didn't also talk about the consequences for those who
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refused to change. He directly challenged other
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ministers on this. He did.
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He asked basically, how can preaching achieve its purpose if
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we don't warn people, if we don't tell them that if they
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turn not, he will wet his sword? It's a practical point, isn't
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it? If there are no stakes, why
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listen urgently? Exactly.
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And he saw that in his day, talk of future punishment of hell was
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often dismissed, laughed at as just fancy and a chimera, like
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some delusion. But he wasn't buying that
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dismissal. Not for a second, he stated very
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plainly. The day will come when it shall
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be known to be a reality. He drew parallels.
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You know, like King Ahab ignoring Makaya's warning or
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Noah's generation mocking the Ark.
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Until it was too late. Until it was undeniably too late
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when the arrow hit Ahab. When the floodwaters rose, did
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they still think it was a fancy No?
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Spurgeon felt this immense personal weight, wanting to be
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able to say at the end of his life, I am clear of the blood of
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all men. He was willing to face criticism
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for it. Absolutely, He said.
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He'd face opprobrium and scandal, public shame, if it
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meant being faithful to God, his conscience and his generation by
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telling the whole truth. It wasn't about being popular,
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it was about truth. It really underscores the
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urgency he felt, which brings us squarely to that keyword
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turning. Let's get into Section 2.
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What did Spurgeon actually mean by true turning?
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We usually call it repentance. Right.
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And for him it wasn't superficial, it was a deep
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fundamental shift of your whole being, heart, mind, actions away
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from sin and towards God. OK.
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And he laid out specific characteristics.
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The first one was that genuine turning has to be actual, not
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fictitious. What does that mean in practice?
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It means it's real, tangible. It's not just a making promises
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you don't keep or saying solemn vow as you forget tomorrow.
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It's not just shedding a few tears that, as he put it
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straightaway, dry. So more than just feeling bad
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for a moment. Much more, it requires, in His
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words, a true and actual abandonment of sin and a turning
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unto righteousness in real act and deed in everyday life.
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It's about what you do day in, day out.
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What if someone makes those promises but doesn't follow?
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Through Spurgeon had strong words for that, he said.
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That kind of repentance is worse than nothing, it actually makes
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your destruction yet more sure because it's an attempt to
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deceive God, which is really just deceiving yourself like.
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Putting on a show in church, but going right back to the old
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ways. Exactly that, he saw it as a
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dangerous self deception. True turning has to be lived
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out. OK, so it must be real, lived
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out action. But how much action, how
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thorough does this turning need to be?
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That leads to a second point. Yeah, it must be entire, not
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partial. Yes, this is a big one for him.
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He was absolutely clear. You can't pick and choose which
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sins you'll give up harboring. Even one of those accursed
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Vipers in my heart indulging in but one lust makes the whole
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thing a sham. He.
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Used an analogy, didn't he, about a ship?
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He did. A ship with just one leak will
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eventually sink, no matter how sound the rest of it is, he
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argued. God demands all or none when it
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comes to renouncing sin. You can't hold on to a secret
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favorite. So you have to hate all sin, not
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just the ones that are inconvenient.
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That's the idea, he said. True penitence hate sin in the
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race, not in the individual, in the Mass, not in the particular
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meaning. They hate sin itself as a
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principle, as an evil, not just specific instances or when it
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looks ugly. Even when it looks appealing.
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Especially then, even in its specious garb, it's attractive
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disguise. All of it has to go.
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Or, he warned, you'll will never truly find Christ.
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The door remains shut. It's a total surrender.
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Wow, that's demanding. No half measures.
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OK, so it's actual. It's entire.
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What about timing? His Third Point was that turning
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must be immediate, not delayed. Right, no procrastination
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allowed. This is where he tackles that
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common thought. Oh, I'll sort things out with
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God later. Maybe when I'm older, on my
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deathbed. He warned against that.
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Strongly, he said. Frankly, it is few who have ever
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changed after a long life of sin.
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He quoted the proverb about the Ethiopian changing his skin or
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the leopard his spots. Basically, habits get deeply
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ingrained. It's incredibly hard to change
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lifelong patterns at the very end.
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And you're not guaranteed that time anyway.
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Exactly, He stressed that no future hour is promised.
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Repent now, he urged, because you may never have another hour
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to repent in. He grounded it in Scripture.
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Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
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He mentioned people reflecting near death.
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Yeah, he observed that many devout people facing the end
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were grateful they hadn't waited.
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The physical struggle of dying is enough, he thought, without
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adding the immense spiritual struggle of a last minute
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fundamental turn around. And death can come suddenly,
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anywhere, anytime. No calm season guarantee for
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repentance. So the urgency is real.
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It has to be actual, entire, immediate.
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And what about the depth? The 4th point is Hardy, not
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superficial. This sounds like it goes beyond
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just actions. It absolutely does.
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This gets to the core the motivation.
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Hardy turning involves sorrow of soul, a real inner grief.
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It's a renunciation of the sins of the heart, not just stopping
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the outward crimes of the life. So not just putting on a sad.
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Faith, definitely not. He dismissed that as a mock tear
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or just hanging out the end signs of grief.
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While inwardly you're still OK with the sin.
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Hearty turning is about the inside.
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It's the putting out of the candles of the heart.
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A complete inner reorientation. Yes, a total alteration where
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the old man is made anew in Christ Jesus.
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It's the giving up of the whole soul to God to be his forever
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and ever. It's not just swapping 1 bad
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habit for a good one. It's changing what you
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fundamentally want. Your desires align with God.
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A deep internal transformation. OK.
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And the final characteristic, it's not just a one off event.
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It'd have to be perpetual, not transitory.
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That's right, it's not something you do once and then you're
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done. He described it as a continual
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forsaking of sin throughout one's entire life until death, a
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perpetual abhorrence of evil. So the change God makes isn't
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superficial or temporary. No, it's not just cutting off
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the top of the weed as you put it.
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It's a cutting away of that which is the cause of the
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defilement getting at the root of sin itself.
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He used an illustration about fountains.
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Yeah, about ancient kings making fountains run with milk and wine
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for a day, but then they just went back to water.
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He warned against being like that.
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Good for a week, then sliding back.
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That's not true. Turning.
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He referenced the dog returning to its vomit.
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And the so to her mire. Pretty graphic, but it makes the
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point. That kind of back and forth, he
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argued, sinks you deeper. It's not evidence of grace.
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True turning is a permanent change of direction.
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OK, those five points. Actual, entire, immediate,
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hearty, perpetual paint. A really intense picture.
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But then he makes this critical distinction between legal
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repentance and evangelical repentance.
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This seems really important. It's absolutely key, especially
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within that reformed framework we mentioned.
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It clarifies how salvation actually happens in his view.
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So what's legal repentance? Legal repentance, Spurgeon
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explained, is basically just being afraid of getting caught,
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fear of the consequences, fear of damning, fear of God's wrath,
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fear of punishment. Like the thief fearing prison.
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Exactly, or the murderer fearing the gallows.
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They don't necessarily hate the crime, they just hate the
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punishment. It's driven by self
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preservation, not a real change of heart about the sin itself.
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OK, so that's fear based. How is evangelical repentance
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different? Fundamentally different.
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This, Spurgeon said, is a gift from God's Spirit.
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It involves a fear and hatred of sin itself.
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Hating the ACT, not just the consequence.
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Precisely. The person with evangelical
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repentance hates the deed itself.
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Spurgeon went so far as to say that even if there were no hell,
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no punishment, he would still hate sin.
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They hate it because it's wrong, because it offends God, not just
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because it brings trouble. This is the kind of turning
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needed for salvation. And there's another element to
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it about self-reliance. Yes, a huge element.
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The person realizes that no repentance of his own can avail
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to wash it out. No amount of effort, no amount
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of tears, can actually atone for their sin.
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He quoted a hemline. Could his zeal no respite?
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No Could his tears forever flow all for sin could not atone.
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Christ must save and Christ alone.
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That sums it up. So it leads to humility.
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Absolutely. It leads to confessing you
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deserve God's judgement, acknowledging you can't save
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yourself, and then placing your trust solely and entirely in the
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blood and merits of Jesus Christ.
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It's a complete reliance on Him alone, a turning to Christ, not
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just from sin. That clarifies so much.
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It's not about earning favor, but receiving a gift and relying
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wholly on Christ. Which leads us then to the
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tougher side of the coin. Section 3.
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The necessity of punishment if that turning doesn't happen.
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Spurgeon didn't pull any punches.
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Is here God must wet his sword for those who won't turn.
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He even quoted Richard Baxter's famous line.
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Sinner turn or burn it is thine only alternative Turn or burn
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Stark. Very stark and Spurgeon
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presented this not just as a threat, but is flowing
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necessarily from God's own nature.
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Because God is just. Because he fundamentally must be
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just, Spurgeon argued that a God without justice is, well,
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inconceivable for anyone thinking clearly.
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No man whose reason is sound can imagine a God without justice.
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So denying God's justice is like denying God himself.
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That's exactly his point, to suppose him all love and no
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justice were to UN deify him, make him no longer God, a God
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who couldn't uphold justice, couldn't properly rule the
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world. He believed there's a sort of
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natural perception in people that God must be just.
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You can't separate the concepts. For Spurgeon, no, it is but to
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say justice when you say God. They are intrinsically linked.
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And he saw this confirmed everywhere, not just in logic.
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Everywhere, he said, denying punishment for sin flies in the
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face of all the Scriptures and all of history, as God has
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revealed. It he pointed to specific
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examples from the Bible. Lots of them.
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Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden for what seems like a small
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act. The worldwide flood.
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Sodom burning, Cora and his followers being swallowed by the
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Earth, Pharaoh's army drowning. Sennacherib's army being wiped
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out. These weren't just stories to
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him. No, they were historical proof,
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demonstrations of God's consistent justice throughout
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time. It's not some new idea, it's how
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God has always operated. Did he see signs of this justice
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in his own day, too, not just in the past?
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He did, though he acknowledged final judgement is mostly for
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the next World. But he cited what he called
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faint intimations, specific cases where he believed God
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intervened directly like. The man who cursed himself.
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Yes, the man who wished his head twisted, eyes out, jaws locked.
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And then it happened moments later after a whipping accident
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and the famous story of the woman that devises dropping dead
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after lying about paying for grain.
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So might call those coincidences.
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He knew that, he said. He wasn't so credulous as to
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just chalk it up to chance. He saw them as little drops of
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God's displeasure, warnings of the greater judgement to come.
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But beyond these rare events, he thought people knew deep down.
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Yes, he really emphasized the role of conscience.
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He drew on John Bunyan's idea of Mr. Conscience shouting so loud
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it makes Mr. Understanding tremble.
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Even if you intellectually deny it, he argued, something inside
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affirms that God must punish sin.
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He thought the boasting denials were actually a sign of inner
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doubt. Kind of, yeah.
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Like people protesting too much. If they truly believe there are
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no consequences, why make such a fuss?
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Denying it? He felt it often masked an
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underlying unease. He told that story about the
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order in Canada, right? That's a powerful one.
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This young guy is railing against God, denying any future
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state, daring God to act. The crowd applauds.
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But then someone calls him out. Yeah, an old man stands up and
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just tells a story. The day before, he'd rescued
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that same young orator from drowning in Rapids and facing
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death. What did the young man do?
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Cried out. Oh, God, save my soul.
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Confessed his sins, promised to change.
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And a crowd went silent. Completely silent.
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The orator, too. Spurgeon's point was that when
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danger strips away the bravado, people instinctively cry out to
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God and acknowledge his justice. He concluded there is enough
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conscience in every man to convince him that God must
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punish him for his sin. It's built in.
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That inner witness. And finally, he grounds this in
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Jesus's own words. Absolutely.
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He directly quotes Jesus talking about hell, where the worm dieth
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not and the fire is not quenched.
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God being able to cast both body and soul into hell, mentioning
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everlasting punishment and everlasting fire.
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So he dismissed arguments that hell was, like, unreasonable.
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He did. He felt that conscience,
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especially in a place with Christian influence, was
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sufficiently enlightened to recognize the truth of it.
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He even told that little anecdote about the man wanting 2
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strings to his bow. If there's no hell, he's fine.
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If there is, the denier is in trouble.
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For Spurgeon, it wasn't really up for debate.
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It was a reality confirmed by Scripture, reason and
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conscience. OK, so the picture is clear.
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True turning is essential and demanding, and the alternative,
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God's justice is certain. Which brings us to the really
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practical question, how on earth does someone get this kind of
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repentance? Section 4.
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The means of obtaining true repentance and salvation.
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And this is where the Reformed emphasis on grace comes through
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so strongly, Spurgeon stated flatly.
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No man can repent with evangelical repentance of
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himself. We can't just decide to do it
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and make it happen. Why not?
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Because, he argued, human nature is desperately set on sin.
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We're inherently unable to generate this kind of saving
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change on our own. So where does it come from?
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It's a gift, something that Christ, the one who died on
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Calvary, is now exalted in heaven to give repentance and
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remission of sin. It comes through his Holy
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Spirit. It's received, not achieved.
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A gift. But does that mean we just sit
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back and wait? Not exactly.
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While we can't produce it, Spurgeon gave very practical
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advice on how to seek it. What did he suggest?
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He told people who felt they were sinners who felt that need
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to ask of Christ to give them repentance.
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Even if your heart feels like iron or cold as ice, ask Him.
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His spirit can work that change. So the prayer is key.
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What else? Confession.
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Bow your knees before God and confess your sins.
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Be honest. Tell Him you can't repent the
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way you know you should. Tell Him your heart is hard.
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Admit your inability. And thinking about your sins.
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Yes, spend time reflecting on them.
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Let the reality sink in. Let conviction happen.
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Don't brush it off. But then after conviction, he
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points somewhere specific. He does, he says, spend an hour
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at Calvary. Not literally of course, but
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meditate deeply on Christ sacrifice.
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Read about the God that loved and died.
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Imagine the scene, the suffering, the blood dropping
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from his hands. Why is that so central?
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Because contemplating that incredible love and sacrifice,
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he believed, is the most powerful catalyst for true,
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heartfelt turning. Especially when the Spirit helps
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you see it, he quoted an old divine saying.
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Essentially, keep seeking, keep looking to Christ even if you
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don't feel it yet, and the feeling the reality will come.
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Keep engaging with the cross. It's active, seeking, relying on
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God's power, working through the message of the cross.
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And Spurgeon himself experienced this, didn't he?
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He shared his own story. He did, and it's incredibly
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moving. A snowy day.
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Feeling immense guilt, he wanders into this tiny plain
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Chapel. And here's a simple message.
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From a simple preacher reading Isaiah 45.22 Look unto me, and
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be saved all the ends of the earth.
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And then the preacher seemed to look right at young Spurgeon.
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What did he say? He just said, young man, look,
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look, look, he says this morning, look, just a simple
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command to look to Jesus. And Spurgeon did.
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He said in that moment he looked upon Jesus and instantly the
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burden lifted. He felt like a young heaven had
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had its birth within my conscience.
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He walked home completely changed, knowing there was no
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condemnation for those in Christ.
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Wow, just looking, believing. It shows the simplicity of that
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final step of faith which is the culmination of true turning.
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It's not complicated works. It's trust.
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So after all the seriousness about repentance and justice,
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the endpoint is an invitation. Yes, a wide open invitation.
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Spurgeon quotes God's own words from Isaiah.
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Come now, let us reason together.
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Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool.
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Total cleansing. And it's all because of Jesus.
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All for Jesus sake, all of this for his blood sake.
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That's the foundation. So the final call is simple.
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Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved.
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And the flip side, stated just as clearly in the New Testament,
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He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
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He that believeth not shall be damned.
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An open door, even for the worst.
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Even for the chief of sinners, the vilest of the vile, he said,
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the call is universal. Come, trust, be saved.
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It's grace grounded in Christ's work, received through faith,
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and always accompanied by that genuine turning.
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We've certainly dug deep today. We've unpacked Spurgeon's very
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specific view of what real turning looks like now.
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Actual, entire, immediate, Hardy and perpetual.
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And we've grappled with his unflinching insistence on God's
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justice and absolute necessity of punishment for those who
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refuse that turning. But also the crucial point that
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this turning, this repentance, isn't something we muster up
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ourselves. It's a gift.
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A gift from Christ through His Spirit, sought through prayer,
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confession, and looking intently at His sacrifice.
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So as we wrap up this deep dive, maybe the question Spurgeon
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leaves us with is this. Given how serious God's justice
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is and what true turning really involved, what does this call to
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turn mean for you personally? For your own understanding of
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grace and accountability? And maybe also, how does the
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sermon preached way back in 1856 still land today?
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Does it still carry that same urgent ring?
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Something to think about. That's all for this deep dive on
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reformed thinking.