Sermon Shorts from Spurgeon — Sermon 26: The Two Effects of the Gospel

Again the minister of the gospel is called a fisherman. Now a fisherman is not responsible for the quantity of fish he catches, but for the way he fishes. That is a mercy for some ministers, I am sure, for they have neither caught fish, for neither caught fish nor even attracted any round their nets. They have been spending all their life fishing with most elegant silk lines, and gold and silver hooks; they always use nicely polished phrases; but the fish will not bite for all that, whereas we of a rougher order have put the hook into the jaws of hundreds. However, if we cast the gospel net in the right place, even if we catch none, the Master will find no fault with us He will say, “Fisherman! didst thou labour? Didst thou throw the net into the sea in the time of storms?” “Yes, my Lord, I did.” “What hast thou caught?” “Only one or two.” “Well, I could have sent thee a shoal, if it so pleased me; it is not thy fault; I give in my sovereignty where I please; or withhold when I choose; but as for thee, thou hast well laboured, therefore there is thy reward.”

From the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 1, Sermon 26 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Consequences of the Fall

Adam and Eve had fallen from their position of innocence by disobeying God’s command. This is sin. Whenever someone sins, there are consequences. Sometimes those consequences are immediate and sometimes they come later, but they always happen. Here is what God did.

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (Genesis 3:14-19)

First, the serpent is held accountable. There is some debate over whether God judged the physical animal Satan used or Satan himself. It appears to this writer that God judged them both. The physical serpent was cursed to crawl on his belly. (vs. 14) The apparent reason for this is that it was complicit somehow in Satan’s work. Satan in turn was condemned by the seed of the woman which would “bruise” his head. (vs. 15)

Work Is Good

We often get the idea that work is a bad thing.  However, God didn’t create work to be that way.  In the Garden of Eden, Adam had work responsibilities.

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (Gen. 2:15)

Notice first that God put Adam in the garden.  God was the One Who created work.  As we saw in the previous verses, God made everything good, so work must be good.  In Genesis 3, work became difficult due to sin, but work itself was created by God to be good for mankind.  God made human beings to be productive.
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The Seventh Day

It took God just 6 days to create everything.  This is a testimony to His omnipotence.

Genesis 2:1-3  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

That creation was “finished” means that there was no more creation out of nothing (ex nihilo).  All physical matter had been created.  Of course, the created matter could change through various means (chemical, nuclear, etc.), but from this point, matter could neither be created or destroyed (First Law of Thermodynamics).  Continue reading