Charles Spurgeon, from “Sovereignty and Salvation.”

Text: Isaiah 45:22 — “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

Why are people drawn to religion that is complex, demanding, forbidding and impersonal? Why are we so ready to “walk from here to Bath” in our bare feet, but refuse to sit and listen to the simple, hopeful message of the gospel?

The answer, Spurgeon suggests, is pride. We want something to do, something to achieve, so that we can say we had a hand in it.

In 2 Kings 5:11, Naaman is offended by the simplicity of Elisha’s instructions for being healed of his leprosy: “But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’”

Spurgeon:

The world likes a religion they cannot comprehend. But have you never noticed how gloriously simple the bible is? It will not have any of your nonsense; it speaks plain, and nothing but plain things.

If the prophet had bidden him to do some great thing, would he not have done it? Ah! certainly he would. And if, this morning, I could preach that any one who walked from here to Bath without his shoes and stockings, or did some impossible thing, should be saved, you would start off tomorrow morning before breakfast.

If it would take me seven years to describe the way of salvation, I am sure you would all long to hear it. If only one learned doctor could tell the way to heaven, how would he be run after! And if it were in hard words, with a few scraps of Latin and Greek, it would be all the better.

But it is a simple gospel that we have to preach. It is only “Look!” … Why has God ordered you to do such a simple thing? Just to take down your pride, and to show you that he is God, and that beside him there is none else.

O, mark how simple the way of salvation is. It is, “Look! look! look!” Four letters, and two of them alike!