To doubt the lovingkindness of God is thought by some to be a very small sin; in fact, some have even exalted the doubts and fears of God’s people into fruits and grace, and evidences of great advancement in experience. It is humiliating to observe that certain ministers have pampered and petted men in unbelief and distrust of God, being in this matter false to their Master, and to the souls of his people. Far be it from me to smite the feeble of the flock; but their sins I must and will smite, since it is my firm conviction, that to doubt the kindness, the faithfulness, and the love of God, is a very heinous offence. Unbelief is akin to Atheism. Atheism denies God’s existence-unbelief denies his goodness, and since goodness is essential to God, these doubts do, in reality, stab at his very being. That can be no light sin which makes God a liar; and yet unbelief does in effect, cast foul and slanderous suspicion upon the veracity of the Holy One of Israel. That can be no small offence which charges the Creator of heaven and earth with perjury; and yet, if I mistrust his oath, and will not believe his promise, sealed with the blood of his own Son, I count the oath of God to be unworthy of my trust; and so I do, in very deed, accuse the King of Heaven as false to his covenant and oath. Besides, as I shall have to show this morning, unbelief of God is the fountain of innumerable sins. As the black cloud is the mother of many rain-drops, so dark unbelief is the parent of many crimes. And what if I should say that unbelief concentrates the vice of ages into a moment, and gathers up the virus of all the offences of the race in one transgression? I should not be far from the mark. But I shall say no strong words in the preface, because methinks the incident in David’s history, to which I shall call your attention this morning, will be in itself enough to lead you to give your verdict with mine, that unbelief is a damnable sin, that it should be condemned by every believer, should be struggled against, should if possible be subdued, and certainly should be the object of our deep repentance and abhorrence.

Now let us listen to David, and may his sin and sorrow be as beacons to warn us from evil! “David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.” First, I shall remark that what he said in his heart was false; secondly, we shall ask the question, how he came to think so? and then we shall notice, in the third place, what mischief came of such a hard unbelieving thought.

First, the thought of David’s heart was false. He said, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.”

We might conclude it to be false upon the very face of it, because there certainly was no evidence to prove it. On no one occasion had the Lord deserted his servant; he had been placed in perilous positions very often, but not one single instance had occurred in which God’s strength was not sufficient for him. The trials to which he had been exposed had been varied; they had not assumed one form only, but many; yet in every case he who sent the trial had also graciously ordained a way of escape. David could not put his finger upon any entry in his diary, and say of it, “Here is evidence that God will forsake me.” In looking back through his whole life, from the time when he kept his father’s sheep, and slew the lion and the bear, onward to the day when he challenged the Philistine, and upward to this moment, when he had just escaped from his bloodthirsty pursuer, he could not find a solitary fact which should be proof that God had changed his mind, and would leave his anointed to fall into the hand of his cruel enemy.

Now, mark. When you and I doubt God’s Word there is this to be said of it, we mistrust it without a cause. I bear my willing testimony that I have no reason to doubt my Lord, nor even the shadow of a reason: and I think that you who were in Christ many a year before I knew him can say that since you have trusted in him you have never once had any reason to suspect his faithfulness, or to imagine that he would cast you away. Brethren, we condemn not a man without evidence. Shall we condemn our loving Lord without evidence? I challenge heaven, and earth, and hell this morning to bring any proof that God is untrue. From the depths of hell I call the fiends, and from this earth I call the tried and afflicted believers, and to heaven I appeal, and challenge the long experience of the blood-washed host, and there is not to be found in the three realms a single one who can bear evidence of a fact which should disprove the goodness of God, or weaken his claim to be trusted by his servants. Now let our unbelief be scouted; let our sense of justice expel it at once. Let us be just to God as well as to man; and if never yet hath he failed any one of his people, or broken a solitary promise, far be it from us to doubt or to be unbelieving.

“Thus far we prove that promise good

Which Jesus ratified with blood;

Still he is gracious, wise, and just,

And still in him let Israel trust.”

But, again, what David said in his heart was not only without evidence, but it was contrary to evidence. What reason had he to believe that God would leave him? Rather, how many evidences had he to conclude that the Lord neither could nor would leave him? “Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them.” That was good reasoning. Why not reason like that now, David? Why not say, “Thy servant slew the Philistine, thy servant escaped from the javelin of Saul, when the mad monarch would have pinned him to the wall; thy servant escaped from all the devices of Doeg; thy servant escaped when Saul pursued him in the tracks of the wild goats and in the caves of En-gedi; thy servant escaped out of the power of Achish, the Philistine; and, lo, this Saul, who seeks my head, out of his hand shall I escape also?” That would have been a rational conclusion, a proper way of dealing with evidence; but to say, after such love and kindness past, “He will let me sink at last,” was to draw a lying conclusion, and to bring in a verdict directly contrary to the evidence.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, your case is similar-at least mine is. O Lord God! thou hast not left us at any time. We have had dark nights, but the star of love has shone forth amid the blackness; we have had our cloudy days, but our sun has never set until we have had glimpses of sunlight from heaven; we have gone through many trials, but never to our detriment, always to our advantage; and the conclusion from our past experience-at least, I can speak of my own positively-is, that he who hath been with us in six troubles, will not forsake us in the seventh. He hath said, “I will never, never leave thee, and will never, never, never forsake thee.” Do not think I repeat these “nevers” too often; I repeat the text just as I find it in the Greek. What we have known of our faithful God, goes to show that he will keep us to the end, and even to the last he will be our helper. Go not, then, contrary to evidence. What should we say of a jury who, after having heard a case in which the verdict should evidently have been “Not Guilty,” should, nevertheless, say “Guilty?” Let the earth ring with the cry of indignation. A man has been condemned not only unjustly, but in the very teeth of evidence which proved his innocence. O heaven and earth! ring ye with the universal indignation of honest men, that we should think God untrue, when all the evidence of our past lives goes to prove that he is true and faithful to his Word.

“Our Saviour’s word abideth sure,

His record is on high,

He who has made our souls secure,

Was never known to lie.

Munitions of stupendous rock

Our dwelling place shall be;

There shall our souls without a shock

The wreck of nature see.”

Thirdly, this exclamation of David was contrary to God’s promises. Samuel had poured the anointing oil on David’s head-God’s earnest and promise that David should be king. Let David die by the hand of Saul, how can the promise be fulfilled? Many times had God assured his servant David that he had chosen the son of Jesse to be the leader of his people; let him die, and how can that be true? It was, therefore, clean contrary to the promise of God that David should fall by his enemy’s hand. Christian! it is contrary to every promise of this precious book that thou shouldst become the victim of the lion of hell. How, then, could He be true who has said, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I never forget thee.” What were the value of that promise-“The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee?” Where were the truth of Christ’s words-“I give unto my sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand?” Where were the doctrines of grace? They would be proved to be a lie, if one child of God perish. Where were the veracity of God, his honour, his power, his grace, his covenant, his oath, if any of those for whom Christ has died, and who have put their trust in him, should nevertheless be cast away? Oh! by this precious Book which thou believest to be true, unless thou art prepared to cast it away as a vile thing of falsehood, distrust not thy Lord, but rather say,

“The gospel bears my spirit up;

A faithful and unchanging God,

Lays the foundation for my hope,

In oaths, and promises, and blood.”

But further, this wicked exclamation of David was contrary to what he himself had often said. Here I convict myself, I remember on one occasion, to my shame, being sad and doubtful of heart, and a kind friend took out a paper and read to me a short extract from a discourse upon faith. I very soon detected the author of the extract; my friend was reading to me from one of my own sermons. Without saying a word he just left it to my own conscience, for he had convicted me of committing the very fault against which I had so earnestly declaimed. Often might you, brethren, be found out in the same inconsistency. “Oh!” you have said, “I could trust him though the fig-tree did not blossom, and though there were no flocks in the field, and no herd in the stall.” Ah! ye have condemned the unbelief of other people, but when it touched you, you have trembled, and when you have come to run with the horsemen they have wearied you, and in the swellings of Jordan you have been troubled. So was it with David. What strong words he had often said when he addressed others! He said of Saul, “His time shall come to die; I will not stretch out my hand and touch the Lord’s anointed.” He felt sure that Saul’s doom was signed and sealed; and yet in the hour of his unbelief he says, “I shall yet one day fall.” What a strange contradiction was that! What a mercy it is that God changeth not, for we are changing two or three times a day! But our own utterances, our own convictions aforetime, are clean contrary to the idea that he can ever leave us or forsake us. I appeal, as did that ancient worthy who appealed from Philip drunk to Philip sober, I appeal from Philip unbelieving to Philip in a proper state of mind. I bring up before you your own thoughts, your own emotions, your own joyous shouts of song, your own psalms of victory, and I ask you to make these consistent with your present doubts. “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should arise against me, in this will I be confident.” That is David. “I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul.” That is David too. “I will love thee, O Lord my strength! The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” That is David. “I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul.” That is David again. Do not fetch up any other evidence; let the man convict himself. His unbelief is absurd from his own showing. So with you and with me, brethren; we are great fools when we doubt God, and that is saying the best of it; what the worst of it is, God only knows. O Lord, from this great sin do thou deliver us!

Yet once more, this exclamation of David was contrary to the facts. I mean not merely contrary to the facts that were in evidence, but contrary to the facts that were transpiring at that very moment. Where was Saul? Saul was seeking to a miserable witch of Endor, to raise Samuel from the dead. The spears of the Philistines were being sharpened for the battle, and the arrows were being made ready upon the string that should reach the heart of the king of Israel; and yet here is David, just within a short period of attaining to the kingdom and of seeing Saul slain, saying “I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul.” Oh! if he could have read the mysteries, if he could have understood what the right hand of God was doing, and what the Eternal One designed for him, he would never have whined thus his unbelief. So with you and with me. “Ah!” but you say, “it is not so with me this morning; I am brought very low.” Yes, and God is getting ready to bring you up very high. “Ah! but my trouble is a very dreadful one.” Yes, and his bare arm is a very potent one, and he knows how to deliver his children. “Yes, but I do not see.” No, and you do not need to see. But still it is being done. God’s purposes are ripening. Now, do not misjudge them; do not antedate the time of your deliverance, but patiently wait and quietly hope. I know that some of us, when we have escaped from our trials, have said, “Well, if I had known it had been so, I would not have been so troubled about it.” Just so, and now, I pray you, though you do not know it, yet still believe it, and do not run contrary to the fact in doubting God. You are very poor, are you? But still you take care of your children. What would you say to your child if he were sitting down at the table crying. “What dost thou cry for, child?” “Because there is no food for me.” “Why, silly child,” say you, “I was just cutting a slice from the loaf; do not cry till you are sure there is no food.” The Lord says to us often, “What dost thou cry for, silly child? This is what I was doing behind the mysteries of my Providence, getting ready some sweet and precious mercy for thee.”

“The clouds ye so much dread,

Are big with mercies and shall break

With blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust him for his grace.