Paul West reflects on Charles Spurgeon's sermon, emphasizing the monstrous nature of sin that leads people to live as if God does not exist. He highlights the alarming reality that many individuals neglect God entirely, failing to consider His presence in their actions or the consequences of their choices. Despite the evidence of God's providence and the reminders of His authority in their lives, they continue to act without reverence or acknowledgment of Him. This defiance against God is portrayed as a grave sin, illustrating the deep-seated character of sin that blinds humanity to the divine. The sermon calls for a recognition of God's sovereignty and a return to a life that honors Him.

What a monster! The following is from Spurgeon's sermon, The Deep-Seated Character of Sin. Tens of thousands of people in this so-called Christian land live in utter neglect of God. If there were no God, it would not in any way affect the lives of most men. They live precisely as if there were none. God is not in all their thoughts. They never pause over an action and ask, will God be angry with this? They are never moved to the performance of virtue by the reflection that God will approve of it. There is no God to them, though their table is loaded with the bounties of His providence. No God, even though the sick chamber be made to feel the terror of His rod. No God to them, though they walk in all the fields of nature and behold the evidences of deity on every side. No God, though they might see His finger in every event of their lives. They live like brutes in this respect, and alas, many of them die the same, without God, without hope, earth-grubbers, buried in the earth. Ah, this is a strange thing. It shows what a monster, what a diabolical miracle sin is, that God should be around us all the day long, and yet before His very face we should dare to say and think and do that which is contrary to His will. Although a word of His could crush us as the moth is crushed, although His will could sink us into the profoundest hell, what word shall denounce the arrogance and impudence of sin? Sin is a defiance of God to His face, a stabbing of God, so far as man can do it, to the very heart.