Author: Silva

Reason #6: Why a Sinner Ought to Turn To God without Delay

Silva

This weekend in morning worship, we looked at the concept of “foolishness.”  There are things that we all consider foolish – but no one has the same list.  Inside Christendom we have a unified list of what is foolish; of course, outside Christendom, there’s another list.  Among the former we’d place sexual promiscuity of all types; among the latter, abstinence.  So, logger heads is inevitable at some point.

One of those areas of inside – outside disagreement would be about the personal enemy of God and His people, the Devil.  Inside, we know he’s real, fierce and relentless.  Outside, he’s a suped-up evil villian from a superhero comic strip.  Even gross wickedness outside Christendom the preference would be to attribute mental illness than to supernatural evil.  Richard Baxter reminds all who would listen that to disbelieve in a personal enemy of all mankind is to bury your head in the sand.

Moreover, your delaying gives great advantage to the Tempter.  If you would presently turn and forsake your sins, and enter into a faithful covenant with God, the devil would be almost out of hope and the very heart of his temptations would be broken….But, as long as you delay, you keep him in heart and hope; he has time to strengthen his prison and fetters and to renew his snares; and if one temptation serve him not, has time to try another and another; as if you would stand as a mark for Satan to shoot at as long as he pleases.

It is a well-known and well-worn trick of the Adversary to convince people that he really doesn’t exist and he really is no threat.  It is folly to believe him.  Turn to God immediately and live.

Pastor Gabe

Reason #5: Why a Sinner Ought to Turn to God without Delay

Silva

Randy Alcorn is the author of a book titled, “The Treasure Principle.”  The book is about how Christians use their money in such a way that investments they make now might reap rewards in heaven.  He has several “keys” in his book and one that I considered very recently is “Live for the line, not the dot.”  The line is the ray that extends from the moment of our death forever; the dot is our time here in this life.  Dot Life will one day fade into Line Life.  But Dot Life is always at a crossroads: which line will be our forever line?  Choose now so that when the mystery of death unfolds upon us, we will be certain as to the outcome.

Richard Baxter reminds us today that all who have not made the choice to follow Christ now while living in the Dot, are making their choice about which line will be theirs forever:

Do you think you stand in a safe condition?  If you knew where you are, you would sit as upon thorns as long as you are unconverted; you would be as a man that stood up to the knees in the sea and saw the tide coming towards him who certainly would think that there is no standing still in such a place.  You have all your sin unpardoned; you are under the curse of the law; the wrath of God is upon you and the fulness of it hangs over your heads; judgment is coming to pass upon you the dreadful doom; the Lord is at hand; death is at the door and waits but for the word from the mouth of God that it may arrest you and bring you to everlasting misery: and is this a state for a man to continue in?

We are foolish who believe that we command our destinies – for which of us can choose the time and place of our deaths?  Wouldn’t that be the ultimate evidence of our own command of our lives?  Yet, none chooses what God has set already.  Therefore, do not delay but turn to Christ.

Pastor Gabe

Reason #4: Why a Sinner Ought to Turn to God without Delay

Silva

It has been a difficult few days.  In my last post I referenced a death in the family and my involvement in the final preparations, a memorial and shepherding people through their grief.  It was both a privilege and a burden.  To do all of this, I had to travel to a place where “raw life” happens.  Suburban, Southern living rarely gets visibly raw; of course life in the south (like anywhere else) gets very difficult but it is usually kept under the surface, out of the light.  In fact, I often bemoan these things to people.  I complain that the South can be a difficult place to minister since there is still so much cultural Christianity though the veneer might be thinner than it used to be.  Still, to live and work in a place where that veneer is absent presents a different kind of difficulty.  It was to this kind of place, where it was visible and it was paraded, that I went.

Providentially, Baxter highlights some of the very challenges that I witnessed in my recent travels: people who love their sins and as a result will not turn to God thinking they still have time to wallow in it.  No, life’s timer expires often when we least expect it.

Your delaying shows that you love not God and that you prefer your sin before him and that you would never part with it if you could have your will.  For if you loved God, you would long to be restored to his favour and to be near him and employed in his service and his family….And it is a sign also that you are in love with sin: for else, why should you be so loath to leave it?  He that would not leave his sin and turn to God till the next week or the next month or year would never turn if he might have his desire.  For that which makes you desirous to stay a day or a week longer do indeed make you loath to turn at all.

We underestimate the power of sin to keep us in its grip.  We linger over mixed wine too long because it smells inviting and it tastes sweet.  The time to turn from sin is always now.

Turn to God without delay,

Pastor Gabe