What Are You Waiting For?
The Bible teaches that you may be “Sinning away your day of Grace,” and therefore, lose your opportunity to be saved from Hell!
Many today have heard that the Bible teaches there is a day coming when Jesus will return in secret and catch away His church. Perhaps you are one of those that have said, “OK. When I see millions missing, I will know everything in the Bible is true and I will get on my knees and ask Christ to save me!” Sorry, but if that is your plan it will not work. Paul wrote in
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 “…because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
The context is explaining that when Satan’s son takes over the world and people will be forced to take the name, number, or mark of the beast, (in their right hand or in their forehead, [see Revelation 13] in order to buy and sell,) those who will volunteer to receive it and believe the Devil’s lie will be those who once had a chance to be saved, but had turned Christ down.
Will anyone be saved from their sins and witness for the Gospel of Christ after Satan’s son takes over the world? Yes, thousands will, (read Revelation Chapter Seven) but these are those converted having never had an opportunity to hear the Gospel until then. Today, you have the opportunity to accept or reject, Jesus Christ as your Lord and only Saviour. Please: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:” Isaiah 55:6
Jesus said: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:” Luke 13:24-25
“Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.” Proverbs 1:28-31
There is a time, we know not when,
A point we know not where,
That marks the destiny of men
To glory or despair.
There is a line by us unseen,
That crosses every path;
The hidden boundary between
God’s patience and his wrath.
To pass that limit is to die–
To die as if by stealth;
It does not quench the beaming eye
Or pale the glow of health.
The conscience may be still at ease,
The spirit lithe and gay;
That which pleases still may please,
And care be thrust away.
But on that forehead God has set,
Indelibly a mark
Unseen by men, for men as yet
Are blind and in the dark.
And yet doomed man’s path below
May bloom as Eden bloomed;
He did not, does not, will not know,
Or feel that he is doomed.
He knows, he feels that all is well,
And every fear is calmed;
He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell,
Not only doomed, but damned.
Oh, where is this mysterious bourn
By which our path is crossed;
Beyond which God himself hath sworn,
That he who goes is lost.
How far may we go on in sin?
How long will God forbear?
Where does hope end, and where begin
The confines of despair?
An answer from the skies is sent,
“Ye that from God depart,
While it is called today, repent,
And harden not your heart.”
(The Destiny of Men) -Joseph Addison Alexander
How does one sin away his day of grace? A person may never speak a word, yet cross this point of no return. God said in Hosea 4:17 “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” It can be done by clinging to sin and refusing Jesus Christ. It can be done by putting off salvation until it is too late. It is saying “no” to the Holy Spirit’s invitation to trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour for the last time!
What happens? God will leave you to your sin. “Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:” Zech 7:12-13
“And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: …” Genesis 6:3
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections:” …Romans 1:26
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” Romans 1:28
When does it happen? “But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.” 2 Chronicles 36:16
“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” Proverbs 29:1 Someday God will make His call for the very last time!
Who have sinned away their day of Grace? The Bible tells of several folks who sinned away their day of Grace: for example there was King Agrippa, Governor Felix, and Porcius Festus, in Acts 24-26 where it was said “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” The rich young ruler in Mark 10 turned down Christ “for he had great possessions.”
Why you should get saved today! Because God will not forgive the sin of continually refusing to be forgiven! If you reject Christ today, you may experience a day when you CAN NOT believe! “Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.” John 12:39-40
Many have been saved on God’s final call. Many have told me personally that they believe they were saved on God’s final call! They believe that if they had not received Christ as their Savior when they did, that God would have eternally damned their soul to hell. In Luke 13, Jesus gave a parable where He mentions a farmer visiting a fig tree three times, then asks His servant to cut it down. “He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.” Luke 13:6-9 I believe this parable reveals the mind of God on this subject and that Christ may approach an individual about three times. Then the Holy Spirit speaks to give Him one more opportunity to work on that individual so that he will respond properly, but if not, then its doom is sealed! “For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted,…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2
There’s a line that is drawn by rejecting our Lord,
Where the call of His Spirit is lost,
And you hurry along with the pleasure-mad throng—
Have you counted, have you counted the cost?
You may barter your hope of eternity’s morn,
For a moment of joy at the most,
For the glitter of sin and the things it will win—
Have you counted, have you counted the cost?
While the door of His mercy is open to you,
Ere the depth of His love you exhaust,
Won’t you come and be healed,
Won’t you whisper, I yield—
I have counted, I have counted the cost.
Have you counted the cost,
if your soul should be lost,
Tho’ you gain the whole world for your own?
Even now it may be that the line you have crossed,
Have you counted, have you counted the cost?
-DMH