SATURDAY May 23, 2020
Impenitent Hearts
But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”….
Romans 2:5-6
Wow! These are extraordinary words. Paul warned that sinful people without true repentance would become the object of God’s terrible wrath! This warning applies, not only to mockers and nonbelievers, but it also applies to people who have listened to the teaching of God’s Word and read the Scriptures, but they do not obey them. If a person continues to live a life of sin and reject God’s grace and mercy, they can expect God’s judgment to come.
Paul warned people about the seriousness of living a genuine Christian life. They could not be a Christian in name only. If there was no true change, no true transformation, then they were in deep trouble! I ask people in the congregation, “Is there evidence of your Christianity?”
Some people live foolishly; while in sin, they think, since they have not been judged yet, they have gotten away with their sin––judgment is not going to happen. Yet one day judgment will come. God will not be mocked. He will judge now or later. No one gets away with their sin. Take Paul’s warning seriously! God hates sin, and He will judge sin. Yet God is so patient and kind. God gives people opportunity after opportunity to repent:
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Do not take advantage of the grace of God because there is a day of judgment coming.
To say that we are sorry for our sins is mere hypocrisy, unless we show that we are really sorry for them, by giving them up. Doing is the very life of repentance.
~J.C. Ryle~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!