A Word from the WORD: "TIME TO REPENT" (Article 188)

[Life Fellowship]

TIME TO REPENT

 

Isaiah 22:12-14:  “The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!” The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the LORD Almighty.”

God always demands from His people strict compliance to His commandments. When we search the Scriptures, we can see that God accomplished His purposes through men who obeyed him exactly and implicitly.

We read about Noah obeying every word that God gave him although he did not understand God’s plan completely (Genesis 6:22). Obedience is difficult when we do not understand what God is asking us to do. But Noah obeyed nonetheless.  God asked him to make an ark whose size was such that he had to make it in public.  And out of holy fear, he obeyed scorning all the shame he had to face.

 

Moses is another man whom God used mightily to fulfil His great purposes. The reason for this was because of his obedience. When the tabernacle was being built, Moses did everything as the Lord commanded and thus after he did everything, the Lord came and filled the tabernacle with His glory.  (Exodus 39:5, 26, 29, 31, 32, 42, 43; 40:16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 32, 34)

Jesus always did the will of the Father. In John 17:14, He summed up His earthly life as “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”  Jesus set this example for us to follow.

 

Do we obey God exactly?  Do we obey God implicitly?

God is looking for those who will do that which He is asking them to. When God asks us to obey Him in a specific area, we have to obey Him in that matter itself. It will be of no value to obey God in other areas. We might be doing many things for His kingdom, but we will still be outside the will of God.

 

We should not be unaware of this scheme of the devil to make us a compromiser. The devil often comes to us with some alternatives to obeying the will of God. By doing that, we ease our conscience, but we still miss the will and purpose of God. In Jesus’ days, the Pharisees were interested in doing something that was religious, but not in doing the will of God (Mark 7:10-11).

In the text given at the beginning of this article (Isaiah 22:12-14), we see that God called His people Israel, to repent but they did not take heed. And even now God is calling His Church to repent, but we do not take heed. Repentance is hardly preached and wherever God finds a man to preach it, few listen to him. Thus there is no repentance in the Church, no weeping and wailing over sin.

 

There is no repentance in the Church because our hearts have been hardened. We have tears for worldly things and not for the things of God. Our love for God has grown cold and we have become lovers of ourselves and pleasure. Like Israel, instead of repenting as the Lord commanded, we are leading a luxurious life, indulging in all kinds of pleasures.

We desire more money to increase our standard of living and to increase our comforts. What we forget is that these very pleasures choke the word sown into our lives (Luke 8:14).

 

Are we lovers of God or lovers of ourselves? Do we serve God or money?

What should we repent for?

 

Firstly, for our sins.  God wants us to repent and renounce our sinful ways. God’s people should consider holiness as their primary objective in life. It is so heartbreaking to see believers still carelessly living in their old ways.  For instance, lying is so casual for most of us when the Bible clearly says in John 8:44 that lying is the characteristic of the devil and in Revelation 21:8 that liars are destined for the lake of fire.  Let us be earnest and repent!

Secondly, God calls us to cry out for our brethren.  When we are faithful in judging ourselves, God will lay His burden for His people upon us and we will mourn for them.  There are many who can find fault with the Church, but few who will travail and wail over its sick condition.  The Lord marks them out: “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it” (Ezekiel 9:4).

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you!

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