IF the ship you are sailing in is sinking so fast that any moment you may be drowned, would it not be foolish to sit on deck, gazing at the beautiful sea and basking in the sunshine? Yet some reader may, even now, be showing like indifference.
The good things of this life are of value: they are God’s gifts to His creatures. But there is great danger connected with the use we make of them.
The Lord Jesus tells a parable of a farmer whose one thought was prosperity in this life. “This will I do,” he said, “I will pull down my barns and build greater; and there will I bestow all any fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:18, 2018And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. (Luke 12:18)
20But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (Luke 12:20)). He thought to enjoy his good things “for many years”; that night he left all behind. Prosperous though he was, he could not secure one single day more. What a snare! He had shut out God, and forgot his soul’s eternal destiny!
Again, the Lord tells the parable of a great supper (Luke 14:16-2416Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. (Luke 14:16‑24)). Those invited ask to be excused. Did they wish to do wicked things? No, ― “a piece of ground,” “five yoke of oxen,” “a married wife”―these were made reasons for declining to come. Jesus thus foretold what is true today; people are satisfied with temporal mercies, with no desire for the wealth of blessing that God has provided. Is the reader such a one?
God tells us in Genesis why the flood came. We read, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth and it grieved Him at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth” (Gen. 14:5-75And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, 6And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness. 7And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar. (Genesis 14:5‑7)).
Such was the dreadful state of the world that it had become a moral necessity that it should be ended God could no longer tolerate it.
Have you noticed how differently Jesus speaks with regard to the flood? “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given, in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:2727They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:27)). What the Lord calls attention to is that they pursued their ordinary natural life; but were unconcerned about the coming judgment. Content to partake of God’s temporal mercies, but deaf to His word.
Noah, “a preacher of righteousness,” had warned the people, all the time of God’s longsuffering, while the ark was being prepared (1 Peter 3:2020Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:20)). But his word was disregarded; and, overtaken suddenly, they perished.
All this is a serious consideration. Has it no voice to you?
In the story of the prodigal, which also comes from the lips of Christ, we have one who squandered his “good things” and came to a most wretched condition (Luke 15). Then it was, “he came to himself.” Conscience was awakened, and he confessed his sin. “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”
God thus encourages you, my reader, to take your true place before Him as a repentant sinner. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)). it was to meet the judgment we deserved that Jesus went to Calvary’s cross. Who can tell the awful woe which Jesus suffered there? We read, “Christ also path once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)). Why not, then, accept Him as your Saviour?
What a reception the prodigal had! The kiss, the best robe, the ring and shoes, and the fatted calf awaited him. What a portion at home with his father! What blessedness is theirs, who, through faith in CHRIST, have been brought to God! On the ground of the death of His Son, God has secured untold wealth for man: blessing to be known now, and enjoyed eternally. And it is all for you, if you will have it. S. P. F.