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Jesus Lovingly Calls, but Many Wait Too Long to Respond,
December 6
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first
works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from
its place—unless you repent.
Revelation 2:4, 5
, NKJV.
The Redeemer of the world declares that there are greater sins than that for
which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Those who hear the gospel invitation
calling sinners to repentance, and heed it not, are more guilty before God than were
the dwellers in the vale of Siddim. And still greater sin is theirs who profess to
know God and to keep His commandments, yet who deny Christ in their character
and their daily life. In the light of the Savior’s warning, the fate of Sodom is a
solemn admonition, not merely to those who are guilty of outbreaking sin, but to
all who are trifling with Heaven-sent light and privileges....
The Savior watches for a response to His offers of love and forgiveness with a
more tender compassion than that which moves the heart of an earthly parent to
forgive a wayward, suffering son or daughter. He cries after the wanderer, “Return
unto me, and I will return unto you” (
Malachi 3:7
). But if the erring one persistently
refuses to heed the voice that calls him or her with pitying, tender love, he or she
will at last be left in darkness.
The heart that has long slighted God’s mercy becomes hardened in sin and is
no longer susceptible to the influence of the grace of God. Fearful will be the doom
of that soul of whom the pleading Savior shall finally declare, he “is joined to idols:
let him alone” (
Hosea 4:17
). It will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for
the cities of the plain than for those who have known the love of Christ, and yet
have turned away to choose the pleasures of a world of sin.
You who are slighting the offers of mercy, think of the long array of figures
accumulating against you in the books of heaven; for there is a record kept of
the impieties of nations, of families, of individuals. God may bear long while the
account goes on, and calls to repentance and offers of pardon may be given; yet a
time will come when the account will be full; when the soul’s decision has been
made; when by a person’s own choice one’s destiny has been fixed. Then the signal
will be given for judgment to be executed.—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 165
.
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