INTRODUCTION
We all understand the compassion and mercy of our great God:
SIN REVEALS THE FAITHFUL
By delaying His punishment of the world, the inheritance of the
children of light is ensured. God's purpose for His elect is fulfilled
as they witness the inevitable consequences of unrestrained sin
around them reap their dire results and God finally does intervene
and inflict the prescribed punishment. We see this in the example
of the Canaanites-a type of this present evil age-who, because
of their compounded sinfulness eventually, when their allotted
time had expired, lost their inheritance to the children of Abraham,
just as the children of this world will lose theirs to the saints:
Notice how the apostle Paul affirms that God's delay in imposing
punishment for evil has allowed the blindness caused by
sin to ensure the election of the saints:
The dilemma of sin and its pervasiveness has always perplexed
the men and women of God. One of the questions continually asked
by many is how is it that a righteous God who does not tolerate
sin in His presence does not therefore act more consistently to
promptly remove sin and sinners? Why is evil allowed to exist
and to prevail?
Ps 145:8 The LORD is gracious and full of compassion,
slow to anger and great in mercy.
We need to reminded, however, that God's punishment for sin has
at times indeed been instantaneous-and not just in the days of
Israel of old:
Acts 5:3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan
filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part
of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was
it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own
control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You
have not lied to men but to God." 5 Then Ananias, hearing
these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came
upon all those who heard these things.
PUNISHMENT DELAYED
10 Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her
last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying
her out, buried her by her husband.
The Scriptures inform us that God's will is for all to come to
repentance:
I Tim 2:4 who desires all men to be saved and to come
to the knowledge of the truth.
To allow this to be possible God, who hates sin, at times delays
applying the penalty for sin upon evildoers, a situation which
all too often only further hardens the evil heart of man, as Solomon
attested to:
Ecc 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil work is
not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men
is fully set in them to do evil.
This has at times troubled the servants of God deeply:
Hab 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and You will not
hear? Even cry out to You, "Violence!" And You will
not save. 3 Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see
trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; there is strife,
and contention arises. 4 Therefore the law is powerless, and
justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous;
therefore perverse judgment proceeds.
However, the delaying of the punishment of evildoers for their
sins works God's purpose in the lives of His saints. Let us
notice how and take the lessons to heart.
Ps 10:1 Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You
hide in times of trouble? 2 The wicked in his pride persecutes
the poor; let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire; he blesses the
greedy and renounces the LORD. 4 The wicked in his proud countenance
does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts. 5 His ways
are always prospering; Your judgments are far above, out of his
sight; as for all his enemies, he sneers at them. 6 He has said
in his heart, "I shall not be moved; I shall never be in
adversity."
The presence of sin around the people of God marks them as His
elect:
1 Cor 11:19 For there must also be factions [the Greek
means sects or heresies, a sin, for Paul in Gal 5:20 describes
this as an evil fruit of the flesh; see also 2 Pet 2:1; Tit 3:10]
among you, that those who are approved [by God] may be
recognized among you.
Enduring and resisting evil, even under pressure, and making godly
decisions, brings God's stamp of approval:
Jas 1:12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation [the
experience of evil or sin] ; for when he has been approved,
he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised
to those who love Him.
The tares that co-exist alongside the wheat will ultimately be
exposed. This happened in the apostle John's day and it will happen
in ours. It fulfills one of God's purposes for allowing sin in
the human realm to temporarily continue unpunished:
I John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of
us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with
us; but they went out that they might be made manifest [that
they were tares], that none of them were of us.
God allows the Devil and sin to reveal those who are approved
by Him. He has always worked like this and will continue to do
so even at the end of the Millennium, as we read in this most
spectacular of accounts:
Rev 20:7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan
will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive
the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and
Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the
sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and
surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire
came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
Notice that the forces of evil marshalled by the Devil are allowed
by God and all the resurrected saints to march over the length
and breadth of the earth and to actually encircle the city of
Jerusalem before God acts. Why? Obviously God is giving many people
involved directly and indirectly in this rebellion space to consider
their attitude and their actions and to repent before it is too
late.
Gen 15:16 "But in the fourth generation they shall
return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
God told faithful Abram that it would be some four hundred years
before his descendants gained possession of the land of Canaan.
In other words, the time for God's intervention, both to bring
the Israelites into the Promised Land of old and to award to His
saints the rulership of the earth, is postponed a little while.
People have the opportunity to repent-or to multiply their sins!
Rom 11:7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks;
but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. 8
Just as it is written: "God has given them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear,
to this very day."
This blindness of unbelief has to do with people's hardening of
their own hearts through sin, not with God arbitrarily blinding
an individual's eyes. Christ confirmed this:
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant
of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion,
that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness
of the Gentiles has come in.
John 12:40 "He has blinded their eyes and
hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their
eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
so that I should heal them."
So too did the author of the Book of Hebrews:
Heb 3:13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called
"Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin.
And of course the Devil is the instrument of this blindness to
God's truth:
2 Cor 4:4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded,
who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
TIME TO REPENT
Even the day of Christ's Second Coming is delayed, as it were,
to give sinners, both in and outside of the Church, time to repent:
2 Pet 3:3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come
in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and
saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of creation."
This is in accord with the purpose of God, as expressed by the
apostle Paul in Romans:
9 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.10 But the
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the
heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will
melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are
in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things
will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy
conduct and godliness [availing ourselves of the extra time
God has given us].
Rom 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness,
forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness
of God leads you to repentance?
Those destined to fail to heed and to accept God's correction
are those who do not really fear Him. They will incur His wrath:
Ps 55:19 (NIV) God, who is enthroned forever, will hear
them and afflict them-men who never change their ways and have
no fear of God.
However, there are limitations to the amount of time given by
God for His people to heed and accept His correction. God, through
His foreknowledge, knows who will and who will not repent in the
time allotted them. Punishment follows the failure to do so.
Let us see an example of this at work. Notice the words of God
to the Church:
Rev 2:21 "And I gave her [the woman Jezebel, a
type of those led astray by false doctrine] time to repent
of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.
Again, if there is no move towards repentance, or a desire to
repent, the time for delay-the space to repent-will one day be
over:
22 Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit
adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of
their deeds. 23 I will kill her children with death, and all
the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and
hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works."
Rom 2:5 But in accordance with your hardness and your
impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself [by
a constant refusal to heed and to repent] wrath in the day
of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who
"will render to each one according to his deeds."
When the time is cut short, there will be little opportunity for
repentance and change. The wicked are confirmed in their wickedness,
the righteous in their righteousness:
Rev 10:5 The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and
on the land raised up his hand to heaven 6 and swore by Him who
lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that
are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea
and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no
longer [in holding back God's wrath on all evildoers],
7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when
he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as
He declared to His servants the prophets.
Rev 22:10 And he said to me, "Do not seal the words
of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. 11 He
who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let
him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous
still; he who is holy, let him be holy still."
OUR RESPONSIBILITY
For us, as God's elect, we should always hasten to repent and
obey God, as David did:
Ps 119:60 I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your
commandments.
God gives us space to repent, and He knows whether we will ultimately
do so. Let us be ever mindful of the danger of sin and strive
to be always repentant and ready to change, so that we will be
approved by God and not miss out on our inheritance.