Required reading
The Works (Vol 4) by William Bates (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Sermon IX (The marriage feast).
My summary
Today we read the third of five sermons on the text 'And 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' (Luke 14:23).
In previous sermons Bates gave us the three reasons why people are averse to the gospel:
(i) the world;
(ii) the flesh;
(iii) Satan.
Last week Bates unpacked the third reason why people reject the gospel: Satan. We learnt about Satan's:
(i) motives for hindering the gospel;
(ii) methods for hindering the gospel.
This week Bates continues providing Satan's methods for hindering the gospel. Satan:
(i) deceives people with false notions of faith and repentance and hinders their entire compliance with the terms of mercy offered in the gospel;
(ii) hinders men from compliance with the present invitations of grace by suggesting there will be time enough for accepting them hereafter, and a future repentance will be sufficient to redress all their miscarriages.
What grabbed me
The last method was one Satan tried on me in my childhood - I remember making a decision that I would delay repentance till I was dying.
But Bates nicely addressed such a temptation: 'O wretched deceived souls! how long will you neglect a Saviour and salvation ? How long shall "he wait to be gracious," and expect your lingering repentance in vain ? Remember the time of grace is limited : if you refuse obedience to the present call, do you know he will renew the offers of his grace ? "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation :" will this now last far ever? There is no now of favour and hope in hell. It is true, God is merciful ; and it is one of his royal titles, "the God'of patience:" though threatenings are denounced against sinners, and judgments are ready to seize upon them, he repents and stops his wrath : but there is no state more fearful in this world, than when men by neglecting repentance, make God "weary of repenting." "When patience has had its perfect work'' towards the unrelenting and unreformed, justice succeeds: before God cuts off a sinner, he cuts off all his excuses. Read with fear the first of the Proverbs, "because I have called, and you refused ; I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh." God's frown, much more his scorn, is infinitely terrible and insupportable. Those who delay repentance till the body is diseased all over, and death is printed in the countenance, and the languishing lights are almost quenched, and the vital frame is near a dissolution, yet presume a few sighs will transport their souls to heaven, how just and dreadful will their disappointment be? However they "are deceived, God is not mocked, as a man sows, he shall reap."'
We should never presume the patience of God toward us.
Seek the Lord while he may be found!
Next week's reading
Read Sermon X (The marriage feast).
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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