Whenever the Gospel is proclaimed and people are confronted to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, one of the most common responses is, "I will do it later." This is called procrastination, or putting something off.

Those who keep putting off doing things which should be done without delay will soon discover that the results can be quite costly. A student who keeps putting off his assignments and revision work will find himself insufficiently prepared when the exams come. A housewife who keeps putting off her household chores will find piles of unwashed dishes and dirty laundry growing all over the home. A frequent credit-card user who puts off settling his accounts may find himself laden with a huge snowballing debt that he cannot repay.

The consequences of putting off things which should be done without delay is particularly severe in your response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When you receive the outward call from God to be saved from your sins and you do not respond to it immediately, you risk losing your soul to eternal death! One passage of the Bible that brings out the intense urgency of responding to God’s call is Isaiah 55:6-7 – "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." This passage provides 5 reasons why you must not delay to respond to God’s call to the unconverted.

As long as you have not responded to God’s call yet, you are living in a state of rebellion. Like a great King the LORD speaks with authority to those subjects who have rebelled against Him. He says, "Why have you forsaken Me? Why have you grieved My heart by your wicked ways and your unrighteous thoughts? Do you not know that your actions have caused an awful separation to exist between yourself and Me? Stop this wicked rebellion at once!"

The LORD says these words not only to all unconverted sinners together as a group, but He also says it to every individual in that group. He uses the plural pronoun ‘ye’ in verse 6, but in the next verse He changes to the singular pronoun, ‘he.’ As long as you do not respond to God’s call to the unconverted, you are continuing to advance your personal rebellion against Him. Some may not agree with this, and say, "How can you call me a rebel? I have not consciously done anything against God. I am definitely not wicked. I have tried my best to live a reasonably good life." That is what you think because you are using the wrong standard to measure yourself with.

Imagine that you are about to fly home from the U.S. and you want to carry as much as you can on the flight. You have found out from the travel company there that the checked-in baggage allowance is 50 pounds. So you carefully pack your bags and weigh them and they add up exactly to 50. But at the airport you are told that your have exceeded your baggage allowance more than twice. Why? Because you made the mistake of weighing your luggage in kg instead of lb. This kind of thing typically happens when the wrong standard of measurement is used.

Have you been mistakenly using the wrong standard of measurement for your life? You must use the standard which God has given in His Word. And when you do that you will find that your righteousness is like filthy rags. It is really far short of His standard which is not based only on one’s actions, but on one’s motives and attitudes as well. In God’s sight, sinful attitudes like pride, envy, jealousy, anger, greed and an unforgiving spirit are as evil as all the acts they produce. No court of law can ever convict anyone of wrongdoing on the basis of sinful attitudes and motives alone. But God who sees all and knows what is in every heart, is able to do this. And His verdict is that everyone without exception has sinned.

This means dear Reader, that you are a rebel. You are the wicked and unrighteous person mentioned in verse 7. Since God cannot tolerate even the very least rebellion against His divine authority, this is definitely not good news for you. Rebellion must be firmly repelled by God, and He must take stern decisive action against all rebels. Why do you still delay to respond to His call to be saved?

This is spelled out in verse 7 – "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD." Here God directs the sinner to abandon his wicked way and his unrighteous thoughts and to return to Him. True repentance is not just turning away from sin, but it is returning to the LORD as well. If a person merely turns away from sin without returning to God (such as those who attempt a self-reformation of their own life), it will not be long before he reverts to his old self and goes back to his old sins.

There is no way to deal successfully with the deep-seated problem of sin in your life without returning to God. He is the only One who can give you a new heart and a new life, satisfy the deepest needs in your life and subdue the sinful nature within you. And so you cannot successfully turn from your sins, unless you also return to God.

Conversely, you cannot return to God unless you are willing to turn from your sins. If you were to say, "I really want to return to God, but I also want to continue living a sinful life," the LORD will not receive you because He hates your sins. The very sight of them fills Him with disgust. He cannot receive anyone who keeps on cherishing sin in his heart. To be right with God you must share His intense aversion against sin. Repentance requires you to agree fully with God about all your sins. You must admit that you are a sinner and that you sincerely want to turn away from your sins and return to Him.

Your window of opportunity to do this is now open, but it may not remain open for very long. At all costs make the best use of this present opportunity to repent of your sins and to seek the Lord now, while He is near and while He may still be found. If you don’t, the day may come when the door will be closed. Please do not wait for a better time to turn away from your sins and turn to God. There is really no better time to do this than now. God says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Why do you still delay to turn to God, when He has given such an offer as this?

In verse 7 the LORD says that He will have mercy on the one who turns from sin and returns to Him. The word "mercy" here is translated from a Hebrew word which means ‘love,’ ‘compassion’ or ‘tender affection.’ A while ago we saw God speaking to a rebellious race that has grieved Him. But now He says, "I will have mercy upon him. I will have love, compassion, and tender affection for him."

Is this not a glorious reconciliation? In a heart-warming story that Jesus told (Luke 15:11-24), a prodigal son demanded that his father hand over to him his inheritance and then he went far away to squander it all away in riotous living. When he became penniless the son repented of his wrongdoing and decided to return home to face his father’s wrath and to ask him for employment as a servant. He did not expect to be reconciled or restored. Little did he know that his father had been patiently and earnestly waiting for his return, and was ready to welcome him home warmly with a loving embrace and a kiss. The father even ran to receive his son when he saw him coming from afar.

The matchless love of God for sinners makes Him wait even more earnestly for their repentance, and welcome them even more warmly when they turn to Him. "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." (Luke 15:10) A glorious reconciliation with God is ready to receive every broken-hearted prodigal who comes home. What makes this reconciliation more glorious is the tremendous cost that God had to bear to obtain it. It cost Him the precious life of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Christ had to die because the debt which we owed to God for our sins was very great, and someone had to pay it. The restoration of our relationship with God could not be accomplished without the pardon that His death alone can bring to us.

The words "He will abundantly pardon" at the end of v.7 literally means, "He will multiply pardon." This means that no matter how great or how many your sins may be, God will abundantly pardon you. He will forgive and forget. And He can do this only because of the infinite value of the sacrifice that Jesus made when He died on the cross of Calvary.

Christ is therefore the means of your salvation. Without Him no one can be saved from sin and from eternal death, which is the penalty you deserve for your sins. It is only through the blood of Jesus that your sins will be washed away, and your relationship with God will be restored. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6) He also said, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved…" (John 10:9)

Let there be no more delay. Receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, and believe in Him right now. This means accepting everything that the Bible says about Him and about yourself as true – that Jesus is the Son of God who came down from heaven to be made a sacrifice for sin, and that you are a sinner who deserves nothing but judgment from God. Believing also means putting your trust entirely in Jesus alone to save you, and throwing away any confidence you have in your own good works or in any other thing to save you. In addition, believing in Jesus means surrendering your life to Him once and for all with no thought of turning back. He must be the Lord and master of everything in your life.

If you keep on saying, "I will do it later," please remember that procrastination can have very costly consequences – You risk losing your soul to eternal death! There is great danger in any delay. Verse 6 says, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near." The day will come when the Lord will not be near to you any more and when He may not be found by you any more.

This nearness does not refer to God’s presence since God is everywhere at all times. It is about God’s personal favour toward individuals. It may come when you hear a Gospel message that particularly convicts you of sin. It may come when death strikes someone who is close to you, and you begin to fear for your own soul’s future. It may come when you fall very sick and realize how weak and helpless you really are. God uses many different ways and circumstances to speak to your heart, calling you to repent and return to Him. But if all His calls to you go unheeded, the day will come when He will withdraw His favour from you and the calls will fall completely silent.

For some people, that may be the time when the heart has become hardened and unreceptive to the preaching of God’s Word. For others, it may be the time when disaster and death strike unexpectedly and they find themselves cast into Hell. And as their souls languish there, they can only regret woefully that they had delayed so long to enter into God’s kingdom that the door had shut on them before they could do so.

If you really care for your soul and do not wish to see it end up like this please do not postpone your response to the Gospel anymore. Do not say that you will respond later, for who knows whether something unexpected may happen to you, and your postponed response never takes place? Dear Reader, you have a golden opportunity right now to be saved by receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour. Please use it well! – Pastor

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by Rev Charles Seet

commencing 2 July 08 (for 9 weeks)

7.30 - 9.30 pm, Chinese Service Hall

THIS 4-PART survey course is designed to help participants acquire a thorough grasp of each book of the Old Testament. The sessions in Part 1 will develop familiarity with the theme and contents of the first 10 books (Genesis to 2 Samuel) with an understanding of the events in Old Testament history and their significance.

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." (Romans 15:4)

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1) Myanmar Cyclone Relief : Members are advised to refrain from making further contributions in support of Christian relief as we have collected more than sufficient funds to meet the present needs brought to our attention.

2) ASM Module. Personal Care Ministry on Encouragement, Exhortation and Transformation. Mon-Tue, Jun 30-Jul 1 at Life BP Church, 9A, Gilstead Road, 9.30am to 5pm. All welcome, please register with Rev. Goh Seng Fong at gohsengfong@hotmail.com. (Cost: $20 per person for material and lunch).

3) ASM Life Learning Night Classes. A.Spiritual Formation - Dynamics, foundations, principles and stages of Spiritual growth. 14 Monday nights beginning July 7. Teacher-facilitator: Rev Goh Seng Fong. Registration fees: $20.

B. Growing through the Study of the Epistle to the Philippians - Joy in trials. 14 Thursday nights beginning July 10. Teacher-facilitator: Rev Yap Beng Shin. Registration fees: $20. All welcome at Life BP Church, 9A, Gilstead Road (7.30pm to 9.30pm). Register at johnching.asm@gmail.com.