Acts 22:12-16 And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelled there,… In the New Testament all who came to Christ at all came straightway. The apostles, Saul of Tarsus, the jailer at Philippi, the eunuch of Ethiopia, Lydia. Those who hesitated never came. Rich young ruler, Agrippa, Felix. This teaches us in a striking manner the danger of delay. Men, however, urge the reasonableness of delay. They declare that a matter so important should be duly weighed. Its responsibilities must not be rashly assumed. On the other hand, there are solemn and pressing arguments for immediate action. I. THE POSITION IS ONE OF PERIL. If your house was in flames, and you were awakened at the dead of night by the cries of firemen calling upon you to escape, would you reply that you must deliberate upon the situation? To use the wise man's image (Proverbs 23:34), would you, if you were lying on the top of the mast when the vessel was rocking violently and the crew were calling you to come down, respond that you must duly weigh the matter? II. THE POSITION IS SINFUL. It is a sin against the authority of God, who commands you to come; against the love of God, who yearns for you; against Jesus Christ — a rejection of the Divine claims, of His mercy. If it were theft, would you say, "I will steal one year more, and then I will stop"? Why, then, should you say, "I will sin by rejecting Christ one year or one day more, and after that perhaps I will turn from this sin?" III. IT MAY BE INSTANTLY PERFORMED. You cannot stop fighting God gradually. Will you fire a few less guns tomorrow, and only an occasional gun the day after? Is that making peace? "As the Roman ambassador drew a circle around the captive princes, and bade them accede to his terms before they passed its bounds, so God requires an immediate response to His overture of mercy." IV. YOU HAVE THE ABILITY NOW TO PERFORM IT. No doubt you think you would prefer to have deeper convictions, stronger desires and all that; but you must learn to act on what you have. A vessel may leave the harbour with a wind of fifteen knots, or ten, or five, or one knot an hour. "Act on what you have; think not of what might be. It is better to go out of the harbour of false ease and delusive security upon a wind that merely fills the flapping sails than not to go at all." V. THE DIFFICULTIES WILL NOT BE LESSENED BY DELAY. You remember the countryman in AEsop's fable who sat down by a running stream, saying: "If this stream continues to flow as it does now for a little while, it will empty itself, and I will walk over dry shod." He waited in vain! and so do you. The difficulties will never become less. VI. THE DIFFICULTIES WILL INCREASE. The purchase of heaven is like buying of the Sibyl's prophecies — the longer you delay the dearer the price. Men think as they grow older they will grow more virtuous. This is contradicted by the law of habit. Late conversions are rare. "Old age is, of all the ages of life, the least fitted for the work of salvation." Facility in goodness does not come from habitually ignoring Christ. VII. THE SHORTNESS AND UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. The vistas of life seen in the perspective of hope may seem long to us; youth may smile at the suggestions of the tomb, and, conscious strength, may repel the insinuations of mortality; but the resistless hand of time is drawing us on. Nature and life are full of reminders of the brevity and incertitude of human existence. "The eagle poising a moment on the wing, and then rushing at her prey; the ship that, throwing the spray from her bow, scuds before the wind; the shuttle, flashing through the loom; the shadow of the cloud sweeping the hillside, and then gone forever, not leaving a trace behind; the summer flowers that, vanishing, have left our gardens bare"; the falling of the autumn leaf; the rushing of the mountain torrent; the dispersion of the morning mist; the fading of the summer day; these, with many other fleeting things, are emblems by which God through nature is teaching us how frail we are; at the longest, how short our days! (E. S. Prout.) Parallel Verses KJV: And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, |
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