Evangelical Greek Free Church |
Good News Magazine - To everything there is a season… |
| In our dealings with others we often find it difficult to judge whether we should speak or keep silent. Frequently our replies are given before we have listened to our partners properly or without thinking about what they have said. But what happens when God speaks to us? In His Word He tells us that we are sinners and lost. But who hears this judgment of God’s without cringing or a protest in their heart? Like Job we should place our hand over our mouth (Job 48:4); it is not yet time for us to speak. We must first hear all that God has to say to us and examine ourselves in His light. In the first three chapters of the epistle to the Romans, man’s guilt is made plain. The argument concludes with the words: “There is none righteous, no, not one... there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” Paul quotes these verses from the Psalms to stop every mouth and make it clear that the entire world is “guilty before God” (Romans 3:10-12, 19). If we accept the argument of the first three chapters of the epistle, we have to acknowledge that God’s verdict is just. Are we prepared to examine ourselves quietly before God? To dispute the matter with God is to call down eternal punishment. But if we keep silent and humbly accept His judgment, there is hope. The time to speak will come. In those same chapters we also find God’s judgment on sinful man proven and our conscience is pricked. We have no counter-argument: God’s verdict is correct, and it is difficult and pointless to try to defend ourselves. Because God is just, He “by no means clears the guilty”, as He told Moses (Numbers 14:18). However previously He had revealed Himself as “merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth ...forgiving iniquity” (Exodus 34:6, 7). God’s righteousness does not preclude His mercy and grace: He wishes to forgive and opened the way by giving His Son to die for lost sinners on the cross. Do we believe that we are lost? Do our sins trouble us? Do we seek God’s forgiveness? If so, the time to speak has come. “Return unto the LORD thy God .... Take with you words, say unto him, Take away all iniquity” (Hosea 14:1,2). This is not the time to keep silence: “When Ι kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day .... Ι acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have Ι not hid. Ι said, Ι will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:3, 5). All who have experienced forgiveness cannot remain silent. Full of joy and gratitude they praise God and Jesus their Saviour and tell others of their happiness. |
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