DOES GOD ALWAYS GIVE A SECOND CHANCE? Second chances are a gift, not a right.
- Jonah 3:1.
- We should not presume on God’s mercy.
- There are times when a window of opportunity on a second chance closes:
a. Timing issue with the opportunity.
- Example: my church plant getting started.
b. God’s intent shifts to judgment.
- Examples: death, discipline.
- It is dangerous and wrong to say, “God will always give a second chance.” He often will, and He loves to, but it does not always happen.
- Some err on the side of not believing that God can forgive their sin.
- Example: Dave.
- Some, on the other hand (and more to the point of this message), presume that God will never judge.
- That’s not true. He will and He must.
- We should use, but not abuse, second chances.
WHAT'S THE DANGER IN HAVING A GOD OF SECOND CHANCES? His generosity should not diminish our sense of urgency.
- Matthew 25:5; Hebrews 12:25-28; Revelation 3:1-6.
- Too often we let His mercy lead us to lose our sense of urgency.
- I’ve got more time. I can take care of this later.
- We know that this is something that some unsaved people think: “I’m going to get right with God someday, but I’ll do it later.” It’s putting God off because we presume that we will have another opportunity. Think of that: putting off a decision as important as where you will spend eternity! Anyone reasonable person would want that take care of as soon as possible. But we are often not logical with things like this – we think we our emotions or with our desires. We don’t want to give up our sinful habits or we perceive Christianity to be breathtaking boring, so we want to do it only as a last-ditch effort.
- As Christians, we can get so used to hearing sermons on God’s mercy that we come to presume upon it. Of course God will forgive me. Of course God will wash away this sin I fell into again.
- And because of that, we often don’t have the sense of urgency that we should have.
- I think of the passage where Jesus said that if plucking out your eye will get rid of sin in your life, you’re better going into eternity with only one eye than in your sin. There’s a sense of urgency there – do whatever it takes to get rid of that sin!
- As Christians, especially ones who’ve been walking with Jesus for decades, we can lose that sense of urgency and come to accommodate our sins. That’s especially easy when the culture of the church that we’re in is one where sin is not taken seriously. We look around and see that no one else has much urgency about getting rid of their sin, so we just kind of make peace with our’s as well.
TWO KEY APPLICATIONS:
1. In the Christian life, don’t delay obedience.
- Matthew 7:24; Matthew 12:50; John 7:17; John 14:23.
- The longer we go in our Christian life, it seems the easier it is to become complacent about the spot we find ourselves in.
- There tends to be a little more urgency and passion early on. As we walk for a while, often we become influenced by the fellow believers around us. Many of them – sad to say – are spiritually lazy. We look around and see what passes for “normal Christianity” and think that we’re trying to hard, so we pull back on the engines and take a rest.
- No – we need to maintain our passion.
- The goal of the Christian life is to become like Jesus.
- We will not achieve perfection in this life, but each step we fall short is consequential.
- It matters in:
a. Rewards at judgment.
b. Impact on those around us.
c. Honor and glory given to Christ by our lives.
d. Freedom from sin in our lives.
e. Fruitfulness.
2. In evangelism, we do not have forever.
- Isaiah 48:9; Romans 9:22; Hebrews 2:3; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 3:9.
- Two issues to keep in mind:
a. The most obvious one with evangelism is death.
- We know that there is an end of the opportunity at death.
b. Another one is the open window of the heart.
- We might want to presume that if a heart is open today that it’ll be open in the future as well. That’s not true. Sometimes there is a limited opportunity for sharing the gospel.
- It may have to do with a tenderness because of something they’re going through (a time of needing God or a time of seeing their need for a Savior). It may have to do with life circumstances (a child’s birth or a death of a parent). It may have to do with the witness of a person (an emerging friendship with a vibrant disciple piques their interest).
- Whatever the reason, we cannot presume that we have forever to share the good news, nor can we presume that our failure to share will not be consequential because there will be a second chance.
- Too often we fall back on some vague idea of fate or destiny or inevitability when it comes to spiritual things, as though our actions ultimately make no difference because God will make everything turn out the same anyway. I disagree. Our action or inaction matters.
- Just to use one obvious example: we know that generally each time we say “no” to God our heart hardens a little, making it a little more difficult to say “yes” the next time.
A FINAL REMINDER: “One thief was saved that no sinner might despair, but only one, that no sinner might presume.” (J.C. Ryle)
- Luke 23:39-43; John 9:4.
- On the cross, we see a second chance extended. One grabs for it and is granted eternal life at death’s door. What an amazing thing! But we also must squarely face the thief who did not reach out to Christ and went to hell.
- We can rejoice in the God who is so merciful that He would even receive a thief on a cross moments away from death, but we have to remember that one thief “ran out” of second chances. After death, there are no second chances.
- Hear the clock ticking.
- Our lives are limited in time and scope. We need to work while it’s still light (John 9:4).
