"Too Little! Too Late!"

"TOO LITTLE!!! TOO LATE!!!"

Text-Hebrews 12:14-17

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without

which no man shall see the Lord.

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace

of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up

trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person,

as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his

birthright.

For ye know how that afterward, when he would have

inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he

found no place of repentance, though he sought it

carefully with tears." KJV

It seems that "Change" is a popular word today,

especially in the political arena. Barack Obama

has made it his "theme song." The Bible teaches

that the human race certainly needs change. We

all must become "new creations" in Christ, if we

ever hope to live eterally in Heaven. Some people

just refuse to change. They don’t want to be any

different than they are. Some see the awful re-

sults of bad choices, and attempt to change some

things, but a clean bathed pig is still a pig, and

it will return to the mudhole because that is its

nature. Until we are changed within, in character,

we are no different from what we have been.

All of you probably are aware of the new incentive

that the President and Congress have approved to

try to stimulate the American economy. I listened

intently to all that was being said, and I heard

one newsperson make a profound statement. He said,

after commenting on these attempts to stimulate our

depressed economy-"It seems like a good gesture,

but it may be ’Too Little, Too Late.’" Now, I just

knew there had to be a sermon in those words some-

where, because I could not get them off my mind-

"Too Little! Too Late!"

There are many incidences of people, and nations,

and personalities in the Bible of whom it could be

accurately stated-"They did Too little, Too late!"

Let’s consider a few of them.

I. Let’s first turn our attention to Esau, the man in

the Scripture passage that I read to you a few

moments ago. These are sad words, frightening

words, that are spoken of him. The inspired word

of God says that he sold his birthright, and then

relented. He wanted to repent and change what he

had done, but it was too late. The die had been

cast. His destiny had been determined. No amount

of weeping, or pleading, or bargaining would do

any good now. His day of grace had ended. You

know, there is a very frightening verse in the old

testament that says-"He that being often reproved,

hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be cut off, and

that without remedy." It was Esau head to toe.

We can’t repent anytime we want to. We can’t

be saved anythime we want to. We have to come when

the Spirit of God is drawing us, or all that we

do will be "Too Little, Too Late!" Jesus said that

no man could come to him except the Spirit of God

was drawing him. So much for "easy believism", and

"walk the aisle & sign this card for salvation."

That’s why we have churches with so many unconvert-

ed members in them today. Billy Graham once said

that about 80%?, or more, of people who have their

names on church rolls are lost, and have no rela-

tionship with Jesus Christ.

Esau wept bitterly, and sought repentance, but it

alluded him. Now is the accepted time, now is the

day of salvation! Don’t put it off if God is

drawing you.

II. Another illustration that I would like to mention

is that of King Saul in the Old Testament.

He also did "Too Little, Too Late!" He was the

first king of the Hebrew monarchy. He looked like

a king, head and shoulders above all the other

men. God changed him and gave him a new heart,

so that he could lead His people, but Saul turned

from God, and couldn’t reach God anymore. He

finally went to the witch of Endor to try to find

out his future, but that was a big mistake! He

should have repented and turned in humility to God,

but, it seems, he was too proud to do that. He

could have been Israel’s 1st and greatest king, but

he blew it. He tried to rectify things, but, it

was "Too little, Too late." He lost his life in

battle, and God had a replacement for him, a man

after his own heart, named David.

III. Let’s consider another. There was Judas Iscariot

in the New Testament. One of the twelve apostles

of Jesus, yet, a man who did "Too Little! Too

Late!" Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss. He