The old man had died very suddenly. He had lived to an extreme age, but still someone at his funeral sighed and said, “He died so suddenly—he had no time to prepare!”
A Christian answered, “He had plenty of time to prepare!”
He reached almost the absolute limit of life expectancy, and he had many an opportunity for the settlement of the most important question in life.
He had plenty of time to eat and drink, plenty of time to buy and sell, plenty of time for sports and pleasure-all that, and much more. He had plenty of time to look into the future and to ask himself how things stood with him in reference to it plenty of time to repent, to believe, to be forgiven, to become a child of God and to live for His glory. But were these last done?
You too have had plenty of time for this, haven’t you? I can’t tell your age, but it is not necessary to become old and gray in order to have salvation. No, this is a question that should be settled at once! Every second makes it more serious.
Many a man makes this plan in his secret thoughts: He will get all the fun and pleasure possible until he is just at the end of life. Then a short time before death he will turn his attention to the matter of salvation, will repent of his sins, and throw himself on the mercy of God. He persuades himself that there is salvation “at the eleventh hour,” and if he should spend the first ten for himself, the last few moments will be enough.
But, unfortunately, there are two reasons against this common thought. The first is that Scripture never speaks of an eleventh hour salvation. It speaks of a present salvation and implies on every page that it may be now—or never.
The passage that mentions an eleventh hour is dealing with workmen in a vineyard, and not with sinners in their sins. It is a householder in search of workers, and not a Savior in quest of sinners. A man who is a sinner cannot, as such, be a servant of God. The difference is important!
And second, if it did mean salvation, who can say that this is not the eleventh hour of his life?
The fact is that no man had hired these laborers! They had stood all the day idle, and they accepted the very first offer. They did not refuse even once. Who can say that he has not refused offers of salvation times without number? Who has never said, “Later! Later I will be saved-it’s just not convenient now.”
What remorse will wring the soul that must endure the memory: “I had plenty of time”—yes, plenty!—“and I never used it.” To remember that for all eternity!
Procrastination is the devil’s most potent soul drug. Its effects are certain and lethal. It has been called “the thief of time,” “the thief of souls” and “the recruiting officer of hell.” Avoid it as you would the lake of fire!