Jeremiah 8:20; 2 Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 4:7
The summer is ended, and we are not saved.
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): There are times when all experience the strivings of God’s Spirit. If they improved those seasons, God would “give them more grace.” But many stifle their convictions, and “resist the Holy Ghost.”
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Now what excuse can we have?
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Numerous as are the excuses which sinners make when urged to embrace the gospel, they may all be reduced to three; the first is, that they have no time to attend to religion; the second is, that they do not know how to become religious; and the third, that they are not able to become so. Want of time, want of knowledge, or want of power, is pleaded by all. Foreseeing that they would make these excuses, God determined that they should have no reason to make them. By giving them the Sabbath, He has allowed them time for religion. By giving them His Word, and messengers to explain it, He has taken away the excuse of ignorance; and by offering them the assistance of His Holy Spirit, He has deprived them of the pretense that they are unable to obey Him.
JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): But some will, it may be, object here: “But if there come not life and power with the offer, it will not do the turn; we cannot believe, nor receive the offer.”
EDWARD PAYSON: They justify their delays by pretending that they can do nothing, and by pleading that they must wait God’s time; that when He shall see fit to convert them, they are willing to be converted; thus wholly casting the blame of their sins upon Jehovah, and condemning the Almighty that they may justify themselves.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The sinner pleads that he cannot believe. He often says this, and quiets his conscience with it. When he is aroused and awakened, he declares that he cannot believe in Jesus Christ, and cannot believe God, and goes off to his deadly sleep again. He quotes the Scriptures to back up his excuse—“No man cometh unto me except the Father who hath sent me draw him.”—but our Lord explains His own words in another place, where He says, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” So then the sinner’s inability lies in his will; it is because he will not that he cannot. Hearken, O unbeliever, you have said, “I cannot believe,” but it would be more honest if you had said, “I will not believe.”
ASAHEL NETTLETON (1783-1844): Your love of sin is all the excuse you have, or can have. Or, will you plead your inability?
C. H. SPURGEON: There is the Holy Spirit who is able to do all things. Remember the text, “If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” It is true you cannot make yourself a new heart, but did you ask for a new heart with sincerity and truth? Did you seek Christ? If you say, “Yes, I did sincerely seek Christ, and Christ would not save me,” why then you are excused; but there never was a soul who could in truth say that.
JAMES DURHAM: So then, the matter will not hold here, that you were unable, and had not power to believe.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Take heed of resisting or opposing the Spirit of God. If ever you believe, He must enable you; take heed of opposing Him. God makes short work with some in his judiciary proceeding; if He finds a repulse once, sometimes He departs, and leaves a dismal curse behind Him as its punishment: “I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden, shall taste of my supper,” Luke 14:24.
JOHN CALVIN: The quotation must be applied to the subject in hand in this way: ‘As God specifies a particular time for the exhibition of His grace, it follows that all times are not suitable for that. As a particular day of salvation is named, it follows that a free offer of salvation is not made every day.’
STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): Though there be a time wherein Jerusalem might “know the things that concerned her peace,” yet there is another period wherein they should be “hid from their eyes,” Luke 19:42.
WILLIAM GURNALL: Many sit under the ordinances where Christ in gospel dishes is set forth admirably, but through the efficacy of this curse upon them, never taste of these dainties all their life; they hear precious truths, but their hearts are sealed up in unbelief, and their minds made reprobate and injudicious, so that they are not moved at all by them.
CHARLES SIMEON: Every lost season has grieved the Holy Spirit more and more—God will not alway strive with those who resist his motions. We may, by our obstinate rejection of mercy, provoke God to withdraw his Holy Spirit, who alone can make those offers effectual for our good. He has said, that “His Spirit shall not always strive with man:” and when He sees us obstinately bent on our own evil ways, He may say of us, as he did of Israel of old, “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.” He has given us many awful warnings on this subject—Note Proverbs 1:23-31; and many fearful examples of the judgment actually inflicted: Note, Hebrews 3:11, 18 & 19. Surely, this should lead us all to “seek the Lord” whilst he may be found, and to call upon him whilst he is near.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Procrastination is perilous.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): In the affairs of our souls, delays are dangerous; nothing is of more fatal consequence than men’s putting off their conversion from time to time. They will repent, and turn to God, but not yet; the matter is adjourned to some more convenient season, when such a business or affair is compassed, when they are so much older; and then convictions cool and wear off, good purposes prove to no purpose, and they are more hardened than ever in their evil way.
C. H. SPURGEON: I trust that, if I am addressing any who say that it is too late for them to be saved, and that their sin is too great to be forgiven, this text will drive away that unholy and unwarranted fear: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Harden not your heart by wilful disobedience and obstinate unbelief, rebelling against the light, and resisting the Holy Ghost, and His clear discoveries of the truth of the gospel.
C. H. SPURGEON: The Holy Ghost saith “Today;” will we grieve Him by delay?
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Today. You have no time to lose; tomorrow may be too late. God calls today; tomorrow He may be silent.
