I noticed the above motto in a home recently and I thought, in these days of stress and perplexity when the machinery of human affairs is so sadly out of kilter and the whole world seems to be wearing the garb of despondency, that it is well to remember the sun and a few other things that have a regular pulse beat. The moon is still coursing through the sky in her nocturnal glory, the stars are still sparkling in the dome of heaven, the winds still fan the universe, and the tide still ebbs and flows. Hours, days, weeks, and months still follow each other with uninterrupted tread.
Though sin has not ruptured the solar system, nor put God’s heavy machinery out of commission, it has wrought woeful havoc with our race. It has soaked the earth with blood, and turned our Eden into a graveyard. Sin took the Creator of the universe from His path of holy service and sent Him back to heaven blasphemed, thorn-crowned, and wounded to death.
Sin, recklessness, and godlessness are increasing with such intensity of vigor that restraint seems to be largely a thing of the past. Base infidelity is saying, “If there is a God, He has either vacated His throne, or He has lost His regard for righteousness, and is letting men and demons have their way.”
Be not deceived! Say not, “Because sin is abounding and increasing, that righteousness is waning and vanishing; because Satan is active and successful, and God seems inactive and indifferent, that He is off His throne.”
This is the age of His patience and grace; the bulletins of His love and heralds of His kindness are proclaiming Him far and near as “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Ex. 34:6). God is not now launching His hot thunderbolts of wrath upon the ungodly, but this peaceful reign of grace is not going to continue forever. In Noah’s day, one hundred and twenty years of grace were given the world after God’s threat of overthrow went forth. While Noah was preaching righteousness and preparing the ark, the wicked derided, blasphemed, sinned with a high hand, hissed at God and His threat, and still the artillery of heaven remained silent. But when the Almighty’s clock reached the one-hundred-twenty-year-limit, “the fountains of the great deep were broken up,” and the world of the ungodly suffered extinction as the result of Divine retribution.
Thus shall it be at the end of this age — and it is drawing rapidly to its close. God shall give drastic proof of His presence on the throne, and of His abhorrence of sin in every form. He will whet His glittering sword, and His hand shall take hold in judgment. He will render vengeance to His enemies, and will reward them that hate Him (Deut. 32:41). Jehovah will then be known by “the judgment which He executeth” (Ps. 9:16). “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!” (Isa. 45:9) is a warning to which every son of Adam should take solemn heed. Everyone who does not, must inevitably encounter “woe” at the end.
If you have not submitted to Him through grace, you are living in open rebellion against Him, and as sure as night follows day you must be crushed in the hour of His flaming wrath. Our earnest and solemn advice is, “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath be kindled but a little,” for, “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” (Ps. 2:12).
Fellow Christian, cheer up! Christ is still doing business! Not only is God upon His throne, but the glorified Man of Calvary is at His right hand, and still in the matchless work of saving all who come unto God by Him, and is maintaining by His high-priestly service every saint. Soon He shall consummate the work of grace by lifting us from the valley of conflict to the paradise of God. And after time has closed her checkered calendar, we shall reign on with Him through the pleasure-amassed ages of eternity. Cheer up, fellow pilgrim, with a mighty hallelujah cheer for the full assurance of good things to come — without measure, and without end!