There's a book in the Old Testament that
abounds in all kinds of wise sayings that
it would be well if many of us
read more frequently than we do.
I refer to the book of Proverbs, that
book that contains so many maxims emphasizing for
us the path of life as we go
through this world.
I've selected my text at this time from
the 27th chapter of Proverbs, verse 1.
Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest
not what a day may bring forth.
You know, I believe the great majority of
people in this great land of ours where
the gospel is so widely known, the great
majority of people are somewhat acquainted with the
gospel, and of the great throng who turn
away from it and are lost.
The most of them will be lost, not
because they didn't know, not because they'd never
heard of Jesus, not because they did not
understand that faith in him saves lost sinners,
but the great majority in a land like
this who are lost will be lost because
they procrastinated.
We say sometimes procrastination is the thief of
time, and the Spanish of a proverb which
translated into English would be, the road of
by and by leads to the house of
never.
All around we meet people who say, yes,
I know, I know I ought to be
a Christian, I know Christ died for sinners,
and I know that he'll save if we
come to him, and I intend to come
someday, but not now.
And so they're saying tomorrow, tomorrow, and putting
it off, and putting it off, hoping that
God will be merciful and eventually, when they're
ready, that he too will be ready to
receive them.
He has said in his word here, boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not
what a day may bring forth.
Just think of what may happen if you
put it off till tomorrow.
Of course, the first thing that occurs to
every one of us is this, you might
die tomorrow.
You might not be living when tomorrow came.
Tomorrow's sun may never rise to bless thy
long deluded sight.
This is the time, oh then be wise,
thou wouldst be saved, why not tonight?
Just think, you're perhaps strong and healthy today,
or at least you've got a clear mind
and you're able to understand.
Tomorrow may find you cold and lifeless and
beyond all possibility of mercy.
What must be the thought of the man
who goes out suddenly into eternity, unsaved, and
who cries from the depths of his broken
heart, oh what a fool I've been.
Jesus died and I knew all about it.
Jesus died and died for me, and he
wanted to save me, but I didn't come.
I meant to come, but I kept putting
it off, and now it's too late.
And then there's something else to consider.
It's not only true that you might die
before tomorrow, but you might live.
You say, well that's all right, if I
live everything's all right.
Yes, but listen, to live on without Christ,
to live on every day adding to the
sins that you've already committed, to live on
every day doing the things that in days
to come you'd give worlds if you could
only undo, what folly this is.
There never was a man or a woman
yet who became a Christian in the pure
light, but as they look back over the
past, would have given anything if they could
only have undone the sins that they had
already committed.
Not only sins that hurt their own souls,
but sins that often involved someone else, people
that in some way or another had been
led astray by their evil example.
Every day that you reject the Lord Jesus
Christ, every day that you spurn his grace,
you're adding to the things that you never
to all eternity will be able to undo.
So why not come to Christ now, boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not
what a day may bring forth.
And then another thing I think we ought
to remember, the Lord Jesus when he went
away told of his coming back again.
Again and again in the Gospels he tells
of his return.
He went away to the Father's right hand
to receive for himself a kingdom and to
return.
And he says of that day and hour
knoweth no man, not even the angels in
heaven.
When he himself was man here on earth,
he chose not to know, he left that
in the Father's power.
Well now his promise hasn't yet been fulfilled,
he hasn't yet returned, but he may return
and he might return before tomorrow.
He might come back before another sunrise, and
if he came back and you were still
in your sins, then you'd be shut away
in the outer darkness.
It would be too late then to come
to him, too late to repent, too late
to plead his grace, too late to trust
his mercy, too late to be washed in
his blood.
And then there's another thing, and oh don't
forget it, the Holy Spirit is now pleading
with you.
He's here in the world and he's pleading
with man, it's he who convinces of sin,
righteousness and judgment.
But you know, you can resist his pleading,
you can turn away from him so often
that finally the day may come when you
cease to plead.
And when God will say he's joined with
his idols, let him alone, and you'll be
left and you may live on, you might
live on for days or weeks or months
or years.
Never again to be troubled about your soul,
never again to care, never again to be
concerned or interested, never again to realize anything
about your true condition until you wake up
in eternity lost forever.
Oh then how bitterly you would rue the
fact that you procrastinated, that you turned away
from God, that you had not obeyed his
word, that you hadn't heeded his word that
says boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou
knowest not what a day may bring forth.
He says now is the accepted time, now
is the day of salvation.
Don't say tomorrow when God says today, but
turn to him in repentance, confess your sin,
trust the Savior and begin now the new
life.