Your Excuses — Paris Reidhead

Job 40: Contending With the Almighty

Will you turn, please, to Job, chapter 40, the 40th chapter of Job, verses 1 -14. I shall read this as our Scripture reading. Our text, actually, is found in the second verse and the eighth verse. Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?

He that reprobeth God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer.

Yea, twice, but I will proceed no farther. Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man. I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou also disannul my judgment?

Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency, and array thyself with glory and beauty.

Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath, and behold every one that is proud, and debase him. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low, and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, and bind their faces in secret.

Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.". Job had answered well his critics as they had come to him, trying to make it clear that God judged, even when there was a cause for judgment.

Job had answered them well, I say, and yet in his haste and in his impatience he had spoken critically of God. And so when all is finished, God begins to speak to Job. And you have heard this summing up of God's argument with Job.

Now the matter that concerns us tonight is that which is found specifically in the eighth verse. Will thou condemn me that thou mayest be righteous? The thesis of this message is that the excuses of sinners condemn God.

The Two Ways Sinners Contend With God

Now we shall endeavor to prove that in several ways. First, by showing to you again, though you were reminded of it no longer than three weeks ago, that sinners do contend with God. In the second verse, shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?

He that reproveth God, let him answer it. There are two kinds of contending with God. There is the contending by force or strength of arms. Of course, it is not this kind that is used, because who is the mortal man that would shake his fist in the face of God and expect to come off the winner?

But there is another kind of contending, namely argument and reasoning. This is the contending of which God speaks. You understand, of course, that it presupposes enmity. Contention always does. The reason people contend is because there are crossed interests.

And we discover by reading Romans, the eighth chapter, in the seventh verse, that the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Indeed, it cannot be. The reason for this enmity is that God desires the happiness of all creatures, including himself, and sinners desire their own happiness at the expense of God and all others.

And so there is a crossing of interest. Whenever you find contention—now, there are grounds for contention. Paul said that he withstood Peter to his face. There was a crossing of interest. Peter was wrong by recommending that the Gentiles observe the practice of the Jews in the Judaistic ritual and rite, and Paul contended with him.

There was a crossing of interest, and consequently he was on the right side. There are times when it is necessary, we are told, to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. And we are not led to let people, or especially ecclesiastical authorities, walk roughshod over the truths that are precious to our hearts, but in love are to speak the truth and to stand for the truth.

But this contention comes because a selfish man, a selfish individual, is resentful of God's intrusion upon his pleasure, and therefore the carnal mind is at enmity against God. In Isaiah, the fifty-fifth chapter and the eighth verse, you have the statement, My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.

And obviously, the reason for this lies in the fact that God wants everybody to be happy, equally happy, without the privation or loss being sustained by any, and the sinner wants to be happy in his own terms, regardless of whether anyone else is or not.

Therefore, he will steal another's goods in order that he can have the pleasure that the possession of these goods bring. You see, his happiness is the supreme end of his being, and though he may have caused great suffering and heartache in someone else's life, he's not interested in that.

It's his own interest that is the paramount concern. And so his thoughts certainly are not God's thoughts. If you rightly view the Ten Commandments, you will see them as a fence to protect you against the selfish.

Now, it just depends upon what side of the fence you're on, as to whether or not you find the law irksome or not. If you're inside the fence, wanting to please God, and having your pleasure and your delight in God, then you look out and see these ten bars, and you say, Isn't this wonderful?

God put those bars up to keep the selfish from taking away my happiness and joy. But if you're on the other side of the fence, and if you are committed to selfishness, then you look over and see another's rights, and another's joy, and another's happiness, and your feeling is God has put a barrier in the way of my pleasure.

So it depends on which side of the bar you are. That man that is a new heart, that's a new creature, that's born of God, can say, I delight to do thy will, O God, because he has no desire to be happy at the expense of another.

But the one on the other side finds that it is a constant goad to his rebellion, and throws fuel upon the fire of his hatred of God. So God's ways and thoughts are entirely other than the sinner's thoughts.

Contending Over God’s Dealings and Circumstances

Then there's a contention about the works of God. This was Job's debate with God. You see, Job argued that God had no right to deal with him in the fashion that he had. That Job had been righteous, that he'd kept the law, and that he'd pleased God, and what more could God ask?

And why should God then have smitten his family and his goods and his own body? And Job's contention was, I pleased God, and now look what he's done to me. Of course, he failed to realize that God had an end and had a purpose in it, and that this purpose was worthy of anything that God should choose to do to accomplish it.

In Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 21, we read, "...and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king, and curse their God.". In other words, this contention with God is stimulated and excited and stirred by circumstances.

As long as everything's going well, people say, look what my hands have wrought. Look what I have gotten. This man who can stand so proudly and beat his chest Tarzan-like, you know, and say, I am the captain of my fate and the master of my soul, and look what I've accomplished.

As soon as something happens that causes the bottom to go out of the stock market, or the business to be lost, or the health to go, or tragedy in the family, what does he do? Look what God did to me. Immediately.

He wouldn't think of giving God credit for his prosperity, but as soon as the tragedy comes, then he turns right around and blames the Lord for it all. Oh, the deceitfulness of the human heart. "...and it shall come to pass that when they are hungry, they will curse God.".

They're going to argue with God over what he does. They'll contend with him. In Revelation chapter 16 and verse 9, this same contention about the works of God is made clear. "...and men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which had power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him glory.".

You see, God had a purpose in the plagues, and God had a purpose in the famine, and God had a purpose in this which was done to Job. But men will contend with God because they're not interested in the gracious purpose that God had.

Let me give you a definition for contention. Carl, writing of this, says, "...any secret rising of the heart against anything that God does is striving with God.". Any time in your heart and in your life, according to the Puritan Carl, that you resent God's actions and seek to get out from under them by means of your own rather than by your appeal to him and your entreaty of him and your dealing with him, then you are contending with God.

It's imperative that we as Christians should come to understand that our God is the God of circumstances. We wear ourselves out and burn ourselves up, fighting often against the messenger of God to our heart.

How easy it is for people to quote Romans 8 .28 and not to believe it. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. But this verse is true only in the light of the verse that follows,.

"...for whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.". Now you see, God's purpose in Job was to make Job in his own image.

And God's purpose in Israel was to make them in his own image. And God's purpose in the revelation with the plagues was to cause these people to repent and come to him. God's purpose is always there. And so when you as a child of God rightly understand the dealings of God with you, you will realize this, that when from the moment you repented—yes, even before that, but we'll begin then—from the moment that you came to Christ, God put all of his omnipotence, all of his wisdom, and all of his love as a fence around you.

And he said, nothing can touch him but what I let him. Nothing can happen to him but what I permitted. I have an interest here. My interest is that this person be conformed to the image of my Son, and I have ordained that all that touches him or her shall be to the end of making her like Christ.

That's why the Scripture is so explicit when it says, in everything give thanks. Well, why? If you are a Christian, you want to be like Christ. If you understand the Word, you understand that everything that happens to you is to the end of making you like Christ, and therefore you can't contend with your maker, the potter that's molding and shaping you to the vessel of honor that he would have you be.

This was what happens. This is the contending with God, the resenting of the tools that God uses to shape you into the vessel he wants you to be. You see, when you were born again, it was as though you were just a block of marble, and God saw in that marble the image of his Son.

But the only way he could ever get the image out was to get the waste marble off. That's all a sculptor does. You thought a sculptor was something? No, all he does is take the trash away. The image is there all the time, you see.

He just takes away that which isn't part of it. There's nothing to sculpturing, is there, if you look at it that way? And that's what God is doing with you. He's just taking the trash away so that the image of Christ can shine out of you.

Now then, wouldn't you think ill of the marble that should say to the sculptor, why are you using that hammer, and why do you use this rasp, and why do you use this chisel on me? But you see, the sculptor has an image in the marble, and he wants it to be revealed.

And contention with God is when you turn to your Maker and you say, don't press here, and don't scrape there, and don't chisel over there. I'm comfortable. I'd rather be comfortable than holy. I'd rather be as I am than like Christ.

If you rightly understand the sovereignty of God in your life, you will understand that he has sovereignly ordained that no one can touch you, and nothing can happen to you, and nothing can get to you, but that it contribute to this end of making you like Christ.

Now isn't that reason enough to say amen? I think it is. I think it should be the occasion of great joy to your heart to know that all of these mysterious circumstances through which you've passed were the sovereign end of God to make you like Jesus Christ.

Oh, don't kick against the hammer, and don't fight the chisel, and don't resist the blast, but let the Lord do it. Arguing with God, reproving God, contending with God. Ah, what folly, what folly. You see, Job knew that he had done certain things and thought that all what he had done was all God wanted.

He knew he was something, and he felt that all what he was was all God wanted. He failed to know that God had something more than what he'd given. And when you and I contend with God, it is that we are trying to prove to God that he has enough when he has us as we are.

But he's not satisfied. He's going to have us like Jesus Christ. He's going to make us in the image of his dear Son, and he will use any tool. And you see what happens, my dear. Let me warn you. If you resist this chisel and that hammer, God has a bigger set in the cupboard.

And if you won't bend to this one, he'll get the other, because he's committed himself to make you like Jesus Christ. Now, there is a proper place for your reproof. You are to contend with yourself, and you are to reprove yourself, but not God.

Self-Examination and Loving Rebuke

Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat. We saw this morning as we came to the Lord's table. You are to examine your own heart, but you're not to examine the actions of God. You're not to examine even the actions of others in respect to you.

Now, wait a minute. I've got to say that again. You are not to examine the actions of others in respect to you. Now, why? You say, if you only knew what she did to me, you wouldn't say that. If you only knew what he said about me, or what he did to me, or what happened, you would never say that.

Well, now, wait a minute. Didn't we just go through the truth that nothing can touch you but what your Heavenly Father permits it? Now, he's going to use people to permit people. Look, someone comes to you in fierce anger, and they lift the hammer and take the chisel, and all they can do is just swing it with all their might.

But you know something? While they're doing it in what seems to be rage, God is just getting the chisel put right there. He says, you know, well, that's all right. You see, I needed that off anyway. And then they bring it down so hard, and God says, too hard, so he just holds back a little.

And it hits just enough to take off what he wants taken off. And they go away saying, oh, look what I did to him. Look at that. And fail to realize that it was simply fulfilling God's purpose. Now, if you're wise, what you'll do is go up to the hand and kiss it.

And, of course, they'll lose their mind wondering why you were kind under these circumstances. They expect you to come back with a heavier hammer and a bigger chisel. But when you come back and say, thank you, dear brother, thank you, sister, words fail them, you see, because this is perfectly contrary to nature.

Ah, but it is absolutely understandable to grace. God's purpose is to make you like Christ. And you're not to reprove others. Yourself, yes. Examine yourself. Prove yourself. If you judge yourself, you will not be judged.

But not others and not God. Now, there is a time. Having said this, I've said it's not your job to reprove others in respect to yourself. But having said that, let me hasten to say there is a time and there is a duty to reprove others when there's a proper place and time for it.

In Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 17, you read, Thou shalt not hate thy brother, thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. When you see a brother in Christ sin, and you say nothing about it and do nothing concerning it, you are proving your hatred toward that person, so says God.

Because if you loved, then you would come in loving reproof and say, my brother, you ought not to do this or that. You see? Let me read it again. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.

In other words, said he, when you see sin, it's your responsibility to rebuke them. In Galatians the sixth chapter in the first verse, you find the same truth carried from the Old Testament into the New.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, and oh, my friend, this is the key. You make sure that you're in this state. Ye that are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

To restore means to go to the person and say, my dear, I heard what you said, and as a Christian and out of love for you and the Lord Jesus and our testimony, I would like to ask you to seriously consider this.

I feel that it was unwise, untrue, unfair, unkind, as the case may be. You see a person do something that's unbecoming to the testimony of Christ, it's your responsibility to go to that person and say, I have beheld you, I have seen this, and I know that I am certainly not one that is above the need for such rebuke as I am giving you, and I invite it as you see what I have seen, or something similar.

But I entreat you as a brother in Christ not to do this. You see, we are answerable to God for seeing another in sin and not reproving him. Oh, what crime is added? You know so many times Christians will see someone do something or hear someone say something, and they won't tell the person that's involved, but they'll tell others.

You ought to rather have your tongue burned right out to the roots than to do that, my friend, because you have sinned against God in not reproving and not rebuking, and now you have added a double sin, probably equal to theirs, by that which God has condemned, saying it's worthy of death, whispering and backbiting and tailbearing.

And you ought to just be perfectly willing for the executioner to come and nip your tongue by the end and drag it from its roots, rather than for you to add sin to sin in such a way. If you had gone to the person involved and had said to them, as I've outlined, then you would be in the way where God could bless you.

Even the unsaved at times are wise in their rebuke of sinners. John Bunyan, in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, a classic that all should read, tells how one day he was sitting on a bench outside a neighbor's shop window and cursing and swearing and playing the madman after my wanted manner.

Oh my, how ruthlessly he deals with his own sin. Within this window sat a woman, herself a loose and an ungodly woman, but who was so shocked at Bunyan's profanity that leaning out the window she told him that his words made her tremble and fear lest God should there smite him and she should suffer with him for even hearing such blasphemy.

He said, this was the straw that broke the camel's back and was the last tool that the Lord used to awaken me to my dreadful plight. Rebuke by a sinner, of a sinner, was the tool that God used. So there is a place for it, never with God, never in concerned regard to ourselves, but yet in terms of others.

Job, Solomon, and the Purpose of Affliction

Now let's recognize that which I've already dwelt upon in this context. I will move it just a little further so that you can see it in another light. Verses three to five prove to us that God does deal with us through our circumstances.

Let me read them to you. Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer ye twice, but I will proceed no further.

Job, I suppose, is the most colorful example in all the Bible that God uses circumstances to advance a proper and a noble cause. I guess in the Scripture you will find some individuals that have everything happen to them.

No one else will ever have quite as much happen to them in the same way. God gets one man and does everything to him so all the rest of us can profit. If we're wise, we won't make God do as much to us as he's done to others.

For instance, God gave to Solomon an opportunity to try every other means to satisfy the heart. No, he probably won't give you the same opportunity he gave Solomon. There isn't room for too many people to be kings anymore, and there aren't too many that can have armies under their control in an absolute manner as Solomon had, and certainly very few that can have a thousand wives in this day and age.

It's pretty unlikely that any of us will ever have an opportunity to try what Solomon did to see if we can fill the void of the human heart with something other than God. God let this man do everything that all the rest of men have wanted to do so that somebody could have had an opportunity to go as far as possible.

And when Solomon has tried all there is in power, and all there is in money, and all there is in pleasure, and all there is in learning and wisdom, he writes over it all, vanity of vanity, all is vanity, and gives the answer, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth.

Nothing else matters but God. So with Job. God has let happen to Job everything, perhaps we could say, that happens to all the rest of us put together. For who of us have as many cattle, as many camels, as many sheep as had Job?

Who of us was the man of outstanding leadership and probably, as some commentators have said, the king of Salem, the king of priests, Melchizedek himself, though this is very problematic. Nevertheless, here was a man that had an opportunity to have his children taken from him, and his possessions taken from him, and his health taken from him, all right within a matter of minutes and less time that it took me to actually tell you about it.

Now, God let Job experience everything that all the rest of us would experience put together and over a long period of time. Now, there's a reason for it. I'll have to give you this to give a little insight into the book of Job.

Satan came to God and said, look, man is bad, incurably, hopelessly bad, and there's nothing you can ever do for him that'll make him good. He sold you once in the garden, he's been selling you ever since, and all of your grace and all of your power has left him unchanged, he's hopeless.

And God said, have you considered Job? Ah, the only reason, the only reason that Job serves you is because you've blessed him. And God now was proving to Satan that grace makes a difference in the heart.

And you will understand, Job, when you understand that God is letting one man go through the experience of all redeemed, of proving that regeneration makes a difference in the heart of a man, and that he will not sell himself back to the devil again.

Now, Job, as we see, had to come to the end of himself. Job had to see himself. So what the Lord was letting happen to Job was not only teaching Satan a lesson, but it was doing a needed work in Job's heart.

Now, understand that, you understand the book. Uniformly, uniformly, God's purpose is to get man to stop and to see when he allows circumstances to come into your life. Now look, I want to say uniformly and make it stick.

Here you are, a Christian that are walking in all the light you have and all the light you know, and something happens. And you're going to have a tendency to fight God and complain against God and say, look, do I serve God and get this in return?

You're going to have a tendency to do it because I know your heart, I know what my tendency is. But I want you to know right now that if God lets anything come into your life at any time, he has a purpose in it.

And the first thing you'd better do is say, thank you, Lord. I don't know yet why, but I thank you anyway, because it couldn't have happened if you hadn't let it. Every time a circumstance that's untoward or unpleasant or seems to be unhappy comes into your life, it's God's way of saying, stop, look, and listen.

There's something here. Invariably. Now it doesn't necessarily—see, God didn't want Job to be without cattle and camels and children all the time. He took it away, he took his reproach away, he took his poverty away, he took his sickness away.

But he had a purpose in it, and the purpose was, Job, stop, stop, look, listen, I have something to say to you. Now, all this time—I don't know how long it was, but quite a while—Job is arguing with his brother and proving to them that they're absolutely wrong, that there's nothing that he's done that merits this.

But finally, finally, God has to reveal himself on the top of the circumstances, and you will never understand what God's purpose is until you hear him speak, as it were, around the circumstances or under the circumstances, or over them.

The circumstances themselves aren't the message. All they are is, wait a minute, there's something here. Now God is going to speak to you by his Spirit, to your heart, from the Word. The circumstances carry no message.

You get sick, you're sick, you see. You have loss of financial security, and you have a loss of financial security. There's no message in that. Study it as you will. Study your boils. What's the spiritual lesson you get out of nothing?

Nothing. Job could sit there and look at his boils all day long. He'd never hear the message. That wasn't where the message came from. This was God's means of saying, stop, Job, listen, there's something you need to hear.

And it's when God begins to speak to him, it's the revelation of God to his heart that brings meaning to the circumstances. These events forced him to see something that God had seen all the time, that Job was very self-centered and self-complacent, and far from being what God wanted him to be, and was capable of criticizing God.

You see, perhaps he would never have found that out. Oh, it's so hard. You know, God, the Lord Jesus, had to let Judas walk with him and work with him and minister all these years in order for Judas to find what was in his heart.

And then, of course, the Lord Jesus had to let Peter deny him three times so that Peter could find out what was in his heart. Peter didn't know his heart. Well, Peter said, Lord, these mothers may forsake you, but I'll never forsake you.

I'll die first. The Lord Jesus said, Peter, you don't know your heart. You don't know your heart. And the circumstances that forced Peter into a situation where he uncovered his heart was when a little girl pointed her finger at him and said, you were with him?

I never knew him. And then the Lord spoke in a look, and in the look from the eye and the heart of the Son of God, Peter saw his heart. And it's always the revelation of God beyond the circumstance that brings the meaning out.

Listen to Job's words. Behold, everyone look. You've heard me argue. You've heard me prove. You've heard me debate. Listen. Come on over here, Elihi. Come on over here, Bildad. I want something to say to you now.

Behold, I am vile. There it is. I am vile. And my friend, the circumstances that God was going to bring into your life will be invariably to show you what you are so that you'll be willing to see what he is.

This is what you must understand from it. Behold, let everyone see what I now see myself. I am vile. I am light. I am vast. I am valueless, vile. All of God's dealings with us are to bring us here to see that we are vile, that we are nothing.

And my friend, God couldn't stop putting the pressure on Job until Job got there. And God won't stop with me, and he won't stop with you until we come here and see that in us, in our flesh, there dwells no good thing.

And if we are unwilling to bend to what God is doing today, then tomorrow God will deal the heavier with us. But he will bring us to that place where we truly see ourselves. Job was silenced. I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

Once I've spoken, but I'll not answer twice, but I'll proceed no further. He sees the folly now of his self-defense. He now sees the guilt that he had by arguing in his own behalf. Since he'd sinned with his mouth, he puts his hand over his mouth.

There's nothing more to say. This is the true evidence of repentance, my dear. It's not enough to be sorry for what you've done, but it's to cease from it. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

Repentance Means Forsaking Excuses

Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. But oh, my friend, if the wicked isn't willing to forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, he can't, he won't come to the Lord, and he will not have pardon.

Job had to see himself. Job had to repent, but Job still had to hear God speak out of the whirlwind. Listen to it. Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind. To me, the whirlwind speaks of the law, the terrifying revelation of God's holiness.

The Lord drives his arrows of truth deep into the heart by the wind of the law. Providence is judgment, personal affliction. This is the tornado that drives the truth into the heart. I remember as a little boy in our, going up to our district's country school in the north of Minneapolis, we had tornadoes there about every two years.

One, for years, I suppose three years, I walked by this telephone pole. There was a piece of wood about twenty inches, twenty-two inches, piece of boxwood actually, maybe three-quarters of an inch thick, split and splintered, and that had been driven with such force that that piece of wood had gone right through a telephone pole and split it.

It just had gone through it. Never would have been possible, except with the tremendous velocity of the tornado. And this is what God does through circumstances. Your heart so hard that nothing could split it, nothing could open it to let the light in, and yet God, speaking to you out of the whirlwind of providences and judgment and all of the events that come, can open the heart and drive through that wedge which is going to split it to let the light get in so that you can see.

God may have insisted that Job see several things. First, he had to see himself, and then he had to see God. He had to see God in his sovereignty. He had to see God in his holiness. He had to see God in his righteousness.

And only in the light of God and what God is could he rightly see himself. Now then, after God has done this, after he's spoken to Job and he sees that Job has seen himself, then he says, Now Job, I want you to understand what you've been doing.

I want you to realize what's happened. He says, Will thou condemn me that thou mayest be justified? And here it is. Job now is facing the fact that every excuse he offered, every argument he presented, was but to condemn God.

Will thou disannul my judgment? Will thou condemn me that thou mayest be righteous? I'd like to point out to you that every excuse that you offer does condemn God. May this truth be so self-evident that I do not need to labor it.

Let me give you some of the excuses and you will see how that these charge, accuse God of tyranny and charge God with injustice and declare that God is ignorant and unreasonable. And they indict God of being guilty of cruelty and caprice.

Some of them say, I can't help sinning. I am helpless to resist sin. It is my nature. But God says his commandments are not grievous. But this argument, I can't help sinning, declares that God's word is false.

God sentences sinners to eternal hell, to eternal death. The soul that sinneth it shall die. To argue that someone is sent to hell for doing what they can't stop doing is to argue that God is a moral monster.

I say to you that there is absolutely no grounds of reason or justice in any sinner ever saying, I can't stop sinning. It is nothing but a blatant condemnation of God. The reason that men don't stop sinning is not because they can't, but because they won't.

In Ecclesiastes, the eighth chapter in the eleventh verse, you read, the heart of the wicked is set to do evil. This is the reason that sin is a crime and sinner is justly condemned. Anyone that ever says, I can't stop sinning, is simply saying, I am so willful, I am so stubborn, I am so committed to this policy of pleasing myself that I will not stop.

Then someone else may argue and say, I don't have time to do what God commands of me. Even if God, even if I could do it, I don't have time. God exacts so much. You have to read so long, and you have to pray so long, and you have to work so long.

I don't have time to be a Christian. My, what a condemnation of God. How long actually will it take a sinner to do his first duty? What is that first duty? To change his will and his purpose from pleasing self to pleasing God.

How long does it take for a person to say, I will not longer live for me, I'll live for God. Doesn't take any longer than it does to say it. And when a person says it takes too long to please God, he's only saying, I am so stubborn and so willful and so rebellious that I know that it's going to take me years to come to the place of doing what I know I ought to do and what I could do in just a moment.

For if there are years in contending and contesting, when it's finally done, if it's ever done, it'll be done in a moment. That's all it takes. How long does it take to open the heart's door and to receive the Lord Jesus Christ?