You’ve heard and may have asked this careless question many times, “Well, whadda ya know?” And the likewise careless reply is often, “Not much!” Or, some silly, foolish reply is added to furnish the idle sport of the moment.
Do you know the things you really ought to know? “Whadda ya know” about this old world and what it’s coming to? about God’s plans for the future? about God’s plan for you? What do you know about that? “Nothin’ much?” The outcome of life is either heaven or hell, joy or pain, saint or sinner, God or the devil. Let’s think soberly and ask the question the way it ought to be asked, “What do you know about God and His plans for you?”
First, you need to know that God must punish evil, inasmuch as He is holy and righteous, and all evil is a transgression of His will. “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. . . . And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man [more precious] than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:9-13).
Second, you need to know that the goodness of God planned a way of escape for all who cease to be His enemies: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. . . . There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. . . . The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge” (Psalm 46:1-7).
Now, what do you know about the way to become God’s friend? You may say you don’t dislike God, you thank Him often, you even go to church and may be a member of a church. But the question is: Do you love Him? Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Do you know enough of Jesus and His Word to know His commandments? Do you know what kind of Person He is, and that He wants you to be like Him? And do you know that such likeness is impossible without first being humbled, penitent, emptied of sin and self, “loving all, forgiving all, confessing all” in response to the Holy Spirit’s work in your heart? Of all this, “What do you know?” And of all that you may know with your head, how much of it do you know by heart experience?
Nothin’ much? If that is your answer, you are in a tragic state—far worse than if you had terminal cancer. To be “dead in trespasses and sins” and not to know it; to already bear the sentence of death and consignment to hell and not to know it; and, worse yet, to stand eligible for a free pardon from Almighty God and not to know it—ah, friend, it’s high time to “wise up” and turn from a lighthearted view of life that knows “nothin’ much” and cares little more. Turn to the things that do matter.
When the “great and terrible day of the Lord” comes “as a thief in the night,” then you will wish you had awakened out of sleep.
“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:14-18).
“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Seek Him. Search His Word, the Bible. Read God’s Word. Begin with the Gospel of John or the Book of Romans which tell us how to be saved. “Those that seek me early shall find me” is His sure promise.
-by Harold Brenneman