Tell Them It's Too Late

23 August 2020

Dear Phyllis,

Last week we had a very fine couple stay with us. The brother has an extended ministry reaching 250,000 people on line. He was impressed with my testimony that I am in my mid 80s and still serving the Lord. He asked, “What word of encouragement do you have for elderly people who want to serve Jesus?” I was surprised by my answer. When he asked me that question I fired back, “Tell them it's too late. You can't recover a misspent life”. The more I thought about it I realized my answer was correct and from the Holy Spirit. What can you say to elderly people near the end of the road? There is only one word of encouragement – mercy. There is such a thing as death-bed-confession. You can get saved the last 15 minutes of your life, but I wouldn't count on it. To start with there is a very good chance you may not get that chance. You could get killed before you are ready. And secondly the statistics of people who make a death-bed-confession but then recover, and go on serving the Lord is extremely low. Most of those who recover revert to their former life style. That is not very encouraging salvation.

But the one thing you can say to elderly people with absolute assurance is that you will face judgment. There is no dodging that. There are two Judgment Thrones. Paul warned us, “We shall all stand before the Judgment Throne of Christ” (Rom. 14:10). All Christians will face that. And there is the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:11-15). That is for all the unsaved. The happy salvation people like to tell us that the Judgment Throne of Christ is not for accountability but this is called the Bema Seat where rewards are passed out. Maybe. But I am not sure that that is the way the system works.

It is amazing that people don't believe spiritual laws exist. AW Tozer commented that most Christians sow to the flesh for six days and then come to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure. Lots of luck. A few years ago I took two fine boys over to Laos. Without asking me they ordered three motor bikes. They really were terrific fellows but neither one had ever ridden a motor bike. I took them for a ride up along side the Mekong River. It was a dirt road and terribly dusty. On the way up I took the lead but thought that was not too Christian; so on the way back I let them lead and I ate the dust. I was thinking they really are going too fast on this dirt road. Four hundred years ago Isaac Newton explained the law of momentum that moving objects tend to go in a straight line. Steve got in an argument with Newton and tried to go around a corner at too high a speed. Newton won. Steve splattered on the road. Most of us live within the parameters of natural laws, but the majority feels that spiritual laws don't apply and they can defy them without bad consequences. You might spend most of your life sowing to the flesh and weekly praying for a crop failure, but at the end of your life looking back, the score will be pretty much the way you played the game. You might cram for a final exam at the end of a semester, but no one will have the opportunity to relive a life that was ill spent.

There is a positive aspect to the law of sowing and reaping (Gal. 6:7). Several years ago my dear friend, John Cathcart, was getting ready to go home for a furlough after a very intense, five year term of service. I said to him, “John, I have a word from God for you. You have spent five years intensely sowing good seed. The law of God is that there will be a harvest. You will reap for what you have sowed.”

Marlene Blough was a serious Christian from her early years. She never swerved from the path. She was elected the school queen for Denver North High, a school with 5,000 students. And she was elected the beauty queen. The reward for that was that she would lead the prom at the annual school dance. Most girls would kill for that honor. Marlene said, “I'm sorry, I am a Christian and I don't go to dances. I won't go to the prom”. When she was in high school she wouldn't have anything to do with any boy who wasn't a serious Christian, and when she was in Bible school she would not consider any boy who wasn't committed to the mission field. What she sowed in her early years she abundantly reaped with an amazing life as Mrs. Ron Blough. She was a legend in Hokkaido.

Thank God there is a Bema seat where rewards are passed out. But we must not misrepresent it. You cannot dismiss the fact that there is such a thing as accountability. That is the main point of the Parable of the Talents. Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was traveling to a far country and passed out talents to his servants – “everyone according to his ability” (Mt. 25:14-30). One got five, one got two, and another fellow got just one. The main point of this parable was there was a day of reconnecting. There was a day when they had to come forward to show how they made out. The first two fellows did pretty well. They produced good results according to their God-given ability. But the guy who got just one hid it so it wouldn't get lost. He brought it back to his master an said, “Here is Your talent back”. That wasn't what he was supposed to do with it. There was responsibility that came with the talent that God had given him. Hiding it wasn't a very good idea. He didn't do too well at the Bema Seat. He was called wicked and slothful. His talent was taken away for him and he was cast out into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is a really grim word. Unused talents wind up being lost talents. If God has given us a talent – even if it is only one – it might be a good idea to at least use it. If not it might be taken away. Watchman Nee said, “The greatest poverty of the church is that the one talent Christians aren't using what they have”. He is probably right. What we need is not more highly gifted Christians; our greatest need is for milk-toast Christians to use what they have.

I read the story of a pastor in Portland that saw the world was the field and Christians should be the workers (Mt. 13:38) One day a lady in his church called him and said, “Pastor, could you come over? I was talking to my neighbor and she wants to get saved”. “Yes, I will be there immediately.” But half way there the Lord told him to go back. He called the lady and told her that Jesus had blocked him from going. “But, Pastor, my friend wants to get saved.” “You lead her to Christ.” “I can't. I don't know how.” “You got saved. Tell her how you did it.” An hour later there was a knock on his study door. Two weeping women were there to tell him that the friend just got saved. That is the way that the system is supposed to work.

I was shocked by my own answer when the brother asked me what word of encouragement I had for elderly people who want to serve Jesus, and I fired back, “Tell them it is too late”. Thank God there is mercy and a person can get saved and forgiven at the last breath of their life. And there are people who have blown 40 years of the life but spend the last 10 wide out for Jesus. There is no restraint. You can give your life to Jesus and give Him all at any time in life. Some people have some very outstanding testimonies at the end of a misspent life. But there is accountability. There is no recovery for eggs dumped on the floor and you can't go back and live your life all over again. What is said was true. “Tell them it is too late.” You can't recover that which you have trashed.

But if we have one meter left, let's do what we can with it and maximize every opportunity we have to let our flag fly as high as possible and give our tattered remains to Jesus and see what He can do with with what is left in our glass.

Oh Father, be merciful. Lord forgive us. But, Lord, please take what little we have left and let Jesus be honored in the remains of our lives. For Jesus sake.

                                                         bill