Fri.-Sabbath, 1/10-12/14 Devotion

Hip, hip, hooray--it's almost The Lord's Day! In order to help get us ready for church, here is the great Thomas Watson, from his book, "The Doctrine of Repentance":

"If God should save men without repentance, making no discrimination, then by this rule He must save all, not only men, but devils, as Origen once held; and so consequently the decrees of election and reprobation must fall to the ground. How diametrically opposed this is to Sacred Writ [the Bible], let all judge.

"There are two sorts of persons who will find it harder to repent than others: (1) Those who have sat a great while under the ministry of God's ordinances but grow no better. The earth which drinks in the rain, yet 'bears thorns and briars, is nigh unto cursing,' (Heb. 6:8). There is little hope of the metal which has lain long in the fire but is not melted and refined. When God has sent His ministers one after another, ex-horting and persuading men to leave their sins, but they settle upon the lees of formality and can sit and sleep under a sermon, it will be hard for these ever to be brought to repentance. They may fear lest Christ should say to them as once he said to the fig tree, 'May no fruit grow on you anymore,' (Matt. 21:19)."