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Question:
I have the opportunity to discuss with various people of various nations and because most of them are soldiers, just as I have been before, most of them look at the women who are in the military bases and they think and express diverse sexual fantasies with them. I try to explain to them that this is fornication or adultery, it depends on who is married and who is not. One of them asked me the next question: what happens to him if he lives his life in all kinds of sins, but in the 12th hour, when he feels weak, close to death, he turns to God in faith, will this man receive forgiveness or not? If so, he says, why be good and restrain the whole life, when one can live as his heart pleases and finally, acknowledging his sins and acknowledging that Jesus is the Messiah, he may receive forgiveness and salvation? What would you answer to him? Thank you in advance and God bless!
God is ready to forgive any man until the moment of his death, but this way of thinking is very dangerous and here is why …
No one knows when and how he will die
Firstly, I will cite a parable told by the Lod Jesus. Here it is:
“The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12 :16-21)(NASB)
This man whom God calls a fool, made plans to live a long and prosperous life without any worries, but God has already decided that He would take his soul that night, while he will sleep. Does your friend know the day and moment when God decided to take his soul back? What if it is at night when he sleep? Does he think this is unreal? I met someone who woke up in the morning and his wife was dead near him. Yesterday I went to a camp and there was a little girl who lived only with her mother and one morning when she awoke, her moher’s body lay lifelessnear her on the bed. Because you do not know when and how your death will be, it is foolish to postpone the day of repentance.
No one can be sure of his health
You say that your friend makes plans to live in fornication with different women and to the end of his life, “in the 12th hour, when he feels weak,” i.e. when he will not be able to have sexual relations and commit adultery, then he will repent … The power and the ability to have sex is from God who has ordained that these relations may be only within the family and this man should think well and realize that it is very likely that one day he will become impotent and will not be able even to start a family. It is written in the Bible about those who play with living in debauchery that they will groan in the end, when their flesh and body will be exhausted. The good man who knows how to live in obedience to God lives a happy life, enjoying the wife of his youth and ends his life on this earth happy and full of days.
Sin deceives and hardens
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author urges the recipients to enter the New Covenant with Jesus Christ and tells them:
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:12-13)(NASB)
The thoughts that your friend has highlights the impulses of an “evil and unbelieving” heart and you must tell him this. And you must also say to him that the day of repentance is today. And when sin is telling us to postpone repentance, it actually deceives us and uses man’s postponement to harden his heart and make it worse, and more unbelieving, so that he may never want to repent or when he is at the moment of his death he may not believe that he can receive forgiveness from God.
The days of visitation are limited
God gives every person a limited number of days of visitation, which are days when God comes and calls one to be saved. Such a day for your friends was the day when you went and spoke to him about salvation. God gave the people of Jerusalem more opportunities to repent and believe in Jesus, but they rejected all proposals of God. Therefore:
When He (Jesus) approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)(NASB)
Tell your friend to think well and realize that the discussions you have are the time when he is visited by God and urge him to recognize this message from God and repent soon.
Translated by Felicia Rotaru