There is a problem with modern Christianity. By and large, those who call themselves Christian think that someone has all the time in the world to come to Christ. They seem to believe that God is infinitely patient. It is often stated that someone can be saved on their deathbed, and God’s patience doesn’t run out until they draw their last breath. Thus, anyone can be saved, at any time — to the point of death: no one is exempt.
The following comment was left in reply to some comments I made on an article concerning someone who was ‘transgender’ that claimed Christ. I irritated some folk when I contended that there was a ‘point of no return’ with the LORD God. Once that point is reached, no matter what you did after that, there was no repentance, and no salvation. The LORD God would cut you off – forever.
The following comment is from that thread:
Eatie Gourmet (in reply to) Paul W. Davis • 5 hours ago
Ok, what if someone lives a life filled with vices, at some point has this sex-change operation…
Then they meet a Christian — who knows where, at a park, a parade, laundromat, wherever — who invites them to church, and they go, and they go a few weeks in a row, and get involved in church activities and come to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
What do you do then? Kick them to the curb? Accept them as is? What?
Do you not believe in redemption?Remember I didn’t say anything about marriage, significant other, I’m just talking about a single person searching for more meaning in their life.
You can play ‘what if’ all day long. It is meaningless to the actuality of what the LORD God has plainly stated in His word.
The LORD God is express in the Scripture that there is a point that you can go beyond, in which you will never be granted salvation. Esau went past that point. The Pharisees who contended with the Lord Jesus Christ went past that point. Judas Iscariot went past that point. There is a point that one can go past in which the LORD God will not even acknowledge prayers offered up for that person.
The end of patience with Esau
It is not our place to rationalize whether or not we agree with or see the logic in how the LORD dealt with Esau. Rather, we must understand that by default Esau possessed something that was given to him as a blessing. But, because he saw no value in it, he cast it away as worthless:
And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright. (Genesis 25:27-34)
Esau’s birthright was to have the Messiah come through his lineage. Esau heard the gospel from his father. Yet he disbelieved and despised the Messiah to come — the result was that the LORD took all opportunity for salvation from him.
The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. (Malachi 1:1-3)
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. (Hebrews 12:16-17)
Without delving too extensively into why the LORD God hated Esau, it is sufficient to understand that the birthright was to have the Savior come through the lineage of the birthright holder. The fact that Esau plainly stated “what profit shall this birthright do to me?” shows that he scorned the birthright. Esau had no children at this point. Hence, if he believed the promise of the birthright, he would have known that he could not die yet. Yet, that was meaningless to him. He didn’t believe it and thus threw it away for a pittance.
The example of the Jewish leadership
Likewise the Pharisees, who, when they came face to face with the LORD, disbelieved and contended, calling the Lord Jesus Christ a follower of Satan. For that blasphemy of the witness of the Holy Ghost to them, they were condemned forever.
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. (Matthew 12:24-32)
Likewise, those of the Jewish leadership that were instrumental in putting the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. (Psalm 69:8-28)
We should not forget the condemnation levied against the Jewish leadership by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 23, is a litany of abuses they engaged in for their own enrichment and power. They appropriated the position of leadership and the name of the LORD for their own ends. They taught and promoted lies to keep themselves in power — at the expense of the Scriptures and those who fell under their teaching.
The end of patience with Judas Iscariot
In the same manner, Judas Iscariot was condemned for the rejection of the witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and his subsequent betrayal of Him to the Jewish leadership.
And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love. Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul. (Psalm 109:5-20)
Here we need only remember that Judas Iscariot walked daily with the Lord Jesus Christ and heard the teaching and saw the miracles — for three years straight. Nothing moved him. He was a thief and possessed of the devil. Though he could have been free from demonic influence and free from iniquity, he chose not to avail himself.
The rule is universally applied
As the above examples illustrate, there is a point that you cannot go beyond in rejecting the witness and testimony of the LORD. There is a point in the life of a person who continually rejects the testimony of the Holy Ghost in their heart, in which they will be cut off. In Romans, chapter one, the descent into darkness is detailed. There is a point that one cannot go beyond. If they do, there is no salvation available to them — they are cut off, just like Esau, Judas, and the Pharisees.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:24-32)
We seem to forget that we have no excuse. We have so much more than those which Scripture holds out before us as examples. We are given warnings and shown consequences for belief and actions. We lack nothing for being able to make the correct decisions — except our own will to do so.
Even prayer cannot avail
There is even a point that one can reach in which the LORD will no longer listen to any prayer offered up for them. The nation of Israel reached that point during Jeremiah’s day.
Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. (Jeremiah 14:10-12)
The point here is clear: Why waste the time on someone who will not turn and doesn’t care to even try?
Conclusion
Do I believe in forgiveness and redemption?
Obviously I do. I preach the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ, and Christ alone – not of our works. I preach, as the Scripture teaches, that the Father will forgive us through Christ if we repent and believe the Gospel. However, I am not the arbiter of how the LORD God chose to deal with people — especially when they refuse to be honest with themselves or the LORD. The principles set forth above apply equally to all, yours truly included. We must understand the following in no uncertain terms:
the patience of the LORD God with any individual is not limitless.
Plainly, by His word, that patience has an end.
In returning to the discussion that brought about this article, we should understand that the LORD God makes it clear in His word how He made us. The way we are made is so fundamental to our being, that for one to attempt to ‘change their gender‘ (which is all outward and surface anyway — you cannot change your genetics (Y chromosome)), is to fundamentally reject their very being. If one cannot admit the truth of what they are, how could they ever, in their heart, admit the truth of them being a wicked sinner, full of iniquity? This denial begins in the heart, and unless acknowledged, will drive the person to greater and greater denial outwardly as the LORD brings forth that iniquity for them to see:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
However much we might like to think we are what we appear to be outwardly, that is often a result of denying who we actually are in the heart. The LORD God does know with certainty who each and every one of us are. Moreover, He is very clear in His word how he deals with each and every one of us. No one is going to change that. If you think you are, you are deceiving yourself.
We would do well to understand: When one engages in self-deception, the only loser is the person deceiving themselves. Thus it bears repeating: the LORD’s patience with man is not limitless, but has an end.
Last Updated on 9 years by Paul