HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

“The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.” Isaiah 24:7

“The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord!” Proverbs 15:9

“For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish!” Psalm 1:6

“The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness!” Proverbs 11:5

The lost sinner is his own worst enemy. Remorse and disquietude and fear — these are the harvests he reaps. For all his bluster and show, for all his laughter and gaiety — he carries a heavy heart!

He is without the gladness of pardon. The thundercloud of God’s displeasure hangs lowering and fateful over him. There is a sunless, starless, cheerless future awaiting him. He is chargeable with enormous guilt. His sin merits a fearful wage — the wage of awful eternal damnation; and at last, he will pay to the uttermost farthing.

He is without the blessedness of purity. Evil passions toss him hither and thither. He is led captive by his lust. At times he loathes himself and longs for deliverance. “Oh,” he cries, “oh, that the man I am might cease to be!” But he is helpless: the wicked thing reasserts itself, and he is compelled to do the bidding of his tyrant.

He is without the sweetness of peace. He may have for a while, a certain force and fitful vivacity, excitement and unreal happiness; but even this disappears soon. His apples are apples of Sodom, with nothing but mouldering dust beneath the rosy rind. And as for any genuine and firm-rooted and satisfying peace, it and he had never once met — they are total strangers to each other.

So “all the merrymakers sigh and mourn!” Isaiah 24:7

But I will turn from my sin, my sin with its miserable wages — to God in Jesus Christ. And then I shall have pardon and purity and peace!