Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Sin loves its own blindness and darkness of mind, for it cannot bear the light of exposure and lashes out against any who bear such light. It seeks out weakness in those men so as to turn the light away from itself and call them hypocrites. Anything to shield itself from seeing itself rightly. If men cannot bear the light that comes forth from those who are justified by faith in Christ and yet still struggle against their remaining sin, how will they bear perfect holiness? They cannot stand in the light of truth and suppress it forever, so how do they think they shall stand before God in all His holiness?

They know not what grace and mercy it is now to hear those who come to them and plead with them to repent and trust in Christ alone, nor the terror of the Lord that awaits those who despise the truth and the holiness of God. Finding refuge among those in the world who love their own, they show themselves to be God’s enemies. And yet, in His grace, He will gather all His own from the world unto Himself.

You know not your own blindness. You know not your own wickedness, for your heart has deceived you, O man. Wicked in your thinking, you imagine yourself wise, yet you play the fool. Upright in your own estimation, you set yourself in opposition to the truth that would show you already condemned before a holy God and reveal the only hope for your soul in Christ Jesus. You despise the truth, and your self-justification heaps up greater condemnation.

The truth you heard and rejected, that most holy thing which you found offensive and vile, shall rise in judgment against you. Those who proclaimed the truth to you, who bore witness to it in their lives, and whom you slandered as members of Christ’s bride, shall stand as a testimony against you. Your many sins, which you neither see nor understand because you would have no part in hearing the truth that exposes your wicked heart and possesses the power to save you, shall ever be before you.

You shall not escape the howling and haunting of it as judgment rains down upon your head forever. You despise the messenger who fears for your soul today, yet the truth he proclaimed shall testify against you then. Your sin shall not burn out in your heart, nor shall genuine repentance come forth from your lips. The truth from which you fled shall be the truth you cannot escape, forever bearing witness against you under the righteous judgment of God.

Because men hate the light, they hide in darkness and sometimes that darkness calls itself light and gathers in places that are churches where Satan has his seat. Unregenerate men and false teachers soothe the conscience of the wicked and assure them of a salvation that has never touched their lives, and they exploit them for their own wicked purposes. They each gain from one another what they desire, thereby showing themselves enemies of the truth.

For you are a sinner. You can find refuge in the world for a time. You can find refuge in false light. You can assuage your own conscience with falsehood. You can suppress the truth only for so long. For it will rise up in judgment against you. Your sins will find you out. You cannot atone for them. You cannot earn your freedom. You are in bondage to sin, and you love it. It is by the grace of God alone that your wicked heart may be made new and brought to see its own wickedness and folly, that very folly which you once loved and now find repulsive.

Unless you find God beautiful and His Word true, you shall never see yourself rightly. Unless faithful ministers declare the whole counsel of God and His Word is rightly proclaimed to your dead heart, set in opposition to Him, you shall remain blind in your sin. The very words you find most offensive are often the words God is pleased to use to bring life to the dead.

But if, O wretched man, you hear and God is pleased to work within you, then what you once hated you shall find most beautiful. The God whom you despised you shall love. The truth that once offended you shall become the delight of your soul.

And when you discover within yourself that which remains offensive to Him, you shall surely put it to death. For now your heart has been changed. The Word of God, once resisted as faithful men proclaimed it, has become your desire and your delight. You no longer seek refuge in falsehood and darkness, but in Christ alone.

In Christ you find genuine love, not the perversion your heart once devised. He is beautiful in His glory, though you have not yet beheld Him fully. Yet behold Him you shall, either with great terror or with great rejoicing.

Play not the fool. But as those precious saints who have died in the faith, who encouraged the souls of fellow saints amidst the darkness and wickedness of men, having set their hope upon Christ and trusted in His kind providence, dear saint, play the man.