Letting The Hour Go By
JOHN GIPSON
Little Rock AR
9/23/98
Letting The Hour Go By
Poor Pharaoh Neco! He missed his opportunity. The Lord wrote his epithet:
Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by’ (Jeremiah 46.17). Pharaoh was talking instead of acting, and talking can never take the place of doing.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
Julius Caesar – Act IV
The trouble with the sluggard in the book of Proverbs is simply letting the hour go by. He always wants,
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. The result?
Poverty will come upon you like a vagabond, and want like an armed man.
I read about 3,000 people who heard the Gospel preached in its fullness for the first time in Jerusalem. They repented, were baptized, and received the remission of their sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38-40. Thousands of others must have heard the same message, but they let the hour go by.
Poor Felix! He listened to the great apostle Paul speak upon faith in Christ Jesus, but he let the hour go by. He said,
Go away for the present; when I have an opportunity I will summon you. He did not recognize the hour when it came.
Will somebody some day have to say,
Poor______(Fill in your own name),
he let the hour go by?
• The time to obey the Gospel is now!
• The time for training our children is now!
• The time for spiritual growth is now!
The time for sharing the good news of Christ is now!
We must not let the hour go by.
—JOHN GIPSON
Little Rock, AR
