THE TIME IS SHORT

1 COR. 7:20-31

Pastor Rick Jackson

 

I. THE TIME IS SHORT TO BE SAVED

1. It Involves Limited Time On Earth [James 4:14]

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

2. It Involves a Limited Time Offer [Gn. 6:3]

And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man

3. It Involves a Limited Time Opportunity [Isaiah 55:6]

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

 

II. THE TIME IS SHORT TO SUFFER

1. God Uses It Now [1 Peter 5:10, Rm. 8:26-30]

-But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

 

- Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for: we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but: the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

2. God Uses It Later [Rm. 8:18]

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

3. Man Has a Duty Now [Eccl. 12:1-3, 13]

-Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened…

-Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

 

III. THE TIME IS SHORT TO SERVE

1.We Don’t Know the Time [Mark 13:33]

Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

 

2. We Do Know the Task [Acts 1:7-8, Eph. 5:15-16]

And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

- See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

 

3. We Know the Saviour [John 9:4, Rm. 13:11, 14

-I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

-And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

-Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.