Signs of God's Impending Judgment (3)

(Sign 6) Again, decay in our first love is a sign of approaching judgment. God threatened the church of Ephesus to remove his candlestick from among them, for their decay in their first love (Rev. 2:4). God cannot endure his glorious gospel to be slighted, as not deserving the richest strain of our love. The Lord takes it better where there is but little strength and a striving to be better, than when there is great means of grace and knowledge, and no growth answerable, but rather a declining in goodness. The Lord is much displeased when Christians are not as zealous as they should be; when there is not that sweet communion of saints among them, to strengthen and encourage one another in the ways of holiness as there might be; when there is not a beauty in their profession to allure and draw others to a love and liking of the best things; when there is not a care to avoid all scandals that may weaken the respect of good things, and bring an evil report on the ways of God; when they labour not with their whole hearts to serve the Lord in a cheerful manner. These are certain signs of ensuing danger.
I beseech you, let us look about us whether these be not the times in which we live, that judgment must begin with the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). The Lord complains in Jeremiah that the turtle dove and other silly creatures knew the time of their standing and removing, but his people did not know his judgments (Jer. 8:7). Do the creatures know their times and seasons, and will Christ complain that we know not the day of our visitation? What a shame this is! I beseech you, let us know and consider our times. If we have a time of sinning, God will have a time of punishing.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Church's Visitation, Works, vol. 1, pp. 380-81
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