A Reprehension to the Impenitent
rebel against the light" (Job 74.13). It is one thing to sin for lack of light, and another thing to sin against light. The unpardonable sin begins here. Men begin by sinning against the light of conscience, and then proceed gradually to spite the Spirit of grace.
A Reprehension to the Impenitent Firstly, it serves to sharply reprimand all unrepenting sinners whose hearts seem to be hewn out of rock, and are like the stony ground in the parable which lacked moisture. This disease, I fear, is epidemic:
"No man repented of his wickedness" (Jer 8.6). Men's hearts are marbled into hardness: "they made their hearts like an adamant stone" (Zec 7.12). They are not at all dissolved into a penitent attitude. It is believed by some that witches never weep; I am sure that those who have no grief for sin are spiritually bewitched by Satan. We read that when Christ came to Jerusalem he "upbraided the cities because they did not repent" (Mat 11.20). And may he not likewise upbraid many now for their impenitence? Though God's heart is broken with their sins, yet their hearts are not broken. They say, as Israel did, "I have loved strangers, and I will go after them"
(Jer 2. 25). The justice of God, like the angel, stands with a drawn sword in its hand, ready to strike, but sinners do not have eyes as good as those of Balaam's ass to see the sword. God pounds on men's backs, but they do not, as Ephraim did, pound on their thigh (Jer
31.19).
40 It was a sad complaint the prophet took up: "You have stricken them, but they have not grieved" (Jer 5.3). That is surely reprobate silver which hardens in the furnace. "In the time of his distress he trespassed still more against the Lord: this is that king
Ahaz" (2Chr 28.22). A hard heart is a receptacle for Satan. Just as God has two places he dwells in, heaven and a humble heart, so the devil has two places he dwells in, hell and a hard heart. It is not falling into water that drowns, but lying in it. It is not falling into sin that damns, but lying in it without repentance: "having their conscience seared with a hot iron" (1Tim 4.2). Hardness of heart results at last in the conscience being seared. Men have silenced their consciences, and God has seared them. And now, as a father gives up correcting a child whom he intends to disinherit, God lets them sin and does not punish "Why should you be stricken anymore?" (Isa
1.5).