Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.” Ezekiel 8:18
“Consider this, you that are here present that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of His anger, implies, that He will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; He will have no compassion upon you.
He will not forbear the executions of His wrath, or in the least lighten His hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay His rough wind; He will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires. Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear (Ezekiel 8:18).
Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery.”
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Application 2.
This famous sermon brings up a great point about the generosity of our God and compassion. It’s only available for a season. There will come a time when compassion will be exchanged for wrath.
What’s the generous response to this profound truth? We get to encourage people to make the most of the day of mercy in which we find ourselves. We must show the pathway to repentance by our humility and good works.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10
Let us use this day of mercy to show acts of mercy. Let us use this time of compassion to do works of compassion. Do you know a neighbor who is lost. Love your neighbor today. Don’t wait.