It is dangerous to procrastinate repentance because the
longer any go on in sin the harder they will find the work of repentance.
Delay strengthens sin—and hardens the heart—and gives the devil fuller
possession. A tree at first may be easily plucked up—but when it has spread
its roots deep in the earth, a whole team cannot remove it. It is hard to
remove sin when once it comes to be rooted. The longer the ice
freezes—the harder it is to be broken. The longer a man freezes in sin—the
harder it will be to have his heart broken. The longer any travail with
iniquity—the sharper pangs they must expect in the new birth. When sin
has long been fastened in the heart—it is not easily shaken off. Sin comes
to a sinner as the elder brother came to his father: "I have been slaving
many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders" (Luke 15:29),
and will you cast me off now? What, in my old age, after you have had so
much pleasure by me? See how sin pleads custom, and that is a
leopard's spot (Jer. 13:23 ).
- Thomas Watson (The Doctrine of Repentance, Chapter 8)
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