Repentance in a Timely Fashion

The greatest lessons that we can learn from the books of 1st and 2nd Kings are all related to our receiving the word of God, believing the word that we have heard, and then doing what God would have us to do. Even kings need to repent of their sins in the sight of God. We might say – especially kings because their actions affect so many people around them. Ahab was a king who did not repent of his sins, and his sins led him to God’s great judgment of him in this life as well as his sending him to hell after he died. Jehoshaphat was a king who repented of his sins, and we can say by the way that Jehoshaphat’s life turned out that God was actually pleased with him at many points. He found himself in the place of spiritual safety when he repented, because he did what God was asking him to do. The question that I would like to have us ask ourselves this evening as we listen to this message, is whether each of us are keeping the word of God by repenting of our sins in a timely fashion? I want to lay before you the evidence, 1st of all – That Ahab did not repent of his sins at all, while Jehoshaphat did. And then 2nd – That Ahab perished because he did not repent of his sins, while Jehoshaphat was rescued and delivered eternally from his. And then 3rd – That Jehoshaphat did do the will of God in a timely fashion and he was blessed eternally because of it.