I’m sure you’ve run into this!
Dear Friends,
You have surely run into this! You are trying to witness to someone and they bring up some old, moth-eaten objection to the things of God which requires a complicated answer and you know that if you answer them it won’t make any difference. It is just a dodge to avoid the Gospel. How do you handle it? Today’s devotional will give you some excellent clues. God bless you.
Because of Calvary,
John Janney
Proverbs 26:4
Proverbs 26:4 ESV
answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest you be like him yourself.
Proverbs 26:4
“A caviler once asked Dr. Nettleton of America, ‘How came I by my wicked heart?’ ‘That,’ he replied, ‘is a question that does not concern you so much as another, namely, how you shall get rid of it. You have a wicked heart, which renders you entirely unfit for the kingdom of God; and you must have a new heart, or your cannot be saved; and the question which now most deeply concerns you is, how you shall obtain it.’ ‘But,’ said the main, ‘I wish you to tell me how I cam by my wicked heart.’ “I shall not,’ replied Dr. Nettleton, ‘do that at present; for if I could do it to your entire satisfaction, it would not in the least help you towards obtaining a new heart. The great thing for which I am solicitous is, that you should become a new creature and be prepared for heaven.’ As the man manifested no wish to hear anything on that subject, but still pressed the question how he came by his wicked heart, the doctor told him that his condition resembled that of a man who is drowning, while his friends are attempting to save his life. As he rises to the surface of the water, he exclaims, ‘How came I here?’ ‘That question,’ says one of his friends, ‘does not concern you now; take hold of this rope.’ ‘But how came I here?’ he asks again., ‘I shall not stop to answer that question now,’ replies his friend. ‘Then I’ll drown,’ says the infatuated man, and, spurning all proffered aid, sinks to the bottom.”
[Whitecross in Gray & Adams Bible Commentary III edited by James C. Gray and George M. Adams, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, n.d.), p. 359]