God calls men to an accounting for their lives.  For some people, that might be happening today, for the first time, or the hundredth time.  But periodically through the flow of life, as men possess in their hands the stewardship of the things that God owns, they are called to give an account for their life.  And there will be many such accountings before that final judgment verdict is rendered at the great white throne.

 

In Romans Chapter 1, it says that God has deposited in man the knowledge of Himself.  That God has given to man the environment around him enough information that he may follow that path to the knowledge of God.  That God has given man the intellectual capability to understand, and reason, and see the truth.  That God has presented to him the revealed Word, the Holy Spirit.  In other words, God has given a treasure to men that they are to perceive it from Him, and they are to follow that perception to the full understanding of who He is and what He wants.  And God periodically calls men to such accounting.

 

And maybe for some of you that conviction was heightened by a physical illness, or it was heightened by the death of someone you love very much, or the loss of a job, or a painful experience.  But God calls men to such accountings, whereby alarming circumstances, or alarming truth, or alarming guilt, or penetrating, awakening of the conscience, men who appeared to be asleep before are all of a sudden alerted to the sinfulness of their sin.  And sometimes he brings along severe circumstances to heighten that intense awareness.

 

But all men come to that same accounting, and it may happen again and again.  And it may be rejected again and again, and for all of us who know Christ at one time, it was accepted, and we entered into eternal life.  And so what we have here, then, is God calling men to the accounting of conviction of sin.