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“Disregarding Warnings”

Allen Dvorak
10/20/24 - Sun PM

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Scripture reading this evening will be from Galatians chapter five verses 21 through 219.

And I'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible.

I say, then walk by the spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh for the flesh desires.

What is against the spirit and the spirit desires, what is against the flesh?

These are opposed to each other so that you don't do what you want.

But if you are led by the spirit, then you are not under the law.

Now, the works of the flesh are obvious sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing anything similar.

I warn you about these things.

As I have warned you before that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

The law is not against these things.

Not those who belong to Christ have, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Good evening, I would like to echo the invitation.

The welcome that was given by David earlier, to all those who are visiting with us this evening, we're grateful that you're here and we covet your attention as we study together from God's Word.

Debbie and I occasionally have the need to go into Kroger to send money via Western Union.

Kroger is one of those places that will arrange for those kind of money transfers and the place where they do that, they have a special place in the store where they do that is also the place where they sell cigarettes.

Recently, Debbie and I were standing there waiting for someone to assist us in our uh transfer.

And I noticed some signs that were to the side and above, I think both of these were actually above the rack full of all the different kinds of cigarettes and Vape uh things and stuff of that nature.

And this is the sign that was, this is uh from the uh Kroger over here on uh Jeff Road, low tar and light cigarette smokers inhale essentially the same amount of tar and nicotine as they would from regular cigarettes.

So here, here's a person who comes to the counter and asks to buy cigarettes and right there in front of their face is a sign that says even if you try to use those cigarettes with low tar, it's got the same amount of tar and nicotine as, as other regular cigarettes.

This was the other sign at the same place and you may not be able to read the top of the sign, but it says a federal court has ordered RJ Reynolds tobacco and Philip Morris USA to state.

And here's the sign.

The sign says second hand smoke causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease in adults who do not smoke.

So, regardless of which cigarettes you might purchase, you're gonna get the same amount of tar and nicotine apparently.

And not only will you be poisoning yourself, but you're going to be poisoning the people around you who are not smoking, but they are breathing second hand smoke.

I find that incredible that with those warnings right there, that anybody would be buying cigarettes while they're reading these warnings that if you buy this product and use it, you're likely to die would think that would be a warning that people would perhaps pay attention to.

And yet Kroger and other places who are required now by law to post these signs.

Signs like this one, Altria RJ Reynolds tobacco, Lo Lorillard and Philip Morris USA intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive.

Here's another sign from a place like Kroger's smoking also causes reduced fertility, low birth weight in newborns and cancer of the cervix.

Oh, but it gets better.

This is a sign that was at another Kroger and it says smoking kills on average 241 Americans every day.

And then finally another sign Federal Court says you've got to put up the signs this sign says more people die every year from smoking than from murder A I DS suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol combined.

Now, why, why would you read a warning like that?

Like any of these?

And then say, well, I'll take a pack of Marlboros because what have I got to live for?

I guess people must be ignoring these warnings because Kroger still sells cigarettes and I imagine plenty of them if everyone heeded the warnings, there'd be no market for the products, which I think is kind of what the Federal Court had in mind when they force these tobacco companies to post bad things.

The truth about their products at the very point of sale.

So the question I ask is why do people ignore these warnings?

Well, let me shift gears just a little bit.

And perhaps you have the same experience that I have had in your email program on your computer.

Most of us, I think if not all of us receive emails, maybe lots of emails and I get many emails daily that warn me that I and my family will die.

If I do not purchase the product that they're trying to sell me, do you not care about your family?

Do you know that when everything collapses, you're going to need this product or you'll all die dreadful, horrible deaths.

Anybody get emails like that.

You don't, I'm gonna switch email addresses with you and you can have all of mine.

So usually these websites are predicting some sort of societal collapse and the message is better get prepared.

You need this product.

If you're going to be prepared, I don't buy their products.

I ignore their warnings just like people go to Kroger and they say I'll take three packs of that brand of cigarettes.

Ignoring the warning right over the top of the cigarette shelves that tell you if you buy and use that product, you're probably going to die from it.

People do every day warnings are given because of the presence of danger.

I mean, that's the point of a warning is to preserve you to protect you from some sort of danger.

Why is it that we take some warnings seriously and we ignore others.

By the end of our study this evening, I want to answer that question and I think there are a couple of reasons, a couple of ways that we could answer that.

But I want to, uh, begin this evening by talking about some warnings that the Bible gave that were heeded when people got warnings and they listened to the warnings, warnings taken seriously.

And the first one I would, uh bring to your attention is Noah.

Noah was warned in Genesis the sixth chapter about the coming of a global flood in Genesis six and verses 241 and 413.

And then dropping down to verse 241, the text says, and God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh.

For the earth is filled with violence through them.

Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

And then instructions are given as to some of the details of the construction for behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven.

Everything that is on the earth shall die.

Kind of sounds a little bit like some of the emails I get gonna be big problems.

A lot of people are gonna die.

You need to get ready.

But Hebrews chapter 241 verse seven says that Noah listened to that warning by faith.

Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen in reverent fear, constructed an art for the saving of his household by this.

He condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

If I'm walking by a pit of alligators and there's a sign there that says, don't jump into this alligator pit.

I don't have to see anything to believe that that's something I probably shouldn't do.

But the warning that Noah got was a warning about something that he'd never seen before.

Something that was outside of the scope of human experience at that time, a global flood, everybody's going to die.

There had never been such a flood as the one that God predicted.

And yet Noah listened to the warning and he built this ark that God had commanded.

Now, we're told by Peter in his first epistle that there were eight people who were saved on this Ark.

Of course, Noah Mrs Noah Hams, Shem Je, and the misses eight people out of a population whose size, we really don't know, but that could have existed or constituted millions of people.

And so at the same time that Noah listened to God's warning, everybody else said, uh I'm not building a boat.

I'm not changing my life and they all died in the flood.

You think they didn't get any warning?

In Second Peter two Peter identifies Noah as a preacher of righteousness.

And I just understand by that, that Noah, during the time that he was building this huge boat, this wooden box in which he and his family would be saved.

He was telling people there's gonna be a flood, there's gonna be a flood, you need to change and nobody listened, eight souls were saved.

The rest of the human population ignored the warnings of Noah, the warnings of God through.

No. Well, another example of this has to do with King Saul, the first king of the United Kingdom, a jealous king when he discovered that David had been anointed, actually, even before that, as David was receiving the praises of the people for his courage and efficiency in battle.

Saul begins to be jealous of David.

And on more than one occasion seeks to harm David and David in first Samuel 219 says to Jonathan, your father intends to harm me.

And Jonathan says, I don't, I don't believe that I'm quoting from the new living translation now.

But basically, Jonathan says, I, I don't, I don't think that's going to happen.

And David continues.

Jonathan says, far be it from you.

If I knew that it was determined by my father, that harm should come to you, would I not tell you?

And so he and David then make an arrangement for Jonathan to kind of sound out his father at a special occasion to find out if in fact, King Saul did intend to harm David.

And as the text goes on to tell us and for Samuel 20 Jonathan discovers that's exactly what his father wishes to do.

He wants to kill David.

And so as was pre-arranged, Jonathan gives, excuse me, Jonathan gives warning to his uh friend David and David manages to escape the clutches of this jealous King, Saul.

What if David had just ignored the warning of Jonathan?

Well, the Bible might have read differently, I guess if we were to set that aside uh from other concerns or issues in the scriptures concerning prophecy.

Well, a third example of warnings taken seriously an Israelite king who incidentally is not named, was repeatedly warned by the prophet Elisha in second King six about Syrian ambushes, the Syrian king would set an ambush.

But Elisha, the prophet would warn the king and the king confirmed that there were, in fact Syrians waiting.

And so he managed to escape these ambushes, time and time again, frustrating the Syrian king who said, where's the spy?

Which one of you is the spy who's telling the king of Israel about my plans?

And one of his servants says, the prophet of God tells the king what you say in your bedroom.

And so warnings that were heeded and that saved the life of this king and many other Israelites probably as well.

One final example, of course, Herod the great was the king when Jesus was born and Herod tried to eliminate the infant Christ.

And so uh Joseph and Mary and Jesus then flee to Egypt.

But Herod is going to die a miserable, horrible death incidentally.

But his son Archelaus or a Archelaus, depending on how you pronounce it is going to take his place in the area of Judea, a very cruel individual.

He won't rule very long.

But Joseph is told by the Lord, you can return to Israel now that Herod the great is dead.

But as Joseph is bringing his family back to Israel from Egypt, he is warned in a dream not to go to Judea, but to go to Galilee because of this cruel king uh Archilla.

And so here are four examples of warnings from just individuals to uh groups, all of humanity in which individuals heeded.

The warning and so, uh, were saved from, uh, some sort of destruction or bad fortune.

Now, the other side of that coin is that there are plenty of warnings that were not heeded warnings given by God and others that were not heeded by the people to whom the warnings were given.

In fact, we could spend the rest of the night here looking at these warnings, but I'm warning you, we're not going to do that.

Nobody got that.

We're just going to look at two.

And so let's begin with a fellow by the name of Shima.

When David was fleeing from his son, Absalom, fleeing from Jerusalem, it looked like it was curtains for David that Absalom was going to take over the throne and a Benjamin by the name of Shima kind of ran along the road where David and his men were traveling as they left Jerusalem left Judea and he was cursing David.

Well, David defeated Absalom and he comes back to Jerusalem and now she has a problem because the king, he was cursing is now still in power, but David didn't take vengeance on Shee.

But rather he allowed Solomon to deal with that situation.

And that's kind of some of the back story of shame situation.

In the beginning of first kings and chapter two, Solomon made an arrangement with shee.

He said, build a house here in Jerusalem.

You stay in Jerusalem.

I'm warning you if you leave Jerusalem for any reason.

You're going to die.

She may agreed to that.

And in fact, he stayed in Jerusalem as he had been warned to do for some time or until two of his servants escaped.

And they went to Gath, one of the cities of the Philistines and Shima then left Jerusalem went and got his servants brought them back from Gath, but word came to Solomon's ear.

And so Solomon having been told that she had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and returned, he sent and summoned Shema and said to him, did I not make you swear by the Lord and solemnly warn you saying no for certain that on the day you go out and go to any place, whatever you shall die.

And you said to me, what you say is good.

I will obey.

But he violated that warning, that instruction didn't heed the warning.

And so Solomon sent be ha who killed Shee according to the agreement that the man himself had made with Solomon.

Well, let's back up from an individual.

Let's just talk about a whole kingdom.

Let's talk about the people of Israel and particularly the northern kingdom.

We know that as the people were preparing to come into the land of Canaan, that in the book of Deuteronomy, they were warned again and again that when they came into the land and they inherited wealth from those that they conquered, that they needed to remember to continue to serve the true and living God and not serve the gods of the people that they had driven out. Deuteronomy.

The eighth chapter in verse 19, here's the warning these people were given through Moses by God.

And if you forget the Lord, your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you will surely perish.

Well, you don't have to be a real distinguished scholar of the old Testament to figure out that Israel didn't follow God's covenant law.

And in fact, they served other gods many, many times, the kingdom would split divide after the death of Solomon and the ascension of his foolish son Rebo and the Northern kingdom went into idolatry immediately with their first king never left.

It had no good kings.

All of them followed in the in the sin of Jeroboam and later on the sin of Ahab and his house.

And finally, God had had enough, his patients had run out.

And so he brought the Assyrians who carried off the Northern Kingdom.

In second kings chapter 17.

There's a summary there.

It's an extensive summary of why God did what he did to this kingdom.

Let's just read a few verses beginning here in verse 13.

Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer saying, turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes in accordance with all the law that I commanded your fathers.

And that I sent to you by my servants, the prophets, they would not listen but were stubborn as their fathers had been who did not believe in the Lord.

They're gone.

They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them, they went after false idols and became false and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them, that they should not do like them.

God said, I told them in the beginning, I warned them Deuteronomy 819 and other passages and I sent prophet after prophet to warn them, they just wouldn't listen.

And finally God said enough.

And so they were carried off into Assyria, two warnings where people just ignored the danger that was before them, that they were being warned about and they suffered the consequences.

Well, of course, what I would like to talk about is warnings that are given to us.

And as I thought about what warnings I would talk about, the field is so broad.

Like I said, the Bible is full of warnings about danger that we can face as God's people as those trying to live Godly.

But before we look at any specific warning, I want to look at a principle.

And it's found in the story that Jesus told about two men.

Lazarus was the name of one and the other ones just identified as a rich man.

We don't know his name and I'm not going to talk about the whole story, but you probably know this story, at least to some extent, here's the rich man and he's doing well.

He's living a great life.

There's poor Lazarus.

He's a beggar, he's sick, he's there at the rich man's gate and he's not getting anything from him.

Both of them die.

And when they die, the rich man is buried and the angels carry Lazarus.

Abraham's bosom.

They find themselves in two different locations and in two different conditions, the rich man now is in torment.

Lazarus is being comforted where he is.

Let's just read a little bit here.

Beginning in verse 24 the rich man says, Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in anguish in this flame.

But Abraham said, child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus and like men are bad things.

But now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.

And besides all this between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you.

That's what he'd asked for.

May not be able and none may cross from there where he was the rich man to us.

And he said, then I beg you father to send him to my father's house for I have five brothers so that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment.

But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets let them hear them.

And he said, no, Father Abraham.

But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.

He said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced.

If someone should rise from the dead, that kind of foreshadows the response of many Jews to the resurrection of Jesus.

But I want to draw your attention to verse 413 when the rich man says, send ladders back to warn my five brothers.

So they don't come to this place.

Abraham says they're being warned the law of Moses, the law and the prophets, Moses and the prophets, they're warning these men, they have adequate warning.

And I want to take that principle and suggest that you and I have adequate warning in the word of God.

God hasn't left us on our own unaware of what kind of dangers exist ahead of us in our spiritual journey.

But instead in his word, he has put some warnings there.

He has given us information about dangers and even future events that could be difficult for us.

And so I'm going to talk about three warnings, three warnings.

And the first one is that we're going to have to give an account of ourselves to God.

Someone's probably thinking boy Alan's really digging into the depth of the scriptures.

Tonight, we're gonna be judged, you say, oh yes, oh yes.

In second Corinthians 510, Paul says for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each 1 may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil are you ready for the judgment day?

There's going to be a judgment day.

Appreciated the songs that David Weatherford uh chose to kind of set our minds along the path that I intended to take careless soul.

Why will you linger?

Are we unprepared for that judgment?

Because all of us will have to face judgment.

We have to give account of ourselves.

Everything that we've done in the body in Hebrews, the fourth chapter, the Hebrews author says in verse 12, for the word of God is living and active sharper than any two edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

God can go to the very innermost parts of man.

And so in verse 13, and no creature is hidden from his side, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him, to whom we must give account.

Not only are we going to have to give a count, but you can't hide anything.

I can't hide any part of my life and say, well, you know, I my brethren don't know And so God's, you know, like job was accused of thinking God's way up in the heavens and the clouds are kind of shielding me from him.

So he doesn't know anything about my life.

And Hebrews writer says, no, everything is open.

It's all naked before him.

That's sobering, isn't it?

I'm sure nobody here has anything in their life that is less than absolutely wonderful and noble, right?

Or is it the f uh the fact that usually all of us have some things in our lives that we're not proud of things that maybe we're ashamed of things that we, we know we shouldn't be doing if we're still doing them or shouldn't have done if they're in our past, all of that, all of that can come into judgment.

We won't be able to deceive or mock the judge.

You know, that that happens sometimes in our human judicial system in this country as good as it is in some ways.

Still, sometimes the guilty managed to play the system to work the authorities and get away with things that they should be punished for that won't happen in this judgment.

Paul said in Galatians six verse seven, do not be deceived.

God is not mocked whatever you sow.

That's what you're going to reap no foreign crops for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh, reap corruption.

But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life.

What are you sowing?

You can't sow according to the flesh and reap eternal life according to the spirit.

And yeah, you're well aware as I am also that so many people around us seem unconcerned about their future.

They go about their days, week after week, month, after month, year after year and they're just taking care of things here on earth.

They go to work, they come home, they uh party on the weekend, they go on vacations, they do all the things that they want to do and they don't seem to be concerned at all about what's going to happen.

At some point when they have to leave this world, many pe people believe in God uh and seem to think that he is some sort of grandfatherly type who will not judge us according to his work.

Yeah, I know what the scripture says.

Seems kind of harsh but, you know, in the long run, God is gracious and loving and he's gonna overlook my foibles.

He's gonna overlook this and that and something else in my life that I never corrected.

That's false.

God is a God of justice.

He is a God of love.

He's also a just and holy God.

He doesn't tolerate evil.

You know, belief in a coming judgment requires the acknowledgement of our immortal spirit.

Maybe that's why so many people ignore this warning of a coming judgment because they don't really believe that there's anything after this life.

What do you believe?

You believe with all your heart that at some point you're gonna transition from this physical world into a spiritual world.

Well, the second warning sin can keep us out of heaven.

Here's another, another deep thought.

I'm really mining the scriptures tonight.

But Paul said to the Galatians, I've warned you that the works of the flesh will keep you out of heaven.

You'll not inherit the kingdom of Heaven.

Uh This was part of the reading that Joel read for us earlier.

He says the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sanctity, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these.

I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Well, this isn't, uh this isn't rocket science here to figure out what's being said, sin can keep you out of heaven and it means that we'll spend eternity with the rich man in his torment.

He wasn't in hell yet, but that was his future.

Paul said to the Corinthians in first Corinthians six, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God?

And he talks about their former lives but that they had been washed and justified sanctified, but sin will keep us out of heaven with the third warning, have no guarantee of tomorrow.

You don't know what your life is James says it's like a vapor.

James four come now you who say today or tomorrow we'll go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit yet.

You do not know what tomorrow will bring.

And that statement is just as true today with reference to you and to me as it was when James pinned that in the first century, you don't know what tomorrow will bring.

How many times do we find ourselves maybe lying awake at night, you're preparing to go to sleep and you're thinking about the things you're gonna do tomorrow.

I'm a list maker.

And so I often will be either mentally or sometimes on a piece of paper making a list of the things I'm going to do tomorrow.

And the fact of the matter is I have no idea whether I'll be able to follow through on that list or not.

It might be that today is the last day of our lives.

It could be the last day of my life even if yours continues.

But if the Lord comes, there's no tomorrow.

Proverbs 27 1, I think maybe James had this passage in mind when he wrote that, he said, don't boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring.

James said, what is your life?

You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Instead, you ought to if the Lord wills, we'll live and do this or that as it is.

You boast in your arrogance.

All such boasting is evil.

I think he's talking about boasting in the sense of I'm planning what I'm going to do tomorrow as though I can control the future and you can't, neither can I, we have no guarantee of tomorrow.

That's the warning the rich farmer needed to understand that.

And he didn't.

Jesus told this parable.

He talks about a hypothetical farmer who had done well in his profession and his crops had gotten so that he wanted to build bigger barns.

Those were the plans and so on his list, build bigger barns.

And I will say to my soul verse 19.

So you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink, be merry.

But God said to him, fool this night, your soul is required of you and the things you've prepared.

Whose will they be?

You think you've got time and you don't tonight, your life is over.

And so it is with us.

I was coming back from that place where I was this last week, Tuscaloosa.

And I stopped in the little town of Oakman.

Uh I went into a Dollar General there.

I won't tell you what kind of bad things I bought to eat on the way.

But I went in there and as I was getting ready to pay for what I had, uh selected from the shelves there was a newspaper there of some sort.

And the front page had a headline that talked about the passing of a radio personality in that county.

I don't remember the man's name.

But what did stick with me was that he was 41.

I'm gathering from just what little I read.

Just the, the headline and, and the picture there, I'm gathering that he was well known and he may have had all kinds of plans.

Apparently he was the radio voice of the county in some respect or aspect.

But at 41 his life ended and I did the math as sometimes I suspect we all do.

And I think, well, let's see, I'm 65.

He's 41.

Those are the extra years that, that I enjoy that he won't see.

I don't know what his family was like.

I don't know if he was married.

I don't know if he had Children, don't know anything except the fact that he was 41 and I'm gonna guess he didn't expect to die at that age.

But the truth of the matter is the warning tonight is that we have no guarantee of tomorrow.

You don't know that you'll live another day.

And I know the expectation is that we'll grow older because it's older.

People who die.

Not always as the newspaper in Oakman suggested.

Well, let's see, we're going to be judged.

That was the first, we're gonna have to give a account.

Uh, of ourselves and that sin can keep us out of heaven and that you don't have any guarantee of tomorrow.

What I'm really unpacking the scriptures tonight. Right.

Digging deep, getting all kinds of good stuff, nuggets of truth.

Way down deep in the treasure box of the scriptures.

Well, let me remind you if you think that tonight's warnings are obvious and unnecessary.

Let me remind you about that scene.

There's the sign, these are bad for you.

Danger, this is gonna destroy your health and that sign is right over the product that people will go in and set down their money to buy because they're ignoring one of the most obvious warnings that you'll get in this life.

I know, you know, the things that I've said tonight, you know that we're going to be judged.

But are we living in light of that truth?

That warning, you know, that sin can keep you out of heaven.

Are you living with that truth in mind?

That warning in mind as Paul warned the Galatians, and I know you are aware of the fact that life is tenuous and it can end when we don't, when we least expect it.

But are you living your life with that fact?

That truth, that warning in mind, you know, I think we heed or ignore warnings in life.

I've got to give you some extra information here.

Sorry about that.

That this is what the signs are saying.

If you buy and use this product, it will eventually kill you.

And yet as obvious as that might be, people ignore the warnings.

And so I'm suggesting to you this evening that is obvious as some of these things are to us.

Christians will sometimes ignore those warnings and they live their lives like they're not gonna have to answer for things that they say and things that they do.

They live their lives as though God's gonna overlook their sins, they live their lives as if they are going to live forever.

When the warnings are very, very clear.

Very, very simple, very, very obvious.

We heed or ignore warnings in life depending on at least a couple of things.

One of them is whether we think there's any actual danger, you know, for a long time.

I don't know if people think this way anymore, but I know for a long time people would say, oh, yeah, I don't think tobacco really or nicotine really hurts you.

I think that's just, you know, a myth, people trying to get you to stop smoking.

Uh, I believe that ship has sailed.

I think we're pretty certain that we know that nicotine and tar, those are not things that you want to introduce into your lungs.

I'm pretty sure about that.

So there's danger there.

But I think sometimes people just dismiss warnings because I don't think there's really any danger.

That's part of the reason that I dismiss some of the emails that I get.

II, I think they're overestimating or, uh, exaggerating the danger.

But then sometimes I think it's just what, how much we trust the source of the warning.

You ever been warned by somebody that you thought probably didn't know anything about what they were talking about.

Do you ignore those warnings?

I do.

But it's God who gives the warnings that we talked about tonight?

It's his word that warns us about these truths.

I want to leave you with one more passage.

It's a familiar passage.

Psalm 19 verse seven, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean and during forever, the rules of the Lord are true and righteous.

Altogether more to be desired are than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover by them is your servant warned in keeping them.

There is great reward not only will God's word, protect you from danger, but it offers you a great reward if you will listen to the warnings that it sounds for our good.

How often do people brush aside legitimate warnings?

How often do people completely miscalculate where danger really lies before you leave this auditorium tonight?

I want you to answer this question.

It's on the screen.

Am I heeding the Lord's warning?

Am I heeding the Lord's warnings?

Am I ready for this judgment?

Is my life being spent in serving God?

Or is there sin in my life that will cause me not to inherit eternal life before you leave this auditorium this evening?

You need to answer the question.

Am I ready for the judgment?

Because tonight, I've given some warnings from scripture and those warnings will protect you.

They'll save you from eternal condemnation.

But you have to heed the warning.

You have to be prepared.

You have to listen and it may be that there's someone here this evening who needs to change their past, who's outside of Christ, who's guilty of sin, who's unprepared for that judgment and is taking a risk every day of life ending and being unprepared for that judgment.

We're gonna sing a song in just a few moments to invite anyone who might wish to obey the gospel.

But I want you to think about those questions.

Am I heeding the Lord's warnings?

Am I ready for the judgment?

Am I prepared?

Because you don't know if the sun will rise for you tomorrow morning you have tonight.

And so my encouragement to you is to make good use of the day of salvation.

The time, the opportunity that you have in order to be right with God to be ready for the judgment.

If we can assist you in any way this evening to obey the gospel or to be restored, to have the prayers of the congregation on your behalf.

And we want to encourage you, we stand and sing to do so.