Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
How many of you like to go swimming? I grew up on a lake, and most of my summers were spent playing on the beach, jumping off the raft, or sailing across our bay. But unlike our small lake, some places can be extremely dangerous to go and take a dip. At some beaches they will use signs and flags to warn the public about danger. Whenever I see a caution sign, I tend to pay attention. Sometimes when I walk into a grocery store, I will see a yellow caution sign warning people that somebody just mopped. When we drive down highways, I think that a lot of us have probably gotten pretty accustomed to seeing lots of construction signs guiding our path. But on certain beaches, hazardous areas will indicated by a red flag, while a green one means that it is generally a safe area to swim. But if you ever see a double red flag, it means that the beach is closed for whatever the reason. These are areas that you want to completely avoid swimming near, because at some of them, the surrounding waters have been known to produce strong riptides, which are extremely powerful forces that can kill you. They are extremely fast moving currents that move away from the shore, and can quickly pull a swimmer out into the sea. It can drag them out past the breaking water, and completely exhaust even the strongest of swimmers. It’s been claimed that they are responsible for approximately 100 deaths every year in the U.S. It’s also been said that some of these currents can flow as fast as 8 ft per second, which is faster than most seasoned swimmers can swim. The thing that is so dangerous about these tides is that they are very hard to see, and if you choose to reject the posted warnings, they can drown you without mercy.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
The teachings of scripture are filled with warnings, but a lot of people are not going to listen to them. Rather than keeping on the shoreline of biblical truth, they will jump into sin instead, being carried away by their own rebellion, and perishing in the riptide of sin.
“Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” Revelation 3:3
In order to become pleasing unto God, we must walk according to His will and purpose for our lives. That will only happen when you fear God enough to repent of your sins.
“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” Proverbs 16:6
“A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.” Proverbs 14:16
“The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.” Proverbs 14:27
Just as spring is the beginning of new growth, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10
Getting caught in a riptide can be terrifying, but nothing even close to what God will do to the impenitent.
Luke 12 ⁴ And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵ But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
“Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.” 2 Corinthians 5:11
John the Baptist was a man sent by God, who warned the people about God’s punishment for impenitence.
Matthew 3 ¹ In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, ² And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
³ For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁴ And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,⁶ And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: ⁹ And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. ¹⁰ And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
¹¹ I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: ¹² Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
There are warnings around us every day, from backup alarms, to ambulance lights to high voltage signs, but many people refuse to give them the proper attention and have been killed because of their own neglect and foolishness. Not paying attention to the will God is to neglect ones faith, and can result in eternal consequences.
Hebrews 2 ¹ Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. ² For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; ³ How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
Romans 2 ⁵ But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; ⁶ Who will render to every man according to his deeds: ⁷ To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: ⁸ But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, ⁹ Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; ¹⁰ But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: ¹¹ For there is no respect of persons with God.
Don’t forget that God destroyed the entire world in a flood during the days of Noah, but those who continue to live lives like that today, will encounter the wrath of God. If they mock God’s warnings and His calling to repentance, then like the rest of the wicked, they will be swept away in….
……..The Riptide
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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