Thursday, February 2, 2017
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It happened over a hundred years ago, but we still seem to be fascinated with it-the Titanic. I mean, the Titanic has sailed into the Internet! You can find all kinds of information about the sinking of that "unsinkable" ship back in 1912. And then, there was the Academy Award-winning movie, endless TV shows, articles, and there was even a Broadway musical about it. It seems like fascination with the Titanic just never goes away.
A lot of this information has been known for decades, but now there's a tremendous appetite for that information. Like the tragic mistake that fatal night by the radioman on the Titanic. The ship had received a number of warnings about ice ahead and had adjusted her course southward as a result. But two hours before the Titanic hit the iceberg, the radioman received a warning from another ship about a major iceberg, along with longitude and latitude coordinates. They put that iceberg right in Titanic's path. It's the one that sank the ship. But the radioman didn't know it was in their path. He was busy that night, so he stuck that message on a spindle to be dealt with later. That one choice doomed him and 1500 other passengers who died that night.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Titanic Mistake."
That just makes the tragedy even more tragic, doesn't it? The warning of what was coming was sent, it was received, but a man decided he'd deal with it later. And later was too late. When the warning is life-or-death, you don't wait to deal with it, especially if the warning is from God, especially if the warning is about what's ahead for you. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 2:3. "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" Ignoring God's warning-fatal results.
What's the warning about our future? Here are God's words, "Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's only Son." (John 3:18) Like the Titanic on her last night, steaming headlong for a deadly rendezvous. Again, God in His own words, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)
God says there are people who are forever safe and people who are headed for eternal destruction. The difference is what they do with His Son, Jesus. You can do a lot of things with Jesus: you can reject Him, or ignore Him, or postpone Him, or you can even agree with Him. But all of those responses lead to the same place-eternity without God in a place the Bible calls hell. You might say, "You mean agreeing with Jesus, isn't that enough?" Well, you see, I haven't been married to my wife based on my agreeing with her views. I was married to my wife for one reason-there was a time I committed my life to her.
That's what you have to do with Jesus. Has there been a time when you did that? If not, you're still ignoring God's warning about eternity. He says we can't possibly escape if we neglect this great salvation. He calls it salvation because it's a rescue from a death sentence. Jesus dying on that awful cross-that was God's Son paying the death penalty for the sinning you've done. And your only hope is to put your total trust in Him-the only One who can rescue you from sin and its penalty.
So you have the warning. Maybe you've been saying, like a radioman on the Titanic that night, I'll deal with it later. Don't do that. When a warning is life-or-death, the only time to deal with it is now while there's time.
If there has never been a time when you have committed yourself to Jesus to be your Savior, let this be your day. Tell Him right now you're putting your trust in Him and what He did on the cross for you. "Jesus, I'm all yours."
I hope you'll go to our website as soon as you can, because there I know you will find the information you need to secure and be sure you belong to this Jesus. It's ANewStory.com.
Without Jesus, you are steaming full speed into an eternity without hope. Deal with God's warning now. And you'll be on the course for a guaranteed arrival in heaven when your journey's done.