Four Warnings from God

The Bible is full of warnings to the wicked. The Apostle Paul knew what his responsibility as a preacher was. In Acts chapter 20 and verse 31 we read, I ceased not to warn every one of you night and day with tears.

Most preachers today would rather entertain you rather than warn you because they don't want to offend anyone. But Paul knew his duty of having a ministry, of being a watchman, because the watchman must warn them and reprove them. We see from Isaiah, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, show my people their transgression and the house of Israel their sin.

Why, it's the duty, friends, of the preacher to warn his hearers against dying in their sins and being cast into an everlasting burning region of misery called hell. We preachers are to warn church folk to turn from sin so as not to provoke God and bring sorrow down upon themselves. We are to warn the unconverted church member who sits upon a false foundation that will soon give way and make him aware of his danger of damnation.

There is a verse of scripture that speaks volumes to us today as it's a fitting example of the time in which we live. This verse is found in the book of Proverbs. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in Proverbs verse 29 and 1. Let me read us four warnings from this text, from God's word. The true God called preacher will set the terrors of God before his hearers and inform them of God's holy, strict, and severe law that cannot be broken without being sent to hell unless you're standing in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ, as your substitute for sin. Because the sentencing of the law must be carried out upon all guilty sinners who have broken that law, we preachers must take a poor sinner by the hand and lead him to the law of Mount Sinai and let the terrors of God's law ring in their ears until they tremble before that smoking mount of terrible majesty and divine justice.

We must shut men up to God and warn them of their duty of repentance and great danger of damnation. With those thoughts in mind, friend, I want to bring before you a verse of scripture that is a warning to this godless and ignorant generation today. Turn in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs.

We will be in Proverbs 29 and 1. And let me read these terrible four warnings from God's word to us now. And may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word. He, that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without warning, that without remedy.

You're getting the warning now. It's that without remedy. You may be young and feel you have all your life ahead of you, and you may be in perfect health and feel you live to a ripe old age, but that is presumption on your part, friend, because you've got no guarantee of tomorrow.

It would make the hair stand on your head to know the times I've preached messages in the past of solemn warnings to my hearers, and I made the following comment. I'd say, there may be some of you right now within the sound of my voice, that before this year ends, you will be suddenly and quite unexpectedly thrust into eternity. And sure enough, people have died under that message before the year was out.

We live in a land of sudden death, why, you could go into another world quite unexpectedly. My Bible says, for man also knoweth not his time, as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of man snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. My Texas Evening, friends, from Proverbs, speaks of sudden death, and it speaks of four solemn warnings.

He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. I want you to see, friends, the emphasis of certain words in this text, and their attending warnings, layer upon layer, warning number one, often reproved. Do you know what a reproof is? Why, when someone puts a reproof, when you're turning the dial on the radio, and you hear a sermon, that is a reproof.

When a preacher gives a earnest gospel invitation, and you don't respond, that is a reproof. Every time you rise, fall on Bible verses that have a required duty on your part, and you fail to do it, that is a reproof. Often reproved, our text says, you are warned often, and you fail to respond to God's warning.

This leads to the very next thing in our text, warning number two, hardeneth his neck. For when you ignore the often reproofs of a holy God, you will surely harden your neck against God, just like Pharaoh hardened his neck against the miracles and reproofs in the hand of God's servant Moses. And Pharaoh got in his chariot one day, with murder in his heart, toward the people of God, and he was suddenly destroyed by the drowning waters that rushed in on his head.

Warning number three, shall suddenly be destroyed. I'll never forget, friends, a true story I discovered while I was writing the biography of the evangelist, Ralph Barnard. It made the hair stand on my neck.

Ralph Barnard was holding meetings in the South in a Baptist church, and some of the deacons of that church took a stand against God, and against those meetings, seven deacons began to mock and make fun of the meetings, and they began to turn the whole community against the meetings, and Ralph Barnard and the pastor of that church were just so grieved in their heart, they got together one afternoon, and they prayed that either God would save those seven deacons or kill them, and the deacons of that church who were bucking that meeting found out about that prayer, and why they just had a time laughing and laughing about it all, and they continued their opposition to that evangelistic meeting, and in a week's time, the pastor of that church had to conduct seven funerals for those deacons. They each died sudden and unexpected deaths, one right after another. He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Warning number four, without remedy. Well, what remedy is our text speaking of here? The remedy for sin in the person of Jesus Christ. Those seven deacons died quite suddenly, and died in their sins without remedy for them.

If you want to stay out of hell, friend, then you better repent, and get under the blood, and believe on Christ, and be born from above. These four solemn warnings from a holy God stand as sure today as when they were written by old King Solomon. Have you been reproved? Have you hardened your neck against a willing God? If you have, you're in grave danger of damnation, and suddenly being destroyed, and that without remedy.

Let us pray.