Judgement Warnings Kingdom Opporunities

I wonder if I would put up here on the board a date. I wonder how many would recognize this date that I'm going to write up here on the board. January, see if I got this right here, January 21, 1525.

Raise your hand if you recognize that date. Some of you do, some of most of you don't. That would be what is considered the beginning of the Anabaptist movement when Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock in the house of Felix Mons, and it's almost 500 years ago, so we're coming up on that anniversary just here in a in another couple of weeks.

Let me write another date up here since we're talking about anniversaries, and this is going to be January, let's see if I can remember this, January 19, I believe, 15, I'm sorry, January 15, 1919. Does anybody recognize that date? Don't see any hands. Well that is the date of what is known as the Great Molasses Flood in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Great Molasses Flood in Boston, Massachusetts. What happened was 105 years, in next Wednesday, a week and a half from now, 105 years ago, at 1230 p.m. they had a tank of molasses there. Now this molasses was being used in the production of alcohol, and it was shaped kind of like this.

We had a 50-foot wall here, we had a 50-foot wall here, and this thing was 90 feet wide, and so here we have this 50-foot tall tank full of molasses, and it was about half full of molasses that had been there a while, cold, cooled down, but they brought in a shipment up through the Gulf of Mexico, and this new tank of molasses pretty much filled that, or this new shipment of molasses pretty much filled that tank up, and it was, so this was stuff having come through the Gulf, it was warmer molasses than what was already in there. Well this whole thing sped up the fermenting process in that tank, and there was an explosion. The witnesses said they felt the ground shake.

They heard a roar as this thing collapsed, and this thing exploded, and a wall of molasses, warm molasses, headed out across the city, 25 or more feet tall, and they said they figured it was going about 35 miles an hour, and it killed 21 people in this flood of molasses. It injured another 150 people. It swept buildings off their foundations.

It crushed freight cars. It picked up a truck and carried it over and dumped it into the Boston Harbor. It killed some horses, and the people that were killed, they were left so covered in this sticky goo that they could hardly be recognized, and I said it was warm liquid.

Well, it started out warm, but as it left that tank, see this was January, so it was cold outside, and it started to get thick, and so now it's even harder to work with, and it was the, yeah, so it was trapping people, it was trapping animals, and it made a great big mess, and not only that, now you have people that were there, and now they're walking out going to the subway, and they're leaving everything sticky in their wake. For a while, they could tell if you have somebody from Boston close, everything's sticky that they touch because of this molasses, and they could still smell this aroma for decades later, 10, 20, 30, 40 years later, they could still smell the faint aroma of molasses in that area of Boston. Now, maybe you say, well, why did this happen? Well, here's the deal.

There were warning signs that this tank was maybe going to do something that it wasn't supposed to do. First of all, it was built kind of in a rush. They were in a hurry.

This was around the time they were talking about prohibition and keeping alcohol, you know, getting rid of at least the drinking alcohol. Now, there was also commercial and industrial, maybe even military uses for this alcohol that they were making, but at least the drinking part, they were starting to do something about that, and so they wanted to hurry up and get this tank built, and once it was built, they started to fill it with, they first checked it with putting about a foot or two of water in it, and said, well, the water's not leaking. It must be fine for molasses, so they started filling it up with molasses.

Well, molasses is heavier than water, and as they got up, you know, halfway up, three-quarters of the way up, they started noticing that this thing was leaking, which, that wasn't too bad of news for the children in the area. They liked molasses. They'd sneak up to this tank, and they'd get their buckets, and they'd collect this stuff, and take it home, and eat it, or whatever, and they would collect this molasses, but it didn't look very good.

I think initially the tank was white, and they would see these brown streaks running down wherever it was leaking, and this was all before the thing exploded, of course, so the owners of that tank, they figured out a solution to this leaking problem. Those brown streaks, they said, why don't we just paint the thing brown, and they did. They painted it brown.

Now, I don't know if we have any engineers here, but how many would consider that a valid fix for a leaky tank? Just paint it brown, but that's what they did, and it didn't look so bad for a little while, but eventually, well, they had a maintenance man. His name was Isaac Gonzalez, and he was in charge of maintenance for that company. It was, the name of the company was US Industrial Alcohol, and I don't know if you heard those numbers, by the way, 50 feet tall, 90 feet wide.

If you do the math, we're learning geometry, and my daughter's in her math, consumer math, and if you figure that out, it comes to about 2.3 million gallons. That's how many gallons of alcohol was in there, but anyway, Isaac Gonzalez, he was in charge of the maintenance of this tank and the whole property, and he was concerned. He said, this isn't right.

This thing was not built right. He's concerned about all these leaks that it's springing. He's concerned, you know, on a warm day when you walk up beside the tank and you hear noises of the walls going back and forth like that.

He's just not sure this is a good thing at all. He's having visions of the thing collapsing, and you could probably say they're not just visions, they're nightmares, because he wakes up in the middle of the night, and he runs down there to the tank to check it out, and it's still there, so he'd go back to bed, but he's just really worried. So he goes to the owners of the company, and he says, I think this tank is in trouble.

I think you need to do something about it. Well, they said, no, it's fine, and they refused to admit that it had been built poorly, but you know, that January day, January 15, 1919, his predictions came true. That thing collapsed, and a lot of people were hurt or killed because of it.

So my question to you is this, this morning, if you would have lived in Boston in 1919, would you have listened to Isaac Gonzalez's warning? If you would have had children that like going and collecting the drips from that leaky tank, would you have kept them away, or would you let them go? If you would have had a house that was within, you know, spitting distance of that tank, would you have moved, or would you have stayed? If you would have been one of the owners of that company that received Isaac's warnings, would you have listened and said, let's do something about it, or would you have ignored the warnings like they did? We could ask another question about his warnings and his visions. We could say, where'd those visions come from? If he goes to the owners and says, I got a vision of this thing collapsing, what are they going to tell him? They say, did you receive an angel? Did he come and talk to you? Was this supernatural? And the answer would be, no, it wasn't some supernatural vision. It was just a common-sense look at the facts, the evidence that he could see.

That's what he was looking at. So if I were to tell you this morning that I am here with a vision of Judgment Day, and that this vision is a warning to us here at Halsey, Oregon, what would you say to me? Would you say, well, is this some sort of a supernatural vision? And if I were to tell you, well, no, I wasn't visited by an angel last night. I wasn't given a dream that was supernatural.

I just looked into this book, the Bible, and I see these warnings, and that's where this vision is coming from. How would you feel about that vision? Most of you know I've been invited to go to a men's discipleship week back in Pennsylvania, January 21 to 25, and the title of the messages that I'm going to be sharing is this, Scripture Warnings, Kingdom Opportunities. Scripture Warnings, Kingdom Opportunities.

And we're going to be talking about a number of warnings from the Bible, from Scripture, that also have a corresponding opportunity with them. And that's how so many warnings are. Jesus gives a warning, or the Apostle gives a warning, or maybe back in the Old Testament one of the prophets gives a warning, but then there's also an opportunity with it.

They pair up. They go together. And if we take the warning, then we're in a position to do something, to take advantage of the great opportunity that is all already there.

So what is this vision that I have of Judgment Day, and where did I get the information for this vision? Well, one of the pieces of information that I got was from Revelation, chapter 7. If you want to follow along, you can. In verse 9 and 10, it says this, After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. Can you imagine the beauty of that event in heaven, or at Judgment Day? The saved, those redeemed, all nations, all skin colors, you could say.

Not just all nations and all skin colors, could we even say all denominations, or maybe many denominations? I don't know how, you know, all that's going to be divided, but, you know, you see these various people, and we see, oh yeah, I recognize them, they look like, you know, whatever, Presbyterians, and those look like the Baptists over there, and those look like some church over in Africa that we don't know the name for, and so forth. But then we see a bunch of, maybe our people, the Anabaptist people. Remember, they're the ones that we started 500 years ago now? Well, 500 years later, there's quite a number of them worldwide.

I heard somewhere, maybe the biggest Anabaptist group of people is in Africa. I'm not sure, I didn't double-check that, but that's what I heard. So, interesting, but 500 years later, and now you might even be able to recognize them by, you know, their facial hair, or lack thereof.

Maybe by their style of head coverings, you can see, oh yeah, I recognize which group they're with, and what group that group is with, and so forth. And they're all in this great number, this multitude which no man could number. But then in this vision, I look the other direction, and I see, instead of on the right hand of God, over on the left is a group, and these are the group that are destined for hell.

These are the group that are lost, and they are not going to be in that multitude of saved. And, you know, there's a song that says, oh, what a weeping and wailing as the lost were told of their fate. Also, I see in that group, people from every nation.

You can list all the countries, and you see people from every one of those countries. You can list all the kinds of skin colors, and, you know, height, and, you know, eye shape, and all that, and you see people from every one of those in this group of lost people. And, lo and behold, you also see them from every denomination.

And also, many Anabaptists are people. Now, who are these Anabaptists? Are they, you know, what was it? Why did they leave? What was it? Why are they in that group of lost people? Well, you know what? Probably because of where they're at, you could probably say they're not a bunch of atheists over there. They're a bunch of people that believe in God.

We could say they're people that they weren't murderers, or rapists, or they were people on death row. They weren't the Hindus, and the Muslims, and other false religions of the world. That's not who they are.

They're not necessarily prodigals who left Anabaptism. They probably, if they're in this group of conservative Anabaptists, they probably never fell into the trap of divorce and remarriage that so many people are falling into. They probably never took up the sword and went to war and killed their fellow men.

They probably never took an oath. Jesus said, don't do it. They took him serious.

They probably were not deceived by the false teachings that's prevalent today about once saved, always saved. These are people who likely stayed conservative Anabaptists all their lives, and yet they still ended up on the left hand on their way to hell. Their names were not in the book of life.

Now, why is that? And as we look down through this list and talk about this, let's make something clear. It's a tragedy when any person ends up lost. Any person, anywhere.

I get calls on the billboards. I get people who call, and they say, you know, you have a billboard that says, where are you going, heaven or hell? And they call, and they want to know where they're going. They're just curious.

Hey, where am I going? Well, you know, explain to me about the book of life, and the need to have your name in the book of life. That's what we get quite often. Now, once in a while, though, we get another kind of call, and this one says, well, I know where I'm going.

I'm going to hell, and, you know, they list all their sins, and they're proud of their sins, and so they know they're going to hell, and they don't care. That happens sometimes. We don't get a lot of those calls, but we get a number.

You know, when those people who expect to go to hell because they're just enjoying their sin, when they actually do end up in hell, it's a tragedy. But, you know, it seems even a greater tragedy when someone grows up knowing the truth, and then leaves it. Some of our ladies went to the funeral of Jade Evans, who committed suicide here a month or two ago, a few months ago.

That's a huge tragedy. I would call it a greater tragedy. Now, maybe this is a human standpoint.

Maybe it is. Maybe God sees it all the same, but it seems like a greater tragedy. But, you know, I think the greatest tragedy of all is when someone arrives at judgment day expecting to get into heaven, and that's when they're turned away.

That's what they get there, and they're shocked to find themselves on the left. They're shocked that their names are not in the book of life. They expected them to be there.

They were planning all their lives. They lived all their lives in such a way that they expected, I'm gonna go to heaven, and then they get to judgment day and discover it isn't true. That's, to me, the greatest tragedy.

But the Bible tells us there will be many people just like that. Now, maybe you hear that vision and think, well, are you sure you didn't get something messed up there? Maybe, are you sure your vision is correct? Or maybe you say, well, if this is really how it is, is God unjust? Is he not fair in how he has set things up? Why do we even have eternal souls? There was a caller, maybe I shared this with before, his name was Brendan. He just shared this past, called this last month in December, December 10.

He'd grown up Catholic, but after he left Catholicism, he attended these different churches. Some were Calvinist, some were non-Calvinist. You know, some say you have a choice and some say you don't.

And he understands a lot of Christian doctrine from a lot of different places. But he asked the question, he says, you say I have to believe, but what if I can't believe? I've tried to believe, I've tried to be a Christian, but I just can't bring my mind, we're just, we're innocent about whether, if we can't believe, there's nothing we can do, right? And he was trying to get some justification for his lack of belief. He says, and as I talked to him more and tried to explain the ways of God, as I understood them, I said, hey, Brendan, listen, we don't know everything about God.

We have to deal with what we do know about God, what He's revealed to us. But as it came, as we kept talking, it became clear that he was not only a non-believer in God, he was actually angry at God. He was angry at God because of the way God had set things up and that there were eternal souls.

And so I started to listen. I said, well, Brendan, let me ask you a question. What if, you know, your dog, what if you could just trade places with your dog? The dog's going to die, he's going to go to the ground, he's done, it's over.

If you could trade places with your dog, you're now a very privileged human that's going to live forever somewhere. But if you could trade places with your dog, would you do it? Yes, I said, I would do that in a heartbeat. He would love to be a dog because he could die and it'd all be over and he wouldn't have to think about eternity.

But obviously he's not a dog. He was angry that God has even made it possible for someone to end up in hell. He was angry that God has chosen to create a universe in which there are eternal souls in danger of eternal damnation.

And, but the fact is God has chosen exactly that way. And Jesus confirmed this over and over again. He talked about Judas in Matthew 26.

He says, Judas is going to, or somebody's going to betray me. He was talking about Judas. And he said, the guy who betrays me, it would be better for him if he hadn't been born.

Now here's Jesus, the creator of the universe, the son of God sitting there saying that this would be better than this. And you say, well, Jesus, you could have made it. So he wasn't born.

Couldn't you have, you could have, I mean, if, if, if it's better that Judas is not born, then why don't you just flip a switch and he wasn't born. He could have got aborted. He could have died at infancy.

He could have, or just, yeah, never been conceived, whatever. But he said, no, it would be better for him that he wasn't born, but he was born. And Jesus had, God had allowed it to do that.

And even then here's the interesting thing about Judas. He heard that warning. Wow.

It would be better for me if I'd never been born. And he, yet in spite of that warning, he kept going down that same path. Jesus told stories of the torments of the rich man in hell.

In Luke 16, he talked about in Matthew 25, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. A few verses later, he said there, these shall go away into everlasting punishment. In Revelation 20 verse 10, it tells us that we'll be, there is a place where there is torment day and night forever and ever.

And in Mark chapter nine, Jesus warned that that place is so bad that you'd be better off cutting off your hand, gouging out your eye, cutting off your foot rather than end up in that place. Now in all of every one of these, you think, well, God could have just taken away the possibility. He could have just said there isn't such a place or we aren't eternal souls.

And so as I look at that, I think, well, maybe Brendan is right. He's right that God could have prevented the situation we're in right now, but he didn't. He allowed it to continue.

In fact, he had multiple opportunities. And first of all, he didn't have to create the world at all. He didn't have to create humans on the world.

After he did create humans, you had Adam and Eve and you had Cain and Abel, and then a war broke out and 25% of the population was killed when Cain killed Abel. Now, if he would have just continued and said, okay, I killed Abel. Now let me just go into the tent.

I'll kill Adam and Eve, and then I'll kill myself. And you got four people dead and none are alive. And from then on, nobody ever goes to hell again.

That's what could have happened, but it didn't happen that way. People survived all the way up until Noah, and then there's a Noah's flood. And God almost eliminated this risk of hell again when he killed everybody except eight people.

But eight people survived. Why didn't God just finish the job and wipe out everybody instead of leaving eight people alive? But he didn't. He allowed eight people to survive, and now we have eight billion people in the world, and we all have to make this choice.

Where are we going to end up? Then he had another opportunity. Jesus, he was standing there on judgment, the very son of God. And Jesus says, you know, I could call 10,000 angels right now.

And the songwriter adds a little bit to that. He says, he could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set Jesus free, which I guess would have been what would have had to done. If Jesus would not have died, there'd be no hope anyway.

Might as well destroy the world. And all this risk of eternal damnation would be over. But it didn't.

Jesus went forward. He faced the cross. He was killed, but he rose again.

So maybe the world could have ended, let's say, a different time than right now. I don't know when the world's going to end. Maybe this year.

I don't know. But why'd God wait so long? Why didn't he end the world back in the 1950s before we had all this internet and smartphones and all these temptations that we have now? Couldn't God have done that? But once again, the world didn't end back then either. So once again, does it seem like maybe Brendan's right about God setting things up for tragedy, for disaster, for failure? Is it all bad news like Brendan believed? Well, that's where I'm here to say, no, there is good news.

Is there a lot of bad news? Oh, yes. But there's a lot of good news. First of all, God in his love, he's given us these warnings.

These warnings are for our benefit. They are good things. They're not bad things.

Warnings give us an opportunity that we wouldn't have if we didn't have the warnings. And not only that, he has given us his son Jesus. We've already sung about him.

We need the every hour. We need God. He's given us the warnings.

If we accept them, they're part of the gospel. If we heed the warnings, he's opened a wonderful kingdom building opportunities. There's a kingdom.

There's not only an eternal place called hell, there's an eternal place called heaven. There is a heavenly kingdom that's going to last forever, a glorious kingdom. And we want to look at some of those warnings coupled with the opportunities.

And that's what we're going to be looking at back there in Pennsylvania when I'm there as we go through the week. We're going to look at a few of them here this morning. And so we're going to, here's what we want to do is heed the warning and seize the opportunity.

Heed the warning, seize the opportunity. Let's say that together. Heed the warning, seize the opportunity.

One more time. Heed the warning, seize the opportunity. So we're going to look at some of these warnings that Jesus has given, and then we're going to compare them to the opportunities.

And I hope I can leave you with a clear choice about which path you're going to choose, because we do have a choice. First warning is in John chapter 3 verse 3, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. To not be born again, to not get right with God is a huge, huge warning according to what Jesus said.

Now there are parallel passages. Let me just share a few more things that Jesus said under this heading of not born again. So not born again, unless a man is born again.

But here's another one. Mark 16, 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Luke 13, 3. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Matthew 18, 3. Except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Luke 14, 33.

Unless a person gives up everything he has, he cannot be my disciple. John 8, 24. If you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

Again, very clear warning. But what's the opportunity then? Well, the opportunity is that we today can surrender our lives to Jesus Christ. It's a privilege.

He's offering. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance. 1 Peter 1, 23.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. That's an opportunity. John 12, 24.

Except a corn of wheat fall on the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. So God's made every provision necessary for salvation of souls.

So what I would love to encourage each one here to do this morning is do what it says in 2 Corinthians 13, 5. Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Test yourselves. There's a book title that someone wrote examining the whole issue of faith and works and how are we saved.

And they titled this book a title that I like. I don't remember. I don't think I read the book fully through, maybe not even very much.

But I did read the title and I like the title. It's called this, Salvation by Allegiance Alone. Salvation by Allegiance Alone.

I don't know how many of you grew up pledging allegiance to the flag in school as you grew up. Some of you probably did. What does that mean to pledge allegiance to the flag? You're giving it, you're surrendering in a sense.

You're giving, you're yielding your rights to the authority of another. And that's what Jesus has called us to do. So when you see the word faith in the Bible, it's more than just a head knowledge.

I believe something. I believe that 2 plus 2 is 4. Oh, that's great. But this is more than that.

It's pledging your allegiance to Jesus. So ask yourself the question, have I pledged my allegiance to Jesus Christ? All right. That's an important question.

But there's another question. And that is not what happened in the past, it's what's happening today. What's happening currently in your life.

Examine yourself. Ask this question, am I continuing to walk in that allegiance? So look at the fruit of your life. Examine the fruit.

Ask yourself, what kind of fruit am I bearing in three areas? Number one, sin. What's my attitude towards sin? See, a person who's truly born again has a different attitude about sin than someone who's not. Jesus said in 1 John 3, 3, 3, sorry, 1 John 3 verse 3, John says, and every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. He was concerned that sin would somehow get a hold of him even after he had preached with others. So what's your attitude about sin? Are you purifying yourself? Am I truly born again? Number two, what about our time? If you want to know who a man really is, look at what he does when he has time to do whatever he wants to do.

He's not committed to go to work today. He doesn't have a looming appointment at the doctor. It's not time to get up and get dressed and go to church.

He's got a day off. What does he do when he has that day off? Do I love to spend time alone with God? Do I fill every waking moment with entertainment? Is that what I look to do when I have time off? Some of these things are not wrong in themselves. Sometimes it's good to have some time to spend with the family and build relationships and all that, but does it all have to be that way? Or do I sometimes long for a day off? Hey, I wanted to memorize this chapter of the Bible, and that's why I enjoy having some time off.

Think about that. Here's another one. So sin, being born again, will change your attitude about sin.

It'll change your attitude about your time, and like we already heard this morning, it'll change your attitude about your money. If you really want to know who a man is, we said look at the time and how he spends it. Well, look at how he uses his money.

Now, not just any money. We're talking about the money he has the freedom to do that with. Most of the time we have other obligations, but what if I have more than I need? Do I love to give to needy people, or is it just from obligation? God loves a cheerful giver.

He's placed us in a country with probably the highest earning power in history ever. I'm sure it's the highest earning power, at least on a broad scale, of any country that's in existence today, but I think it's probably also the highest earning power that's ever existed, and so what are we doing with that opportunity? So again, the warning is this position, this condition of not being born again. The opportunity though is get born again, and examine yourself whether you're born again, and am I walking out the fruit of the new birth? So heed the warning.

Seize the opportunity. Let's say that again together. Heed the warning.

Seize the opportunity. Warning number two. Luke 12 says beware of hypocrisy.

Why should we beware of hypocrisy? That's the warning. Warning number two. Because, Luke says, Jesus said in Luke, I should say, there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known.

We're talking today about hidden sin. Sin that nobody else knows about. We live in danger of sin coming in, no matter where we are in a Christian life.

Paul himself, we could say, hey, the most spiritual Christian that we ever read about, but he himself said he's concerned about sin coming in and taking over his life. I remember when I was, I don't know, seemed like in our young married years, I was receiving this magazine called Voice of the Martyrs, and you know, there's some pretty hair-raising stories in there about how the enemy was pursuing any Christians anywhere, but especially the ones that were active in sharing their faith. Well, this group called Voice of the Martyrs was obviously involved in that.

Well, then the president of Voice of the Martyrs, now this, his name was Tom White, he was, he had been a missionary down in Cuba, and while he was down there in Cuba, he was, one of his missions was flying over Cuba with an airplane and dropping Bibles out. Well, his plane had trouble, he had to land, he was put in prison. He spent years in prison, if I remember right, months anyway, but I think it was years that he spent in prison suffering.

Well, he got out of prison eventually by the advocacy of different people. He went to work for Voice of the Martyrs. He had quite a history of, you know, serving the Lord, quite a reputation.

It would be easy to see why the devil would have a target on his back. And so, when suddenly reports came that he was dead, the first thing that went through my mind is somebody assassinated him. But then, as the investigation carried on, it wasn't that way at all.

He had committed suicide, and the reason he committed suicide was he had been involved in some sexual sin, and he was, he basically gave up hope when that started to come to light. And so, he ended up killing himself. Hidden sin.

And so, this person that I had held up as a godly man, another one, Ravi Zacharias. I used to listen to him. I'd love to listen to him.

You know, very intellectual man, quite a story. He also, he was on the bed of suicide over in India when somebody came and brought him a New Testament, said, here, you should read this. He had tried to commit suicide, he was in the hospital, and that's when he received the New Testament, gave his heart to the Lord, and he became a worldwide evangelist, preaching the gospel everywhere.

But he also died relatively young, and after he died, these things started to come to light. The sin that he had been involved in. And the sad thing about both these men was they didn't confess it.

They didn't repent of it. They didn't bring it to light when they had the opportunity. They weren't, they didn't keep that clear conscience.

We had, some of you were here when we preached a sermon here called the Eclipse of Sinful Pleasures a few weeks ago. You know, talking about the the earth and the moon and the Sun, and how putting the Sun up between the earth and the Sun will actually block out the Sun. Now, the Sun is so much bigger.

I think we put up here on the board a little ball called the earth, and it was four inches in diameter. And then we put the moon up there, and it was two inches in diameter. And then we put the Sun up there.

Well, we couldn't put it up there because it's going to be 36 feet tall. And so it just barely touches this, and it goes way up there into the sky. That's how big the Sun is compared to the earth being four and the moon two inches in diameter.

And, but somehow that moon can block out the Sun. That's, why is that possible? Here's the reason. It's because the Sun is so much further, the much closer, that it actually can blot it out completely.

And that's how it is with sinful pleasures. I wanted our young people, and I still want you, to know some truth about sin. There is pleasure in sin, and you need to know that there is pleasure in sin.

I'd rather yet let you hear it from me that there's pleasure in sin, rather than find it out on your own or have the neighbor boy tell you that there's pleasure in sin. There is pleasure in sin, and the pleasures can be pretty great, but there are also consequences to sin. And the consequences are much, much greater than the pleasures.

Just like this, the Sun up here, you know, we can draw it up there, is so much greater than the moon. And yet, because the moon is closer, they look about the same size. I did some calculations to figure, hey, you could even take a penny and cause your own eclipse.

You hold it out there about seven feet, you know, you pass that in front of the moon or the Sun, either one, it'll blot it out. You can call it with one penny, but it's only seven feet away. The moon and the Sun, they're, you know, hundreds, well, let's see, I think it's hundreds of thousands for the moon, and then millions of miles, 93 million miles.

It's a ratio about 400. 400 to 1. So the Sun is 400 times further away, but it's also 400 times larger than the moon. And so, when people are tempted with sin, the reason they look about the same, or the pleasures look almost as great as the consequences, is because the pleasures are so much closer.

But the consequences, in reality, are far, far greater. Maybe you say, well, I'm in sin right now, but I don't know if I want to confess yet. Listen, there's another reality.

You can wait to confess, but the consequences for waiting are also much, much greater than the consequences for going ahead and confessing now. So, if you have sin in your life, confess it. Repent.

So, the warning number two is beware of hypocrisy, but there's a corresponding opportunity. And this opportunity is humility, honesty, and then holiness. Humility, honesty, and holiness.

Choose that instead of choosing to live in hypocrisy. James 5.16, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

And listen to the blessings in Psalm 1 of someone who has chosen this route of humility, honesty, and holiness. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. In his law does he meditate day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.

His leaf also shall not wither, and listen to this, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. So, once again, we want to heed the warning and seize the opportunity. Let's say that together.

Heed the warning, seize the opportunity. And I'm gonna share just one more warning here, and we're not gonna get through this, but I just want to mention it. I'm not gonna get through it this morning, I should say, but this is the issue of witchcraft, and this is a burden I have for conservative Anabaptists, even, you know, those in this local area, people that live around here.

You know, I think it's important when we have various churches to acknowledge our similarities, acknowledge our unity and our oneness, but we also should acknowledge differences, and sometimes this has been a difference in the past. I hope it's a difference that's going away, but sometimes these things of witchcraft are tolerated in ways they shouldn't be, and again, it's probably in other churches as well, but I know it has been some in Anabaptist circles, even conservative Anabaptists. Usually it comes out in two areas.

One is divination, the other is health care. Some of the examples would be things like water witching, homeopathy, aromatherapy, yoga, applied kinesiology. Now, if you know what that word is, kinesiology is muscle working somehow, this is not that, it's applied kinesiology, basically using somebody's muscles to divine, basically find out hidden information.

Let me just read the warnings, Acts, or I'm sorry, Revelation 21 8 says, sorcerers will have their part in the lake of fire. In Acts 19, it tells about how the Ephesians came and they confessed their needs, they showed what they had, they had all these pieces of these articles of witchcraft that they repented from, and there's a great revival. Galatians 5 says, the works of the flesh are witchcraft, and they that do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

So there's a warning about witchcraft, but there's also an opportunity. You see, the reason people practice witchcraft is they sense their own weakness, maybe it's a problem in their health, maybe it's a problem in, maybe they want to put, if you're living in Africa, you want to put a curse on some enemy tribe, and so they say, well, we don't have enough power ourselves, we don't have the tanks and guns and manpower to go attack that enemy tribe, so we'll place curses on them, and they'll tap into this power. Well, we say we don't do that here, but that's what it is, that's what witchcraft is, it's tapping into a power that's greater than what you have naturally.

Well, the good news is, we as Christians have that. We can tap into a power that's greater than ourselves, it's greater than anything nature can provide us. It's prayer, it's fasting, anointing with oil in the health arena, it's the blood of Jesus Christ, these things are powerful.

Let's say that again, heed the warning, seize the opportunity, all together, heed the warning, seize the opportunity. I just want to read or share a story in closing, there's this, this comes from the book Bruchko, it was a man named Bruce Olson, went down to South America somewhere, I believe it was, and there was this witchcraft practicing group of people that were, that were, you know, basically, he was trying to evangelize them with the gospel and share the gospel with them. Well, finally, one young man came to the Lord, and he was the first one, nobody else was a Christian, and he was, his name was Bobby, and they called, they called Bruce, they called him Bruchko.

Well, this Bobby was the first convert, and he was talking about these evil spirits, they called him the, the tiger would send these evil spirits, and it would attack these people, and it happened like, you know, regularly, and they knew when it was coming, and so these villagers would all get together, and they'd start chanting, and they'd worship the devil, and they'd, they'd try to, you know, they'd try to keep, keep these things from happening. So Bruchko, or Bobby asked Bruce, he said, well, can Jesus be taken away from me? And he says, well, Bobby, what are you, why are you asking this? What, what's going on? What's it mean when the tiger speaks? He says, well, the, the spirits, they come out of the rocks, they try to kill us. Sometimes only one person dies on such a night, but sometimes many people die.

One time, just not long ago, seven people died when these spirits came. He says, well, what kills them? He says, the spirits kill them. And he says, they, they, they die in their hammocks, because evil spirits tear their language away from them.

He says, Bobby, does someone always die? He says, always. The air seemed thick. What does this mean? Why did I feel so much pressure? Can Jesus be taken out of my mouth? Bobby asked again, looking into the jungle.

I didn't know how to answer him. I'd never dealt with demonic powers. I felt frightened, too.

This is what the missionary is saying. Can the devil tell me, kill me, now that I walk with Jesus? Bruchko, what am I to do? I don't know, Bobby. You'll have to talk to Jesus yourself.

He's the only one who has the answer with your question. He'll speak to you in your heart. He hesitated, then walked into the jungle.

I immediately felt regret. Why hadn't I given him some advice? What kind of spiritual father was I? But I didn't have any advice to give. I went for a long walk in the jungle.

I was not only frightened, but I was also confused. Tigers can't talk. I told God, what's happening here? When I got back home, it was nearly dark.

As soon as I entered the clearing, I heard strange high wailings and incantations. The house was swaying back and forth as if possessed by the devil himself. The incantations were jumbled.

They went up and down, gathering force and then dropping. The air seemed electric. I was almost afraid to enter.

Inside, the fires cast an eerie red glow. I saw the house indeed was swaying. All the men up in their hammocks were swinging and chanting to ward off the devil.

The women were on the floor, clapping large rocks together. Their eyes also were closed. Where was Bobby? Was he in this place? Suddenly, I was afraid for him.

He was the only multilone who had begun to walk with Jesus. Had he given in to this fear and superstition? Then I saw his hammock. He was in it, swinging.

I almost turned back to the jungle, but something restrained me. He was my brother. I grabbed one of the tent poles that supported the house, and I began to shimmy up toward his hammock, which was almost 20 feet in the air.

The bamboo bent under my weight, and I wondered if it would hold me, but his welfare was the most important thing in the world to me right then. Hand over hand, I pulled myself up. When I got high enough, I looked into Bobby's hammock.

His eyes were open. He had a big smile on his face. The song he was singing was different.

Jesus is in my mouth. I have a new speech. Jesus is in my mouth.

No one can take him from me. I speak Jesus' words. I walk in Jesus' steps.

I am Jesus, boy. He has filled my stomach. I'm no longer hungry.

As I clung to the palm tree pole, Bobby looked straight at me. He was safe. He knew Jesus.

He was doing the thing I should have done. I should have had the vision to suggest. He was keeping the evil spirits away by singing a song of Jesus.

I joined him in the song. All that night, we sang. When dawn came, no one had died.

It was the first time in anybody's memory that the spirits had walked, and no one had died. We have another warfare tool. We can sing.

So use the opportunities that God has given you. Fight back with the real weapons of our warfare, and don't give in to the weapons that the devil wants to offer you. God bless you all.

Maybe we should pray. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus, and we thank you, Lord, for the warnings you've given us in scriptures, and the wonderful opportunities to build your kingdom.

We pray that each one of us would take these warnings seriously. Lord, we don't want to be like Judas, who heard one of the most terrible warnings, and yet didn't give in to it. He kept going the path he was going.

I pray, Lord, that you would just help us not only to take the warnings, but also to seize the opportunities. We can be your children. We can be members of your kingdom.

We can be living with you eternally, if we take the path that you've offered to us. And so I pray, Lord, that you would work in a mighty way. In Jesus' name, amen.

Are you going to be preaching that as one of your sermons? Is that your first sermon? Well, thank you for sharing it here. It was a blessing. I was convicted, and have been convicted for some time, about that second one you talked about.

The first warning was born again, and the second subheading, time, I was thinking about somebody mentioned, I don't remember where, but they said that the violent take the kingdom of God by force, and how easy is it for us to just be apathetic with our time? How easy it is to just, when that time comes, just not be motivated, like he said, to study, to memorize, to seek God's kingdom. Also, I was thinking as he was preaching about the sermon that I think Becky and Abe shared around about choices, and each one of us have a choice to heed these warnings. We have it within our willpower to go home today and take the things we heard and make a choice.

God has given us free will, and we can choose these to heed the warnings and seize the opportunities, or we can choose just to let them go by. And like that molasses flood, I never heard about that, but are we going to, are we gonna heed the warnings about the things Jesus taught? I'll open it up shortly, or now, I'll open it up now for a little bit. If anybody has something to share.

And Austin, if you could be having a song for us. Could you all hear in the back? No. He was just saying that he appreciated what Roger said about not procrastinating.

When we hear God's voice, don't put it off. Yeah, don't put off the warnings. Heed them, like they did with that wall, with the molasses.

They just put it off, but heed the warnings that God speaks in our heart. Anyone else? Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's good.

It's a creative way to see it, and it's true. Those things are true. Jesus always has, He has the good news.

He has us in our best interest in mind when He warns us. Anyone else? Mm-hmm. We feel condemned by that, but what I think Roger was sharing is, it is a window into who you are with God, and what you do in those moments.

Okay? So let's choose to do something different. Don't just be victim to it, but choose. Pray, reach out for help, do whatever.

But you're not locked in forever. God promises the great. And so you're saying, if I see, I'm gonna be alone here in the next couple, this evening, I need to be proactive.

You're saying, start building habits to choose something other than do, to put myself, like, kind of like that prophet talks about, he doesn't walk down the street of the harlot. He chooses to go down a different way. Make a choice for your path.

Okay, thank you. Anyone else? Mm-hmm. And I read the article, it said, there was a fire on the bridge way back when, and they never fixed it.

It's the definition of insanity, stupidity. Why would you keep running these trains across these truckloads if you never fixed the problem? You have to fix the problem. The engine got a knock, you've got to fix the problem.

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

You know, the tanks go far. Train trucks go that far. So yeah, it's just, it's sad to see when people take the cheap way out, the way to make money or the lazy way.

And like you said, same in our spiritual life. Do we take the epithetical, the lazy way out and not deal with things like we should? The warnings. Thank you.

Anyone else? All right. Well, thank you, brother. And may God bless you.

Is that in two weeks? It's actually, yeah, the 21st. Dennis texted and said, hey, did you know it's going to be on that anniversary date? That's the first day. There's three more days after that.

I think I saw on Halsey's schedule, they're having some kind of, Halsey Mennonite, they're having some kind of, on their calendar, some kind of celebration for that. So may the Lord bless you as you continue preparing and deliver that. May his power be on you.

Well, why don't we stand and Austin, if you could lead us in song and brother Neil, could you close us in a word of prayer afterwards? Thank you. We will not be defeated. We've got the power in the name of the Lord.

For many years now, Satan's tried to stop us, but the church of Jesus is still alive. Like a mighty army, we're marching onward, winning every battle with the Lord by our side. We've got the power in the name of Jesus.

We've got the power in the name of the Lord. Though Satan rages, we will not be defeated. We've got the power in the name of the Lord.