To One Not Savingly Joined to Christ

The point: Be so disturbed by the warnings that you seek salvation before the end of the year.

An analogy of a driver seeing a 'Danger! Sharp curve!' sign at night, slowing down, and being saved, illustrates how a well-placed and heeded warning can save lives, contrasting it with the tragedy of unheeded warnings.

What are my words of warning? Oh, how often a well-placed warning, a well-timed warning, has saved life and limb. You're barreling down the highway at 60 miles an hour and then a sign comes into view of your headlights. You're driving at night.

14:11 - 14:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Be so disturbed by the warnings that you seek salvation before the end of the year.

The example of warnings against drinking and driving during the holidays, often unheeded and leading to tragic deaths, highlights the greater tragedy of unheeded spiritual warnings.

Time! And it saved your life. But oh, how sad it is that unheated warnings have wrecked as many lives and limbs as heated warnings have saved them. Over the radios this past week, the warning has gone out from disc jockeys and announcers and from newscasters.

14:48 - 15:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first warning is that 1965, if it leaves one unsaved, has added great weight to God's inevitable judgment, as God's goodness and long-suffering, intended to lead to…

Contrasting the dread of war in Vietnam, fear in troubled spots, and starvation in India with the comfort and safety of the congregation, illustrates the 'riches of God's goodness' showered upon the undeserving.

Hundreds and thousands will await tomorrow morning to the fear and the dread of the bonds and the shelling and the killing in Vietnam.

18:33 - 18:41 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first warning is that 1965, if it leaves one unsaved, has added great weight to God's inevitable judgment, as God's goodness and long-suffering, intended to lead to…

The metaphor of God's justice raising a dagger of wrath to plunge into a sinner's breast, only to be stayed by His long-suffering, illustrates God's patience despite every sin calling for judgment.

Oh, behold the riches of his long-suffering and his forbearance. For if you're outside of Christ this morning, every sin you've committed in 1965 has been like a voice that has thundered up to God and it has called upon his justice and said, Oh, almighty justice, judge that sinner. As the arm of God's justice would be raised to take the dagger of his pure and holy wrath and plunge it in your breast. His long-suffering has stayed the hand.

20:13 - 20:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Obey the voice of conscience and fall to your knees to call upon God for mercy, rather than stifling it.

A vivid description of lying in bed at night, conscience thundering about sin, and then turning on a radio or watching TV to drown out the thoughts, illustrates how people stifle the voice of conscience.

Think of the times when conscience has pricked you in those quiet hours when you've laid upon your bed and when all has been still and the clamor and din of that, some of the music has gone from your ears, young people.

23:38 - 23:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not stifle the voice of conscience regarding sin and the gospel.

The metaphor of a conscience 'seared as with a hot iron,' creating insensitive scar tissue, illustrates how repeated stifling of conscience leads to spiritual insensitivity.

First of all, it's the process by which we stifle the voice of conscience. In 1 Timothy 4, in verse 2, we read this. Having their conscience seared as with a hot iron. And the Greek word literally means to arise.

31:20 - 31:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third warning is that 1965 has brought them 365 days closer to death and the day of judgment, a terrifying reality for the unsaved.

The analogy of progressing from grade one to graduation, or seconds to years, illustrates the inevitable passage of time bringing one closer to death and judgment.

It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. That time of your death is hidden in the secret counsels of God. But just as surely as the passage from grade one leads to grade two and ultimately leads to graduation, just as surely as the passage from grade one leads to graduation just as one second passes another and leads to a minute which leads to an hour, which leads to a day, which leads to a week, to a month, to a year, so 1965 has brought you one year closer to the day of death and of judgment. Whether we want to think of it or not, it's true.

42:08 - 42:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third warning is that 1965 has brought them 365 days closer to death and the day of judgment, a terrifying reality for the unsaved.

The story of a man on death row counting down his last days and hours, culminating in the sound of the key in the lock, vividly illustrates the terrifying certainty and approach of judgment for the unsaved.

Think of the man who sits in death row. I visited one once. The sentence has been passed. He's going to die.

42:45 - 42:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek the Lord while He may be found, break off with your sins, and cry out for mercy, counting no pain too great until you know you belong to the Savior.

Calling on older members like 'Pop's Island' and 'Sister Blair' to testify to the swift passage of years, illustrates the brevity of life as a basis for entreaty.

And I plead with you this morning by the testimony of conscience that you seek the Lord. I plead with you by the brevity of life. We read this morning in Psalm 90 that our days are like a tale that's told they fly away. Could ask Pop's Island tonight, this morning, passed over the 80 mark, our dear sister Blair, it seems but yesterday that you're running around the backyard as a little girl and a little boy and the years have gone.

46:09 - 46:40 Read in full sermon