Get Out While You Can! Heed the Warning

Get Out While You Can! Heed the Warning
July 14, 2024
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Passage: James 4:14-17
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Get out while you can. There are numerous warnings that we can read in both the Old and New Testament, encouraging us to get out of certain things; obviously, get out from evil, get out from sin, get out from evil influences, and so on. We are going to look at this idea of getting out while you can heed the warning.

Bible Warning

  • Colossians 3:5-9 – Mortify your members
  • 1 Corinthians 6:18 – Flee fornication
  • 2 Timothy 2:22 – Flee youthful lusts
  • Romans 11:22 – Goodness/severity of God
  • James 4:14-17 – Tomorrow may not come

Why do we need to heed the warnings that were given in scripture? Because life is short. Tomorrow may not come. Notice in verse 14.

Warnings — How important they are!

In April of 1912, Captain Edward John Smith sets out with his crew aboard the Titanic on its maiden voyage to go from, uh, England to New York. But it never arrives.

Consider the size of the Titanic for a moment. Many from here that I know of have gone down to Florida and have watched the shuttles launch.  They're pretty tall, right? The shuttle is about 184 ft in length. Significant.  

Many of you, I would imagine, as I have gone to Washington D. C. and stood at the foot of the Washington Monument. It's 555 feet tall.  

And then there was the Titanic. At 882 and a half feet long, over 90 feet wide, the length of approximately four city blocks was the largest ship of its size when it was built. The Titanic, when it went to make a 90-degree turn, would take a mile's worth of ocean to make a 90-degree turn because of how massive of a ship it was.

It was the largest ship in the world at the time of its voyage. But on that fateful day, April 14th, 1912, there were 1,316 passengers, and 891 crew members for a total of 2,207 that boarded that ship to come to the United States. They were on board 16 wooden lifeboats with the ability to hold a maximum of 65 people per lifeboat.

Now, I'm sure you did the math as I did, that comes out to 1040 seats available in those lifeboats for 2,207 people that were there. Not exactly what you would call ideal when you consider the stores that were kept inside the Titanic. Look at a few things that were on board.

  • 43 tons of fresh meat and fish
  • 40 tons of potatoes
  • 1,500 gallons of milk
  • 1,750 quarts Of ice cream

But all the individuals that were on the ark that particular day, [I say the ark, it's the Titanic, it was a little bigger] ...that was on the Titanic were just a little bit over-confident in the ability of this particular ship, because they thought that the Titanic was unsinkable.

You see, there were supposed to be 64 lifeboats assigned to that particular ship when it was built. But they didn't give them 64 lifeboats. We've already looked at the fact that there were only 16 for the entire ship, for all 2,000 people that were on board. There should have been plenty. They should have had seating for over 4,000 people, even though the maximum capacity of the Titanic was just over 3,000.

But they decided they didn't need 64 lifeboats. They could do with 16, 8 on each side, because after all the world thought the Titanic was unsinkable. In fact, the very words of her captain in a press conference before the Titanic set sail, "Even God could not sink the Titanic."

He probably wishes he never said that. There are those, who believe that God sunk the Titanic just to prove the captain wrong. Now, I don't believe that was exactly what happened. But certainly, the foolishness of this man's actions is on display.

Ignored Warnings

But here was the problem. The Titanic ignored the warnings that it received. Six warnings from five different ships warned the Titanic concerning the waters that they were traveling in concerning the weather conditions and even concerning icebergs that had been spotted by other vessels beginning at nine a.m. on the morning that it set sail and the very last at 11 p.m.

  • Caronia - 9:00 AM
  • Baltic II - 1:42 PM
  • Amerika - 1:45 PM
  • Californian - 7:30 PM
  • Mesaba - 9:40 PM
  • Californian - 11:00 PM

But this one at 9:40 p.m. was never even delivered to the captain and it read; "Saw much heavy pack ice and a great number of large icebergs." just two hours, roughly two hours before it struck the iceberg at 11:40 p.m. the Titanic struck that iceberg thinking that they were going to miss it because they'd already attempted to change course, but they didn't have enough time. And in less than three hours, the Titanic sank because it didn't heed the warnings.

There were other issues. There were other reasons why they failed in their endeavor. We learn if you look back at the account of the Titanic and the historians that have covered this particular event, that the captain, for whatever reason, was going full steam ahead even though the waters were not ideal for the situation.

He didn't have time, in his mind, to avoid the icebergs. But why would you care, if you're in an unsinkable ship?

Communication was not as it should have been. Warnings were not sent to the bridge, as was already mentioned. One of the radio men who was on duty, at one point, left to go into his quarters so that he could rest leaving one person in the radio room all by himself.  And there weren't just a few messages that were being sent out. This new telegraph machine that allowed them to send messages back to shore was being abused by businessmen who were on the [ship] sending all of these messages and telegrams back to England and Newfoundland [saying] that they were on the Titanic.

The warnings that came in became a nuisance, and if it didn't have a particular heading at the top of it, Officer Phillips, who was in charge of the radio room, didn't pass the message along to the captain.

We Must Heed the Warning

Get out while you can.

There was a band that was playing on the Titanic. I don't know why the Ark keeps showing up in this lesson. We're talking about the Titanic. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. After the iceberg was struck, the band chose to play a hymn to help calm as many people as they possibly could.  And they played the hymn, Nearer my God to Thee.

And they played that hymn over and over and over again. They did not stop. They consciously made the decision, each of them, to keep on playing. They would not stop, even as the Titanic sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The band went down with the ship. They played so they could console and comfort as many of the passengers as they could while the ship was going down. This idea of Nearer my God to Thee was Something that we can pay attention to and take words to heart.

  • Hebrews 9:27
  • Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
  • Acts 17:31
  • 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9

There's going to be a time when we will all be nearer to God, one in proximity, because we will stand before Him, and we will be judged. The things that we have done in this world will come before us again. If we're not on the right side, if we're not heeding the warnings, if we're not getting out while we possibly can, then we may be among those that go down with the ship.

That might indicate to us that there are some things that we may need to get out of.

  • Bad relationships – 1 Corinthians  15:33

We need to pay attention to those that we're listening to, to those that have our ear. We should be listening to those things that are from the word of God and not those things that are from the world.

  • Bad habits – 1 Timothy 4:12

Maybe there are some bad habits that we need to remove from our lives. Set aside the bad things and be the example for the good that you ought to be.

  • False religion – Matthew 15:13

Maybe, we should remove false religions and false religious concepts from our minds.

  • Love of the world – 1 John 2:15-17

Maybe it is the love of the world that we need to put away from us and focus more intently on the love of Jesus. And those things that are of the world are not going to last.

  • Superstition – Galatians 5:19-20

Maybe it's superstitions that we need to remove from us. Maybe, our superstitions are getting in the way of us following God and heeding the warnings that he has given to us to pay attention to.

The End of Their Earthly Sojourn!

The end of their earthly sojourn for those on the Titanic happened in just a matter of hours. They boarded the ship a couple of days earlier.  Expecting to reach their destination without incident. Expecting that no matter what came their way, the confidence they had in their ship, in their captain, in their crew,  would protect them when trials came. But nearly 1,500 passengers had their physical lives end on April 12th and they were ushered into eternity.

Will You Heed the Warning?

What can we learn from the events that took place so long ago?

We need to heed the warnings to get out while we can. The question remains for you this morning. Is the ship of your soul sinking today? Have you hit the iceberg in your spirit because you've not followed the warnings, the divine warnings, that we've found in the Word of God, that can lead us out of a world of pain and suffering and anguish and strife and wrongdoing, and lead us to a place of peace and hope and happiness to enjoy, and righteousness with the son of God? It's time to leave the sin behind and follow Jesus, who is the Savior of the soul.

If the events of the last 24 hours have proved anything to us, we can suffer very easily at the hands of those that are around us being no fault of our own. But how many are prepared when that time is to come?

If we can assist you in any way, we encourage you to contact us so that we can meet with you, and help you to find the way out of sin, and be safe with Jesus.

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