Quote from Forum Archives on January 13, 2003, 12:01 pm

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

WELCOME WARNINGS
January 12, 2003

Text: Proverbs 10:1-17

Dennis J. DeHaan recalls, “I was driving about sixty miles per hour when
I took my eyes off the road for several seconds. All at once I heard a
brroommm, brroommm that sent strong vibrations up the steering column.
Small grooves had been closely spaced in the pavement along the shoulder
to warn drivers when they drift off the road. And they got my attention!”
(Dennis J. DeHaan, “Welcome Warnings,” Our Daily Bread, Grand Rapids:
Radio Bible Class, 1992, September 29)

Have you ever had the same or a similar experience? That is, something
designed to warn us or indicate additional caution is needed catches our
attention. Most of us has probably experienced something like this in our
life. Onboard the submarines I served were several warning devices.
Atmosphere monitoring equipment would sound an alarm when air quality
began to deteriorate long before a serious condition existed. Crewmembers
could then make necessary adjustments to equipment to restore habitable
air quality. Almost every piece of equipment had an alarm setting to
alert watchstanders to low lubrication levels or loss of power or some
other abnormal condition. We even had an alarm that sounded if an
incoming torpedo was detected! I’m glad I never heard that one go off
outside of tests and exercises! Whether they are grooves cut in the road
or equipment with alarms, there are times when we welcome warnings.
Warnings can help protect us and keep us from harm.

Why is it, then, that so many people work so hard to avoid the warnings
that God provides? Turn to Matthew 18:15-17 and read along with me: “If
your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between
the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But
if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter
may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he
refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to
listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax
collector.” Jesus himself sets in motion how to deal with sinful behavior
and reclaim reconciliation, yet how many welcome such intervention? Like
those grooves in the road placed there to wake us up when we are drifting
instead of driving, so the rebuke of a brother of sister Christian is
meant to wake us up and get us back on track. But do we accept this
teaching as a welcome warning? Why do we so often not welcome God’s
warnings?

Throughout the Proverbs are many words of wisdom as well as words of
warning. Chapter 10 verse 17 reminds us that “he who heeds discipline
shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others
astray.” When we recognize that God as Creator knows what is best for us
to live whole and abundant lives, then we can trust his warnings and
welcome them instead of attempting to ignore them. This is part of what
is meant by growing toward spiritual maturity.

Many times, we can get ourselves into difficult situations innocently.
Even in those times, we find the need to seek wisdom. A story is told of
a young man who got into a financial bind by loaning a friend in another
town $500 without receiving a written receipt acknowledging the loan.
When the young man needed his money, he realized that he had nothing to
document his claim that he had made a $500 loan. In desperation, he
consulted his father. After some consideration, his father said, “Oh.
Write this person and say you need the $1,000 you loaned him.” The young
man said, “You mean $500, Dad.” “No,” replied the father. “You write and
ask for $1,000. He will write back saying that you only loaned him $500,
and that he only owes you $500. Then you will have it in writing.”
(Martin R. DeHaan II, “Wise as Serpents,” Our Daily Bread, Grand Rapids:
Radio Bible Class, 1992, September 25)

I wish that I could always be so wise and responsive, but I’m not. Maybe
I don’t listen to God as well as I need to. If an earthly father can give
such clever advice, imagine the possibilities available from the heavenly
Father. As the source of all true wisdom, we need to rely on God to fill
us with his wisdom, even when it comes in the form of warnings. Turn to
Matthew 10:16-20. At this time in his ministry, Jesus sent the twelve
disciples into nearby towns. He sent them with instruction,
encouragement, and warning. “I am sending you out like sheep among
wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on
your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and
flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before
governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when
they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that
time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but
the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”

To get to that point, though, we must be following God, attentive to His
instruction. We cannot be working hard to avoid His warnings, reject His
teaching, and neglect to grow through obedience and then hope to expect
that His wisdom will suddenly fall upon us when we need it most. No, not
at all. His wisdom comes upon us - miraculously, yes - just because we
have been heeding His warnings.

Some of the Proverbs read earlier illustrate all this rather well. Verse
2, “Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from
death.” God does not have problems with any material wealth and
possessions we may gain. Frequently, He blessed His people with such
prosperity. But God has never intended worldly treasures to replace the
importance of a saving relationship with Him and a right relationship
between believers we worship with or unbelievers to whom we witness and
minister. For one warning that we frequently want to avoid, turn to Mark
8:34-37. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up
his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What
good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or
what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Treasures do not save us,
not even when they are bestowed upon us as blessings from God. Only
“righteousness delivers from death.”

Proverbs 10:4 similarly reminds us that “lazy hands make a man poor, but
diligence hands bring wealth.” Again, it is not our works that bring us
salvation; salvation is the gift from God alone. But accepting God’s gift
is not supposed to be the cause for any believer to become “lazy,” as
Solomon puts it here. And this verse applies to the Christian as well as
the non-Christian. I have known some sailors who expressed to me what
wonderful, spiritual men they were - how much they loved God and loved to
spend time with Him - and then spent a lot of energy trying to avoid
their work! Talk about a terrible witness. I wished that some of them
would never say anything about Jesus Christ or their faith because their
poor work habits resulted in a terrible testimony. No wonder the unsaved
in this world can remain so unconvinced of the claims of Christ. Even
though Solomon was probably referring to material wealth, I also think
that the wealth referred to here can be equally applied to the wealth of
a solid, Christian witness and testimony. But we’ll never get there if we
don’t welcome God’s warnings.

Verse 12: “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.”
What a needed message for our world today. I don’t think that anyone can
claim that the death and destruction caused by today’s terrorists in the
name of Islam are being done because they love us. It is clearly
dissension stirred up by hatred. If you recall, last month violence broke
out in Nigeria, resulting in hundreds of deaths, because of opposition to
a beauty contest held there. Writes Chuck Colson: “…it’s crucial to
identify who unleashed the initial massacre: It was Muslims, filled with
rage and willing to blame Christians for any and every social ill, real
or imagined. To date, Muslims in Nigeria have vowed to cut of the heads
of the sixteen journalists covering the story. We must call Muslim
leaders to account, for these kinds of things are happening all over the
globe. And Muslim leaders can’t condone hatred and killing. What kind of
god would command and applaud random murder and mayhem in his name?”

I’m not going into detail about why all this hatred exists and abounds.
There are a lot of complexities leading to hatred from many sources:
history, culture, religion, philosophical differences, poverty,
deception, and the like. But we can clearly see what happens to a world
that ignores and avoids God’s warnings.

As Christians, He certainly warns us not to be hate-filled. God is love,
and our actions - indeed, our very motivations - are to be guided by that
love. Again, one of God’s welcome warnings taught by Jesus is found in
Matthew 5:43-45: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”
Quite a different ethic than what the world is used to dealing with,
isn’t it?

God sends us warnings for a reason. They are not to take away all our
“fun” or to limit our abilities and dreams or even to punish us. God
gives us warnings to protect us. Just like the grooves in the highway
that can literally shake us back away when we drift, or like the alarms
that go off on pieces of equipment when something is going wrong, God’s
warnings spare us from spiritual disaster when we heed them. Let’s always
remember to welcome and to pay attention to God’s warnings. “He who heeds
discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads
others astray.”

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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