preach God’s Word. God has given certain people the ability to preach His word and speak through them the same way that He did through the prophets in the Old Testament. They are a gift to us, even though sometimes they may seem like a curse, to keep us on track with God.
The third warning we are given is simply consequences to our disobediences. When we go against God’s will, we are going to have bad things happen. That’s not to say that every bad thing in life is a consequence of something we did wrong but often times they are. If we lie and cheat people, we won’t have many friends and will be lonely. If we commit idolatry by placing our worth in money and power we will not really be happy and we will die with nothing. If we have sex outside of marriage, one could get pregnant or get an STD. There are consequences when we go against God’s will.
The fourth and last warning that I want to talk about today is also a responsibility. That is the alarm of each other. The brief verses in chapter six that we looked at touch upon this point. “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wounds of my people as through it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”
The image that comes to mind is a clip from Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail. King Arthur comes across the Black Knight and they begin to fight. After a few moments Arthur has cut off the arm of the Black Knight and begins to celebrate but the Black Knight continues to try and fight. “What are you doing?” exclaims Arthur. “I’ve already won!” The Black Knight responds, “No you didn’t. It’s only a flesh wound!”
The priests were supposed to be the example but yet they did not take that call seriously. They were putting Band-Aids on large gashes and expecting them to solve the problem. They were saying there was peace when there was anything but peace.
Today, if you have a relationship with Christ, you are a priest. 1 Peter 2:4-5 says, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
We are called to be the example of faith today. We, as Christians, cannot just go the way the world is going or just pretend that nothing is wrong with our cultures morals and lifestyles. Nor can we sit back and let our Brothers and Sisters in Christ go down the wrong paths or fall away from a relationship with Christ. We need to be willing to lovingly sound the alarm and help each other continually grow closer and closer to Christ.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23) but “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him, will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This is the warning and the alarm that is sounded today. If we choose to ignore it, it doesn’t change the fact that it is there. If we choose to put ourselves above it or have an attitude of “not me,” you are only lying to your self.
We must hear and seek out the truth in Scripture. We must listen to God fearing preachers, so to understand Scripture better. We must pay attention