Sermon Illustrations

Dr. Harry Iornside tell the story of the YELLOW GOSPEL.

Some years ago a terrible railroad accident occurred, killing many people. A commuter train had stalled on the tracks just a few minutes before a fast freight was due to arrive. A conductor was quickly sent to flag down the approaching "flier." Being assured that all was well, the passengers relaxed. Suddenly, however, the speeding freight came bearing down upon them. The crash left a ghastly scene of horror. The engineer of the second train, who escaped death by jumping from the cab, was called into court to explain why he hadn’t stopped. "I saw a man waving a warning flag," he said, "but it was yellow, so I thought he just wanted me to slow down." When the flag was examined, the mystery was explained. It had been red, but because of long exposure to the sun and weather it had become a dirty yellow. Dr. Harry Ironside commented on this incident: "O the lives eternally wrecked by the ’yellow gospels’ we are hearing today -- the bloodless theories of unregenerate men that send their hearers to their doom instead of stopping them on their downward road!"

Have we become yellow over time? Has the urgency of the situation faded in the sunlight of this world and we are waving a yellow faded flag of redemption while our neighbors, family and coworkers and those who live around us sit idly by as the destruction of a Godless eternity come rushing toward them?

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