Would you please turn your Bibles to Proverbs, Chapter 7. Our Father, we commend this hour into your hands, knowing that it is the Spirit of God who can awaken a conscience, who can alert a mind, who can quicken a will, who can provoke a person's desire to do the things that are right and pleasing to God. We want this hour to be one where if there is sin to be confessed, that is confessed and cleared away. And if there is restoration to be made, that it would occur. And that our love for God would increase, ever increase, and our knowledge of the love of God for us would increase. We commend ourselves into thy hands and pray that all that is said and all that is done be pleasing to the Lord who has made us, who sustains us, and one day shall judge us. This we ask in the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. I'm going to share a brief message before we observe the Lord's Supper. Our primary text is Proverbs 7, verses 22 and 23. He goeth after her straightway as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, till a dart strike through his liver, as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life. We're going to focus on that last phrase. A person can do something and know not that it is for his life. What we have described in Proverbs chapter 7 is a person who is being enticed by a temptress who understands his weaknesses very well, and he makes one wrong decision, then he makes another wrong decision, and he finds himself going down to the trail of his own destruction. He does it ignorantly. The scripture says he knows not What a terrible ignorance because it's of an essential issue. He knows not it is for his life. Back when I worked in the government field in another city, there was a commissioner of public works who was notorious for a stand he once made where he went out into this river that went right through a toxic waste site. And he stood in the middle of the river saying, see, nothing wrong here. Doesn't hurt me a bit, the public meeting. Well, he contracted something and soon died after that. We don't know for sure if the two are connected, but he certainly was. The connection was made by the public. He stood in the middle of a river running through a toxic waste site. He was ignorant that it meant his life. So we can expose ourselves to things. that lead to the destruction or the reduction of a meaningful, useful, productive life, a life worth living. Little compromises. What does it mean when we're told, love not the world, neither the things that are of the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. What does it mean when the scriptures say, little children, keep yourself from idols? A person can make little compromises here, expose himself to that, and listen to this, and allow this to come into his memory there, and not do this, which he is constantly doing, do these things, and there's a deadening, and there's a drawing down, and he finds himself where he never thought that he would be, and knew not that it was for his life. The primary idea of life here. is a meaningful, useful, productive life. A person can reduce himself so that he is unproductive eternally. The Bible says a person can have a heart that is of little worth and that his name will rot when he dies. We don't want that to happen. We don't want to be ignorant of the things that can destroy a life. And yet consider, friends, where we are as a nation. We'll see as God appraises it, but I don't know that I've ever seen a time like this of you. where in our nation the public discourse is so vile and vulgar, disrespectful to the office, and undignified for any human being to be this way, to speak this way, and to think this way. The thought seems so illogical and inconsistent and unsubmissive to truth and honor and all that is right. And it speaks so poorly of the audience that they're presuming will follow along with this duped and ignorant and unkind way of thinking. Such is an age. It makes you think of what's written in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3. That before Jesus comes again, there must first be a, do you know what it is? There must first be a falling away. an apostasy, a departure. There must first be a falling away as people believe a lie and live a delusion and find themselves more and more deeply drifting away from that which is honorable and true and righteous. We see this in the public discourse today, do we not? We see it coming from our universities and from our professors and from our students. We see it coming from the entertainment world. those who make movies and those who do music and otherwise are in the public eye. We see it in the intelligentsia. We see it in the popular. You see a person can harden himself and distance himself and choose to go his own way more and more until God gives him up and God gives him up and finally God gives him over. There must be a falling away. There must be a people who know not that the choices that they're making are accumulating a callous heart and a darkened soul. And in time, the price is your life, a meaningful, productive, spiritual life. Jesus defines life in John 17, verse 3. He says, and this is life, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. That's life as defined by God, entering into intimate and sweet knowledge of God as shall occur through the eternities. We are drifting away from that as a nation in public discourse. Churches are drifting away from that. Those who take on the name church but have departed from the heart and soul of what constitutes the church, which is a declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and shining as light and holding forth the verities of the faith upon which there can be no compromise. We see it in the public sector. We see it in the church sector. We see it in individuals within the church. We hear alarming statistics and more and more people as they're exposing themselves to those things, ignorant that it means their life are drifting away, curling away, departing from the church. And so we read here of a young man who makes a series of wrong choices stupidly, not conscientiously, not with great reflection, not with alarm, but sort of stupidly doing this and doing that and knowing not that accumulates to a loss of a life. With that in mind, would you please turn with me to 2 Peter? A person might respond, and say, well, this appalling ignorance of an essential issue, if it's a matter of he does not know this, then he's guiltless, right? He does it innocently, ignorantly. The Bible warns about presumption of that sort of characterization of wrong choices. We're in 2 Peter, and this is where we'll stay until I'm done, 2 Peter 3. We read about what's called willful ignorance. 2 Peter 3, we'll start reading in verse 3, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers. walking after their own lusts. People who would mock and ridicule the idea of absolute truth and honesty and integrity. They're following after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of His coming? Oh, God's going to judge me. Oh, there's some God to answer to here. We don't have to take the policy by the reins itself and do what we think is right. They mock the idea of the judgment of God because so far God hasn't come, they say. For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Now, verse 5, for this they willingly are ignorant of. I know it's worded a little differently in some translations, but King James has it quite accurately according to the Greek there. For this they willingly are ignorant of. They choose to be ignorant of it. Three things are listed. They willingly are ignorant of that the Word of God, by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. They're ignorant by choice of the creation. They're ignorant of the fact that God made heaven and earth, creation. Then we go on to verse 6, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. They are willingly ignorant of the flood, the global flood. But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So they select three catastrophic, remarkable events to be ignorant of them, creation, the flood, and the coming judgment of God. willing ignorance. Now in verses 8-10 we see truth about the person of God about which nobody should be ignorant. 2 Peter 3 verse 8, But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. In other words, whether God just said He would do something or if He said it a thousand years ago, if He said it, you can take it to the bank. If He said He'll do it, He will do it. No passing of time will bring about some change in His commitment. God has integrity. God is true. God is reliable. God is trustworthy. If He said He will do this, He will do it. You see, we never should be ignorant concerning the character of God. Let's continue reading. The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us. So now we see a second characteristic of God, that He is patient. You need to know the trustworthiness and patience of God. If God hasn't judged yet, it isn't because He doesn't hate sin. It is because He is long-suffering to us. We're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It's a matter of mercy. But friends, believe this. Be not ignorant of this. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Now starting in verse 11, we're told how you and I should respond. Given this body of truth, who God is and what He will do, How should you and I live? We read in verse 11, seeing then, do you see it? Do you see that it's coming? Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. The word there means loosed, one molecule released from the next, disintegrate, fall into pieces. All of this shall be dissolved. What manner of persons ought ye to be? Now notice what is listed. What kind of person should you and I be knowing the coming judgment of God in all holy conversation and godliness? This should propel you and me to despise all sin, not be ignorant of the impact that sin has on the soul where you can become callous, desensitized, unperceiving, but you should seek holiness What man or person ought you to be in all holy conversation is behavior and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day. We don't fear this judgment. See how different our mind is than the minds of those who fear the environmental travesty of the future. We look for and haste unto, run toward it, the coming of the day of God. wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the earth shall melt with fervent heat." Nevertheless, we, we look beyond this. We, according to his promise, look for new heavens. and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." Oh, don't get boggled down into the immorality of this age. Don't expose yourself to what the world exposes. Don't allow this into the system. Don't be company with that. Don't say these words. Don't allow that stuff to enter your brain and into your heart. Contemplate the things of God. And once the great divide occurs, as these fall off, the great falling away, but it's motivation to be people who embrace all godly conversation, all holiness. looking past this judgment to righteousness to come. Last two verses then are verses 14 and 15. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless, in account that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation. Let us pray. Our Lord, here we are gathered to observe the Lord's table. It is here where we acknowledge there is one way to have our sins washed away, and that is by trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. sinless Savior. We come here to remind ourselves that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that we should then live holy lives honoring Him who died for us. And here we are gathered to have the Holy Spirit search our hearts and to see if there be any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting, that we would confess our sins, confess our faults, have nothing between our souls and the Savior, and then in gratitude consider the bread given to us by Jesus to contemplate his body, and then the wine, the shedding of his blood. We commend ourselves to you this hour. to examine us. And maybe there are people here who have not been reconciled to God. Maybe in the ignorance they do not know that they are yet with their life in jeopardy. And if so, may this be the hour, may this be the time when the Holy Spirit speaks to the soul and says, are you sure your life is secured for eternity? And will you not give yourself to the Savior? And will you not call upon the Lord and ask him to forgive you for all your sins and lead you into a new life for God? Oh, Lord, salvage our lives. Make them to be useful, more useful, spiritually useful for thy kingdom. We pray, Lord, if you can make an accent to rise up out of the water and make it float, you can do something with our hearts. You can do something with our lives. You can strengthen us with might by thy spirit in the inward man. This we pray you do, in Jesus' name, amen.