When the Titanic was launched on May 31, 1911 an employee of the White Star Line said; “Not even God Himself could sink the Titanic.” According to the American National Archives when the British ship Titanic steamed out of Southampton bound for New York on April 10, 1912, it was the largest and most sumptuous luxury liner that had ever sailed. It was a monument to the promise of technology and to Victorian elegance, magnificently appointed with oriental carpets and crystal chandeliers. It was thought to be unsinkable. Confidence was so high that the owners and builders rejected plans calling for as many as 64 lifeboats. Although the number of lifeboats on the Titanic (20) exceeded government standards, the boats would only accommodate about half of the 2,228 people aboard. In one of history’s great ironies, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, after colliding with an iceberg off the banks of Newfoundland. More than 1,500 people died in the accident.”
Most of us have seen the movie the Titanic. In the movie when the Captain of the Titanic was warned about isolated icebergs in the area and that he needed to slow down the speed of the ship he refused to do this and commanded that the speed be maintained as he had a deadline to meet and his pride was in the ship that it would meet that deadline. Of course we know what happened when the ship hit the iceberg. It began to sink. However, when it was reported to the passengers on board that the ship had hit an iceberg most of them went on partying on into the night oblivious to their impending doom and dark watery grave that awaited them.
This world is a Titanic and the ‘icebergs’ or warning signs of impending disaster are very visible today. These ‘icebergs’ can be seen in the spiritual deception within wider Christendom and in Israel. They can be seen in the wars and rumours of wars and in nations preparing for armed conflict and in civil ethnic wars between people of the same ethnicity. The world is being wracked by famines earthquakes in various places and pestilence. Right now the whole world is reeling under the COVID-19 ‘Pandemic’ and according to God’s Word these things are just the beginning of the ‘birth pains’ or ‘contractions’ which must proceed the birth of God’s Kingdom visibly on earth. (Matthew 24:4-8) Persecution of faithful believers in the Lord Jesus is in epidemic proportions today and before the Lord Jesus returns it will become a global phenomenon.
In the Word of God we are clearly told that the whole world will come to the very brink of annihilation as it enters a time of testing and trial and affliction unlike anything in past history or like anything to come in the future. The whole world will be devastated by this time of the Great Trouble. However, for the sake of God’s faithful believers in the Lord Jesus and in Israel and for the very survival of the world itself God will cut those days short, send the Messiah our Lord Jesus back to rescue Israel, rapture and resurrect His faithful followers and destroy all opposition and set up His Messianic Millennial Kingdom on earth. (Matthew 24:21-22, 29-31)
The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus the Messiah will take the world completely by surprise. When writing to the local assembly of believers at Thessalonica the apostle Paul wrote; “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labour pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-5)
If you are reading this and you have not as yet been spiritually reborn from above by the blessed Holy Spirit then you are still dwelling in spiritual darkness, living for this world only and for the things of this world and among those who will ultimately perish on that day when God will judge this world righteously without favouritism by the man he has appointed the Lord Jesus the Messiah. God’s Word says; “He (God) now commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30b-31) The fact that God has raised the Lord Jesus to life means that every person must stand before Him either as one who has accepted Him or has rejected Him. There is no middle ground. We are either children of the light or children of the darkness.
Even though the people of this world are heavy laden with sin and rebellion against a God who loves them, He has also given them the freedom to choose life or death and that for all of eternity. You see life does not cease to exist after you die. In every culture and race on this planet there is a belief in an afterlife because God, who is eternal, created man in His own image and likeness. Man was not created by God to be a robot. (Genesis 1:26-27) God’s Word says that “He has put eternity in their hearts.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) All of us born into this world will live forever but the burning question is where will we live? The Bible tells us that there is only one of two places that all of us will go to after we die physically being Heaven or Hell.
Now we are also told in God’s Word that “God is not willing that all should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) There is only one lifeboat of salvation and only one life jacket of the righteousness which we must have if we are to go to heaven when we die. Man’s greatest need is to be made righteous in God’s sight and to possess that righteousness acceptable to God if they would be reconciled to God, saved from the power and penalty of sin, be delivered out of Satan’s kingdom of darkness and translated into God’s kingdom of light through faith in the only true light of the world, the Lord Jesus Himself who enlightens every man. (John 1:9; 8:12)
By nature and by birth all of us are great sinners and rebels in God’s sight. We have violated every commandment there is and each of us turned to our own way. (Psalm 51:5) (Romans 3:9-18) God’s Word also tells us that our sin and its judgement was laid upon our substitute at the cross when He who knew no sin became a sacrifice for our sin in our place that we might be reconciled to God and receive the gift of His righteousness by faith in the Lord Jesus to save us. (2 Corinthians 5:21) (Romans 3:22-24)
How then can one be saved?
Firstly; you need to acknowledge that you are a sinner and rebel and have violated God’s laws and have forfeited any rights to heaven and have the sentence of death and hell hanging over your head. We are told in God’s Word that the second death is the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14) When a person dies in this present age without ‘the life-jacket’ of salvation on, they go to hell to be ultimately resurrected to face sentencing to the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15)
Secondly; you need to repent, to turn from a Christ hating, Christ rejecting way of life to a Christ loving and a Christ accepting way of life. If you call upon God for mercy He will hear your cry for “whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:21) You are to call on Him while He is near and be willing to forsake your wicked ways and our evil thoughts and turn to the Lord who will have mercy upon you and freely pardon you and that in abundance. (Isaiah 55:6-7)
Thirdly; you need to recognise that God loves you and proved His love by coming into this world in the person of His eternal and divine Son to pay the penalty for your sin. (John 3:16) As it is also written; “For the Messiah also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” (1 Peter 3:18) He took upon Himself your sin so that you might receive His righteousness, a righteousness received and bestowed by faith. (Romans 3:22; 4:5) Through your faith in Him to save you from the power and penalty of sin God will declare you righteous and justified in His sight and receive you as His son and daughter. You will be spiritually reborn from above by the Holy Spirit. (John 3:3) Without this new birth you will never be able to understand or be able to enter into god’s eternal kingdom where there is joy unimaginable and that for all of eternity. (Revelation 21:1-4)
Added to this you must also understand that it is by God’s unmerited favour you are saved and not because of good works or personal merit. (Ephesians 2:8-9) If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved from the devil’s clutches, saved from this present evil age which is passing away, and saved from the power and ultimate penalty for sin. (Romans 10:8-13) It is a wonderful thing to know that when you lay on your bed to sleep at night that all of your sins have been forgiven. This is only possible through the atoning blood of the Messiah. (Ephesians 1:7)
Fourthly; you must be prepared to be baptised in water as an outward confession of your new found faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus. (Mark 16:16) (Acts 2:38-39) It signifies that you have died to your old way of living and have been spiritually resurrected to the new way of living. (Romans 6:4) By openly showing that you have been spiritually resurrected to a new life in the Messiah it will strengthen your faith and resolve to serve Him for the rest of your life by God’s enabling grace.
Fifthly; you must ask to receive the Holy Spirit. (Luke 11:13) (Acts 2:38) It is the blessed eternal Holy Spirit who will apply the cleansing and atoning blood of the Lord Jesus to your innermost being to purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14) His blood that was shed at the cross has not only fully atoned for your sin but will cleanse you from it and keep you spiritually clean deep down on the inside as you walk by faith and in obedience to the Word of God. (1 John 1:7-9) (Romans 1:5; 16:26) God’s Word also tells us that through receiving the righteous nature of the Lord Jesus by faith that the Holy Spirit will make you spiritually brand new deep down on the inside of you and empower you to live in a way that pleases God. (2 Corinthians 5:17) (Romans 8:1-2, 9-14) (Galatians 5:22-25)
Now it also needs to be said that after you have become a believer in the Lord Jesus there will be times of temptation and trials that you have not faced before, but through the power of the Holy Spirit you will be enabled to walk in God’s will which is good, acceptable and perfect when you fully and without reserve submit to it. (Romans 12:1-2) Sometimes you may sin and need to confess it and God assures you that you will be forgiven once you have confessed and forsaken it. Also you have an advocate in the Lord Jesus who will always intercede for you when you have missed the mark and sinned. (1 John 2:1-2) At such times you must run to the Lord Jesus and to the efficacy of his cleaning blood, not run from Him! (1 John 1:9)
The world then is a ‘Titanic’ heading for the great ‘iceberg’ of the judgement day. Many are ‘on board’ partying into the night and living for themselves and for their own pleasures and pursuits and craving and following after the things this world can offer. They are oblivious to the ‘iceberg’ that will inevitably hit ‘the ship’. causing it to sink. In the cross of the Lord Jesus God has provided the lifeboat of salvation for you. It may be dark and cold at times and the world will be laughing at you but as you sit in that lifeboat you will have the sure knowledge that when the ship hits the iceberg the ‘lifeboat’ will be there to save you. Added to this you will have on the life-jacket of salvation, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus bestowed upon you by faith. (Isaiah 61:10) (Romans 3:22) (Philippians 3:8-9)
When ‘the ship has hit the iceberg’ the Lord will shout “Away All Boats!” The rescue is coming but will you be on that lifeboat?
