THOSE THAT OPPOSE THEMSELVES
"Those that oppose themselves" (2 Timothy 2:25).
This is a very short sermon sermon -- one composed of 3 striking stories, vividly illustrating 3 things involved when people "oppose themselves" -- something that countless millions are doing today. -- Duane V. Maxey, November 7, 2015.
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01 -- THEIR IRONY IN IT
A noted surgeon received a phone call at two o'clock in the morning. A hospital authority, twenty miles away, explained that a young man, following a car accident, lay near death. He was the only surgeon within calling distance that could possibly get there in time. Would he come? Hurriedly he dressed and drove to the city, where he stopped for a traffic light. Suddenly his car door jerked open and a gun was jammed into his ribs.
"Drive!" a man ordered, closing the door behind him. All attempts to explain the urgency of his mission were futile.
"Drive! " he snapped. Somewhere on a quiet street in that city his captor ordered the car stopped and the surgeon to "get out!" Again, all attempts to explain were silenced at gunpoint. Helplessly he watched as the gunman, who was dressed in a brown coat and gray trousers with a cap pulled down over his eyes, drove away in his car. A taxi was hailed after a lapse of time and finally the surgeon reached the hospital. Outside "Emergency" a nurse appeared and said, "I'm sorry Doctor..., you are too late ... the boy is dead." Saddened, he turned to leave. "Doctor," the nurse whispered, "his father is brokenhearted. Would you speak to him...please?"
There in the waiting room, face in hands and sobbing, sat the grieving father. Suddenly a look of amazement spread across the surgeon's face. Could he believe his eyes? The man was wearing a brown coat, gray trousers, and a cap was at his side. This was the man who had taken the surgeon's car! This was the man who had forced into the night the only man that could save his son! -- From "The Salvation Of God" hdm0086, by Kenneth H. Fay
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02 -- THEIR IRON IN IT
It is told of a famous smith of medieval times that, having been taken prisoner and immured in a dungeon, he began to examine the chain that bound him with a view to discover some flaw that might make it easier to be broken. His hope was vain, for he found, from marks upon it, that it was of his own workmanship, and it had been his boast that none could break a chain that he had forged. Thus with the sinner; his own hands have forged the chain that binds him; a chain which no human hand can break.
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03 -- THEIR IRATENESS IN IT
One of our young men gave me the following experience. He said, "An old gentleman and a young man, who was the driver, stopped at Ringgold, Georgia, to get a lunch. They asked for a certain type of beer. They were informed the proprietor did not have this brand; so they left the restaurant and went to another. They gave their order with the call for this same beer. ON BEING INFORMED THAT THEY DID NOT HAVE IT, THEY LEFT IN A RAGE. THE YOUNG MAN ANGRILY SAID, "WE WILL HAVE IT [CALLING THE BRAND] IF WE HAVE TO GO TO HELL TO GET IT." They then drove rapidly away toward Atlanta. In making one of those curves their car collided with a beer truck loaded with the brand he had demanded, and there was a fearful wreck and crash. They were both instantly killed and buried in broken bottles of the beer the young man had demanded." He got his beer, and doubtless went to hell in so doing. Some things God will not stand for.
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IN CONCLUSION
Really, nothing need be added to these stories to illustrate that "those who oppose themselves" do so to their own hurt -- and all too often, THEIR ETERNAL HURT!
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