Issues, Questions, Gleanings, Brotherhood News, Bible Study, etc., from Tennessee Bible College

If Only They Had Listened
Kerry Duke

Four teenagers were walking on a railroad trestle a couple of weeks ago in Melbourne, Florida. Ignoring a "No Trespassing" sign, they joked and took pictures along the 200-foot bridge. A fisherman on the bank of a creek below told them to be careful, but they didn't pay much attention to him. They had probably heard these words before. Within a few seconds they heard the last thing they expected—the sound of a train whistle. As the rushing train approached, an onlooker yelled for the teens to run or to jump into the creek. They chose to run, but only one made it to the other side.

Most adults can recall foolish chances they took in younger years. We play dangerous games when we are young, and it is a wonder we survived. But some are not so fortunate. Youth is a rash and wreckless time in our lives.

Thousands of teenagers get off on the wrong track of sex, alcohol, and hard drugs. This is a worldwide problem. I remember about twenty years ago asking a large group of college students to list three current items of interest. More than one of them wrote "Sex, drugs, and rock and roll." That happened in Moscow, Russia. People are the same everywhere, and that includes teenagers. In any place at any time you will find some who are good and others who are bad.

It is sad when young people will not listen to warnings. Three teenagers lost their lives on a train track because they paid no attention to what they were told, but many others lose things that are hard if not impossible to recover when they get off on the wrong track in life. They lose their health and their virginity. They lose their reputation and their job. They lose their good conscience and self respect. They know the train will come down the track eventually, but somehow they convince themselves they won't get hit. Before they know it they have been run over by the train and their world is devastated.

Solomon said this happens to a man who gets involved with a strange woman. At the last, when his flesh and body are consumed, he will say, "How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!" (Prov. 5:12-13). Casual sex leaves many lives in the shambles of guilt, disease, and damnation.

The wise man also warned about the danger of alcohol. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" (Prov. 20:1). How many lives have been lost on the highways because of drinking? How many marriages have been wrecked and how many children have been hurt? But what Solomon said is so true today: even when the drinker hurts himself with his pastime, he says, "I will seek it yet again" (Prov. 23:35).

The warnings of the Bible point to something far worse than the effects of sin on our earthly life. Sin ruins our life on earth, but, more tragically, it ruins the soul in hell if we die lost.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall be also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap live everlasting" (Gal. 6:7-8).