Rearranging Deck Chairs On The Titanic

Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic

2 Peter 2:4, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”

2 Peter 3: 3, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 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.”

A little more than a century ago, a great ship called the Titanic began its maiden voyage. It was an incredible ship for its time, at the zenith of the technology of that day. It was a beautiful ship, catering to the wealthy, the upper crust of society. It was luxurious, refined, lovely to behold. But more than that, it was touted as being nearly indestructible. I am sure the chance of the Titanic sinking on its maiden voyage entered the minds of very few of the people upon boarding it. One newspaper Article boldly and foolishly declared that even God could not sink the Titanic.

But friend, today, more than a century later, the name Titanic lives in infamy. You won’t find any cruise liner naming their ships Titanic in honor of that ship. No, sir. We all know now that the Titanic was a doomed ship. We know now that the majority of the souls on it would drown in the frigid ocean waters. But, you see, the men and women who were on the Titanic did not know that. Had anyone told them such a thing was getting ready to happen, they would not have believed it. You see, they believed the Science of their day. They believed the Titanic was all but indestructible.

The crew of the Titanic had been warned that the waters were full of ice. But they did not listen to the warning. Wireless operator Jack Phillips had been receiving ice warnings from other ships throughout the day. Later in the evening he was busy, receiving messages for the passengers. Nearby the ship California had stopped for the night because of the ice. Just before going to bed at around 11:15 PM, Californian's radio operator attempted time after time to warn Titanic that there was ice in the area, but the “line was busy” with all the passenger messages. He finally tried to cut in on the line with a “blast” that hurt Phillips ears. On the Titanic, Philips responded, "Shut up, shut up! I am busy." Rebuffed, the radio man on board the Californian turned off his radio and went to sleep. I believe that if the radio operator on the California knew what was about to happen to the Titanic, he would have stopped at nothing to get the message across. But, angry at being rebuffed, he stopped warning the crew of the Titanic.

Even after the Titanic hit the iceberg that would cause it to sink two hours and forty minutes later, people on board the ship maintained a false sense of security. Many scoffed! Scoffed when they hit the iceberg (took pieces and put them in their drinks), scoffed about the life vests (put them on and danced around, made fun of those who appeared worried or got on early lifeboats), scoffed that the Titanic could sink (“God himself couldn’t sink this ship”). But the Titanic was doomed. The only hope anyone had was in the life boats that were being lowered into the water. But, tragically, people did not see the need. They did not realize the grave danger they were in. Most of the life boats left the Titanic only half filled with people.