God S Last Call

Well, I've got a serious message for us tonight, friends. We are living in the last days before Christ's return, and some of you may be living your last days on earth before you die in or suddenly swept away into another world, one which you're quite unprepared for. So you better sit up straight and get the wax out of your ears and pay attention to this sermon as it confronts you with eternity.

Before we begin, friends, let me pray. Oh, great God in heaven, bend your ear and hear this prayer. You're saying your word by the prophet Jeremiah, that is not my word, like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.

Oh, Lord God, I pray that you will attend this message tonight, and may your Holy Spirit come and be as a fire that searches and scorches the hearts of men, be as a fire that throws light on the dark recesses of sin, bringing conviction of heart that man is a guilty sinner in need of a savior. And Lord, may your word act like a hammer that falls with authority to break the rock in pieces. Oh, great God, may your Holy Spirit expose any false foundation of an empty religious profession and bust that thing up, I say, smash it to pieces, for Jesus is the only way, the only one who saves.

And if there's someone here tonight who has a false hope of heaven, that's no more than a hole in the wall. I pray, great God, that you expose it. Open eyes and open hearts, I pray in the strong name of Jesus, amen.

Well, the title of my message tonight, friends, is God's Last Call. And I bring it before you with a burdened heart, and I preach it to you as a solemn warning. God says in Genesis that my spirit will not always strive with man.

We are living in a day of mercy and grace, but for many, time is running out. I believe there's such a thing as God's last call. It can be God's last call on a nation before he destroys it.

America has had the favor of God like no other modern nation, and what we've done, what have we done but just abuse our privileges and pollute the land with evil. We have, as a people, legislated God right out of this country. We did away with prayer in our educational system.

And since 1962, when the Supreme Court outlawed prayer in public school, then our school campuses became shooting grounds with mass murders. We outlawed God from our judicial system, and we have legalized sin and promoted perversion. But I don't blame the White House, and I don't blame the courthouse, but I do blame the church house for failing to stand firm through compromise and conformity with the world.

The churches, for the most part in America, are dead institutions, void of the presence of the living God. And I believe God sends remedial judgments to a nation through calamities, through natural disasters, and I pray does that to bring that nation back to God. I believe 9-11 was a wake-up call, but I fear since then we've all gone back to sleep.

We read in the prophet Isaiah, a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.

They are all gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate.

Your cities are burned with fire, strangers devoured in your presence, and it is desolate, is overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage and a vineyard, as a lodge and a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city, except the Lord of Hosts left unto us a very small remnant. We should have been a Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

I will stop there, friends. And I believe, friends, that this is because there is a small remnant in the land of true born-again believers that keeps this nation from utter destruction. But a black cloud keeps growing on the horizon, for I believe it is America's last call to turn back to the God of the Bible, for God declares, my spirit shall not always strive with man.

And I look at all the sin and perversion in society, and I weep, and I ask, oh, where is the church in all of this? And I find a church in compromise with the world, void of any voice of authority. Why, we quit preaching the real gospel years ago. We have diluted the gospel so much to make it more palatable to sinful man.

But I remember preachers fifty years ago who weren't afraid to preach hard against sin. They called sin black and hell hot, and they called sinners to repentance. They warned of a future judgment that awaited all mankind, that men would be judged according to their works as they were held up against the strictness of the law of God.

And if you stood there in your own merits, you would fail that test for all of sin than falling short of the glory of God. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Well, those old-time preachers didn't fear men, but they sure feared the Almighty.

And there was still a fear of God in the land back then, because the church still had a voice of authority. And if any atheist cried out against God, there were more than enough Christians to shout that person down, because God held the majority in the nation back then. And I believe God may be speaking to some of you here tonight who need God and who need to get their sins onto the blood of his dear son, Jesus.

God is still issuing gospel calls to sinners to come to him. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they should be as white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they should be as wool. There is a high probability, friends, that someone here within the sound of my voice will be taken out of this world before the year is over. And this very well may be God's last call to you, friend.

It is my prayer that in this message, you just won't hear the shaky voice of this old preacher, but that by God's grace, you will hear his voice as it comes to you when power and authority. Only God can open the heart. Only God can make the stony heart a heart of flesh.

For if you're saved, friend, it's because God gave you saving faith. Now that's the Bible truth, for God says, for by grace are ye saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

But you've been a rebel. You've loved your sins. You may be all right accepting a little Jesus, so long as God doesn't get in the way of your daily living.

And you may call yourself a Christian, and you may even be a member of a church, but you have never been saved because you are yet a stranger to repentance. I've got news for you, friend. I got a newsflash for you.

A thrice holy God will never, ever allow a person into his heaven who still has a shotgun pointed at him. Self must be dethroned and another enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ. In John's gospel, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Here, Jesus answers the three greatest questions of the human heart. How can I be saved? Jesus said, I am the way.

How can I be sure? Jesus said, I am the truth. How can I be satisfied? Jesus said, I am the life. Now, I want to share with you, friends, a true story about God's last call.

I want you to hear it. I want to bring you to the very verge of eternity with it, friends. Listen to me.

When I was writing my biography of the evangelist, Rolf Barnard, I came across this incident in his life, and it's staggering. Listen now to his own words as he tells it. In Texas, many years ago, while I was a student in Southwestern Seminary, there was a little mining town nearby, and I went one summer while I was in school and held what is called revival services.

I began the meeting there on Sunday night. I got up that night, and I preached. I remember I preached on hell that night and dismissed the congregation, praying that the Holy Spirit would speak to hearts and disturb people.

As we stood there, something touched my shoulder. I looked around, and the old white-haired pastor stood there, his face drenched in tears. He said, Brother preacher, might I say a few words? Well, of course he might.

And he said, Folks, let's don't go home for a few minutes. I just can't let you go right now. Well, somebody happened to look at his watch, and exactly 33 minutes later, a lot had happened.

That pastor stood there with his face in tears, and he pointed men out, called them by their given name. I'd never seen anything like it. He'd been a pastor there over 30 years.

He knew them by their given name. He said, Bill, I just can't let you go tonight. And he preached to Bill, and here came Bill.

Jim, I can't let you go tonight. And he preached to Jim, and here came Jim. Well, he did that to 33 men, one by one.

Nobody left. He just called those men by name and talked to them, and here they came. 33 minutes later, 33 men were lined up.

I don't know whether they got saved or not. I'll find out at the judgment. I simply know this.

They claimed to. There was power there that night. There was somebody there beside us.

We had an old-fashioned handshaking. We had 33 men professing their faith in Christ. Well, everybody made their living in the coal mine, but Monday night, I didn't preach.

I was going to preach, but they didn't have service Monday night. At 426 p.m. Monday, one of the mines had an explosion and caved in, and some men were buried in that mine. And the whistle blew, and sirens and alarms went off in that little mining town, and all they did was to gather at that mine with all their equipment.

And while they worked feverishly, some prayed, some cried, and some cursed. But they worked down to where those men were trapped. The timekeeper consulted his books, and he knew there were 33 men trapped down in that mine.

Well, they worked feverishly, and finally they got to them. And one by one, they hauled up the bodies of those 33 men who were crushed in that mine. Every one of them was dead, and they were the 33 men that had lined up there in church and said they had received Christ.

Well, that's the end of that remarkable story, friend, of God's grace to sinners. Jesus said, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth this life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. Listen to me, friend.

If God's Spirit has been dealing with you during this message, it's time to throw down your shotgun of rebellion at his nail-pierced feet and come to him and believe on him and own him as your Savior and Lord. Jesus hung naked on a bloody cross for sin. Jesus held nothing back at Calvary.

How can you hold anything back from him? If God's Spirit is striving with you, friend, you better respond and surrender your heart to God. Jesus is the friend of sinners. Jesus is the pearl of great price worth selling all for so he can be gained.

Listen to me, friend. As I speak from personal experience, Jesus is a wonderful Savior who will never let you down and will never let you go. He is a faithful friend.

I want you to know this, Jesus, personally. I want you to see him there. See him there on that bloody cross with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him.

I want you to gaze at him there, hanging there on that cross. Look at that man on the cross, friend. See him suffering for you.

See him agonizing for you. See him bleeding for you. See him dying for you.

See him being raised for you. Jesus, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Put your pride in your pocket, friend, and get serious with God.

Cast yourself on a blood-stained Savior for sin in the person of Christ Jesus. Listen, listen to me. This may be God's last call to you now.

And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that hearers say, come. And let him who is the thirst come.

And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.