Prelude to Terrible Judgement

I have a very solemn message for us today, friends, and I preach it with a broken heart. My message today is entitled, Prelude to Terrible Judgment. In the Old Testament, in the book of Jonah, we see that an entire city repented of their sins and turned to the God of the Bible to avert judgment.

From the king down to the beast, they sat in sackcloth and ashes in humility before God. The king of Nineveh put out a decree and said, Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that would perish not? The people of Nineveh, under the preaching of Jonah, had a solemn fear of God. America used to fear God and had a reverence for God and was blessed by God.

But America has forgotten God. America lost her fear of God. People in church today don't even believe in a God of fierce anger anymore.

That's why we can call ourselves Christians and still sin all we want to. But let me ask you a question, friend. What would have happened to the city of Nineveh had they not repented and turned to God? What would have happened? That's right.

God would have kept his word to destroy them. Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. I believe God is speaking today by his spirit to individuals all across this land to turn from their sins and turn to him.

I believe God has a close eye upon us to see if we will do as we have been warned. I believe the Holy Spirit is still active in the world today reproving men and women of sin. Every time God reproves you and you fail to turn to him and instead continue on your path of rebellion you will hear a fainter voice next time.

That voice will grow fainter and fainter. And if you continue on in your rebellion against God you will one day wake up and that voice won't bother you anymore. I believe you were in grave danger then.

God's spirit will not always strive with man, my Bible says. I believe we have a nation full of people today inside and outside of the church who have turned their back on God and have gone their own way. The shortest definition of sin found in my Bible is in Isaiah 53.6 which declares we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. That's what sin is, friend. It is going our way when we know it isn't God's way.

I believe there are people in church right now who somewhere back yonder made some kind of profession of faith and they have turned their back on God and have been going their own way in a course of sin and rebellion. I believe a nation is merely a composite of a people and if the people's lives are evil in the sight of a holy God never mind whether we think our sin is okay or not or if we think God is tolerant with us and our sins. I'm talking about if the people's lives are evil in the sight of a holy God then there is cause for alarm.

If God has been showing you mercy by reproving you by his spirit and you fail to heed the warnings there is much cause for alarm. It breaks my heart to give this message friends but you may be standing on the brink of silence yourself. You may be closer than you think to never hearing from God again either in this world or the world to come.

If God has been dealing with your soul less and less as time has ticked away and now you only hear a faint whisper now and then to turn from your wicked ways and to turn to God in repentance and faith then you may be witnessing a prelude to terrible judgment. Proverbs 29.1 states in no uncertain terms the claims of Christ who hung on a bloody cross for sin and a God who demands repentance from sin. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy meaning to be removed from this world by sudden death and to go into another world without the remedy for sin in the person of Christ Jesus.

I believe there are many today who are living their last year on this earth and who in their constant rebellion towards God will be suddenly removed by God through unexpected death. I've seen it happen to church people time and time again. I believe that the fainter voice of God to people today is a prelude to terrible judgment.

I believe God is speaking to this nation through natural disasters, fires and floods to get our attention, to get us back to Him by giving us a fear of God again in this country so we can turn back to the God of the Bible. But if we fail to heed the warnings then it is merely a prelude to terrible judgment. Like a train's whistle that blows to warn it is fast approaching and then goes silent in the distance.

There is a day fast approaching someone within the sound of my voice. That silence is around the corner and when that junction is crossed there is no turning back. That whistle of warning ceases to blow.

We live in a land of sudden death but we have only seen it on a small scale. What's coming down the track to this nation will make the world's ears ring. Silence is a prelude to terrible judgment.

May God have mercy on us all.