God's Last Call

In the book of Genesis, God makes a statement concerning the old world, but I believe it is a statement that is as fresh as the air we breathe today, friends. And the statement is found in Genesis 3, 6, where God Almighty declares, My spirit shall not always strive with man. And there is a companion verse that is found in the book of Proverbs in chapter 29.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends, because this is our text for this evening. Proverbs 29 and verse 1. And oddly, it is a verse you will seldom ever hear preached in a pulpit in this country anymore, or hardly will it ever fall from the lips of our modern evangelists, because it speaks of another side of God which is never spoken of in our churches today. All we have today is a big love God who loves everybody, no matter even if their sinful lifestyle is in direct opposition to God and His commands.

And this verse which I want us to focus our attention on this evening is Proverbs 29 and verse 1, which has a solemn warning to all who hear it. He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. I believe, friends, that every person has a time when God's Spirit ceases to strive with them anymore.

They're turned over to reprobate silver by rejecting God's last call. And that's the title of my message this evening, friends, God's Last Call. This is a solemn message that begs our greatest attention, for we have friends and family members and associates who are lost and without God in the world.

And if they are not reconciled back to God through salvation in the person of Jesus Christ, they will die in their sins and spend a Christless eternity in a place of misery and endless torment called hell. There may be someone here in the sound of my voice who's in danger right now of hearing God's last call to them. This verse from Proverbs has a dire warning in that it speaks of sudden death to those who tarry like Lot's wife near the city, the city ready to be consumed with fire.

Our verse makes two alarming statements. The first is that the person who continues to harden their neck to the appeals of the gospel will be suddenly destroyed. This speaks of sudden death and unexpected removal of that person into another world.

And then the verse states, and that without remedy, which is one of the most alarming statements found in Scripture, friends, to die without the remedy for sin in the person of Jesus Christ, to die without remedy, to die in your sins and be sent to a burning place of misery and torment called hell. God's last call. Is it your last call from God, friend? He, that being often reproved, hardened his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed.

And that without remedy. What is a reproof, you may ask? A reproof is this. Every time you hear a gospel message, it is a reproof.

Every time someone hands you a gospel track, that's a reproof. Every billboard with a Bible verse on it that you see is a reproof. Every time you channel surf the TV or radio and come across a gospel program, that is a reproof.

To put these things off for another day is to flirt with sudden death. Does that concern you? Many people believe they have all the time in the world. You may be young.

You may have your future before you. You may be in prosperity and good health right now, friend, and feel all is well with your soul right now. But you fail to realize that you can be snatched out of this world by sudden death at any moment.

My Bible says, For man also knoweth not his time, as the fishes that are taken in the evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in the evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. Just pick up a newspaper or listen to the evening news, and you'll hear stories about people who fell victim to sudden death today. They began this day beneath a cloud of sky and were going about their normal daily routine when suddenly they were struck down and removed from this world and sent to an early grave.

I just read a tragic story about a family on their way to their son's college graduation, and the family was tragically killed in a small plane accident on the way to his graduation ceremony. You never know, friend, when it's your last day on this earth. Age has nothing to do with it.

Just go take a stroll through a cemetery and read the names and ages on the tombstones, and you'll soon discover that death is no respecter of persons. The young die as well as the old. How many times have you, dear friend, sat underneath a reproof from God, and you did nothing about it? You refused to come in utter surrender to his will for your life.

You have bucked God and said, not now, time and time again. Your neck is hardened as well as your heart, and you sit in great danger, even as my words fall all around you as a summer rain. He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

There are several aspects to our text which I'd like to bring before us at this time. The first is God's spirit will not always strive with man. There is a time for God's last call.

Secondly, sudden death hangs over your head like the sword of Damocles, ready to fall at any instant. It's only the grace of God which keeps that sword of death from descending upon you right now. You could be removed while you're listening to my voice.

A sudden stroke, an unexpected accident could remove you before my sermon is over and send you into another world which you were quite unprepared for. Charles Spurgeon was preaching outside of London in a large place where 10,000 people were gathered, and somebody in the crowd yelled, fire, fire, as a prank. And there was a stampede, and the balcony collapsed, and people were crushed to death in the panic and rush.

They died before Spurgeon's sermon was ended. You never know, friend, if today is your last day. You have to enjoy God's creation in this world.

Sudden death is all around us in today's violent society. You could be gunned down by a madman this week. You could be removed by violent crime.

The car in your garage could end up being your coffin. The boat you're planning for a pleasure trip could send you to a watery grave. The plane you board could suddenly lose its power and crash to the ground, sending you into eternity.

Life is fragile. Our time is not in our hands. We all die.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, in chapter 12 and verses 6 and 7, we read, Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, all meaning there are different ways to die. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Life is short, friends, and the older you get, the more you realize it.

Thirdly, this may be God's last call to you right now. How do you know if it's not? My message this evening may be your final reproof. If you are an unsaved person, then you stand on slippery ground in a perilous position of great danger.

For God's word declares, Surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction. How were they brought into desolation? As in a moment, they are utterly consumed with terrors.

And God also states, To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. I was in Scotland years ago, in a hotel in Edinburgh, and I stepped into the shower, not realizing it had just been waxed.

It was a death trap. No sooner had I stepped in there, I was thrown out on my head, because my feet slipped as if I was on ice. I fell onto a hard cement floor on my head, and my hand broke my fall.

I ended up with a broken wrist and a bruised head, but I could have just as easily been killed that day quite unexpectedly, and suddenly it was God's mercy that preserved me. I ended up eating dinner with my friend Ian Murray that night at his home, and he felt bad I was in such pain, but he was thankful it was not worse. Later that night, I took a plane to London.

The next day, flew back to America, all with a broken wrist and a bruised body. But my point is this, friends, you never know when the next moment may place you in another world. This may be God's last call to you now.

I wish to spend some time on each of these heads and elaborate further on our theme of he, that being often reproved, hardness his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. This aspect of God's last call, let me take a moment and elaborate on our first point, which was God's spirit will not always strive with man. Listen, friend, there is a time for God's last call.

If God is striving with you, friend, then you must act. There's a passage in Isaiah 55, 6, which states, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call you upon him while he is near.

This is God's spirit still striving with you through reproofs. God's spirit wooing you, perhaps God's last call to you. For God declares from a spirit shall not always strive with man.

The old world was destroyed by a flood save Noah and his family who sought refuge in the ark of safety. Jesus Christ is the ark of safety. He is the remedy for sin.

His blood washes all sins away. So we must be aware of this fact that God has a time when he will no longer strive with you. Seek him while he may be found.

Call upon him while he is near. Soon he may be gone, and all you have is silence. That's what hell is like, friend.

It's God leaving you alone forever, never to come near you again. Let me address our second aspect of our text, which is sudden death hangs over your head like the sword of Damocles ready to fall at any instant. Our text declares he that being often reproved hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.

I saw this principle time and time again in the life and ministry of the evangelist Rolf Barnard. When I was writing his biography, I came across real life examples of this truth. Barnard would be witnessing to a person, and they would reject the gospel, and suddenly they were killed.

Let me read you, friends, a page from Barnard's life taken from a sermon of his entitled Sudden Death, where he talks about God's last call. Here now are his words. God does reprove sinners, but you know how people in our day meet God's reproof? They harden themselves.

God does the reproving, and man does the hardening. Men harden themselves. They can't be neutral.

They can't get rid of God, so they harden themselves against the reproof of God. Am I talking to you? Every time God warns you, do you grit your teeth and spit in his face and go down the road that leads to hell? You know you have to harden yourself to do that. I remember in a certain city after I had brought a message one morning in an evangelistic campaign, I was shaking hands with some people, and I felt something pulling on my coat.

So I looked around, and there was a little three-and-a-half-year-old girl, curly-haired and beautiful, a little gift from heaven. And I picked her up in my arms, and she put her little arms around my neck and began to cry. Oh, Brother Barnard, I want my daddy to get saved.

Oh, Brother Barnard, I want my daddy to get saved. Now, the little girl didn't know exactly what it meant to be saved, but she knew that life in her home was hell, and she knew something needed to happen to her daddy. She was pitiful, and it just broke my heart.

Her mother soon came, and she began to sob and took the little girl out of my arms. Then I said to this wife and mother, I'll be on the radio this afternoon at 3 o'clock. I said, your husband curses preachers.

He curses God, and he has ordered me and your pastor out of his home. He never goes to any Assembly of God anywhere, and he brags about how tough he is. But sometimes he'll listen to the radio.

You make it convenient, and maybe he will listen to me this afternoon, and I'm going to preach to him. Well, that afternoon over the radio, I stopped about the middle of my sermon and asked the audience to pardon me. I said, I believe there is a man listening to the sound of my voice now, and I believe God sent him the last call this morning.

Then I told over the radio how that little three-and-a-half-year-old girl had come and climbed up in my arms and put her arms around my neck and cried, Oh, Brother Barnard, I want my daddy to get saved. I want my daddy to get saved. I said, I believe that daddy of the little girl is listening to me now.

I said, you wouldn't listen to God. You haven't listened to the pleas of your wife and little child. You haven't listened to anybody.

But now here is God talking to you through the tears and heartbreak of your little three-and-a-half-year-old girl. If there is a spark of manhood in you, get down on your knees and begin to repent of your sins and cry to God for mercy. You know what he did? He got up, turned that radio off, slammed his head on his head, opened the door, and cursed me, cursed the radio, cursed God, and cursed his wife, and slammed out of there and went to the nearest honky-tonk.

And within 20 minutes after he got out of the house, a man pumped five bullets in his body. You say that was accidental. No, sir.

Bless the Lord. He that be in often reproved, hardneth his neck. What's going to happen to him? Judgment is coming.

God is going to get hold of him. And he did that man. God kills people who harden themselves against him.

The result of hardening yourself under the reproving, convicting, pleading, persuading power and the person and presence of God and the Holy Ghost is sudden death. God warns, he said, I kill and I make alive. That's a powerful story, friends, from a page from Rolf Barnard's life, and it's true.

Suddenly be destroyed is what God declares. Let me address this last aspect of God's last call, and that is, this may be God's last call to you right now, friend, right now. How do you know it's not? The most tragic thing about this verse from Proverbs, friends, isn't dying.

We all will die one day, whether it's sudden or a slow, lingering death. In some respects, when it's my time to die, I think I'd rather die suddenly than have a lingering, slow, suffering death. Wouldn't you? Sudden death doesn't scare me.

But what scares me is the last part of our verse, which states, and that without remedy. Oh, friend, to die without the remedy for sin in the person of Jesus Christ, that's scary. That means a devil's hell, a torment and suffering that will never end, for all eternity, to die without remedy.

Listen, friend, this may be God's last call to you now. You may never hear a gospel invitation again. God may be issuing his last call to you through this servant's voice.

God is saying, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.

And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Did you hear that word pardon, friend? A guilty rebel who's broken the strict and severe law of God through sin needs pardon from sin. Listen, I know I'm a sinner, and I need a sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ.

And so do you, friend, so do you. God's last call can come to you without you knowing it's the last time he'll ever approve you. Don't delay.

Exercise repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ before it's too late. If you have been hardened in your neck to as many reproofs, how do you know if God will ever speak to you again? How do you know you will not wake up in hell tonight without having time to pack your suitcase? Repent before it's too late. My preaching, the final one verse to you, may be God's last call to you.

It may be your last reproof. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none else.