When God Has to Kill You

The modern church maintains an unrealistic view of God today. We have shrunken God down to man's size, put him on our level, and our view of God is one of a jolly, harmless Santa Claus who merely exists to bless his little darlings. We refuse to read our Bibles, and we refuse to acknowledge the God of the Bible must ponder sin.

1 Samuel 2.6 declares, The Lord killeth, and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. But we don't believe that.

We don't believe in that side of God. We see God as being a God of all mercy. We refuse to see him also as a God of justice.

In the first epistle of John, there is a verse about the sin that leads to death. We find this in 1 John 5.16. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death.

I do not say that he shall pray for it. Once a person, a believer, crosses this line, he or she is beyond prayer even, because they are under a death warrant by God himself. The best interpretation of that verse is to compare it to the passage in Acts 5.1-10 concerning the sudden deaths of Annihilus and Sapphira for sinning against the Spirit.

God killed them. He did it immediately. We're talking about the New Testament God here, because some skeptics will say God was that way in the Old Testament, but he's not that way for our day, our day of grace.

Listen, friend. Jesus never preached a sin in religion. Antinomianism is ripe through the church today, and holiness has been thrown out the window.

Many hold to the philosophy, since I'm saved by grace, I can sin all I want to and still go to heaven. But I'm here today to warn you that you're skating on thin ice, and it's about to break, and down you'll go in the cold, icy formalism of rebellion. There is a sin that leads to death.

So says God in our Bibles. This sermon is a dire warning to some of you who are living in rebellion to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In these last days, you're going to witness a lot of Christians suddenly dying, for Christ will soon return, but he won't come back for a dirty bride.

Before Christ's return, the church will go through a purging, purifying, and pruning. And those who refuse that process will be removed suddenly by God through death. My message today, friends, is entitled, When God Has to Kill You.

And my text can be found in the book of Job, in chapter 36, and in verses 8 through 12. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word. Oh, listen to this message, friends, I beg you.

And if they be bound in fetters, and beholden in cords of affliction, then he showeth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded. He openeth also their ear to discipline and commanded that they return from iniquity. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures.

But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword. Listen to me very carefully, friend. I don't care if you're a deacon, an elder, a pastor, or seminary professor.

If you've been in the church, even for many, many years, if God has put his finger on a sore spot in your life, a sin area that God has been dealing with, and if you refuse to give that sin up, forsake it, turn from it, and be corrected, and live for God, and he has brought chastisement and correction into your life to get you to live for him time and time again by forsaking that particular sin. And he has given you enough time and mercy and forgiveness time and time again. And he's plainly told you in his written word and by his spirit to repent and turn back to him in a life of holiness.

And he has planted a big red warning sign, a red stop sign in your life, and he's drawn a line declaring, do not go beyond this line. Do not pass the stop sign or else. And if you hold yourself and continue to heed his warnings, continue to ignore the pleadings and reproofs of his spirit, then he has no choice but to remove you.

There is a sin unto death. And if you don't believe that, friend, then you're on dangerous ground. You may even be at the point now of no return where no prayers will do you any good.

You may be under a death sentence and God is getting ready to carry it out and remove you. Listen, friend, time is short. Christ will soon return.

Get serious with him. Get serious with God and he will get serious with you. God says, return unto me and I will return unto you.

You have been duly warned.