What I would like to speak about today is that we are only fourteen months away from the beginning of Judgment Day. This is a very frightening thing to think about, especially if you know that you are not a child of God.
But we do know that even when we are so close to the end, salvation is still possible. We know that we could still have our sins forgiven because God is saving a great multitude and it may be you if you are not saved. This is what we have to keep in mind. God is still saving sinners.
God is very patient. He is very merciful. The Bible tells us that He is full of compassion. All of these things are things that He tells us about Himself. How wonderful it is that He is still saving sinners!
We know that God is very patient. He has been putting up with mankind for the last 13,000 years. He has been very patient with us because it is not as if man has been getting better. As we look at the world, we see that sin is multiplying. We can see that the family has been destroyed. As we look at society, we can see that man is living in open rebellion against God and that God is preparing this world for judgment.
So we know that God is very patient with His people, with His elect. For instance, we read in Psalm 136:1:
O give thanks unto JEHOVAH; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.
As we read through this whole chapter, God is speaking about His mercy and His grace. We know that His mercy and His grace goes on forever, but not for the unsaved. God’s mercy goes on forever for those who are truly saved, for His people.
God’s mercy on mankind, in general, is not an open-ended thing. Sooner or later, God’s mercy and patience and kindness will come to an end for the unsaved of the world, and we know that this is only 426 days away. For the child of God, God’s mercy goes on throughout eternity. For the rest of the world, this is quickly coming to an end.
Let us look at Psalm 103 where God is speaking about His mercy upon His people. We read in Psalm 103:17:
But the mercy of JEHOVAH is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him…
It is not upon everyone. It is upon “them that fear him.” It is upon His people.
The unsaved of the world do not fear God, as we read in Romans 3. God clearly tells us, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Unsaved man thinks that he can live as he pleases and that he will get away with it, which we know is not so.
But God’s mercy is:
…from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
His patience and His mercy is a wonderful thing. This is what we desperately need. If we are not a child of God, we desperately need God’s favor and mercy upon us. Wonderfully, in our day, this mercy is still available to the world. This will not be found in the churches anymore, but God is still saving a great multitude, as we know, in our day.
If we look at the days of Noah, for instance, we see His patience with the people of that day as He used Noah to build the ark for a period of 120 years. God was patient with them, and God tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Noah would have been telling the people of his day that God was about to destroy the world by flood.
We can just see the patience of God and His mercy as He raised up this prophet Noah to warn the people of his day what He was about to do. As we know, no one listened. There came a point where His patience came to an end. The flood did happen and He did destroy the people of that day.
God tells us in the Bible that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning.” As we live in this day, we should look back to see how God operated in the past in relation to how He brought judgment and how He destroyed the people of Noah’s day, and we should learn from this. In God’s mercy, He has now told us what He is about to do, just like He did when He was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He warned them.
Can you see how gracious God is? His mercy is being demonstrated in our day in that He has let us know what He is about to do. Are we listening to this?
Many are scoffing at this information, and it can be those in our own family. It could even be our own children or an unsaved spouse. They are scoffing at this information and saying that this cannot be so. For some who hear this information of God’s coming judgment, it goes in one ear and out the next. They pay no attention to this, even though it is God’s mercy that they hear this. But it has no effect and they just continue on with their lives. They are planning a wedding or a vacation, and yet God’s mercy and patience continues.
However, we know that God’s patience with man will come to an end in a few short months. In just fourteen months, Judgment Day begins. The door will be shut, just like in the days of Noah when God shut the door to the ark. When God shut that door, it meant that all of those who were on the outside of the ark perished. God’s mercy in that day was over. It came to an end, and we are headed very quickly to a similar day.
Let us read about this in Genesis 7. We read in Genesis 7:13-16:
In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and JEHOVAH shut him in.
And then that was it. Jehovah shut him in. This means that all of the people of that day who did not listen to the warning from Noah were outside of the ark.
This is one of the problems with man. We just do not listen. God is telling us here that it was God Himself who shut the door. We also know that come May 21, 2011, when Judgment Day begins, this door of salvation will be shut. There will be no more mercy and there will be no more salvation. No one else will become saved after that day.
Let us go down to verse 21. God is going to emphasize something by repeating Himself in verse 21 and in verse 23. We read in Genesis 7:21:
And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
All flesh died. Every man and everything that had the breath of life outside of the ark died. Everything—it was a total destruction.
God goes on in Genesis 7:22-23 to reiterate:
All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
In verse 21, God states “all flesh died…both of fowl, and of cattle,” and in verse 23, God emphasizes this again, “every living substance was destroyed…both man, and cattle.” Everything perished. Everything was destroyed.
God was patient with them. He warned them. But as we know, man does not listen. We just do not listen. People have the attitude, “No one is going to tell me what to do.” But here, God in His mercy warns. He warns man and He lets us know what He is about to do.
We know that in our day when we are so close to the end, God is still forgiving people of their sins. There is forgiveness with God. Salvation is still possible.
For instance, go to Psalm 103. We read in Psalm 103:8:
JEHOVAH is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He is telling us something about Himself. Although we are so close to the end, He tells us that He is merciful, He is gracious, and He is slow to anger. He is plenteous in mercy and this mercy is still available in our day.
Then He says in verse 9, Psalm 103:9:
He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
God will not always hold back. That day came when He did destroy the earth by a flood. He will not always hold back. The day comes when He will punish the unsaved of the world for their iniquities. We know that this day begins on May 21, 2011 and ends on October 21, 2011. He will not always hold back.
Maybe you have been hearing the true Gospel all of your life, but then the day comes when God takes your life and you die in your sins. But God was patient. Again and again, God will have someone share the Gospel with you. Maybe you have had parents praying for you. Maybe there has been a child that has been prayed for, but they were driving down the highway and they were killed in an accident. Their fate was sealed on that day, and yet God had been patient. But we know that His patience with the world will not last forever. It will come to an end.
We know that on May 21, salvation ends. How horrible it will be for those who are left here on that Day of Judgment. It is going to be the worst thing ever. In our little minds, we cannot begin to understand this. God tells us, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
This is a horrible thing, and yet there are those who just take this lightly. They mock and scoff at this information from the Bible, and yet they do not realize what they are doing. God is an infinite God. There is no limit to His understanding. There is no searching out His wisdom. His power goes on into eternity.
Do you want to turn your back on such an awful and awesome God as this? He has written the Bible. He has provided salvation for us. He has been so patient with us and told us what He is about to do, and you are not going to listen to this?
The root cause of all of this is pride. Man in his pride thinks that he is wiser than God. But we are not. We should know our place. We are nothing but dust and ashes, so to speak. This is what we are and the only thing that is guaranteed us in this life is our next breath. If He takes it from you, what can you do? You are dead. If you die in your sins, all possibility of salvation is over. It is over.
Turn to Psalm 86. God is going to tell us more about His great patience. We read in Psalm 86:15-16:
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion…
God is full of compassion:
…and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. O turn unto me…
If you know that you are not saved, do you see how you can go and beseech God for His forgiveness? It is not a guarantee that He will save you, but you are at least making your request known to Him.
It says:
O turn unto me…
We are asking God to turn us, as we read in Jeremiah 31:18, “turn thou me, and I shall be turned.”
So here is a sinner pleading with God:
O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.
We are beseeching God because we have read in the Bible that God is a merciful God. We are beseeching Him, “O Lord, turn me; turn me.”
In Isaiah 55, the Lord tells us, “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” When we are calling upon God, we are beseeching Him for His mercy.
There are those who think that we do not have to do this, but God instructs us to do so. Just like the publican and the Pharisee who went to the temple to pray, the publican was beseeching God, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” We beseech because we know, as we read in the Bible, He is plenteous in mercy. He is full of compassion, and so we are saying, “O Lord, turn me, turn me unto Thee,” because we know that we cannot do this of ourselves.
In Psalm 111:1-2, we read:
Praise ye JEHOVAH. I will praise JEHOVAH with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. The works of JEHOVAH are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
There are those who have pleasure in searching out the Word of God. God’s people take pleasure in searching out His Word.
Then we read in verse 3, Psalm 111:3-4:
His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: JEHOVAH is gracious and full of compassion.
We beseech God for His mercy, “O Lord, turn me to Thyself!” As we do so, we think about these verses in the Bible that speak of how gracious and merciful He is, and this grace is still available today. He is still saving a great multitude. It could be you if you are not saved.
But we also know that time is running out. Time is of the essence. Exactly fourteen months from today, Judgment Day begins. It will begin and then the day of mercy is over.
I am pretty sure that on that day, the unsaved of the world who were scoffing will begin to realize that Jehovah is the Lord God and that the Bible was right. It is then that they will realize that they have been wrong all along. They will be crying out for mercy, but there will be no more mercy. God will not hold His anger forever. This day comes, the door is shut, the true believers will be caught up to be with Christ, and they themselves will be left behind.
Even before this, how does anyone know that they are going to live to see tomorrow? No one knows this. Any one of us could die in death tonight, tomorrow, next week, or before the end of the year. We have no idea. God does not tell us the day of our death. God does not do this. It is only known to God. We have no knowledge of this. Therefore, it is a terrible thing to walk around in this life without Christ. God tells us when the end of the world begins. He tells us the beginning of Judgment Day, but He does not tell us how long we are going to live. He does not do this.
So with this knowledge, how should we be living our lives? If you know that you are not saved, you should be beseeching Him every day. We could never wear out our welcome before God.
If you hear about Judgment Day and you start getting nervous and your heart starts beating out of your chest, go to God. Lay it all out before Him. He understands. We know that He is gracious and that there is nothing that He does not understand. If you have uncertainties in your life or if you are not sure about your salvation, beseech Him. Go to Him again and again and again. Bring to Him words, His Word, “O Lord, I read in Your Word that You are gracious and that You are merciful. O Lord, could it be that You may be gracious to me, as undeserving as I am?”
We do not deserve His mercy. All of us deserve to be left behind on that Day of Judgment and to be totally destroyed. We deserve to be destroyed by God, and yet the Bible tells us, “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.”
God is a merciful God, but we know that He will not always hold back His anger. The time is coming when He will punish the unsaved. Then on October 21, 2011, He is going to destroy them forever. But God asks us the question, “Why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
God has given to us this wonderful salvation. The blessings for the true believers just go on and on and on and on and on. We read in the Bible how we are going to reign with Him forever. Those who are truly saved can say, “I do not deserve this. I do not know why God saved me.”
But God is no respecter of persons. It does not make a difference whether or not you live in this neighborhood or that neighborhood or if you have an I.Q. of 200 or whether or not you live in a mansion. This is all nothing. The most important thing and the number one priority in our lives ought to be whether or not we are ready to meet God when He comes in judgment or in death tomorrow or next week. It is not important whether or not we are going to graduate high school or whether or not we are going to get married or whether or not we have this or that. This is not the issue.
I am pretty sure that in the days of Noah, there were smart people. Maybe people even went to school in that day. They were people just like us and the Bible clearly tells us what they were doing before the flood. They were marrying and eating and drinking. They were doing all of the same things that we do. They were going about their work. They were doing everything that we do. They were people, just like we are. Then the flood came and God interrupted all of that.
He interrupted their lives and brought them to an end, just like He will do on May 21, 2011. It will not make a difference as to what you are doing at that time or what your plans are. God will interrupt your life because God is God and He is going to bring judgment. The true believers will be taken up on that day. Those who are left behind will have to face the wrath of God to eventually be destroyed.
Let us look at Psalm 130. It does not matter how badly you have sinned. People say that they have done this or they have done that. Yes, but this is because we are all sinners. There is not one of us who is not a sinner; but people think that they have an excuse by saying, “I have done this bad thing. How could God forgive me?” People have many excuses for not going to God, but let us read Psalm 130. Psalm 130:1-2 says:
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O JEHOVAH. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
We are supplicating before God as we plead, “O Lord, have mercy upon me!”
Then we read next in Psalm 130:3:
If thou, JEHOVAH, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Not one of us.
Then Psalm 130:4 says:
But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
In our day as we are right up against the end of the world, there is forgiveness with God. God can save someone in an instant. The Bible says “faith cometh by hearing.” It does not say that it comes by understanding, or else there would not be any hope for an unborn baby or an infant. There is forgiveness with God, no matter how terrible your sins are. Although we are so close to the very end of the world, salvation is still possible.
Psalm 130:4-5:
But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the JEHOVAH, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
There is great hope for those who are not saved. We hope in His mercy. We are hoping in God’s Word because God is the essence of hope. We wait. If we know that we are not saved, we should have great hope that God might save us.
Psalm 130:6-8:
My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in JEHOVAH: for with JEHOVAH there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
This is referring to the Israel of God, and so there is great hope for those who are crying out and waiting upon God for mercy. We wait and we wait. We pray and we wait.
We cannot manipulate God in any way. We cannot make God do anything. We cannot demand of Him to save us, like the study that Chris recently did where he spoke of the captains of their fifty making demands upon Elijah. No, we do not do this. We demand nothing from God. We come humbly before Him, just as Mr. Camping says that we come crawling upon our bellies before God, recognizing that we do not deserve anything from Him. We just beg for mercy because we know that there is forgiveness with Him.
Look at another wonderful verse in Lamentations 3. I love these verses. Here is a picture of someone who is frightened out of their skin because they are not sure of their salvation. They are begging God for mercy, and we read in Lamentations 3:21:
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
What has he recalled to his mind? He has recalled that God is gracious! He might save. He recalls this to his mind, and then it goes on in Lamentations 3:22-24 to say:
It is of JEHOVAH’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. JEHOVAH is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
There is great hope for someone who is waiting upon God and beseeching Him for His mercy.
Then Lamentations 3:25-26 says:
JEHOVAH is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of JEHOVAH.
We wait. We pray and we wait, with no demands. We demand nothing.
Can anyone do this? Of course. Can a child do this? Of course. God can save anyone. Whether someone has a disability or a handicap or born never being able to speak, if someone is under the hearing of the Word of God, God can save them. It has nothing to do with the amount of Biblical knowledge that one has. There are many people who can speak very learnedly about salvation, and yet they are going to be left behind on that Day of Judgment. Salvation does not come by how much one understands or because of the doctrinal stance that someone holds. No, salvation is something that God does.
Turn to Colossians 2. God tells us there how He has saved us. We read in Colossians 2:12-13 where God speaks about this salvation:
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation…
This word “operation” is the same word as “working,” because it is God who works in us “to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
So this is saying:
…through the faith of the [working] of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
And this is still possible in our day. No matter how much you have sinned, when you become a child of God, all of your sins are forgiven. You could have committed the most horrible acts that you would not want anyone else to know. Still, when you have become a child of God, all of your sins have been forgiven, and this is still available in our day.
Then we read in Colossians 2:14:
Blotting out the handwriting…
He wipes out your sin. He wipes it all out when you have become saved. How wonderful this is!
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
We know that all of this was done before the foundation of the world. This was when He wiped out all of our sins [note: the sins of His elect]. He wipes them out. What a wonderful God He is! He forgets them and they are all gone.
Let us look at a couple of verses where we read of Him wiping away sin. Let us start with a verse in Acts. In Acts 3:19, we read:
Repent ye therefore…
Remember that repentance is a gift of God. He has to give us repentance. We have to turn away from our sins, but this does not save us. God has to give us true repentance.
It continues:
…and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out…
He wipes them all out:
…when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
He wipes them all out when He gives us repentance. Remember that God does all of the work of saving us. He wipes our sins away forever. He tells us, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
I cannot emphasize enough that this forgiveness is still possible in our day. God is still forgiving people of their sins. This is impossible with us, “but with God all things are possible.” Therefore, we have to go to God and beseech Him that He might save us.
Turn to Isaiah 44:21-23. Here He tells us:
Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens; for JEHOVAH hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for JEHOVAH hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.
He has blotted out our transgressions “as a thick cloud” when we become a child of God.
But God does not save us because He sees something good in us or anything like this. No. We are all sinners and we are all in the same boat together. We are saved “unto the glory and praise of God.” He does this to glorify Himself. If you read Ephesians, you will see that we are saved “to the praise of the glory of his grace.” There is no reason why He should save any one of us, not one of us. He does this to glorify Himself.
Turn to Isaiah 43 where we read of God speaking about Himself. We read in Isaiah 43:25:
I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
This was for His own sake, and He will not remember our sins. When He truly saves a person, He has done this for His own sake. It has nothing to do with us.
I am the worst sinner there is. But if you are saved, then you know of this wonderful grace of God. If not, you can still have your sins blotted out today before it is too late.
Judgment Day is fast approaching. It is only fourteen months away. As we all know, we are only 426 days away from this no longer being possible any longer. So we need to take seriously this warning from the Bible that Judgment Day is almost here.
Life is not all fun and games, children. I have four children of my own. Children, if that day comes and you are not saved, you will be left behind. If your mom and dad are caught up to be with Christ, then they will not be here to comfort you. You will have to face the wrath of God on your own. Parents are not responsible for the sins of their children, neither are children responsible for the sins of their parents.
I hope that you children are taking seriously and listening to this from the Bible, because life should not be about fun and games and toys and friends and hanging out and going to the mall and all of these things. In that Day of Judgment, none of this will even matter. It will not mean one thing. Judgment Day will be here. Then on October 21, 2011, you will be destroyed.
Let us close.