God's Last Call — E.A. Johnston

The Fleeting Nature of Life and the Urgency of God's Warning

Life is short, and death is unexpected. We live in a land of sudden death that grows more dangerous every day with new pandemics. This message I have for you today, friends, is a very solemn one. In fact, it's a solemn warning, because it may be the last sermon you will ever hear this side of eternity.

God's Spirit Will Not Always Strive With Humanity

There is a verse in Genesis that terrifies me. It's Genesis 6 .3, which states, And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man. And his judgment fell upon a wicked generation with a flood that swept them all away, save no one his family.

It is a warning to each of us not to resist God's striving with our soul. If we keep delaying and rejecting him, there will come a day when God's spirit will no longer woo you or convict you, but leave you alone.

Proverbs 29:1 and the Danger of Hardening the Heart

The title of my message today, friends, is God's Last Call, and my text can be found in the book of Proverbs. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in a familiar verse, but it's a haunting verse.

It's Proverbs 29 .1, which declares, He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and dead without remedy. What that verse means, friends, is this. God's spirit will not always strive with you to bring you to Jesus.

Reproof is every time you're handed a gospel track, or you hear a sermon on the radio, or a Bible verse comes to your mind, or someone witnesses to you about Christ Jesus. If you continually turn away, a day will come where God will harden your neck like he did the Pharaoh, to where you will be senseless to the call of God.

He will no longer faze you. And then a day shall fall upon you where you will be suddenly destroyed by death. And the last line of Proverbs 29 .1 is the most terrifying. And that without remedy, meaning you will die in your sins without the remedy for sin.

The Eternal Consequences of Dying Without Christ

You will die outside of Christ's blood. You will then spend eternity in a region of outer darkness. You will be bound hand and foot and cast into the bottomless pit of hell. There are no cell phones in hell.

There are no personal freedoms in hell. You will sit in smoldering chains that bind you forever. It's so dark in hell you can't see your hand in front of your face. But you will constantly hear the groans and shrieks of the damned all around you.

Listen, friend. He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed. And that without remedy. Are you a lost sinner? Have you ever surrendered to Jesus as Lord? Being a good church member won't keep you out of hell.

Hell is full of unconverted church members. God in his mercy may be dealing with you tonight for the last time, friend. The last time. After that, no more, will he strive with you or woo you to come to his blessed son.

Your ears will be made deaf to his calls. You will turn to iron. There'd be no hope for you at all. Suddenly, death will visit you and take your soul out of this world where you will be parted from family and friends.

It's very lonely in hell. All you have is your memory, and it haunts you with the guilt of sin, but no remedy for sin. He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed. And that without remedy.

God's Last Call and the Story of Rolf Barnard

Can you continue to resist the claims of Christ on your life? I want to end this message, friends, with a true story that occurred in the ministry of the evangelist, Rolf Barnard. I want you to listen to it, friend, because it's about God's mercy.

It's about God's last call. You listen carefully, friend, for this may be God's last call to you. Here now are the words of Rolf Barnard. 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 we called revival services.

Revival Preaching and the Thirty-Three Respondents

I began the meeting there on Sunday night. I got up that night and 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 not go home for a few minutes. I just can't let you go right now. Somebody happened to look at his watch, and exactly thirty-three minutes later, a lot had happened. That pastor stood there with his face in tears, and he pointed men out and called them by their given name.

I had never seen anything like it. He'd been a pastor there for over thirty 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, and he did that to thirty-three men, one by one.

Nobody left. He just called those men by name and talked to them, and here they came. Thirty-three minutes later, thirty-three 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 besides us. God used that preacher to talk to those men through him. He couldn't use me, but he used him.

We had an old-fashioned handshaking. We had thirty-three men professing their faith in Christ while 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 that night.

The Mine Disaster and the Last Opportunity for Salvation

For at 4 .26 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 to get down to where those men were trapped. The timekeeper or whoever is in charge of time consulted his books and knew there were thirty-three 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 thirty-three men who were crushed in that mine.

Every one of them were dead, and they were the thirty-three men that lined up there and said they had received Christ in that little church in that mining town, which I'll never forget as long as I live.