(Clip) Time to get right with God — David Wilkerson

The Urgency of Getting Right With God

It's time to get right with God. In 2 Corinthians, it said, Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. He said, this is a day of mercy. This is a day of grace. This is the time for you to get right with God and deal with this mercy.

Receiving Grace Without Turning Away

Paul said, don't receive the mercy in vain. Don't turn away. Don't turn away from the gentle call of Jesus to come back to his arms. Now, this is a message of grace, but it's also a warning. Receive it as a warning.

Growing Cold in the Beginning of Sorrows

Now, today is the day of salvation. Jesus warned that in the last days, many are going to grow cold. The scripture says, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold. And he said, this is going to happen in a time he called the beginning of sorrows.

And folks, we're living in what Jesus said. I believe this in my heart, that we're living in the beginning of sorrows. We're living in a time of unprecedented greed, rampant iniquity, sexual perversions beyond description.

And Jesus said, in those times, in the beginning of sorrows, many hearts are going to grow cold. And he said, they're going to turn away. This is not the day. If you've chosen this day, if you were still walking with a cold heart, you've chosen the wrong time.

Why Delaying Repentance Is Dangerous

This is not the time, according to scripture, to reject the loving call of Christ. I hear people say, I can get right with God anytime I choose. I'll know the time. I'm not ready yet, and I'll know the time.

I have some things I want to accomplish in my life, and I have friends, and I want to enjoy myself. And when I'm ready, I'll come to God. Now, there's some problems with that. And there are issues that you've got to understand, because coldness leads to hardness.

Falling Away Through Hardness and Deceit

That's what the scripture says. He said, there will come a great falling away. And those who receive not the truth are going to fall under what the scripture calls the deceivableness of sin. It's so deceptive, it can harden a cold heart.

And the scripture says, those who receive not the love of the truth will fall into the deceivableness of sin. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. In departing from the living God, exhort one another daily.

And I'm exhorting you now. I'm doing exactly what the scripture says. Well, it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. In Hebrews 3, wherefore, as the Holy Ghost is saying, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your heart.

And he said, that's what Israel did, and that is what many have done all these times. And the Lord says, in the last day. He said, the door is still open. Don't you harden your heart. Israel hardened their heart, Bible says, in the day of provocation.

In a time when they believed that God no longer answered their prayers. In a time of deep affliction. In a time of trouble. Bible says they hardened their heart because they couldn't see any evidence of God answering their prayer.

I meet people like that. I meet people who've hardened their hearts, who once knew Christ and walked with him closely. But now, you see, they prayed about something, affliction, somebody was dying of cancer, whatever it may be.

And that person died. And this person said, I prayed and I did everything and I claimed the scripture and I just can't handle it. And they appeased with God. Israel got peeved, got angry at God, because it wasn't happening the way it, and they're not, they were never satisfied in the murmuring and complaining, and they hardened their hearts.

I know people that have hardened their hearts because they won't give up friends. I know many young people, some of them close to me, who say, look, I just don't feel this is my time. You know, I can say, till today.

But I talk to young people, some of them who have turned their back on the things of God, and they won't listen to me. I know scripture, and they seem to be on hearing of the grace and the mercy of God.

Hearing Christ’s Voice Today

Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. Last night, I was asking the Holy Spirit, tell me what hardness is. What is this that people can spin off into hardness? It's not that God has changed.

It's not that God has withdrawn his mercy. That won't happen. That invitation is always there. The covenant is always there. And the invitation is always there. And it's always tender, it's always loving, it's always kind.

But you can be sitting here now, and I don't care how much love that comes from my heart. I don't care what kind of appeal I make. I don't care what kind of pleading the Spirit makes through me. If you have a hard heart, you say, I'm going to work.

You're not going to listen, you're not going to hear. And here's what I scribbled down, and I believe the Holy Spirit led me to this. Hardness, a heart that is beyond the influence of the gracious pleading of Christ.

They place themselves beyond the pleadings of the Holy Spirit. It's a self-imposed exclusion with no intention of ever obeying the call of the gospel. No intention ever. No matter what preachers preach, no matter how the Lord himself could come down in the flesh, the Bible said, and many would not believe.

A refusal to accept the mercy of Christ. A person who keeps putting distance between himself and God. It's self-imposed. And the hardness, oh, how I tremble. I've met pastors in my worldwide travels and preaching ministers conference, once on fire for God.

Look me in the face and shake hands and says, no. And they've turned away, hardened themselves. Coldness leads to hardness. Now is the time to get right with God because this generation has lost, secondly, has lost the fear of God.

Losing the Fear of God

There's no fear of God left in the land. This is what the Bible says. The fear of the Lord, a fear of the Lord and depart from evil. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged.

And by the fear of the Lord, men depart from their evil, from the fear of the Lord. This past week, I come out of the apartment and there on the bus on the side, there's no God, have fun. London, all over the buses.

There is no God, let's party. We've come from that, from that fear of God. And you see, if you have no fear of God, you have to invent a gospel of convenience. And this is what's happened in America and around the world.

You see, man can't get away from that nagging sense. And that's the Holy Spirit who says, there's death and then there's judgment. There's a day of standing before God to give an account. And the Bible makes it very, very clear.

There's a heaven and there's a hell. And there's a day we're going to have to give an account. And there is a hell. And Jesus said, there's a hell of fire and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, a darkness that can be felt.

The Gospel of Convenience and a Tolerant Jesus

And there is a hell. But you see, man has to invent a gospel where there's no God. And that's where we are in the United States and around the world right now. No hell, no heaven, this is it. So just live it up and have your time, have your fun.

You see, this is the danger when we reject the call of the Holy Spirit. And what about Jesus? You see, the devil knew that he couldn't take that out of his gospel because everybody, Lee said, he's a good man.

He was a teacher, he's a prophet. And so he brings in a Jesus that is tolerant. That's the key word right now, tolerance. Tolerant toward same-sex marriage, tolerant toward everything. There's no such thing as sin.

There's no such thing as a sinner. There's no such thing as judgment. And so they buy into that. Young people are buying into that. Many Christian young people are saying, we need to be more tolerant.

And so they too believe that same-sex marriage is okay with me. You know, they can do what they, they can try as they will. But now the spirits speak in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hard iron.

Mercy as a Call to the Narrow Road

Now see, what I'm preaching to you now is mercy. It's if I was thinking last night, the Bible said there's a narrow road that leads to eternal life. And there's a wide road leading to destruction. And you see them coming the road and they're heading pale mouth or over the hill.

And there's a glow on the other side of the hill. And you know, I stand there, any man of God who's standing there and saying, turn back, go back, go back. Friends, I say that's mercy. That is mercy. What I'm giving to you now is the mercy of God, who so loved you and said today, now is the time to make it right.