America's Last Call (Compilation) — Compilations

Human Depravity and the Need for Hard Preaching

Man is a fallen, radically depraved, spiritually dead, morally corrupt, sin-loving, God-hating creature. In the very core of his being, he is as opposed to God as the devil himself. He cannot change and has no desire to do so.

He loves a lie and will do everything in his power to restrain and suppress any and every truth about God. And the more he knows about God, the more he hates him because God is righteous and man is evil.

This is a darkened generation we're living in now. These are people robbed of truth and many have run away from the church.

A church that's defiled with pedophilia, child molestation, incest, adultery. A nation in a moral landslide that's inundated with pornographic filth that the whole world blushes at. And now out of Cannes Film Festival, according to the New York Times, there's a new movie about to hit the shores of the United States with 13, 14-year-old kids having unspeakable kinds of sex with adults.

And they said at the Cannes Film Festival, it's the boast of Cannes Festival, that we have not only pushed the envelope, we've gone over the edge. And America's now ripe for it.

There are millions of people going to hell and unless the church of Jesus Christ wakes up, they'll still be going a year from now. If we don't get that preaching back, you may as well sell America out.

We've got to get some hellfire preachers. We won't find them in the cemeteries, but we'll find them somewhere. I mean seminaries.

But God's going to find them. But God's going to find them. Now in every generation, God has raised up and set aside chosen vessels. These have been touched with the burning coals from the fire in the altar of God.

Preaching as God's Instrument for Salvation

God has put his word into their mouth and he has sent them out and he has used this principle ever since the beginning. Remember, God has no other plan. God has no other alternative. He has no other plan to save or ward a nation or a people or a society other than sending a preacher.

He sends men of God anointed to preach his word.

The greatest revival that came to America, it was when a bunch of men, again Jonathan Edwards and the other men with him, joined hands and said, by the grace of God we will never pluck unripe fruit. We will never press people to decision because these were his own words.

We'll lead them to damnation and not to salvation.

It was George Whitfield, no exception. He stood on Boston Common speaking to 20 ,000 people and he said, listen sinners, you're monsters. Monsters of iniquity, you deserve hell. And the worst of your crimes is that criminals or you men, you haven't had the good grace to see it.

He said, if you will not weep for your sins and your crimes against the Holy God, George Whitfield will weep for you. That man would put his head back and he would sob like a baby. Why? Because they were in danger of hell?

No. But because they were monsters of iniquity that didn't even see the inner care about their crime. Do you see the difference? Do you see the difference? The difference is here is somebody trembling because he's going to be hurt in hell.

And he has no sense of the enormity of his guilt and no sense of the enormity of his crime and no sense of his insult against deity. He's only trembling because his skin is about to be singed. Afraid.

And I submit to you that whereas fear is this good office work in preparing us for grace, there's no place to stop. The Holy Ghost doesn't stop there. And that's the reason why no one can savingly receive Christ until they've repented.

And no one can repent until they've been convicted. And conviction is the work of the Holy Ghost that helps the sinner to see that he is a criminal before God and deserves all of God's wrath. And if God were to send him to the lowest corner of a devil's hell forever and ten eternities, that he deserved it all.

And a hundredfold more.

Conviction Before Conversion

Some of you are Finneyites, I suppose. That's okay. You know, Mr. Finney never made an alterco. For the first three weeks of any crusade. You don't have a preach in America, dare go to a city. We all go for a one-night stand.

There's no scripture that supports that. He preached, preached, preached, preached. Until people couldn't sleep. Until they stopped him in the street and said, Have you no mercy? Don't ask me that, ask God.

He preached until their sins came alive. He preached until conscience lashed them as though they had some scorpion inside. He preached until their memory haunted them.

In every generation, there's a George Whitefield, there's a John Wesley that will just stand. There's somebody somewhere that will take their wagon and go to the field and begin to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Having Christ totally consumed their vessel. Having Jesus as everything that they are and ever will be. Lord of their life. Lord of their life.

Wesley, Holiness, and the Weight of Sin

Who will stand? Who will stand? Wesley was a preacher of righteousness that exalted the holiness of God. And when he would stand there with the two to three hour sermons that he was accustomed to deliver in the open air and he would exalt the holiness of God and the law of God and the righteousness of God and the justice of God and the wisdom of his requirements and the justice of his wrath and his anger.

And then he would turn to sinners and tell them of the enormity of their crimes and their open rebellion and their treason and their anarchy. The power of God would so descend upon the company that on one occasion it is reliably reported that when the people dispersed there were 1800 people lying on the ground utterly unconscious because they'd had a revelation of the holiness of God and in the light of that they'd seen the enormity of their sin and God had so penetrated their minds and hearts that they had fallen to the ground.

The Responsibility of Christians for Their Generation

This generation of Christians, and that's you, I've had my day. This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of lost people. You know the name this mission field to you? Your front street.

What's the point? The point is this. They're people. They're not numbers.

They go to hell when they die. If they don't know Christ. Let your voice be counted for righteousness in this generation. Speak for the Lord. Speak for the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I'm looking for missionaries I see all kinds of boys go in front of me. I want one man who will take one open Bible, walk out in the middle of the town square and preach until they kill him or someone comes out of there born again.

I want you to get that principle in your mind. We're going to see it further as we go. This is the way God's been working from the beginning. When the wickedness of Nineveh came up before the Lord He determined to destroy that entire population within a set time, 40 days after the time that His servant should arrive on the streets of Nineveh.

Jonah and the Forty-Day Warning to Nineveh

And what does God do? This generation is doomed. This generation is about to fall under judgment. What is God going to do? Is He going to work through a politician? Does He work through legislators? Does He work through poets?

Does He work through attorneys? Does He work through any other form? No. He sent a preacher by the name of Jonah, a Jewish preacher. The word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, Go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it.

For the wickedness has come up before me. You know the story. Jonah flees to Tarsus, ends up in the belly of the whale. But God has no alternative plan. God has no other plan. He says, You're going to go.

You're my only plan. Spits him out of the belly of the whale, sends him back. The scripture said the word of the Lord came the second time under Jonah saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, and preach it. The preaching that I tell you.

Nothing else but a man walking the streets. Crowds gather. This man is not preaching hype. He's not trying to win their favor. He doesn't care what they think of his preaching. They're about to die and go to hell.

This man says, You've got 40 days and you're dead. 40 days and it's over. You talk about hard preaching. You talk about tiptoeing around sin. No, this man did not tiptoe around sin. He said it bluntly, frankly, and put it to the point.

You're going to die. Judgment is coming. You have 40 days. That was God's only plan. John the Baptist comes out of the wilderness to face another generation going to hell. A generation under judgment.

John the Baptist's Call to Repentance

A generation of religious vipers. Proud Pharisees. Hypocrites. This is the generation that's going to be visited by the incarnate son of God. But first, God sends a preacher to prepare the way of the Lord to make his path straight.

John came preaching. Repentance. Listen to his message. All of you who don't like hard preaching. All of you who want to go to church where there's candy cotton preaching. All generation of vipers. Bring forth fruit suitable to repentance.

He's laid the axe to the root. Every tree that brings not fruit is going to be cast down and thrown into fire. He's got a fan in his hand and he's going to purge you. He's going to burn up all the chaff with unquenchable fire.

This is the preaching that God sent. This is the kind of preaching that God sent to make the path straight for the master. It's not a message conducive to self-esteem. It's not a how-to message. It's not a success message.

John didn't tiptoe around sin either. Every one of these men that God sent were anointing and they were told to warn people. To free from the wrath of God. And the Bible says that they confessed their sins.

They heard preaching from John the Baptist and so convicting, so powerful, so anointed. They fell on their faces and repented, the Bible says.

We've got to get some hellfire preachers. We won't find them in the cemeteries but we'll find them somewhere.

In the name of Jesus, stand up, stand up and preach the word of God in this generation.

Jesus, the Apostles, and the Foolishness of Preaching

Jesus himself came preaching. Scripture says Jesus went about all the cities and villages preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Then he sent forth his twelve. The Bible said to preach the gospel to every creature.

Scripture says he ordained twelve sending them forth to preach. They were to preach from the housetops. Then Paul is raised up. Paul says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them to believe.

And Paul makes it very clear, unmistakably clear that when God is about to judge a nation. When God's either about to bless with a revival or he's about to send judgment. He uses preachers. He raises up men of God that have been shut in with him.

He gives them the message. He anoints them. They come forth fearlessly from the presence of God. And the scripture according to Paul says God has in this time manifested and revealed his word through preaching.

That's Titus 1 .3.

Jesus Weeping Over Jerusalem and America's Last Call

But you remember again in the 16th chapter of Matthew verse 16 that Jesus said ask the people. Who do the people say that I am? Some say that I'm Elijah. Some say you're Elijah. Some say that you're John Baptist risen from the dead.

But some say that Jeremiah. What's the point of contact? Because Jeremiah was a man of tears. Because Jesus was a man of tears. Oh yes he whipped the people when he went to the temple. But wait a minute read a few verses back he wept before he whipped.

And if you're going to whip them weep over them. That makes all the difference in the world. Do you think he looked at that temple as you look at it? And want to take a picture? No cameras not thinking of that.

Do you think he looked at it with human eyes? Don't you think he remembered the time though this was Herod's temple the old one had gone? Don't you think he looked there and saw Jeremiah preaching and Isaiah preaching and all the prophets?

And this stupid people don't know he's the last. He's a prophet of prophets as much as he's a king of kings and lord of lords. And it is God's last call. I think you might take that scripture and change it.

Where it says oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets. Why don't we say America, America this is your last chance.

America, Revival, and the Need for Holy Preaching

These are the worst of times. These are the greatest of times. Rise up in the power of your God. Take this truth that is so dear to you and preach it even though it gets you killed.

The hold up is not Moonism, Mormonism, Communism, Socialism, Romanism and the other rottenism. The hold up of revival in America is the church of Jesus Christ. We want to resurrection life but we don't want to die.

We want to be filled but we don't want to be emptied. We want to be clothed but we don't want to be stripped.

As I see it, if there was ever a generation that needed straight, holy ghost, warning, convicting, soul stirring preaching, it's this generation. It is our time. We are far more perverted than Sodom. We are far more violent than Noah's day.

We are far more wicked than any of us could have ever conceived to be. So if ever a generation needed the word of the living God, it's today. We need powerful preaching more than any past society. We need a smite and conviction that smites the heart.

Instead, sad to say, what we most need we're not getting in the United States. Instead, we're witnessing a famine of hearing holy ghost preaching. I say it again, God's only plan is through the preaching of his gospel.

That was the plan for Christ's generation, for the apostles' generation. That's the plan for this last hour. Folks, it's not through politics. And everyone running around the country who tells me we're going to organize and we're going to legislate holiness, you don't know your Bible.

The Prophet's Commission to Speak Without Fear

God raises up anointed, fearless prophets and preachers of his word to bring a nation and generation to their knees. Or to harden their hearts before judgment comes. And for God in this generation. A man shot in with God.

A man who waits on God in God's presence until he hears the word of the Lord. Until he hears from the throne of God. And he comes out and stands before the people with the mind of God. And he's to preach with plainness the scripture set of speech, not of the wisdom of man.

He's to preach with spiritual authority. He's to be absolutely fearless. He's to name sin. He's to be the voice of the living God in these last days.

Richard Baxter and Preaching as a Dying Man to Dying Men

I think the most awesome task in the world tonight is not to be the president of the United States or the king of an empire, but to be a man who stands between the living God and the dying people. Somebody quoted to me again the words of Richard Baxter in 1500.

Richard Baxter went to Kidderminster. My precious wife and I used to drive through that town. There's an oversized statue, I suppose, about 15 feet high. There he is with a book in his hand. When he went into that town, there was not one family that had devotions.

And when he died, there wasn't one family that didn't have those. They had to put five galleries up. Wouldn't that be something? Five galleries to accommodate the crowd every Lord's Day. And he said the secret was that he was...

He said, I preached as if to never preach again. And as a dying man to dying men. He said, I preached as if to never preach again. And as a dying man to dying men. And that's what we're called to follow.

We're called to be a surrendered vessel in the hand of God. That the kingdom of God can go through our lives. Releasing people from behind prison doors. Healing those that have been bruised in heart. Giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf.

That they may come to the saving knowledge of Christ. Hallelujah.