home

You may freely copy and distribute this article in part or in full as long as you include the following:

from The Prayerline Newsletter by Darrell C. Porter

"The Clouds of Judgment"

January - March, 2009

Overhead the sky bulges thick with heavy clouds, gray and lowering. In an eerie way
they gaze downward upon the vast shadowy earth like bulbous eyes, roaming back and forth. Stretched out across the entire expanse, and rolling upon itself like a sea of thickening doom, they are poised to unleash their contained violence. Stunned by this massive sight it is plain to see that from its power there is no escape.

Here is more than a mere natural storm. It is the reply of heaven. It is the harbinger of the wrath of God upon the whole earth that will rupture with a thunderous noise, and without prejudice. No one will find a way of escape; save the elect few whose ark of safety is God’s very own Son. This ark of life have they built by their faithfulness and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Truth of God that men rejected, now stands as his judge. At this hour He will neither spare nor restrain His wrath by mercy to many, who throughout their lifetime have rejected His mercy.

At this hour the travails of the children of light (1Ths.5:5) will suddenly end. The despisers of heaven will have no more prayers prayed for them, no protection over them, no tears of intercession shed for them again. For the Lord of heaven “shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Rev. 2:14) The doomed will have only their shameful selves laid bare in their own uncleanness and rebellion against heaven. Like a mouse on the run, peeping out of a hole to see if it is safe to come out, the wicked will no longer have a hole in which to crawl. They will be openly exposed in the air of judgment, with no where to go.

“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, andfrom the glory of his power.” (2Th 1:9)

From which they will find no escape, for there is nowhere to run. The Almighty has seen everything. He will do to them what they have done. As they have trampled His Name to the ground and His people beneath their feet, so too will they feel the heel of Him Who tramples down the wicked to the dust of the earth. Their obsession with themselves and the ways and pleasures of this world will plague them long after all flesh has rotted in decay. They will desire but never have. The worms of their wants will be all they will eat, which will also eat upon them. (Mr.9:44,46,48)

“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mr.9:43-48)

Those who feed only on flesh, and the fear of other flesh, and not on faith will have the flesh of worms on which to feed forever. Their despite for God and His ways will be the very thorns that pierce their naked souls forever, as they reap what they have sown. They delivered not unto God what belonged to God, nor listened to His messengers. (Matt.22:21) The air pride and pompousness which they breathed will suddenly hurl them into the whirlwinds of endless despair.

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” (Ho 8:7)

From everywhere, and out of every occupation will they come - the preacher as well as the politician; the executive and the lowest worker; the rich and the poor; the educated and uneducated; the pretty and the ugly; the churchgoer and the non-churchgoer; the popular and unpopular.

All will face Him. Yet none will be able to face Him. None can lie to God. No plea or seduction or manipulation will work here. Being a female will not spare you. Being Black or Mexican or Muslim means nothing to Him. Your political correctness is utterly incorrect before God. If He spared not His own chosen people, the Jews, nor even His only begotten Son from the cross, how dare you think you will escape the consequences of your continuous crooked ways? Look up! The clouds of judgment are already overhead, ripe with the wrath of righteousness.

“Oh no!” Some say. “But the sky looks clear today, and beautiful!. I don’t see any clouds!”

Do you put all trust only in what your natural eye can see, which cannot see past the surface? Or do you trust the written Word of God which truthfully reveals what is and also what is to come, both in this world and the one unseen? (Rom.1:19-20)

Heaven stands ready to release upon the wicked what they have earned. (Gal.6:7) Nothing can stop it. Like a mountainous avalanche it will crash down upon the ungodly – all of them. (Rom.5:12) None will be saved, except those who are in the “ark” of Christ. (Rom.5:17-19) The ways of the wicked will have caught up with them.

Therefore, while the Light of God’s mercy yet shines it is of the highest urgency that you run from under the cloud of God’s judgment and into the safety of His Son, Jesus Christ.

We know the law of gravity that says what goes up must come down. Yet we are ignorant of the law of judgment that says, “the soul that sinneth it shall die?” (Ez.18:20)

You cannot negotiate your way out of what you deserve. Nor can you blame father or mother or teacher or husband or wife or boss or government or preacher or any other person, group or thing. God is looking at you. All by yourself will you stand before Him and give answer for your deeds. With all the bad blows the world has beaten upon you, God will reply, “What did you do with the good that I gave to you?” If you have done evil because evil has been done to you and have not done good because God has been good to you, then evil will be your reward. You will reap what you have sown.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he alsoreap.” (Gal 6:7)

God is perfect and He is just. He is also impartial and without prejudice. The wicked will be turned into what they truly are without God. They will be turned into hell. (Ps.9:17) These truths are not up for debate. What God has said is what is. We have become so use to deception and lies that we think all men are liars, including God. We are so use to having things our way that we think God will follow our crocked paths. Not so. Our ways are not the way; nor is the way of any created thing. (Isa.55:8) Jesus shined a light that revealed the only safe and right path for us to walk. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the father but by me.” (Jn.14:6)

Beloved, judgment is not an idle threat. It is a fact of God. It hovers over head now, and will be poured out soon. This is why God’s people pray. This is why certain ones work so hard to bring others into the Kingdom of Christ. This is why these same believers turn the other cheek when wickedness strikes them in the face again and again. (Lu.6:29) Because they know the days of the wicked are nearly over. Now if a child steps on your toe will you then throw it off the tallest building? Unthinkable! Cruel! Then why be enraged and seek vengeance upon the those who, blindly, are plummeting toward hell? Pray for them! Do good to them that they might be drawn by the spirit of goodness to your own Lord and Savior, and live. Our God plants compassion in the hearts of His saints. He wants them to pray, aware of what awaits the sinner that refuses to turn to God.

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” (Isa 45:22)

The saved do not want God’s judgment to fall on those they know and love.

Their longing reaches even further, to strangers and foreigners and people of different lands, cultures and languages. Why? Because they want them to live!

Yet men, which cannot predict what will happen tomorrow, will presume upon God that He will take them into His eternal heaven. If you have not made preparation for God, you will not be with God.

Hence the Lord implores His own not only to pray but also to purposefully love their enemies. This is so the enemies of God may be drawn to Christ, the only Way into God’s kingdom. In such meekness there’s hope that the Lord of mercy may be gracious to this one or that one to bring them to eternal Salvation. God, Who is just in all His judgment, is also merciful unto total Salvation. This is why the humble pray, and pray without ceasing. (1Thes.5:17)

Yet, in spite of the judgment that must come, and already looms over the ungodly, we also see that the righteous are judged as well, through countless trials, afflictions and persecutions in this world. Now, “if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1Pe 4:18) The afflictions of the righteous are many. (Ps.34:19)

“Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and haveno certain dwellingplace; And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; beingpersecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and arethe offscouring of all things unto this day.” (1Cor.4:11- 13)

Here again is why God’s people are committed to prayer. Salvation weighs heavy in its cost to heaven. Jesus died for our sin! Its weights heavy in its heavy cost to us. We must die to sin daily to live to Christ. (Lu. 9:23)

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2Ti 3:12)

“Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mineown countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils inthe sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hungerand thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that whichcometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. (2Cor.11:25-30)

Now the afflictions of God’s people in this world are only for a brief life time. Faithfulness to Christ, in the midst of all hardships, lays up for them treasures in heaven. (Matt.6:20;Mk.10:21) God’s unspeakable joy and un-searchable rewards awaits them with peace and life forever. This is the joyful hope of the saints. Their short time on this earth is the only hell they will ever know. Those in constant pursuit of the ways and pleasures of the flesh will find this is the only heaven they will ever have. Eternity for them is being cast out from the presence of God and His goodness forever.

In spite of these plain truths, which are so often repeated throughout all the Scriptures, some will say, snarling, “Why do you harp on judgment? The God I serve is a God of love. He does not condemn people.”

Ignorance of the Scriptures breeds fear of the threat of any judgment, no matter from where it comes; no matter how just. But avoiding judgment, or even death itself, is not the same as achieving life. Today I spoke with two groups of sixth graders in a Nevada middle school. Nearly all of them had read or were currently reading a popular novel, a love story about vampires. They were awed with this story and the main characters. I asked if they knew what a vampire really was.“Yes!” They said. “They go around sucking blood out of people.” One youngster replied, “That’s cool!” I asked another group, “Would you want to be a vampire?” Eyes glistened like they had won a grand prize or something; and many of them yelled out, “Yes! I would love to be a vampire!”

American children, even younger than this, are learning the ways of witchcraft. They study, write, draw pictures and are dazzled by the idea of having power and control over others.

God is not in this picture. His Son and the Bible have been unwelcome in their schools, their television programs, their music, their literature and many of their homes from before they were born. So it is no wonder they are being raised up to admire and seek after wickedness. Sadly, it doesn’t matters if one drinks poison on purpose or by being poisoned. If it is in you it will do what it will do. If Jesus does not save you from what is in you – the sin of death – then you are doomed.

To not “harp” on God’s clear Word against sin, and His condemnation of it, is to bind oneself to the side of sin.

“…know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever thereforewill be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (Jam.4:4)

God’s plea to the wicked is: Repent! Turn to Him and be saved! (Rom.10:13) Call anybody else you want – any name under heaven you can find. Call Buddha. Call Mohammed. Call Allah, if you think he is God. See if they will answer you. See if they can save you.

The peoples of the past did that already. Their children today have no more life than they did. Their religious deeds only brought emptiness, and their souls beneath the dust. Not one of these exalted figures, or a thousand others beside them, ever lived a life of righteousness or died voluntarily for their people, then rose from the dead and walked among their people for forty days before ascending into heaven while some 500 witnesses stood there gazing upward. (Acts 1:9-11; 1 Cor.15:6)

Pick a name out of all those and none will come near to the very Name of Jesus, and all He did.

Modern youth are enamored with vampires and witches and drug lords and glamorous whores and evil dictators, as they coldly rebel against their parents, teachers, law enforcement and most anyone in authority. ,All while those who are called to be God’s light and salt in the earth, stand defending the “right” of the wicked to practice their wickedness. Know you not that the Bible condemns “those who practice such things” saying they “shall not inherit the kingdom of God”? (Gal.5:21)

Does any of this sound harsh? If so, it is an indictment to the modern pulpit, which has not taught them. Afraid, or else, utterly unbelieving of the truths of Scripture, they have instead “loved” their sheep to death and destruction. With nothing to offer them of spiritual substance they have opted to lay down in bed with the world and its fleshly ways, using Scripture to justify their rebellious lusts. They have produced worldly children by the millions and have grown fat off their offerings and treasures. These lovers have become one spirit. God will give this hybrid creature its just judgment.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he alsoreap.” (Ga 6:7)

It is most urgent that you “…come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” (2Co 6:17)

Though he suffers for his faithfulness, the truths of God bring comfort to the believer. (Rom.15:4) The back-slider feels the divine tug upon him to turn back to God and His uncompromised Word.

Now the question is, what must I do to be saved? Understand that the Bible implores you to “Save yourself from this ontoward (wicked) generation.” (Acts 2:40) Secondly, there are thousands of churches and ten thousands of preachers; and not one of them can save you. Not a church, not a preacher, not a religion. These appeal to the human eye. Yet not one of them can save you. Only He Whom you cannot see can save you. It is faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ alone that can save a soul from the great judgment to come. To look to any other man or religion or way of life to save your eternal soul, may well gain you that man, religion or way of life on this earth, but will sadly cost you your gain of God. Faith in temporal things always fails at some point. Now men and religion have their place, for sure; and should be honored up to their limitation. For certain, go to the godly preacher that he may give you the words of Salvation. But run to Christ that He may save you. Christ is above all. (Php.2:9-10)

============================

Time has gone by, and the ominous clouds have yielded to the bright sun and a clear blue sky. The Day of Judgment is now swallowed up by the Day of glory. The wicked who once were spread out like a green bay tree are now no more. The land and the sky and trees bear no memory of them. All creation lives for the reason it was created. Living things enjoy other living things, as well as their own existence. Kindness and goodness and joy is met at every turn. The heart of the living, it’s very thoughts and desires, are for good. As the bird in the sky can only fly in the air, likewise the children of God can only abide freely in His eternal, Spirit, in Whose presence is joy everlasting. Prayer and judgment is a part of all things. Yet the end of judgment, like the end of prayer, is peace.

###

The PRAYERLINE Newsletter is a quarterly publication of Darrell C. Porter Evangelistic Assoc., Inc.

www.oneaglewings.com

To be placed on our email list complete sign up form click Here.