J. Edwin Orr preached a sermon called, “Revival is like judgment day.” Someone told him the Shantung Revival in China was about people recognizing their sins and repenting and confessing like it was judgment day. He preached, “The Spirit of God just shines His searchlight on our hearts and anything out of keeping with God's Word and God's will is exposed, and we're forced to deal with it.” It was Orr’s last sermon. The next day he died. He finished his work. Have you ever experienced a true revival? How did it change your life?
I was in a week-long revival meeting one time in Ivanhoe, Texas. Up on the Red River, we gathered every night and sang an Andrae Crouch song, “We need to hear from you. We need a word from you. If we don’t hear from you, what will we do?” One night as I preached a thunderstorm rolled in off the Red River. We were under a tornado warning. Lighting and thunder punctuated my points in the old white clapboard church. Then, the lights went out. Hail dented my Ford Fairmont and covered the ground six inches deep. My car was forever changed. The Lord had our undivided attention.
There will come a day when God pours out his wrath on the earth. Plagues, fire, earthquakes, and storms will reveal God’s judgment against sin. In John’s vision, one hundred-pound hailstones will fall from the sky. The largest recorded hailstone is almost eight inches in diameter (the size of a bowling ball) and two pounds in weight. These hailstones will be larger. And what will people do? Will they repent and seek God? No. John says they will curse God.
The good news for us today is that Jesus absorbed God’s wrath on the cross. We don’t ever have to experience God’s ultimate wrath. But if we reject Christ, then we are on our own. John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” For those who reject God, wrath remains. When we experience difficulties in life, we may get angry at God or turn toward him. We can run from God or run to him. That night in Ivanhoe, God drew us closer to him. My heart was changed. We confessed our sins and placed our trust in him. God moved mightily among us. Don’t wait for the hail to fall. We can turn to God right now. Will we?
