Matthew 24
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
 
Matthew 24 speaks of a time like no other, and as much as this generation would like to do away with this book, God’s word is being fulfilled.
The one thing that is missing in our text is conviction of sin. They loved sin and kept sinning, and they lived as if there was no God. God has called me to set the ram’s horn to my lips and sound the alarm. I ask you, why do you not have conviction in your life? How can you profess to be a Christian and do the sin you do? When there is an absence of the Holy Spirit, sin will run wild, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. There is a time to repent of sin, but there is a day when time will run out.
 
Daniel 5
The Message
The Writing of a Disembodied Hand
5 1-4 King Belshazzar held a great feast for his one thousand nobles. The wine flowed freely. Belshazzar, heady with the wine, ordered that the gold and silver chalices his father Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from God’s Temple of Jerusalem be brought in so that he and his nobles, his wives and concubines, could drink from them. When the gold and silver chalices were brought in, the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, drank wine from them. They drank the wine and drunkenly praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.
5-7 At that very moment, the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the lamp-illumined, whitewashed wall of the palace. When the king saw the disembodied hand writing away, he went white as a ghost, scared out of his wits. His legs went limp and his knees knocked. He yelled out for the enchanters, the fortunetellers, and the diviners to come. He told these Babylonian magi, “Anyone who can read this writing on the wall and tell me what it means will be famous and rich—purple robe, the great gold chain—and be third-in-command in the kingdom.”
Belshazzar had run out of time, he had no conviction, and what did the hand write?
After no one could interpret what the hand had written, the hand of God had written a last-second warning, yet it was not enough.
Daniel 5:
24-26 “God sent the hand that wrote on the wall, and this is what is written: mene, teqel, and peres. This is what the words mean:
‘Mene: God has numbered the days of your rule and they don’t add up.
27 “Teqel: You have been weighed on the scales and you don’t weigh much.
28 “Peres: Your kingdom has been divided up and handed over to the Medes and Persians.”
 
30-31 That same night the Babylonian king Belshazzar was murdered. Darius the Mede was sixty-two years old when he succeeded him as king.
Time had run out. King Belshazzar closed his eyes on earth and opened them in hell.
How many times has the Holy Spirit tried to turn you but you wouldn’t listen? How hardened is your heart? I see you have time for everything but God: no time for church, no time to pray, no time to read His word. The truth is, you’re running out of time.
 
Matthew 24: RSV Signs of the End of the Age
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Take heed that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: 8 all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.
 
We are living in this day. It’s like I can see that disembodied hand again. Can you understand the message? What really should be on the hearts and minds of people goes unnoticed: churches with no spirit of God, people who cannot even see the handwriting on the wall. Repent before it’s too late!
 
When the pastor has revival, you should be there every service. When prayer meetings are called, it should be a joy to go. I believe we are at war. We are already in World War III. Time is running out, and the tribulation period is upon us. “The tribulation period starts immediately after the rapture of the church.” If you don’t make the rapture, I issue this stern warning.
 
Matthew 24:9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then many will fall away and betray one another, and hate one another.”
 
When the church is taken from this world, there will be evil like no one has ever seen ruling the minds of men. The spirit of murder will rule the world. If they sacrifice children today, what will happen during this time? You say, “Pastor, don’t talk like that. You’re scaring me.” “I can’t scare you.” “Without conviction, there is nothing that will move you.” “Time is running out.” Fall on your knees and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins. There is only one sin that’s going to send you to hell: it’s the sin of rejecting Jesus. “Don’t reject Jesus.” This could be the last chance.
 
In Genesis 19, we have the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:
24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; 25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord; 28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
 
Verse 29 stands out to me in the context:
 
29 “So it was that,” “when God destroyed the cities of the valley,” “God remembered Abraham,” and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.
 
“So it was that,” Abraham was weighed and found worthy.
 
“When God destroyed the cities of the valley,” time had run out for the people who much mercy had been shown.
“God remembered Abraham.” God had shown Abraham favor. Will God show our house that favor? Will our family find favor because of your devotion to God?