Now, if you've got your Bible, would you
turn to Proverbs.
Proverbs, chapter 1 and verse 20.
It's very interesting to know that when Paul
was a young man, he wrote the Psalms
of Solomon.
And my, what fervor and, what fervor and
zeal he had in his love for his
Lord.
He couldn't find language, he couldn't get language
strong enough or warm enough to express all
that he felt in his love for Christ.
Then when he was a young man, getting
on in years, succeeding in every way, he
wrote the book of Proverbs.
You don't get any love song there.
It's all kind of hard facts, business and
all the rest of it.
Teenage is gone.
The first love has been dying down.
And then when you come to the book
of Ecclesiastes, it's the end of an old,
sensuous, old, back-striped letter.
He says there wasn't a good woman among
the thousands.
Why?
Because the rockers were living with a gang
the other way about.
But there you've got the biography of a
great man.
In the Psalm of Solomon, how warm and
enthusiastic his love for his Lord.
Comes into business and up to the neck
in business, and everything's business under the sun.
And then when you come to Ecclesiastes, you
find a morbid, melancholy, soured, backsliding fellow.
So you find that there when you begin
to read his words.
Will you listen to this?
Proverbs 1 verse 20.
Wisdom cries without.
You see this wisdom as a person.
Wisdom cries without.
She utters her voice in the streets.
She cries in the cheap places of concourse.
In the openings of the gates.
In the city she utters her words, saying,
How long, ye simple ones, when ye love
simplicity?
And the scorners delight in their scorning, and
fools hate knowledge.
Turn ye with my reproof.
Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto
you, and I will make known my words
unto you.
Because I have called and ye refused, I
have stretched out my hand, and no man
regardeth.
But ye have said of not all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof.
I also will laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your
destruction cometh as a whirlwind.
When distress and anguish cometh upon you, then
shall they call upon me.
But I will not answer.
They shall seek me earnestly, but they shall
not find me.
For that they hated knowledge, and did not
choose the fear of the Lord.
My, that's an awful thing to think.
God laughing at your calamity, and mocking when
your fear cometh.
They would none of my counsel.
They despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of
their own ways, and be filled with their
own devices.
For the turning away of the simple should
slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall
destroy them.
But who so hearkens unto me, shall dwell
safely, and shall be quiet from fear of
him.
Shall we have a wee word of prayer
together?
We thank thee with all our hearts, O
Lord, for answered prayer during the days of
this week that is past.
We praise thee that thou has been amongst
us in thy risen power.
We bless thee for every born again one
that is come into their birthright privilege and
blessing.
Know now the joy and blessing and power
of a spirit baptized, spirit filled life.
We praise thee for every one that has
accepted thee as their savior.
We pray that they may be well born,
not born of flesh and blood of the
will of man, but born of the Holy
Ghost.
But we do ask thee now in these
closing moments of this new meeting that we
may know that thou art here again, and
we may see visible signs of thy presence,
sinners being strangely and deeply moved, and men
and women brought to seek to seek the
Lord while he may be found, and call
upon him while he is near.
Hear the prayers that are going up from
many a heart's ears, and many a heart's
eye near to the wide world over for
our gathering now.
And as we declare thy truth, and especially
this solemn, solemn subject, may the Spirit of
the Lord bear the message home with tremendous
irresistible power.
Thou knowest those that are careless, unconcerned, strifling
away with time, playing with their opportunities, rushing
to eternity without God and without hope.
O Lord, we pray that this night's meeting
may be like a red signal in their
face, stopping them in their mad careers, and
grant that many may look back to this
hour and this place and thank God who
is there saved by thy grace.
Undertake for us now.
Our confidence is not in man or in
the flesh, but our confidence is in thee,
thou blessed Spirit of God, and we pray
that thy work of convicting of sins and
of righteousness and of judgment may be accomplished
here tonight.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
And everybody said?
In the gospel according to Matthew chapter 12
and verse 31.
You'll find my topic as well as text
this evening.
Wherefore I say unto you, remember these are
the very words of Jesus Christ.
Wherefore I, Jesus, say unto you, you who
are not converted, many who are almost persuaded,
many of you near to the kingdom, I
say unto you, all manner of sin and
blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be
forgiven unto men.
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son
of Man, it shall be forgiven him.
You see, Jesus Christ, his deity, was clothed
with his humanity.
He mingled among men just as an ordinary
man, and yet he was God manifest to
the flesh.
And the Lord can allow you and me,
ignorant along that line, that we didn't recognize,
we don't recognize.
But listen, but whosoever speaketh against the Holy
Ghost, that voice that said, My beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased, saw the
light that he lived, heard the words that
he uttered, such as man never uttered before,
miracles that he performed, proof of his absolute
deity, our God, God, Godhead.
Shut your eyes on that.
Turn your back on that.
Make light of all that.
Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost shall not
be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither
in the world to come.
I don't know, dear friends, a more solemn
message for one man to bring to the
attention of another than this subject, the sin
that has no forgiveness, in this world, not
in the world to come.
During the days that we've been here, I've
been preaching from one angle and another regarding
God's mercy, God's pardoning, God's forgiving.
But tonight here's a message.
The unpardonable sin, the sin that has no
forgiveness, in this world or in the world
to come.
It strains the amount of confusion there is
in the minds of many regarding the unpardonable
sin.
There are those who tell us that it
could only have been committed when our Lord
was here on earth in the days of
His life.
It was evidently a committed sin then, for
Christ revealed it clearly.
You remember what He said to Siddiq?
Woe unto you, Chorazin.
Woe unto you, Bethsaida.
Woe unto you, Capernaum.
Exalted to heaven with privilege and opportunity shall
be cast down into hell.
Sixty years from the days those words were
uttered, they were blotted out, that even all
the antiquarians today that are digging for these
ancient things can't even find a relic.
God wiped them clean, for they could never
be found.
Do you remember what He said to Jerusalem?
O Jerusalem, thou that stonest the prophets and
killest them that are sent unto thee, how
often I would have gathered thee together as
a hen gathereth her brood under her wings,
but ye would not.
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Within forty-five years after the utterance of
those words, Emperor Titus went through that city
with a plan.
Not one stone left upon another.
You can look around and see relics of
antiquity all around us, one stone upon another.
But so the judgment of God passed that
the thing was leveled just like a ploughed
tree.
The Pharisees and scribes of their day, the
religious leaders of the day, the doctors of
divinity, as we would call them today, ministered,
and He said to these, ye shall die
in your sins.
Where I am ye cannot come.
They had passed the hidden boundary between God's
mercy and God's wrath and their doom and
damnation fixed and sealed.
Judas Iscariot was called by Jesus Christ to
become a disciple and a follower of Christ,
just as Peter was and James and John
were.
He had just the same opportunity of getting
converted as they had.
He had every opportunity and advantage of knowing
exactly who Jesus Christ was.
But never, never in his life did he
ever acknowledge the deity of Christ.
He could talk about Him as a rabbi,
as a teacher, this, that, or the other,
but never once to acknowledge His deity.
There are only two unbloody Unitarians mentioned in
the Bible, and each one of them is
a murderer.
The first was Cain.
He murdered his brother Abel.
He didn't believe in the gospel of blood.
He didn't believe that there was no atonement
for sin except by the shedding of blood.
And here's the other one, Judas Iscariot.
Never once to acknowledge the deity of the
Lord.
Once he ignored the Lord Jesus, bet him
at the communion table.
Seven times he warned him.
Far better, he said, you'd never been born,
and to do what you were doing.
Far better that a man, a millstone was
hanged about your neck, and you were cast
into the depths of the sea.
Seven times warned him.
And now he's sitting at the communion table.
He says, one of you will return.
But the strange thing is that they never
knew it was Judas.
They said, is it I?
Not, is it Peter?
Not, is it John?
Every one thought they were a potential betrayer.
Is it I?
Judas looked into the face of incarnate love
and truth, and he says, is it I?
Jesus whispered, he didn't say it out loud.
If he had said it out loud, Peter
would have bashed him there, and he'd knock
the face off.
For daring to betray his Lord.
But he whispered to him and says, if
you put your hand into this basin, Judas
put his hand in, took it out, took
it out.
And we're told that Jesus said, what you're
doing, what you're doing, do it quick.
And he went out.
And John, with a shudder, leaves the record.
It was night.
And the daylight never dawned upon his doomed
and darkened spirit from that hour to that.
How many times have you been warned?
How many times have you been reproved?
How many times have you been brought near
to the kingdom and almost persuaded?
How many times have you sat at the
communion table?
And like Judas, you clipped to him a
prayer.
The very face of Jesus Christ.
Judas demanded a price for Jesus.
He got thirty pieces of silver.
You would sell him for a hot crown
dance, a pack of cigarettes, some triviality.
He's awful cheap on the market, this Jesus
today.
The way men's bargains can sell with it.
But don't forget, dear friend, maybe tonight, maybe
tonight I don't know, thank God I don't.
If I knew what was happening here tonight,
I wouldn't preach.
But there you are.
Some of you facing Christ for the last
time until you'll meet him at the great
white throne.
What you're doing, do it quick.
Find him.
The record will be as the angel records
it, that's your name in the book.
He went out.
She went out.
It was night.
The daylight never of hope or joy or
peace or forgiveness never to dawn upon your
doomed and damned spirit.
It was a sin very common when Christ
was here on earth.
There are those in there confused about the
matter and they say it rarely, if ever,
this committed today.
So we've got to now paraphrase it.
While the lamp holds out to burn, the
greatest sinner may return, the biggest light concocted
out of the heart of a man and
inspired by the devil in him.
Show me that in the word of God.
For you can repent when you like.
That you can believe when you like.
That you can turn when you like.
That you can be saved when you like.
Try it!
Don't think that I'm telling you something.
Try it!
Get up to your feet now and say,
I'll come to Christ.
Just about the last thing you can do.
You can't do as you like.
With God and with salvation you can't come
on your terms.
And you can't come on your terms.
It's in God's terms.
And it's in God's terms.
Harden not your heart as in the day
of provocation.
Now is the accepted term.
Now is the day of salvation.
Now.
Never here, never tomorrow.
I've got no authority to say to you
that tomorrow or nine o'clock tonight you
can repent and you can believe.
No authority.
You may be in your heart right now
settling your destiny for damnation fixed as sure
as God is on the truth.
You're hardening your neck.
You're stiffening your will.
You're rebelling against even the pressure of the
Spirit of God upon you.
He says, all right, let it go.
And you'll cross that hidden boundary line between
God's mercy and God's wrath as we'll see
later on.
I've never spoken on this subject but someone,
sometimes many in the audience think that they've
committed that sin.
The other night here a man came to
me.
He's faced a figure of despair.
He says, I've committed the unpardonable sin.
He's begun to tell me a story.
He says, my friend, on the authority of
God's word you haven't committed that sin.
He's faced it up.
He says, for three years I've been in
hell.
Guilty of a particular sin.
He says, I, all manner of sins Jesus
says, all manner of sins shall be forgiven
unto men but this unpardonable sin.
You see, friend, the very fact of your
distress and disquietude your unrest your conviction your
fears are the surest evidence that you haven't
committed this sin.
I'll show you later on when a man
or woman has committed this sin there's no
more sin.
They laugh at everything.
Wrap themselves around with a carnal security.
They all dwell further on the road to
hell sixty minutes in the hour twenty-four
hours in the day.
But you're mourning.
You're repenting.
You've got a broken heart.
You're troubled.
Surest evidence you're still in the state of
grief.
You say, I wish to God I could
believe that to be true.
Put it to the test.
You say, just repeat Jesus I've come.
See, what is this?
Him that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out.
And glory to God you'll have the assurance
and the witness and the evidence that your
sins are blotted out and you're a child
of God.
But remember dear friends that if there is
any confusion and contradiction about the matter there's
none in the Bible.
There's none in the Bible.
Those antediluvians the Lord said to give them
a hundred and twenty years and one week.
He said, my spirit shall not always thrive
with man.
They labored building an ark and only eight
people got in.
And these that had built and built and
built for all those years with bleeding knuckles
and agonizing cries seeking to enter in.
My spirit shall not always thrive with man.
Summer has ended and you are not saved
still in your sins.
Ephraim is joined to his idols.
Let him alone.
Boast not of yourself for tomorrow.
He that is often ripped through hardened at
his neck shall be suddenly suddenly destroyed.
Oh the word of God is clear dear
friends.
He says, seek ye the Lord while while
while he may be found.
There were a lot of people in hell
prayed as you'd never pray.
Sought the Lord as you'd never pray.
And they're damned.
Why?
They sought the Lord when he wasn't there.
God's not at your convenience or mine.
Where do you get it that God's a
slave of anybody?
A servant of anybody?
Don't even call him when you like it.
He's got to be there.
Where do you get that?
Seek ye the Lord while while he may
be found.
Call upon him while while while he's near.
He's near here tonight.
Oh friends, don't let him go by.
Don't let him go by, I pray you.
Don't let him go by.
Seek the Lord while he may be found.
Call upon him while he is near.
First of all, this is no ordinary sin.
All manner of sin all manner of sin
shall be forgiven unto men but this sin.
When I was a cadet in a sailing
ship in the early days we had a
third officer and that fellow never swore or
cursed except by the Holy Ghost.
He never used the name of God or
Jesus.
It was always the Holy Ghost.
And I've seen him on a yardarm in
a living deal of wind trying to get
campers in.
And this blasphemy of that man and the
awful oaths of the Holy Ghost until I've
seen the sailor say look here mister if
you don't cut that out we'll clean you
off this road off this yardarm and send
you to hell with your ghost.
We cadets in the half deck we used
to say he's committed an unpardonable sin.
Oh no.
That's not it.
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven unto men because bigger sin to call
the name of God in vain or Jesus
in vain as the Holy Spirit.
Three in one.
One in three.
Young fellow came to me one day in
one of our meetings and he said I've
committed the unpardonable sin.
This is how you look like.
But would you kindly tell me what it
is.
And after a good little hesitation he came
and brushed at his cheek he was guilty
of a dozen.
This happened for years at hand.
I said do you still believe in your
Bible?
Well I said listen Jesus said all manner
of sin all manner of sin shall be
forgiven unto men.
That's not it.
I was holding a meeting in a recovering
church in Scotland one time.
We've been to a church you can shake
hands if you want to come in the
door.
It's got a two story.
There's a hole in the floor and the
fellas are up in the gallery and the
others are down here.
And the pulpit is just getting you can
see them both the way separate.
And I was roaring away in those days
I had a voice on me like a
bull of mace.
You see as an old seller but I'm
telling you to find these old days.
But I was roaring away in this wee
church and the door opens in the back
and boy what I saw a great big
fella about six foot four hair disheveled hanging
down dirty and silky his eyes bloodshot and
bleary his face a portrait of iniquity and
devils his garments all lousy and bleak and
he looked there and he saw the back
end of the heel and sat down put
his head there.
Whenever the service was over I noticed whenever
they started to go near that aisle they
all dodged the others.
And man I was laughing with them in
the wee church.
I didn't like the show with the white
fellas but the old people were there.
At last I went and I touched them
and said, Hey!
Hey!
He looked with those big bleary eyes red
hot eyes at me.
He said, Aye brother although you're cast out
by the devil and directed the very channels
ahead glory to God if you've got any
desire he could see.
He took his old bonnet and went out.
I'm glad that got retrieved.
I'd hardly got up at the wee foot
but it started again there's the door opening
again.
He looked around then he got down to
the pew put his head down.
I rolled away with it never bothered him
but once or twice he lifted his head
up and kind of looked and then down.
I was preaching that morning or that evening
on the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son
cleansing from all sin all sin.
I was bringing on the oil.
The oil disappeared and I'm left with that
fellow again.
I was dead scared.
At last I went up and I gave
him a shot says, Aye friend he looked
at me says, You were lying tonight.
Says, I was not.
Says, You were.
Says, Don't you call me a liar.
Says, You lied.
No I didn't.
You said all sin.
Says, That's what God said.
Says, Not all sin.
Says, I won.
Says, The unpardonable sin.
Says, Uh oh.
Says, See I've committed it.
Says, That's why you live it.
Says, If anybody does you live it.
Says, I missed it.
Says, If you confide in me I'll tell
you before God whether you have or not.
So I sat for a while.
You see I was born brought up in
the highlands of Scotland.
My father was an elder.
He was chief gamekeeper of the Duke of
Sutherland's estate since I was a white boy.
Since I was fond of the Duke's peasants
now and again and I used to snare
a few rabbits now and again.
And he said one night I was going
along a date with my double barred gun
to see what they what I had in
the snare to see how many rabbits I
could figure.
Says, Just as I turned the corner one
of the gamekeepers was there.
Says, Without hesitation I took the gun by
the double bar and I had him with
a half of the gun blast his brains
out and then that's when it started.
My God he says I can see it
now I can see now.
Says, I forgot to take my saddle down.
I said, Are you gone crazy?
Says, I want to ask you something.
In spite of all that you've done twenty
five years you've spent in jail he was
out on a ticket to leave.
Says, For five years I've been out and
I've never had a night's sleep except under
dope or drink.
I'm in hell.
Says, I listen.
Have you still got faith in the in
the old bible that you were brought up
and have faith.
Do you believe that Jesus could forgive you?
Yes I do.
But I listen.
All manner of faith and blessings shall be
forgiven unto men but this till he was
born and went out.
By day the sweat was on me and
I was glad to see him out.
Next night when I got up to the
pulpit and hardly got started two comes in
but my boy his wife his hair combed
eyes bloodshot yes but Canada his garments faded
tidy filthy yes tidy says, I come to
tell you boys I couldn't get through quick
enough I'm down to the ground and if
I don't do it you know what happens.
You see last night I was in the
working men's lodging house and I lay in
the bunk he says the blood of Jesus
Christ God's Son cleansed me from all sin
had my first night's sleep without soap and
lint oh friend you may erase in hell
give me the greatest death for I've ever
lived give me the white wise sepulchre of
a hypocrite of the deepest degree never mind
what you're saying here's the proclamation of the
God all manner of things shall be forgiven
unto men only this no ordinary sin who
are the people that usually commit this sin
it's always religious people respectable people highly respected
people cultured people who are the people that
usually commit this sin it's always religious people
respectable people highly respected people cultured people.
You can't show me one message in that
Bible that was a desperado, or a down
-and-outer, or a hobo or a bum.
There were church members, church officers, church leaders,
religious leaders of the day, Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians.
These are the ones.
Sisters, born of God-fearing parents, brought up
in the very lap of religion, baptized into
covenant grace.
In your early days you came in by
confirmation to your church, or by baptism to
your church.
You've gone through all the riches.
You're living a decent life, respectable life, not
converted, not born again, not saved.
You don't like those things.
You believe as long as you do the
best you can, and follow the light of
your conscience, that that's all there is to
it.
You're the one that's nearest to sin, than
all the desperados and hobos that's living today.
There's more hope for all the heartless, some
of you beautiful women.
There's more hope for all the drunken pimps
that ever crawled along the streets on the
road to hell, compared to some of you
elders indeed.
You've sinned against life.
You've shut your heart against the truth of
God.
You've stuck to your own preconceived unscriptural notions.
You've denied the very blood of Christ and
done death's fight to the spirit of grief.
That's the one.
That's the one it can be.
My divine angelic vision here tonight, I see
a sight in this hall that'll break my
heart.
On the forehead, God has set a mark,
indelibly a mark, for man is yet as
blind in the dark.
I wouldn't like to see that.
There is a line by us unseen, and
it crosses every path.
The hidden boundary between God's mercy and God's
wrath.
To cross that line it is to die.
To die as if by self, it does
not dull the beaming eyes or pale the
glow of health.
The conscience lives to the deed.
The spirit light and gaze, that which is
pleasing still may please, and tears be thrust
away.
But on the forehead, God has set indelibly
a mark, unseen by man, for man is
yet as blind in the dark.
But angels see that fatal sign, and tremble
at the sight, and devils trace that lurid
line with hellish delight.
And yet the doomed man spots below, like
Eden may have bloomed, he does not, will
not, feel or know, or think that he
is doomed.
He thinks and feels that all is well,
and every fear comes.
He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell,
not only doomed but damned.
Oh, where is this mysterious bourne by which
our path is crossed, beyond which God himself
has sworn that he who goes is lost?
How far may we go on in sin?
How long will God forbear?
Where does hope end, and where begins the
content of despair?
An answer from despair is sent.
He that from God departs, while it is
called today, repent, and harden not your heart.
Can we tell anybody that they sinned, they
sinned, they sinned?
Is there any way to defend us?
I'll, I'll not, if I have the strength
and the time to go up and down
these streets nine times out of ten, I'll
tell you this.
Every effect this time must have an adequate
cause.
And when you really get saved, the effect
is manifest.
You'll have the witness.
You'll have a changed life, the outward evidence.
And when you send away your day of
grace, when you cross the boundary line, certain
symptoms appear.
You can't avoid, you can't evade or escape
it.
And anybody with intelligent understanding of the word
of God, they can tell just exactly where
you are, what's happening.
Let me give you some of these symptoms,
dear friends.
First, when you send away your day of
grace, when you commit the unpardonable sins, then
there is never any inner response to any
gospel of these.
No more.
Thy heart is cold and silent, and thy
Saviour's pleading to please.
The one next day, stumbling and trembling, pale
face.
Here I am.
You're as cold as a dust.
Not a move.
If I thunder at all the judgment of
God, then the wrath of God fills you
with indignation.
So I talk about the love of Calvary
and the blood of Christ.
You think that you can presume upon the
love of God and by and by get
away with it.
But no response.
No response to the mess.
No repentance.
No pain.
No brokenness.
All the means of grace that God has
provided, absolutely unavailable.
Like water spilled on the ground.
Another evidence is this.
When you send away your day of grace,
there is no further recognition of need.
A man came to God one day and
said, God, I thank Thee that I am
not like other men are.
I give my good to feed the poor.
I thank Thee of all I possess.
I fast so many times a week.
No sense of need.
No recognition of need.
Wrapping the rags and relics of your own
respectability, churchianity and boosted morality, you wrap them
around you.
Say, thanks God, I'm not like other people.
Whenever the spirit of God ceases to thrive
with you, you get buoyed up and filled
up with a bastard hope regarding the good
deeds you've done and the kind of good
life that you've lived.
Let me appeal to those of you here
tonight that are saved by the grace of
God.
Isn't the recognition of need in your heart
greater today than ever it was?
Conscious of any sin or conscious of anything
that may have been wrong?
Aren't we under the pains of hell till
we're under the cleansing blood and peace-seeking
blood of Christ again?
Not you.
Say, I'm all right.
You didn't talk to me.
I'm quite satisfied.
I have a good God and I thank
God for me.
He's all right and I'm all right and
everything's all right on me.
Another symptom, dear friend, is this.
There is no repentance on account of sin.
I thank God every day of this that
I can repent.
The sweet grace of God.
A broken, broken heart.
A contrite spirit.
God says He never despises.
But you stand up and say, Lord, nobody
knows about it.
The sin's been done in secret and you
can roll it around your tongue.
You can riot in it.
You can live with it.
The only thing that would annoy you is
if you got caught in it or if
you had to be punished on account of
it.
Immediate punishment.
But no repentance.
Give any amount of remorse now and again.
Go to jail there and you'll see a
great deal of remorse.
Go to the penitentiary and you'll find any
amount of remorse.
Sorry for what they've done.
Sorry for the consequences.
Sorry for what they're suffering.
But no repentance.
Go to jail and they're back at the
same old thing again.
The dogs to his vomit and the cows
to her wallowing in the mire, it is
the best.
You laugh at sin.
You live in sin.
You riot in sin.
Make a laugh at sin.
The man or woman that's in a state
of grief, the sense of sin cuts him
like a knife.
Like the sharp crack of a whip on
his conscience until he's pardoned and blessed again
and gone.
Another evidence is this.
There's no realization of your danger.
There's nothing but the skin in your ribs
this moment and your soul in the bottomless
pit of the lake of fire.
One heartbeat and you're damned and doomed for
eternity.
Doesn't bother you one bit.
Men and women are dying so suddenly around
us every day.
Not a moment's time.
Off they're off.
You may be the next.
Doesn't bother you.
You'll lay your head on your pillow tonight
as calm and collected as a child laying
his head on his mother's arm.
You'll laugh and you'll dance with your heels
around until half the night's gone and there's
nothing but one heartbeat between you and eternal
damnation.
Laugh and laugh it off.
No realization of danger.
Man alive, those of us who are saved
by the grace of God and being kept,
we're shouting and singing and praising God that
we're not in hell and that we're not
on the road to hell.
That the danger is past.
Oh, the love that clutters.
Oh, the blood that butters.
And oh, the grace that is brought You!
Ha ha!
You don't believe in hell anymore.
A kind good God.
Would he put anybody and his children in
hell?
No, there's no children of God in hell.
Not one.
Never has been.
Never will be.
There's not a child of God on the
road to hell.
Who's on the road to hell?
You.
Brats of the devil.
Children of your father the devil.
Who's in hell?
Children of the devil.
None of God's children in hell.
You wrap yourself around and say, oh, a
good kind God, it'll be all right.
No, no.
The wicked shall be turned into hell and
all nations that forget God.
How shall we escape when we neglect so
great shall be?
It doesn't cost you that.
No sense of danger.
Laugh it off.
We're doing a real joke.
Hell's a naughty business.
Obsolete kind of a thing.
We've been gotten by a lot of purpuritans
going back a couple of hundred years ago
to terrify and scare.
But in this modern day we're living in,
who can do away with the thing all
again?
Aye.
Keep you comfortable, go to hell.
It'll not make hell any cheaper.
And it'll not make hell any more dreadful
to dwell in.
Let me give you another one, friend.
I was going to give a whole lot
more, but I'll give one more.
When you've sinned away in your day of
grace, boys, you hate.
You hate that doctrine and you hate the
preacher that was there to tell you.
For you to stand up here as I'm
doing and tell you that you're a sinner,
lost and ruined, the curse of God on
you, a deceitful heart, you were born in
sin and shaped in iniquity, you're totally depraved,
absolutely devoid of any good in your heart
and the possession of every sin and iniquity
the world has ever known, and manage it,
makes you curse your people.
That you're told that you're the object of
the wrath of God, and that when you
die you're damned and doomed for eternity.
Manage it for the death of it.
You listen as you go down there tonight
when you're in the crowd down there.
Listen to what you'll hear.
You'll hear something like that.
And you'll be bigoted, you'll be bigoted, you'll
call the preacher every name under God's head.
He's everything but a gentleman, he's everything but
a Christian, and he's not fit to be
a preacher, anything under heaven.
He's like that.
But if he'll get up and tell you,
if you live a good life and do
the best you can and join church, and
take twenty shillings in the pound, you'll just
feel like an old cat with a feet
of cream.
Say man, that's the thing.
That's the thing.
Follow the lady of conscience, serve the golden
rule, try to keep the ten commandments, and
a good, kind God wouldn't send anybody to
hell.
God never sent anybody to hell except the
devil, and his angels.
Who goes to hell?
Volunteers.
You're the boy that puts yourself in hell.
God couldn't put you in hell.
The devil couldn't put you in hell.
Men couldn't put you in hell.
Sin couldn't damn you.
In your faith, in your destiny, you can
say to God, I respect and I refuse.
God can't change, but He ratifies your decision.
You can't escape.
Oh no, God never made you for hell.
God never made you made hell for you.
He made it for the devil and his
angels, and if you not break with the
devil, you'll live with the devil and the
damned through eternity.
But you're the one that does it.
Why is this an unpardonable sin?
Is there anything that God can't forgive?
Is there any sin so strong that the
grace of God can't overcome?
Is there any sin so crimson-dyed that
the blood of Jesus Christ can't wash, make
white as snow?
No, that's not it.
Supposing that I had a row with Brother
Thompson, let's say, and we just had a
real good fight about it.
And I come to Brother Thompson and I
say, Brother, I forgive you.
He says, you keep it.
I want only your forgiveness.
I forgive you.
Now, your friend, that's the unpardonable sin.
God offers you mercy.
He offers you pardon.
He has given His Son to die for
you in your room instead, and He freely
offers, freely offers, without money or without grace,
you see, to bring it back on His
feet.
Well, you can insult God.
You can insult God, and He heals you
the same as you do.
He'll bring it back on your feet, but
don't forget what you did.
So the unpardonable sin is the obstinate, possessive,
deliberate, willful rejection of Jesus Christ as your
sin.
Until there comes a time when the opposite
draws, and you feel your doom, and ensure
your death.
I don't know how you feel, dear friends,
but I'll tell you this.
You wouldn't get up and preach as I'm
preaching now.
Expect to have a good night's sleep the
night before.
The awful fact of preaching a gospel like
that.
Men are doomed, feeling their doom and damnation.
But I'm looking in the eyes of some
of you that are now fixing your destiny
for heaven.
It's awful.
I wonder what I could do.
I thank you for your attention, for your
patience, for your sympathetic attention.
But I say, what am I going to
do?
What can I do to get you to
give you of any desire at all?
What can I do to keep you from
rushing to your doom?
In the American Civil War, there was a
young lad there.
He ran away from home.
He left his widowed mother.
He lied to the authorities that he was
on a certain age, and he was younger
than that.
And in those days, he had the drum.
And in one of the battles, they had
shells, they had cannonballs.
Hit him on the left shoulder and tore
the arm off.
Part of the body was badly damaged.
When they got the hold of the lad,
they did everything they possibly could to stop
the blood.
The doctor said to the nurse, as the
boy was lying there unconscious, he said, he
was nearly hopeless.
If these deliriums seize him, he's not held
down in the bleak of death.
He sat there by the hour during the
quiet night, hours of the night.
When delirium would seize him, he would soothe,
cool, quiet.
And then he seemed to fall into a
natural sleep.
Over in this cot here was a poor
fellow, groaning, needing some assistance.
She looked at the boy and seemed all
right.
Turned to help him.
She had hardly turned till the boy was
up.
He was mad delirious, one arm flashing around,
going through that awful chart.
The blood was beginning to pump.
She raised two men straight under the bandages
and gripped their backs with her fingers and
thumbs.
Sent for the doctor.
Consciousness was brought back to the boy.
The doctor just said, let him go.
The weaned fellow looked up into the nurse's
face and said, no, I can't die.
Don't let me go.
I broke my mother's heart.
I lied to my mother.
I can't die.
She held as steady as she could.
This lad tried to turn her face away.
He was gone.
And the providence of God by hand has
laid upon you here tonight.
As long as I hold you, you're healthy.
Maybe in a state of grief.
You've been pronounced with an addiction.
You're doomed, maybe sick.
You're dead.
It's an awful thing.
While I hold you, there's hope.
While I'm holding you, there's hope.
You're awful kneeling.
Almost persuaded.
Almost.
I forgot to pronounce you that addiction.
You put an awful burden and responsibility on
me.
I can't trespass on the patience of God's
feet.
Take care you don't weary God.
Take care.
Shall we have a wee word of prayer
together?
Friend, if I could settle it for you,
I'd settle for you now.
But I can't.
God can't.
The devil can't.
Your minister can't.
Your mother and father can't.
There's only one that can settle that, not
you.
You're trembling in the balance.
You're still in a state of grace.
You're anxious.
You're concerned.
You're disturbed.
Thank God.
Thank God you're still in a state of
grace.
Oh, brother, sister, I beseech you, don't quench
the spirit.
Don't put the light out.
Don't kill your conviction.
Don't strife with the Holy Ghost.
There are those of you, and your heart
is cold and silent, and thy Savior's pleadings
have ceased.
No hope for you.
You've fixed your destiny and you've fixed your
doom.
But I'm talking to those of you who
are anxious, who do feel your need, who
have a fear of God.
These are evidences that you haven't crossed the
line.
Oh, dear friend, don't cross that line today.
Give your soul a chance.
What spite have you got against yourself?
Why should you damn your soul when God
has provided for your salvation?
Oh, most persuaded, come, come today.
Oh, most persuaded, turn not away.
Jesus' angels are in green
leaves, red rice.
Oh, wonder, come.
Sing that verse softly again.
Oh, most persuaded, come,
come today.
Oh, most persuaded, turn not away.
Oh, most, Oh,
verse in all our heaven.
Oh, most persuaded, harvest is passed.
God helps.
Oh, most persuaded, doom comes at last.
Oh, most, cannot evade.
Oh, most assured to say.
Sad, sad, that bitter way.
Oh, most, man is terrible.
But Lord, oh, dear friend, before we're dismissed,
will you let me plead with you again?
Don't, don't turn your back away.
Don't, don't quench this spirit.
While you're still near, in your heart say,
Jesus, I come.
Just as I am, I come.
He will in no way cast you aside.
I am the door.
By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved.
I give unto them eternal life.
They shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of
my hand.
Oh, don't be frightened at first.
Don't be frightened to come to Him tonight.
We pray thee, O Lord, that impressions that
have been made and convictions that have been
really begotten, Lord, may Satan not be allowed
to trifle with thee.
We pray that deepening anxieties may become unbearable
and intolerable, until at last they're compelled to
cry, I'll hold out no longer.
Lord, grant that some here tonight may have
really come, really trusted.
Heal them by thy Spirit.
Assure them that their sins are blotted out,
and they return to life.
Undertake for us, guide us as to what
we should do and what they should do.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.