For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In presenting to you this message this morning, I have but one desire, and that desire is that I may warn some man, woman, boy or girl not to take one of these three fatal steps or one of these three deadly deadlines that are so plainly drawn in the Word of God. Now you say, Preacher Smith, what are these three deadlines? Deadline number one, blaspheming against the Holy Ghost, or committing the unpardonable sin. Deadline number two, sending away your day of grace. And deadline number three, the sin unto death. A sinner... can only cross deadline number one and deadline number two. It is impossible for a saint of God to cross either of those two deadlines. The third deadline can be crossed only by a member of the family of God, a truly born-again believer. Now, as we look at these three deadlines, I want us to look at them prayerfully, carefully, and above all else, scripturally, so that when you walk out of these exits this morning, not a one of you will have any doubt as to what these three deadlines really are. Welcome to Today with Christ. I'm Don Smith with my friend Pastor Scott Ingram, and today we're going to be watching one of my father's most famous sermons, the one that probably God used more than any other sermon that he preached in his life to bring people to Christ. And he divided it into three main points, three deadlines as he called them. three occasions in which God might take the life of a human being. And we have so much doctrine around today that God is just love and God is wonderful, and yet the Bible tells us repeatedly that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, not the end, but it's the beginning of wisdom. And if we have never had the experience of fearing God and feeling repentant about our sins, then we don't really know who God is. Yeah, and there are many people in our court systems, they sit there They didn't commit the crime. There have been many people who have been marched off to the electric chair. They didn't commit the crime. But we're talking about the ultimate judge. This is the one who looks inside your heart and knows every intent, every ideal that comes into it better than you do. So when you commit this sin, He is doing absolutely the right and just thing. That's the idea about these three deadlines. They are deadlines. They are points in time that once you cross them, that's it. That's it. And you need to be mindful of that, my friend. Know the mercy of God. Today is the day of salvation, God's word has told us. And when we hear that, or we experience that desire to accept God's gift, and yet that sinful part of us pushes that away, the reasons that we give, we'll come back and talk about those, but they're always bad reasons. Yes, so let's go ahead and get into that message today. Pastor Henry, members of the church staff, and all the members of the First Family, along with all of you distinguished guests, I want you to know that I'm delighted to be here today in this great church. In fact, at my age, I'm delighted to be anywhere. I want all of you to know that I'm bringing this message this morning at the one request of your dear pastor and my beloved friend, Dr. Jim Henry, if you have your Bibles, I wish you would turn with us please to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12, wherefore 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. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Deadline number one, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to commit the unpardonable sin. What is that sin? Which member of the body do you use in committing that sin? And how long may you expect to live if you commit that sin? I believe that all of you will agree with me that before you can understand any portion of the word of God, the first rule must be to examine that passage of scripture in the light of its proper context. What was the occasion when our Lord gave the doctrine of the unpardonable sin? The Bible says that they had brought to our Lord a man that was possessed with a dual devil, a devil of blindness and a devil of dumbness. And our Lord had healed that man insomuch that he both spake and saw. Now, the Pharisees were always present at all of the public meetings of our Lord. Pastor Henry, I've searched the Bible diligently and I cannot find anywhere where our Lord had a public gathering that the Pharisees were not there. And they always sat on the front row. You never found them in the balcony. You never found them sitting on the very back pew. They were on the front row. Not in order that they might better hear the Lord, but in order that they might find some fault with him whereby they could put him to death or bring some charge against him. Now, after witnessing this wonderful and marvelous miracle, they were about to lose face. that people were saying, if this man is all that you say that he is, then how and what is your explanation for this wonderful and marvelous miracle? And they had to come up with an answer. And they said, the thing that you poor, ignorant people do not understand is that this man has indeed performed a tremendous miracle, but he did it by the power of Beelzebub. Now Beelzebub means the prince of devils. It means the prince of filth. It means the prince of flies. It means the prince of the dunghill. And when our Lord heard that accusation, he turned. And with anger, he looked in their faces and said, you may speak a word against me, but whosoever speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Now, the Bible very plainly teaches that all that Jesus did while he was here upon this earth, he did by the power of the third person of the Trinity. So he performed this miracle by the power of the Holy Ghost. And when these Pharisees accredited that work to the devil or to the prince of devils, Jesus said, you have committed a sin whereby you shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come. That brings to my mind the word unpardonable. The word unpardonable is a very harsh, hard, and oftentimes a misunderstood word because we examine things in the scope and the light of our ability to forgive. But when we examine a thing in the scope and the light of God's ability to forgive, we find that nothing, absolutely nothing is unforgivable but the blaspheming against the Holy Ghost. There have been some things that have happened recently that all of us have heard about on television. that when I first heard it, I said, it's unforgivable. For example, three days ago, right here in Kissimmee, when somebody drove up by the side of another car, and when the man got out of the car, shot him dead in the middle of the highway. When I first heard that, I said, that's unforgivable. But wherever that man is that did that horrible thing, wherever he is this morning, if he's listening by radio or television, there is room at the cross and mercy to forgive that man of that horrible sin. I was in Chicago, Brother Jim. when that case of Mr. Gacy was revealed. That homosexual who had murdered or had enticed 32 young men into his apartment and there in a perverted sex manner had assaulted them and then murdered all 32 of them, burying 30 of them in the basement of his home. I was there as they began to bring those bodies out one by one. And as I saw that, I said, this is unforgivable. But if you're not in that Illinois prison this morning, if Mr. Gacy would get on his knees and say, oh God, I'm a homosexual, and I'm a murderer, and I've killed at least 32 young men, there would be room at the cross and mercy enough and power enough in the blood to forgive that man of that awful sin. Not far from where I'm standing at this very moment, a young surgeon, 38 years of age, came into his home one Saturday at noon His wife of three years, who had given him a little son who was six months old, did not realize that her husband was under the influence of alcohol or some other sedation. And she said to him, Doc, I'm going to step across the street. Little Junior has been fed, and he's asleep in the nursery. And I'll be back in about 30 minutes, and we'll have our lunch. While she was gone, her husband went into the den, picked up a little iron poker about that long, went into the kitchen, turned on a gas jet, heated that poker to a red-hot heat, and then went into the nursery where his little son was asleep and inserted that red-hot poker through each eye opening until it touched the back of the skull. And then opening the mouth of his little son, he stood there and wedged that red hot poker down the throat of his little son as far as he could wedge it and fell over on the floor in a drunken stupor. When his wife returned and found their little son so horribly murdered and her husband lying on the floor in a drunken stupor, she ran out of the house. They called the sheriff. He was arrested. He was tried in a court of law, and they deemed him insane. At this very moment, he's in a mental institution, and those that keep him say he's in a little cell, and that night and day, all of his waking hours, without a stitch of clothing on his body, he walks up and down that little cell, screaming, what did I do? What did I do to my little son? If that doctor at this very moment would fall on his knees and say, oh God, while I was under the influence of alcohol, I brutally murdered my only little son, there would be room at the cross and mercy enough and power enough in the blood to forgive him of that awful crime. There is not a person present, and perhaps there is not a person listening by television, but what you could bring to your mind, some horrible crime, that made you shudder and the goose pimples break out on your body when you heard about it. You say, preacher, why are you telling us these things? I want to emphatically, dogmatically impress upon the mind of every person that is present here this morning that the sin that I'm talking about is worse than anything that I've mentioned or anything that you can conceive in your mind as that called sin. This brings to my vision screaming, dying, doomed, damned men and women. I see their horrified gaze. I see their despairing look. I see their hopeless end. Now it's impossible for them to be saved. I have been diligently studying this book that I hold here before me for 55 years. And if you were to ask me to look into the 66 books of this Bible and come up with what I call the quartet of the most horrible words, four words in the Bible, it wouldn't take me five seconds to tell you what I believe they are. I believe they are the four words uttered by Jesus Christ when he said, shall never be forgiven. The only person in all of the universe that can forgive sins says, shall never be forgiven. There is no court of appeals. There is no Supreme Court. There is no higher judge to whom you may take your case of sin if once You step over this deadly deadline of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. That brings to my mind the word blaspheme. Dr. Henry, the word blaspheme comes from two Greek words meaning to speak hurtfully. So how does one commit this sin? Which member of the body do they use in committing it? Which member of the body do you use in speaking? We use the tongue. So, as I look here in the word of God, I find in James chapter three and verse six, and the tongue is a fire. A world of iniquity, so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and set it on fire in the course of nature. Here's what I want you to underscore. And it is set on fire of hell. God, realizing that the tongue is the only member of your body with which you can commit a sin whereby you can never be forgiven, has enclosed that member of your body behind a double prison wall. First of all, there are the ivory bars, your teeth. Second, there is the fleshy mold of your lips. And coiled up back there is that one little member of your body that can commit a sin whereby you can never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come. I have never known a woman to commit this sin in my 55 years of preaching. I have only known 21 men to commit this sin, and not a one of them lived 24 hours. And nowhere in the Bible can I find where they committed this sin that any individual or group of individuals lived over 24 hours. If you have your Bibles, I wish you would turn to Numbers chapter 16. And here in number 16 in verse 29, we have one of the most tremendous verses in all of the Bible. Remember that Dothan and Abram and Korah had come against Moses, saying that this great man, and I think that Moses was the greatest Jew that ever lived, other than our wonderful Lord. They had said that God had not sent him. and they were stirring up a rebellion against Moses. There were 250 in that group, and on the sideline, there were 14,500 saying amen to what they were doing. Now listen to what happened. The Bible says here in Numbers chapter 16 and verse 29, if these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then hath the Lord not sent me. Verse 30, but if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. Now what happened? The Bible said as soon as Moses prayed that prayer, God jerked the earth out from under him. And all 250 of them, with all that appertained to them, went down into a great pit, and God closed up the pit again. And on the sideline, 14,500 others died. And so to speak against God's servant, if Moses and if our wonderful Lord could never do one thing unless they did it by the power of the Holy Spirit, then I want to ask you, is it possible for any man or woman to do anything for God without the power of the Holy Spirit? Impossible. I have only known 21 men to commit this sin. I have never known a woman, as I said a moment ago, to commit it. I was holding a revival meeting in a little Georgia town in a wonderful little church. I'd preached on Thursday night. I do not remember what the sermon was. It was not this message. But as I gave the invitation, 25 or 30 people had walked down the aisle, and I saw a young man stand up on the very back pew of the church and begin to look over the audience. He was standing up on the seat part of the pew. I was impressed by the Holy Spirit to go back and speak to him. I went back, and before he knew I was on my way, I was right in front of him, and I looked up into his face, and I said, young man, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you saved? And before I could utter another word, he turned on me like a vicious animal, and he said, listen here, J. Harold Smith, I did not come here to hear you preach. No, I'm not saved, and for your information, I do not want to be saved. I came here tonight to find a couple of girls to go to a dance, and as soon as I can locate them, you can have our space. God is my witness, as kindly as I could say it, I said, son, I believe that the Holy Ghost sent me back here, the Holy Spirit sent me back here to speak to you about your soul. He cut me off again. He said, I told you, sir, that I did not come here to hear you preach. I told you a moment ago that I was not saved and that I did not want to be saved. I told you that I came in to get a couple of girls to go to a dance. He said, now you and the Holy Ghost both go to hell. As soon as he said it, I never had such an impression to get away from a man in my life. I felt that I was in the presence of a mad dog or a rattlesnake, and I backed off from him. And I said, son, son, I believe You've blasphemed against God's Holy Spirit. He pulled up his shoulders and said, oh, yeah. I did not say another word. I dismissed that service. He got those two girls, he and his friend, and went to that dance hall. At five minutes of 12, according to his buddy, they stepped out on the little porch of that dance hall to take a drink of liquor and to smoke a cigarette. They lit their cigarette, and his buddy said, I took a drink out of the flask, and I reached across the little porch to hand it to him. And he reached out to take it before he could touch the flask. He folded up like a jackknife, began to scream like a panther, fell on that little old porch. The orchestra stopped playing. The dancers stopped dancing. They called for Dr. Mays. Dr. Mays told me, he said, preacher, I got to that dance hall about 5 after 1 AM. And as I walked in and saw that young man stretched out on the dance hall floor, two things I was aware of simultaneously. Number one, that was a young man that was standing on that pew back of me in the service. And second, that he was a corpse. Before I ever touched him, I knew he was dead. And he said, if I ever examined him, or examined a body, to write on the death certificate the cause of death, I examined him. And finally, I had to write on the death certificate the cause of death unknown. But he said, if I'd have put on there what I know I ought to put on there, I'd have put on there, God killed him. I was at Taylor, South Carolina, the Southern Bleachery Baptist Church. And we were having a great revival. Two boys drove up in front of a church riding piggyback on a motorcycle. The fine greeter at that door, who is one of the deacons, said, boys, leave your motorcycle. Park right there. Come in. We are so glad to have you in the service. They begin to curse that deacon. They begin to curse Dr. Ed Harrison, the pastor of that church. I will not repeat what they said, but to make a long story short, after cursing that deacon, after cursing the pastor, they started that motorcycle. They went about as far as from here out to the highway and came into what is known as the Cheek Springs Curve. It's a slow winding curve about a quarter of a mile that slowly goes up a hill from Cheek Springs. At the inquest, the man that was driving his car up the hill said, I was not aware that I was being followed by a motorcycle with two boys on it. I kneeled out of the corner of my eye. I saw it coming along by the side of my car, and I thought it was a traffic officer. And immediately, I looked at my speedometer, and I was going about 60 miles an hour. The man that was coming down and around the curve said, I saw the approaching automobile, but I was not aware that it was being followed by a motorcycle with two boys on it. He said, when I was about 100 feet from that car approaching it at about 65 miles an hour, suddenly darting off from behind that car was a motorcycle with the two boys on it. And before I could ever apply my brakes, they had plowed into the center of his oncoming car. The boy that was driving the motorcycle went up and over that oncoming car, striking the right side of his head and shoulder on the pavement, and it scrubbed off half of his skull and this part of his shoulder. The boy that was riding piggyback went head first into that oncoming car, and from about midway of his elbow, all of this part of his body just disintegrated through that radiator into that second car in less than three minutes, both of them. were in hell. I was conducting a parish-wide revival in Louisiana, sponsored by 27 of our Southern Baptist churches. We were holding the revival in the rodeo arena. On the final and last Sunday night, I was preaching this sermon. Up in the right tier of the seats on the very last row sat three men. All the time I preached, they'd say amen, hallelujah, preach it like it is, and laugh. Three times I stopped in my message, and I said, if you gentlemen do not want to hear me preach, we will excuse you from this arena. The last time I said it, one of them said, if you think you're man enough to come up here and put us out, you just come up here. Dr. Henry, that's the only time in my 55 years of being saved that I wanted the Lord to let me backslide for five minutes. And just go up there and beat the devil out of all three of them. But God gave me grace. I dismissed the service. The next day, my wife and I drove about 100 miles to a little country church to begin a meeting on Monday night. They did not have motels or hotels in which I could stay, and we were staying in the home of the pastor. At 10 o'clock that night, the telephone rang, and I heard the pastor when he answered, and he said, well, he's awfully tired, and I don't want to disturb him. Call him back in the morning. And the party on the other end of the line said, I must talk to him now. And it was a pastor of the First Methodist Church of that city. And when I got on the telephone, this is what he told me. He said, preacher, our whole parish is in an uproar. He said, you remember those three men that disturbed the service? I said, I certainly do. He said, at eight o'clock this morning, one of those men started to unlock the door of his office on Main Street and dropped dead. He said at 11.30 today, that second man started across from his office to a little restaurant and fell dead in the middle of the street. He said at five o'clock this afternoon, the third man was sitting in his office with his secretary. And he said to her, as his little window faced the west, he said, you see the sun going down? My two buddies are in hell, and before that sun goes down, I'll join them." And pitched out of their feet a corpse. He said, a group of the preachers got together tonight, and we tried to rent the rodeo arena for next Sunday night. He said, it's already taken, but my church is the largest auditorium in the city, and they all agreed that if you'd come back next Sunday night, they'd all call off their services, and we'd have a service. I went back to that little town on Sunday night. When I got there, the church was packed. Over 1,000 people were around the church. You could not get a seat. I had a hard time getting down the aisle and getting up to the platform. And when I got there, the preacher said, we have been here now for an hour and a half. So Preacher Smith, come on and preach. And I walked up to the platform, opened my Bible, And before I could speak a word, before I could say one word, 17 men jumped up out of that auditorium, ran to that altar, and gave their hearts to Christ. I want to tell you, there is such a sin as blaspheming against the Holy Ghost. What is it? In a nutshell, it is to credit the work of the Holy Spirit to the work of the devil. And the minute you do it, you're damned forever. But just let me tell you this, you won't have to worry about it long. You won't live over 24 hours. I do not know that I have ever prayed about a service more than I have this one. And I do not feel that there is a man or a woman in this auditorium are looking by television that has already stepped over this deadline. Nor are you in danger of stepping over it. But I have a different feeling about deadline number two. What is deadline number two? Sending away your day of grace. So if you have your Bibles, I wish you would turn to Proverbs chapter 29 and verse one. He that being often reproved, Hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. I ask you, could this verse be plainer? I believe this is God's second deadline. I call this deadline sending away your day of grace. I know there are multitudes of people that preach and teach that saying no to the Holy Spirit for the last time is sending away your day of grace. But I believe that this sin can be committed by a friend of the pastor, by a member of this church, by a tither, by a good neighbor, by a faithful attendant to all religious services. And I do believe with all of my heart that there are multiplied thousands of Baptists, independent Baptists, Southern Baptists, that attend regularly the church that are lost. I have found in my travels, and I do believe that I can prove this by the scriptures, that about three-fourths of all church members are lost. What a tragedy. If you look on the records of this church or almost any other church, I know that this is an exceptional church, but you will find about a fourth of the membership of this church tithe. You're above the exception if you have a fourth of your members out knocking on doors and visiting and trying to win people to Christ. You are above the exception if you have over a fourth of your membership back on Sunday night, on Wednesday night, And during a revival meeting, you are indeed fortunate and above the average if you have a fourth of your membership that attend all the services. Why is there such a lack of appetite for spiritual things in our churches? I believe it's simply because we do not know and we have never been born again. I was a member of a Southern Baptist Church 10 years before God saved me. You know preachers, somebody said, well, J. Harold Smith, you know, is not a Southern Baptist. Well, I started going to a Southern Baptist church nine months before I was born. My mother, I tell you, was a Southern Baptist. I was educated in a Southern Baptist school. I have never been a member of anything but a Southern Baptist church, and I'm no Southern Baptist. There's not a group in all of the world that can pretend to be so poor that have so much. I mean there's not another group in all of the world that can pretend to have so much religion and so little of the Redeemer. If ever there has been a need, brother, it's for a need of an old-fashioned Holy Ghost revival in our churches that'll bring us back to the altar and bring us back, brother, to confess that we are sinners and lost and on our way to hell. You say, Peter, you have only known 21 men and no women at all to commit deadline number one, right? How many in your 55 years of preaching have you known to step over deadline number two? God forbid that I should exaggerate, but I believe that I have personally known 100,000 men and women that heard me preach the last sermon that they ever heard. They tell me that in my radio audience, 17 people hear me every night that will not be alive the next day. Dr. Henry, that puts a burden on my heart that I cannot describe. I'm as sure as I'm standing on this platform that this morning if some of you walk out of these doors like you came in, I believe that God sent you here this morning to hear the last sermon you're ever going to hear. And I believe that God permitted this church to get a half-hour x-ray on this television station so that you that are listening by television will have the last opportunity that you're ever going to have. I mean this morning, the last opportunity that you're ever going to have to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. You've been a church member, maybe Catholic, maybe Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, independent Baptist, Nazarene, Lutheran, Southern Baptist. And yet down deep in your heart, there is no witness of the Holy Spirit that you are a child of God. And you know way down deep in your heart that you have never really been saved. Tragedy of tragedies. And God says that my spirit shall not always strive with man. September the 4th, 1932, I was sitting on the front porch of my sister's home in Greenville, South Carolina, lost. To my left sat my sister and my brother-in-law. My mind was 10 million miles away from God. And my oldest sister said to me these words, Harold, you tried everything that the devil has to offer. Why don't you give Jesus Christ a chance in your heart. I had never prayed a prayer. I did not know one verse of scripture. I didn't know that there was such a person as the Holy Spirit. I turned to curse my sister, but instead of cursing her, when I saw the tears running down her face, the Holy Ghost touched my heart. And for the first time in my life, I was really convicted of my sin. And before I knew what it was all about, I was out of that chair, down on my knees, with my head on the rail of that front porch, and for the first time in my life, I was praying. And I cried out, oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I did not know that the Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I learned that in my heart before I ever knew it in my head. The Lord saved me. For eight years, Dr. Henry, I have spent eight years studying to be a medical doctor, biology, chemistry, all the anatomy. On the 28th of August, I've been graduated from the university. Just a few days before this, all eight years that I was studying to be a medical doctor, God was calling me to preach. People don't believe that. But the colonel, they said, that couldn't be. I don't care whether you believe it or not, it's true. For those eight years, I resisted God. And the very minute I got saved, God said, what are you going to do? Holy Spirit, what are you going to do about this preacher? And I said, Lord, I'll be a Baptist preacher. So you Methodists will have to excuse me. I promised God I'd be a Baptist. And my sister lived just back of my mother, and she said, let's go tell mama. And we started up that little path to my mother's home. I was crying. My sister was crying. My brother-in-law was crying. You'd have thought we were Pentecostals. My mother said, children, what's wrong? My sister said, Mama, God has saved him, and he's going to be a Baptist preacher. Then we had a quartet. My dad heard all of the confusion. He came back through the dining room and the kitchen and out to the back porch and he said, mama, what's wrong with you and the children? And my sister said, dad, God has saved him and he's going to be a Baptist preacher. And my dad said, what? A Baptist preacher? Son, you're going to be a Baptist preacher? I said, that's right. He said, after I spent all the money that I spent on you to educate you as a doctor, and now you're going to be a Baptist preacher? He said, you know what? I said, know what, dad? He said, I hope you starve to death. How many of you in this house can remember 19, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36? If you can remember it, hold your hand way up high. Well, I thought more than once dad is going to get his wish. Why don't I tell you something happened? God saved me. 13 days later, I started preaching. The first sermon, God saved 50. And the preacher asked me to stay that night, and he saved another 100. And he asked me to stay on through the week. And by Saturday night, I'd preached everything that was in the Bible, everything. They tried to get me to stay on till Sunday. I said, no way, no way. But God has allowed me every day almost 365 days and every year for 55 years to preach. And we have seen thousands upon top of thousands turn away, refuse to accept Christ. The Bible says, boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Today, is the day of salvation. Today is a day of repentance. And I truly believe with all of my heart that we have filled our Baptist churches with people that have never truly repented of their sin. When you really repent of sin, you hate it, you despise it, and you forsake it. As I look here in the Word of God, I'm amazed at what the Bible says in Jeremiah, how that God three times said, Jeremiah, don't pray for those people. Have you ever stopped to think about what and how awful it would be, Dr. Henry, to have God to remove you from his prayer list? When you step over deadline number two, God removes you from his prayer list. I could not tell you how many times I've begged people to give their hearts to Christ, and they've told me that never again did the Spirit of God speak to them. I remember I was in a revival meeting once, and An old man, I learned later he was 78 years young, came and they put him in a seat right down the aisle, right in front of me. I preached and when I gave the invitation, I walked down the aisle. I was so impressed to go speak to him. And I went down and I spoke to him and I said, sir, are you saved? I'll never forget what he said. He said, Preacher Smith, I am 78 years old. Sixty years ago, I attended a Methodist revival meeting. God's spirit dealt with me. I was under conviction, so I could hardly stand in my seat. But finally, I shoved the spirit away, and he has never again spoken to my heart. That old man today is dead and in hell. The Bible says that my spirit shall not always strive. What a sad thing it's going to be one of these days when he makes his last knock, his last plea, and his last call. The Bible says about Ephraim, Ephraim is joined to his idols. Let him alone. He is joined to sin. Your heart is joined to iniquity. What if God says, let you alone? Preacher, let him alone. Holy Spirit, let him alone. Let him sleep on in his sin and unconcernedness until the very darkness of eternal night awakens him to realize his everlasting shame and contempt. And the ghosts of hell dance in his funeral march. Tragedy of tragedies. Then shall they call, but I will not answer. He said they could not believe. He did not say that they would not believe. He said they could not believe. There is a time we know not when, a place we know not where, that marks the destiny of men from glory to despair. There is a line by us unseen which crosses every path. The hidden boundary between God's mercy and His wrath. Never will I forget begging a little girl to give her heart to Jesus Christ. I was in Walhalla, South Carolina. On this particular night, I'd preached and we'd given the invitation and about 80% of all the congregation had come forward. But sitting to my right in this section right here was a man and a woman and a little girl between them. I was so impressed to speak to them until I could not get down the aisle for the crowd. So I just pushed my way through, stepped on this pew, the second pew, and the third pew, and stopped right in front of them. And I said to the gentleman, are you saved? He said, yes, I am. I said to the lady, are you saved? She said, yes, I am. Then I turned to the little girl, and I said, are you saved, honey? She said, no, sir, I'm not. I said, how old are you? She said, I'm 14. I said, what is your name? She said, my name is Katie. I said, Katie, I believe that the Holy Spirit sent me back here to speak to you. We cannot get out into the altar because the aisles are so filled where the people are there, but would you just bow your little head and let me pray with you right here? Would you do it, honey? She stood there for a moment and said, not tonight. I don't forget her dad and her mother began to cry, and they said, Katie, let Preacher Smith pray for you. Mama, I don't want him to pray for me. Katie, let Preacher Smith pray for you. Daddy, I don't want him to pray for me. And then I said, Katie, if somehow or another you could know that before this day is over and before this night is over, you'd be in hell, would you let your dad or your mother or me pray for you? I'll never forget it. She folded her arms across her chest. And she said, if I knew I'd be in hell before midnight, I wouldn't let you or anybody else pray for me. I turned and went back and dismissed that service. On the way home, this father stopped at a service station and filled up his car tank with high octane gasoline. They lived four miles out of Walhalla on the left side of the main highway. The father was given the cue and the signal and a turn, but four drunken men were coming up that highway in excess speed, the patrol said, of over 90 miles an hour. The father said, I saw the lights of the approaching automobile, but I didn't know it was coming that fast. And before he could turn left, that car struck them and whirled them over three or four times. I've forgotten. The father was hardly injured at all. The mother was hardly injured at all. But little Katie was wedged in that back seat. And the car, when he stopped rolling, was upside down. The gasoline tank had been ruptured, and that gasoline was pouring out and running down that highway. The man that was telling me about it, he said, Preacher, I was the second automobile to arrive on that scene. He said, I suppose in 20 minutes there must have been 50 people around that accident. And another gentleman and I were up in the back seat trying to free the legs of this little girl from that seat so we could get her out of that automobile. One of these drunken men got out of his car, they went on about as far as the back of the church here, and he wrecked their car, got out, walked back up there, lit a cigarette, and threw that match down in that gasoline. Didn't realize it was gasoline. This gentleman who was there, he said, preacher, I saw that flash. I looked back over my shoulder, and I saw that flame coming up that highway. He said, I made a super effort to try to free the legs of that little girl, and I failed. And he said, just before the fire got there, I jumped out of the car. And the other gentleman had to get out. And he said, what I heard and saw the next 30 seconds, I hope I will never experience again. He said, that little girl began to scream, Daddy, Mother, somebody get me out of this car, Daddy. I'm going to burn to death. Mama, Mama, I'm going to go to hell, Mama. I'm going to go to hell, Mama. Somebody get me out of this automobile. He said, Preacher, I remember one of the things he said was, Mama, I wish I'd have let Preacher Smith pray for me. He said, Brother Harold, we had to restrain that father and mother to keep them from running into that fire. And he said, that mother got up as close as the heat would allow her and said, Katie, can you hear me? Yes, Mama. Yes, Mama, I can hear you. Katie, you are going to burn to death. We cannot get you out. Pray, Katie. Mama. Mama. I can't pray. And he said, preacher, when that fire got in there, if you've ever seen a chicken, when you'd wring its neck and see it flopping around on the ground, floundering on the ground, he said, that's the way that little girl began to flounder and scream as she died without Christ, just 14 years old. I just wonder this morning if there's some teens that are lost. You've been baptized. You joined the church. You're faithful in your attendance. You have a wonderful record in training union and all the other activities of the church. But way down deep in your heart, you know you're lost, that you do not have Christ. Will you say no to him today and step over this deadline? Will you do it? Preacher, I could stand here for the next hour. and relate one after another, the next two hours, the next two days, and perhaps the whole month, just relating one incident after another that's taken place in my life. The young man that I begged with my arm around him to give his heart to Jesus, that had the suicide note right there in his little jacket, and with a pistol in his pocket, 30 minutes after we had dismissed the service, he was in hell. The two precious girls that I begged to give their hearts to Christ, sisters they were. One of them was 18 and the other was 16 years of age. That very night they were murdered. The whole family was killed and their house set on fire. And I stood there and watched the firemen as they raked the parts of their body out of those ashes, knowing that they were in hell. Never will I forget that sweet mother that I begged on Sunday morning, walked all the way out through the foyer and down the walkway with her, begging her to give her heart to Jesus that dropped dead that afternoon while cutting some roses to bring to me to put in my study. I could just go on and on. I want to ask you, are you really saved? You say, I'm a church member. That doesn't count. You say, I've been baptized. That doesn't count. You say, I read my Bible. Preacher, that doesn't count. You say, Preacher, I'm good to my family. That doesn't count. You say, Brother Harold, I'm not on dope. That doesn't count. I want to ask you, have you had that experience called the new birth? I'll never forget what my beloved pastor that baptized me when I really got saved, Brother Lawrence Roberts, told me. He said, Brother Harold, I was a pastor of a little country church during the Great Recession. He said, everybody in our church was so poor we could hardly live. There was one rich man in our church that had the only gin in our county. He had 1,000 acres of peaches. And he had the only peach shed in our county. And about a third of our members worked for him directly or indirectly. His wife and 16-year-old daughter were members of Brother Robert's church. But they could never get John to come. Brother Robert said, one Sunday night, I was just ready to preach, and in walked the family, and sat down on the back row. Brother Robert said, if I ever preach with one man on my heart, it was that night. And he said, when I gave the invitation, we sang the first stanza, and he didn't come. We sang the second stanza, and he didn't come. Brother Robert said, on the third stanza, I walked off the platform and down the aisle, and I went back to him, and I said, John, I believe God sent you here tonight. He said, the man looked me in the face and said, Fisher, that was a great sermon you preached. I really enjoyed it, but I cannot give my heart to Jesus Christ tonight. He said, I have a deal on for next Wednesday. I know it's crooked. I know it's not right, but I'm going to make $25,000 out of that deal. And if I got saved, I'd have to call it off and I'd lose that $25,000 I'm going to make. Brother Robert said, John, you have more money now than you and your family can ever spend. Do I understand you to say, John, you're putting a $25,000 price tag on your soul? He said, that's exactly it, and turned and walked out. Brother Robert said at 4 o'clock Tuesday morning, his telephone rang. It was John's wife, and her call was so urgent, she said, preacher, come. Come as quickly as you can. John woke up about two hours ago, seriously ill. We have not been able to locate the doctor. Please come, preacher. He said, as hurriedly as my wife and I could get ready, we went to that house. And he said, when I stopped my car in front of that beautiful palatial home, nobody would have had to told me where he was. I could hear him. He said, I walked up those steps and down that hall and back to that little bedroom. And he was screaming. with his wife on one side holding this side and a daughter on the other, screaming as loud as he could scream, don't let him have me. Don't let him have me. Mother Roberts said, I leaned over him and I said, John, this is Mother Roberts. This is your pastor. No one's after you. Brother Roberts, don't you see him? Here comes the devil up our lane. Look at that chain, Brother Roberts. He's coming after me. He's turning in our front gate. He's coming up our front steps. He's coming down the hall. There he is. He's crawling over the foot of the bed. He's wrapping that chain around my ankles, Brother Roberts. He's wrapping that chain around my waist, Brother Roberts. Oh, Brother Roberts, he's wrapping that chain around my throat. He's choking me. He's choking me, Brother Roberts. Don't let him have me. Don't let him have me. Brother Roberts said, with a last gasp, he said, he's got me. Brother Roberts said, Harold, his hair was thicker than yours. And all over the headboard of that bed were hairs. And he had borne his head back in that bed, trying to get away from the devil. Let me tell you something. There are you that laugh at the devil and scoff at this thing called sin. But let me tell you, as sure as I'm preaching to you this morning, the devil is real. And one of these days, he's going to knock on your door. And when he knocks, it'll be too late to pray. If the Holy Spirit takes his flight and you send away your day of grace, You will never, never, never be saved. This is the sin that Agrippa committed. Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, but almost is to be lost. Almost is to be damned. I believe you'll agree with me that this is a sin that Felix committed. Preacher Paul, I'll call for you at a more convenient season, and he is in hell. This is a sin that Festus committed. This is a sin that the rich young ruler committed, and they're in hell. They refused Jesus. They thought they had plenty of time. They expected to be saved at the 11th hour, and they died. at 1030. I believe with all of my heart there's somebody in this house. I believe with all of my heart there's somebody in this house. If you let this opportunity this morning to slip by, I don't mean walk down here and rededicate your life, but I mean walk down here and say, Lord, I'm a sinner. Although I'm a member of the First Baptist Church, I'm a guest. I'm a sinner. I'm lost, Lord, and on my way to hell. If you fail to do that this morning, I believe the spirit of God is going to take his flight. And you have your last opportunity today to get right with God. Deadline number three. All of you have already seen that we cannot send away your day of grace and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit if you're a born-again believer. But what is that sin in the Bible that if you commit it as a child of God, God says he carries with him capital punishment? I will kill you if you commit this sin. What is it? The Bible declares in 1 John, the first epistle of John, chapter 5, verse 16, if any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. Now, what is that sin unto death? What is the sin that your beloved pastor, Dr. Jim Henry, could commit? and would leave his lovely wife and sweet children, a widow and orphans. What is the sin, Dr. Henry, that you could commit? And this great church would have to elect a search committee to find another pastor. You say, Preacher Smith, do you mean to tell me there is a sin that I could commit as a child of God? that carries with it capital punishment? There certainly is. If you have your Bible, I want you to turn to Amos, A-M-O-S, a little book of Amos chapter 4. I'm going to read this passage of scripture rather hurriedly, and five times you're going to hear the expression, yet have you not returned to me, saith the Lord. Beginning with verse six of Amos chapter four, I read. And I also have given you cleanliness of teeth in all of your cities, and worn of bread in all of your places, number one. Yet have you not returned to me, saith the Lord. And also I withhold in the rain from you whenever yet three months of the harvest. And I cause it to rain upon one city, and cause it not to rain upon another city. whereby one peace was reigned upon, and the peace whereupon it reigned not withered. So two or three cities wanted one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Number two, yet have you not returned to me, saith the Lord? I have smitten you with blasting and mildew, when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive branches increased, the palmy worm devoured them. Number three, yet have you not returned to me, saith the Lord? I have sent among you the pestilence after the manor of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with this sword, and I have taken away your horses and made the stake of your camps to cover your nostrils. Number four, yet have you not returned to me, saith the Lord? I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning. Number five, yet have you not returned to me, saith the Lord? God said, I sent famine, and you will not come back to me. I sent drought, and you will not come back to me. I sent pestilence, and you will not come back to me. I sent war, and you will not come back to me. I sent destruction, and you will not come back to me. Now look at verse 12. Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God. How many of you in this house believe, whether you're a sinner or saint, Baptist or Methodist, how many of you believe that God knows everything that there is to know about every last one of us. If you believe that, raise your hand. He does, whether you believe it or not. If there is a little pet sin in my heart, you think he knows it? Dr. Henry, if you knew this morning that there was some unconfessed sin in my heart, and that I was out of fellowship with God, would you have me in this pulpit? But I could have it and you not know it. I think you are a great man of God, a great servant of God. But Dr. Henry, if there's one little sin in your heart, maybe your wife doesn't know about it, but God knows. But Curl, you're a great servant of God. If there's one little sin, tucked away in your heart, God sees it, and we cannot hide it. And just so it is with all of you in this section, in that balcony, in here, here, there, all over here, here, there's not a one of us in the choir or on this platform that God doesn't see exactly what's in our heart. And if you are a born-again believer and God sees that sin, it grieves him. It grieves me when I see sin in any family. But I tell you, when I see it in my own family, when I, there's nothing in this world, I could, I could see a hundred men sin. It would not grieve me as much as seeing my only son sin, or my only daughter, or my only grandson, or my only granddaughter. And I believe it would drive me insane to know that my dear wife had some unconfessed sin hidden in her heart. But I do not love my family like God loves his family. And it grieves the Holy Spirit if he sees one little sin in your heart as a believer. Do you believe that? That's why the Bible says grieve not the Holy Spirit. Grieve not the Holy Spirit that abides in every believer. I want to ask you, have you got some little pet unconfessed sin in your heart this morning? If you have, when I give this invitation in a moment, I want you to get up out of that seat, go back to the prayer room, get on your knees, and don't you leave this church. until you know that sin is out of your heart. Don't let God turn you over to the devil for the devil to kill you. You say, preacher, what did you say? You mean God will turn me over to the devil for the devil to kill me? That's exactly what the Bible teaches. I want everybody that has a Bible to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 5. And perhaps this is the most important verse that I've given you all morning. 1 Corinthians 5, 5, to deliver such in one. Talking about a Christian that has sin in his heart. To deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. to prove to you now that he's saved, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. If you are a born-again believer, you are saved forever. If I didn't believe that, I'd be the most frightened preacher in all the world. God gave me eternal life. I have the same life in me, abiding in me, that is in the bosom of God. I will live forever and ever and ever. But if I get sin in my heart and refuse to confess it, God says to Satan, take him, kill him. Now, folk, I'll soon be 78 years of age. And Pastor, I know I don't have too much longer to live. But I tell you, if I die, it's sure going to be unexpected. I'm not looking for the death angel, and I'm not expecting to die. I'm looking for the coming of Jesus. But if the Lord says, J. Harold, I'm not gonna let you live, I'm not gonna let you live until the coming of the Lord, I say, okay, Lord, but when you get ready to kill me, please don't let me be killed in the devil's slaughterhouse. I don't want the devil to kill me. Do you remember what the devil did to Job? And Job was a righteous man. He hated evil. But the devil took away all of his property. In one cyclone, one tornado, his seven sons and three daughters were killed. His dear beloved friends turned their back upon him. His body broke out with boils from the top of his head to the sole of his feet. I cannot imagine such a thing. And then finally, his beloved wife turned her back upon him and forsook him. And the Bible says in all of this, Job sinned not with his lips, nor charged God foolishly. Then God gave him back double, all that he ever had. Now, I don't want the devil to kill me. Do you? All right, as the Holy Spirit searches out your heart this morning, what does he find? What is that sin? Is it a lack of Bible study? Have you been robbing God of his tithe and of his offering? The Bible says that if you're a born-again believer and you do not tithe, you're a robber. You have stolen God's money. Have you lied about some neighbor? Do you hold greed or hate or malice or prejudice in your heart toward anyone? Is there some little uncovered sin somewhere in your heart? What is that thing that has separated you from God? Preacher, I have known eight preachers, eight fine preachers that God killed. If I would name some of those preachers, you'd fall off of those pews. They died horrible deaths. I remember one of them in Fort Smith while I was pastor. They called for me to come to his bedside in the intensive care at Sparks Hospital. When I got to that room and I bowed there by the side of him, I could not open my mouth and pray one single word. I went out to the parking lot, got in my car, went back to my church and got my educational director, one of the most holy men that I ever knew in my life. I didn't tell Brother Sullivan a thing about why I'd come after him. We got up to the room and I said, Brother Sullivan, you pray. I never forget it. He said, Brother Harold, I can't pray. You'll have to excuse me. We got in our car, I went back to the church and got my ministry of music, who was one of the finest, most godly men that I ever knew, a man of real prayer. We didn't tell him, brought him back up, went in that room, and I said, Brother Shatley, will you pray? And he, oh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. He said, Preacher, I can't pray. I want to tell you something. When you step over God's deadline and God signs you over to the devil, you can call for Brother Henry and the staff and this great church, Brother, to go into sessions of prayer. And Brother, I tell you, he'll never be able to get a prayer, not to any of you. Will any of you ever get a prayer? None of you will ever get a prayer through to God if you once step over this deadline. And I'm confident, I'm as sure as my name is J. Harold Smith, that there's somebody in this church this morning, if you walk out of that door with the same little unconfessed sin in your heart that you came through those entrances today, if you walk out with that, maybe it's between you and your family. Maybe there's discord between you and your wife. Maybe some of you are just waiting until your children get grown to get a divorce. I do not know. Maybe I tell you you've been stepping out on your husband. Maybe you've been stepping out on your wife. Maybe I tell you children, but I tell you they've been on dope. Maybe something else. I don't care what it is. If you have sin in your heart, God knows about it. And if you walk out of that door, God says, sign a death warrant. And the holy angel of God fills out that death warrant and pins it on your back. Neighbor, you are done for. I wonder, I just wonder if God has his pen in his hand right this very moment, ready to fill out the blanks on that death warrant and sign your death warrant No, you're not going to go to hell. You'll go to heaven, but in shame. A loss of your reward, saved as if by fire or by the skin of your teeth. Is that what you want? Deadline number one, blaspheming against the Holy Ghost. That sin committed with the tongue, assigning the work of the Holy Ghost to the work of the devil, and you're damned forever. Deadline number two, sending away your day of grace. In this sin, you don't have to speak a word. Just harden your heart, stiffen your neck, just like cement hardening, and the Spirit of God takes his flight never to knock on your door again, and you're damned forever. Deadline number three, the sin unto death, committed only by a born-again believer when that believer gets unconfessed sin in his heart and refuses to repent after God whips him and whips him and whips him. This Bible teaches plainly that if you're a child of the king, you cannot get by with sin. God will chasten you, God will whip you, and the Bible says that if you can get by with that sin and not be whipped, it's a sure sign that you're not saved. Some of you are sitting right here this morning saying, well, I've been in sin and God hasn't whipped me. I'm a church member and God hasn't whipped me. That's true, because you do not belong to the family of God in the first place. You belong to the kingdom of darkness. and you are under deadline number two, not deadline number one. So if you're a child of God this morning, will you let God search your heart? Will you let God look down in your heart and put his finger upon that sin? And then will you get up out of that seat and go back here in this prayer room and confess it, not to your pastor, not to one of the personal workers, not to your parents, not to your companions, not to your children, but confess it to Christ. If so, you will not step over one of these deadly deadlines. Has your attendance in the house of God been whatever it be? Has your conduct, your conversation, your character, your companions, the company you keep, the blessing before your meal, the marriage vow, some other sin that has come into your heart. The Bible says in Isaiah 13, 9, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. In closing, do you have that foot up ready to take that fatal step over one of these deadlines? Instead of taking that fatal step over that deadline, Take a step of faith toward Christ and let him forgive you of your sin. This morning, I want you to bow your head for just one minute. Everybody, close your eyes. I want to ask you to take a little trip with me. It's perhaps going to be the most serious little trip that you've ever taken in your life. I want every one of you that's standing to imagine that you're getting on a little invisible elevator. And I want you to go down, down, down. Now stop it. And you're right in front of the door of your own heart. I want you to get off that elevator. Take out the little key to your heart. There's just one. God doesn't have it. Your wife doesn't have it. Your sweetheart doesn't have it. You have it. And I want you to unlock the door of your own heart. Now open that door, step inside, shut the door, and let God turn the light on. There are hundreds of you. This is the first time in all of your life that you've ever stood inside your heart and looked at it. What do you see? Oh, my brother Smith, I never dreamed that my heart was this wicked. The Bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked and who can know them? Brother Smith, I see a great, big, beautiful church called the First Baptist Church of Orlando or some other church, but I don't see Christ. I see a lot of religion, but I don't see the Redeemer. I see the waters of baptism, but I do not see the blood. Go back over to that door and open it, and there he stands. There is the Lord standing at the door of your heart. Will you open that door right now and invite him to come in? If you'll open the door, and say, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today, come in to stay, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. He will not disappoint you. He will not refuse you. So if he's not in your heart, will you invite him in right now? And then some of you, as you look around, he's there, but he's way over in the corner, and he's weeping. And you walk over to him and you say, Lord Jesus, why are you weeping? He says, because you're ashamed of me when you get the presence of your friends and business partners. You put me over here in the corner of your heart. You're ashamed of me. Go over there and take him by the hand and say, Lord Jesus, forgive me. I will never again in all of my life be ashamed of you. And you shall occupy the throne of my heart forever. Have you made this little trip? Have you honestly looked into your heart? Do some of you see your floor of your heart littered up with sin? Do you see your family altar missing? Do you see your Bible down under all those magazines and books on the coffee table? Do you see those garbage cans full of iniquity? What have you seen as you stood in your heart? Are you pleased with what you saw? If you're not, I beg you to come. How many of you will get right up out of that auditorium where you are? Member, sinner, visitor, senior citizen, young person. How many of you will get right up out of that seat and say, Preacher Smith, I am determined not to step over one of these deadlines. I know what the devil will tell you. He'll say, just sit here in your seat and confess your sin. That's a lie of the devil. How many of you out of these balconies from down here will just get right up out of that seat and come this very moment? Go this way or that way to one of these prayer rooms and meet these counselors. Will you get up and come right now? I hope that hearing Dad's message here really communicates, Scott, the sense of urgency about this. And one of the great lies, I think, in our modern churches and in sort of this watering down of the wrathful aspect of God's judgment is that people begin to sort of deeply believe that accepting Christ, responding to God's call to repentance first, we first need to recognize and humble ourselves and recognize that we are sinners. And there's so much in our modern civilization that militates against us just coming in repentance. When we are truly repentant, accepting God's gift of grace is easy. It's like from our knees we are in the position where we can hear God's message of grace. And I think so much of this refusal to accept the invitation of the Holy Spirit to follow Christ really comes from pride. Yes. And it comes from, I'm too good to do that. That's for the drunks and the debauched, and I'm a pretty good person, you know? I'm not all that bad. And as long as we're thinking that way, we can't really hear what Jesus Christ is all about. Yeah, and it's that, in your mind, God wouldn't send me to hell. God wouldn't do that to me. I mean, I'm okay. God wouldn't do that to me, but folks, There are more people, just as Dr. Smith said, sitting in churches and they've truly not repented. They're sitting there, he said he thought about three quarters of the people sitting in churches back in the 80s were lost. Why? Because there was no fruit of repentance. When you truly believe in Jesus Christ, there's going to be a change in your life. There are two misunderstandings, I think, that give way to this resistance to Christ in our world today. One is a misunderstanding of who we are. We've been told that we should just have wonderful self-esteem and we should love ourselves and we're really great. In fact, some religions promote the idea that we're gods in the making. And the other is we don't know who we are. We don't know who God is. And the image of God that's promoted in our modern culture is not the biblical God, the Holy One of Israel. It's this sort of great Santa Claus-like grandfather who's just, you know, good-natured and loves everybody and just wants everybody to be sweet and get along. And that is not who this holy being is. This holy being has given what he loved the most, his son Jesus Christ, to die in our place. We deserved that death. We deserved the destruction which was meted out on Jesus Christ for our benefit. And you can imagine, if I love someone enough to sacrifice my only son, I have one son that I love more than I love myself, I would lay down my own life for him. But if I had been in the position where I'd seen him sacrificed and lost in order that somebody else might be rescued, and that person just nonchalantly blew that off. I'll do it another time. Do you think I would be, just even as a human being, I would just be filled with anger? How could you do that? And we can only imagine that if we do not believe that God is capable of wrath and judgment, then we do not understand who God really is, and we are worshiping an idol that we have created in place of the real God. Yeah, and a lot of people are. A lot of people are today. I think back when I was saved myself, I was just a kid. I was about 10 years old. And the first night, I didn't go forward. I didn't go see the preacher, ask what I needed to do to be saved. I kind of talked to my dad about it, but God didn't have to give me another chance. God didn't have to call on my heart again and offer that grace again, but He did. He did. It was blasphemous not to come when He first called, yet the second night, I did come. I did receive Him as my Savior, and I've not followed Him perfectly. I don't think any of us do. I've done my best to follow him as best as I know how. And like Don said, when you begin to really know Jesus, you love him. He is the one that is most important. And when he makes that offer of grace and mercy to you or to me, and we reject it, we never know that that may be the last time that we reject it. And in these examples that my father used in this sermon, we see the example of people that really believed that they had more time than they actually had. They really did, and yet they didn't. So I guess the message in this deadline is You may or may not be saved. You better make sure and you better make sure you receive that gift while you still can. We hope that this message maybe has been a little bit disturbing to you because that disturbance that you feel, the sense of unease that you feel if you've stuck with us and watched this program, that does not come from Satan. That sense of unease comes from the Holy Spirit, and it's an invitation to you to acknowledge your status as a sinner, to acknowledge that you are a sinful creature and that you need God's forgiveness through Jesus Christ. And if you are a Christian, and yet you're trying to live maintaining some rebellious place of sin in your life that this will be the day that you will surrender that sin. Ask God's forgiveness and he will forgive you. We want to thank you for being with us for the program and again I hope this will be a great day for you with Christ.