A Victorious Sermon
If you fall into sin and you're a sheep you'll get out; if you're a
hog you'll stay there, just like a sheep and a hog when they fall into
the mud.--BILLY SUNDAY.
On the walls of Sir Walter Scott's home at Abbottsford hangs the
claymore of the redoubtable Rob Roy, one of the most interesting
objects in that absorbing library of the great novelist. A peculiar
interest attaches to the instruments of great achievement, as the
scimitar of Saladin, or the sword of Richard the Lion-Hearted, or the
rifle of Daniel Boone. Something of this same sort of interest clings
to a particular form of words that has wrought wondrously. Apart
altogether from its contents, Sunday's sermon on "The Unpardonable
Sin" is of peculiar interest to the reader. This is the message
that has penetrated through the indifference and skepticism and
self-righteousness and shameless sin of thousands of men and women.
Many thousands of persons have, under the impulse of these words,
abandoned their old lives and crowded forward up the sawdust trail to
grasp the preacher's hand, as a sign that they would henceforth serve
the Lord Christ.
"The Unpardonable Sin" is a good sample of Sunday's sermons. It
shows the character of the man's mind, and that quality of sound
reasonableness which we call "common sense." There are no excesses, no
abnormalities, no wrenchings of Scripture in this terrific utterance.
"THE UNPARDONABLE SIN"
"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."
I'd like to know where anybody ever found any authority for a belief in
future probation. Jesus Christ was either human or he was divine. And
if he was only human then I am not obligated to obey his word any more
than I am that of any other philosopher.
The Pharisees charged Jesus with being in league with the devil. They
said to him, "You have a devil." They grew bolder in their denunciation
and said: "You do what you do through Beelzebub, the prince of devils."
Jesus said: "How is that so? If what I do I do through the devil,
explain why it is I am overthrowing the works of the devil. If I am a
devil and if what I do is through the devil, then I wouldn't be working
to hurt the works of the devil. I would not be doing what I am doing to
destroy the works of the devil, but I would be working to destroy the
works of God."
From that day forth they dared not ask him any questions.
I know there are various opinions held by men as to what they believe
constitutes the sin against the Holy Ghost. There are those who think
it could have been committed only by those who heard Jesus Christ speak
and saw him in the flesh. If that be true then neither you nor I are
in danger, for neither has ever seen Jesus in the flesh nor heard him.
Another class think that it has been committed since the days of Jesus,
but at extremely rare intervals; and still a third class think they
have committed it and they spend their lives in gloom and dread and are
perfectly useless to themselves and the community.
And yet I haven't the slightest doubt but that there are thousands
that come under the head of my message, who are never gloomy, never
depressed, never downcast; their conscience is at ease, their spirits
are light and gay, they eat three meals a day and sleep as sound as a
babe at night; nothing seems to disturb them, life is all pleasure and
song.
What It Is
If you will lay aside any preconceived ideas or opinions which you
may have had or still have as to what you imagine, think or believe
constitutes the sin against the Holy Ghost, or the unpardonable sin,
and if you will listen to me, for I have read every sermon I could ever
get my hands upon the subject, and have listened to every man I have
ever had an opportunity to hear preach, and have read everything the
Bible has taught on the subject.
I do not say that my views on the subject are infallible, but I have
wept and prayed and studied over it, and if time will permit and my
strength will allow and your patience endure, I will try and ask and
answer a few questions. What is it? Why will God not forgive it?
It is not swearing. If swearing were the unpardonable sin, lots of
men in heaven would have to go to hell and there are multitudes on
earth on their way to heaven who would have to go to hell. It is
not drunkenness. There are multitudes in heaven that have crept and
crawled out of the quagmires of filth and the cesspools of iniquity and
drunkenness. Some of the brightest lights that ever blazed for God have
been men that God saved from drunkenness.
It's not adultery. Jesus said to the woman committing adultery and
caught in the very act: "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more."
It isn't theft. He said to Zaccheus, "This day is salvation come upon
thy house." Zaccheus had been a thief.
It's not murder. Men's hands have been red with blood and God has
forgiven them. The Apostle Paul's hands were red with blood.
What is it? To me it is plain and simple. It is constant and continual,
and final rejection of Jesus Christ as your Saviour. God's offer of
mercy and salvation comes to you and you say, "No," and you push it
aside. I do know that there is such a thing as the last call to every
man or woman. God says that his spirit will not always strive with man,
and when a man or woman says "No" as God's spirit strives for the last
time it forever seals your doom.
It is no special form of sin, no one act. It might be swearing, it
might be theft. Any one becomes unpardonable if God keeps calling on
you to forsake that sin and you keep on refusing to forsake it, and if
you don't then he will withdraw and let you alone and that sin will
become unpardonable, for God won't ask you again to forsake it.
It is no one glaring act, but the constant repetition of the same
thing. There will come a time when you commit that sin once too often.
It is a known law of mind that truth resisted loses its power on the
mind that resists it. You hear a truth the first time and reject it.
The next time the truth won't seem so strong and will be easier to
resist. God throws a truth in your face. You reject it. He throws
again; you reject again. Finally God will stop throwing the truth at
you and you will have committed the unpardonable sin.
"There is a line by us unseen;
It crosses every path;
It is God's boundary between
His patience and his wrath.
"To cross that limit is to die,
To die as if by stealth.
It may not dim your eye,
Nor pale the glow of health,
"Your conscience may be still at ease;
Your spirits light and gay;
That which pleases still may please,
And care be thrown away;
"But on that forehead God hath set
Indelibly a mark,
Unseen by man; for man as yet
Is blind and in the dark.
"Indeed, the doomed one's path below
May bloom as Edens bloom;
He does not, will not know,
Nor believe that he is doomed."
Over in Scotland there are men who earn their living by gathering the
eggs of birds, laid upon ledges on rocks away below the cliff top. They
fasten a rope to a tree, also to themselves, then swing back and forth
and in upon the ledge of rock. When a man was doing that same thing
years ago, the rope beneath his arms became untied, and the protruding
rock caused the rope to hang many feet beyond his reach.
The man waited for help to come, but none came. Darkness came, the
light dawned, and he gave himself up to the fate of starvation, which
he felt inevitably awaiting him, when a breeze freshened and the
dangling rope began to vibrate. As the wind increased in velocity it
increased the vibration of the rope and as it would bend in, he said:
"If I miss it, I die; if I seize it, it's my only chance," and with
a prayer to God as the rope bent in, he leaped out of the chasm and
seized it and made his way hand over hand to the top, and when he
reached it his hair was as white as the driven snow.
There is one cord that swings through this old world today--the Holy
Spirit. With every invitation it swings farther away. We are living in
the last dispensation, the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, and God is
speaking to the world through the Holy Spirit today.
Resisting the Truth
By every known law of the mind, conversion must be effected by the
influence of the truth on the mind. Every time you resist the truth
the next time you hear it, it loses its force on your mind. And every
time you hear a truth and withstand it, then you become stronger in
your power to resist the truth. We all know this, that each resistance
strengthens you against the truth. When a man hears the truth and he
resists it, the truth grows weaker and he grows stronger to resist it.
No matter what Jesus Christ did the Jews refused to believe. He had
performed wonderful deeds but they wouldn't believe, so when Lazarus
was dead, he said: "Lazarus, come forth," and then turned to the Jews
and said: "Isn't that evidence enough that I am the Son of God?" and
they cried: "Away with him." One day he was walking down the hot dusty
road and he met a funeral procession. The mourners were bearing the
body of a young man and his mother was weeping. He told them to place
the coffin on the ground and said:
"Young man arise," and he arose. Then he asked the Pharisees: "Is that
not proof enough that I am the Son of God, that I make the dead to
arise?" and they cried: "Away with him." So no matter what Jesus did,
the Jews refused to believe him. No matter what Jesus Christ says or
does today, you'll refuse to accept, and continue to rush pell-mell to
eternal damnation.
"Too Late"
Jesus Christ gives you just as much evidence today. Down in Indiana, my
friend, Mrs. Robinson, was preaching. I don't remember the town, but I
think it was Kokomo, and I remember the incident, and the last day she
tried to get the leader of society there to give her heart to God. She
preached and then went down in the aisle and talked to her. Then she
went back to the platform and made her appeal from there. Again she
went to the girl, but she still refused. As Mrs. Robinson turned to go
she saw her borrow a pencil from her escort and write something in the
back of a hymn book.
A few years afterward Mrs. Robinson went back to the town and was
told the girl was dying. They told her the physicians had just held a
consultation and said she could not live until night. Mrs. Robinson
hurried to her home. The girl looked up, recognized her and said: "I
didn't send for you. You came on your own account, and you're too
late." To every appeal she would reply: "You're too late." Finally she
said: "Go look in the hymn book in the church."
They hurried to the church and looked over the hymn books and found in
the back of one her name and address and these words, "I'll run the
risk; I'll take my chance." That was the last call to her. Not any one
sin is the unpardonable sin, but it may be that constant repetition,
over and over again until God will say: "Take it and go to hell."
Who can commit it? I used to think that only the vile, the profane were
the people who could commit it.
Whom did Jesus warn? The Pharisees. And who were they? The best men,
morally, in Jerusalem.
Who can commit it? Any man or woman who says "No" to Jesus Christ. You
may even defend the Bible. You may be the best man or woman, morally,
in the world. Your name may be synonymous with virtue and purity, but
let God try to get into your heart, let him try to get you to walk down
the aisle and publicly acknowledge Jesus Christ, and your heart and
lips are sealed like a bank vault, and God hasn't been able to pull you
to your feet. And God won't keep on begging you to do it.
Something may say to you, "I ought to be a Christian." This is the
dispensation of the Holy Spirit. God spoke in three dispensations.
First, through the old Mosaic law. Then Jesus Christ came upon this
earth and lived and the Jews and Gentiles conspired to kill him. Then
the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost and God is speaking through the
Holy Spirit today. The Holy Spirit is pressing you to be a Christian.
It takes the combined efforts of the Trinity to keep you out of
hell--God the Father to provide the plan of salvation, the Holy Spirit
to convict, Jesus Christ to redeem you through his blood, and your
acceptance and repentance to save you. Sin is no trifle.
Representative of the Trinity
The only representative of the Trinity in the world today is the Holy
Ghost. Jesus has been here, but he is not here now--that is, in flesh
and blood. The Holy Ghost is here now. When he leaves the world,
good-bye.
There was an old saint of God, now in glory. He was holding meetings
one time and a young man came down the aisle and went so far as to
ask him to pray for him. He said: "Let's settle it now," but the
young man refused and told him to pray for him. Years afterwards, in
Philadelphia, the old saint was in a hotel waiting for his card to
be taken up to the man he wanted to see. He looked in the bar-room
door. There was a young man ordering a drink. The two saw each other's
reflections in the French plate behind the bar, and the young man came
out and said: "How do you do?" The old man spoke to him.
The young fellow said: "I suppose you don't remember me?" and the old
saint had to admit that he did not.
The young fellow asked him if he remembered the meeting eleven years
before in New York when a young man came down the aisle and asked him
to pray for him. He said he was the young man. The old saint said:
"From what I have just seen I would suppose that you did not settle it."
The young fellow said: "I did not and I never expect to. I believe
there is a hell and I'm going there as fast as I can go."
The old man begged him to keep still, but he said: "It is true. If
Jesus Christ would come through that door now I would spit in his
face."
The old man said: "Don't talk that way. I would not stand to have you
talk about my wife that way, and I will not stand it to have you talk
about Christ that way." The young fellow said it was all true. The old
fellow said: "Maybe it is all true, but I do not like to hear it." The
young fellow said it was true, and that if he had a Bible he would tear
it up. With a string of oaths he went to the bar, took two or three
drinks and went out the door.
Sometimes it may be utter, absolute indifference. Some can hear any
sermon and any song and not be moved. I'll venture that some of you
have not been convicted of sin for twenty-five years. Back yonder the
Spirit of God convicted you and you didn't yield. The first place I
ever preached, in the little town of Garner, in Hancock county, Iowa, a
man came down the aisle. I said, "Who's that?" and someone told me that
he was one of the richest men in the county. I asked him what I had
said to help him, and he said nothing. Then he told me that twenty-one
years ago he had gone to Chicago and sold his stock four hours before
he had to catch a train. Moody was in town and with a friend he had
gone and stood inside the door, listening to the sermon. When Moody
gave the invitation he handed his coat and hat to his friend and said
he was going down to give Moody his hand. The friend told him not to do
it, that he would miss his train, and then the railroad pass would be
no good after that day. He said he could afford to pay his way home.
His friend told him not to go up there amid all the excitement, but to
wait and settle it at home. He said he had waited thirty-five years and
hadn't settled it at home, but the friend persisted against his going
forward and giving his heart to God. Finally the time passed and they
had to catch the train and the man hadn't gone forward. He told me that
he had never had a desire to give his heart to God until that time,
twenty-one years later, when he heard me preach. The Spirit called him
when he heard Moody, and then the Spirit did not call him again until
twenty-one years later, when he heard me.
I have never said and I never will say that all unbelievers died in
agony. Man ordinarily dies as he has lived. If you have lived in
unbelief, ninety-nine cases out of one hundred you'll die that way. If
Christianity is a good thing to die with it is a good thing to live
with.
Death-bed Confessions
I don't go much on these death-bed confessions. A death-bed confession
is like burning a candle at both ends and then blowing the smoke in the
face of Jesus. A death-bed confession is like drinking the cup of life
and then offering the dregs to Christ. I think it is one of the most
contemptible, miserable, low-down, unmanly and unwomanly things that
you can do, to keep your life in your own control until the last moment
and then try to creep into the kingdom on account of the long-suffering
and mercy of Jesus Christ. I don't say that none is genuine. But there
is only one on record in the Bible, and that was the first time the
dying thief had ever heard of Christ, and he accepted at once. So your
case is not analogous to this. You have wagon loads of sermons dumped
into you, but it's a mighty hard thing to accept in the last moment. If
you've lived without conviction, your friends ought not to get mad when
the preacher preaches your funeral sermon, if he doesn't put you in the
front row in heaven, with a harp in your hands and a crown on your head.
God can forgive sins but you have got to comply with his requirements.
He is not willing that any shall perish, but he has a right to tell me
and you what to do to be saved.
A doctor had been a practitioner for sixty years and he was asked
how many Godless men he had seen show any trace of concern on their
death-bed. He said he had kept track of three hundred and only three
had shown any real concern. That is appalling to me. You ordinarily die
as you have lived.
A minister was called to a house of shame to be with a dying girl in
her last moments. He prayed and then looked at her face and saw no
signs of hope of repentance. He was led to pray again and this time he
was led to put in a verse of scripture, Isaiah 1:18: "Come now and let
us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool."
"Is that what the Bible says?" the girl asked. He said it was. "Would
you let me see it?" and the minister pointed it out to her.
"Would you pray again and put in that verse?" the girl asked and as he
started she called, "Stop! Let me put my finger on that verse." The
minister prayed and when he looked again, he saw hope and pardon and
peace in the girl's face. "I'm so glad God made that 'scarlet,'" she
said, "for that means me."
All manner of sins God will forgive. Then tell me why you will not come
when God says, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men." Great heavens! I can't understand how you sit still.
But a man says: "Bill, will He forgive a murderer? My hands are red
with blood, although no one knows it." Didn't I say he forgave Paul?
A Forgiving God
A friend of mine was preaching in Lansing, Michigan, one time, and
in the middle section of the church there was a man who made him so
nervous he couldn't watch him and preach. Nothing seemed to attract him
until he said, "Supposing there were a murderer here tonight, God would
forgive him if he accepted Christ," and the man grabbed the chair in
front of him at the word murderer and sat rigid throughout the sermon,
never taking his eyes from my friend. At the end of the meeting my
friend went down to him and asked him what was the matter, telling him
that he had made him so nervous he could hardly preach. The man said:
"I'm a murderer. I escaped through a technicality and I'm supporting
the widow and children, but I am a murderer." My friend brought him to
Jesus Christ and now that man is a power in the Church. All manner of
sins God says he will forgive.
Some say: "Mr. Sunday, why is it that so few aged sinners are converts?"
Infidels when asked this, seize upon it as a plan of attack. When God
begins to show his power, then the devil and all of the demons of hell
get busy. That's the best evidence in the world that these meetings are
doing good, when that bunch of knockers gets busy. Infidels sneer and
say: "How does it happen that when a man's mind has developed through
age and experience and contact with the world, and he has passed the
period of youthful enthusiasm, how does it happen that so few of them
are converted?"
Religion makes its appeal to your sensibility, not to your intellect.
The way into the kingdom of heaven is heart first, not head first. God
is not an explanation; God is a revelation.
A grain of corn is a revelation, but you can't explain it. You know
that if you put the vegetable kingdom in the mineral kingdom the
vegetable will be born again, but you can't explain it. Some of the
greatest things are revelations. Therefore, instead of being an
argument against religion, it is an argument for it.
Don't you know that sixteen out of twenty who are converted are
converted before they are twenty years old? Don't you know that
eighteen out of thirty who are converted are converted before they are
thirty years old? Don't you know that?
What does that prove? It proves that if you are not converted before
you are thirty years old the chances are about 100,000 to one that you
never will be converted.
Power of Revivals
Most people are converted at special revival services. I want to
hurl this in the teeth, cram it down the throats of those who sneer
at revival efforts--preachers included. Almost nine-tenths of the
Christians at this meeting were converted at a revival. What does that
show? It shows that if you are thirty and have not been converted, the
chances are that if you are not converted at this revival you never
will be converted.
If it weren't for revivals, just think of what hell would be like. Then
think of any low-down, God-forsaken, dirty gang knocking a revival.
God says: "You can spurn my love and trample the blood under your
feet, but if you seek my pardon I will forgive you." You might have
been indifferent to the appeals of the minister, you might have been a
thief, or an adulterer, or a blasphemer, or a scoffer, and all that,
but God says: "I will forgive you." You might have been indifferent to
the tears of poor wife and children and friends, but if you will seek
God he will forgive you.
But when He came down and revealed himself as the Son of God through
the Holy Spirit, if you sneer and say it is not true, your sin may
become unpardonable. If you don't settle it here you never will settle
it anywhere else.
I will close with a word of comfort and a word of warning. If you have
a desire to be a Christian it is proof that the devil hasn't got you
yet. That is the comfort. Now for the warning: If you have that desire
thank God for it and yield to it. You may never have another chance.