In this sermon, preacher Joe Henry Hankins shares a true story about an 18-year-old boy who attended a Sunday night service at First Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. The boy felt a strong conviction to give his heart to Jesus during the invitation, but he struggled with a sin in his life that he didn't want to give up. Eventually, he ran out of the church without getting saved. Weeks later, when he was diagnosed with leukemia and had little time left to live, Hankins visited him in the hospital and urged him to give his heart to Christ. However, the boy expressed that he had lost all desire to be saved. Despite the urgency of his situation, he felt unable to repent and accept Jesus as his Savior.

Galatians chapter 5 verse 16, if you don't have a Bible slide over beside someone who does. This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviliousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like of which I tell you as I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another, envying one another. Let us walk in the Spirit that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? Well the Holy Spirit is not simply a feeling. The Holy Spirit is not simply an influence. The Holy Spirit is not simply a power that God sends down to help you. The Holy Spirit is God. You see the Holy Spirit is as much God as the Father is God. The Holy Spirit is as much God as the Christ is God. You see the Bible says that God is in three persons, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. So my friends, when you're talking about the Holy Spirit of God, you're talking about God. Now the manifestation in physical form is Jesus Christ, that is God. But there is a spiritual God, a part of the of the Trinity of God. The Holy Spirit is God and the Holy Spirit works in our lives and in our hearts. And my dear friends, I want to tell you, you can sin against the Holy Spirit of God. You can sin against God. A lot of folks don't understand about sinning against the Holy Spirit because folks don't understand who the Holy Spirit is. They think it's just an influence, just a power, something I can I can use to benefit my life. But my friends, when you sin against the Holy Spirit, you are sinning against the God of heaven. It is a serious, serious thing to sin against the Holy Spirit. Now in the Bible, it is called, He is called the Holy Spirit. He is called the Holy Ghost. Those words are the same thing. We're talking about the same person. We're talking about the Spirit of the Living God. And my friend, the Holy Spirit of God works in our heart. The Holy Spirit of God works in our heart in order to save us. Number one, here's what the Holy Spirit does, sir, and He's going to do it to your heart tonight, if you'll open your ears and open your heart. The first thing the Holy Spirit does is this. The Holy Spirit draws a lost sinner to Jesus Christ. Friend, I want to tell you something. People have this idea, William, I'm gonna get saved one day. When I get ready, when I get my life straightened out, when I get a few problems taken care of, then I'll come to Jesus. I'll give my heart to Him and I'll get saved then. Sir, that's a lie of the devil. You will not get saved when you want to get saved. You will get saved when the Holy Spirit draws you to Jesus or you'll go straight to hell. Friend, you do not get saved when you want to. You get saved when God wants you because Jesus said this. Jesus said, no man comes to me except the Father draw him to me. So the first thing the Holy Spirit does is the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart, touches your heart and starts tugging at you and pulling at you. Right now, even as I speak, there's a small quiet voice in your heart, something in your mind that is speaking to you right now. You don't know for sure if you died tonight you'd go to heaven and right now you're concerned about that. That's the Holy Spirit of God saying, I'm drawing you, I'm wooing you, I'm calling you to be born again. The first thing the Holy Spirit does, He calls you to Jesus. But number two, what the Holy Spirit does is He convicts you of sin. My friend, you cannot be saved until you understand you're lost. You cannot be saved until you understand that you are a sinner against the Most High God. You cannot understand, you cannot be saved until you understand that in you dwells no good thing. You see, you'll never have a desire to repent. You'll never have a desire to turn from the world unless the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin. You must be convicted of sin. You must be shown what you really are in the eyes of God. The Holy Spirit's job is to show you that you're a rebel, that you have rebelled against God, and because you have sinned against the Most High God, you are therefore condemned to hell and there's nothing you can do to save yourself. You've got to get in a desperate situation. You've got to come under strong conviction. The Holy Spirit will dangle you over hell and show you the danger of being lost and the Holy Spirit will draw you to Jesus. Friend, without the Holy Spirit, you're doomed and damned. I'm telling you, I don't care how many hours you walk, how many prayers you pray, my friend, you will never come to Jesus unless the Holy Spirit of God draws you and convicts you and then opens your mind so that you can understand about salvation. Friend, I'm going to tell you, the lost man knows nothing about spiritual things. The Bible says to that lost man, the cross is nothing but foolishness. The lost man never could come to Jesus. You can talk to your blue-in-the-face to a man about Jesus, but until the Holy Spirit touches his mind and opens his mind, he cannot conceive of what you're talking about. I have preached to literally thousands of people and I've talked to men one-on-one. You talk to them, you lay the gospel out, you tell them how they need to be saved and man, they can't even understand a word you're saying. You come back a week later, you take the same presentation, his eyes are open, his heart is ready and he'll come to Christ and be saved. What's the difference? The Holy Spirit of God has opened his eyes to the things of Jesus. The Holy Spirit will draw you to Jesus. The Holy Spirit will convict you that you're a dirty, rotten sinner and sir, that's exactly what you are. You are a dirty, rotten sinner. You're a rebel against God. The Holy Spirit will show you that and then the Holy Spirit will open your mind to let you understand that Christ is the only way to be saved. And my friends, once the Holy Spirit touches your heart, once the Holy Spirit convicts you of that sin, once the Holy Spirit opens your mind and points you to Jesus, the Bible says you must make a choice. You must decide either to give your life to Jesus or hang on to your sin. You see, there's a moment of opportunity. Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, God calls. Yes, God draws. Yes, God convicts. But my friends, there is a moment of decision when the Holy Spirit says, you know it all. I've shown you the light. I've shown you the truth. You know you're a sinner. You know you're lost. Christ is the Savior. Who will you serve? Like Joshua said, as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. When a man is in that condition, and I'm telling you what, men, it does not last a lifetime. It does not last year after year after year after year. I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit will bring a man alone. He'll enlighten him. He'll enlighten him. But there comes a moment in time when the Holy Spirit shows you the truth. You know the truth. You know you're lost. You must be saved then, sir, or you won't be saved at all. But praise God if you will repent and you will surrender your life to the Lord Jesus. What the Holy Spirit does then is the Holy Spirit regenerates your soul. What does that mean? That means an old dead soul here, the Holy Spirit just puts divine life into that soul. It's called being born again. It is the supernatural power of the living God coming into your heart. It is a change that will supernaturally change your mind, change your heart, change your direction, and it's all done by the Holy Spirit, friend. And even after you're saved, even after you're born again, that's not the end of the work of the Holy Spirit. After you are born again by the Holy Spirit, you know what the Holy Spirit does? The Holy Spirit seals your soul. Seals your soul. The Bible calls it an earnest payment. Hallelujah. You know what it is? It's like God branding you. The Bible says God knows those who are his own. It's like one of those ranchers that takes a brand and brands that cattle. God brands you with the Holy Spirit. Your soul is sealed by the Holy Spirit, friend. You become God's. And then even after the Holy Spirit seals you, the Holy Spirit indwells you to live from that moment on inside your heart. And what does the Holy Spirit do while it's inside your heart? The Holy Spirit teaches you and guides you and directs you and helps you have a witness, helps you to have fruit in your life. The Holy Spirit even teaches you how to pray because you don't even know how to pray. Oh, praise God for the Holy Spirit of God. Oh, without the Holy Spirit we could never get to the Savior. Without the Holy Spirit to come to us. You see, the Bible says the Holy Spirit will not glorify himself, but he will glorify Jesus. The job of the Holy Spirit is to get you and I to Jesus, to draw us, to convict us, to open our eyes, to open our hearts, to point us to Christ, and to regenerate our soul, and to save us, to seal us, and to keep us forever, and then to guide us. Hallelujah. That we should live for Christ. And we can sin against the Holy Spirit. You can sin against the Holy Spirit. And my friends, when you sin against the Holy Spirit, it is a grievous sin because you are sinning against the one that is literally your protector and your guide here on planet Earth. You see, as a lost man, you can sin against the Holy Spirit tonight and cause your soul to be doomed and down for hell. You can resist the Holy Spirit and sin against the Holy Spirit, where the Holy Spirit will never come to you again. And sir, when the Holy Spirit stops coming, you'll never get to Jesus. I don't care who your daddy is or who your mama is. You come to church, you come down here, and you cry a bucket full of tears, but you'll never get saved once the Holy Spirit stops calling you. And there are some of you men here tonight the Holy Spirit's been calling you for a while, and you've been trifling with God, you've been playing with God, you've been putting God off, and I'm telling you, sir, you're gonna put Him off one too many times, and God is gonna leave you and your sin doomed and down. But my friend, even after you're born again, you can sin against the Holy Spirit. And I want to share with you tonight quickly five sins against the Holy Spirit. Three of them are committed by Christians, and two of them are committed by lost people. And I want to encourage you to listen with spiritual ears, because friends, I believe God laid this sermon on my heart, because I believe we have trifled with God. I have, I think we have trifled with the Holy Spirit of God, and I think we have not taken seriously what God wants to do in our hearts and in our lives. He wants to use us for His glory, He wants to win a lost and dying world, and we must understand it is a serious sin to sin against the Holy Spirit of God. The very first sin is lying to the Holy Spirit. And you'll find that sin there in the book of Acts, in the fifth chapter, it tells a story of a man and a wife named Ananias and Sapphira. Now, they were having a great revival like we're having, so pay attention. They were having a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. People were being saved by the thousands, and people from all over the country were coming in to be saved. Folks would move in from out of town, they'd get born again, they'd just stay in the church house. So everybody began to come together, people began to sell property and give their money to the church to take care of all the needs. So there were a couple there named Ananias and Sapphira, they sat back there, they saw the miracles of God, they saw the souls being saved, they saw all the born-again believers that had property, sell their property and bring their money and give it to the work of God. And they must have sat back there and said, you know, this is not very good for us because folks know we have property. We're not looking very spiritual because all these folks are selling their property and they know we've got property and we're not selling ours. What are we gonna do? So they went home, they began to talk about it. What are we gonna do? This is a lot of money, this is a big piece of property. I mean, but we've got an image to protect, we've got a name to protect, we've got respectability. The old devil spoke and Ananias said, you know, you can sell that property, nobody knows what it's worth, nobody knows how much money it is. You sell that property, you keep some for yourself, you give some to the church house, everybody will brag on you, they'll lift you up, they'll think you're a dynamic Christian and nobody will know the difference. So they sold the property, you know, Ananias came down and he laid the money for the property down at the feet of Peter and Peter said, Ananias, why have you lied against the Holy Spirit? Why have you lied to the Holy Spirit? You've lied to the Holy Spirit of God and the Bible says God killed him right there in the church house and they drug his old dead body out. About three hours later, his wife came. Oh, they had a plan. They came down and old Peter asked her, hey, did you sell this land and get this amount of money? She said, we sure did. He said, you've lied to the Holy Spirit of God, you'll be dead just like your husband's dead. I want to tell you friends, if God killed every person in Laurel, Mississippi who lied to the Holy Spirit, we wouldn't have enough people to carry their dead bodies out. I'm telling you, lying to the Holy Spirit is a serious sin. What does it mean to lie to the Holy Spirit today? My friends, to lie to the Holy Spirit is this, it's to have one foot in church and one foot with the world. It's to come to church on Sunday and live with God's crowd and go out there Monday through Friday and live with the devil's crowd. It's to have a heart that is in rebellion against God. It is a lying heart, a deceiving heart. It is to come to church and to play big shot in church, to count the money, to be an usher, to be a deacon, to be a big shot and want respectability and to go out in the world and live like a devil. My friends, that is to lie to the Holy Spirit of God. You old birds that claim to love God and you go out to that sorry country club and drink and party, you are lying to the Holy Spirit of God. You are either not saved or you are in rebellion against God. You cannot serve two masters. You will love one and hate the other and a nice and safari. Yeah, they lied to men, they lied to the preacher, they lied to themselves, but when they lied to the Holy Spirit of God, God reached down and killed them in the church house. I'll tell you friends, to lie to the Holy Spirit of God is a serious, serious sin. To lie to the Holy Spirit is simply pretending to be something that you're not. It's holding out on God, knowing that God expects your best and you give Him less than your best while at the same time pretending it is your best. That's lying to the Holy Spirit of God. It's a sin, sir. It's a sin. The second sin against the Holy Spirit of God, not only lying to the Holy Spirit, but grieving the Holy Spirit. The Bible says in Ephesians 4.30, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. How do you grieve the Holy Spirit? Well, there are several ways. Number one, the Bible says in Ephesians 4.29, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. So one way God's people, this is for Christians, one way you grieve the Holy Spirit is by your conversation, those words that come out of your mouth. You can grieve the Holy Spirit by the words you say, by filthy talk. I want to tell you men, you need to be careful about the words that come out of your mouth. You get out there and you let things slip. Now I've heard Christians, people who claim to be Christians, take the Lord's name in vain. I'm telling you, get out there and you talk like the devil. I'm not surprised if you aren't of the devil, but I'm telling you, we have a lot of men in church that think it's somehow to make them a big man to go out there and talk like they're sailors. And I'm telling you, to have a filthy, sinful mouth grieves the Holy Spirit. But also you can grieve the Holy Spirit by gossiping. The Bible calls it evil speaking. And I'll tell you how you can gossip if you're not careful, ladies. I've seen people gossip in prayer meetings. I've seen people get together in a little circle and start confessing sins. And the devil used that where everybody knows what everybody's sin is and start passing it down the old telephone line. I want to tell you, when you start gossiping, and even if you use the excuses, you're trying to help somebody. When you pass along information that is not about you and it's about somebody else, that is evil speaking. You need to keep your mouth closed because it grieves the Holy Spirit. But also foolish talking. The Bible says in Ephesians 5, 3, and 4, let it not be what's named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting. Now, what is foolish talking? Listen, men, it is, I call it secondhand cussing. Secondhand cussing. We say a lot of things to substitute for curse words. People say, gosh darn it, instead of taking the Lord's name in vain, it's the same thing. Because you know why, sir? Because God judges your heart. To say darn is the same thing as saying damn. I'm telling you, friends, it's not the words, it's the attitude of the heart and foolish words grieve the Holy Spirit. Men, you need to be careful what comes out of your mouth. If it does not glorify God, if it does not glorify the things of God, there's absolutely no reason for you to be saying our conversations, the words that come out of our mouth, they grieve the Holy Spirit. But then you grieve the Holy Spirit by your attitudes of the heart. The Bible says let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. I want to tell you, as Brother Dennis talked about this morning, those folks that are bitter and anger and hold grudges, I'm telling you what, the first thing I would think is you're not saved. But if you are born again and you have bitterness and anger and unforgiveness, my friends, you grieve the Holy Spirit. And when you grieve the Holy Spirit, friends, that's a sin against a holy God. You cannot have power. You cannot have joy. You cannot have answered prayer because you are sinning against the most high God with that unforgiveness. And I will tell you that root of bitterness and that root of unforgiveness, not only is it a sin against the Holy Spirit, does not, it not only does it grieve the Holy Spirit, but you give place to the devil. Do you understand that? You can give place to the devil in your soul where the devil can come and build a stronghold in your soul and defeat you the rest of your Christian life. You need to be careful about forgiveness. You need to forgive because you know why? Because Jesus has forgiven you. And buddy, he knows everything there is to know about you. And he forgives you. You grieve the Holy Spirit not only by your attitude of your heart, but your attitude toward Christian people. The Bible says, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving, forgiving, forgiving one another. Church members are the worst people on earth about forgiving other Christians. I'm telling you, we're the only people I know, the only army in the world that shoots its own wounded. I'm telling you, we can have a man who's a drunkard, a drug dealer, he's out of jail, he walks down these aisles, he cries and repents and gets saved and we rejoice. But you let a born again believer stomp and fall into sin and we kick him and curse him and we want him out of the church. We don't try to rebuild him. We don't try to, if he wants to come and repent, we ought to forgive him and we ought to try to encourage him. But what we do is we put him down and we mock him when we laugh about him and we don't have the right attitude in our heart about born again believers. You see, sir, you're only one decision from being the biggest sinner in town. Don't walk around here impressed with yourself. The Bible says the heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? You are only one decision away from being the biggest sinner in town. You put yourself in the wrong place, in the wrong situation, hanging around the wrong people and you'll fall like a one egg pudding. I'm telling you friends, you need to be on guard not to have a self-righteous attitude about folks who fall into sin. We need to give them a chance to repent and come back to God and have mercy on their soul. And then you grieve the Holy Spirit by the places you go to. I want to tell you, man, if you're a member of the country club, you need to quit it tonight. If you're out there in that bar drinking, you need to quit it tonight, man. If you're going down to one of those casinos, you need to quit it tonight. You need to quit it. I'm telling you, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit and wherever your body goes, the Holy Spirit goes. Think about that. You're dragging Jesus. You're dragging the Holy Spirit of God into those dens of iniquity. You're taking Jesus. You're taking the Holy Spirit into those liquor stores, into those gambling casinos. You're taking the spirit of the living God, friends. You need to be careful where you go because you've got God with you and it grieves the Holy Spirit. Another way you can grieve the Holy Spirit is your attitude toward church. I hear these old boys all the time talk to me about, oh, I'm saved, but you know, I don't go to church. Friend, first of all, I believe a man that doesn't go to church is not saved. I believe a man who really gets the spirit of God, he'll have a hunger for church. But we have folks come to church and everybody sets up in the church house and they don't understand it. They don't honor it. They don't love it, but they don't understand that Jesus Christ gave his life for the church. We ought to love God's house. We ought to love God's people. When you have a negative attitude against the church, that grieves the Holy Spirit. But then finally, you grieve the Holy Spirit when you defile the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's your body. Now listen to me. The things you put in your body can defile the Holy Spirit. The foods you eat, the drinks you put in, the TV programs you let come through your eyes, see the eyes are the gateway to the soul. The music you let come into your ears. I'm telling you, you can defile the temple of the Holy Spirit. You need to protect this body. You need to understand it is the temple of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. You need to be very careful not to defile. So number one, you can lie to the Holy Spirit by pretending to be something that you're not really. Saying you really love God with all of your heart, yet serving the devil half of your life. You can grieve the Holy Spirit by the words you say, the places you go, the things you have, the attitudes of your life, but then finally you can quench the Holy Spirit. You can quench the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5, 19 says quench not the Spirit. You see my friends, the Holy Spirit will lead you and guide you. The Holy Spirit will teach you. The Holy Spirit will show you God's will for your life. The Holy Spirit will keep you away from sin if you'll listen to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will protect you if you'll listen to the Holy Spirit. And I want to tell you when God is speaking to our hearts and God is pointing us in the direction to go and God is trying to protect us and when we rebel against that and will not obey the Holy Spirit of God, we are quenching the Spirit. We are quenching God's working in our life. I want to tell you, folks come to God like this, God, you show me what to do and then I'll make a decision what I should do. Son, that's hogwash. What you need to do is say, God, you show me what to do and I'll do what you say. Even if it's not what I want to do, even what my friends don't want me to do, you show me your will and I will obey it. If you'll listen to the Holy Spirit, I promise you, you'll never go wrong. If you'll listen to that voice of God in your mind and in your heart, you will not go wrong because God knows everything there is to know about your life. He knows the beginning and the end. He has a plan for your life and when you disobey the Spirit of God, you are quenching the Spirit. That's a sin. The fourth sin is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The Bible talks about it in Matthew 12, 31, it talks about speaking against the Holy Spirit of God. I'm telling you, you need to be careful and there are people in this town who are on the borderline of committing this sin. I'm telling you, when you see the work of God happening, for you to belittle that and put that down and to criticize the work of God, you are blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ said, hey, that's a sin that God will never forgive. See, my friends, when you see the work of God, you're seeing something supernatural happen and I don't care, friends, where you have gone, you have never seen a meeting like this before. There's not a preacher in Jones County that's ever seen a meeting like this before. And for those guys to sit back and to criticize and to belittle and to make excuses, they are sinning against the Holy Spirit of God. And the final sin I want to share with you, and I'm going to stay here just a moment, is resisting and driving away the Holy Spirit. Now, I want you to listen very carefully, please. In Acts 7.51, here's what it says, men, listen to me. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. I'm talking about people here tonight who have never been born again. Listen to me. The Bible says you can resist the Holy Ghost, you can actually send away your day of grace. You see, the whole story of the Bible is this. The Bible says God loves you and has a plan for your life. God wants you to have a good life here on planet earth and when this life is over, God wants you to join Him in heaven for what's called eternal life. God loves you. He created you. He wants a relationship with you. He wants to fellowship with you. He wants to take you to heaven one day. But sir, you have sinned against God. Look at me, man. You have sinned against God. You have rebelled your whole life against God. You have lived a selfish and self-centered life. You have ignored God. You've lived the way you want to live. You've spent your money the way you want to spend it. You have ignored God. You may have walked an aisle and joined a church. You may have been baptized. You may have a big old red Bible. You may even believe in God. But you have given God the leftovers of your life. You are a sinner, sir, against the most high God and God hates your sin. God says the wages of sin is death. At this very moment as you sit in that pew, you are one heartbeat away from hell. You have sinned against the most high God. At this very moment, you are doomed and damned. There's no hope in your life to be saved of your own effort. But the Bible says God loves you and wants to save you tonight. God sent his son Jesus and Jesus took your sins and went to a cross and he paid for all your sins. Do you hear me? He died so that you could live. He was buried in a tomb and after three days God raised him from the dead. And the Bible says if you will come to Jesus and get saved, God will forgive you and one day take you to heaven. But hear me tonight, men. You can't come to Jesus. At this very moment, in your arrogance and in your pride, you are at this very moment doomed and damned. There's no hope for you outside of the Holy Spirit. You see, the Bible says you cannot come to Jesus. You cannot come down here and get forgiveness of sin. You cannot come to Jesus and get salvation except the Holy Spirit draws you to Jesus. And tonight he's going to draw you. I pray you're listening. When the Holy Spirit touches your heart, you've got to make a decision. You've got to choose life or you've got to choose death. You've got to choose heaven and you've got to choose hell. You've got to choose to come and give your life to Jesus or you've got to choose to hang onto your sin and die and go to hell. But you're going to make a choice tonight, men. You're going to make a choice one way or the other. But tonight the Holy Spirit is calling you. But the fact is you can say no to the Holy Spirit. Let me read you some verses here. The Bible says in Genesis 6.3, God says, my spirit shall not always strive with man. And then in Proverbs 1.24 it says, because I have called you and you have refused me, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded, but you have said it not all my counsels and would have none of my reproof. Listen, men, I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear comes. When your fear comes as desolation and your destruction comes as a whirlwind, then shall you call upon me, but I will not answer. You'll try to seek me early, but you will not find me. Friend, I want to tell you tonight God's going to speak to your heart, men. Tonight God's going to touch your heart. He's going to draw you to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is going to convict you that you're a sinner. The Holy Spirit is going to point you to Jesus. But I'm here to tell you if you bow your neck and harden your heart and say no to God, no to God, no to God, I'm telling you, you will offend the Holy Spirit. He will leave you. He will not come back and you will be doomed and damned in your sins forever. I'm telling you the Bible is filled with story after story after story of men who resisted God. Noah, he preached for 120 years. He was building that great ark. He preached for 120 years and those men laughed and mocked. And then one day Noah went into the ark. God closed the door. The rains came and the entire world was destroyed because they had sent away their day of grace. In Lot's day and there in Sodom, God's in the rain firing brimstone down from heaven. They laughed and mocked. Hey, God wouldn't do anything like that. God's a God of love. But one day the Holy Spirit stopped calling and the fire fell and the entire city was wiped out. Friend, you don't trifle with God. You don't play with God. You don't resist the Holy God. There'll come a day when the Holy Spirit will say, I've had enough of you. You will have sent away your day of grace. You won't be saved. When I was saved, I didn't know it at the time, but as I look back on it, I believe when I got saved, God was calling me for the last time. I was 36 years old and I had walked an aisle as a 12 year old boy and prayed a prayer, got baptized, but I didn't give Jesus my life. I just voted not to go to hell. I lived a long time without God. Telling everybody I was a Christian, I knew just enough Bible to argue with you. And I mean I'd go out and drink and I'd party and live like the devil all the way through college, all the way through my adulthood, but if you were to ask me was I a Christian, I'd say, well sure, because I walked that aisle when I was 12, but I didn't have the Spirit of God. But there came a day when I was 36 years old sitting in a church room on a Thursday night when the Holy Spirit of God just opened my eyes and I saw what I was, a wicked sinner, a rebel against the Most High God. God opened my eyes and opened my mind and opened my heart and said, William, you're lost without Jesus. And then he pointed me to the cross and I ran and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Tonight some of you need to do that. I would venture to say probably a hundred of you here tonight are lost in your sin. I would venture to say that probably the majority of men here tonight are lost. Men, I want to tell you, you may have walked an aisle and made a little profession of faith in the church when you were 10, but that doesn't mean you're a Christian. Because Jesus said, there are many who profess me with their mouth, but with their heart and their life they deny me. You may even believe in Jesus, that doesn't mean you're a Christian, sir, because the devil believes in Jesus. You can believe in Jesus and go straight to hell. My friend, the Bible does not say believe with your head. It says, commit your life to it. Surrender your will to it. Become one with Christ. I'm telling you, when the Holy Spirit touches a man's heart, he doesn't dance down the aisle with a big smile on his face like he's doing God a favor. When a man is called by the Holy Spirit and he sees that he's a sinner, sees that he's condemned to hell with no hope, but he runs down here to get Jesus because he knows Christ is his only hope. But I want to tell you, you can miss God. You can sin against the Holy Spirit. You can say, no, no, no, no. And the Holy Spirit will say, well, if that's what you want, I won't bother you anymore. But when the Holy Spirit flees, then what? You are left in your sin, doomed and down. At First Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, a few years ago on a Sunday night, a man by the name of Joe Henry Hankins was preaching. He gave the invitation. There was an 18-year-old boy in the balcony to my left. He gave the invitation. That boy stood up and walked into the aisle. Then he walked back to his seat. He walked back out in the aisle. Then he walked back to his seat. Brother Joe Henry Hankins said, son, give your heart to Jesus. Come on, son, give your heart to Jesus. They sang another verse of the invitation. He stepped out again. Then he stepped back. Finally, he stepped out. He walked down the stairs. And Brother Joe Henry Hankins said, well, praise God, he's coming to be saved. But when he got down in the foyer, instead of coming down in here to be saved, he turned and he walked out the front door. Three weeks later, listen to me, man, true story. Joe Henry Hankins was called to his bedside there at the hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas. He'd been diagnosed with leukemia. He was supposed to die in just a matter of weeks. Joe Henry Hankins took his Bible and knelt at his bed. He said, son, will you give your heart to Jesus? He said, I want you to be saved. I want you to go to heaven. The doctor said, you don't have much time to live. Give your heart to Christ and be saved. And this young boy looked at him and said, Dr. Hankins, you remember three Sundays ago, I was in the balcony during that Sunday night service. He said, God spoke to me so strong that night. I could feel the Holy Spirit drawing me. I knew I should get saved. I wanted to get saved. But every time I'd step out to come, I'd think about a sin in my life that I didn't want to give up, something I really loved and I wanted to hang on to. And I kept fighting back and forth whether I was going to give that sin up or whether I was going to hang on to it. And finally, he said, I just ran out the door. He said, Dr. Hankins, when I walked out of that church house that night, he said, God never dealt with me again. He said, Dr. Hankins, I have absolutely no desire to get saved now. And Dr. Hankins said, well, son, you've only got a few weeks to live. Give your heart to Christ. And he said, I can't get saved. I can't get saved. Something's died inside of me. I've traveled across America for 13 years preaching the gospel, and I have seen literally hundreds and hundreds of men commit this sin. I've seen men come to church, get on the preaching of the gospel, the Holy Spirit get a hold of their heart. Man, their heart's beating fast. Their hands are sweating. They squeeze that pew till their knuckles turn white. They know they ought to get right with God, but they say no to God, no to God, no to God, no to God. And they leave that church building lost. They may come back to revival every single night, but God never deals with them again. They've crossed the deadline. They've resisted the Holy Spirit one too many times. You see, my friends, in front of you, there is an invisible line. And every time you reject Jesus, you get one step closer to that line. You come to your church on Sunday morning, hear your pastor preach, your heart is empty, you know you ought to get saved, but you think about a sin, you'd have to give up, so you say no, and you take one step closer. You come back on Sunday night, and again the Lord speaks to you, but you say no, and you take one step closer. People begin to pray for you. They come over and they try to win you to Christ, but you say, well, I've got some things I've got to straighten out in my life first, so you say no again. You take one step closer to that line. Then somebody comes to you and says, man, they're having a great revival there at Ohioland Baptist Church. You need to go, so you go, and you sit there and the Holy Spirit touches your heart. You know you ought to get right with God, but you've got some things to straighten out. You'll get saved later when you go back to your own home church, so you say no again. But this time, sir, you step across that line, and the Holy Spirit flees from you. Oh, you go to church on Sunday morning, but you won't get saved. Oh, you sing all the songs, but you won't get saved. You come forward during the invitation and kneel here at the altar, but you won't get saved. Your pastor comes over and puts his arm around you, and you begin to cry a bucket full of tears, and you beg God and beg God and beg God and beg God, but you won't get saved because you have trifled with God. You have trifled with the God of this universe, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the God that created everything that is, that was, that ever will be, the God that created you, sir, the God that holds your life in His hands right now, the God that will one day judge the world, the God that is calling you tonight to be saved, and my friend, if God gives you one chance to be saved, it's one chance more than you deserve. Tonight, you ought to run to Jesus. Run to Jesus, and let Him save your soul.