In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the importance of the word of God and the power of faith in Jesus Christ. He emphasizes that salvation comes through confessing with one's mouth and believing in the heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. The preacher warns against believing half-truths, such as the idea that perseverance is not necessary for salvation or that there is no punishment for sins in the afterlife. He stresses the reality of judgment and the existence of hell, urging listeners to turn to Christ and receive salvation.

You'll find an authorized version of the English Bible before you in the pew. Pick it up and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in Him. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am least of the apostles, that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in thee. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believe. Ending our lesson at verse eleven, and God shall stamp His holy word unto our hearts. I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me to the uttermost. I take, thank God, He undertakes for me. And the people of God say, Amen. You may be seated. John's Gospel, chapter eight, and verse forty-four. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. My subject tonight is the damnable half-truth that must be unmasked. Thomas Watson, the immortal Puritan writer, said, Truth is a most glorious thing. The least filing of the gold of truth is extra precious. Truth is ancient. Its gray hairs make it venerable. It comes from the only one who dares to take the title, the Ancient of Days. Truth is unerring. It is a star that always leads to Christ. We are told in the psalm book that truth is pure. Psalm 119, verse forty. We are also told in Psalm 12, and verse six, that it is compared to silver, refined seven times. There is not one spot on truth's face. It breathes nothing but holiness. Truth is triumphant. It's like a great conqueror. When all the enemies lie dead, it keeps the field and sets up its trophies of victory. Truth may be opposed, but it never can be deposed. In some centuries, truth runs very low. And then in some centuries, truth again lifts up its head. But it has been truly said, when the water in the Thames is lowest, a high tide is about to come. God is on the side of truth, because truth is God speaking, God revealing, and God teaching. And truth will always prevail. The heavens being on fire will be dissolved, says 2 Peter 3.12. But not the truth, for the truth abideth forever. It was Dr. Guthrie, the great Scotch puppeteer, who said, Conclave mirrors magnify the feature nearest to them into undue and monstrous proportions. And in common mirrors that are ill-cast and of an uneven surface, the most beautiful piece is distorted into deformity. So there are many minds of this description. They distort and magnify. They diminish or discover almost every gospel truth revealed in the Bible. Half-truths are distorted truths, and are both dangerous and damnable. They shine a false light. They are usurpers. They are traitors. They are the tribe of the Judas Iscariot. Dr. Guthrie was right. They distort. They magnify. They diminish. They discover almost every truth which they reflect. Half-truths are the devil's special instruments to deceive, to darken, and to degrade, and to damn precious souls. Now, the first half-truth that is peddled today in religious circles is this, that the Bible merely contains the Word of God. That the Bible is not really the Word of God, but it contains the Word of God. That is a dangerous and damnable half-truth. Prominent modernist preachers of our day, they say, yes, the Word of God is in the Bible, but there are many parts of the Bible that are not the Word of God. The Bible is not really the Word of God. It contains and places God's Word. Man is a superman, and he has the task of separating the wheat from the chaff. Of course, the Bible contains the language of ungodly men. It contains the language of Cain. It contains the language of Judas Iscariot. But it is God who directs the writing of the report. And it is with His accrediting record that the report is published in the Bible. Who spoke it? God said to the authors of the Bible, write this, and they wrote it. There is nothing in the Bible that has not been revealed to the holy men of God who speak as they were moved. And they wrote down what God decreed and told them to put on record. The whole Bible, the whole Bible from Genesis, from Matthew to the book of the revelations, is the total, whole truth. The Bible does not merely contain the Word of God. The Bible sets forth. And he who says otherwise is peddling an atrocious lie of the arch liar himself, Satan himself. Who was the first person? The devil. Who has been adding to God's Word and subtracting from God's Word throughout every generation of men? The devil. The devil's half-truths to the pleas of God. The Bible is the Word of God. Every word in the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the holy scriptures. They cannot be broken. John 10, 35. And even when heaven and earth pass away, not one jiggle and not one jot will pass away until all, all, all be fulfilled. Matthew chapter 5 and 18. Let us hear tonight and know that the incarnate Word is the Word of our Lord. And let us stand with those who will never penknife this precious book, but will rather stand and defend it and testify to the eternal truth that every word that is in the Bible shall endure forever. Psalm 119, verse 60. Thy Word is truth from the beginning. And every one of thy righteous judgments endureth. By the whole Bible, the whole truth of God stands. Therefore, the Bible is totally and absolutely the Word. Now the second damnable half-truth that is peddled today is this. They tell us that Jesus Christ was just a perfect man. It is absolutely true that Christ is the perfect man. But that is only half the truth. Christ is God manifest in the flesh. He is the Lord from heaven. Christ, if He was only a perfect man, could not see of anyone. He could not be the Savior of the world. But He is, in fact, God incarnate come from heaven. And He has come to be the Savior of the world. The Lord Jesus, if He were only a perfect man, could not save anyone. But it is because He is the God-man. It is because He is the only Savior of the world. Isaiah 43, verse 11. I, the Lord, and beside Me there is no Savior. Jesus, being just a perfect human being, does not exist. Such a Jesus of the devil's half-truth is non-existent. He is the imaginary brilliant child of the theological modernists and liberals. The self-decided alchemist. He is the twenty-first century resurrected Unitarian corpse. There is no such person. The only person that saves man is our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God and man. The man, Christ Jesus. It was A.M. Toplidy who wrote the great Hemlock of Ages, who also wrote these words. What is the grand, that awful name, whose blazing glory is round us flame? Who can His mighty works reverse that spake and built the universe? His presence fills both space and time. His knowledge reaches every clime. His wisdom guides and guards the whole from nature's center to the pole. Where, then, that arm dare Him resist? He holds creation in His fist. His simple word, the whole, can sustain and overall supreme. Know you, ye saints, this wondrous name, whose glories heaven and earth proclaim? Who, what is He? O, strange to tell. This is our beloved Emmanuel. This great, first, last, beginning, end, no strength of thought can comprehend. In wonder lost, we'll then adore that name which angels can't explore. Jesus Christ, the God-man, our Savior and our Lord. But there is a third damnable half-truth that is preached today. And it is this, that if we have faith, we will be saved. It sounds very evangelical, doesn't it? If you have faith, you will be saved. But there are things, there are doctrines, there are works, and there are leaders, religious leaders, we ought not to have faith in. That which is false should not be the object of our faith. It is not faith that saves us, but rather what our faith is in which saves us. My faith is in Jesus Christ. Not what an old lying apostate says about Christ, but what the Bible of Christ is. Faith in the things of the world. Whether it be the religious world, the business world, the academic world, the social world, the financial world, the medical world, and the political world cannot save you. To a man this week, we were discussing this, and he said, Oh, as long as you have faith, everything is all right. He says, I, the devils, believe and tremble, but they are not all right. And I want to tell you, you fellows are worse than devils, because you say you believe, but you never tremble. So man, in his sins, is blinded. The foundation upon which we build is Christ, and Christ alone. No other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 10, verses 8 to 11. What saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed. And praise God, I am not ashamed to own my Lord, or to defend and to maintain the honour of His Word, the glory of His Cross. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is the only faith that saves us. Fourthly, the fourth of these damnable half-truths is that perseverance to the end is salvation. This is a misquotation widely used today. It is in Matthew's gospel, chapter 10 and verse 2, and it says, But he that endureth to the end shall be saved. This text is completely torn out of context, wrenched out of the passage of which it is an unbreakable part. These words were not directed by Christ to those who were not Christians, on how they could become Christians. But it was directed to those who were Christians, to tell them that God, even in persecution, would preserve them, and they would endure to the end and be saved. Salvation is never without Christ. There is no salvation outside Him, nor is there the least warm in the Bible of any salvation outside Jesus Christ. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. Nothing but Christ, and Christ alone, can give salvation to the sinful members of Adam's fallen race. Salvation is by Christ alone. Tell me, have you received? Is He yours? That is the all-important question. Fifthly, the fifth of these damnable half-truths is that we are punished for our sins in this life, and there is no punishment hereafter. While it is true that we reap what we sow in time, the real judgment for unrepentant of sins is in the world to come. In the world to come. And let me say to you tonight that there are many people who think there is no hell, but I want to tell you there is hell. And I want to tell you tonight, after death, there is judgment. Men and women and children do die in their sins. To explain away hell is to give the lie to Christ who is the eternal truth. Christ taught in Luke 16 that when the rich man died, he lifted up his eyes being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his booth. To say there is no hell is to preach a damnable half-truth which will send people to hell rather than prevent them going there in their fall. To thus blind men, leading blind men, lead them to hell. God has said in His word through the lips of His blessed Son, it is in hell that their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched. Solemn warning must ring in the ears of the ungodly, for they are in danger of the blackness of God. There is no escape from the righteous judgment of God on unrepentant sins and uncleansed hearts. There is no escape in the world that is to come. Oh, we must be after the souls of men. We must raise the trumpet. We must sound it faithfully. Flee, flee, flee from the wrath. And lastly, of these damnable half-truths, there is another. The church baptism, here poor blinded souls are taught what baptism pictures and typifies is the actuality and not just the type and likeness. Baptism is a type of cleansing from our sins, but it is only a type. The representation is not the reality. It is only the likeness. It is the illustration, not the demonstration. Peter tells us that baptism is a figure, a picture, the like figure whereunto even baptism doth not save us. And then he stops and he adds this, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh. What is the filth of the flesh? Sin. Peter tells us straight. It is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but it is an answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is in the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him. 1 Peter 3, 21 and 22. Baptism is not the actual washing away. It is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh. That is the putting away of sin, but rather it is the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism does not save you from sin. It saves you from a bad conscience. I happen to believe the Bible. I am simple enough to believe this Bible. And when I look at some of the people that say they are wise, I am glad I am simple. And I just have the book and that is all I need. Listen to this. The only washing that can take away your sins is to be washed. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing. Lastly and seventhly, the seventh of these damnable half-truths is that all people go to heaven when they die. When I see these priests of Rome, and they are talking about someone that has been killed on the road, or in some accident or in some tragedy, and they put them all in heaven, but their own confession states that no man goes to heaven. If they are good Catholics, and they have received the last rites, they go to purgatory, and there their sins are burned out in the fires of purgatory, provided their friends pay enough in Masses to be sent on earth for the repose of their souls. When I was in Rome at the First Vatican Council, they had huge big placards around Rome calling on the people to pay in money to have Masses said for the repose of Pope John XIII's soul. John XXIII's soul. And I said to John Wiley and John Douglas, say not much chance for a fraud from Northern Ireland. If the Pope needs money to get him out of purgatory, where will I be? And then I laughed, I said, thank God I'll be in heaven. I'll be in heaven. You go to heaven by coming to Christ in time. And if a man or woman does not come in time, all the speechifying of priests and so-called good people will not take the soul from hell and put it into heaven. All the deceivers that these ecumenical ministers are, these ungodly men, these blinded men, they will not tell the people the truth. But one day the people in hell we read will rise up and they will say to them, hast thou fallen like us into hell? Read the Bible and find out what's going to happen to these lying clergymen that tell people that you never go to hell. Romans 1, 28, 32, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debauch, deceit, malignity, whisperers, back biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud bolsters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, that not only do the same, but do them. Romans 1, verses 28. Edward Henry Vickerseth was a great evangelical preacher in the Church of England in the days of Queen Victoria. And he wrote these words. The Judgment Day. And there are hypocrites unmasked and stripped, and haughty pharisaic dignities low in the dust, and liars taught too late to utter agonizing words of truth, and gamblers who had staked their soul and lost, and perjurers compelled at last to dread God's oath, manslayers, convict or escaped, confessing hell had no shade secure from blood's avenging cry, and not a few diviners, necromancers, sorcerers, who once sought lawless commerce with the dead, now numbered with the dead damned themselves, and learned infidels who proved a God at least among improbabilities, aghast forever, and under God's awful frown in hell. These be words of truth. Because there is wrath, beware, lest he take thee away with a stroke, than a great ransom. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hand of the angry God. May God help us to read the truth, to believe the truth, to fight for the truth, to maintain the truth, to never surrender the truth, but be found among those who are valiant for truth until our contest with hell is over, and we have reached the land where only truth can enter, and the lie is to the pit of the everlasting burnings. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Turn to Christ, dear sinner, call upon Him, receive Him now, and oh my Lord, prepare my soul for that great day. Wash me, wash me in the precious blood, and take me, and do it for Jesus' sake. This by our hands. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word, its purity and power, righted in all our hearts. Those of us who are saved by grace alone, help us to be on the ball for Jesus. Help us to be outstanding in our efforts to call men from darkness into light, and from the power of sin and Satan unto God. Those in this house tonight backslidden, restore them to their first love. And those that are lost, find them in Thy grace, and bring them to Calvary to be washed in the blood of the Lamb. I thank You, Lord, for the 29th day of May, 1932, when I came as a sinner to Jesus. You washed me whiter than the snow. You gave me Thy Holy Spirit, and peace with God through Jesus Christ. I give my thanks to Thee, and I say, I have a shepherd, one I love so well. How he has blessed me, tongue can never tell. On the cross, he shed his blood and died, that I might ever with him abide. May that be able to be said by every one of us here tonight. Bless the after-meetings. Give power to those that speak, for Jesus' sake. And everybody say, Amen. God bless you.