In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the decline of morality in America and the loss of moral values. He discusses the five common graces that God gives to humanity to restrain their sinful nature and make life livable. These graces include wisdom, knowledge of God, and natural affections. The preacher emphasizes the importance of examining oneself to determine if they are truly in the faith and committed to Christ's mission. He warns that when the means by which God resists one's evil nature no longer work, it is a sign of God's rejection and a terrifying indication of the current age.

We're speaking tonight on the subject the preachers entitle it the unpardonable sin. I believe that to be an unscriptural term. I believe what we have reference to is that act of God by which he reprobates, rejects a human being. I'm not criticizing the preachers for using the term, I used it myself. But I think it, while I know it doesn't occur in the Bible, I know it's a man-made term, and I want to ask you to think with me tonight on the Bible teaching of God's rejection, reprobation. And I wish to bring three marks that stigmatize a person who is under God's rejection. David Wilkerson, a young Assembly of God preacher from Ohio, went to the sidewalks of New York and has been used of God, worked with the dope heads and the sexual perverts and just everything that's there. Makes a startling statement. He's been dealing with this class of people long enough now to know a little something about what he's talking about. When we remember that one out of every seven people in New York City is a sexual pervert, a sodomite. When we remember there are over 70,000 male prostitutes walking the streets of New York City. When we read the newspapers of the scandal of like that happening in our government, and when we face the fact of the multitude of public preachers who have been discovered as being sodomites in the last few years. David Wilkerson makes this amazing, startling statement. I'm not smart enough to pass judgment on it, I'll just pass it on to you. This young man says that the folks in New York City that seem to be utterly out of reach of any hope, or the people who were reared in so-called Christian homes, made Christian possessions and apostatized at some state. My only conviction, and this doesn't make it so, but my conviction is, and I just share it with you, that so-called Christian America has been placed, at least for a season, under God's awful reprobation. Apostasy, as I understand it in the Bible, is repudiation of profession. And that's true now in America. Long since this generation of church people have repudiated all effort to prove that they are God's people by being God's instruments of redemption, and by reproducing the character of the God who called them unto holiness. This generation of people in America haven't quit the churches. They still give a little money, still do good, and still try not to do bad, and still attend the services, at least when convenient. But long since they have been sealed in their refusal to bring forth the fruits that prove that they are the call of God. That individual who's concerned about his own salvation only has miscarried. Can you get it? That individual who's just rejoicing that he's a child of God knows nothing about salvation. Salvation's not an end in itself. It's a means to an end. God saved us. Not that we may go our way rejoicing, but that we may enter in to his redemptive task. And as I face the fact, and I think it is a fact, that the silliest thing that a preacher could ask anybody now is, don't you want to be saved? I am complete guilty to the fact that all the days I've been a preacher, and that word has become a joke. I was startled to read the other day about the professor in Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, stating that the evidence seems now to be clear, that youngsters have proved now that they weren't old enough to have the slightest idea of what it means to be a Christian. That seems to be so, because there isn't a church to my knowledge anywhere now that has young people there elsewhere. Most mothers and fathers aren't great women. Over that awful indication that we've had to make people good maybe, but haven't been making people Christians in our church. Now all of that's to say this. Long since American Christianity so-called has been guilty of doing exactly the same thing that the elect covenant nation of Israel did. Instead of accepting the responsibility of being called of God, they just rejoiced in themselves and passed by the world and thus were rejected as a nation themselves. A man who makes a statement like I'm going to make now, I guess is crazy. But so-called Christianity today is not making people Christian. And for that reason I have some trembling in my soul when I dare to make a statement and as I've already made and I repeated, I believe with all of my soul that America is now a reprobate nation. I believe the word Ichabod has been written on the portals of the church buildings for the most part. And I believe with all of my soul that the average institution we call a church stands under the judgment of a holy God for not preaching a whole gospel, demanding the commitment of a whole person, so that every time we have somebody added to us as you pass the praise, we've got somebody added to our group that have accepted Christ's commission as my father had sent me, even so send I you to go back on the clear call of almighty God and to refuse to get in the battle and the apostasy of the New Testament. The book of Hebrews talks about men and women. After this wise take heed, my brethren, lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief. Now is that evil heart of unbelief expressed in evidence. Not by refusing to go through the motions of what we call Christianity, but by departing from a living God. That's the apostasy of this hour. And God's answer to apostasy is reprobation and rejection. And for that reason I read from 2 Corinthians 13 and 5, a verse that whether anybody else is interested in facing the tremendous implications of it, I would like to believe I'd like to face it. Examine yourself. Examine yourself, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own self, elect yourself a committee of one, leave the other fellow alone now, and examine yourself and prove yourself, whether you be in the faith. And do that work of examination and that work of proving in the light of this statement. Don't you know your own self, how that Jesus Christ who am you? Except in the reference. That's a scary verse of Scripture. I don't know that I got sense enough to dissect it and put it dead certain it means ten thousand times more than I got sense enough to tell it experimentally to enter air. But at least as dumb as we are, on the face of it, there is some mighty good advice. Examine yourself, whether you're in the faith or not. Now whether you're going through all the motions and trying to be good and all of that, whether you be in the faith, prove yourself, prove yourself, and to do it with the knowledge that except to be in you, the living Christ will reprobate. In the book of Jeremiah, chapter six, the last verse, therefore men shall call them reprobate still. And the reason men shall call others reprobate still, the rejected, unusable still, is because God's done something. The last half of the verse reads, because God hath rejected them. In the book of Mark, verse four, of chapter three, glory is a sentence that is tremendous in the context of the Lord's discussion about the attitude of the leaders of Israel. They'd accused them of being in league with the devil and casting out devils by the power of the French. And he talks to them about how it's silly to talk about Satan working against himself. And then he says in verse 28 of Mark, chapter three, verily, I say unto you, all sin shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blaspheme as wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness. But and here is where the King James has committed terrible harm. And if you have a pencil and don't mind marking up your Bible, if you want to get the awful implication of what this scripture says, read it like this. After the word hath never forgiveness, read, hath committed an eternal sin. Hath committed an eternal sin. Hath committed an eternal sin. What does that mean? It means that whatever this blasphemous treatment of the Holy Ghost is, that's where the preachers used to use the term the unpardonable sin, it does mean one thing. The man who's guilty of it begins to reap his penalty in the result of the payoff of that sin right there. It means that a man whom God rejects goes to hell right there and lives in hell until he dies and then in hell forevermore. It is certain that hell is not confined to the next line. I've had men tell me, I believe we'll have all the hell we'll ever have on this earth, any brother, and that one scripture that's been true all the time, people don't seem to believe it, the way of the transgressor was right, and there's a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof is death, and there's a plenty of hell on earth now. You don't think so? Talk to your policeman. You don't think so? Talk to your doctor. You don't think so? Talk to your lawyer. You don't think so? Talk to your preacher. There's plenty of hell on the road to hell, but it's also true that heaven isn't confined to the next line, brother, the old song where Jesus said, that's heaven, and there's a plenty of heaven on the road to heaven, thank God. But the implication of that verse is that man and wife can come to the place that they begin to expect life, to endure H-E-L-L-Hail Separation from God For when God rejects a man, that means exactly what it means. It means that old proverb, while there's life, there's hope. May be good preaching, but it's just not so. Now, there's hope for an individual's territory. As long as he's not under the protection of a Christ holy God. But to be rejected of God is to be condemned to hell from day till night. He surpassed the man who sinned. God meets with his utter reformation. It is the awful pains of separation from God immediately. The scriptures speak of three classes of men. The people called the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. There are people called the children of wrath. And there are people called the sons of hell. There are three classes of people in the world. It is not true to say that all men have as their father Satan. Oh, no. All men have as their father to start with not Satan. And men are children of God's wrath. But sin never is static. It always develops and grows. And in the entire book of John, the first several chapters, is just a running story of the conflict between the son of the living God and the sons of hell. And my Lord will look them in the face and John's gospel in chapter 8 say, He of your father the devil. He's talking about people like David Wilkerson's talking about New York City against much life. They have repudiated. They have rejected. And they've been met by the judgment of a holy God. And their character has been crystallized and set. And they are characterized or character-wise called children of their father the devil. For them there's no hope. It is interesting especially for people who seek to preach the sovereign grace of God to understand the difference in the way the Lord will treat people in the gospel of John. To some people he opens the door as wide as between the eternities. But to these sons of hell he has nothing but condemnation. No open door. The door's been closed. He'll look them in the face and say you need to get snooty with me. He's talking to this class of people when he says no man can come to me except the father draw me. The old time theologians used to say by way of a parallel to the three classes of people those people who call children of God have been made the subjects and the recipients of the redeeming grace of God. They're saved by God's grace. And they said those people who call in the scripture children of wrath are the subjects of God's common grace and sends the rain on the just and the unjust and causes the sun to shine on the good and the bad. Shows mercy the Bible says to all of his works in that sense. These people so said the old time Bible preachers and rightly so have not yet been saved but they've not yet been rejected. Humanly speaking they are savable. It is possible they may come to know Christ. And then the old time preachers said in reference to these and the Lord calls children of their father devil character wise or expressed as sons of hell or sons of Satan crystallized in their character they are under no grace. They are under God's awful reprobation. I wonder how it is with you tonight. One of the most solemn things that a public preacher at least faces and makes him feel a little keenly is that when everything's been said not undoing too much now I'm trying to go into it too much but there is a limit to what a human can do for another. I can pray for a lost man and preach to him maybe by God's grace I can weep over him maybe I can witness to him but there comes a time when one human has to stop he's gone as far as he can go and this matter becomes a very lonely proposition just between a person and almighty God. And if there's a union formed there that is two people present almighty God and the sinner. Isn't that right? And that carries with it a deeper implication when everything's been said and done there is only one person in this congregation tonight that I know anything at all really about in connection with whether or not you're a child of God or a child of wrath or a son of hell. I don't know. Ladies and gentlemen an unsaved man that's got any sense can live his moral life as a Christian. Do you believe that? Many of them do. An unsaved man can do what we call good. There's so much difference between being moral and being Christian. There's so much difference between being good and being Christian. To be a Christian means to be committed to Christ's purpose of redemption. God bless you all. You say, well, he lives a good life the best life that was lived on the street Miss Barnes and I lived in for years in Winston-Salem. The highest moral life on that street was by a confirmed Orthodox Jew. Wouldn't even let you talk to him about Christ. I'm trying to say this. This is a lonely proposition. Brothers, just between us girls if you're not deeply concerned about your relationship or lack of relationship to Christ you're in bad shape because I can't get but just so far to you. I have stuff I can't get inside of. I don't know. I can't tell you you're saved. I'm not God. I don't know whether anybody else is saved or not. I'm not God. That's so. Here's an individual who had nothing to do with being born physically with exceptions that prove the rule you'll not decide the hour of your death. And between that time you are the only person between the eternities who can be dead certain about yourself. I can't. Oh, I'd say, well, he lives a better life than somebody else. But that don't mean anything. Christianity is not being good. Isn't it? The mission of the gospel is not to make men good. It's to make men Christian. It's a lonely. Only you have been committed to you has been committed this business of examining yourself. I can't examine you for you. God didn't give me that job. I ain't smart enough. You have to do that. I am a child of God. A committed person. Somebody who's not your own. Somebody don't belong to yourself. Have you signed yourself away to another? That's Christianity. I am a person doing good and going through the motions but not utterly committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you cannot be committed to him and not be committed to what he came to do and what he's doing now. The mission of Christ and the mission of the church must never be separated. Are you committed? Or are you just going through the motions? Just going through the motions. I don't know. Or are you a son of hell? A character long since so crystallized that you've been rejected? I don't know. There are three marks of one whom God has reprobated and rejected. Let me briefly give them to you. I want to mention just two of them quickly. I'll read very briefly on one. A man is rejected. A woman has been reprobated. Turned over to hell in this life. No hope for it, hear me. When the means by which God resists your own evil nature do not any longer work. When the means by which your holy God resists, restrains that devil inside of you, if you please. When they no longer work and put it down, you're under God's rejection. And that's a scary sign of this age. I'm old enough to remember when there used to be things that were wrong. But I reckon there's nothing wrong now. I've lived long enough to see America turn from an immoral nation almost to an immoral nation. Just don't have any moral good or bad. That's out the window. The Bible tells us there are five great things that a loving God gives to men and women. To make life livable. To restrain the beast within them and to resist that awful nature. They're what the old theologians call God's common graces. And they are to mention them first, heavenly given wisdom, chapter one of Romans. They're to mention in the second place, heavenly given knowledge of God. The book of Romans treats it. And the book of Romans, chapter one, speaks of the third gift of the God of all grace. Not only does he give men wisdom, not only does he give men knowledge, but he gives them natural affections. You got a good job. If that doesn't lead you to Christ, you can put it down, but you're in a state of reprobation. Has God prospered you, given you a happy home, given you a lovely family, that he didn't use the God to restrain you and resist the beast in you, make you favorably inclined toward the claims of God in Christ, you bitches. And yet America, the more prosperous we get, the more prosperous we get, the more God is blessed, the more goodbye to holiness and goodbye to commitment. And hello to formality and going through the motions, whittling God down to where we can be comfortable without God and be laws unto ourselves. A man's in a bad shape if God's given him a good wife and lovely children and a good job and a nice place to live. If that hadn't been used of God to lead him to Christ. Do you know that? And then the Bible speaks in the book of Romans, chapter 2, of the gift of God called a conscience. It isn't native to man. It's a gift of God. And all men have this gift as they do all of these common races. And they use their blessed gifts of God, everyone of them, and they're his gracious gifts, all men, to restrain them. For it is still true that by the goodness of God he leads men to repentance. And if the goodness of God doesn't lead men to repentance, if he brings this judgment, it isn't to get you to repent, it's to punish. But the Scriptures talk about how men deal with conscience. And I'll not take the time, but it starts out with a defiled conscience. But the conscience doesn't stay defiled. It'll just go on a little while, sinning against it, and it'll get what the Bible calls evil. It's malicious. And then after a while it'll come, Say it! Code it over! And after a while it'll arrive at the police, according to Romans 2, verse 15, I think it is, where your conscience, God's gift, given of God to accuse you. Instead of accusing you now, that gift of God, you've so defiled it and smeared it and sinned against it that it excuses you. There's hope for a man when he's wrong, and he'll admit it. Amen? But there's no hope for a man when he's wrong, and he defends it. It's terrible enough to sin, but ten times more terrible to refuse to admit it. Did you know it? To seek to hide it and cover it up. When a man's conscience, that gift that God gives him, Isaiah says, it's a little voice that speaks behind your left ear. You're going down, you've got to make the decision, the road forks, you've got to go one way or the other. And a man's conscience says, don't go that way, go that way. You know what I'm talking about? And when a man's conscience accuses him, instead of accuses him, he's a dead duck. He's a dead duck. The second mark of a reprobate, I've already preached on it, there without conscience, accusing, no, excusing. The fifth gift of God's common grace is the terror of human government, Romans 13. We do well to remember now that human government was ordained of God. The mayor of the city is going to have to answer to God not only for his acts as a human being, but for his acts as a servant of Almighty God. The policeman is going to have to give an account to God not only for how he acted as a human being, but he's a servant of God. The officers of the law, they're gifts of God, and they are meant to produce terror to the lawbreaker so that he can walk home from service tonight without getting killed maybe. That's a gift of God. All of these precious gifts of God have been trampled under the feet today. Wisdom! Wisdom! Is being used in the world now to try to banish God from his world. Knowledge is being used of God now to produce a generation who frankly says we have no need of God and get along without him. Natural affection is now another occasion for turning the grace of God into lascivious living. Conscience now excuses us instead of accuses. Nobody's afraid of the law anymore. These are gifts of God. They're used of God out of his goodness to all men. God's call from above. The marks of a reprimand. Those graces and gifts of God intended for the good of men no longer accomplish that whereunto they are sent. That means God's rejection. When the conscience comes to the place that excuses instead of accuses, man's under God's rejection. And the third mark of God's rejection is the most solemn thing this preacher's ever faced. I made an opening remarks. I said I believe American so-called Christianity has been placed under God's reprobation. Why? Ladies and gentlemen, better listen to me a little while now. I cannot invade your spiritual privacy. I cannot sit in judgment on any man because I don't know him. I just pose this solemn fact. The most terrible mark of this age. Nationwide, churchwide, individual-wise is the silence of God. To be put under God's silence. To be put under God's silence. It looks like that God has gone fishing and said let America alone. I do not hear men screaming in agony for the mercy of God even as much as this little preacher used to hear. And I can't find anybody that has lately. I do not see God break heart for the truth of his word. I do not see the spirit of God stand up in even as I used to. And I can't find any preachers that don't have to tell the same tale. I'm not trying to find an alibi. I think of Mordecai Ham, the greatest prophet the South ever knew. The last 25 years of his life he couldn't get a corporate guard to hear him. And the power of God had gone elsewhere. He came, I remember one time now, down this country to the city of Huntington where your heir sits. God had used him to turn that city upside down. He came back and they'd forgotten him. Weren't interested and he couldn't get a corporate guard. I can think of... Your pastor wanted me to repeat the messages we had in the park. Things happened in the park. I didn't do anything God did. Things are awful quiet now, brother of mine. God helped us. Everybody's got religion, told God goodbye. And it looked like God said, OK! I'm not fixing to quit. I'm racking my brain. What the God damnation would do for saying unto God to confess? We've been doing everything except making Christians out of people, evidently. And I asked God for his mercy and his grace to improve wisdom and tell everybody we can. Unto God we must so stand in this nation churchwise and never otherwise. God has marked us for the most terrible mark that God can place on any nation or church or individual as he gives. Let's just quit talking to us. You ever have a fuss with your wife? Bad enough fuss that he has at bed to get so mad you won't talk. You ever do that? That's awful. Oh, my soul! The silence of God. Looks like he's not speaking! That voice from him looks like he's letting us work it out ourselves! I've seen men have to be carried out of my meetings and stretchers so deeply convicted of sin, as God called them, and so deep in their refusal that be stricken couldn't walk. I've seen them couldn't get up out of their seats. I've seen a little evidence in past days that there was a living God and that he was disturbing men and crossing their path and wailing! Seems mighty still now, brother. Did you read the story? Names written of that French, that Jewish man, Dreyfus, Alfred Dreyfus. They just revealed that he was trapped and was innocent, but he was sentenced to imprisonment on Devil's Island, and for seven long years he never heard the sound of a human voice. A fellow would bring him something to eat, but he wouldn't speak to him. No guard, no visitors, nobody was allowed to speak to him for seven years! In the little old cell, nothing to read, nothing to do, he heard the sound of a human voice not one time until he would beg and plead for the guard to bring him a glass of water. To speak to him. The silence, the silence of God. When God rejects a man, quits talking with him. We're not Roman Catholics. We don't believe there aren't any priests around here that got any magic power. We believe that God speaks to an individual. In the New Testament, 167 times the word C-A-L-L-C-R-O-L-E God called me.