In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of preaching about God's eternal judgment and punishment against sin. He mentions a significant religious event in 1963 where the world engaged in a great display of religion during the funeral of the President. The preacher highlights the double evil committed by the people, departing from God and creating their own worship systems. He urges the listeners to seek the Lord and forsake their wicked ways, emphasizing the desperate mission of Christ to save humanity from hell.

Someone has rightly said that the last generation was marked as to its attitude by skepticism. These were the days when polemics was the order of the day, defense of the faith, trying to prove things. Skepticism. Prove it. The Bible so prove it. There's a God, prove it. The gospel so prove it. The generation you and I are privileged to live in is not skeptical, it's cynical. So what? The Bible is God's word, so what? Who cares? So what? You're not interested in proving anything, you say, so what? Both the Bible is so, so what? Cynical. In this cynical generation, or in this generation that is cynical, the two fastest growing doctrines or teachings of so-called Christianity are first, that man's too valuable to be damned. We're beginning to reap what we've been sowing for some 40 years in dethroning God and enthroning man. Our forefathers thought man existed for God's glory. Our generation thinks God exists to serve man. There are just two gospels, one centered on God and the other on man. And for many, many years now, all the use people have had for God is like a farmer has for a milk cow to get milk out of. And we're beginning to reap that. The chickens have come home to roost in your day and mine. This is perhaps, of all the generations of Christendom, the time of harvest. We are reaping so many evil things that we thought we could sow, but we never have to reap, and we're reaping them. It seems like all of them are coming home to roost at the same time. One thing that characterizes what they call popular preaching today is that man is so valuable, he's too valuable to be damned. Along with that, many of the liberals, perhaps all of them, they control either the pulpits of America. They have seized upon what we call the sovereignty of God. Men like Nels Ferry and other men who have a tremendous influence on what's called Christianity today have come up with a solution that God is so utterly sovereign that man cannot possibly resist him and cannot defeat the purposes of an all-powerful, sovereign God. And the tail end result of that kind of preaching is, of course, the rise, and it's tremendous how fast it's rising, of the teaching that eventually all men will be saved. Universalism. Man is too valuable to be damned. God is too powerful to be defeated by man. And thus God will win, and he will win by eventually bringing to himself in glad acknowledgment all mankind. Against such a cynical David we have to witness, and against these two fast-growing so-called doctrines and strains to save, men go to the Bible and rest it, I think, but find scripture to bottom these fast-growing teachings. Against that tonight I read just one verse, Matthew 10, 28. Coming from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ addressed to his disciples. And when I read a verse like this addressed to his own disciples, I tremble at the significance. If he talked this way to his own, my soul, how terrible would be this truth applied to those who do not know him. The Lord is saying in Matthew 10, 28, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy, ruin both soul and body in hell. Listen to me a minute. There must be a tremendous revival, if that's a good word for it, of personal witness in this generation. Everybody who names the name of Jesus Christ now, must under God become a flaming evangelist. If we're not blind as bats and dead as doornails, we're going to have to buy us a Bible or start paying some attention to the one we've got. And like the early people, everyone scattered abroad become preachers. That's where the folks are, they're not in anybody's church. Seeking to be brought into right relationship with Jesus Christ. And the one message that God has used more than any other message in any generation, to set men to seeking the Lord, is the message of his eternal judgment and punishment against sin. You and I have to witness to the most satisfied religious generation of people that ever lived on this earth. You'll not misunderstand me when I'll say, and there's nothing personal, and I honor the dead and the office of the president, but in 1963 in November, for some seven days, the whole world indulged in the greatest orgy of religion this world has ever seen. The death and the long services of the president of the United States. They even sent mourners from the Kremlin in Russia. Those proceedings where America drank at the fountain of religion like a drunkard laps up his liquor, lasted for several days. Never since Christ hung on the cross was there such a religious world as you and I live in. The days, if you think I'm wrong, you tackle somebody tomorrow. Well, they're as full of religion as they've been. They've all got their beliefs, and they believe me. They've got their doubts, and they doubt me. And they say one man's opinion is as good as another, and the way I look at it is thus and so. And I'm all right, mister. And I'd appreciate it if you'd leave me alone. If it weren't for the fact that God's still in the saving business, you'd never find anybody read to listen to your message. That's the work of the Spirit. Days of the my people, the prophets had the thunder against, have come upon us again. In the Old Testament, you have to be a little careful of that expression, my people. Typically, they represented a saved people, actually. They were not saved, only a small number. And you better not get your theology all tangled up there without making that distinction. In Jeremiah, in the second chapter, the prophet will speak for God, and he'll say, My people have committed two evils. First, they've departed from God. That's bad news. But to make it still worse, they've hewed them out, a broken system. And they drink of them, but they hold no water. And so God had to send his prophets to thunder against those people who followed their fathers, and the fathers followed their fathers. And they committed in each generation the double evil of departing from the formal worship of God, and then going still deeper, going and digging them some wells, and lapping up the water out of those wells, and being satisfied with the water from the wells they dug themselves. And the prophets will come along and say, Seek ye the Lord while ye may find him, and call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Nobody paid much attention to them. They already had something satisfying. Getting along fine, thank you. Our great-great-grandchildren were present when our Lord walked this earth in the days of his flesh. And he addressed them as to the record given in the 5th John, verse 39. The old King James Version says, Search the scripture, but that's dead wrong. He wasn't trying to get them to search the scripture. He was already doing that. But the original says, Ye are constantly searching the scripture. For in them ye think ye have eternal life, and these are they that testify of me. But you never did get to me what the scripture said. They pointed to me, but you missed it because you drank of the letter of the word and satisfied you. Then the next verse says, And ye will not to will to come unto me. Why? Already satisfied. Already satisfied. About ninety-nine and nine-tenths of the people in reach of this church and every other church represented here, they feel no need to agonize to enter in the straight gate. They think they're already in it. They've got something that satisfies them. Under God, nice little theological bouquets will not be used of God to shake them out of their false satisfaction and their man-contrived security. God's always used the motive of fear. There are just two motives that God can use or appeal to. In seeking to warn and threaten and conjole and woo and invite men to seek him, one's the fear of God and the other's the hope of the war. If people were nice, people would differ. But you can tell about how beautiful Jesus is till you're blue in the face, but a blind man can't see it and cares less. I come to you with a message of hell tonight. Let's let hell come to the platform. It's what God has been pleased to use. No wonder it's so outmoded now. Under God, most of us who claim to be fundamental skip mighty lightly here. We have thought that if we could explain the great truths of the Bible to unsaved men, they'd be interested. We're finding out they couldn't care less. And we just well roll up our sleeves and spit on our hands and come back to what God Almighty has always had to resort to, to just one way to get people to seek the Lord. And that's the motive of fear. That's the motive of fear. Oh, Jesus is beautiful to anointed open eyes, but he's despised and rejected by all people apart from that. Let the teaching of the word of God about the interpretation of God's holy law, for hell is just the holy law interpreted. That's all there is. One calls for the other. Let hell speak and bring a revelation to us tonight. And the first revelation of hell is that hell brings, it's a revelation of the character of Almighty God. Hell is a revelation. You want to find out what kind of God people are going to have to face? You can get a better picture of him if you examine the teaching of the word of God about this awful place called hell, where God weeps out the stroke of his divine anger. The penalty for his broken law reveals the holy righteous character of a thrice holy God. Never will a man get a picture of the holiness of God quite like if he'd be still just a little while. And yet the Holy One of God, the Son of God's love, given over as God's darling to the dogs, to rend in two on a tree. And if you want to see a picture of the holiness of God, try to listen with anointed ears as from the lips of that man on the center cross, Jesus of Nazareth, comes the sinner's heartbroken cry, for he was there in the sinner's place, and he cries out of the agony of his soul, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's hell. The old time preachers used to argue about where Christ went literally in the body to hell. I won't bring that up. But one thing, brother, he didn't have to. That is hell. When he hung on that cross, utterly forsaken of God. That's what hell is, to be forsaken of God. I hope I do not speak to anybody tonight who's already been forsaken of God. I believe that happens here on this earth. I hope nobody hears. God said, OK, I'll just leave you alone. You're utterly forsaken. You're doomed for hell. You're already in the anteroom. But hung on a cross is the best picture of the holy character of God as the son of his love cries out of the agony of his soul. Doesn't say my father, but my God, my God. Why? Why? Under God, I wish I could just say that word. With the heartbreak and the pathos that was in the heart of the Lord of glory. Why? Why hast thou forsaken me? And the answer comes back, thou art holy. Thou art holy. A holy God forsakes his son who's made sin in ours. That's hell. And that shows you how holy God is. Hell says the second thing. It's a revelation of the character of man. You want to find out what kind of person you are, study what the Bible says about hell, and it'll say three things about you. First, you've got a satanic spirit. In Isaiah chapter 14, Satan, represented by Lucifer five times, he says, I will, I will, I will. I'll be like the most high God. I'll send up to the hidden. I'll sit on the throne. I'll take charge of the universe five times. I will. That's the spirit of man. I will, I will, I will. If I bust hell wide open, I'm going to have my will. That's what motivates men and women. Men and women are not dumbbells. Men and women are not ignoramuses. Hell's not going to be full of pitiful creatures of circumstance. Hell's going to be full of men and women that took that puny little world and said, I'll have it, and God can go to and stay put. I'll live in God's universe. I'll breathe God's air. I'll drink God's water. I'll enjoy God's beneficent providence, but I will not submit my will to his will. Hell reveals the satanic spirit of men and women. Hell reveals the satanic fury of men and women. In the scripture in Romans 8, in verse 7, is a verse I've always wished I had sense enough to preach on. I've tried to figure out the depth of its meaning. I sometimes thought if God could raise up a generation of preachers in our day that could plumb some of the depths of that awful verse, maybe God would bless for revival. That verse says the carnal mind is enmity against God, not subject to the law of God. Neither can it be. So then them that are in the, they that are in the flesh, cannot please God. I know that the deep meaning of that word enmity doesn't mean that men are mad at God. If men just had it in for God, maybe they could be reconciled. For enmity can be reconciled. But the word goes deeper than that. The nearest word that I've found is hostility. And it isn't an attitude that men have about or against God. It's what men are. Men are a hotbed of hostility to God. Oh, we haven't touched the sin question in your day and mine. About all we know about preaching against sin, preaching on some little sprout that grows out of that old rotten heart. You know what's the matter with men, not what to do, but what they are. They're a hotbed of hatred and hostility toward the governor of the universe. Enmity may be reconciled. What men do may be changed. But only God can change what men are from hotbeds of hostility themselves. A hotbed of hostility. Nothing but the power of God giving a man a new nature can take care of that sort of situation. Men with satanic fury, hostile, themselves hostile, born enemy of every suggestion that God is God and man is man. I was told in a section of a wide meeting here in Cincinnati, Oklahoma when a young couple worked hard and finally they got the next door neighbor couple to come and hear me preach one night. I don't know whether the Lord or the devil, while I was preaching that night, I said, remove the grace of God from this congregation and the influence of the gospel that men still feel some of the power of the influence of the gospel even though they go on in sin. And I said, the people here tonight if those things were removed, if they could they'd walk up and stand and face God and spit in his face and tell him to get off the throne and let them sit there. And this young unsaved couple boy, they got up and stalked out and after the service the couple that brought them, they came and got all over me they were heartbroken, said we've prayed and we've worked and we've been tithed got them here one night and you made them mad! Now they're gone! I thought I'd played with them but at midnight that night the young man that got so mad he couldn't sleep and he called the young man that brought him and they sent for me some I know that got under high and he couldn't rest and he couldn't sleep I wish an anointing of the Holy Ghost would come on us nice little preachers, nice church so we could have something here where men would stick their fists in the face of God and curse him out or bow at his shrine anything except this nice little business but nobody lost and nobody saved Oh, if God would begin to anoint the proclamation of his word until men should be stabbed so that the awfulness of what they are in here would dawn would dawn men apart from the influence of the gospel and the power of the Holy Ghost seats of hostility against God and hell reveals the satanic destiny of mankind my Lord will say Matthew 25, 41 depart from me you curse it into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels don't try to evade that don't say the Lord just prepared it for the devil and then man accidentally sinned God didn't know about it and had to make other arrangements know what that means God help us, it means if a man lands in hell he'll land in a place the punishment of which will just fit the awful rebellion of Satan he'll not be a picnic his destiny is Satan's destiny forever and ever and ever hell brings a revelation of the glory of Calvary Calvary's stream of blood never flows so red as when it's looked at with eyes that have been taught to fear the God who can destroy both soul and body and hair hell reveals the glory of Calvary my Lord Jesus Christ didn't come down here to give some advice he came down here on a desperate mission I'd give my teeth if I could capture and capture for God's people the sense of the desperateness of the mission of Christ there was no other way and there is now to keep men out of hell except for God in Christ to stand in the sinner's stead and have the wrath of God poured out on him there's no other way we're not advice givers we've got a desperate mission to desperate men and women surely God's people ought to be much trying to God with this nice generation of church people so many bad things we don't do but so many good things this desperateness about the mission of Christ has almost disappeared from us, dear my only hope my only plea Christ Jesus died and he died for me oh, the glory of death our hearts might hurt when we can just think of it without the fountains of deep being broken up can this be the son of God? said the city to him surely it must be the glory of the God of the universe in the son of his love pouring out his life would God we could go back and dip our hands in that pool of blood in Revelation 5 and breathe and bathe our weary hearts and our nice little minds to freshen the blood of Christ until the glory of that transaction on Golgotha's hill to bring us to where we could sing afresh down at the cross where my Savior died for cleansing from sin, I pray that to the heart was the blood applied glory to his name hails the revelation of the glory of Calvary if there be no eternal penalty for sin then we don't have to round out Calvary but if the wages of sin is death thank God for Calvary if sin does not ruin in this life and the life to come maybe we can join the crowd talking about that butcher shop gospel but if sin does ruin in this life and in the life to come thank God for a fountain open for unclean if there be no judgment which all men will be summoned maybe we don't need somebody capable and willing to die in our stead but if we do the glory of Calvary if there's no eternal hell that God sends men to maybe we could join the people now making fun of Golgotha's cross but if there is a hill and the Bible tells the truth and I ought to go there thank God for Calvary yes, since I took a vacation in Yellowstone Park went in the park and they gave me a little guidebook and I parked my car a little ways inside the entrance went through the guidebook had so much time I wanted to see everything I could and I was intrigued by the description of the handkerchief pool they told me that there was a little pool of water a little bigger than this pulpit and that communion table there a round pool of artesian water hot, you know said since white man had discovered the park somebody started it they took a dirty rag or a handkerchief and they went to that pool and let the water pool pull the dirty rag or handkerchief then they brought it out and they called it the handkerchief pool and somehow intrigued me when I got to it I took an old handkerchief I'd been using to clean the spark plugs on the old A-model Ford and it was greasy and dirty and I held it like this and I just let it touch and then the pool of the boiling water pulled it down I let it go clear down until it burned my finger and I pulled it up quickly and spread it out and it was white as snow and pure as wool and they said that's the reason it's called the handkerchief pool everybody's ever taken a dirty article that water cleanses and I wasn't conscious of what I was doing I began to sing There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners clung beneath that flood lose all that yearning to sing the dying he rejoiced to see that fountain in his days and there have I though vile as he washed all my sins away I wasn't conscious of singing somebody touched me on the shoulder about a hundred people had gathered about I guess I guess they're there from everywhere and they said preacher do you mind if we join you and there we were never seen each other before but one thing drew us together and we sang dear dying man thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed churches of God be saved to sin no more thank God thank God for Calvary the vilest sinner out of hell that made as pure as wool and as white as snow if he could just get under the blood I wish he could I wish he could will you bow your head