In this sermon, the preacher describes the death of a soul who did not heed the warning of the trumpet. The sermon references the book of Ecclesiastes, specifically chapter 8 verse 10, to illustrate the vanity of a wicked person who attends church but remains in a state of wickedness. The preacher recounts the deathbed scene of a church attender who realizes the urgency of discussing the state of his soul with the preacher, but it is too late. The sermon emphasizes the importance of placing hope in Christ and the consequences of rejecting the gospel message. The preacher warns against complacency and highlights the privilege of hearing the gospel alarm, contrasting it with those in paganism or churches where the message is diluted. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the eternal torment of hell for those who refuse to heed the warning.

Ezekiel chapter thirty-three at the verse five. He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning, his blood shall be upon his own hand. With what zeal today, man and woman and their children seek the things of this world, worldly comforts, worldly pleasures, worldly companionships, worldly possessors, worldly games and worldly things. Things that are mere fleeting shadows, disappearing things, things of no value, things that deceive and corrupt and destroy and pass away. In contrast to that, look how careless and indifferent men and women of this generation and young people of this generation look upon the things of the world that is to come. Things that are really substantial, things that are immutable, things that are unchangeable, things that are eternal and things that are unfeeling. Such is the power of the devil to glug, to dope, to deceive the man and woman of this generation. The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into their hearts. By everything that is reasonable, by everything that conscience dictates to be true, by everything that has to do with the real self-interest of the human soul, we ought to take stock of how we stand and what our attitude is to the things of this life and the things of the life that is to come. My text states clearly that you are in danger. You are in danger. That is why God sends someone to blow the trumpet. My text also underlines the truth that you are depraved and deceived. And because of that, you do not take warning. You do not heed the trumpet. You turn a deaf ear to the alarm that has sounded. And the text concludes with this solemn fact. You will be damned. Your blood will be upon your own head if you continue in a state of not heeding the solemn trumpet of alarm which God by His Spirit sounds in your ears. Let me take the first point. You are in danger. It is a terrible tragedy when an army is wiped out because that army set no sentinels. And when the enemy came unannounced, no alarm was sounded. But that is not so in your case because God has given to you the great privilege of hearing the gospel trumpet and listening to the gospel alarm. You have heard the gospel trumpet. Sound it loudly and clearly. It has echoed in your soul. It has disturbed your conscience. It has shaken you to your heart's core. It has followed you and come to you repeating its solemn notes over and over and over again. I suppose there is not one in this service that has not at one time or another heard the loud and the solemn and the clear notes of gospel warning. There are, however, in this world those who as yet have not had the opportunity that you have had of listening to the gospel alarm. And then there are those who sit in churches where a harling prophet occupies center stage. And it is his purpose to put people to sleep instead of to awaken them. And so they sit in happiness while they are in danger of being lost forever in the place of which my master said, their worm dieth not or their fire is not quenched. But you are different. You have heard this gospel alarm. Sound it loudly and clearly. And even at times it has sounded with such a compelling note that you stood at the crossroads and for a time you considered the state of your soul as you never have considered it before. Those who are Christ have wondered as you lingered and marveled at the fact that the same clear gospel note that called others to flee from the wrath to come and was effectual in their hearts, that that note eventually went unheeded by you. You have not only heard the gospel warning, but you have understood it clearly. There are those who do not understand it because they have not been privileged with gospel truth and gospel light and the wonderful teaching of the Word of God. They have been brought up in a system of darkness, in a system of deception and false doctrine. But you have had the privilege of listening and understanding this clear gospel warning. You have not been preached to by a preacher whose language you did not understand, who went to the sentences of the schools or to the dictionary in order to embellish his language. But you have heard in plain, solemn notes the truth of the gospel, the way of salvation. You have had pictures before your very eyes from this pulpit by faithful preachers, the way from the city of destruction to the city that lies foursquare. You have been exhorted to flee from the broad road and from the wide gate and to strive to enter in at the straight gate and to walk the narrow road. Oh, you have understood the warning. And then, as I have already said at times, you have really been startled by that warning note. Circumstances of sudden death. Circumstances of pressures at home. Circumstances of your own bodily health have at times reinforced, like an alarm bell in your conscience, the necessity of you to consider your latter end and to leave your foolishness and be wise to seek the Lord while He may be found and to call upon Him while He is near. Could I also say your warnings have not been few, but they have been very frequent. God in His grace has frequently let you hear these solemn notes. Warnings from the lips of the man of God who ministered God's word faithfully. Warnings from the lips of the one who taught you in the Sabbath school class and was faithful to your soul. Words from the lips of godly parents who sought to bring you up to know and love the Savior whose they were and whom they served. Words of prayers offered in your behalf that you might see the error of your ways and the folly of your paths and that you might turn in grace and be redeemed and be numbered among the people of God. These warnings have come at a time when there was a period of time for repentance to be alarmed when it is too late to heed the alarm. To be awakened when there is no time left to see the awful impending doom before your soul. But truly it, truly it will be your cry. Jesus of Nazareth has passed by. But God has given you time to seek Him. Time to call upon His name. Time to fall at His feet and pray for mercy. Time to look at the promises of God. And time to call upon Him while He is near. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. While your bones have still marrow within them. While your body and your mind is still held down. While life still causes your heart to beat and your pulse to throb. God has warned you. The trumpet has been sounded. And it hasn't given an uncertain sound. It has called you to the greatest of all battles. The battle in regard to where you will be in God's great eternity. May I leave that point. You are in danger. And may I come to the second point. You are deceived. You took no warning. Oh, perhaps you are arguing in your heart, I don't need this warning. I don't really believe what these Bible fundamentalists preach. I think that I can afford to look at my future in a different way than the Bible presents it. I think that it is quite alright for me to pursue the path that I have pursued to this day. How foolish you are. What awful folly is within your soul. How thoroughly the devil has darkened your mind. What an evil work of hell has been done in your heart to bring you to such a sad and awful state. To turn your back on the divine revelation. To turn your back on the demonstration of divine love at the cross. To turn your back on the whole scheme of gospel grace and gospel pardon and gospel light and gospel love. Poor soul that you are. As the trumpet sounds, you say to yourself, I don't need to listen. I don't need to heed. I don't need to be concerned. Or perhaps you say, I don't like this trumpet blast. When the fires of an everlasting hell torment your soul forever. When in the darkness, the dense darkness, the awful darkness of a lost sinner's hell, you find that you are incarcerated forever by the eternal decree of God's everlasting law. Shut up in doom. Shut up in damnation. Shut up in darkness forever. Away the stupidity of what you are telling your heart to put its trust in tonight. By telling your poor soul, I don't like this trumpet blast. Perhaps you might say, I don't like the man that blows the trumpet. Here is a man, he is perishing in the water. He must have a lifeline. Someone seizes the lifeline and throws it to him. What would you think of that man if he said, I will not seize that lifeline. I don't like the man who threw it to me. You would say he was a fool. And what a fool you are. You see the gospel preacher is only the signpost. The gospel preacher is only the finger that points. The gospel preacher is only conveying the message. Don't allow the devil to dull you and fool your mind so that in your folly you reject the warning because of circumstances surrounding the way the warning comes to you. Yet how many people, fooled by sin, refuse to heed the warning because they don't like the man who blows the trumpet. Only a fool, a confounded fool would lie in his bed while his house is on fire and say, I am not giving up for I don't like the way the watchman cried, Fire! I don't like the way he cried. Oh, how terrible is a soul darkened by the deceptions of hell. How dark is the midnight that Satan puts on poor immortal souls in his clutches and held by his satanic power. I don't like the way the gospel is presented, so I will reject the gospel. I don't like the language in which it is uttered, so I will reject the message. Oh sinner, realize today that the only hope for you is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. All the religions of the world offer you no hope. They show you a way of works. They show you a way of extending your time and your energy and your money. And they give you a foolish hope that at the end of all your works you will make it. But oh my friend, at the end of all your works there is a never ending hell because you are a Christ rejecter and you have said no to the only gospel that can bring peace and life to your soul. And then you argue, oh the comfort is not for me. My neighbor needs to be awakened. My neighbor needs that sort of gospel. Look at the life he lives, the things he has done. Look at his behavior. Oh I am sure that that old fashioned gospel is good for him. Let me say to you that your righteousnesses surveyed by God's eye are filthy rags. All your religious works, your baptismal lines, your church membership, your knowledge of God's word, your praying, all your unregenerate acts as an unregenerate man are a pile of filthy rags in God's sight. God's heaven is not a rag house. God's son is not a rag merchant. He is not dealing with your rags. Vagabonds and rag merchants will end in the place of doom. Only those in the immaculate righteousness of the Son of God will enter the pearl hung gates and walk the streets of gold. And then maybe there is some phoenix in this service tonight and you are saying, this is not a convenient time for me. I will not enter into a debate with you preacher whether you are preaching the truth or not. I will not argue with what you say. I will not contest or contend against you. But this is not the time. Oh my friend, do not fool yourself. Time is running out for you. The sand glass of opportunity does not run forever. The clock of God's mercy does not tick for you forever. The calendar of God's mercy comes to an end. And when the opportunity door closes, it closes forever. We read of those who stood at a door and it was said of that door, the door was shut. There is a place I know not where, a time I know not when, that seals the destiny of man for glory or despair. There is a line by us unseen that crosses every path, the hidden boundary between God's mercy and God's wrath. To cross that line it is to die, to die as if by stealth. It does not dull the beaming eye nor quench the glow of health. The spirit may be light and gay. That which does please may still may please and fears be thrust away but on the forehead God has set indelibly the mark. Unseen by man for man as yet is blind not only to be doomed but to be damned. Where is that place? It is the place of the solemn gospel meeting. Where is that time? It is the time when the alarm trumpet is sounded. Where is that terrible place? It is the place where the soul says no to Christ just once too often. As the great preacher of the 59 revival, Brian Low North used to say, as he preached in those great revival times, be careful you may say no once. Let me turn to the last solemn thought. You will be damned. Your blood shall be upon your own head. You most certainly will be damned because God is a God of truth, a God who cannot lie. And when God says his blood shall be upon him, his blood most certainly will be upon him. What is it? To be thrust out forever from the presence of God. Dr. Kearns read the portion of that place where the rich man was in torments. In torments. In the fire that cannot be quenched. In the tortures that never cease. In the pit so deep that there is no ending to the fall of the soul in hell. No one ever spoke so strongly about hell than my blessed Lord and Savior. His words were stern. They were uncompromising. His words were terrible. His words throbbed with awful solemnity and with descriptions that ought to terrify the soul that has no hope and no trust and no refuge to hide in when the storm breaks. And the time of testing comes and the greatest size bell is rung for the last great judgment day. O my friend, let me describe to you very briefly in closing this sermon the death of a soul who did not heed the trumpet. It is described over in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes at the chapter eight and at the verse ten. And it says this, And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of old age. And they were forgotten in this city where they had so done. This also is vanity. The death bed seemed of a regular church attender. They had come and they had gone from the place of the holy. The church attender comes and goes from the place of the holy, but is still in a state of wickedness, refusing to awaken to the trumpet that sounds the alarm. And then the day comes when that soul has come to the end. The sands of time for him has run out. His race is finished. His course is up. He lies upon his death bed. And he says, Send for the preacher. And as I have once said, say and reply, we have already sent for the preacher. And he says, Why does he not hear? I need to talk with him. I need to discuss the state of my soul with him. And the preacher comes. He sits down by the bedside. And he says, Man, what is your hope? Have you hope in Christ? Are you resting solidly and only on the Savior, His death, His blood, His righteousness, His work for you upon the cross? And the dying man says, I cannot say. I do not know. I cannot even hope. And the preacher starts to speak again the message of the gospel, a message that that man has heard and rejected and heard and rejected and heard and rejected over and over again. I saw the wicked buried who had come and gone from the place of the Holy. And as the preacher, the sands of time run out, the brittle thread of life snaps. The soul of the church attender who refused to heed the trumpet warning goes out into eternity. I put my hands on his eyelids and I close them forever on earth. And I ask the question, what does he see now? I'll tell you what he sees. He sees the fires of hell. And he not only sees them, but he feels them. He feels the torments of the damned. Is he crying? Yes, he's crying. I am tormented in this flame. As the arguments now against the veracity of Scripture, the truthfulness and authority of the gospel and the way of salvation, none. They're all gone. The soul is lost. The chains of damnation of every length have bound him eternally to the agonies of the pit of eternal darkness and everlasting damnation. He's a lost soul. Father Abraham, let Lazarus come with just a drop of water on the tip of his finger and cool my tongue. I am tormented in this flame. You didn't believe that in time. But my friend, you'll read it by the firelight of hell in the record book of God and you'll read it forever. You wouldn't heed the trumpet. But could I close this solemn service tonight by simply saying to you these words, that whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own hand. He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning, his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. I have stood on the broad road that you're traveling tonight. I have blown a trumpet in your ears. I have taken the gospel light and I have shone it into your eyes to stop you in your madness, to keep you from the impending doom. And I would say to you, O sinner, the Savior is calling for you. Long, long hath he called thee in vain. He called thee when joy lent a crown to thy days. He called thee in sorrow and pain. O turn, while the Spirit and mercy is pleading, and steer for the harbor bright. For how do you know that your soul may be drifting over the deadline tonight? Listen. Take heed tonight. He that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. Heast to the cross. Hide in the wounds of Jesus. Seek refuge in the rock of ages. Escape for thy life. Tarry not in the plain. Look not behind you, lest you be consumed. The only hope for your soul is to utter that cry that was uttered by the publican in the temple with bowed head and broken heart. God be merciful to me, saved by a cry. And whosoever shall call or cry on the name of the Lord shall be saved. From a Christless deathbed, may the gracious God of heaven deliver you. From the death rattle in a Christless throat, may God deliver you. From a Christless corpse wrapped in a Christless shroud and put in a Christless coffin and lowered into a Christless grave and your soul in a Christless hell, may God deliver you tonight. Heed the warning voice. Make the Lord your final choice. Then all heaven will rejoice in God's name. Be in time. Father in heaven, this has been a solemn time. We have been dealing with great realities. Life and death. Heaven and hell. The soul saved or the soul lost. The soul dragged to hell by the power of sin. Or the soul redeemed by the mighty love of God and the mighty sacrifice of Christ. O spirit, search hearts tonight. Drive home thy word. These men and women must be drawn by thee. These men and women must be called defectually by thee. These men and women will die and perish, except the miracle is wrought by thee, O gracious spirit within their hearts. Come and work mightily amongst us this night. Come and breathe thy holy breath on these slain, that this dead soul might live, that this dead man, this dead woman, this dead young person might live with the life of God. O come and do thy saving, separating, mighty work this night amongst us in this house. As our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we are in prayer. There are those in this house tonight and they have heeded the comfort and they have had their souls delivered from wrath to come. Afresh tonight they have been stirred. And as we have listened as believers to this message, we have thanked God from the depths of our heart that we have been saved from hell and all that hell means. Saved from sin and all that that salvation means. Saved from the deceptions and ruination of a life lived out of God and of an eternity lost in the darkness of punishment and torment. Dear child of God, as your head is bowed, would you shoot off a prayer to heaven tonight? And would you say to the Lord, thank you for saving me from hell. But O see of those that sit around me in this church who are lost, have mercy upon them, breathe your spirit upon them, call them effectually Holy Ghosts tonight. Save them from hell and from its darkness and torments and its pangs and its pains and its woes. O God have mercy. Would you pray that prayer tonight? Now let me come to grips with you, dear sinner friend. You are in this meeting. I want to make it clear that you can do absolutely nothing to save yourself. If you are going to trust in your works, you are going to be lost. The only thing you can do, my friend, is absolutely, without any qualification, acknowledge you are a lost soul. That you are a sinner. That there is no hope for you in and of yourself. That you this night are a lost, guilty, hell deserving wretch. And if you died in your sin, you would go to hell. And God would be just to put you in the lowest caverns of the damned. Because you have crumpled under His Son's blood and you have done death's fight to the Spirit over and over again by rejecting the offer of mercy and the cross that He has held up to your ears. O would you say the prayer of the publican tonight? God be merciful to me the sinner. Cry that prayer, repeat it in your soul and keep repeating it until an answer comes from heaven and the burden will be lifted and you will be saved by God's grace. There may be those here that once were walking with God in the light of His Word. And tonight God has sounded an alarm in their ears. They know they are not walking rightly with God. They know they have failed Him. They have been carried away with the worldliness of this age. They have got their priorities absolutely wrong. And they are a by-path meadow. They are an enchanted ground. Some of them are locked up in the castle doubting. Some of them are under giant despair's rule tonight. I am glad that my Savior is married to the backslider. There is no divorce with God. He loves you still. O dear backsliding soul, return to your first love tonight. He has promised He will do a miracle. He will restore the ears that the locusts have eaten. Nobody can do that but God. That is the miracle. He will restore the ears that the locusts have eaten as our heads are bound. And as our eyes are closed I am going to make a simple gospel appeal. If there is a man or woman, a boy or girl in this service and in your heart you have already acknowledged your sins before God then pray that prayer, God be merciful to me the sinner. I wonder, would you let us know what is in your heart tonight? And just lift up your hand and let me see it. And we will remember you in the closing prayer that you are tonight crying to God for mercy, acknowledging your sin. God bless you sir, I see it. Just take it down again. God bless you. Someone else, just lift your hand now and say yes. I want to acknowledge my sin. I want to pray that prayer. I want God to have mercy upon me. Would you lift your hand now and let me see it. God be merciful to me the sinner. Perhaps there is some backslider here tonight. You want to return to God. You want to have your ears restored. You want to be a full-blooded, full-hearted believer to do the will and work of God with the joy of the Lord and the fullness of the Spirit. You are returning tonight. If you are, would you lift your hand and let me see it. We will remember you in prayer. Just do it now. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Is there someone else? Just lift it. God bless you. Is there someone else over there? I see you. God bless you. Someone else. I'm not going to prolong this appeal. We have invited you. But I tell you what we're going to do. I'm going to stand down here in the front of the church. And you have an inquiry room that you can take to go out the door. Just keep our heads bowed. And if God has spoken to your heart and you really mean business with God tonight, I want you just to leave the seat where you are and come forward. And I'll kneel with you here at the front of the church and we'll all have a prayer together. And then afterwards you can go and be counseled if you so desire by those that can help you and explain more fully to you and pray with you. Could we have that little hymn? I hear thy welcome voice that calls me Lord to thee. For cleansing and the precious blood that flowed in Calvary. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. Wash me, cleanse me in the blood that flowed in Calvary. Just leave your seat and come as we sing it. I am coming Lord, coming now to thee. We are going to just bow our heads for a moment or two in prayer and ask God to bless the word that has been spoken tonight and seal it to heart. Seal it to hearts and minds and help people to get through to God and touch God and God will touch them. And as our heads are bowed we are going to sing that little chorus, Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me. Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me. Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me. Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me. Spirit of the Living God. O blessed Spirit fall afresh upon us. We live in a dark and dismal world. A world that hates the blessed Savior. A world that is doped and deceived and drugged by the devil's follies and the devil's power. O come thou mighty King of Kings with healing in thy wings. Come O blessed Spirit and breathe upon these slaves that they may live. Come and revive your people. Will thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years. In wrath remember mercy. Now continue to deal with hearts. The dear unsaved ones bring them to yourself. The dear backsliders restore them to the joy of God's salvation. Thy own believing people. O God take a dealing with us. Lord put your hand on us. Make us the people you want us to be. Show us the way and give us the power to walk therein. So that our church may know the blessing of heaven that maketh rich and addeth no sorrow thereto. We thank thee for a sense of thy holy presence in this house tonight. Intensify that sense and grant that before midnight comes that songs shall ram the air of sinners coming home to God. Of backsliders being restored and of the church feeling and knowing the breath of revival among them. May thy grace and thy mercy and thy peace, the triune blessing from the triune Jehovah God be with us all tonight and all tomorrow until the day breaks and the shadows all flee away and the people of God set. Amen. Could I just say that anxious souls we're here to help you. Don't leave this meeting without making known your need if that's what you desire to do. We'd be glad to speak with you personally. Show you from the blessed word of God the way of salvation, the way of peace through the blood of the lamb. Thank God for his presence. Thank God we've been saved from that terrible hell that we've been speaking about tonight. The people of God will never be in hell. They're secured by the blood to the place of heaven, home of the father's house. Thank God for that. May God keep us in his will and in his fear for Jesus' sake. Amen.