Sudden Death Sermon Preaching Institute

We live in a day, friends, that the prophet Amos called a famine in the land. Amos 8-11, or once powerful pulpits, have become lecture podiums or teaching podiums with an intellectual essay to be considered, or the pulpit has become an entertainment platform to showcase talent and personality of the speaker, and to appease and please the people through jokes and funny stories meant to occupy and entertain. Gone to glory are the preachers of old who warn that sin is black and hell is hot and a future judgment awaits all mankind.

These old-time preachers spoke with the prophets boldly proclaiming, thus saith the Lord. These faithful bellwether preachers stood tall in their pulpits with no fear, man, and preached full of the Holy Ghost. They preached searching sermons where the people actually came under conviction of sin and got saved.

They stood with their Bible in one hand and a stick of dynamite in the other, and they awakened sinners to their lost condition and alarmed them about the dangers of dying in damnation in a devil's hell. Well, we need preachers today, friends, like that. I was standing with Adrian Rogers out in the hallway of his church years ago while he was preparing to conduct a funeral for my mentor Stephen Oldford.

Dr. Rogers had his arms folded across his chest. He had a serious look on his face. He looked like a big Indian chief facing me.

Then he asked me a question. He said, Do you know what concerns me? Well, I said, No, Dr. Rogers, I don't know what concerns you. He said, I see God calling up men like J. Siddall Baxter and Stephen Oldford, and I look around, and I don't see any comeuppers.

And that concerns me. Well, friends, hopefully these preaching institutes that we have before us will be a way for some comeuppers to come and preach the gospel of the glory of God under the Spirit of God and get a hold of somebody where God can change them and use them to advance God's kingdom on earth and use their life to make a difference for eternity. It may be you, friend.

It may be some unknown nobody who's still in the shadows that God hasn't brought out yet. We've been in a series of preaching institutes studying the art of preaching to the hellbound. Hopefully we've become better preachers by these institutes and by the power of the Holy Ghost.

This is the fifth and last institute in our section on the message. And today, friends, we will present a sample sermon. A sermon by the mighty evangelist Sam Jones, whom you probably have never heard of, but he was used of God to shake entire cities with revival in the late 19th century in America.

Sam Jones has been overlooked by historians, but Sam Jones was used of God in his generation in the late 19th century to bring the gospel to 25 million people. His Nashville meetings in 1885 turned the entire city upside down as he preached to 10,000 hearers at a time in downtown Nashville under a tent where he reached one out every five citizens, altering the very moral life of the city. Taverns closed, crime decreased, backsliders were reclaimed, and thousands were ushered into God's kingdom.

And some of the biggest sinners in town were saved. One such man was the infamous Riverboat Captain Thomas Ryman, who got converted in the Sam Jones meeting. He came there with two of his steamboat captains to beat up Sam Jones and disrupt the meeting, but God disrupted Tom Ryman, got hold of him, and saved him that night.

He then built the Ryman Auditorium for Sam Jones to preach in. It's still in use today. It's a country music hall.

Sam Jones said more quotable things than any man in his generation. Babies were named after him, streets were named after him, and even entire towns were named after him, such as Reform, Alabama. Reform is a city in Pickens County, Alabama.

It's located halfway between Columbus, Mississippi and Tuscaloosa on Route 92. At the city record state, it was named Reform after a visit by an evangelist. Reform, Alabama was named after the evangelist Sam Jones, who conducted a series of revival meetings there.

Sam Jones came to town and preached eight weeks, and when he left town, there was nobody in the jail. The theaters were closed, nobody played cards, the liquor stores were run out of business, there wasn't anything questionable left, and when men would curse in the streets, they would lower their voices so nobody could hear them. When Sam Jones died, memorials were held in 20 cities, and in Atlanta, more than 30,000 mourners came by his body as it lay in state at the Rotunda of the Capitol.

His last sermon, Sudden Death, was preached to 4,000 men in Oklahoma City on October 13, 1906. Sam Jones died on a train while traveling back to his home state of Georgia within 48 hours of preaching this message, and it was as if it was his own sudden death at the age of 58 was an explanation point to his very sermon. Well, I can think of no better sermon friends to use as a sample sermon to cap off this series of the message from what we've been learning in our preaching institutes.

I present to you Sam Jones' last sermon, friends. His sermon, Sudden Death. It's a searching message, void of humor, but full of God and the gospel as the fiery evangelist brings his hearers to the very verge of eternity.

Sam Jones preached that sin is black, hell is hot, judgment is sure, and Jesus saves. You're in for a real treat, friends. So sit back and listen to this great message, which is entitled Sudden Death.

It was one of Sam Jones' most impacting sermons in the salvation of souls. He preached it as a favorite all throughout his ministry, and it was the last one he preached. And as he finished his sermon to those 4,000 men, he yelled out prophetically across the crowd, men of Oklahoma City, look out before my voice has died out in your ears.

There'll be deaths following this meeting that will shock this city and state and maybe this nation. True to his statement, Sam Jones boarded the train back to Georgia, and in a few hours he was dead. His own sudden death being an explanation point to his powerful sermon.

This sermon was taken from my recent biography on Sam Jones entitled Sam Jones, A New Biography, which can be obtained on any bookseller on the internet, friends. Here now is the sermon Sudden Death by Sam Jones, and here now are his words. I shall talk tonight from the first verse of the 29th chapter of Proverbs.

He, that being often reproved, hardened at his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. There is enough in that bare announcement of this text to bring every man of us to our feet with a question, and that question should be this, who is the author of those fearful words? And the answer comes back, the great God, the infinite God who made us all, whose sleepless eye overlooks us all, the great God who will finally judge us all. Then, if God be the author of those words, each one of us should propound another question, to whom does he address himself in these fearful words? And there are a thousand persons in this audience who could jump to their feet and say, surely God means me.

I have been often reproved, often warned, often rebuked, wagging loads of sermons have been wasted upon my life and upon my ears. God has multiplied his calls to me and his warnings and his rebukes from my cradle to this hour. And I say to every man present, if you ever weighed a verse of scripture into your heart and conscience, take this one tonight, he that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed.

And that without remedy, I but announce a fact patent to every thoughtful reading man in this audience. When I say to you that there have been more sudden deaths in the last twelve months of this world's history than any twelve months since the evening and morning were the first day, I but state what you can prove to be facts. I state to you that more men have been swept suddenly and awfully into eternity in the last twelve months than any twelve months of this world's history by heart failure, by epilepsy, by paralysis, by shipwreck, by railroad disaster, by accidents, by cyclones, by earthquakes, by hurricane on the sea, everywhere.

And the columns of our papers daily come laden with sudden and awful deaths that multiply year after year in the pages of human life. You can scarcely pick up one of your daily papers without reading from a dozen to three thousand sudden deaths recorded in its columns. And every sudden death in this line is but a fulfillment of the word of the Lord in this text.

We may say what we please and heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot nor tittle of the divine law. God has spoken it. He has said, he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy and God shall bring to pass the fulfillment of his word.

If he must sweep a nation into hell in the twinkling of an eye, God has spoken and God will fulfill it. And brethren, this is a personal message to you. I am talking to hard-hearted, stiff-necked sinners that have been preached to from your infancy up to this hour.

I'm talking to men and women here in the range of my voice that have not heeded a thousand calls and are unheeding the reproofs and warnings that have been thrown out about you all the days of your life. But God speaks to you in this message. Sudden deaths have multiplied and become so common we can scarcely notice them.

We glance up and down the columns of our daily papers and notice this score here and that hundred there and this thousand there have been swept into eternity since the sun set the day before or rose this morning until it is so common that it does not attract our attention at all. I say to you, my countrymen, that because it is common it is not noticed but it is as fearful to die suddenly into eternity as any day in the world's history. It is as tremendous a fact in heaven and earth for a man to be swept suddenly and awfully into eternity today as it was six thousand years ago.

Awful fact and a purpose with your forbearance and prayers and patience simply to run over some things that have come under my own observation and I tell you that which I know. Now hear me. I simply relate to you the incidents which have occurred in my own life and under my own experience and observation and I start with this proposition which I want you to take home with you that this man who is preaching to you has preached the gospel earnestly and faithfully to thousands of men who since my voice died in their ears have been swept suddenly and awfully into the presence of God when I was preaching in the most memorable meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

The most marvelous and grace I ever looked upon in my life. I believe more men and women were converted and more people joined the church from that memorable meeting than any work of grace almost in this 19th century. It was marvelous to behold at that meeting that grand man Captain Tom Ryman than whom there's been no grander convert to Christianity in this century.

He came to that meeting as others did. He came up to the altar, knelt down like a little child and gave his heart to God. The day after his conversion, he walked up to me and said, Brother Jones, I want you to go to my home.

I said, Captain, I can't go before Friday. Well, he said, I'll be glad to have you then. I want my wife and children to see you.

Who have won me to God and will you give me that pledge? I said, yes, Captain, on Friday after the preaching. Well, on that morning, I went with him to his home and when we walked into his elegant home, he carried me into the parlor and there were 13 guests. His friends gathered in the parlor.

He invited them there on that occasion and he introduced me to them one at a time. We sat down a few moments and his noble wife came to the door and said, gentlemen, dinner is ready. And we walked across the hall into his dining room and sat down at the long table.

He put me at the head of the table and said, I want you to occupy that place, the post of honor, sir. Take this place here. And he put his friends to my right and left of the four that sat next to me, two of them steamboat captains.

They were immediately to my left. One immediately to my right was the mayor of the city and the one immediately by his side was another one of his steamboat captains, for Captain Ryman owned several boats plying up and down the Cumberland River just as we crossed the hall going into the dining room, he had said. I have invited my friends to meet you and whenever a question arises, you can put in some word and you can press the question of surrender to God upon my friends as we eat.

You might not have another chance to do personal work with them. And I sat there at the table and as we ate, I pressed the great question of eternity upon those men and especially the four who sat next to me. Not one of those four men was ever moved at all in that meeting.

Now results, I don't think it was three months after I left that town till Captain Ryman wrote me. Brother Jones, the steamboat captain who sat immediately to our left fell over on his boat the other day and was dead when his friends got to him and it wasn't many weeks till he wrote me again. Another one of our steamboat captains came up the river, came into his home and died suddenly and his wife and children gathered around him but he was gone and he said, oh what a fearful fact that those men wouldn't come to God in that meeting.

It wasn't many weeks until I saw where the mayor of the city of Nashville was up in Wisconsin out hunting and his friend's gun went off accidentally and put a great load of shot in his head and he fell forward and spoke not another word. It wasn't long after that till Captain Ryman wrote me. Brother Jones, the steamboat captain who sat next to the mayor at the table has been swept suddenly and awfully into eternity and those four men whether they were prepared or not I'm not here to say but those four men who sat next to me at the table all went suddenly into the presence of God and these are but instances that have occurred all along the line.

Oh my countrymen, I say that this man who talks to you has pressed the gospel with its weight and power upon hundreds of men who have died suddenly and awfully after the gospel has died out in their ears. I preached in Charlotte, North Carolina at the men's meeting. I pleaded so earnestly many came forward just before the invitation closed a young bright looking fellow perhaps 25 or 28 years old walked down the aisle he came more than two-thirds of the way he turned suddenly and went back it may have been the scoff of a companion or the jeer of a friend that turned him I know not the next morning he went down to the train depot for he was a conductor on the Atlanta and Charlotte airline he pulled the bell cord and about eight o'clock he left and he ran down the road a few miles he held his train to meet another passenger train and there was a freight box standing on the side track and when the passenger train backed against it he was standing behind it and it knocked him down on the rail and the wheels of that train ran him over head to foot and mashed the very watch in his pocket till it was as thin as a piece of tin and scarcely 15 hours has passed from the time my voice had died out in his ears until he was suddenly and awfully called into the presence of god oh what a fact oh what a fact brother stewart my co-worker was with me at palestine texas a man walked those streets with oaths and profanity he said that sam jones was a scourge on any community and a blight and he said i was doing more harm than good and that could ever be corrected and he cursed me upon the street and when i was preaching the last sermon of that meeting that man fell dead there in that community and the people on their way home from the service found his dead body as it lay helpless upon the ground and i speak the words of truth and soberness when i say to you that all along through this country where i have preached there have been instances enough to make the devil himself look in horror upon scenes as that and if you will get the record of those who come to this meeting and hear the words that ought to win them to god you will find in the history of this congregation instances enough to make your heart stop beating and your blood curdle in your veins he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy god hath uttered it and the millions that have been swept suddenly into eternity are but attestations to the truth that god will bring his word to pass you may say what you please but it's an awful thing to die you may laugh and scoff at death but i tell you my countrymen it is the most serious hour that ever crowded its issues in on human life to die a man to leave his place of business his store his shop and he walks to his home and stands on the front porch of his home just a moment and then thinks of some kind words he's going to say to his wife and to one of his children and the first thing you know there's a dull thud on the floor and his wife runs screaming and he's gone suddenly there is a good old retired preacher in my conference who is frequently at my home and he's one of the best men i ever knew and when i am at home frequently he leads the family devotions and i scarcely remember the time when he was praying at night that he didn't make use of this expression oh lord god save us this night from sudden death let it not overtake any beneath this roof and the old man scarcely ever went over the expression but what it impressed me profoundly it's an awful thing to die brother to die anywhere and any when but it's tremendously awful without a word of warning a moment to pray or a second to repent you were gone and gone forever into the great beyond without a goodbye without a moment to commit your soul to god to die suddenly it's awful and awful beyond my power to express it i know there are parties in this audience that will go away and say i can't be frightened into christianity i can't be scared into being religious now brother let me say this then if you are not afraid of death and the judgment bar of god in the awful hell that awaits sinners you are braver than i've ever been or want to be in this world if there is anything that ought to rouse a man and frighten him it is the fact that he is exposed to death and hell and all there is between him and eternal wreck and ruin is the fact that his heart beats and yet it may stop at any moment i am not to be frightened into christianity brother that is the whisper by the graveyard that's the talk of a coward for a man to say that he's not afraid of the coffin and the grave and the judgment and eternity my brethren let me give you yet another illustration of the johnstone flood the great flood of 1889 into that ill-fated conomo valley at johnstone the state senate civil engineers to examine that dam that held back that lake of waters they went up and examined the dam then came back down to the valley and said we warned the people that the dam is unsafe some of these days it will break and turn the flood of waters loose on you they laughed at those engineers and scoffed at them and said you scare us if you can it is a trick of land sharks to buy our property at half price it's not for sale that fall those engineers went back up there they examined the dam and said we warn you people again that dam is unsafe and it will turn that flood of waters loose on you they said scare us if you can we understand your project our property is not for sale they went back up there in the spring and examined the dam and came back down and faithfully warned the people and said to them that dam is cracked from base to top and we warn you people you will turn the flood of waters upon you they looked at them and laughed and said that's an old chestnut and it doesn't amount to anything we've heard it so often and it wasn't 15 days till a man on a fleet horse came lopping down the valley with the horse in a foam and sweat from the top of his ears to his hooves and as he rode down the valley he cried flee for your lives the dam is broken and the water is coming and the people stood on the streets and on their porches and laughed and pointed at the horsemen and said fool us if you can but the sound of the man's voice had died out down the street when they heard coming the heavy sweeping pouring waters and in 15 minutes 3,300 of those poor people were drowned and mangled and buried in the debris down at the bridge below the town and it took almost six long weeks to dig their putrefying bodies from that fearful pile of debris at the bridge now in my heart i pity a man who despises the warning and turns a deaf ear to the voice that would bring to him peace and to safety am i talking to men here who will say i'm not to be frightened by the cry of these things i've heard that sort of gospel before but my brother mark my words perhaps in less than 10 days maybe in less than 10 hours from this moment the heaving pouring and sweeping waters of god's judgment will rush upon you and you will find yourself overwhelmed forever oh my lord help man to heed the warning given this night if you ever intend to move your head and heart and repent and believe god help you to do it now he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy remedy oh how we lean toward the faithful physician in the hour of sickness how he leans upon the effective remedies that he has used so often oh brother the time may come in your life when the very disease that has struck a vital spot by and by and all the compound remedies of medicine and the pharmacist will never reach your case you may have been sick and got well a dozen times but death has an arrow in her quiver that will reach your vital spot at last we must all die it is appointed unto man once to die we will die once god help us that we may never die the second death i think the saddest hour ever sent to my poor heart was after they had nursed and i had watched by the bedside of my wife for seven weeks who lay sick and so on christmas eve her physician the one that stood by her almost day and night took me on my front porch and said jones i break the saddest news that ever fell on a human heart your wife has swung out beyond the reach of human skill and no remedy in the world now will reach her case oh what a moment that was to me what a moment what a moment bless god on that hour of my despair i walked into my upper room and knelt down and said oh god thou the father of our lord jesus christ and thou blessed christ who did heal the sick and raise the dead when thou was among men thou art the same today and forever oh god intervene now do for me what no human power can do and bless his holy name she lives to bless the children of my home and the heart that would have been broken if god had called her hands thank god when human remedies fail we may fall back on the divine arm oh what a blessed fact listen brother when that time comes in your case and it will come neighbor hear me when your disease will laugh at the doctor and scoff at his remedies when wife can do nothing and mother can do nothing and finally when the body is dissolving in death and the death rattle is in your throat and your eyes sink in your head and your tongue cleaves to the roof of your mouth and your pulse and your pulseless heart is lying still but then the soul reaches out toward god and god says to you no remedy in rejecting your salvation forever you swung out where god himself can't reach you it's the most tremendous hour that ever came to a human soul the hour when god himself stands powerless to help and powerless to reach and god has said it in these words that he who's been often reproved and hardened at this neck shall suddenly be destroyed and then without remedy without remedy here without remedy at judgment and in hell to meet its tortures forever without remedy oh brother shall you experience that just as others have the hope of your life is to heed the warning now served out and to fly for your life for your soul is in danger i give you a picture at this conclusion of this hour which i would have you take home with you hear me and let every christian pray that this incident may go into the heart of every sinner i think the most forcible illustration of the hopeless erect was given to me by brother call pepper an evangelist in my state and i know no better man who lived in it whoever preached the gospel he said this to me that this incident which he related occurred in georgia just out from the city where he lived a little inland town off the railroad listen to his story he said to me brother jones one morning a man came riding into my little town on a beautiful little black pony the little pony had a bridle and a saddle and all other trappings the man stopped on the little town square and began to walk the little animal about as if to emphasize his good qualities and the people began to look at the pony and to gather about its owner they wondered and admired the beauty of the animal and all began to praise it presently a little boy about 12 years of age walked up into the circle one of his friends said johnny we're going to raffle for this pony this man has put him up at 50 chances two dollars a chance johnny answered no i don't think it's right i don't do that sort of thing i've never done it but the other boys began to guy him and said you're afraid you haven't the money and then the boy's desire getting the better of him he said i have the money and i'll take a chance and he pulled two silver dollars out of his pocket accordingly soon the tickets were all sold and the raffle commenced the dice were thrown amid some anxiety and excitement and when it had ended the man pointed his finger at little johnny and said son it is your pony you've thrown the lucky number and you've won a little johnny took hold of the bridle and threw the reins over the little pony's neck and put his foot in the stirrup and mounted and he was proud as he wrote off so gracefully amid the applause of the crowd his father a merchant of the little town was sitting at the door reading the morning newspaper which had just arrived and he read of an incident which told how a man had a beautiful little pony in the city in which the paper was published the day before the paper described it as being the most beautiful but at the same time the most vicious little animal the world had ever seen it also said in proof of the assertion that it had killed no less than four men and the father just then lifted his eyes from the paper and as he did so he saw his boy on the pony's back he hurriedly threw the paper on the street and ran to where the boy was and as soon as he got near him he shouted my precious boy get down off that pony get down his life is dear to you he will kill you if you do not he's killed four men he'll surely kill you but little johnny lifted up his head and said oh no papa he won't hurt me he's all right now he's my pony and he won't hurt me and again the father cried to him to get down but little johnny wrote off and presently he passed his home his mother and sister ran to the door and cried johnny johnny get down that pony has already killed four men he will kill you why don't you do as your father asks and as your mother and sister ask you but little johnny again lifted his head and said oh don't fear mama don't fear sister he won't hurt me he's my pony now he won't be vicious anymore and little johnny rode on he rode beautifully for two miles and then he said to himself i will turn back now and let papa and mama see how this little pony won't hurt me and he turned back he tightened the reins as the animal began to began to quicken its pace but it took the bit between its teeth and plunged forward beyond all control and they came to an angle in the road which led to a preface and when the little boy's parents and friends went to search for him they found him and the pony crushed the atoms there is a young lady on the black horse of worldliness god the angels and good men cry get down get down that horse is damn millions but she says oh don't fear he won't hurt me i want the pleasure and enjoyment of the moment he will never hurt me young lady you'll want someday to turn back to god in heaven and then when you take the reins in your hand and tighten your grip the black horse of fashion and worldliness will take the bit between its teeth will rush on and over the precipice of destruction there is a young man there you are on the black horse of profanity he's landed his millions in hell god and angels and good men call on you to get down they warn you of the fate which others have met but you say no he won't hurt me i know just how far to go but someday when you tighten the reins when you wish to turn back to god to heaven that horse will get the bit between its teeth and rush on to hell with you but there is that man sitting on the black horse of intemperance neighbor that black horse is leading you just over the precipice of destruction into the river of death which is lined from source to mouth with human wretches get down young man you say oh no i know just where to stop someday in the near future bleary-eyed and bloated as a wretch as you'll be you'll take the reins in your hand and turn back to sobriety and to god but the black horse of intemperance will take the bit in his teeth and run to hell and death with you oh what to god that every man on the black horse of sin would take my lesson to heart oh my message is delivered i have conscientiously preached the truth to you may god make it a message of salvation oh take heed oh god have mercy on you and may you all be prepared for the day to come we are going to hold an after service do not go away from here tonight to harden your heart but stay stay you have been often reproved and let your heart be softened stay and come and surrender yourself to god get down off the black horse of sin and give your hearts to him who's died for your salvation now we will receive the benediction may the blessing of almighty god abide us now and forever amen oh well friends that's the end of that wonderful sermon several things stand out from the sermon of sam jones which i want to point out to us as teaching points number one this was a time in america before easy believism had reared its ugly head and damned its millions in the 19th century evangelists didn't ask you to accept jesus or to repeat the sinner's prayer then pat you on the back and tell you you were now saved back then they pressed on you your duty as a guilty sinner to surrender to god and most churches back then would not accept you into membership until you could demonstrate evidence of your regeneration secondly point number two notice how sam jones did not give an invitation at the end of the invitation at the end of the made popular in the next century by the graham crusades but he simply announced there would be an after service or an after meeting that was for those concerned those who'd been awakened those who'd come under conviction of sin and who were now seekers concerning their souls and it was in these after services where awakened sinners were dealt with and encouraged to pray and stay and surrender themselves to god the third aspect of this sermon i wanted to note is that the evangelist back then took one verse of scripture and kept restating it throughout their sermon so the holy spirit could verify the word of god and drive the truth home and fasten it like nails pounded in by a hammer trolls finney uses his brooch as well like a lawyer presenting the evidence in court over and over with clarity and conviction it's also interesting to know friends that both finney and sam jones were once lawyers before they were converted and called to preach the gospel in the 19th century in america repentance was still preached as was hell and its fires and a future judgment that awaited all mankind these great doctrines were focus points in their sermons as they confronted their hearers about eternity and the consequences of dying outside christ's blood and consequently there were less spurious conversions because preachers knew back then how to get lost how to get them lost before they could be saved again friends if you want to know more about sam jones my biography on sam jones is available on amazon it's entitled sam jones a new biography it's 400 pages of pure dynamite and there's several other of his sermons in there well i hope friend this section on the message in our international preaching institute has been of some help to you it is my prayer that the lord will use these preaching institutes to transform your life and ministry and give you power and authority when you preach the gospel of the glory of god well our third and last section of the preaching institutes we will focus on five messages on the man of revival let us pray