    Now, you want me to preach it now; before this message is over, some of you
may wish I hadn't begun preaching.  I'm going to preach on what happens when a
Christian sins.

     You know, I'd just as soon not preach about these things, but they have
to be preached about. You have to put a chill on the meeting sometimes. And
Christians do sin, you know.  I mean, when a Christian sins, he doesn't lose
his salvation, but a number of things happen. There are about seven things
that happen when a Christian sins; I'm going to talk about them this morning.
We'll take Ecclesiastes chapter 7, and begin at verse 14. Ecclesiastes 7,
verse 14: "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity
consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that
man should find nothing after him. All things have I seen in the days of my
vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness"--like Stephen-
-"and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in wickedness"--like
Manasseh; he had the longest reign of any of the kings of Judah. "Be not
righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou
destroy thyself?" You get too righteous, you'll be a Pharisee. "Be not over
much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?
It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw
not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all." The man
who will survive is the man who fears God.

     "Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the
city. For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth
not." My text is verse 20, "There is not a just man upon earth that doeth
good, and sinneth not."

     Our Father, we pray the Holy Spirit of God will give us clarification in
this hour, and wisdom and understanding how to expound this text. May these
Christians here understand that their salvation is no longer connected with
their sin; salvation took care of their sins. But may they understand that
their sins are connected with them, and that something's gonna happen when
they sin. We pray, Father, that by the grace of God you'll keep them from sin,
and keep us from sin, may we sin just as little as possible, as God is giving
us grace, and God is giving us strength. May we live as near sinless as we
possibly can live, for your glory. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Amen."

     Now, when a Christian sins against God, there are a number of things that
don't happen. Number one, the Holy Spirit does not leave him. You don't have
to pray like David did, "Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from me." These people
that are teaching you that salvation in the Old Testament is the same as the
New Testament, are off their rocker. David prayed, "Take not thy Holy Spirit
from me," and no Christian has to pray that prayer. David had to pray it,
because in Samson's case, the Holy Spirit left him, and the Holy Spirit left
Saul, and David is within his rights when he prays, "Lord, take not thy Holy
Spirit from me."

     But you're not. Your salvation is not like that. You don't have to worry
about the Holy Spirit. When you sin against God, you don't lose the Holy
Spirit.

     I'll tell you something else. When you sin against God, you don't become
"un-born again."  If you're born again, you are born again, and that's it.

     I'll tell you something else that doesn't happen. When you sin against
God, you don't lose salvation and go to hell.

     But things do happen. And I'm going to talk about those this morning.

     First of all, when a Christian sins against God, first of all, he grieves
the Holy Spirit of God. The Bible says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." And a thing like joking and
cursing can grieve you. And I know some of you Christians are grieved by that--
out where you are and where you work. Can you imagine how the Holy Spirit is
grieved when you sit around and watch the nudes on television, and semi-nudes,
and belly dancers, doing the bumps and grinds? Can you imagine how the Holy
Spirit of God is grieved?

     The Bible says, "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." And you
and I know perfectly well that at least three-quarters of that stuff on there
is wicked.

     Now, you are grieved when your children do wrong. When your children do
wrong, it grieves you. You justify them; you say, "Well, their way of sinning
is not as bad as somebody else's." But when your kids sins, as a parent, it
hurts you, it grieves you, now doesn't it? Doesn't it? Come on, don't it?

     All right, you have a Parent--God the Father. You think it doesn't grieve
Him? Yes, it grieves Him. Now, if little things like dirty jokes and cussing,
that kind of stuff, can grieve you, believe me, the Holy Spirit is more
sensitive than the most delicate, pure woman who ever lived.

     In a three-year study of television at Stanford University Institute for
Communication Research, they put 6,000 children under a quiz, coming from
2,000 parents, in 10 communities. And they found from 4:00 to 9:00 in the
afternoon, during the month of October, Monday through Friday--this is for the
kids; this is kids gettin' home from school, 4 to 9--twelve murders, 16
gunfights, 21 people shot, 21 violent incidents with guns, 2 stranglings, 1
stabbed with a butcher knife, 3 suicides, 4 pushed off a cliff, a psychotic
loose on an airliner, a tidal wave, an earthquake, a woman killed falling from
a train, one guillotine, two cars burning off a cliff, 2 mob scenes, the wrong
man lynched, a horse stomping a man to death, a score of people burned alive,
4 robbers, and 2 dozen drunks drinking beer and whiskey when served. That's
one month. That's one month.

     You multiply that by twelve, in a year, how do you think the Holy Spirit
in you reacts to that kind of stuff?

     All right, when a Christian sins against God, I'll tell you something
else that happens. He may not lose his salvation, but when a Christian sins
against God, he prevents prayers from getting answered. Isaiah 59:1 says, "The
hand of the Lord is not shortened, neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot
hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your
sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear."

     You take David, who said, "If I regard iniquity in mine heart, the Lord
will not hear me." And there will be times when you need prayers answered, and
when those times come, you make sure that the Holy Spirit isn't grieved, to
where He can't answer prayers.  Some of you, if you spend as much time
examining your own life as you do your neighbor's life, you'd be in good
shape. You're like some woman out in the backyard, who's always looking across
the fence, and looking at the streaks in your neighbor's wash. One time, a
woman kept saying she looked out the back window and talked about the streaks
in her neighbor's wash, and one day, her husband said to her, "I think the
window needs washing." And she washed the window, and found out the streaks in
her neighbor's linen over there were the streaks on her own windows. Some time
you get into that.

     When a Christian sins against God, he stops God's work in his own life. I
read in Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 that God is gonna work a good work, "He
that hath begun a good work in you, will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ." Then, over there in Philippians chapter 2, he said, "he works in us
that which is well pleasing in His sight. Work out your salvation with fear
and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you." All right, God is in me.
God's trying to do something. He's trying to work something. He's trying to
work what's good in His sight. "And he that hath begun a good work in me will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

     What does that mean? That means as long as I'm alive, God in me is trying
to do something. As long as I'm breathing, God is in me, trying to get
something done that He wants done.

     Now, if I sin, I stop God's work in me He wants done.

     When a child of God sins against the Lord, he may not lose His salvation,
but he stops God's work in his own individual life. The Bible says, "Let this
mind be in you, this mind be in you, that was in Christ." Now, if this mind is
going to be in you that was in Christ, then God wants to do in you what He did
in Christ, and when you sin, you prevent God from working that work.

An enemy I had,

Whose face I stoutly strove to know.

Why, I found him there in every place

That I assayed to go.

My plans he balked,

My aims, he foiled,

He blocked my Christian way.

When for spiritual height I toiled,

He grimly told me, "Nay."

"Come forth," I cried,

"Take off thy guise,

Thy features I would see."

But always to my straining eyes

He dwelled in mystery.

One night, I seized and held him fast,

The veil from him to draw.

I gazed upon his face at last,

And, lo, myself I saw.

     You know what I mean?

     All right, when a child of God sins against the Lord, he stops God's work
in his own life.

     Number four, when we sin against God, we prevent God from rewarding us.
From rewarding us. God wants to reward us. You enjoy rewarding your kids. You
enjoy telling your kids, "I'll give you, you know, 25 cents for every A you
bring home, and, you know, 10 cents for every B you bring home, and a kick in
the slats for every C you bring home."

     One time, three boys at school were talking. One boy said, "My daddy's a
banker, and he gives me an allowance of a dollar a week." Another kid said,
"My daddy's a lawyer, and he gives me an allowance of fifty cents a week." A
third boy said, "My daddy is gone; my mother's a widow, but she gives me 25
cents a week." And a little minister's boy there said, "Well, I guess I'm good
for nuthin'; I don't get nuthin' for an allowance a week."

     Now, you'd like to give the help, and want to see the kid rewarded. And
the Lord wants to reward you. But no man is crowned unless he strive lawfully.
Motive has to be right.

     I like a little 12-year-old girl in a missionary offering, when they
would bring around stuff to give to missionaries, and trying to raise so many
dollars. And finally she brought down a dollar bill, which for her was a
lifetime savings. And they said, "Honey, you don't have to give this to us; we
have enough." And she said, "I wasn't giving it you."

     That's the right motive, the right motive.

     You want to reward the kids. God wants to reward you, but sometimes He
can't. You prevent God from rewarding you when you sin.

     All right, when a Christian sins against God, he may not lose his
salvation, but he shows his contempt for God's holiness. I'm not a "Holiness"
in the sense of a Charismatic, but the Lord says, "Be ye holy, for I am holy."
And the problem is proved by human history; human history shows we're not
holy. Nothing about us is holy. And He said, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." And
God's people, when they sin, live like the devil, they show contempt for the
holiness of God. You show that you care nothing about God's holiness, and
don't want to be like Him, and don't care to be anything like Him.

     Over there in England after World War II, along about 1945, a tourist
guide was showing a bunch of people through the bombed out part of Coventry.
And, as he pointed out those buildings, some of them still not rebuilt yet and
falling to pieces, that English guide said, "This is the result of man's
sinful depravity."

     And another lady there going through the tour said, "I don't see why you
have to bring up that terrible doctrine at a time like this."

     And he said, "Well, madam," he said, "Anything as terrible as this needs
a terrible explanation."

     That's right. Anything as horrible as bombed-out buildings and dead women
and children requires a terrible explanation. The terrible explanation is,
we're depraved. And when we sin, we show a contempt for God's holiness. We
show we like our depravity.

     When a child of God sins against the Lord, he shows contempt for God's
words. What would you think of somebody who purposely defiled a rug, or sheet,
or a dish? I mean, it happens accidentally, we all grant that. But what do you
think about somebody who, just deliberately, making a clean sheet dirty?
Deliberately! Take a brand new dish, nothing on it, and just spit on it for
nothin'. What do you think about somebody like that?

     I mean, you might have an accident, you know, or the pet might have an
accident on the rug, or something. But what do you think about somebody who'd
deliberately defile a rug, and just make it dirty and filthy, for no reason?

     You say, "Men wouldn't do that." Sure, they do it all the time. They take
this Holy Book and defile it and make it impure, and stamp their dirty feet
all over it. Every reviser who ever messed with that Book, messed with it, and
messed with it, and messed with it, and took a good thing, and tried to make
an impure, unclean thing out of it. They show their contempt for God's word.

     Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?

     All right, He said, "My little children, these things I write to you,
that you sin not." See? And when you sin, you show contempt for the word of
God.

     The Lord said, "Be sure your sin will find you out." Well, I don't know
about that, you know! The Lord told Simon Peter, He said, "You're going to
deny me three times"--"Well, they...they might..." See? Contempt for God's
word!

     Will not the Judge of the earth do right? Did God do right in Noah's
generation? He drowned 'em out. Do you approve of that? Does that meet your
approval? Will not the Judge of the whole earth do right? When God kicked out
the devil and his angels and run them out of Heaven, does that meet with your
approval? When Christ died on the cross, and God let an innocent man be
tortured for death--how does that set with you?

     You see what we do? We turn up our nose at God's word. We don't believe
God's word. Sometimes, even when we're saved, we don't believe it. If God gets
to dealing with us hardly, then we kind of tend to think that, maybe, He's
making a mistake.

     How about God's treatment of Job?  Was that just?  Do you agree with the
Lord on that?  Well, it said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are
not your ways, saith the Lord.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so
my thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and my ways are higher than your
ways, saith the Lord." Can you go along with that?

     Do you believe what God said? If He put you in the lake of fire at death,
and you died and wound up there in the lake of fire, burning forever, would
you and God be in agreement? He said, if you didn't believe on His Son, you'd
be lost. He said, if you trust your righteousness instead of His, it wouldn't
get you by. He said, if you trust in your righteousnesses and hit that
judgment in your own righteousnesses, He'd have to cast you out and get rid of
you--put you in a place where you won't corrupt things. He'll put you in a
fire; you ain't gonna infect anybody. How does that set with you?

     You see how we are? Listen, every unsaved person in this building who has
rejected Jesus Christ is showing contempt for God's word.

     You don't think God's going to do it! That bunch in Noah's day, they
said, "It isn't gonna come! It isn't gonna come!"

     It came! 

     They said in the New Testament, "God wouldn't let an innocent man
suffer." God wouldn't? God let Christ suffer!

     You take there, back in the Old Testament, Job, "Why, God wouldn't let
you suffer if you were right. God wouldn't let us see--"

     But he was! And He was right!

     That Book says, if you don't accept Christ, you die without Christ, you
die without hope, you die without God, you're at a White Throne Judgment you
can't get by, your righteousnesses cannot get by, and God won't take you back!

     What do you think about it!

     "Well, Brother Ruckman, I"--uh huh!

     Listen, when you do that, you show a contempt for God's word. God told
you Christian people certain things about sin, and when you sin, you show a
contempt--you don't care!

     All right, next.  When a Christian sins against God, he makes future
trouble absolutely certain. There's a law of sowing and reaping God wrote you
about. And that wasn't written to an unsaved man. I know that applies to
anybody, but it's written to a Christian. And he said, "He that soweth to the
flesh will of his flesh reap corruption, and he that sows to the Spirit"--
that's a saved man--"shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life." And, "Be not
weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

     Now, that thing there is a law. And that thing is a law God gave to you
Christian people. And, if you don't believe it, then you make future trouble
for yourself absolutely certain.

     The Bible says, "Let no man deceive himself. Be not deceived. God is not
mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth--" you see that thing right there?

     People like to be deceived. That's one of the main purposes of television-
-just to fool people. I guess that picture "Jaws" must have made literally--I
don't imagine a billion dollars--but I bet that thing made over 500 million
dollars. You know what "Jaws" is? It's an artificially constructed monster
that never lived, made out of wires and plastic and pulleys and junk. A bunch
of dumb adult Americans sitting there--"huh..huh...huh..." You're watchin' a
dummy! You're fooling yourself!

     You remember the original "King Kong"? He was 50 feet tall, 36 inches
around the chest, his face was 6 and a half feet wide by 10 inches, he had
teeth and ears a foot long, he had a rubber nose, glass eyes, and thirty
bearskins sewed together to make that mut. They had to kill 30 bears to put
that dolly together, and it took six men inside him running 85 motors to fool
you suckers. Six men in that fellow running 85 motors! And people sitting
there: "huh, yea, huh, yuh..."

     They're deceived! They're deceived.

     "Be not deceived. God is not mocked."

     I read in the paper the other day where two men were drowned turning off
into the Savannah River in North Augusta--coming down North Augusta, and they
came to the Savannah River there, and they had a sign there saying, "Warning!
The Bridge Has Been Washed Out." They just ignored it and went on ahead.

     When you ignore a warning in this book, Christian, you make future
trouble for yourself absolutely certain.

     Regina Hospital in Detroit--two babies got killed because they were given
drinks out of bottles that had "Distilled Water" written on them--and it was
boric acid in the bottles. You see, anybody can be deceived.

     So the commandment is, "Be not deceived."

     The purpose of TV is to promote covetousness, and to deceive the viewer
about reality. TV and Hollywood produce immoral failures. That's all they ever
did produce, that's all they ever will produce. TV gives you a false
impression of life.

     People, you can't get an accurate impression of life watching any kind of
a thing very long on television--not even a documentary. Because a documentary
shows you ten, 20, 30, or 40 years in an hour--or 10, 20, 30, years in 30
minutes. You can't live 10, 20, or 30 years. You might want it for the
information, but it won't give you an example of what reality is.

     I mean, I've seen documentaries. Some of them are good. I have seen
documentaries on Stalingrad, and the Germans under a palace, and the Sixth
Army walking off into captivity, taken captive by the Russian troops. You see
them sliding along there with blankets wrapped around their feet, and
frostbite, miles and miles of them, like a big trail, like a big, black worm
out there across the snow. You see that picture--I believe that picture is
about eight seconds--gone. You can't get it in eight seconds! You can't get
those guys pulling off their boot, and the foot coming off with the boot. You
can't get those guys coming at a time with civilians shooting at random into
the column. You can't get it. You can't them going along there, and every mile
one guy dropping, and another guy dropping, and another guy dropping, and the
snow covering them up. It goes on day after day after day after day after day.

     You get into the cars, and then you start going to the corpses, trying to
cut a piece off to eat. Day after day. You don't learn it in five seconds. You
can't see a picture of it. You say, "That's the way it was." You can get the
information, but you can't the reality. Reality goes day after day after day.

     That's why young people want something exciting to do. They ain't got
nuthin' to do, nuthin' to do, nuthin' to do around here, nuthin' to do,
nuthin' to do. You think life is just like, "hooommmmmm" all the time, see?
That's the way it is on television. When they show you a 30 second commercial
on television, you know how many times that picture changes? It changes eight
times in 30 seconds. The shot. In 30 seconds. Flip--flip--flip--flip--. Eight
times in 30 seconds. They're giving you relief better than once every four
seconds.

     You won't get any relief in life once every four seconds! Sometimes you
ain't gonna get more than once every four months!

     You can't get reality from it. You can't reality by watching Hollywood.
Hollywood doesn't say one word about keeping the Ten Commandments. I never
heard anybody in Hollywood even talk about keeping the Ten Commandments. Clark
Gable--dropped dead at 59, looking for his first baby at 60 years old. "God's
gonna give me a child"--never had a child till then. And he dropped dead. He
said, "I'm taking off work till the baby is born in March; I want to be there
when it happens, and for a good many months afterward." He died four months
too soon. Never saw a baby. Starred in 90 films. He was witnessed to by a
personal worker, and threw the personal worker out his door when he tried to
witness to him.

     You want to learn about reality from that bunch?

     Lupe Valez, made 20 films a year, killed herself at 34 years old. Carol
Landis committed suicide. Rex Harrison, her husband, found her body. Judy
Garland died after pills, after trying to cut her throat with a piece of
broken glass.

     You want to learn about life from that bunch?

     That's all that's on that boob tube, morning, noon, and night! Rita
Hayworth tried with an overdose of sleeping pills. She was a pin-up girl in
World War II. She was the Farrah Bathroom Faucet Majors--or something or other-
-of World War II. Inger Stevens tried to commit suicide by drinking cleaning
fluid in a New York apartment. She was making $1,500 a week back in 1940. And
she tries to commit suicide drinking cleaning fluid.

     What's the matter with them? I'll tell you what's the matter; they don't
know how to live; that's what's the matter with them. You going to sit down
and learn from that? Mickey Rooney earned $12 million dollars in 32 years.
Hauled him to court, for a $5,000 note. He was sued because he couldn't pay a
$5,000 note. Made $12 million dollars in 32 years. These people don't know how
to live. Bridgett Bardot is "gnawed by self-doubts, fear, and a mass of
anxieties." Somebody who knew said she was "Eve in a garden of thorns. Has
temper tantrums like a child. She plays with a teddy bear, and she's a rock
and roll fan." "Don't forget your teddy bear, honey, before you go to bed."

     When Greta Garbo reigned in Hollywood, she found relief from the pressure
by sitting alone in her room for hours, just moaning. Before facing the
camera, Marilyn Monroe's hand used to tremble; she breaks out in skin rashes
and can barely speak; she confessed she was haunted by fears; she came to the
movies with those fears, in spite of psychiatric treatment. And they
increased. And finally she killed herself.

     You gonna learn how to live? Go after these people. You want to live by
watching Michael Jackson? Whatever that is! He ain't black and he ain't white,
and he ain't grown, and he ain't a boy, and he ain't male, and he ain't
female!

     He's nuthin', he's nuthin', he's nuthin' but a nuthin',

     He's nuthin', he's nuthin', he's not a thing at all,

     To be a bat is one thing,

     A silly and a dumb thing,

     But at least a bat is something,

     And you're not a thing at all!

     You're nuthin', you're nuthin', you're nuthin' but a nuthin'!

     I think they ought to give an award to Michael Jackson, for being the
outstanding 20th century "thing" of the year.

     Lana Turner--life has always been a "rat race," getting on top, staying
there, and being lucky enough to hold on. Joan Crawford admitted her whole
life had been a fruitless search for emotional security. She said, "There's
been no emotional security in my childhood, and there's been none in my adult
life." What a pitiful thing!

     Kim Novak goes in a purple mood, locks herself in her study days at a
time. Frank Sinatra parties often, sits staring at his face, and doesn't speak
to anybody for longer than an hour.

     You wanna learn how to live watching some of these people! I know
rednecks in Mississippi and Alabama that don't make $100 a week, who live
better than that!

     Out here, this beauty queen, this blonde beauty queen, out here getting
her picture taken, with her skirt blown up over her head--and the poor,
miserable, frustrated, dopeheaded woman can't find a reason to live to be 40.

     Why, I've known old Christian farmwomen who were in their 70s and 80s
that had a face that would derail a freight train, man, and they enjoy life at
75!

     If you want to learn how to live, you'd do better talking to one of them
than you will these nuts here. They can't show you how to live.

     All right, when you sin, you make future trouble absolutely certain. That
bunch out in Hollywood, you can't learn about the future from them, they don't
know how to live. And the Bible says, "Be not deceived." Future trouble is
certain when you sin. Don't let anybody fool you. Don't let 'em fool you in
Hollywood, don't let television fool you.

     All right, finally. When we sin as children of God, we hasten our own
destruction. We bring it on quicker. Belshazzar has three warnings before the
final blow hits. There's the handwriting on the wall; that's one good warning.
Then the king's mother comes in and gives him the second one. And then Daniel
comes in and gives him the third one. That fellow had three there before the
axe finally fell.

     And when a child continues to go on in sin, gonna sin, gonna sin, then,
sooner or later, the axe is gonna fall, and God will usually give you some
warnings before it falls. You take America; America right now has had three
distinct warnings. This country is going down; it's going under. It's had
three warnings.

     Number one, the impunity of its enemies. What do I mean by that? The fact
that people like Chinese, Japanese, Iranians, Iraqians, Arabians, PLO,
Egyptians, can make fun of this country, shows this country is going down.
That's a warning. When you lose two wars against countries no bigger than
Texas, and one of them's not as big as Missouri, you've got a problem. And,
folks, that's a warning. Now, don't accuse me of being anti-patriotic. That's
a warning. The fact that our enemies can make fun of us and laugh at us, and
mock us and threaten us, shows that something's wrong with this country.

     Number two, the price of chocolate. In World War II, when we got down
right past C rations, and got down to K rations, and got around there at the
bottom, you know what they gave you? They gave you plain, hard chocolate--
bittersweet chocolate. That was the last ration you got. That was dextrose.
Down in the hospital, you watch them dying, they've got those tubes in 'em,
and one of those tubes running down there is putting in dextrose--putting in
sugar. That's chocolate. Chocolate is the standard of life.

     When an army occupation comes to a place, and starts bringing the
populace down, there are two mediums of exchange. I'll tell you what they are--
cigarettes and chocolate. Ask any G.I. They are cigarettes and chocolate--
that's the medium of exchange.

     When I was a boy, a nickel Hershey bar was that size right there--and
that thing was about a quarter of an inch thick, a bar like that. That bar
right now would cost you $1.25 in a place like Wal-Mart, and in the airports
it will cost you $2.50. That's a warning. That's telling you something. That
nickel went to a dime, double, twenty, double, forty, double, eighty, double,
a dollar sixty--five times it doubled!

     You know what the minimum wage was when I was a boy, and they were
selling that thing like that? It was fifty cents an hour. It should have gone
to a dollar, to two, to four, to eight--the minimum wage right now should be
$16 an hour.

     Are you gettin' it? You gettin' it?

     What was an exemption back in 1940 someplace for a child? Six hundred
dollars? I don't make out my own income tax; I couldn't write that stuff down
anyway. What was it, six hundred dollars? Three hundred. OK, three hundred--
double, six hundred. Double, eighteen hundred. Double, $3,600. Double, $7,200.
You should be getting $7,200 exemption for every kid you've got.

     That's Ruckman's economics! I don't know anything about exchange, but I
know this; I know what that chocolate did, and that's a warning to a country
that it's going under.

     All right, thirdly. This country has had another warning. Now, you see, a
child of God, when he sins, the Lord doesn't just, you know, jump on in right
then, you know, and knock his head off. You know that! I mean, if the Lord
would knock you in the head just as soon as you did it, I'd be preaching to an
empty house this morning, and I wouldn't be here to preach to you! "If any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." But you
get this thing where He'll put up with it, and put up with it, and while He's
putting up, one warning here, a little bit later, another one here, a little
bit later, another one here--and then the axe falls.

     Now the third warning this country had is a bunch of queers. A bunch of
homos. If God doesn't burn this country to the ground, then He'll have to
apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. He will. God Almighty burnt that place to the
ground for less sodomites than you've got in one city in America, and they're
all over America. That's a warning to a America.

     What's a warning? It's a warning you're getting depraved! The first
warning of the Third Reich was the fact that Ernst Rhohm, the head of the
Brown Church, was a queer. And the next thing that happened was Julius
Streicher, the Jew bater, was a queer. You're gonna hit the skids! You got
your warning.

     Out there in Los Angeles, California, a fellow I led to Christ out there
and was called to preach--his name is Ray Batema--he had a big church out
there. I think it was Central Baptist Church in Pomona. And one year out there
the queers out in that place decided to have an Easter service just for the
faggots, you know. They put out 5,000 letters inviting all the queers to come
to the Easter sunrise service, and it was advertised a sunrise service for gay
people who appreciate each other's lifestyles. And old Batema wrote that
fellow a letter, and he addressed the letter "To the Perverted Pastor of the
First Perverts Church of Los Angeles, Who Is Looking for Prospects." Boy, did
he get a blast from that, brother! Did he get a blast from that.

     All right, if a child of God sins, he hastens his own destruction. I
heard about a preacher one time who went to a place in South Carolina and
ordered a meal at a restaurant. And he sat there, and he ate, and he drank,
and he smoked, and one time the waiter heard him cuss. When he came up to pay
off his check, the fellow gave him the regular charge for the check. He said,
"I thought you gave a discount here to Christian ministers."

     And he said, "We do."

     And he said, "Sir, you've been acting like a sinner while you were in
here. Now, you're gonna pay like a sinner!"

     Now, listen. Listen. You may be a Christian, OK? But if you're going to
act like a sinner, you're gonna pay like a sinner. There's no way to get
around it. When we sin against God, we tempt God to destroy us. "Thou shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God." When we sin against God, we're sticking our necks
out, and tempting God to hack 'em off.

     You don't lose your salvation. You don't lose the Holy Spirit. You don't
cease to be a child of God. But you hasten your own destruction. "If any man
defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." "If you live after the
flesh, you shall die."

     Years ago there, when Criswell was preaching out there in Dallas, he was
sent an evangelist by the convention, a recommended evangelist who came there
for a meeting. And the fellow's name was John Clifford. And he said, "John
Clifford was the finest specimen of humanity I have ever seen in my life. He
was 6 feet 3, well built, blond hair and blue eyes, just as clean as a hound's
tooth, intelligent fellow, high, piercing, tenor voice, good preacher." And he
said, "We had him in for revival, and we had a great meeting. A lot of people
saved, and a lot of people blessed."

     And he said about five years later he was preaching at a certain place,
and after the thing was over a man came up to him, kind of a trampy looking
bum, and he came up to him and said, "You remember me?"

     And he said, "I never saw you before in my life."

     He said, "Yeah, you've seen me before in your life."

     Criswell said, "No, I've never seen you before in my life, as far as I
know."

     He said, "I'm John Clifford."

     And he said, "Oh, I know only one John Clifford. He's an evangelist, held
a meeting for me about five years ago."

     He said, "I'm him."

     He said, "I wouldn't have known you! What happened?"

     "Alcohol."

     Just five years. That's all. Five years of alcohol.

     Listen. You get out there back in that world, and get hungry to go back
out there, and get messing with sin, and messing with sin, and messing, it'll
mark you, it'll tear you down, it'll run you down, it'll drag you down, and
you'll fall apart quicker in one year than you would've fallen in five years
if you'd stayed where you oughta been! It'll git ya!

     Take your Bible and turn to First John chapter 1; we'll close here. First
John chapter 1. First John chapter 1, verse 8. First John chapter 1, verse 8:
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we
make him a liar, and his word is not in us." Now here's the verse: Chapter 2,
verse 1: "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not."
That's why it's written. "And if any man sin,"--this is the Christian--"we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the
propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world."

     Father, bless the reading of your word. If there's somebody here this
morning in need of forgiveness of sin, may they come to the right place, and
the right One, and obtain this forgiveness. Lord, if there's somebody here
who's of the world, may they realize that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for
their sins, not just for us saved people, not just for the saints, but for any
sinner who will come to Christ. We pray this hour this morning, if there is
anybody here that's unsaved, and doesn't know about free pardon, of
forgiveness of sins, they'll come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless your people
here this morning, and you have some sinning saints here today, may they take
this word to heart, Father, and admonition, and save themselves from a lot of
trouble and a lot of grief, and a lot of disaster on up the road, and fix
things up and get them right by the grace of God. You that said, "He that
confesses and forsakes his sin shall prosper," we pray you might prosper your
people here, Father, and putting the world and the old flesh and the devil
behind them, and burying these things, and getting them out of their lives,
and going on for thee. Prosper them and bless them, Lord God, we pray. Lord,
if there's some Christian here who's still fooling around, not coming clean
with thee, and coming clear with thee, we pray they might lay things out on
the table before thee, openly, and confess their sins and receive forgiveness,
and be able to get a good night's sleep with a clear conscience.

     Now, let's remain in prayer here, with our heads bowed and eyes closed.
There's some here at the altar; if you want to come, come ahead. And if you've
got some confession of sin this morning to do, just go ahead and do it. You
don't have to do it to a man; you do it to the Lord. "There is one Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." When you confess sin like that,
ask for strength to get rid of it. Ask for grace to overcome it. Some sins
will cleave to you like a monkey on the back of a drug. And those sins, you're
going to have to constantly pray for strength for, and help for. Sometimes you
get so tired of confessing the same one, over and over again. I know how it
is. You'll have to pray for strength. Sometimes God will have to intervene in
your life and do something, before you can get victory over it. Sometimes
that'll take place. Be brave. Ask God to do it. Be brave. Take a chance. Take
a chance. Stick an eye out. Say, "Lord, I'm going to do right. I'm going to
trust you to take care of me. And if it turns out to be a disaster, all right,
then, let it be a disaster. But I'm going to do what I should do, and trust
you to bless me." Come ahead.

     If anybody here needs any help, raise their hand. If anybody at the altar
needs any help, or anybody to pray with them, raise your hand. If not, just,
we'll leave you alone. If you want any help, slip your hand up. Is there
anybody here this morning, who would like to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, if
you would, come, you come and join us. Here at the altar. Will you come?
Anywhere in the building. We're not going to stand, we're not going to sing.
Just, get out of your seat and come. Anybody here?

     Listen, you unsaved people, when you sin, the Bible says you heap up
wrath to the day of the righteous judgment of God. Our sins are paid for.
Yours aren't. Won't you come this morning and accept God's provision for your
sins? Jesus Christ died for your sins, according to the Scriptures, was
buried, rose from the dead. If you'll come this morning and trust Him as your
Saviour, your debt's paid. It's taken care of. You may have to worry about sin
in this life, but, thank God, you won't have to worry about it in the life to
come. It may give you a fit here, but it won't give you a fit after you're
dead, and it won't show up on the record. "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Will you come right now? Anybody in the
building. We're not going to tarry long. If there's a man or woman, boy or
girl, who would like to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm inviting you to
step out and come right now. You gonna come? Come on. You gonna come? We'll
wait for you. Get up. Tell the person you're standing next to, "Excuse me,"
and come on.

     Some of you are not twenty feet from that altar. Twenty feet, fifty feet.
You come down here this morning and accept God's Son, and He'll accept you as
His son. Will you come? If you're gonna come, come on.

     All right. Father, dismiss with your blessing. Bless these that came to
the altar this morning. Grant the desires of their heart. I know these
Christian people; I know they want to do right. Most of them are trying to do
right. I don't have much doubts about any of them here. I never have much
doubts about almost any Christian, Lord. I think that all the Christians I've
ever known were tryin'. I think they were tryin'. All of them. Any of them.
Very sincere. I don't know very many of them, Lord, I'd even accuse of just
deliberately spitting in your face and going against what you said on purpose.
One or two, Lord, but not very many. I know these people who came this
morning, Lord, meant business, and I pray you'll not only fulfill your word to
them and cleansing the record of sin in their life with the blood, but you'll
give them strength in the days that come, and help they need to live the kind
of life they desire to live for thee. And, Lord, deal with these that didn't
come this morning. Rebuke them and convict them for their pride and their
laziness and their lack of concern about their eternal welfare. I pray you
might show them what will happen to them for their sin, and before this day is
over. May they find peace with thee. I ask these things in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

     Amen! Lord bless you, and good morning.

                                                        -- Peter S. Ruckman




