For a few minutes today, you and I are going
to have one of those heart -to -heart talks.
And I pray that what we have to say today will
mean much to you because it involves all of us.
I'm going to talk about three deadlines. Three
vitally important. deadlines. You will agree
with me, and I say it to you without fear of
contradiction, that all members of the human
race have two things in common. You may be poor.
You may be the richest man living today. You
may be living in mediocre circumstances. You
may have the finest the world has to offer. Regardless
of your nationality. Regardless of what the world
thinks of you this hour. All members of the human
race had these two things in common. Each of
us was born. And each of us must die. Most of
us are not too concerned. With the circumstances
of our birth, not really. We don't remember it.
It lies far behind us, and we seldom speak of
it. But the thought of dying is another matter.
That's one thought that few people want to really
concentrate on. There are some folk. who don't
even want to discuss the matter. I remember well
not too long ago, I was talking to a lady and
she was the type that never wanted to think of
death. She rebelled against it and I said to
her, and I was so serious with her, I said, but
it is appointed unto man once to die. And honey,
you're... going to die. And she'd lit for money.
It had been her god. I said, and remember something,
you're not going to take it with you. And she
turned on me in her black eyes, snapping. She
meant it. And she said, Miss Kuhlman, I'm just
not going to go. She felt their way about it.
She'd gotten her way. in life about everything
else. And so she felt that when it came that
hour, when she'd have to go, she just wasn't
going to go. But that's the one thing that each
of us has in common. We're going to go is going
to happen to us whether we like it or not. and
the knowledge that our days on earth will come
to an end is absolutely inescapable. It's a somber
thought. It's mysterious and sometimes kind of
frightening. But that one deadline, every man,
every woman has in common. And Jesus said to
the unbelieving, and I quote his words in the
8th chapter of John, If ye believe not that I
am he, ye shall die in your sins. Remember something.
There comes that deadline in the life of every
man and every woman. The destiny of your soul,
my friend, whoever you are, is made final before
your heart takes its last beat. It is not made
beyond the grave. It is not made after the old
heart takes its last beat. You can be the richest
man in the whole world, and should you have the
millions to offer, and if millions were offered
to change the destiny of your soul after its
heart has taken its last beat, The destiny could
not be changed. Millions of prayers can be offered
for you after the old heart has taken its last
beat. But those prayers will never change the
destiny of your soul. There is a deadline that
every man and every woman, every human being
must face before the heart takes its last beat.
For when death has come to the body, that deadline
has been crossed for the destiny of your soul.
It's just like that. You can't change it. I know
it's frightening. I know it seems very somber
to some of you. But what I say? comes from the
very Word of God. And the fool is the man or
the woman who will take issue with the Word of
God. We come to the second deadline. And no human
being can take issue with the second deadline.
It's the sin against the Holy Ghost. The sin
that is called the unpardonable sin. Oh, I can't
begin to tell you. The importance of the Holy
Spirit. Sure, it seems that I have always been
acquainted with the Holy Spirit. I've always
known the importance of the Holy Spirit to a
certain degree. But I do not believe that I have
fully known the importance of this mighty third
person of the Trinity until recently. Consider
something. The Holy Spirit must be vitally important
when you go back to the time when the three,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were
at that great conference table planning the redemption
of mankind. There isn't one listening to me this
very moment because it's the very first scripture
that any child memorizes. When that child begins
to go to Sunday school, John 3 .16, you know
it well without having me quote it. Just giving
you the scripture reference, you know immediately.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son. But something happened before God
gave his son. Jesus first. offered himself through
the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Ghost, to be
given to the Father that the Father was able
to give him as a sacrifice. I cannot tell you
I do not have the answer. If I had the answer
as to why Jesus offered himself through the Holy
Spirit to the Father, why he did not offer himself
to the Father directly, but instead he went through
the Holy Spirit to offer himself to the Father.
If I had the answer, I would be perfect knowledge.
I would have the knowledge of God. I do not have
that answer. No man has it. But it shows me the
importance of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus found
it necessary to offer himself through the Holy
Spirit to God the Father, and then God the Father
was able to give his Son for the redemption of
men and women. If you would have a hundred people
before you, and they... had very little knowledge
of the Word of God. And if you were to ask them
against whom they thought the unpardonable sin
would be committed, whether against God Almighty,
against Jesus Christ, His Son, or against the
Holy Ghost, I would dare say that the majority
of them would say that the sin for which there
is no forgiveness would be against God. God Almighty.
And then the rest would say against Jesus Christ
the Son. But do you realize that the sin for
which there is no forgiveness in this world or
in the world to come is not against God the Father.
Any sin that you commit against God the Father
will be forgiven. Any sin that you commit against
Jesus Christ, His Son, will be forgiven. But
there is a sin against this wonderful third person
of Trinity, the Holy Ghost, for which there is
no forgiveness in this world or in the world
to come. There is literally a deadline that man
can cross. for which there is no forgiveness,
the unpardonable sin. Therefore, Jesus said,
I say unto you, and I am reading from the twelfth
chapter of Matthew, the thirty -first verse,
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever
speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall
be forgiven him. And whosoever speaketh against
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, neither in the world to
come. It's a deadline. Any person who attributes
the work of the Holy Ghost The work of the third
person of the Trinity. The person through whom
Jesus offered himself to God the Father to be
given. There is a sin that one commits for which
there is no forgiveness when that one attributes
the work of the Holy Ghost to Satan. to the devil,
to satanic power. Now, we have seen two deadlines.
Death, remembering that the destiny of our soul
is determined before your heart takes its last
beat. Your destiny is made final. You cross that
deadline. Second, the sin against the Holy Ghost,
man can cross a deadline. And there is in this
sin a sin that is unpardonable in this world
and in the world to come. But now we come to
the third deadline. I've been talking to you
about the rapture of the church, the great catching
up. And as surely as God made a way of escape
for Noah and his family before judgment struck
this old world, he's also made a way of escape
for his church, for his bride. For those who
are members of his body and he has made a way
of escape before the great tribulation through
the great catching up. We call it the rapture
of the church. God is merciful. Oh, if you'd
pause just one moment and think of the mercy
of God. I tell you very frankly, I still don't
think of the wrath of God. And I'll tell you
why. It's because I personally am not afraid
of his wrath. I'm afraid that I might grieve
him. It's because I think of him not in the term
of one who sends judgment, but to me he's my
heavenly father because I've been born again.
And it's just like that. In exactly the same
way. I seldom, very seldom think of hell, so
far as I personally am concerned, because I don't
expect to go to hell. I'd rather talk about hell,
but heaven is my home. That's where I'm going,
and it's just like that. Let's just pause and
think of the mercy of God. Do you know that God
has never sent a judgment to this old world?
without making an escape for his own, never.
You turn back the pages of history. You read
the word of God. And you'll find out that it's
the truth that I am speaking. Never has God ever
sent a judgment to this earth. without making
some means of escape, some way of escape for
his own. He loves his own. He loves his adopted
children. Literally. If we've been born again,
those of us who've had that experience of regeneration,
we have been adopted of the Father. He's our
Heavenly Father. were joint heirs with his son.
And he has made a wonderful way of escape for
his church, for his own, for those who are members
of the body of his son. Go back, if you will,
please. And this, to me, has always been very
thrilling. The way of escape that he made for
Noah before the world was... Struck with judgment.
And he told Noah. He warned Noah. And he always
warns his own. When the great population comes
upon this generation, remember something. There
is not a question of what we'll be able to say.
He warned us. Through his word, he has warned
men and women. of the great tribulation that
is about to strike upon this earth. He could
not have made it clearer than he has made it
in his word. But somehow, we have closed our
ears, we have closed our eyes, we have closed
our mind to the warning, but the warning is still
there. After the great catching up, And men and
women who will be left to go through the great
tribulation, turning to the word of God, will
see very clearly that the warning was there the
whole time. And yet they had refused to hear.
They had refused to see. They'd closed their
mind to the preaching of the gospel. God gave
forth his warning through Noah. To a lost generation.
Before judgment struck upon the earth. Before
the floodwaters came. And Noah cried out. Noah
warned the people. And he thinks that many a
man scoffed and laughed. And called him an old
fool. Called him an old fanatic. Said he went
off on religion. He's losing his mind. He has
become a little senile. Uh -huh. Yeah, but the
day came when God kept his word, and he'll always
keep his word. That's one thing you can stake
your very life on. He will keep his word. And
the floods came. And methinks that just before
the floodwaters began to rise, And I read it,
the seventh chapter of Genesis. And they that
went in, that's into the ark. I dare say not
a drop of water had fallen. There wasn't a cloud
in the sky. There was no sign of rain when Noah
began to build that ark. Humanly speaking, so
far as the natural was concerned, I do not believe
that there was a cloud in the sky. But Noah believed
the word of God, and he started to build the
ark, and he built it on dry ground. He believed
God. He believed God's word. And they that went
in, went in, male and female of all flesh, and
the Lord shut. In other words, God shut the door.
The lock, methinks, was on the outside of the
door. Not inside. Outside. And God himself shut
the door. And when God shut that door, no man
could enter. into that ark. Oh, methinks. They
were screaming. They were crying. Noah, let us
in. Noah, let us in. The floodwaters are rising.
Noah, let us in. No, my friend. He couldn't.
For God himself had shut that door. The deadline
had come.