TWENTY-FOUR SERMONS By L. S. Boardman
SERMON 13
Prov. 29:1. "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."
The most dangerous thing in this world that we have to account for is Gospel light. Electricity is very dangerous. In Paris, Tennessee a few years ago, when I lived there a working man had his Saturday off so he was installing an electric washer for his wife. He crawled under the house with an electric drill and an electric lamp. There he sat on the damp ground. He stationed himself for the drilling and reached for the drill. It shorted somehow and froze him to the spot. When he failed to come out his wife called in from the opening where he crawled in and he didn't answer. Upon investigation it was discovered that he was dead. Electricity is dangerous.
Gospel light brings awesome responsibility. Its rejection brings eternal darkness.
What happens to people when the Holy Ghost shuts off the light? Years ago when Brother H. B.
Huffman was a young man in college he went to a street meeting 25 miles from the school in an old, open model T ford, in the dead of winter. An old man in his 70's wanted to go with him. They stood in the street while the snow was falling and Bro. Huffman preached and gave an altar call. The old man came forward and knelt by the curb in the snow and prayed but God did not come. On the way home in the bitter cold ride Bro. Huffman asked him why, an old man like he was, would go to so much trouble to take that 50 mile ride and kneel down in that fresh snow. And the old man said,
"Fifty years ago, when I was young I rejected God repeatedly and God stopped talking to me. For years I have sought Him but he has never come back. I thought that maybe, if I would come out on this cold night and put my old crippled knees down into that snow and lay bare my head under the falling snow, maybe God would come back to me, but He did not come back." As far as we know the old man finally died in that condition. It is terribly dangerous to insult the Holy Ghost by repeated rejection of light.
Every step of disobedience to God is dangerous, because the light-rejector is trampling the precious blood of Christ with every moment of rejection.
A few years ago one of our preachers, John Bethune, told me this story. He had a man in his church that was terribly mean. Many a Sunday night Bro. Bethune's wife would cry herself to sleep over some meanness that man inflicted upon them. One day that man invited Bro. B. to go fishing.
They stood side by side, by the river bank waiting for fish to bite and that man said, "Bro. Bethune, I am about to tell you a story that has never been told. My wife does not know this. My two teen-age daughters do not know this. But years ago I rejected God so long and so determinedly that God left me and has never come back. I can't pray through. I can't get His attention. He will not hear me." The very next day that man was in his back room before a mirror, shaving, and suddenly his heart simply stopped and he fell backward into the bath tub. It is terribly dangerous to reject God and back up on light and sear one's conscience. HE THAT BEING OFTEN REPROVED!
It is terribly dangerous to ride rough shod over any kind of serious warning. A few years ago while we were living in Niagara Falls, N.Y. a teen-age boy came home from school, grabbed a sandwich and leaped the porch rail as he told his mother he and another lad were going down to the river. The last thing she said was, "Don't touch your father's boat." He promised he would not touch it, but he didn't keep his word. The two boys took the boat out on the river and had fun until they got down where the current was too powerful for them and they got sucked into the rapids and the boat was smashed on the rocks and they went over the 65 ft. falls. Their bodies were later found a few miles down the river below the rails.
If you start down the road of sin, disobedience and rebellion, sooner or laser you will come to the end of that awful road and tragedy will follow. Again, in Niagara Falls a young lad had a slight accident and he didn't stop. It is a serious offense to "hit and run", but he did it. The police were nearby and they started chasing him. It was raining and freezing and the road was a glaze of wet ice.
But the lad sped down Niagara Falls Blvd. with his lights off trying to shake the police. He turned right on Ward road headed for Tonawanda. It was the night before Christmas. There were two teen age girls who had lived since they were babies in two houses diagonally across the road from each other. They had been together in one girl's home on the right side of the road putting presents under the Christmas tree. They decided to go to the home of the other girl, so they started out. They were going down the icy road with their back to the oncoming car with his lights off. He didn't see them in time and the ice pre vented his dodging them the last minute and he killed them both. By the time I came along he stood there in the rain crying like a baby with a police officer by his side. ONE SIN WILL BRING ON ANOTHER. His first mistake was leaving the scene of an accident. His next wrong was trying to shake the cops off in the rain over icy roads. His next sin was driving with his lights off. Yes, One sin brings on another and another until tragedy follows, sometimes with awful and eternal consequence.
II. "HARDENETH HIS NECK".
Old King Pharoah, you remember, hardened his heart ten times when Moses asked him to let the Children of Israel leave their bondage in Egypt." He rode over warning after warning, even through the terrible night when the oldest in every home, even to the animals in the herds, died. Pharaoh
half-repented again and again, and then froze up and refused to lit them go. But on the night of the Passover they left, but Pharaoh and his army followed them, intending to bring them back. Then they came to the Red Sea God parted the waters and the Children of Israel went through on dry ground.
But when Pharoah and his host got into the midst of the sea God let the waters come back and destroyed them all. PHARAOH HARDENED HIS NECK BEYOND THE POINT OF NO RETURN, AND MISSED IT FOREVER.
God had said to the Children of Israel in Exodus 6:6, "I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, and I will rid you of their bondage." So, that means that Pharoah was fighting against God, when he tried to stop them from going. No human soul can successfully fight against God. Three verses, Ex. 8:15 and 8:32 and 9:34 say that Pharoah hardened his heart. Seven verses, Ex. 4:21; 7:3; 7:13,14; 10:1; 10:20; 10:27 and 11:10 Say that God hardened his heart. Ex. 8:19 simply says his heart was hardened. How do we reconcile these verses when some say Pharaoh hardened his heart and others say God hardened Pharaoh's heart? Is is simply this: Remember, Gospel light hardens the heart of every rejecter. The same sun that softens the wax, hardens the clay, and the Sun is not to blame for what happens. God, shining light into one heart will soften it that heart when the person repents and obeys God. But the same light, and the same truth, and the same conviction will harden another. Is is not God's fault when He hardens a person's heart. It is a perfectly natural process. If you rebel against God, he will harden your hears with the same gospel truth and light that softens someone else.
I have seen entire families cross the dead line and drop into hell. I saw Margaret cross the dead line in a revival a few years ago. She later murdered a man and his wife and then shot herself. Her preacher brother, a great light-rejector, with his two teenage daughters got caught in a snow slide, out in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The snow and ice came down across the road and swept them down into the chasm under hundreds of feet of snow and ice and their bodies were not found for weeks. Their father, holiness preacher, a great light rejecter was thrown from a horse and his foot caught in the stirrup and he was dragged to death by the scared horse. He also, a holiness preacher, crossed the dead line and missed. it. Marcy Little, from the SHEPHERD'S FOLD IN SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA filled in for me parts of this sad story that I didn't already know from first hand encounter with Margaret, in that revival meeting. It was later revealed that she was a lesbian and that is the reason she killed that woman, and then her husband because she could not have her way with that woman, and the husband interfered.
It is terribly dangerous for one to reject light, break promises made to God and continue on in disobedience. Pete Babcock, a few years ago told us his story. He was a chain cigarette smoker. He became sick and no specialist could figure out what was wrong with him, nor could they help him.
They said he could not possibly live. But he had a praying mother. Then Pete went to prayer and promised God that if He would heal him he would never smoke another cigarette. God did heal him and he became a well man. But while he was telling us this story he had a cigarette in his hand aid said, "I never smoke one of these but what I fear God will punish me for breaking my vow and put an illness on me, and next time He will refuse to heal me." His two main fingers on his right hand were leather-brown from holding cigarettes between them. I later on moved away from that area and lost sight of Pete, so I can't tell how ye came out, but I am sure it was tragic.
III. "SUDDENLY DESTROYED"
Brother Merryman, we called him a few years ago. He lived in State College, Pennsylvania. Bro.
Huffman was in a tent meeting at the time. I, personally helped pitch the tent and drove the stakes for that meeting. Bro. Merryman got under awful conviction for his sinful life, even though he himself was a preacher, and he went to opposing the meeting. He attended faithfully, but did everything he could to destroy the effectiveness of the meeting. The last night of the Revival Bro.
Huffman opened fire on the opposition against the Holy Ghost and Bro. Merryman became infuriated. After the service he attacked Bro. Huffman furiously and tongue-lashed him terribly. That night after midnight Bro. Huffman and helpers took down the tent, stored the benches and piano and folded up the tent into the little trailer behind his car and then slept a few hours. At breakfast time Bro. Merryman showed up and gave Bro. Huffman another awful tongue lashing. Bro. Huffman up until this time had stood in silence. Then he said only this much. "Bro. Merryman, just six months from now you will see things in a lot different light." Bro. Merryman shot back, "You can't scare me." But just six months to the day, they told me, Bro. Merryman, had his little satchel, and was out selling his product. He walked into the show room of a garage and dropped dead on the spot. IT IS TERRIBLE DANGEROUS TO DEFY THE HOLY GHOST. MANY HAD BEEN SUDDENLY DESTROY.
IV. "WITHOUT REMEDY."
What will do when the Fountain which is open in the House of David for sin and uncleanness is closed against you forever?
A few years ago a beautiful, 18 year old lad lived about two blocks from our church in Nashville.
Our church sat on a corner lot next to an alley. The people decided to hold the revival in a tent which they pitched in the vacant lot directly behind the church. And every night that lad gunned his motorcycle back and forth up that alley in front of the tent and greatly disturbed the meeting. The last night, right as the evangelist was giving the altar call this lad tied a bundle of burlap sacks into a bundle, soaked them with kerosene and threw it, lighted under the flap of the tent, and wrecked the closing service of the meeting. A few months later I was called for the next revival which was to be held in the church. The pastor and his wife had just parked their car in front of the church when this lad sped up the street at a high rate of speed. He went up to the end of the street and was coming back when an old gentleman started across the street from a side street. It was almost dusk and the lad didn't have a light on his cycle. The old man didn't see him coming. And the lad plowed into the side of that car and pushed the front door on the opposite side from the driver nearly to the steering wheel which was on the other side of the car.
It was a warm summer evening in Nashville and people were sitting on their porches. I came along just as it happened. It was so soon that the neighbors were just starting to come off their porches. It had been only seconds. There sat the car he hit. There lay the lad in the middle of the street and the motorcycle close by. Someone notified his mother within moments. A car came screeching up and stopped. The mother climbed out and screamed, "If he is dead I don't want to see him." Yes, he was dead. "He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." The pastor and I attended the funeral. Such wailing and
screaming and wailing, as came from the lips of that mother, I have never heard before or since. The lad was a straight A student in high school. They could not open the casket, but the lad's picture sat on the closed lid. The mother begged the undertaker to just open the lid a little and let her reach in and touch his hand and the undertaker said, "No, mother, we can not open the lid."
If you are not minding God, my friend, and walking in the light, you are headed for serious trouble. You may not die on a motor cycle, but you will finally go into eternity and stand before God and give an account of your treatment of Jesus Christ and His blood, and the light you rejected.
If you do not obey God, quit the sin business, and get a sanctified heart and live a holy life, guilt will accumulate in your life, momentum will build up, the path will become more and more slippery, your will will become weaker and weaker, you will become deeper and deeper involved in sin and entangled. There is always a point in the path of human which they call "the point of no return."
When you pass that point in your rebellion, there will be no recovery for your soul.
Judas Iscariot passed that point in his rebellion, hung himself, the rope or the tree limb broke and he was dashed to pieces on the jagged rocks below. Demos also passed that point of no return because he loved this present world. So did Pharoah, Herod and Pilate, and they have been in hell for all of these intervening centuries, and will be there forever. Solomon missed it also because the Bible said his heart was led away from God because he loved many strange (heathen, ungodly) women (I Kings 11:1,4). Solomon got so involved with heathen women and heathen worship that his heart was turned away from God (see verse 9) and he died without a sign of turning back to God.
V. GOD SHIFTING ALL THE RESPONSIBILITY BACK ONTO YOUR SHOULDERS WHEN