Charles Finney spoke of the old grist mill
that operated by the force of water upon
two millstones.
There was the top stone and the bottom
stone, and these two millstones are laid one
atop the other, and as they turn, they
grind the wheat into flour.
Finney said the bottom stone was the law
of God written on the heart of man,
which is his conscience.
Finney said the top stone is the preached
law of God, and when these two meet,
then the Holy Spirit can operate by grinding
upon the heart in conviction of sin.
It is my object today, friends, to give
the Spirit of God room to operate on
your heart with Holy Ghost conviction, and my
prayer is that you will turn away from
self and sin and turn to a bloodstained
Savior, Christ Jesus, for pardon of sin.
You are in for a rough ride, friend,
as I will not pull any punches as
I preach the following message entitled, Riding a
Coffin to Hell.
As soon as man is born, he begins
to die.
It isn't long from the time he goes
from cradle to coffin, and they put him
in the ground.
His lifetime, man gives little thought to the
eternal world of damnation and torments and flames
and devils to which he travels.
Man enters this world, riding a coffin to
hell.
Man has a rude nature, bent on sin,
and drinks iniquity like water.
Man is dead in sin as he rides
that coffin to hell.
Are you any different, friend?
I believe not.
In Heldenhead, South Carolina, you can take a
dolphin cruise where dolphins swim beside the boat
as you head toward Davosky Island.
It's an unforgettable experience, but you don't know
that the dolphins are beside you until they
come up out of the water.
So too, you live your life carelessly, with
no thought of eternity, and right beside you
are demons chasing your coffin to hell.
Demons are waiting for the hour of your
death to drag you down to hell.
Hell fills by the hour with unsuspecting victims
as they are thrown into pitch-black darkness
of a bottomless pit.
In Greek mythology, there is the story of
the Sword of Damocles, whereby a sword is
suspended above the king's throne, attached only by
a small thread of a hair of a
horse's tail.
The image evokes constant peril and danger hanging
over one's head.
You, friend, have such a sword suspended above
you, and it drifts with your blood, ready
to descend upon you at any moment.
The sword of death hangs over you every
day, every hour, for you know not when
you will be suddenly removed from this world
and cast into another world you were quite
unprepared for.
The only power keeping the sword of death
from cutting you down is the mercy of
God.
All else is against you.
The weight of your sins are against you
as they lay heavy upon that sword hanging
over your head, and every day new sins
are stacked up there against you in a
mountain of evidence of your breaking the strict
law of God.
All the lies you've told, all the deceits
against others you have hatched, the stealing and
the cheating haunts you, your fornications are multiplied,
and your adulterous actions numerous.
You have continually spit in the very face
of God through your rebellion and sin, and
now the weight is too much to bear.
Your sins accuse you like ghastly pointing fingers
suspended above you.
As you ride in your coffin to hell,
that sword dangles above, ready to descend at
any moment and send you hurling into a
godless eternity.
You have no guarantee of tomorrow, and you
are ignorant of your constant danger because of
sin.
For man also knoweth not his time, as
the fishes that are taken in an evil
net, and as the birds that are caught
in the snare, so are the sons of
men snared in an evil time, when it
falleth suddenly upon them.
You have been wooed and reproved by God's
Spirit time and time again throughout your life
to surrender to Christ, but you have put
off coming to Christ with one excuse after
another until Proverbs 29.1 rings in your
ears.
He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck,
shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
The key words are suddenly be destroyed, implying
the sword of death hangs ready to cut
you down at any moment.
Why doesn't it?
Will God's grace keep it suspended, or will
he one day cease to woo you any
more, and withdraw his grace and turn you
over to the death angel, as the sword
of justice bears down upon you?
But you are already in a coffin riding
to hell, because in Ezekiel God's word declares,
Behold, all souls are mine, as the soul
of the Father, so also is the soul
of the Son is mine.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die, and
die you will, into a devil's hell, where
flames and smoke will engulf you, and the
shrieks of the damned will give you no
rest, night or day, but you will not
repent and turn to God, and to Christ
for forgiveness of sin.
You are hardened in your sin, even though
God still wants you to turn to him
and live.
He declares, Repent, and turn yourselves from all
your transgressions, so iniquity should not be your
ruin, for I have no pleasure in the
death of him that dieth, saith the Lord
God, wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
But you refuse to turn to God, and
surrender to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
because you are in a mad rush to
enjoy your life, and taste every pleasure of
the world, as you ride in your coffin
to hell.
Repentance is a grace given, and you don't
have it, what shall you do?
2 Timothy 2.25 declares, If perhaps God
may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge
of truth, God requires immediate repentance, but you
refuse to repent and turn to God.
Oh, why?
Why will you die?
Your sin shall surely cast you down to
hell, as surely as he that diggeth a
pit shall fall into it.
The bottomless pit of hell, friend, awaits you,
and the coffin you are riding in, you
are wrapped in soft satin and plush velvet,
and it dulls your senses to your danger
of dying in your sins.
But the day fast approaches, and you can't
stop it, when the dust returned to the
earth as it was, and the spirit shall
return unto God who gave it.
You have a date with death, friend, and
there is no escape, but God offers mercy.
But you have a duty, seek ye the
Lord, while he may be found.
Call ye upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return
unto the Lord, and he will have mercy
upon him, and to our God, for he
will abundantly pardon.
Sinner friend, do you need pardon from sin?
There is only one way to stay out
of hell, and that's through the remedy for
sin, in the person of Christ Jesus.
But you must come to him, and believe
on him, and surrender all you are to
all he is.
He is Lord.
He is a reigning sovereign who sits on
a throne at the right hand of the
Father, and he earned that right by way
of a bloody cross.
You're heading towards a great gulf in eternity,
and you need Christ for forgiveness of sin.
Climb out of that coffin and get to
Christ.
Before it's too late, be like the two
blind men sitting by the wayside when they
heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying,
Have mercy on us, O Lord.
Turn from your sins, friend, and turn to
a blood-stained Savior from sin.
Repent, I beg you, before it's too late.