Now, before you go home, I want to talk to you. I got a special text. I've given this message, a similar message, for a number of years. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Now, that's addressed to Christian people. Of course, it applies to sinners, too. Did you know there's one game that no mortal man that ever walked this earth was able to beat? That's the game of sin. David tried it. He reaped what he sowed. Men have tried all down the ages, Christians and sinners, saved and lost people. And no man ever walked this earth that was big enough to match his wits against omnipotent, omniscient God and get away with wrongdoing. You can't win that way. You may stumble into the arms of Jesus and stay out of hell, but you can't get away with sin. There's a deceiver in the world. His name is Satan. He tries to fool you. He told Adam and Eve they could become like God in pursuit of knowledge, but they couldn't. Devil's no enemy to morals. He's an enemy to God, and that puts him on the immoral side. The devil doesn't come to you with a jug of whiskey in his hand, and a pistol in his pocket, and a lie in his mouth, and miserable-looking expression in his face. He comes as an angel of light. He's gonna try to make you believe at Christmas that you can sin and get away with it. He'll try you out. He tried out on David, the man after God's own heart. David tried it. He didn't get away with it. His own daughter was ruined by her own brother. Trouble came. Listen, whenever you find a fellow monkeying around God Almighty, thinking he can do wrong, get away with it. Not even an angel of heaven can do it. And no mortal man on earth can do it. You can't do wrong and get away with it. Blood out God, blood out heaven, blood out hell, blood out eternity, and let this world be old. You can't get away with it. If there was no hell, when you breathe the last breath on this earth, that's the last time you're gonna breathe or live. You can't get away with it. God almighty puts his omnipotence against wrongdoing. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through all the earth, behold the good and the bad. Yeah, he sees you with a parked car on a roadside. He sees every thought that walks across your brain leaving a slimy track. He sees every heartbeat that cries out to go into sin. Yeah. Don't tell me there's no hell. There's a hell in this world. If there wasn't any hell hereafter, there's some hell now. Men have tried it. David tried it. Other people have tried it. They stumbled and failed and they never got away with it. You can't get away with it. Blot out eternity and blot out heaven and blot out hell and tear up golden streets. You can't do wrong, get away with it. You try thumbing your nose at God Almighty and say, I'm a Christian. Messing around sin. You'll find out. You say, I can't help sinning! Then, you've got a mighty poor God. You got to sin. You're bigger than God. Read in the first epistle of John Lee, he sings right out, you should sin not. Well, no use talking to me, I got it to do. That means you're a miserable, hell-bound sinner. A man that says he can't keep from sinning means that the grace of God isn't adequate. And God writes these things right out at you, you should sin not! You say, shut up, God Almighty. I've got to do wrong. Who said so? God didn't. You and the devil said that. No man can keep from sinning! These things right out at you, you should sin not. You know the meanest man in your community? He's a fellow that sins and says he had it to do. Condoning sin is worse than sinning. It's awful to sin, but when a man goes and sins and drags himself out of the dirty ditch with all the slime and sin on him and says, I had it to do, he's spitting in the face of God Almighty that told him not to do it. You can be what God wants you to be and do what God wants you to do and live like God wants you to live. What do you say about it, God? Well, when I was writing the epistle of John to Christians, I called them little children, and John dipped his pen in the ink of inspiration and said, these things write I unto you which ye sin not. Now, I want you to make up your mind what sin you got to commit at Christmas when you go home. What do you got to commit? Let's get down to it, cut it to the minimum. Have you got to steal? Oh, no, I wouldn't steal. Well, that's the temptation some people have. You got to cut somebody's throat? Oh, no. Well, that's the biggest temptation some people have. You got to break your mother's heart to do something wrong? Oh, no, no. Well, shut up about having a sin then. Every man commits a sin he's tempted to commit. Yeah, and some good man have stumbled They even tried to get away with it. But oh, what he reaped. His daughter ruined by his own brother. Walking up on the house stop at night, saying, the heavens declare the glory of God, but I've sinned against God. You'll be getting off this campus in a few days. There won't be anybody there with a pencil and the paper to write down your demerits. But there's somebody more important than ever to walk this campus. He's going to be looking at you all during the holidays. He doesn't just peek at you through a keyhole. He looks you out with eyes that run to and fro through all the earth, beholding all that's good and all that's bad. If one evil thought walks across your brain during the holidays, God Almighty will see it walking. If one wicked desire gets in your heart and begins to gnaw at your integrity, God Almighty will say, you don't have to do it. She doesn't have to do that. These things write I unto you. What? That she sin not. That's the rest of Christians. Do you mean to tell me that when God tells you not to do it, you've got to do it anyhow? Oh, all have sinned, but you're supposed to be a Christian now. Yeah. You haven't done wrong tomorrow. Every page of every tomorrow, God kept it white and clean for you. Don't leave any dirty foot Prince, on any Christmas holiday, come back here after Christmas with clean hands and a pure heart. Oh, you'll be tempted. Devil will be waiting for you. Same old gang's back at home. Yeah, she's back there. The one you ran around with that came here and said, I wouldn't go to that school, they're too strict. Miss so-and-so's still at home. He's back there. My boy said, how do you stand it down there? You can't raise the devil and be a sinner. How do you put up with that? I wouldn't go down there. They're too strict. You can't steal and lie and murder and run around with bad women, keep company with a rotten, good-for-nothing, hell-bound man. Oh, that's a Christian school. Yeah, heaven's a Christian home, too. Yeah. Yeah, well, no temptation. Wait a minute, the devil had temptation. He's up in heaven one time. Yeah. Yeah. Good environment in heaven. Devil, devil's sin. And God Almighty took him by the nap of the neck and the seat of the pants and took out that old battleman and said, I'm going to keep this place right. Get out of this world, this earth here, this heaven here. You're going to have to live in a sinless city if you're a Christian. You better do the best you can now. What'd God tell you to do? He said, these things write I unto you. What for, God? That's a sin, Lord. Don't sin. Now if you're gonna sin during the holidays, let's reduce it to the minimum. Let's not do any more than we have to do. Let's see what you got to do. You got to kill somebody? No! I wouldn't do that! Well, that's the biggest temptation some people have. Man told me one time that he hunted a man all day gun to kill him. I couldn't find him. Mother was at home praying for me. Told my mother's gonna kill him. She sobbed and prayed. I couldn't find him. But I decided to God I did kill him. Cause if I could have seen him, I would. Listen, if you would, if you could, you have in the sight of God. A man told me one time, he said, I'm a murderer. I killed a man. You did? Stand trial? No, no. I didn't find him. In the sight of God, I killed him. Listen, there's a God on the throne of this universe, and he can look at you, nice girl back there, nice boy, been to a Christian college, and can see you and know what you would do if you could do. And he tells the angel, write it down, the book he did it. A man told me one time, he said, I'm a murderer. I'm a murderer. I said, you kill anybody? No, sir. But I hunted a man all day to kill him. Didn't find him. I got converted after that. But the only reason that man wasn't killed, maybe my mother was praying for me, but I was a murderer. Oh, boys and girls, it's an awful thing to live in a universe where God looks at us all the time. When you park your car on the roadside during the holidays and somebody says, you go to Bob Jones University? Oh, I couldn't go there. They're too strict. Understand, you take neck on the campus. No, we are ladies and gentlemen here. And we believe in respectability and decency and living like we believe in honor and integrity in the classroom. Yeah. Boys and girls, you know one of the saddest thoughts I have? I shudder when I think about it. Someday, you're going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and the curtain will roll down. And God will say, turn on the camera. Matriculated Bob Jones University a certain date. Yeah. She's a little fast before she went there, but not such a bad girl. She sat in chapel every day. She had old Bob Jones preach and Bob Jones Jr. and other speakers. Had a Bible conference. She had more and got off of the campus where there were no searching eyes except the eyes of God. And he caught her. I'm scared, boys and girls. It's awful to live in a world where the eyes of God run to and fro through all the earth, everywhere looking. Dark nights make no difference with God Almighty. The blackest slice ever cut out of a midnight can't blind his eyes. And God is not mocked. You may not go to hell. but you'll suffer enough to feel like you're in hell if you go off of this campus and don't live right. You've been in a decent atmosphere. You've had advantages mighty few folks ever had. You came to a school where we started with revival and had a prayer group in your dormitory and had preaching all the time nearly. Yes, and Bible conference too. And those fellas talk pretty straight. Every class open with prayer. Say, you haven't soiled the pages of the coming Christmas yet. Maybe you left a little stain last Christmas. But you haven't soiled any page of any coming Christmas. And no page of any coming tomorrow. And God kept it spotless white for you. And he doesn't want you to blot it up and mess it up. God's eyes run to and fro through all the earth. Beholding everything that's good and beholding everything that's bad. And God is not mocked. What does that mean? He means you can't make fun of me. There's one chaperone you can't dodge. There's one chaperone that cries out to all people, God is not mocked. What's ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. That's addressed to Christians too. Wait a minute. Be sure your sin will find you out. Who's that talking? God. Who is God? He's one person whose eyes run to and fro through all the earth. Boys and girls, we've all sinned, but we haven't sinned tomorrow. We may have sinned last Christmas, but we haven't sinned this coming Christmas. And I've told you many times, God keeps every page of all the tomorrows clean for us. Every morning, beginning of the day, God hands you out a day book without a blot on it. And oh, how many blots we put. God looks down out of heaven and says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but be sure your sin will find you out. God never let anybody get away with sin. David, a man after God's own heart. Yeah, David looked out of the window The woman's shade was new. A man who could write the 23rd Psalm. A man that could see the stars at night and say the heavens declare the glory of God and maybe he just said it. And he put her husband in front of the battle. There isn't any sin that any sinner ever committed that you couldn't commit at Christmas. Oh, I've heard him say, how could he do it? That girl's pure mother. I've had him say to me, oh, Dr. Bob, I don't know how I committed such a sin. I've had girls that were fixing to get married. They'd say, I married a good Christian man, but there's some skeletons in the closet of my past. What must I do? Must I rattle the skeletons and bones in his ears? What must I do? And I've been put on the spot of any time. I've said, don't try to relieve your own conscience. by making him miserable. Some things you can't fix with anybody but God. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I've had the most heinous sins that mortal could think about confessed to me by men and women. I've had a knock at my door. And somebody said, I won't talk to you. And they said, I killed my baby. Yeah. I went astray. I killed my baby. I can hear it cry sometimes at night now. Oh, God, save us from sin. Sin. Sin? Can't crawl in the dark in your room without your hearing the hiss of a serpent. All have sinned. You know, sometimes if I hadn't been a student of the Bible and a preacher, had so much experience, I'd have got where I didn't believe in anybody. But I know there's some good folks in the world. But I've had women come to me and tell me about the sins of that girlhood. And in respect to me, you know, my husband told me he never did love anybody but me. And I think about my past life was convenient. It wasn't what it ought to be. And I wonder if I should go tell him. I say, no. Don't stick a dagger in his heart. Don't try to relieve your own bitter memories by rattling skeleton bones in his ears. Secret sins can be secretly confessed. What you can make right, you ought to make right. A man come to me one time, said he'd stolen some money, a student in school. And he said, I Don't know how to put it back. My people are honest, upright. Well, I said, tell you what you do, you just let me take the money. You don't have to break your daddy's heart and your mother's heart and have that fellow tell around town that you sent some money you stole. You've asked God to forgive you, yes, but said it isn't my money. I said, all right, I'll take it and send it to the man it belongs to. You tell me. I won't tell him any word, accept him. Just tell him that you confessed it. I won't say who, I'll just say a certain person said that this money belonged to you. I didn't go too much into detail. And here it is. I've done that a lot of times in evangelistic meetings. I don't believe in reaching into the closet of the past and getting out skeletons and rattling the bones of the faces of loved ones, unless you have to. But if it's something you can make right in the past, I'd make it right. Some things we can't make right. What do we do about it, Jesus? Well, I know. My eyes run to and fro through all the earth. I behold the good and I behold the bad. Yes, I know. You know, it's in the Bible, all of sin, yes, comes short of the glory of God, yes, but my sin was just such a horrible thing. Say, Suppose you had to walk up in the presence of this crowd with Jesus on this platform today and reach back into all the closets of your past and confess publicly every sin you'd ever committed. I've had some folks in this school come to me and thought they ought to confess it. And I said, no, you fix up with God. Be a good girl. Be a good boy. We've had prayers. God has good sense. You know, sometimes we want to relieve our own tormenting hearts by making other folks miserable. No. I can't help what I've done. What I did yesterday is a record on the past and the day before and on back. What I'm going to do? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And all have committed this sin they were tempted to commit. And I committed sin that I was tempted to commit. Yeah, and God said all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But boys and girls, every sin looks bad to God. You know, our education has something to do with the way that some of us look at sin, you know. Sometimes in one country, a sin looks horrible to somebody. And in another country, it doesn't look so bad. Yeah. But sin is sin. Sin. Sin. You can't say sin without hearing a serpent hiss. Sin. Sin walked through this town and made a track down the road. That's a graveyard. Every graveyard's a little track that sin made walking through town. Down that street where the lights of sin burn and the soil doves of the underworld live, that's a little dirty, slimy step that sin made. That broken heart of a mother, sin stepped on it. The sin of a daughter. And she wonders and hopes and wonders and hopes and prays. Oh, boys, girls, we haven't sinned this afternoon yet. We haven't sinned at the coming Christmas yet. We're supposed to be nice folks in a Christian school. We're supposed to be out trying to win people to Jesus. And we love to sing, oh, how I love Jesus. We want to tell people we trust him. He's a savior. But watch out. David could write a psalm like the 23rd. David, David, sin. There's never been a sin anybody ever committed that you couldn't commit if you play with sin. I've heard them. They said, oh, God, how did I do it? Women have come to me sobbing and said, I killed my little baby. Little nice, sweet, poor baby. Born for his marriage. He hid the grave. Oh, say. Ain't it awful? Sin? Sin? Sss. Sss. Sss. Sounds like a serpent's hiss. But sin doesn't come like a snake rattling his rattles, sticking out his forked tongue. He comes like a charmer of birds. Graceful crawl. Sometimes with colors that almost make the rainbow colors ashamed. Yeah. Adam and Eve in the garden? God said, don't eat any fruit off that tree. That's a tree of knowledge of good and evil. And Adam and Eve lived there in the garden. They slept at night in beds of lilies and breathed air filled through jungles of roses. And they wake up in the morning and say, I hope God won't be very late today. He may have been off making another world somewhere. Striking a match on the rock of omnipotence and setting the beautiful sun to shine in the distant sky Wonder if he'll come today Well, I hope he won't come today Look how we seen last night. Yeah He's right here in this chapter this morning His eyes run to and fro through all the earth. He's looking at you. What kind of eyes does he have? What kind of eyes did my mother have? And my father, when they said, look me straight in the eye now. Tell me the truth. And I, look up, hold up your head now. Look me straight in the eye. You can't look me in the eye and tell me a lie. Look me in the eye. Yes, I did it. You're gonna look into God's eye sometimes. But boys and girls, I'm not trying to depress you. I want you to have a happy Christmas. I want the years ahead of you to be beautiful. I can't help what I have done already. And all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But I haven't sinned tomorrow. I haven't sinned on my way home this coming Christmas. I haven't sinned back at that necking party that we used to have back home where young folks even in the churches went. No, I haven't done that. I haven't neglected this Christmas to try to win somebody to Christ. I haven't got there yet. Thank you, God, for keeping the future so nice and clean for us. Please, God, don't let any of our Bob Jones boys and girls soil any page of the Christmas holidays. They've been in this institution. When they go back home, mother's going to note an improvement. Dad will. Neighbors say, she sure has improved, hasn't he? He's wonderful. There must be a good school down there. I'd like to send my child down there, but I'm afraid she wouldn't live right. Yeah. Well, you live right. You live right home. You can make your mother forget some tears she may have shed about you. If you go home and she said, oh, my boy, my darling girl, it's so different. Something really has happened to him. That must be a wonderful place down there at Bob Jones University. Yeah. And you got some girlfriend back there, a boyfriend that isn't saved. And you can say, listen, I've been praying for you since I went to Bob Jones University. Life hasn't been exactly the same. I've been trusting Jesus, and I want you to be a Christian. What kind of a record are you going to make Christmas? You'll be leaving in a few days, but you haven't left yet. And God has grace enough stored up to give you victory during the holidays. And there isn't one person in this house that couldn't win somebody to Jesus and have a shining star in your crown in heaven. And you can rub the expression of sadness out of mother's face maybe for some little dagger you stuck in her heart years ago and get back home and say, oh, I'm so glad she's at Bob Jones University. Oh, she's changed so much in the past. I sure do notice a difference when they go down there. They've said that all over the country. Boys and girls, I'm not asking much of you. I am asking this of you. I don't want you to come back here after Christmas with a blot on your record. You haven't soiled any page. You haven't been in neck and parties. You haven't been to that wild crowd. Oh, you say, I know I can hold. Wait a minute. When you think you stand, take heed lest you fall. Watch out. If you deliberately expose yourself unnecessarily to temptation, you'll yield to temptation. Avoid the appearance of evil. No temptation has taken you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful and does not serve you to be tempted, but that you're able. Boys and girls, I hate to tell you, but you know this world's an awful mess. Folks getting married and can't stay married. Young folks are stealing. Some of these summer parties where young people go to picnics are the biggest necking parties in the country. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, they weren't saved. They were just sort of stimulated a little. Listen, if you unnecessarily put yourself in front of a temptation deliberately, you've already yielded. For he told you to flee. Euthyllus, David, a poet, a psalmist, all the emotions wrapped up in a poetic soul. Could write the 23rd Psalm with a pen of inspiration. One night was on a housetop, looking at the stars and watch them pin back the curtain of the night. He said, I put that in my book, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show it is handiwork. But he looked across the court and there's a woman over there, hadn't pulled her shade down. Why didn't she do that? That's modesty. An immodest woman's a bad woman. Why didn't she pull her shade down? Went across there. I think he said, I better not look. We took a parting look and started off and came back. You know what that little look did? Oh, what a little look will do. Husband was killed in battle. This grace and this honor, this name, that servant of God, that poetic writer. Boys and girls, when you get to flirting with the devil, the devil's gonna put his arms around you, hug you to his bosom. What did God tell you to do? He told you to flee youthful lust. If there's a boy back home that you are going with, that you know is not right, and you've permitted him to have some liberties with you, even if you haven't, and you go back and let him date you at Christmas, and he doesn't get his arm around you, the devil will. because he told you to run. Not into the arms of temptation, but to flee you for lust. Boys and girls, I love every one of you. You're like my own children. I'd die for you if necessary. I want you to keep a clean record this Christmas. I want you to do it for mother's sake and dad's sake. I want you to do it for the sake of Jesus Christ that died for you. I want you to come back here after Christmas out in blood on your record. I want you to win somebody to Christ. Talk Jesus to them. Tell them you're saved. Tell them you want them saved. Every last one of you can do it. I want everybody in this house that knows you've been saved. Now you know you've been born again, you know you've been converted. I want you to stand. Don't stand unless you know it, man. Keep standing just a moment. Now I'm not, can't see very well whether anybody's seated. Maybe a few scattered around. I think practically everybody's standing. All right, boys and girls. I want you during the holidays to live like a saved person ought to live. You're going to represent Bob Jones University at home Christmas. They're going to note all the changes in you. There may be somebody up there whose life you could win to Christ. Maybe somebody you might bring to this school and save them from a life of misery and torment. What an opportunity. I want mother and dad to see a difference in you. They'll go to bed at night, and he'll say, honey, can't you see a change? Yes, I can. Well, isn't it wonderful? They'll go to sleep at night. You don't know what it means. You've never hugged a little baby in your bosom, your own little baby. You know, I never had but one child. I was hugging Bobby in my arms when he was a little fella, just a little fella. Of course, they say a father doesn't love like a mother. Maybe not. But you know, I just got thinking about it. I said to myself, if Bob, my little baby, grows up, becomes an awful sinner, and goes to the judgment bar of God, and God says, depart, and I see him start to hell, I think I'll run up and say, oh, God, don't send Bob to hell. Let me take his place. I think it'd be easier, maybe. I don't know. Your mother's going to watch you when you come home, your dad, neighbors. You'll have the greatest opportunity the next few days you've ever had in your life. Let your light shine. How many people standing up now can say, well, when I came here, I really wasn't right with God, but I believe I've got right with Him. Put your hands up. That's right. Everywhere in the house. Everywhere in the house. All right. How many of us say, Bob Jones, I want to pledge you as a founder of this school, and I want to pledge Jesus this morning, by the grace of God, I'm going to live a Christian life during the holidays, all of us. And I'll try to win somebody to Jesus Christ. I'll try to win somebody to Christ, maybe a loved one, maybe a friend. But God help me, I'm going to, by the grace of God, live like I think a Christian ought to live. And I'm going to try to win somebody to Christ during the holidays. Put up your hand. Hold them up high now. Hold them up high. All of us ought to get in that. Now let's bow our heads and pray. Blessed Jesus, we don't know how to say it, but you know how we love these boys and girls. Feel like they belong to the family. Their schools tried to be mother and dad to them. We couldn't do it. But we've tried. We've prayed for them. We've preached for them, to them. Lord God, let thy power come upon us. Every one of these shooters could win somebody to Jesus during the holiday. Over 3,000 souls could be won directly. And then the ones they win could win somebody. And that would be over 6,000. Lord, help us go home. When we get back there, let mother and dad say, well, aren't you happy? When they go to bed at night, say, can't you see a big difference? They can smooth out some of the wrinkles that's been getting in mother and dad's face. Let the pastor say, well, I'll tell you, that person certainly has improved. Let the old crowd, they used to read with some of them. They weren't right. Say, I can see such a difference. Lord, help us. Help us. Bless the faculty. Help us to come back after Christmas to this campus with the cleanest record ever been brought here by any student body. Pour out the spirit of God upon us. Lord, I don't know. I'm getting old. I may not be here much longer. I don't know. It may be my last Christmas. I don't know. But I do know how the devil works and the dangers we face. But we thank you that you are sufficient. Your grace is sufficient. We can win souls. We can kindle a smile on the brow of a mother's bereavement and put a light in dad's eyes. Help the old Sunday school teachers see a difference. Demonstrate in the community that something's happened to us, something miraculous. Keep us by thy power. Every head bowed and eyes closed just one minute. Is there anybody in this house this morning that can say, well, I haven't been right since I've been here. I, at times, I feel I haven't been right. But before I go out of this room this morning, I want to dedicate my life to God completely. And I want Him to give me the grace, and I believe He'll do it, to live the kind of Christian life I ought to live. People say, that holds your hand up. Put them up. That's right. How many of you since you, that's right, God bless you, put them up. How many of you since you came here this year feel like you've gotten right since you've been here? Hold your hand up. Hold them up high. All right, God bless every one of you. God bless you. Now, Father, keep us by thy power and use us for thy glory. For Jesus' sake, amen.