Chicago Conference: 1963
Table of Contents
Salvation, Great, Common, Present, Eternal
Gospel—W. Smith
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
And the gospel is that which speaks of the salvation of God, the salvation which he extends to whosoever will.
And what a wonderful word that is whosoever.
There's none left out.
All may come.
All who feel their need of a Savior may come to the Lord Jesus Christ in mind and find that salvation which he alone can give.
So tonight I'd like to speak on the subject.
Of salvation.
It's a grand subject. It's a broad subject.
And it's one which is dear to the heart of God and is dear to the hearts of those that love God.
And how blessed it is and how happy it makes the soul when we hear of those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just recently, some of us have been up in the Maritime provinces.
And we have had word there of some amongst the children who have owned the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
And oh, how it makes the heart rejoice.
When we hear of those who come by faith putting their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this one's desire tonight, and I know the desire of many others. And there's been prayer that has gone up this evening on behalf of the gospel to go forth in this room tonight, that it may be blessed to any who were yet unsaved.
But it turned with me first to the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Hebrews 2.
Verse one.
Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, and less at any time we should let them slip.
For one of the words spoken by angels were steadfast.
And every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which is the first, began to be spoken by the Lord?
And was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
There's a solemn word we have here.
Speaking to those who knew who had heard the word of God.
And I dare say there are very few in this room tonight who have not heard the word of God on numerous occasions.
And I dare say that there are many of the children as well as the older ones who can repeat verse after verse Speaking of salvation.
I saw the writer of this epistle.
Says we, Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.
I wonder how much the things which we have heard the verses that have been repeated in the Sunday school, the verses that have been learned at home.
I wonder how much they have entered into the heart.
How much?
Has that word meant to you or to me?
Have we heeded it?
Have we entered into the reality that the words we repeat?
Are the word of God.
They were just given to us by inspiration.
There with God by his holy prophets and others has given to us.
Oh, may we not let them depart out of our hearts.
00:05:05
There's a danger.
In not giving heed to the things which we have heard.
There is a danger of slipping away.
Yes, there is such a thing, you know as hearing the gospel of the grace of God time after time so that it becomes an old story. We hear it and we don't pay any attention to it.
Ought A solemn thing, and we have the warning here in connection with it.
Yeah, we ought to give them more earnest heed to the things which we have heard and.
Lasted anytime we should slip away now that the Word will slip away because the word of God is faithful.
But as a danger of letting ourselves slip away.
Of not hating the word anymore.
The story has been repeated so many times.
Of the town.
Where there was a great forage.
And the hammers, those steam hammers, were going day and night, forging out the steel.
And the people of the town had got to the point where it didn't bother them anymore when they heard them at night.
It doesn't hinder them from sleeping. They slept right on through it.
There was a man, a traveling man, who went through that town.
And the first night there when he heard those hammers.
He couldn't sleep. The noise was too great.
And he asked in the next morning, How is it you can sleep through all that noise? All they say. We don't pay any attention to it anymore.
For one night, this man slept soundly all night long. He had a wonderful sleep.
And the next morning he woke and he said to those around him, oh, I had such a good sleep last night. They said we couldn't sleep.
That night the power had gone down. There was number power to operate those hammers.
And here was a man who had been disturbed by the noise. Oh, he slept, but the others who had become hardened to it when there was no more sound.
Oh, they couldn't sleep.
You know the day is coming when the gospel will no longer be preached.
When it would no longer be announced, and those who tonight may be able to sit under the sand of the gospel and not have it affect their conscience.
When the gospel is no longer preached, there is going to be a great awakening and people are going to knock as a Lord, Lord open to us.
Oh, in that day, the answer is going to be I never knew you.
It will be a solemn time, therefore we ought to give them more earnest heed.
To the things which we have heard lasted anytime, we should slip away.
In the second verse it speaks of the giving of the law.
When the Law was given to Moses at Mount Sinai.
The law was given through the disposition of angels.
Tandem Mountain was on fire.
Covered with thick darkness.
So that Moses himself who could speak face to face with God.
We say I exceedingly fear and quake.
That was the Word given by God in that day.
Presenting his Holy law to his people, Israel.
And those who disobeyed that law.
They were visited by the judgment of God.
Yes, the judgment of God was a penalty for disobedience to the law.
But tonight.
00:10:00
We announced not the law of God, but we announced the salvation.
God, come out now in grace to you and me.
God is not now demanding obedience.
No, he's presenting A savior to sinners and is presenting A savior to you this night.
He asked. A Savior who came down here into this world.
Bringing grace and truth.
We find in John's Gospel that the law was given by Moses.
But grace and truth.
Came by Jesus Christ.
Oh, what a difference.
Yes, there's grace manifested from God himself. Grace to meet the Sinner in his need and the truth.
To reveal to man what a Sinner is and to reveal to what a God of love we have to deal with.
Oh, think of it. God come out revealing himself as a God of love. His very nature is love. He reveals himself in that character through his own beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, it was through Him, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came down here into this world in order to bring to you and me the story of a God of love.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
Oh God is pleased to present the salvation as if great salvation.
The law.
Announced God and his character as holy.
But all the salvation which was announced by our Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a great salvation.
Yes, it brings to us God is a God of love, and it came down here into this world proclaimed by none other than the blessed Son of God.
We read of him in the first chapter. He speaks there of his glory.
The one who was the very expression of the being of God.
Think of it the very expression of the being of God and the outstanding of his glory.
That is the one you came down here into this world.
Veiling his glory as a humble man, he came down here in order to present to sinners such as you and I.
The salvation from the hand of God.
Oh, no wonder that God calls it a great salvation.
It began to be spoken first.
By our Lord Jesus Christ, Have you considered that?
That the gospel was announced first by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, it couldn't have been revealed before he came, no.
Is a law.
Which was given by God only condemned men. It pronounced upon man the sentence of death.
But the gospel which came by Jesus Christ?
Brings everlasting life. Oh, what a difference.
It was first, first began to be spoken by the Lord.
Oh, think of it. The Lord of Glory come down here into this world. They despised man. A hated man.
And yet who showed nothing but grace and love to those who came to him?
And it came not to call the righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance. He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
00:15:01
Yes, it's a great salvation.
And it was confirmed to us.
By those that heard our Lord Jesus Christ speak the words of salvation.
You and I.
Have, in the precious word of God, a heritage.
Of value which cannot be measured.
God has revealed Himself in his precious word.
And all how we need to lay hold of it. He's presented His word to us for our acceptance. And in the Word is proclaimed this great salvation which God offers. Is there one here tonight who doesn't know what it is to have that salvation, that great salvation, and it's gone. Who gives it that character because it came.
Through his own beloved sorrow.
Now shall we turn to Jude?
Verse 3.
Beloved.
When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was need performing to write unto you and exhort you, that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints.
It had been the mind of Jude.
Starting to pen this epistle?
To speak of that same salvation of which we've been reading in Hebrews 2.
But we find here that he gives it a different character.
He speaks of it as a common salvation.
Now perhaps we can explain the word common here.
It certainly doesn't mean anything ordinary.
Anything to be despised.
No.
But what it brings before us is the fact that the salvation of which God has to offer.
Is 1, which meets the need of all alike.
There are no preferences with gum. There is no special salvation.
For certain privileged ones.
No, all must come to God on the same ground.
There is only one way that you and I can come to God to receive this salvation.
And it must be on the ground.
That you and I are sinners.
Were sinners.
The word of God tells us that all have sinned.
And come short of the glory of God.
That's a positive statement.
And it admits of no other interpretation but that you and I.
Are sinners in the sight of God and as sinners?
All our dessert is judgment on account of our sins, because the same epistle that tells us that all have sinned tells us that the wages of sin is death.
Yes, it's a solemn thing. The wages of sin is death.
Now the world will tell us there's nothing, sure, except death and taxes.
It's an admission on the part of man that he is a Sinner.
Because it was on account of sin that death came into the world.
And because man is a Sinner.
Gom sent his only begotten son into the world.
00:20:00
Yes, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
How precious it is that he came to receive sinners.
Do you own the juror center?
Have you seen yourself in the light of the word of God as a Sinner?
Have you found yourself as one deserving nothing but judgment at the hand of God on account of sin?
Whether you admit it or not is true.
It's true.
But God has prepared a salvation.
It's a common salvation.
That all may come to God, all that one ground on that same ground.
Coming to God and receiving from his hand salvation.
Through the cleansing power.
Of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What a wonderful theme that is.
To know that the blood.
Of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses from all sin.
It is true, and the statement is just as clear and emphatic as a statement that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.
Do you know what it is to have your sins cleansed?
Through the blood of Jesus.
Have you come to him and found him the One?
Who will save? Have you come on that ground as a needy Sinner?
And desiring to have your sins washed away in his own precious blood and.
The Lord Jesus Christ is willing tonight to have you come to him.
Yes, it's a desire of his heart to have you as one of his own, cleansed in his own priceless blood, though it's a common salvation.
There are none who can claim anything different than that. Oh, there are many.
Who would seek to come on their own terms, on their own ground? How many will say, well, I'm not as bad as the other person.
Perhaps God has some other way for me.
Oh, there's no other way, no, none other name under heaven given amongst men, whereby we must be saved, It must be through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What does that name mean to you?
Is that name dear deal?
When you hear the name of the Lord Jesus spoken.
Does it produce a response in your heart?
Do you find that name stirring the faction in your heart?
Oh, those that know him as savior. How precious it is to hear that name mentioned.
Mentioned with honor to him.
All we hear the world speak that name in blasphemy.
And that, too, effects the heart of those that love the Lord Jesus Christ.
God brings sorrow to the heart to think of him being spoken of in such a way.
But always the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that avails in the presence of God is that name.
Which God honors and those that come to him, those that come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith.
God gives them that salvation.
And everyone here in this room who knows the Lord Jesus Christ his Savior, has come in that same way on the ground of being a Sinner.
00:25:04
And needing salvation and finding that the Lord Jesus.
Is the one who alone is able to meet the need.
Has your need been met tonight?
Do you know him as your savior? If when you came in this room, you didn't know I'm a savior, all made by the grace of God. May you not go out of this room without knowing that he is your own precious savior.
Now as we'll return to two Corinthians.
Chapter 6.
Verse 2.
For yourself.
I have heard the in a time accepted and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee.
Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Here the writer tells us that the salvation of which we speak is a present salvation.
You can know tonight.
That you are saved.
You can know on the authority of the word of God.
That tonight you may have the Lord Jesus Christ.
As your savior.
We can't promise.
That tomorrow.
You can have salvation. We can't promise that at all.
The story is told.
Mr. Moody, who many years ago was preaching the gospel in the city of Chicago.
Any priest, The powerful gospel.
He presented the gospel faithfully to his audience.
And at the end of the.
Of the meeting.
He said to them. Now I want you to go home and think it over and come back again next week.
And will present the gospel again.
As the story goes, he had hardly gotten through speaking, but there was a sound of the fire engines going down the street.
The Great Chicago Fire had broken out.
And that company never convened again. Many in that company lost their lives in that fire.
I believe it was two years ago in this very hall.
That as the gospel was being preached one night.
But down here, the railroad crossing.
A car crossing the tracks.
Was met by a train as it went by.
And there were hours getting that car out from underneath the locomotive.
A man's life was snuffed out.
My dear friend and you young people, you have been raised in Christian homes.
Do you know?
That you will be able to come back here again tomorrow night and hear the gospel preached again.
Paul Solemn.
You may never hear the gospel preached again. This may be your last opportunity for hearing of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Savior.
And you know, it may be that yet tonight to the Lord Jesus will come.
Take his own, his redeemed ones out of this world to be with himself.
And then the door of mercy will be forever shut.
There will be no more gospel preached.
00:30:04
You do not know, my friend, but what? This may be your last opportunity to take the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. What are you going to do about it?
Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.
Oh, this is a time.
Are you going to neglect it?
Are you going to put it off?
Oh, how many have put off?
Their sole salvation?
How many have put it off?
Until it was too late.
Yes, the solemn word. Too late.
There was a minor.
Who had been sitting under the sound of the gospel?
He heard the word of God.
He listened to it. He was convicted.
As to the question of his sins before a holy God.
And he was pressed by those around him to take the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
In that night he did take the Lord Jesus as Savior. Yes, he came to the Lord Jesus and found him as good as his word. He found him one who could save.
The next day he went down into the mine.
It went down to work as usual.
And down there in the mine, there was an accident.
And this man was trapped under many tons of coal.
They tried to get him out.
But he was crushed and they saw that he was dying.
But he was trying to say something.
And they got down to listen to what he had to say.
And his words were this.
Thank God it was settled last night.
Tomorrow, if you're left here till tomorrow.
Will you be able to say thank God it was settled last night?
Will you come tonight?
To the Lord Jesus Christ.
To find him, the one who offers a present salvation.
Ah, you can't wait until tomorrow, no.
How many have waited and waited and waited?
Only.
To find that it was too late.
God speaks once, yeah, twice. But man perceives it not.
There comes a time when God no longer speaks.
There comes a time.
When God ceases to deal with the soul, the soul that is put off.
Just too long and he finds it too late.
Oh, may you not wait until it's too late?
Oh, what solemn words have been spoken?
Too late. Too late.
May you come tonight?
And know that the salvation that God has to give is the salvation which it gives tonight.
Now shall we turn to Hebrews 5?
Verse 7.
And this is Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears unto him, that was able to save him from death, and was hurt in that he feared though he were a son, yet learned the obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation, and to all them that obey him.
00:35:04
It's the words in particular eternal salvation that one has before him.
But we read the seventh verse.
In order to bring out what it was that our Lord Jesus Christ went through, in order that you may hear the offer of salvation tonight.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
The eternal Son of God.
Came down here into this world, He took upon him.
A flash reform?
Yes, he came down into this world in Flash.
And he went through this world.
And on to the cross.
Oh, what a time it was.
When the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only contemplated but went through.
The Cross, The sufferings of the cross.
In the days of His flesh.
He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crime to God.
Have you read?
What he went through in the Garden of Gethsemane.
As he contemplated what it would mean to go to the cross.
To bear the sins of those who put their trust in him.
Have you thought of it when he cried to his father?
Oh my father, it would be possible let this cup pass from me.
Why were those words spoken by him there?
What is because he felt that what would mean to him to be the sin bearer? There was no sin in him.
He had never committed a single sin in all his life.
For when he would go to the cross.
There he would bear the sins of many.
Yes, he would.
And in bearing those sins, he would bear the judgment from the hand of a holy God on account of those.
Think of it. Think of what it meant to him, He who was holy, he who abhorred sin.
To be made sin for you, for me.
Think of the love of his heart, but think of what it meant to him as that one.
To be.
There and weighing perfectly as none other, but he could wave what it would cost him.
And then to go on to the cross.
And there bear the hand of a holy God, that judgment which would have taken you and me down into a lost eternity.
Into the lake of fire.
Oh, he bore that judgment.
That judgment against sin was poured out upon him.
And because sin was laid upon him there, a holy God must forsake that blessed one.
And there he would cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Oh, he knew the answer. Yes, he knew the answer. It is because he was there, the sin bearer.
And the streams of the speaker were laid upon him at that time.
How about your sins?
Where your sins laid upon him.
When he hung up on the cross.
Did he bear that judgment for you in those three hours of darkness?
What does it mean to you that the Lord Jesus Christ went to Calvary's cross?
Oh, they what it meant to him.
Offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears.
00:40:05
That's what it meant to him, yes.
And if we were to turn to the Gospels, we'd find there that in contemplating what it would cost him.
He sweat as the word grade drops of blood.
Oh yes, that's what it meant to him.
But oh, if that was the contemplation of it, what about it when he actually went through?
The judgment of God against sin upon the cross.
Was God able to save him from it?
Oh, you know, he could have gone back to glory without dying. He could have gone back without bearing your sins and minds. But all he had. We would not be here tonight Speaking of salvation or the gospel. There would have been no salvation.
The Lord Jesus Christ must go to the cross. He must suffer at the hand of God for sin, if you and I.
Are to be saved.
Yes, it must be that way. There's none other way. There's no other way that you and I could be saved except that the Lord Jesus Christ were to go to the cross.
Being made perfect.
He became the author of eternal salvation.
Unto all them that obey him.
The salvation which we had to speak up tonight is not only a great salvation is not only a common salvation, not only a present salvation, but as an eternal salvation, oh precious, it's an eternal salvation. And the soul that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith will find that he is the one who gives that salvation.
And he saves eternally.
Oh, it's a fact that he saved eternally.
All when we come to him, he holds us in his hand, and you'll never let us go.
Are precious.
And our wonderful ideals to be able to say that the salvation which I have is 1 which I will have throughout all eternity. I can have it now.
Yes, I have it now, and I'm going to have it throughout all eternity.
Can you say that?
You know, the Lord Jesus is coming to take his own out of this world, and he's going to have them with himself to enjoy to the full that salvation which he gives us. And we're going to enjoy it for eternity. There's going to be that going on and on and on.
In the presence of him who went to the cross.
It will be to go on forever singing the praise of him who died at Calvary, the one who even in the glory has all the marks.
Of the suffering that he went through at Calvary.
We're going to see those marks.
We're going to see the man that died for us.
Yes, we are.
Oh, what joy it gives to the heart of the soul that has salvation to think I'm going to see him.
The Lambs had been slain is to see him and to sing praise to him. And he praised will go on and on. Or do you have it? Will you have it? Will you have it tonight all? May you not go out of this room tonight without knowing what it is to have the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and to have this salvation.
Which we speak up tonight.
So we sing #37.
Fruit for God
Many Know the Scriptures But Have Not Believed. Have You Believed
Children—I. Klassen
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I wonder which of the children here this morning knows the verse for today.
Does anyone know the verse for today? Do we have one volunteer, Jimmy?
Well, if you didn't know, I'll hear it. I'll read it myself. John 1011. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
And I'd like to refer also to another verse in John 12.
Accept a corn of wheat, fall into the ground and die.
It abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. I'm sure that many of you children have learned this verse in the past.
If you children and the grown-ups here too, are like I am, perhaps we have often wondered what it might have been like to have lived in the time of the Lord Jesus.
I sometimes wonder if I had been walking along the path.
With the Lord Jesus, when he was saying these words, would I have believed it? Would I have received it into my heart? I sometimes wonder.
We we think, well, it was so obvious.
Surely the Lord Jesus was telling the truth. He was saying something important, something which should be believed. We know too that there were a lot of people in those days who read the word, who read the scriptures.
Who knew the Scriptures but yet did not believe the Lord Jesus when he came into this earth?
There are many people who were following him who had read in the Old Testament how that someone would arise from the family of King David and he would be a king someday in Jerusalem. He would reign. He would be on a throne where a crown. And it also told in the Old Testament how that this same person wouldn't be born in a palace. He wouldn't be born to a very wealthy family.
But he would be born in a little town in Bethlehem, and he would be born of a virgin.
Now these same people who read these words and knew it so well when the Lord Jesus came.
They did not want to receive him. They didn't want him as a savior.
Now if he had come into the world, and he had said, Now I am the one.
I am the one who has a right to be king.
They probably would have crowned him a king. Later on we read how that when he went into Jerusalem the final time just before he was crucified.
The people lined up along the side of the road and they said Hosanna to the son of David.
We would say Hooray, they said Hosanna. In those days that somewhat the same idea and they put palm branches on the road in front of him. And if he had gone right straight up into Jerusalem and said now I'm ready to be a king, I think that they would have.
Made him a king. They were ready to do that.
And certainly he had a right to be king. If we read in Matthew about his earthly father Joseph, we would read that he had a right to be king. And his mother Mary, also descended from David. So by all rights, Joseph and Mary should have been king and queen, shouldn't they? Not only king and queen of Judah, but of all Israel. But Israel had sinned, sin came in, and God divided.
The children of Israel and they had gone down South far. They had been so wicked.
That God had allowed a foreign enemy nation to come in and take many away captive, and at this time the government of Rome was ruling in Jerusalem instead of the Lord Jesus, but with all that.
It is very likely that the Lord Jesus would have been crowned if he had gone right in and taken the place that belonged to him. But instead, and this is the important thing the Lord Jesus said to his disciples over and over again, and he told the people around him too that it was not yet time for him to be a king. That time had not come, he told Nicodemus. Remember.
00:05:13
How? He said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. He was telling even Nicodemus early in his ministry how that he was going to have to die. And he also told this other reference about the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying. And many times he spoke to his disciples about the fact that he had to die first and bear the sins of the world.
And finally we read in Luke 18. Just before he walked into the city of Jerusalem, he told his disciples again how he must die, how he would be buried and rise again the 3rd day. And in spite of the fact that he had told this so many times, the disciples still didn't understand it. They didn't enter into it in their hearts. Well, if this was something so important.
The Lord Jesus had to repeat it so many times. To those who followed him, it must be important for us too. And if we go back in the Old Testament, we will see that even in Genesis the Holy Spirit, through his the God's word, tells us how the Lord Jesus was to come into the earth and die. And I'd like to read about this in Genesis, the third chapter.
It's always a good idea when you want to learn about something, to go to the very first place where you find any mention of it.
Then go on from there. When you build a house, you don't build the roof first, do you?
You build a foundation, and Genesis is sort of a foundation of God's Word.
And it is a wonderful thing to notice how God's word all sticks together, just like the the parts of a house all fit together, they belong together. So we'll read in Genesis the third chapter about the very first people, whoever lived on this earth.
Genesis 3 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yeah, Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, He shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God does know that in the day he eat thereof. Then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her. And he did eat in the eyes of them both were open, and they knew that they were naked, And they sewed big leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, And I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said, the woman whom thou gave us to be with me. She gave me of the tree, And I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle.
And above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, Curse it is the grounds, for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it. All the days of thy life thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, And thou shalt eat the herb of the field In a sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken.
00:10:25
For dust thou art, and unto dust till thou return.
The 21St verse unto Adam also into his wife, that the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them.
I am sure that you children have learned this story well.
And I'm sure you know how it was that sin entered into the world.
If a modern day writer were writing the history, the story of man, and he had to put in this story house in entered into the world, he probably would have said that it began in the 4th chapter.
What happened in the 4th chapter? What happened in the very next chapter? What terrible thing happened? Who can tell me?
Does someone know what happened in the next chapter with Adam and Eve's sons?
Well, we remember that that is where Cain killed Abel, his brother, and everyone would agree. Surely this is a very bad thing to murder somebody, especially murdering your brother.
What a terrible thing that was. And yet.
In God's Word we are told over and over again that it was Adam and Eve who first sinned, and their sin was something which to us might not seem very serious just to eat the fruit of a tree.
But the important thing was that God had said they shouldn't eat of that tree. They weren't supposed to.
Because if they did, they would die.
And we know that from that very time, death has been working in this world.
Now, how did this all come about? I don't think that any of us can imagine what it would have been like to have lived with Adam and Eve in this world before they sinned. I don't think we can imagine a world in which, for instance, the trees wouldn't have any dead leaves on them, any dead branches. There'd be no animals that were sick.
We're suffering in any way.
There wasn't one bad thing in all the world. Can you imagine such a world with nothing bad in it? The Bible says that God looked over all he had made and behold it was very good. We're satisfied that things are just a little bit good, aren't we? We think that's very nice. But this world was so perfect that God himself, who could see everything that was wrong, if there were such a thing, He looked over all of it and it was very good. He was completely satisfied.
And here Adam and Eve in a scene where God himself was perfectly satisfied. Let Satan tell them you're missing something. You don't have everything you need. God is holding out on you. That's what the for the serpent Satan said hath God said? Did he really say so? He made them doubt. He made them wonder whether this was actually true.
So.
Poor Eve. She listened to Satan, she listened to the serpent, and she ate of the fruit of that tree, and she gave it to her husband. Now, as I said before, we might not think that was very bad, but Adam and Eve had been provided with a conscience.
That's an awfully important thing to have a conscience. The conscience is to our spirit very much.
Like our nerves are to our body. Our nerves tell us if we put our hand on something hot, we pull it away so we don't hurt ourselves. It warns us. Our conscience tells us when our spirit when our souls are endangered. It tells us when we are in danger of doing something wrong. And this is what the conscience did for Adam and Eve and as soon as they ate of the fruit of that tree.
We don't read that they were very happy. They rejoiced in the fact that now they were as God's knowing good and evil. If they thought about it, why should they know about evil? There wasn't any evil then. None at all. But they they just wanted something more than what God had given them. So now they knew that they had sinned, they had disobeyed God. And in all the Bible there is no sin that is more serious.
00:15:24
In God's sight and disobedience.
When we read in First Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians about those who are going to be destroyed when God judges the world, it is those who don't obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those are the ones.
Did you ever think that there isn't going to be one man in the lake of fire because he killed somebody or because he robbed a bank? That's not going to be the reason.
Every last person who is in the lake of fire is going to be there because he disobeyed the gospel. He wouldn't receive the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. That's the only reason. That's the only one. Well, anyway, Adam and Eve here disobeyed God. They sinned against God, and right away, instead of feeling good, they felt bad. They realized that they were naked. Well, they had been naked before, but in God's words, nakedness speaks to us of sins.
We read that all things are naked and open in the eyes of him, of God.
That is, with whom we have to do so God. They knew now that God knew they were sinners, so they went and did themselves behind the trees of the garden. And then God came along. As we read here, He apparently was used to walking in the garden, perhaps every day. He came down and talked to Adam and Eve in the garden. This spoke to them about how things were going, just to have communion with them, to have fellowship with them.
All at once, this was broken.
God came down. He didn't. They weren't there. So he called out Adam, where art thou all? This must have been an awful question for Adam to hear God utter. Where art thou? What's happened? So Adam and Eve had to confess that they had done wrong. They had sinned.
And now I particularly want to stress what God did about it. We know from Romans the third chapter.
By one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, for all have sinned.
Oh, what a terrible thing to think about. It wasn't just Adam and Eve that sinned, but we, all of us, everyone on the face of this earth and everyone who has ever lived on this earth.
Has shared in that sin everyone who has ever been born into this world has been born and sinned. And we read in his in Ezekiel 18 The soul that sin it shall die.
And that holds true for us just as well as it did for Adam and Eve. When the Lord God said, the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die.
And one way, one way that is translated, it says dying, thou shalt die. This is important because many people say, well, God's word isn't true because Adam and Eve didn't die that day. They lived for quite a long time. They had children and grandchildren, great grandchildren. They didn't die that day.
But they started to, and you know that the moment a little baby is born into this world.
It's dark, dying. This is hard for us to imagine sometimes, because little healthy children look like there just couldn't be anything wrong with them. But the various parts of our bodies start dying the very moment we are born. And not only that, I dare say there isn't a person in this room that hasn't been sick sometime. There isn't a person in this room who hasn't been sad. Was that to worry? Hasn't had to worry about something.
Did you ever think that all of this is because of sin? All the world says that it's just because of bad luck? Things aren't just going right. They'll try to explain it away in many ways, but people don't like to know that these things came about because of sin. And This is why the large part of the world and the people, the people in the world do not want the Savior.
Because he is only a savior for sinners.
00:20:01
He's not a Sinner for good people. Remember when the Lord Jesus went into Zacchaeus in his house and Zacchaeus told him about the good things he had done?
The Lord Jesus said Today is salvation entered into this house.
For as much as he also is a son of Abraham, and we read in in Galatians how that those who are children of Abraham are those who have faith. And then the Lord Jesus went on to say, the son of man has come to seek and to save what good people?
Know that which was lost.
So throughout God's Word we are reminded over and over again that man is lost. And then we read here in the 14th verse.
The Lord God sent unto the serpent, because thou hast done this. And remember he is speaking here to Satan. Satan, in the form of a snake. Thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And now listen carefully to this next verse, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman. That's Eve, and between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel. What we might say in reading this verse? What does this have to do with the Lord Jesus? Just this.
That the Holy Spirit here is worth speaking about the Lord Jesus himself as the seed of the woman. Surely this could not be said of anyone else who has ever walked in this earth, that anyone else ever bruised the head of the serpent, Satan.
Here, at the very beginning, about 4000 years before the Lord Jesus came into this earth to suffer and die on Calvary's cross, God knew it was so important.
That a savior should be given to this world, that Adam and Eve.
Themselves were told about it.
And throughout the word we have many.
References to the fact that the Lord Jesus was to die. Oh, how solemnly Isaiah, the 53rd chapter tells us of the suffering, the death of the Lord Jesus, and then all the sacrifices that were ever sacrificed by the children of Israel, and even by those who came before that Abraham.
By Jacob Isaac, All the Rest.
All those sacrifices spoke of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you'll remember that Cain brought a sacrifice too, didn't he? Who remembers what Cain brought? What did Cain give to the Lord for sacrifice was a little lamb. What was it?
The best fruit of his garden? That's right.
And we also read that God couldn't accept that. Didn't we? Don't we read that in the 4th chapter of Genesis how God just couldn't accept it. He couldn't receive it. But Abel, his brother, brought of the first things of his flock. We don't read what he brought. He might have brought a little lamb and offered it to the Lord Jesus. What was the one difference?
Between the lamb and the fruit, what was the one important difference? Who can tell me?
Can you tell me?
It had to be the blood. That's the whole point right there. You're right there have to be bloodshed. Exactly. And if we'll read in Hebrews the 9th chapter, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Oh, what a wonderful thing to think, that this very principle, this important thing in God's sight.
Started out in being effective right at the time of Adam and Eve, because we read later on that God made them coats of skins to cover their nakedness. And you can't get the skin off of an animal without killing it, can you? So blood had to be shed. But here we read in the 14th verse, the 15th verse.
How the seed of the woman could bruise the head of the of the serpent Satan?
And in Hebrews the second chapter we read that by death or through death he conquered him who had the power of death. Let's read the verse exactly.
00:25:28
The 14th verse.
It speaks to the Lord Jesus that he took part of the same as the flesh and blood. He became a man.
That through death he might destroy him. That had the power of death. That is the devil. So from one end of the scripture to the other, we read, we're told over and over again that the Lord Jesus had to overcome Satan.
By going into death. This is what it means when it says in Genesis, the third chapter, that Satan should bruise the head.
Of the Lord Jesus.
It was only through death that the Lord Jesus could overcome death. And as God, of course he couldn't die. No, he had to take a body just like a man's body, in every way, like a man's body and then going to death. And this is what the people of his time did not want to have.
And we can be pretty sure that the reason that they did not want.
The Lord Jesus to die. They didn't want to have him as a dying savior.
And as a risen savior, because this would remind them of the fact.
That they were sinners.
People don't like to know, They don't like to hear that they're lost. They like to feel that everything is going very well with them, that everything is fine. They have nothing to worry about. And there are many people who on this very day today will stand, will sit in various church buildings and they will hear preachers say that everything is fine and getting better. All they have to do is wait and see for themselves. Everyday man is improving himself and getting better and better.
Oh, the Bible doesn't say so. The Bible says there is none that doeth good. No, not one.
And from that if that was true, when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, if that was true.
When the disciples walked on this earth with them, and the apostles wrote later on how much more true it is today.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one.
No, men don't like to hear that they're sinners. They don't like to think about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ as a savior. All their men who say, yes, he died, He died all right. He died as a martyr. You know what a martyr is? Martyr is just someone who suffers for a principle, all with the Lord. Jesus did not die as a martyr. He died willingly. He gave himself up in death. He allowed man.
To kill him.
So that he could rise again the 3rd day, all that the man Jesus that many people think of today would still be in the grave if they had their own way.
There are many who say that he died on the cross, but the important thing is that he rose again.
And he rose again. We read in First Corinthians 15. According to the Scriptures, all God had all this planned out long before man was on this earth. It was all determined just exactly how it's going to be.
From the very time of his birth until he rose back into heaven again, it was all according to a plan. Nothing was left to chance. We read in one place that.
Man was so opposed to the will of God that if the Princess of this world had known.
What was to come about? They wouldn't have crucified the Lord Jesus just to upset God's plans, but God arranged its soul. How thankful we should be for this that the Lord Jesus did die on Calvary's cross and we said at the beginning that if the Lord Jesus had been willing.
They would have crowned him a king. I don't think there's much doubt about it.
And if he had been a king on this earth?
There wouldn't be a gospel meeting this morning. There wouldn't be any gospel at all, especially for the Gentiles, those of us who are not Jews. We wouldn't have ever had a gospel preached to us.
00:30:00
And furthermore, there would not be a savior for this world. He could at the Lord Jesus could have done all his miracles. He could have been a king for a while and then gone back up to heaven. And this world would be just as bad off as it is as it was then, and our souls will be forever lost.
All the Lord Jesus had to die. He had to die on Calvary's cross in order for him to be a savior.
It is in John the 12Th chapter we read something very strange.
Let me roll to read that verse.
To show how God worked out his purposes.
I'm sorry, it's 11Th chapter. This is Caiaphas speaking the high priest. A very wicked man. He said, you know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and the whole nation Perish not in words. It was necessary, it was important. And here was a sinful man, and he was speaking the words that God put in his mouth because he didn't believe in the Lord Jesus. But God was so careful to make sure that everyone was responsible and knew about this.
So he even had the high priest, this wicked man, say that it was necessary that one man.
Should die for the people, the whole nation perish not. Or we can say more than that today. We can say that it was necessary for the Lord Jesus Christ to die, that the whole world perish. Not much of the world that is the people in it are going to perish and the earth itself. But because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, it won't be all the world. There'll be some here and there who have received the Lord Jesus Christ into their hearts.
And have been saved in this way now.
How many children in this room live on a farm?
I'm sure some of you do. And I'm sure that when I quoted that verse about the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying, that many of you know exactly what happens, how a new plant grows up from this seed. I have something else I'd like to speak about this morning. It's the same connection. What do I have here?
A peanut. You know, there's something very interesting about a peanut.
The Lord Jesus himself used an illustration from the vegetable world to illustrate his death.
For sin and for sinners.
There's something very peculiar about a peanut, which is very similar and very instructive. I didn't know until recently how peanuts brew. They're grown mostly down in the South I believe, and some of you who come from down there know about this. But a peanut doesn't grow on a tree, it grows on a Bush. Well, like a good sized tomato, flat.
And this Bush, during the first part of its life, has nice leaves.
And pretty yellow flowers. And when these flowers are fully opened up and they're very pretty, the petals drop off, All the flowers gone. They're just a little pod left on the end of the stock. And then this stock turns down and grows right down to the ground. And under the ground it brings forth its fruit, the peanut. Well, this, to me, reminded me very much of the Lord Jesus.
He grew up among men. The 1St 30 years, we don't know much about what happened to him, do we?
He was just like anybody else, just like the peanut plant is like any other plant from a distance. Then it comes to maturity. It grows to its full size. The Lord Jesus, when he came to maturity, was about 30 years of age. We're not told exactly, but about 30.
Then, in the very prime of his life, the best part of his life, he might say, Humanly speaking, he gave up his beauty. All we read in Isaiah the 53rd chapter. In the 52nd chapter, particularly how his face was marred when he let men beat him on the face, put a crown of thorns on his head, he gave up all that which was his by right, and he went down into death on Calvary's cross.
That peanut plant couldn't have any couldn't produce peanuts if the flower just kept on blooming, could it? No, that had that. Stock has to grow down into the ground, and just as it is with the corn of wheat that has to fall on the ground, death has to come in.
00:35:02
But beyond this, the death alone was not sufficient. All we read how the soldier came with a spear and pierced his side, pierced his side with Lord Jesus after he was dead, and forthwith came what?
What came out? Yes, blood and water. Yes. Oh, that's where the blood was shed again, we say, we're told. So. Importantly, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Oh, this is the important part of the gospel, that the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross, that he shed his blood. Now it isn't important for us to know or understand just why it had to be blood.
Oh, it's God speaking, God said. It had to be so we just have to believe it.
We can't reason out. If we try to argue about it or figure it out with our own feeble minds, we'll never understand it all. But we know from first John the first chapter, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Now your children, if the Lord leads us here, are going to go out into the world. Some of you haven't started school yet. But as you do, and as you get older and start meeting more people in the world, you'll find a lot of ideas about the gospel, about God and about the Bible. And you'll find a lot of people say, well, yes, I believe in God.
What do you think I am a heathen? Many people speak that way. But you will find that if you ever talk about the blood of Jesus Christ, that's a little different story. And again, we say it is because people don't like to be reminded that they're sinners. After all, if there were no sin, the Lord Jesus Christ would not have had to die on the cross. It was for our sins that he died.
All it's important to remember about the blood.
Many years ago there was a very terrible train accident. A train was stalled on the tracks for some reason.
The brakeman took his red his flag. This is in the daytime. Took his flag back up the track about 1/4 of a mile or so. A half a mile toward another train that was coming in the same track. So he went back and here came the train at full speed. So he waved his flag.
The train didn't stop. The train went right on and crashed into the other train and many people lost their lives.
And later on there was a trial. They had to find out what happened. And the judge asked this, this brakeman, well, what did you do?
Always said, your honor, I I took my red flag and I went back up the track and I waved as hard as I could.
To warn the engineer of the other train. But he didn't slow down. He kept right on going and there was an accident. So he said, well, the judge said, now let's see this flag you were waving.
So he brought the flag in and it was a very strange thing. That red flag was number longer red. It had been used so many times, it had been out in the sun, exposed to the air, and it was just sort of a dirty yellow. It wasn't red anymore.
So all these people were lost because the warning wasn't cleared, and it's just the same way with many people preaching the gospel to day.
They don't preach the gospel of the blood of Jesus Christ. They preach something else which isn't quite as hard on people's consciences.
Oh, they're waving a yellow flag instead of a red one.
All it's important to remember it is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sins.
Not his good works, not his miracles that he did not following his example as some people would have us to do.
But simply believing that he died on Calvary's cross for you and for me.
And this doesn't leave out anyone. It doesn't leave out the smallest child in this room.
Or if you ever hear somebody preaching the gospel, anywhere or anyone tells you.
About the Gospel.
And speaks of salvation. Be sure that such a person knows what he's talking about. You ask him, do you believe the blood of Jesus Christ is what cleanses you from sin? All the person says. That's it. That's what I'm that's what I'm trusting in. You can be pretty sure that such a person.
00:40:00
As a Christian. But if this person says no, that's not necessary. All you have to do is.
Is be as good as you can and God, when the final day comes, you'll put everything in a big balance. You'll put the good things on one side and the bad things on the other. And if the good things weigh a little bit more than the bad, and I'll get to go to heaven.
No, we read all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
They are no good at all. You if somebody told you to get yourself dressed in filthy rags, would you want to go to a fine party that way? No. If somebody said you could go to heaven dressed up in your good works, or as Adam and Eve in their fig leaves, which is a type of the same thing, you'd still feel naked, just like Adam and Eve felt naked when they had those infinite fig leaves on them. Now we read at the end.
That God made them coats of skins.
And when they had these coats of skins, they were clothed. And by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his work on Calvary's cross, you and I can be clothed too, clothed in garments of salvation, as we read in Jeremiah. Oh, we have that righteousness which comes only through having our sins washed away. And when we get to heaven, and I trust all of us here, we'll get there by that same blood of Cal on Calvary's cross.
When we get there, we will feel just as comfortable in God's presence.
As the Lord Jesus Christ himself, we will have the feeling of belonging there. We won't think, well, I don't deserve to be here.
Oh, how well, we know that if we're just our actions, our deeds from day-to-day and our evil natures, we'd never deserve to be there. But at that time we will say we will see the Lord Jesus himself there with a nail marks in his hands and his feet, and we'll say that's the reason I'm here.
God was satisfied completely with what the Lord Jesus did on Calvary's cross, and that's why I have a right.
To be here and be here for all eternity, All children. We sang at the beginning about the Precious Blood of Calvary. Shed for rebels and for sinners. But can you all say shed for me? I trust so.
The Power of God
YP Address—A. Larson
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Well.
It is a little different.
What I'm accustomed to have audiences.
My audience in Mexico, sometimes there are beers sitting on the floor.
But they have the same savior you have and I have.
So I'm going to start.
Speaking about the power of God.
Their rings or rob salvation.
In vile man as we were singing undone man.
All through his grace.
Through the love of God.
God so loved the world that He gave his Son, only begotten Son, For whosoever believe in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Some time ago I went to a Barber shop in Ensenada, Florida, California, Mexico.
And I saw a magazine.
And on the magazine was a picture on the front page.
Of the atomic bomb test.
In an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
And some people were watching it.
What strikes me was not the effect of the bomb, it was in the picture.
But the way the people were looking at it.
They had their mouth open.
They are still there, in awe, downfolded.
Looking.
As the effect of a man made bomb.
There were white people and natives in the picture.
Well, man is proud of his power.
Well, there is another power.
Which does not destroy, but brings life to poor sinners like you and me.
Power of God that works in the heart of a man, regardless of how hard his heart has become.
And it has been my privilege to have seen that power.
Working in some of these men in Oaxaca.
For the pressing of the cross.
Is to them that perish foolishness, but to us which believe is power of God.
Perhaps I tell you a little story, Or rather, it's a reality.
Of a brother in Oaxaca.
I was we were in a place called Amuraya, which in English means the city wall.
And I was preaching the gospel one night.
And there was a man in the audience.
Big mustache.
And a priest looking man.
And he heard the gospel.
And the power of God changed that man, he told me afterwards.
That as he was going towards his home, he had stopped at this certain place.
To have the night. And he had it in his mind.
Some awful things.
He had been in a quarrel with his neighbors about some land.
And he had made-up his mind to God and burned their homes.
And perhaps kill some of those people.
But when he heard the gospel.
The Gospel of Grace.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The whole thing was changed.
The Lord changed his mind.
And instead of going to burn their people's home, he went back and told them what God had done for him.
00:05:08
This man waited until next day he came to me and asked me to baptize him that he had believed.
Now there is the power of God working in that man's heart.
With no other power could work. Atomic bombs can save one man.
Once all but they can destroy much by the power of God, which is in Christ uses.
Can save men like him and like me and like you.
These very same men went to his village.
And start telling his.
Friends and his relatives.
What God has done for him.
At that time, there was another man.
By the name of Synovial.
His brother's name has been Speaking of his name is Silvano.
His fellow Sino Synovial.
Is a grateful killer.
He had killed 20 persons and had gone into the mountains with some others who were evil daughters like him.
That the government had to send a platoon of soldiers to guide him.
But they couldn't get him. He was well acquainted with this surroundings, with the mountains, and the soldiers could get near him.
But one day.
This man Synovial came down to the village and heard the gospel from Brother Silvano.
And that changed his stories, changed the life of brothers and oboe the.
Power of God.
Work in that man that wasn't done.
And now his, the Lamb of God.
Is one of God's ships.
He was redeemed through the precious blood of Christ. His sins were washed.
And that man, that brother, is very meek and humble now.
He came. He loved his companions.
Up evil life and came to live with his wife and children.
As the Lord did say to some in the gospel, go ye home. Well, Synovial did went home.
About that time.
The Lieutenant Army Lieutenant, the West with the platoon of soldiers.
Him, haunt him. For him.
And he happened to meet Silvano, so he asked him for Synovial, Silvano told his army officer. Well, synovial is converted.
The officer said convert it to what? To Christ?
The officer stood there for a minute, meditate and said, well, if he is converted to Christ, he will commit no crime anymore. You tell him not to worry about us, we won't be looking for him anymore.
Well, it tells and it shows how God can make a new creature out of an undone man. And then if there is any of you here in this room tonight.
That doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Come to Him. Receive Him as you are, just as Synovia did, just as He was.
And the Lord received him, for he will in no wise cast anyone out that comes to him.
Well, it was another instance that I would like to tell you about how the grace of God through the power of the Spirit working other hearts.
While we were at Elsie. Well, in English it means to prune one of the assemblies.
There were two men there, heard a boss me preaching the gospel there, and there were greatly offended in a place about 40 miles or more from where we were.
So they thought about.
00:10:00
Killing me.
One of them said is. One of them said.
I will be glad to put 5 bullets into that man.
Well, this was told to me.
And.
That doesn't make you feel very good.
While I'm on those places down there, I always have a bad feeling on my back. I'll have a funny feeling with this thing in front of Maine.
Sir, I just convinced myself to the Lord.
And this man, this bought of this man said that there were going to kill me.
While it happened, that brother passed by that place and they asked me, asked him where I was. And then the brother said what do you want him for? Why we want to kill him, get rid of him, It's no good.
Well, the brother told this man, why don't you go and listen what he has to say first?
One of them said, well I guess I'll go find out.
So this man made a trip. He walked two days to hear the gospel.
I didn't know anything about it. He was sitting there on the floor listening to the gospel, very attentive.
And here I finished. When we got through, I finished giving out the gospel. He came to me.
And he said, you know who I am? I said, no, I live in a certain, certain place.
I looked at him twice.
And I said, well, what do you think about the gospel?
About the grace of God, all, he said It is wonderful. It is wonderful.
He said I'm going back home and bring my wife so she could hear the gospel to her and my children and he did.
That man is in fellowship with us now.
Well, it's wonderful.
While the power of God can do it to an undoubted man, a worthy man, and worthy sinners.
Now we will see. Look in the speeches.
Isaiah 55.
You please bear up with me, I get a little jumpy.
When I start speaking English, but I might get over it by the time I'm true.
I say I'm 55.
And we have a word in verse 6.
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 unrighteousness 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, abundantly.
Pardon.
As what Synovia did in this other man to turn to the Lord, and the Lord have pardoned them.
Well, here we have seek ye the Lord.
We know from God's Word that there is none that's sick of the Lord.
Everybody seekered his own way. Man seek it for plot, seek power, seek self glory, but never they seek the Lord.
Until the Spirit of God works in them and makes them seek the Lord. Like this last man I spoke to you about. He walked two days to seek the Lord.
Well, we can see in the Gospel of look.
Somebody else that seek the Lord and the gospel of look in Chapter 7.
Chapter 7 of Saint Luke, verse 36.
00:15:04
And one of the Pharisees that saw to him that he will eat with him, and he went into the Pharisees house and sat down to me, and behold a woman in the city, which was a Sinner, when she knew that Jesus said, admit in the Pharisees house.
Brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with hairs off her hair and kiss his feet and anointed them with an ointment.
Now what makes this woman look for the Lord?
Us a Sinner.
But it was the grace of God.
The work through this period and the power of the Spirit work in this woman.
And she began to inquire where the Lord was.
And when she found out where the Lord was.
She turned her back to the city, turn her back to her sinful life, and came to the to the feet of Christ.
Just as she were.
And there she cried. She shed tears and repentance.
Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord.
Gave her this words verse 50 and he said to the woman.
Thy faith had saved thee. Go in peace.
All the wonderful grace of God.
The wonderful power of the Spirit.
That guides a Sinner to repentance, to believe. Seek ye the Lord.
There is none the secret of her of his own accord, unless it be by the Spirit, by the power of the Spirit of God, their works in the Sinner.
Then we have in Isaiah the other word.
Call upon him.
We have a word in Romans 10.
Verse 13.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How can they call upon the name of the Lord whom they had not believed?
How could any Sinner come upon the Lord, the name of the Lord He hasn't believed if the gospel hasn't been preached unto him.
How can anybody seek the Lord? He doesn't believe what he's seeking for.
You have to believe to seek. You have to believe to call, call upon the Lord.
Call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There is a certain call in Jeremiah 17 that I would like to.
Rail.
Verse 14.
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.
Save me, and I shall be saved, for Thou art my praise.
Well, perhaps this healing might meant physical feeling, but I think it means the soul.
This all is the sinner's all is sick with leprosy.
Is sick with that dreadful disease I've seen.
And surely God doesn't want any sick soul in his presence, so he's saying his beloved Son who shared the precious blood.
00:20:02
Whose blood our sins are cleanse as white as snow.
All beloved friend.
That only medicine.
For your cure, Eternal cure is a precious blood of Christ.
And then you can say with the rest of us and by his bruises we are healed.
The precious blood of Christ was shed for ransom.
We had been saved from the power of darkness.
Saved from a sin, the power of sin. Our sins have been cleansed, our soul has been healed.
When our Lord was illner, he came to heal Israel. He came to save Israel. But Israel didn't want him.
Israel didn't want to be healed, so there they are.
With a national blindness and their back bowl.
Because they didn't want to be healed. The power of God was there.
But they didn't believe in. They didn't want to. Should we look?
And Look Gospel of Look, chapter 5.
And we read verse 17.
And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sheet Him by which were come out of every time a Galilee and Judah and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
But they didn't want to be healed. How about you, my friend?
Would you like your salt to be a hill? To be safe? It says call upon the Lord, the name of the Lord, and you shall be saved.
Now is accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.
As I was driving from Ensenada to Burbank to mid brother Clausen.
And notice some advertising signs on the road.
There were some pictures, some horses.
And then there was.
A sign letter said post time.
2:00 PM.
I imagine that the horse that will be on the post. I am ready to run my friend. This is post time.
It is ready for you. It is time for you to flee from the wrath to come. Run. Run the Christian run.
Fleeing unto the shelter rock that was ran at Calvary's cross. For your shelter and for mine. It is post time my friend.
Thought turning back to.
Where we were, call upon the Lord, the name of the Lord, and you shall be saved.
Should we look in another one? Look 23?
And we read verse 32.
2332 and there were also two other malefactors LED with him to be put to death, and when they were come to the place which is called Calvary.
There they may they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus then said Jesus, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
And they pardoned his Raven and cast lots.
Now, verse 39.
And one of the malefactors which were hang rail on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But they are at other answering rebuke him, saying thus not thou fear God.
00:25:19
Seen thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly.
For we received the dear reward, our deeds, but this man had done nothing amiss.
And he certainly, Jesus Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to they shall thou be with me in paradise?
Now this man.
Call upon the name of the Lord. Lord, he said. Remember Me.
But it will look a little way back.
We wonder what happened to this man all of a sudden.
Now we look in Mark 15.
Verse 32 we see that he we hit this this man with his friend were reviling the Lord. Verse 32.
That Christ, the King of every Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.
And they, they were crucified with him, revile him, both of them. But all of a sudden something happened.
This man took sighs with Jesus against himself.
What is supposed to happen to him?
He was reviling the Lord too.
All the grace of God, the power of God working that man.
And come back to him of his sins.
And he saw himself there.
Saying what was due to him.
And he took sides with the Lord, and called him, cried out to him, Lord, Remember Me when thou come into the King to thy Kingdom.
All the grace of God, the power of God that can work in a hard man, regardless of how hardened that man is.
And he rebuked this man, rebuked his friend.
Now, dear friend.
If you cannot. If you don't have.
In your heart to seek the Lord, will you call upon Him?
Will you call upon upon his name and be saved like this man?
Don't harden your heart. The Spirit is working in your heart, that's why you are here, otherwise you won't be here.
Then we have another word. Now we have the sick and the cold.
Now we turn to Isaiah 45.
And we read verse 22.
Look unto me.
And being safe all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.
If a man gone sick, if a man doesn't call, well, he can look, my friend, when you look at him, look at him crucify their own, that Calvary's cross.
Look at him sharing his precious blood.
Look at look at him dying on the cross.
For the sinner's ten, look at him receiving the chastisement of our peace. Look at him, but look at him with a look of faith. Believe in Him.
There were two male factors.
On each side of the Lord, and according to the Scriptures, they were crucified about 9:00 in the morning.
Both of them were very near. Both of them were looking at the Lord.
But to an effect.
00:30:00
Or their children of the Saints.
You've been hearing the gospel.
You have godly fathers, mothers.
And you are very near.
And yet, so far, some may be. I hope not.
Christ had been presented to you as a crucified Christ. You look at him, but to no effect.
Like those two malefactors?
Now they were looking at him in the morning, but this scripture says.
That to the near of the sixth hour. That's 12:00.
One of them looked at him in a different way.
Shall we turn again to look?
23.
And I beseech you, children.
Of the change that you would take a good look at him with the look of your soul, with the look of faith.
Will he read in Luke 23?
And verse 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou hast coming into thy Kingdom.
The last time he talked with his friend, he rebuked him.
Then he turned his back to his friend, turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, and look at him with a look he had never looked at him before.
He was casually looking at him and reviling him in the morning.
All but this kind of look he turned to the Lord, and call upon him with a look of faith, with a call of faith. Lord, Remember Me.
Oh dear, young brothers.
Sisters.
The world is full of snares.
We are very thankful that you pray for us here in the United States and in Canada, and I often tell my brother in Mexico about your prayers.
And they're very happy.
All they said they're praying for us. Yes, they're praying for you. All they say we pray for them too. There was some time ago. So they get down underneath.
Barefooted.
No wooden floor or cement floor, just ground.
And they cried to the Lord.
To give the American Saints, Canadian Saints, from this narrow of prosperity.
Because they have read in the scriptures that the Wiles of the enemy are many.
And there are sometimes children of Saints.
That have not really in their hearts have taken that look of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But once you take a good look at him and look of faith, you turn your back to the world, to your friends, the friends of the world.
I know, I know, Synovia did and Silvano did.
And lots of them down there did an idea by the grace of God.
I had many friends in the world at that time when I was saved.
And I regret that I lost my youth.
In Los Angeles.
But I I guess and I believe that the Lord has its purpose to save me in my old age.
So I can consider others.
So I beseech you, dear fellow Christian, young fellow Christians, do turn your backs to the world and keep on looking on Christ. And if you have believed in him, on Christ crucified, keep your eyes on the rising Christ. He's coming.
He's coming, and he won't be very long before the others shout.
The world is full of noise, worldly noises.
But our ears, our soul, shall be keen to hear that shout at any moment.
Now this man.
00:35:04
That I was. We were considering a look.
Look at Christ and call upon him.
What had happened to him all of a sudden? Well, again I repeat the grace of God.
Have brought in who him repentance and believed by the power of the Spirit.
Now we go back to Isaiah.
55.
We read again verse six. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found all my friend, this means that someday he won't be found.
Call ye upon him while he is near, Let the wicked forsake his way.
Let the wicked forsake his way.
Brother Senobio had a very wicked way.
Before he was saved.
But he locked his way.
There is some other people that give testimony to him about him. He had laughed his way.
Let the wicked forsake his way.
We read in Daniel about King Belshazzar, son of about the King Belshazzar.
A young king who didn't want it to seek the Lord, who had no time to seek the Lord.
Who didn't want to live his wicked ways?
If you bear with me.
We could read a little of them.
In Daniel 5.
And I want to bring this up.
Because in Mexico.
There are many so-called Christians.
They are laid in the same life as this king here.
In Daniel 5.
Belshazzar first verse the king made a great visit thousand of his Lords and drank wine before the 1000.
Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, committed to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nabokan Asar had taken out of the Temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his Princess, his wives and his concur beans might drink thereof. Isn't that the character of the world?
Wine, woman and play.
Israel committed that sin when was taken out of Egypt.
They sat down to eat and drink and got off to play.
Well.
There are some, I say in Mexico, I don't know here in the United States or another country, but in Mexico there are many young, not only young, but all people.
Who claim to be Christians.
By the light fists festivals they like to eat with their friends and wives and.
Sometimes another wives.
And drink wine. While they don't drink wine, they drink tequila. All that kind of stuff down there makes them crazy.
And they claim to be Christians. And not only that.
But.
We read here in the verse four they drank wine and praise the gods of gold.
Enough silver or breast of iron, Of wood and stones. Stones.
That's what they do there.
They have images, idols of all kinds.
Made-up all kinds of material. If they are rich, they have them a gold silver.
The poor having a stone or paper.
And they get drunk in their festivals.
And they pray their guts they may with their own hands. Oh, what a.
Durable.
Condition there is.
00:40:00
Well, I believe that this is coming in some way in the United States too.
In some respect.
The men of the world will like parties.
While the parties.
They like to drink wine, whiskey, beer. All this has nothing wrong with it.
Oh, I shiver every time I hear. Sometimes I do hear saying say I don't see anything wrong with this or that.
Well, it declares that the vision is getting short.
Every time a St. says says I don't see anything wrong.
Is declaring himself that his vision, spiritual vision is getting short sighted.
The men of the world don't see anything wrong with what they do.
They're going wild parties and then to kind of hush their consciences, they go and praise the gods they made with their own hands. That's a life.
Of most of the Mexicans down in Mexico, and I'm afraid in some of the Latin countries in South America too.
If I go and preach the gospel, they think I'm intruder, or rather they believe or they think that Christ is an intruder to their lives. They've been happy all the time.
Their spiritual spiritual counselors tell them that everything is OK with them. Even if they got to purgatory, they can always buy themselves out of it.
Poor souls. I feel pity for them. I feel sorry for them because they don't.
They don't live alone. There are wicked ways. They want to keep up with their wicked ways.
That was a man. An Indian came once to me.
And he said, I like your religion. I don't know what you mean, but that means I like your religion.
He said, and I want to join it. I want to ask you one question, he said. If I joined your religion, can I keep on dancing and drinking?
I looked at him and said.
Well, what do you think? You would like to keep on dancing and drinking, you say? Yes, I like it.
Well, you won't like it if you turn to the Lord if I tell you not to drink.
Or not to dance. Perhaps I will be preaching you the law, putting you under the law.
But I'm not preaching the law, I'm preaching the gospel of salvation by grace.
You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and He will do the rest.
Well, poor men, I'll never see them again.
I hope someday the Lord, the Spirit of God, will work with the power in his heart and he may turn to the Lord, seek the Lord, call upon the Lord, and look at the Lord at his own as his own personal Savior.
While this young man, Belshazzar of Babylonia.
He liked wild parties. He liked what people.
To have money, likes and sometimes people that don't have money, they like him too.
And.
He was an idolater.
I can help but compare this picture with some of the people in Mexico.
They are wrapped up with idolatry. Superstitious.
And they think that there are the real Christians.
There, as I have told you before, in those places in South of Mexico.
There is a mixture of Catholicism and paganism or Hibism.
And it's weird. It's awful, terrifying. See those souls sunken?
In that system corrupted system.
But thanks the Lord.
That sends the gospel have been proclaimed in those parts of the country, that part of the country's mountainous on one part and jungle on the other part.
There have been some of those deer souls being saved through the grace of God.
00:45:03
The power of the Spirit had wrought in them salvation, and hath saved them.
From the power of darkness and from the wrath to come. And now they are happily gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are 8 assemblies in Oaxaca.
Where only about six years ago they never heard about the grace of God.
And I can help but be thankful how the Lord.
Ever send me over there to take the good tidings to those dear souls?
Every time I have an opportunity, I speak about a certain brother down there on my first visit.
His name is Marcelino.
He is a man about my Asian all Indian brother.
After three days I've been preaching there the gospel.
He came to me one afternoon and said brother.
You say I'm so happy. And he began to cry.
You say I'm so happy, so happy that the Lord had loved me all this time.
I never knew it until now. I'm happy that God loved me. And to think that all these years I never knew it until He in His grace sent you from such far away to come and give us these good tidings.
Well, his brother is safe, he is in fellowship, he is gathered to the Lord's name and he is very happy. But those tears that brother shed were genuine tears of joy, tears of gratitude to him that love him to the uttermost.
All beloved brothers, beloved Saints of Christ.
I know that some of you have been born in the gospel.
You have never tasted the bitterness of sin, of darkness, of superstitious, of the Dollar Tree.
And with.
You should be very thankful and I know you are.
But those poor Saints down in Mexico?
It's very hard for some of them to get rid of some of those things that still linger.
In their minds, their hearts are clean, their souls are clean by the precious God of Christ. Thank God for that precious blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin.
And then it'll shepherd him and that's why I sometimes my wife and Pablo goes on their ambition and enjoy ourselves and just watching the grace of God working on those souls. They are learning.
Slow, but there are learning and they like to learn. They send me many questions of the scriptures they would like to know. And before I forget.
They told me on our last visit that if I ever come to the United States or Canada to give you sensitive love.
And to thank you.
For the clothing you can send them.
And.
I want to finish with saying this.
That there is power in the blood of Christ.
Amen.
Shall we?
Revelation 3:7-8
Revelation 3:8-22
Hebrews 12:1-4
Hebrews 12
Gospel
Gospel—A. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
He will save you. He will save you.
He will save your life.
I'd like you to turn with me, first of all, please, to the second Epistle to the Corinthians.
2nd Corinthians chapter 6.
And verse 2.
This verse was read to us at the Gospel Meeting last evening.
And it has been a burden on my heart ever since.
For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted.
And in the day of salvation have I suckered thee. Behold.
Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Isn't that solemn language?
Behold now.
Is the accepted time. Behold now.
Is the day of salvation. We don't very often come across repetitions such as that in the word of God.
And I feel sure that the very heart of God is found in this language. And I want to tell you this, my friend, that as I read this precious book to you and to the need of my own heart, I trust that I may feel afresh. And I trust that you too may feel, if you've never felt it before, the very heart of God in these words. But these words came forth from the heart of God.
Indicted by the Spirit of God through the pen of the Apostle Paul. And it's merely my privilege and my responsibility to read them to you. Will you hear them, my friend, as the very voice of God to your heart? Behold now.
Behold, now God has a message for you, my beloved friend, and that message concerns the eternal destiny of your soul.
The eternal destiny of my soul. For just as surely as you and I are gathered together in this auditorium this evening, just so surely will you and I, in a day that is coming, stand face to face to the one who, in faithfulness and in love, put this message in this book. He is speaking to your heart with these words. Behold now.
00:05:15
Is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Sometimes, as we stand up in a place like this and look about upon those who are gathered here, we wonder whether the burden of our heart ought to be an unfolding of what the gospel is, an unfolding of the meaning of something or other in the word of God, or perhaps rather simply.
Of pleading with your soul, my beloved friend, to accept the Lord Jesus Christ, as your savior. For I am persuaded that there are many here who have heard the gospel from the days of your earliest childhood.
You've heard it, perhaps from father or mother, or a faithful praying Sunday school teacher. And you could stand up and answer the questions that might be addressed concerning the condition of the heart of man in God's sight, concerning the marvelous remedy that God in grace, at such a cost has provided. But when it comes down to this personal question between your soul and God, I ask you, my friend from the youngest child.
To the oldest one present. I ask you, Are you sure?
Are you sure?
Beyond any shadow of doubt that you're going to spend eternity with Christ in glory.
Oh, how many we meet that turn away, unable to answer such a question as that. Perhaps for a long time you've passed as a Christian, and you're kind of glad of it, because folks don't bother you quite so much. You're glad they consider you to be a Christian because you mingle with the other young people.
You intend to stay behind here and join in the singing of the hymns, But deep down in your heart, at this very moment, as that question was addressed to you, you were not able to answer. You're afraid to think about eternity. I stand here as one who passed through that very experience. I stand here as one who, in the days of my youth, sat between.
A praying father.
And a praying mother. And I was considered to be a Christian. My dear Sunday school teacher, I'm sure, would have given the testimony that he considered me to be a Christian. But deep down in my heart, when I sat under the sound of the gospel, I didn't want to think about eternity. There was no confidence, no joy in my soul. As the glories of being with Christ were unfolded. They held nothing but terror to me.
For even though I knew the gospel clearly.
I had never yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. I know this is an adult gospel meeting, but I must tell a little story here for the benefit of the children, and some have heard it before. It happened at a Sunday school treat in the city of Ottawa a long time ago in the winter time.
On our way out the door after that Sunday School treat, there were two of the Saints of God who stood one on either side of the door.
Offering to the dear boys and girls who had attended a bag of candy and an orange. And of course I accepted one of each. Then when I got home, I can still remember so vividly opening the bag of candy, dumping the contents out on the kitchen table, and being rather pleased with the size and quality of the bag I had received. And mother looked at it without a word and finally she said, Albert, where did you get the bag of candy?
Well, I said at the Sunday School treat.
Did they offer you anything else? And I said yes. They offered me an orange and I pulled the orange out of my pocket.
Did they offer you anything else? I said. No, mother. Are you sure, my boy?
I knew what mother meant. They had offered something else. The man had stood up there and played with us, boys and girls, to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, to accept as a gift the forgiveness of all our sins.
00:10:15
And the assurance of a home in the glory. And I accepted the bag of candy. I accepted the orange. But I came home without Christ. Oh, I stand here with an overflowing heart of Thanksgiving for the long-suffering grace of God that brought me to himself. And I stand here tonight, my dear young friend, with a burdened heart for you. Are you sure about this matter? Can you truthfully lay your head down on your pillow this night and look up with joy and with confidence?
Based upon this most precious book, that the question of your soul's eternal destiny is settled forever. Are you sure that those sins are gone? Are you sure that you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Our dear brother last evening brought out so faithfully and clearly from the word of God.
The wonderful truth of salvation, and we thank God for it. We shall never know the cost at which that glorious word is found in this book. And yet and yet it holds no charm to the heart of many. For I believe the thought of salvation brings with it man's guilt, and man doesn't like to be reminded of his guilt.
A gospel that involves salvation is man, generally considered suited for the man behind the bars.
Or the man down in the gutter of society. But As for the clean and respectable citizens of these communities, are they in need of a gospel that speaks of salvation? Are they not ready for the presence of God without any such thing as salvation being pressed upon them?
Thus, less than an hour before I started out to come here, I found myself for the first time confronted with.
What Americans would call a Congressman from our particular district.
We were introduced to one another, and I don't know what he'd heard about me, but just as soon as we were introduced, the conversation somehow turned to religious matters.
And he began to tell me about his church and a wonderful church meeting that he had just been attending. So I said to him, Mr. Doucette, do you know of any one that's ready to stand in the presence of God while God opens his books and looks at the record of their life? Are you ready for such a thing as that?
No, he said. He didn't know of anyone whom he would like to think was ready to stand in the presence of God upon the record of their own life.
And I said, Mr. Doucette, I stand beside you on that I could never stand before God and allow his eye to rest upon the record of my life and expect him to welcome me home to the glory. But let me tell you this, that the only remedy that God makes mention of in his precious book is the blood of Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And as we read in God's precious Word of this offer of salvation, may I remind you that it speaks to our hearts of a need, the guilt, the nakedness, the distance at which you are this very moment from God Himself.
Unless you know the Lord Jesus as your savior. If we went back to the first chapter of Luke's Gospel, we'd find there, even before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ into this world, This wondrous prophecy to give the knowledge of salvation under his people by the remission of their sins. That's what it involves, my friend. Salvation means sins forgiven. Isn't that glorious?
00:15:06
Is it possible for any of us with absolute certainty to look up and know that that question is settled, know that our sins are gone? Ah, my friend, the word of God says, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Can I not lay my hand upon this precious book and look up and believe with all confidence Him who wrote it?
If you will do that, my friend, if you will do that, you too will be the possessor of this wondrous, this mighty salvation. Turn aside from everything else, and justice, put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was called to see a dear old man who was dying in our town some time ago. His name was Mr. Campbell.
It was very hard of hearing. His dear old voice was pretty shaky too, and when I walked into the room he pulled his hands out from under the covers and he began to tremble. All he said, I won't be here long. Do you think it's all right with me? I said. Mr. Campbell, please tell me what are you trusting in? And with a shaky voice and a lovely Scott accent, he said.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
That whosoever believe within him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Oh, but I haven't lived the kind of life I should. And he began to tremble. Oh, I said, Sir, would you like to enter the presence of God with John 316 in one hand, and your own life in the other, and hope for the best?
No, no, nothing but John 316. Oh my beloved friend, I presented to you.
As that which God in wondrous grace has supplied to meet the need of your heart and mind. And I stand here with deep Thanksgiving to say that God in wondrous grace, having seen the knee of my guilty heart far better than I could ever see it.
Has so loved this poor guilty Sinner that he has given the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who bowed his sinless, devoted head under the burden and guilt of my sins.
And therefore the judgment that I deserve until he could cry.
It is finished.
Also in the second chapter of Luke, dear old Simeon, he enters into the temple, and there he sees that little babe, And he takes the Lord Jesus up in his arms, and says, Lord, now let us thou thy servant, depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen.
Thy salvation. Oh, what a glorious picture is this. Simeon is not talking about a plan. He's looking at a person.
That even though it is but a child, he recognizes the one whom God has sent.
To accomplish the mighty work of redemption. And so, my friend, as we hold up this precious living word to you tonight.
We want to tell you this, that that which we have to present is not a plan, it's a person. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. Behold now, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation, I believe we find in the word of God.
Examples of those who acted according to the warning that we find in this verse.
For I believe there is both loving and treaty and faithful warning in this verse.
And that's just like the heart of God. Suppose our thoughts go back for a moment to the Old Testament.
In fact, let's turn back, shall we please, to the book of Joshua.
And there we will find someone who acted according to the wisdom pressed upon us in this verse.
The second chapter of Joshua.
00:20:07
A second chapter of Joshua and the.
12Th verse.
Now therefore I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my Father's house, and give me a true token.
And that you will save alive my father and my mother and my brethren and my sisters and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.
And the man answered her. Our life for yours.
Our life for yours.
Now the 18th verse.
Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by. And thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless.
And whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him the latter part of verse 21 And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line in the window.
We've read this story often before, have we not? Perhaps we have visualized this doomed and guilty city of Jericho.
We have seen the eye of God look down upon that city. We have seen the finger of God record their evil deeds from day-to-day. Is God still doing that?
Is he doing that only for those cities which you and I think of with a shudder of despair?
Let me tell you my friend, he's doing that for the town where I live. He's doing that for the city from which you came. He's writing down in some detail all that has transpired in the hearts and lives of men and women and boys and girls from day-to-day.
For the 4th chapter of Hebrews tells us all things.
Are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do, my dear boys and girls, dearly beloved young people, whoever you may be present. How does that verse ring in your ears?
All things.
Our naked and open under the eyes of him.
With whom we have to do. It's a Psalm verse, beloved friend, and I pray you to take heed to it tonight. I remember the first time that verse was impressed upon my heart. I had read it as you have read it, but I was sitting on a bench in a tent in Lawrenceville, New Brunswick, quite a number of years ago, and our dear faithful brother Willie Martin was standing up preaching the gospel. And all of a sudden, with his typical voice of Thunder, he called out that verse.
All things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
I knew the Lord as my savior, by His grace, had known him many years when I heard him preach that verse. But oh, I sat upright on the bench, and I thought, but for the grace of God, what terror that verse would strike to my heart. And yours too, my friend. Do you pretend to go on from day-to-day with a careless indifference, a provider, as though you were not the least bit afraid of the day when you'd stand before God?
That bravado will be gone someday. I warn you, my beloved friend, that verse is true. God is going to open the book at the page on which the record of your life is written. And not one thing, not one thought, not one word, not one deed, will be missing from that record. Do you know what flashed through my mind when I heard that verse? This glorious answer? Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man.
Is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believes are justified from.
All things there is God's answer. I say it with fearless joy, if God opened that book.
00:25:05
Where my name is written at the top of the page. Do you know how many sins would be written there? Not one.
Not one. They're gone. The day came, thank God, when through the cleansing power of the precious blood of Christ, that piercing hand blotted that page forever whiter than snow. And the burden of my heart is that you too may know this unspeakable joy. You two may rest upon the confidence that is your right and title, if only you will accept the Lord Jesus Christ.
As your savior, God looked down upon this city of Jericho. The days of that city were numbered.
And so are the days of this poor world with all their boasting.
With all their achievements.
Very, very soon it's going to be reduced to rubble. Man's pride is going to be brought low. In that day the redeemed of the Lord are going to be up there singing. Thou art worthy, for thou hast slain, and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred tongue and people and nation. That what will take place down here.
The most fearful judgments of God will be poured forth.
Oh, as we read through the Book of Revelation, and chapter after chapter unfolds the awful, increasing severity of God's dealings with this earth, my heart trembles, most especially.
The sons and daughters of Christian parents, the boys and the girls.
The dear young people.
I'm going to ask you lovingly, and I want you to answer in your inmost soul.
When?
When did you last?
Lovingly, reverently speak to anyone about the Lord Jesus Christ.
I overhear a good many conversations between young people, and it's a deep thrill to my soul to hear them speak one to the other, of the preciousness of Christ.
But sometimes my heart is deeply burdened as I listen and listen and listen.
And fail ever to hear the sweet and precious name of Jesus.
Mentioned with love and with reverence.
Someone over in the dining room today told me how many days it would be to her wedding day, and I was glad to hear her say it. I shared those sentiments a long time ago and they have deepened a good deal since that day.
It's natural, it's, it's lovely and all. My friend, I want to tell you this.
That if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, it's a sweet joy to your heart to meditate upon him. It's a joy to your lips to confess Him. And I want to challenge you in loving concern to your soul when.
Recall it, please, beloved friend. Recall it. When? When did you last lovingly reverently?
Speak of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps, at someone's urging, you said that you were saved. Or perhaps you merely said yes when they asked you, And that's all there has been to it. But, my beloved friend, what about the person of Christ? What about the name of Christ? If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. My friend, pardon my prayerful burden for your soul.
But there are those, There are those whom I long to hear speak well of Christ.
And yet they pass among us as Christians. Are you among the number? If the shout came this very evening, If the shout came before this meeting were over. Are you sure, my dear friend? Are you sure, my dear boy, my dear girl, Are you sure that you would hear that shout and go up to meet him, and rejoice to be in his presence? What an awful thing it would be to be left behind.
00:30:07
God looked down upon Doom Jericho, and let me just point out this thought, which has been a thrilled my soul. It took God six days of mighty power to create and bring into ordered existence this vast universe which we see around us and every living thing in this world. Six days. How long did it take him to destroy Jericho?
Seven days. Seven days.
Oh, what a long-suffering God. We have seven days. He sent the warning. He provided a way of escape and my purpose in turning to the passages this.
That the very day, the very day, in fact, I suspect, the very hour that Rahab the Harlot heard of the provision that was made.
For the salvation of all in her house, she hung a scarlet cord in the window. He was one whom I have often looked upon as one who valued that little word now to Morrow. Wouldn't do for Rahab.
She just couldn't lay down that evening without knowing that the scarlet cord was hanging in the window.
Are you going to go to sleep tonight with the wrath of God hanging over your head? Are you going to go to sleep one more night with those stains of sin still upon your heart? And the God who so loved you has once more tenderly pleaded with your heart that you might accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? You know, every Old Testament illustration falls noticeably short, of course.
Of the wonders of God's love in giving the Lord Jesus to redeem us. And the striking comparison in this little story I find in the 14th verse. The man answered her our life for yours. Isn't that striking? It didn't cost them their lives. They volunteered their lives for her safety's sake. But they weren't called upon to surrender their lives. But you know, when the Lord Jesus looked out upon this.
Poor sin stained rebel.
And the Lord Jesus loved me. I'll never know why. He looked down. He looked down and he said, my life for yours. That cost him his life. It cost him his life. He so loved me. He so loved you that he not only pledged your salvation and mine with his life, but He laid down his life. Hear his words, My life.
For yours. And then he offers you tonight the shelter of that precious blood.
Are you going to say tomorrow? Are you going to say sometime in the future? You know, who whispers such suggestions in your ears?
Rehab, thank God for it was one who valued that word. Now, today, and I believe we find another in the New Testament also who was a man that valued the word. Today, let's turn over to Luke's Gospel.
The 23rd chapter of Luke.
And the 39th verse.
This also has been read to us already. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive a due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing amiss.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee.
Shalt thou be with me in paradise.
00:35:00
Do not read the rest of the story nor the introduction. I believe we know it well.
Here we find two men, 2 malefactors, 2 robbers, taken from prison that day, the very last day, the very last hours of their life on earth, and they find themselves, as we were already reminded, one on either side of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find them both joining and reviling and in mockery, but we find that one man.
One man, thank God for the grace of God.
Turns and says.
Lord, Remember Me? That's not a very long prayer, is it? Now come. If we had never read the rest of this story, Sometimes I like to do this as I read the word of God. I like to put my hand on the rest of the story and stop and say to myself, now, if I didn't know how this story was going to end, what would I expect? What would you expect? Here's a man who's lived a lifetime of transgression and guilt.
He's about to die for the wickedness of his life. He's been mocking the Lord Jesus with his weakening breath. Now he turns and he says, Lord Remember Me, Lord Remember Me. We have no indication that this man ever before in his life had met the Lord Jesus. The only instance in the Word of God of an 11Th hour conversion appears to be.
The case of one who apparently had never met the Savior before. And my friend, this may well be the 11Th hour for you.
It may well be the 11Th hour for anyone of this company.
Health and strength means nothing in these days. You may be even at this very moment in the 11Th hour. Are you willing to do as this robber did, and lay hold upon the precious promise of now today, and turn to the Lord Jesus by faith, and say with simple trust, as he did Lord, Remember Me? What an unexpected answer.
Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me.
In Paradise, Rahab, I believe, laid hold by faith upon that wondrous promise.
And was spared. The robber, too, valued the opportunity that was so briefly presented to him.
And turned and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. That I expect to meet them both in the glory.
Do you or you say that's not very nice company?
Oh my friend, by the world's standards, perhaps it's not.
But according to the word of God, do we not read? There is no difference, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I greatly fear that one of the strongest hindrances of the day is that men have been brought up to believe that their record is far too clean ever to be addressed as a guilty Sinner. But the truth of God's faithful word nevertheless remains the same.
And the finger of God would point at your very inmost soul this evening and remind you that there is no difference, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I remember hearing one time of a man who became so burdened about the question of his sins and of his guilt before God, that he finally felt there was just no hope for him whatsoever.
It was all right for others. He could well understand God welcoming into the glory.
This one, and that one who had been outstanding in Christian testimony and service, but as far as himself was concerned, he felt that his heart was far too guilty, His life was far too stained with sin for God ever to make such an one welcome.
And you know, all the Gospel verses that were presented to him never seemed to get through.
To his needy heart and give him the joy of trusting the Lord Jesus.
And one night the Lord spoke to the dear man in a dream. He recounts the dream like this.
He stood outside, but near to the Gate of Glory.
00:40:05
And he saw a company of people marching along, with triumphant smiles on their faces. And as they neared the gates of the city, the gates were swung wide open, and they entered with joyful confidence, and a mighty note of praise arose from it within the gates of glory.
And he turned to 1 Angel nearby and said, Who are these all? He said, those are the apostles and prophets of the Lord. He bowed his head. He realized that he would never, never have such a claim. He knew he never could get in, but he noticed a second company coming along, and they also seemed filled with triumph and with joy as they approached the gates of the city. And again the gates were swung wide open.
And again, a triumphant phrase ascended and the company entered.
The gates were closed and he questioned further on who are these?
These composed and noble army of martyrs.
Ah, he said. I thought so. No wonder they're privileged to enter their But there's still no hope for me. And he looked, and he saw a third company coming larger, greater than all the others, and filled with triumph and with joy. And in front of that great company, there were two whom he felt strange enough that he recognized.
One was the woman that sat on Sicar's well, the sinful woman of the city.
The other was the robber who died beside the Lord Jesus. He was amazed. He looked at this seemingly endless multitude. He saw them begin to enter the gates of the city. He heard a song of triumph ascend, which outshadowed anything he'd heard before. And he turned and said, And who are these? These are mighty sinners saved by mighty grace, he thought, This is where I belong.
He stepped among the number and joined them, and woke up with the confidence of knowing that even though his heart was stained with sin and guilt, and his conscience bore witness to it, yet he knew that there was room in heaven for even the chief of sinners. All my beloved friend, will you not this very night accept the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who so loved and died for sinners that you are entitled to that joy.
While we find this thief then turns and immediately.
Accept the Lord Jesus and find his place among the redeemed.
Rahab and the robber, both of them I believe, I find in that verse in 2nd Corinthians 6.
Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. We won't take time to turn back to it, but if we went back to the book of Exodus, we would find there a sad contrast to what we've just been looking at in the case of Rahab, and in the case of the malefactor we find in the book of Exodus, a man renowned in this world. His name was Pharaoh.
His name was Pharaoh.
And he was presented by a solemn warning from Moses the servant of the Lord. Let my people go, that they may hold a sacrifice unto the Lord in the wilderness.
Then Pharaoh proudly says, Who is the Lord? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.
And the Lord's hand begins to be felt in that land, and one of the most astonishing things that I have found in.
Connection with the thought is this that when that land was overrun with frogs, one of the awful plagues.
Pharaoh in despair he called for Moses and said Moses.
Entreat the Lord that he will remove these frogs, and I will let the children of Israel go.
Moses said to Pharaoh, When would you like the frogs removed? When shall I entreat?
I'm sure we would naturally expect Pharaoh to say immediately, but strange Pharaoh, he says. Tomorrow, Tomorrow. I believe that was the character of the man tomorrow. Tomorrow was good enough for Pharaoh. And I believe, my dear friend, that as the hand of God came down more and more solemnly upon that land, Pharaoh put off again and again the warning voice of God.
00:45:10
Until at last he perished under the waters of the Red Sea. He was a man of tomorrow, not today.
Though I hesitate to see this meeting drawing to a close. The announcements have been made about tomorrow, but they've all been made, I noticed. If the Lord will now, What about you, my beloved friend, in the state of your soul? Before God is going to be now is it going to be now? Tomorrow won't do.
Tomorrow what? Do I have no doubt that the name of Pharaoh went down in history, and still is handed down as a man of great renown in the history of Egypt and of the world. But where is Pharaoh now? Where is he now?
At this very moment, as you and I are listening to the gospel of the grace of God, Pharaoh is in a lost eternity.
Have you ever thought about that beloved friend, those that we read about in the word of God? Who when did we eternity without Christ? Where are they now? Still, at this very moment, as you are listening to the gospel of the grace of God, the men and the women who went out of this world without Christ are in a lost eternity. They're there forever.
They know their destiny. And my beloved friend, as I look into your face.
And see you sitting here, listening to the gospel of the grace of God, and realize with a burdened heart that someday, and it may be before this day is over, that your soul will be.
With Christ in glory, or in a lost eternity, the eternity of the damned. Tell me, beloved Friend, whose lips, whose lips speak the kindest, most loving words that ever were heard on earth.
You know the answer. The lips of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Whose heart was the most kind and tender heart that ever beat on earth? You know the answer. The heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we find coming from His heart and from his lips when he was here? The most solemn, solemn warnings concerning an eternity of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? Are those words an exaggeration?
Are the pictures painted in God's word and exaggerations? They are not my friend.
They are a solemn reality. There are times when the hand of God has been felt in this and that community, speaking to men, and their hearts have trembled but for a moment. When the hand of God is removed, they seem to turn back so quickly to their indifference and their bravado. I remember. I believe it to have been the hand of the Lord.
That I, as men would say, happen to be.
In Spring Hill, Nova Scotia, the number of years ago when there was a very serious mind disaster there.
Over 100 men were trapped.
18,000 feet below the surface of the earth. I know perhaps you think I'm making a mistake, but I know it to be a fact. 18,300 feet was the level in which the men were working.
When the mine collapsed.
I stood at the pit head, and I watched the wives, the countenances of the wives, the mothers, the children, the sweethearts, as they paced up and down while men burrowed frantically through the stone and rubble, trying to reach the men entombed there. There was no bravado. There was no indifference. There was no carelessness.
Body after body was brought up and carried away and weeping to their homes.
11 men were brought up alive.
I went into the hospital and visited those men 1 by 1.
I asked them about their experience down there. Eight days. That's not very long. 8 days in outer darkness. No food, no drink, Not a ray of light.
00:50:14
For 8 long days, not knowing whether they would be brought out or not.
My beloved friend, don't tell me that the hand of God doesn't speak here and there, the various communities. And don't tell me that God, in loving faithfulness, has not spoken to your heart before this.
Eight days in utter darkness, if you had seen the countenances of those men.
If you had been privileged to sit with me on their bedside.
And have them tell what they went through.
My friend, I think perhaps you'd have just a little. No, I dare not compare it. I dare not compare it. Eternity, eternity, unending eternity, and outer darkness with the memory, my beloved friend, the memory that you could have had Christ as your Savior.
You could have had Christ as your Savior, that very Lords Day evening in Wheaton. You could have had those sins washed away.
And you went out without Christ. Pharaoh was a man of tomorrow. I'm afraid that Felix, also in the New Testament, was a man of to Morrow He had the beloved apostle Paul stand before him, and reason with all earnestness of righteousness, temperance, and judgment. And Felix trembled. Felix trembled before the sound of the gospel.
And he looked Paul in the face and said, Go thy way, go thy way. When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. Where is Felix tonight?
Where is Felix? He was a Roman governor, a man in high esteem.
Pharaoh of Egypt. Felix of Rome, man of renown. Where are they now? They're gone, my friend, into the darkness of a lost eternity.
Rahab.
And the robber, Thank God. Thank God I'm going to spend eternity with those whose sins have been washed in the precious blood of Christ. What will it be, my friend? Will it be now? Will it be now? Right now, while you're sitting on that chair?
Oh, you say. Perhaps when The thing is over, Perhaps when I get to my room. I really feel that it would be wise for me to have this question settled. What about right now? Behold, now, place repeated in that verse. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
A number of years ago, the gospel had gone forth in solemn power in the city of Boston, and when the meeting was over, there seemed to be a sense that the spirit of God was pleading with men. There was a silence, and no one rose. Finally, a dear old man, almost bent over with age, walked up to the front and turned around. And he said, May I tell of an experience that happened years ago?
When I was skipper of a sailing vessel in the Caribbean and he told of this occasion.
When they were sailing through the shark infested waters of a certain area in the Caribbean, they were making good progress and all of a sudden there was a splash at the bow of the boat and the frightening cry was wrung man overboard. While there was a seaman standing at the stern of the boat, as soon as he heard the cry he watched and as the ship slipped past the struggling man in the water, he flung out a rope to him.
He flung out a rope, and it landed right by him. And immediately by you say, of course, what else would the man do? Immediately he grasped that rope with both hands, and they pulled him back on board the deck. And then the old man said, And we went up to that man and found that he could not let go of the rope, and we had to take his fingers.
And pry them loose from his hold on the rope. We found the fibers of the rope embedded in the flesh of that man's hand.
00:55:02
And he went and sat down.
He was trying, my beloved friend.
Trying to impress upon those who were listening that God was giving them yet one more and it could be the last opportunity.
To accept God's great salvation, God will not be mocked. The cost of that salvation my beloved hearer was nothing less. And the blood of God's Son, Lord Jesus Christ. If God could turn and forsake that blessed one, while he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, If God could tell us that the blood of Jesus Christ.
His son cleanseth us from all sin, and then plead with us. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. My dear friend, what answer will you give him in that day when you stand before him? For stand before him you will, stand before him you must.
The dear boys and girls, dear young people, I am going to stand in his presence.
I'm going to stand there and praise him with an overflowing heart.
The love that sought me and found me for the blood that has cleansed me from every stain of sin.
But I want to see you there too. I want to see you there too. But I say again, stand before him. You must stand before him. You will. Will it be welcomed into those courts of eternal glory, redeemed by his precious blood? Or will it be to hear him say, depart from me?
Into outer darkness. Oh, May God grant that if there are those present tonight, and I feel undoubtedly such is the case, those present who do not yet know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, may it ring in your ears so that you will not leave this meeting place until the question is settled. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
We sing the last stanza of hymn #2.
The.
Could we rise and sing the last stanza of #2?
Angel holes are building.
By.
Reason.
Gospel
Gospel—C.D. Andersen
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
What can wash out?
The world.
Shall we turn to John's Gospel Chapter 3?
I trust that this is a very familiar passage of Scripture to most everyone.
And this rule.
There might be a chance that there's someone here tonight that has never read this chapter, or has never heard it read, or has never heard the account that we find here.
And if such is the case, I'm very happy that you're here tonight.
Hear this account.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ and Nicodemus.
What a wonderful story it is.
And what a wonderful amount of light.
Is given to us right here in this third chapter of John's Gospel.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art the teacher, come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born to the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
The wind blows weren't listed, and thou hears the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh. And whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel and north, not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak, that we do know and testify that we have seen and he received not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness?
Even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned.
00:05:17
But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
One feels it of solemn responsibility to stand here, to give out the gospel to a company like this.
To stand, as it were, between the living and the dead.
To stand between the living Lord and dead sinners, to stand in the place.
To a point, the unsaved to the living savior.
The Lord Jesus Christ, because you know the Savior.
Is living.
We are not preaching.
A dead person. All their many religions tonight who are extolling a dead person. They're following a person who is dead.
Whose body is in the grave?
But friends tonight.
The one in whom we trust tonight, the one in whom I am trusting, is my Savior.
Is a living savior. He died, yes, and he was buried, but he didn't stay in the tomb. He rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures. Oh, what a wonderful gospel we have. What a wonderful savior. He's a living savior. He's living on high in the glory. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior?
Is he yours tonight? Have you received him? Or if you haven't received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
If you haven't closed in with God's offer of mercy to you, tonight is the night for you.
Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the time.
To receive him and that's why we are here again tonight.
To preach the gospel that you might receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Now we read about this mind here, and it tells us that he was of the Pharisees.
A man of the Pharisees.
Well, the Pharisees were a class of the Jews, and they were very religious.
And I suppose they were looked up to.
By the people of their day as being the religious class.
And we know that the Pharisees themselves thought well of themselves, because we read of one who who was thanking God in a prayer that he was not as other men other men are, and comparing himself with a publican.
And said, I'm thankful I'm not as this publican. So the Pharisees thought very highly of themselves and it tells us that this man was of the Pharisees.
What kind of an opinion do you have of yourself? What do you think of yourself? Do you think you have a good chance of getting into heaven? Perhaps you say, well, I haven't done anything very bad.
I've been good to my neighbors. I've been neighborly.
And I haven't robbed a bank and I haven't killed anyone.
I consider myself a decent kind of a person and I think my chance is as good as anyone else's.
Is that the kind of an opinion you have of yourself? Is that the estimate?
You have of yourself. Are you like this, Pharisee?
All the Pharisees were considered self-righteous people.
00:10:00
And the Lord Jesus Christ said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
If you think you're righteous.
The Savior is not for you. The Savior is for the one who takes the low place, owning himself a Sinner before God.
And we read about that public and that we mentioned that the Lord said about him.
But he went down to his house justified because after the Pharisee had prayed, why this publican prayed?
And he wouldn't Even so much as lift up his eyes to heaven and he smote on his breast.
As much as to say here is where all the difficulty is, here is where the sin is. And he said, God be merciful to me as Sinner.
He took the low place. He owned himself a Sinner. God came in and saved him, justified him. He went down to his house. Justified. That is, he was right with God. He wasn't trying to claim any righteousness of his own.
But God pronounced him righteous. Wouldn't you like to be pronounced righteous by God tonight? Well, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
God will pronounce you righteous. It was on the ground of faith, faith in God, faith in His word that Abraham was pronounced righteous.
This man's name was Nicodemus and he was a ruler of the Jews.
And we also read further down that it says, the Lord says about him that he's a master of Israel, that is a teacher. This man was in the place of a teacher teaching his people. He had a very important place among the Jews.
Then in verse two it tells us he came to Jesus, He came to Jesus.
Was there any better place to go than to Jesus?
Have you come to Jesus? Can you think of any better thing to do than to come to Jesus?
You boys and girls who haven't yet come to Jesus, why don't you come to Jesus tonight?
I don't mean that your feet could carry you to Jesus because Jesus is up in heaven.
But by faith, you could come to Jesus, and you could tell the Lord Jesus that you're a Sinner. Tell him that you're a lost Sinner, a guilty Sinner. Tell him that you know you deserve to go to hell because of your sins.
But just tell him that you come to him and tell him that you know he died for you.
And tell him that you receive him as your savior. Have you come to Jesus? Just come to Jesus.
Or sometimes I'm afraid boys and girls think that it's a difficult thing to be saved, but you need to come to Jesus. Have you come to Jesus?
And have you told him everything?
Maybe you're worried about your sins. Maybe you're worried about going to hell, you're worried about a lost eternity, and you're afraid that you are going to spend it there.
God doesn't want you to be afraid. He wants you to have peace. He wants you to have it all settled.
So once you come to Jesus.
Oh, I'm so thankful to see that Nicodemus came to Jesus.
He was a Pharisee, no doubt. He had good thoughts of himself and all of that, but he came to Jesus.
And you know, if you come to Jesus, something is going to happen. And something did happen to Nicodemus because he came to Jesus, You may not know just exactly why you're coming to Jesus. You don't know, perhaps, what's going to happen if you come to Jesus. You don't understand all about it, and God doesn't ask you to understand.
He only wants you to come to Jesus, and if you come to Jesus, the understanding will come.
When he came to Jesus by night.
Well, we have wondered why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night.
Perhaps he was afraid that somebody might see him.
And so he came during the night time, when it wouldn't be such a conspicuous thing to come to Jesus.
Well, perhaps you wouldn't like to come to Jesus publicly. Perhaps right now you wouldn't like to confess publicly to everyone that you want Jesus as your savior.
00:15:00
Perhaps you're a little afraid like Nicodemus.
But Even so, even though Nicodemus might have been afraid, and that was the reason that he came by night, he came to Jesus.
And even though you may be a little hesitant and you don't know just what you should do.
And you wonder what people are going to say. All come to Jesus. That's the important thing, is to come to Jesus.
But he has something to tell Jesus, and if you come to Jesus, I'm sure you'll have something to tell him too.
He says, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.
Or he had some sense of things. He had some sense of the Lord Jesus.
His person.
Not that he knew everything about the Lord Jesus.
But we were thankful for as much as he said. And perhaps if you come to Jesus tonight, you won't know very much about Jesus, and perhaps you'll have a very poor estimate of the Lord Jesus, a poor understanding of just who he is and his person and all. But the important thing is to come to Jesus.
And tell him what's in your heart.
Have you done that?
But the Lord Jesus has something to say to him.
Ah, this is what is important. And the Lord Jesus has something to say to you tonight too.
He says, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Now this is a very important but the Lord is saying, because he says, verily, verily.
Which means truly, truly.
He wants Nicodemus to know.
That he is telling him the truth.
The whole truth. The real truth.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God, Perhaps you're saying. Well, I don't understand what that is. What's the Lord saying?
Well, that's what was the matter with Nicodemus? He asked the Lord. Well, what do you mean?
Nicodemus had an idea that it was something physical that the Lord Jesus was talking about. It wasn't that at all. It wasn't something physical. It wasn't something material.
It was a spiritual thing now that Jesus was telling Nicodemus he must be born again.
It wasn't to be born over again, just like we were born the first time. No, that isn't what it is.
Born anew, born anew is really what is meant except a man be born anew.
He cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Again, the Lord Jesus says in verse 5 Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
First he says he can't see the Kingdom of God. Now he says he can't enter the Kingdom of God.
Would you like to be shut outside of the Kingdom of God?
To be shut outside the Kingdom of God would be an awful thing.
And there are many tonight.
Who have died without Christ, without hope, without God. In this world, they've already gone to a lost eternity. Their destiny has been sealed.
What a sorrowful thing it is for a soul to die without Christ, to die outside the Kingdom of God and go to a lost eternity.
Would you like to be in heaven?
Would you like to be with the Lord Jesus Christ? Would you like to be where there is no sin?
No sorrow, no pain, nothing to disturb peace and joy, everlasting happiness. Would you like to be there?
Well, if you want to be in the Kingdom of God, if you want to enter there, you'll have to take heed to what the Lord Jesus Christ says.
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
00:20:03
Or you say, does that mean I have to be baptized? No, that isn't what that means.
When it uses the term water there, I believe Peter tells us what it means.
And over in first Peter.
I believe we have it brought before us very plainly what is meant in the first chapter of First Peter verse 23.
Peter is speaking on this subject of being born again and he says being born again.
Not of corruptible seed, but of the incorruptible by the word of God.
Which liveth and abideth forever by the word of God. Now John says water, Peter says the word. And there are other scriptures to indicate that when water is mentioned, it's Speaking of the Word of God, the water of the Word of God.
And so, except a man be born of water, the Word, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. What do you think about the Word of God? Do you have any respect for the Word of God? When you hear the Word of God, does it bow your soul? Is your heart bowed in the presence of the Word of God?
Does this scripture mean anything to you?
It is the word of God.
Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
This Bible has been indicted.
By the Spirit of God.
Moving men to write it. This is God's word. God is speaking to you tonight.
This is not the word of men that we hold in our hands. Men wrote a truth, but it's the word of God.
If you've never had any respect for the word of God before, I trust that tonight.
You will.
Reverence the word of God, that you will begin to have a reverence for the word of God.
And own that this truly is the word of God.
You might take a textbook in school and you might be able to master that textbook. Men have done that, but you can't master this book.
This is this is an infinite book. This is a divine book. This is the divine word of God.
And you can't fathom there's not a human being that has fathomed this book. All there have been men who have expounded the word and they've gone into it deeply, but they've never gotten to the bottom of it. Oh, what a book we have. Thank God for this book.
Do you believe it tonight? Do you believe the word of God?
And there's something else here. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, is in this world today.
On the day of Pentecost, he came down, and he came to convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.
And the Holy Spirit is here tonight, and he's speaking to you.
And God says, my spirit shall not always strive with man, but he is striving with your soul tonight.
He wants you to take the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
The Word is being given to you, and the Holy Spirit is present to take the Word.
And God, by his spirit, is applying the word to your heart tonight. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to say no, I'm not going to submit to the word of God. I'm not going to listen to the Spirit of God. Oh, what a solemn thing to take an attitude like that.
You know, there's a day coming.
When the Spirit of God is going to leave this seed.
And when that takes place, all God's people, all the children of God, all the saved ones will go to the Holy Spirit will be gone. All the same people will be gone.
And what about the word of God?
Will there be a question whether you'll be able to find the word of God?
At least it's going to be despised.
And we read that strong delusion is going to overtake this world and men are going to believe a lie.
00:25:00
Because they wouldn't believe the truth of God's word.
Oh, what a solemn thing it is.
To refuse the word of God and to refuse to listen to the Spirit of God.
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Then the Lord makes a very terse statement.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
Now he's talking about man as he is by nature born.
Naturally, into this world.
And that which is born of the flesh is flesh. God says flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God man as he is by nature.
Born naturally into this world, he cannot please God. He has no place with God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
And it will never be anything else but flesh.
Natural man will never be anything but natural man.
And man, as he is born by nature into this world, will never get up there, never get to heaven. But it goes on to say that which is born of the Spirit of Spirit.
That's a different kind of a birth, isn't it? There's a fleshly birth and there is a spirit birth.
That speaks of being born 2 Times here.
Born of the flesh, Born of the Spirit. Now have you been born again? Have you been born anew?
Some of us.
Can point back to a time when we took the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Perhaps we can't tell the day or the hour or so on. That doesn't matter.
But we know there was a time we passed from death unto life.
There was a time we were saved.
Just like the Philippian jailer.
He was told by the Apostle Paul, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and he believed and he was saved.
You have been told by God to believe in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
Have you believed? Have you received him as your savior?
Have you been born again?
Or are you still among that company that's been born only once?
Well, if you have been born only once, you can't enter the Kingdom of God.
The Lord says very plainly. Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must.
Be born again.
Ye must be born again. Well, why does the Lord say that? Because you must be born again.
Oh, that's very simple and it's very plain. And the Lord has put it in a few words. Ye must be born again. Only 5 words.
And they're not big words, either.
Any boy or girl that's learned to read can read it. Ye must be born again.
I venture if I would ask some boy here tonight, it's about 6:00 or seven years old.
That's just beginning to read. He could read it.
As far as the wording is concerned, it's very simple.
Ye must.
Be born again. But why does the Lord put it that way? Ye must be born again. Why is it so imperative?
Because here.
Is that which is needed by everyone.
New birth. Ye must be born again. You are born once to be on earth. You have to be born again to be in heaven.
You were born once. You became an earthly person in order to become a heavenly person.
One who belongs to heaven, you will have to be born again, born anew.
And the Lord says it must be that way and it can't be any other way.
00:30:08
There are several expressions.
Or several things said about man here.
We have one there. In verse six he says that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
That tells us what the earthly man is made of. You have really here in this chapter, a contrast.
Between the Lord Jesus Christ, the Heavenly One, and Nicodemus.
The earthly man. And it tells us here that the earthly mind.
Is flesh. That's what he's made of.
He can lay claim to much of anything but that that he's made of flesh. He's born of flesh. He's a carnal man. He's a natural man. He's not a heavenly person. He's not a spiritual person. He's not born of the spirit.
And then we read on further down in verse 13.
Something about what man can't do. No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. Even the Son of man which is in heaven, no man hath ascended up to heaven that is of himself. No man is ascended up to heaven.
That's what the natural man and his sins cannot do. He can't get to heaven.
And dear friends, tonight, that's a solemn thing to think about. Because one of these days.
Perhaps at night.
We'll hear the shout. The Lord Jesus Christ will come.
And the dead in Christ will be raised. We which are alive and belong to him together with them we'll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We'll go to heaven. We'll go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if all you are is an earthly person, you haven't been born again. You have to stay here. You can't go up.
You can't go to heaven. No. No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven, ah, that blessed one, that heavenly one who came from heaven, he went back to heaven.
Would you like to go to be with him? You'll have to be born again. You must be born again in order to go to heaven. Then we noticed down in verse 19 something else about.
These earthly men.
This is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
Think of it. Men love darkness rather than light. That's the characteristic of the earthly man, the man whose flesh.
And if you haven't been born again, God says that's your characteristic, that's what's true of you. You love darkness rather than light. The Lord is very plain, isn't he?
Well, I'm glad the Lord Jesus Christ has been playing. If he hadn't been playing, I'm afraid I wouldn't be saved tonight.
God had to speak solemnly and plainly to me to make me see that I was a poor, lost, guilty, hell deserving Sinner. And he had to make it very plain to me that it was the Lord Jesus Christ who died for my sins and that he was my only hope of salvation, and that I must receive him as my Satan. Oh, I'm glad God spoke plainly to me.
And God is speaking plainly to you tonight that you're the kind of a person.
That loves darkness rather than light because your deeds are evil.
Well, God knows your heart better than any of us here do.
And God has told us plainly that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? Well, we can't know it, but God knows it, and he tells us the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked.
And the Lord Jesus, when he was here in this scene, said mentioned different things, wicked things that came out of the heart of man. Oh, what a catalogue, what a list of wicked things he mentioned.
That come out of the heart of man.
And if you read the first chapter of Romans, oh what a picture God has painted of man. They are not first chapter, all the lists of wickednesses and sinners.
00:35:06
And in the third chapter of Romans, he finally says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He says there's no difference, no difference.
Perhaps you're patting yourself on the back and saying, well, I'm not so bad.
I'm not as bad as so and so.
But if you're looking at so and so, and you think he's worse than you are, God says there's no difference.
And we read another scripture that says.
As in water.
Face answers to face. So the heart of man to man. Have you ever stood by a pond or a stream, a body of Clearwater, and looked down into the water? What did you see down there? You saw your own face in the water.
And so.
When you look at another person.
And you look at his heart, You see your own heart.
That's what God says when you're looking at that other person and you're making an estimate of him.
You're just making an estimate of yourself what you say about him.
Is true of yourself.
All have sinned. There's no difference, no difference.
Down in verse 27.
There is another statement made about man.
A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.
What can man receive?
You don't have strength even to lift a finger to receive anything from God's hand. God wants you to know that you're absolutely helpless.
There's no hope for you without God, and without hope IN this world, you can't receive a thing from God. You just have to take the low place.
Before God and admit to him, oh, I'm a poor helpless sin.
And then down in verse 31 Says he that cometh from above is above all.
He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all.
He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth.
Do you find yourself Speaking of the earth?
Earthly sage? Is that all you can think about? Is that all you know? Earth. Earth.
Are you earthly minded thinking only of Earth? Well, there are many people today who say I'd like to stay here on this earth.
They are earthly people. You know what's going to happen to this earth?
Heaven and earth shall pass away, God says, but my word shall never pass away. The elements are going to melt with a fervent heat.
This Earth is going to be destroyed. You want to stay here.
Is that what you're occupied with? Earth, the things of Earth?
That's what characterizes the man who is unsafe.
Who still in his sins.
He likes earth. He likes to talk about earth and earthly things and earthly pleasures.
God wants you to be saved tonight. He wants you to be born again. He wants you to have life in the Lord Jesus Christ now in this very chapter.
Since the Lord has said you must be born again, he has given us a foundation.
For the whole thing, it isn't simply that God says you must be born again and he leaves it there.
No. He has given us a foundation upon which we can be saved.
And we find it down here in verse 14.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Eve, and so must the Son of man be lifted up.
The must of God's demand.
Causes God.
To send his son into this world.
And leads him to the must.
Where his own beloved son must be lifted up on the cross.
00:40:03
If the Lord says ye must be born again, God says Christ must be lifted up on the cross, and there's no other way for you to be saved. But through that blessed man of Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's lifted up there on Calvary Cross, there's the foundation for the whole thing.
I'm so thankful tonight that God has given us a solid foundation.
In the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Precious Blood being shed there on Cal.
For without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.
God couldn't give you life. God couldn't make you a child of his apart from the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, there are many who are trying to get to heaven. They're trying to say that they're children of God, they're Christians and all of that, but they're not trusting in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there is no possibility that you can become a child of God apart from the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
No, the Son of Man must be lifted up. He must be lifted up.
He must die. The blood must be shed otherwise.
You could not answer.
To this other must that you must.
Be born again. And so the next verse says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have eternal life. You know what happened when the Lord Jesus Christ was put there on Calvary's cross? He was put there as a man.
Representing man.
Identified with Adam's race.
And when he was put to death there.
That meant that God had put an end to Adam's race. That is as far as recognizing Adam's race as being anything.
And being born into this world, born of the flesh, you of course are identified with Adam's race. Every one of us has been identified with Adam's race. But have you seen that when the Lord Jesus Christ went to Calvary's cross?
And was put to death there.
That that ended the history of man as identified with Adam.
And God cannot look upon you with any kind of favor.
He cannot recognize you.
As being any account or any worse to him.
Simply belonging to Adam's race.
No, God cannot accept you upon that basis simply because you're born into this world and have become identified with Adam's race because that whole race came to an end, their Calvary's cross. And that man, Christ Jesus, laid down his life, He died, his precious blood was shed, he was buried, and he rose again the 3rd day according to the Scriptures, and he came forth the head of a new race.
Do you belong to that race? Do you belong to that company?
Of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the head and resurrection.
Oh, it's so important to become identified with Christ, to receive Him as your Savior, to believe in Him, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Well, that's all. Very simple. You've quoted this scripture perhaps many, many times.
And you can say it from memory. Boys and girls can say it by heart. Perhaps it's the.
The most memorized verse of Scripture in the Bible.
The best known verse of scripture.
In the whole of God's Word.
And no doubt many.
Dear Christians tonight are resting on that Gospel verse.
And it's a it's a precious verse. It's a wonderful verse. There are those who have called it the Gospel in a Nutshell.
Well, it certainly presents the gospel in a very small compass, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
Could God tell out his love in any better way than that?
We might say that God did the very best He could.
00:45:04
But when God did the very best he could, man did the very worst because.
Man rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And you notice in the very first chapter of this gospel, that's the way we see it, the rejection of Christ. In the very first chapter, He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Oh, what a sad, sad thing. Here's the Creator of the universe.
Comes down into this world, becomes a man, and they won't have him. His creatures won't have him. The creature won't have the creator. Oh, what a sad, sad.
State of affairs.
But yet God sends him into this world because he loves the word. God loves you tonight. Yes, he does. Perhaps you've had doubts about it. Maybe there are things that have come into your life and you've had doubts about God's love.
It's because you have a poor estimate of God. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ, God's gift.
Sending his only begotten son into this world.
Could God do anything greater than that? Anything better than that? He did it because.
He loves you.
And He wants you to believe in Him, receive Him as your savior, that you might have everlasting life that you might not perish.
We read that man doubted God's goodness back in the Garden of Eden.
Satan said Yeah, hath God said.
And he also said, you know that you'll be like gods when you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God isn't good to you. He's holding something back from you. He's holding out on you. He isn't good. Man doubted the goodness of God. He doubted the love of God. That's where man got off. That's where man found. That's where he sinned, got off the track, as it were. That was the point of departure. Now, here in this 16th verse of John's Gospel, God brings us right back to that point.
He says. You doubt it, my love, I'm going to prove it to you.
And God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
Will you let God prove His love to you tonight? Will you be convinced tonight that God loves you?
If you will be convinced tonight that God loves you and you say, yes, I believe God loves me, all right, put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive him as your Savior.
And by that very act, you will come back, right back to the point of departure. And everyone, every Sinner, every person of Adam's race must come right back to the point where Adam fell and take up the case right there, where he doubted God's goodness and believed the goodness of God's heart, believe his love.
By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving him as Savior.
Will you do that tonight? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Oh, this is the important thing. Christ died for our sins. His precious blood was shed. He was buried. He arose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures. He's gone back to the glory. He's coming again to take us home to be with himself. One of these days. Might be tonight.
Put your trust and confidence in him.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved whosoever believeth in him.
Should not perish but have everlasting life. That's God's desire for you. He doesn't want you to be lost. He wants you to be saved. God will have all meant to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Oh, what a loving God he is.
Will you believe his love and take the gift of his love?
What are you going to do with the Lord Jesus Christ, the gift of God's love? Are you going to spurn the gift of God's love? What an awful thing to do to spurn God's love by refusing to take his gift if somebody came to you and gave you a gift and you said I don't want it.
Would it be courteous? Would it be polite? It would be an offense.
00:50:03
While many people are doing that very thing to God tonight, don't you do it except God's gift. Tonight it's a free gift. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But he also says the wages of sin is death. Continue on in your sin, what are you going to get? Eternal death, eternal separation from God. But receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, You will have eternal life, the gift of God.
May God help you tonight to take the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. As many as received him, him a person to them. He gave the power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name receive him. He wants to come into your heart, he says. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. All that's good for you, boys and girls. He wants to come into your heart. He's standing there knocking. He wants to come in. Will you let him in?
Just say to the Lord Jesus.
I know I'm a Sinner. I'm a lost Sinner. I want you to save me. I want you to come into my heart. I need to be washed from my sins.
You can do it in all simplicity. Just open your heart to the Lord Jesus and he'll come in. Wouldn't you like to have him as your savior tonight? That loving Savior, the one who died for us, suffered all that agony on the cross and bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Wouldn't you like to have him?
As your Savior, May God help you tonight to take the Lord Jesus now before it's too late.
I.
Let's sing #1 on the hymn sheet #1.
Almost persuade.
Rise to.
Receive.
Life of King Hezekiah
Song of Solomon Eyes and Heart for Christ
Power of God
Come