Conference: 1970
Table of Contents
Hebrews 1:1
Gospel—G.H. Hayhoe
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Like to turn to several scriptures, first of all in Hebrews chapter 1.
Hebrews chapter 1 and the first verse.
God, Who at sundry times, and in divers manners, faith in time passed unto the Fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world.
Being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
Now shall we turn to Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17 and verse 22?
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, he, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I pass by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him. Declare I unto you God that made the world in all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth.
Dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath, and all things, And hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitations.
That they might seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, as though He be not far from every one of us. For in Him we live and move, and have our being.
A certain author of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring, for as much than as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone Raven by art and man's device. In the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man.
In whom he hath ordained, were I be, hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
And when he heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men claim unto him, and believed among the whom was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Can we also turn to Jeremiah Chapter 9?
Jeremiah, Chapter 9.
And verse 23.
Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him the glorious glory in this, that he understandeth the north me that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in those things I delight sayeth the Lord.
Well, dear friends, as we have read these verses tonight, perhaps you have realized what I have before me, and that is the wonderful fact that God has made himself known.
We noticed that at Athens they built an altar to the Unknown God, and perhaps you have an altar in your heart tonight to the Unknown God.
Satan's great attempt is to keep man from the true knowledge of God. He doesn't want him to know what the heart of God is, he doesn't want him to know his character as light and love, and he will use every means possible to hinder you from knowing this. It tells us in second Corinthians chapter 4 the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of.
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. I was speaking to a young man the other day and he was a God fearing young man and he said to me, well what would you say if a person said, how do you know there's a God? Well I said, I believe I would answer that. We can certainly see there is a God by his creation, but I would say it's the Bible.
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This book that I hold in my hand, that makes God.
Known to us, And that is the importance of the gospel. What, what would you think if there was a beautiful piece of workmanship and you examined the workmanship, you studied it carefully and all the efforts that had been put into it, but it was made by someone who loved you very much. And you said, well, all I care is about the workmanship. I'm not at all concerned with the giver. I'm not at all concerned about knowing him.
I would say your heart would be very indifferent and dear friend, living in this wonderful world, and men have been enabled of God to find out more of the wonders of God's creation in the last 10 years. And then I suppose they have at any other time in the world's history. And men have discovered the great forces that God has given at work in this world, the great wealth that there is for man. How much they.
Have seen. They have made a trip to the moon, they have powerful telescopes, and now they can look and see far more stars than they ever saw before. And what are they glorying in?
They're glorying in what they have found out. They have found out what medicine can do and the way that medicine works, and there has been a tremendous advance in the knowledge of all that God has placed in this earth. But I'm afraid there are still very few who really want to know the Creator, who really want to have a personal acquaintance with Him.
As it tells us in the book of Job.
Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace.
When someone gives me something that's very nice, it means a great deal more to me if I know that the person who gave it to me made it himself because he loved me. And dear friends, I want to tell you a wonderful thing that perhaps you never thought of before.
That in the 8th chapter of Proverbs, when God made this world with all the things that are here, it says, that when he laid the foundations of the earth, my delights were with the sons of men. And he says he was rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth. He was rejoicing in the city of Toledo. He was rejoicing in all the wonders of this fair creation which he made for man to enjoy.
But Satan came into that fair creation, that which God pronounced very good. And what did he do? He tried in his very first attempt, to put a doubt into the mind of Adam and Eve as to the goodness of the Creator. What a subtle thing, What an attempt to rob man of the enjoyment of the good thing that God gave to him.
And he actually succeeded in this, and he began by questioning whether God had really spoken. And then instead of enjoying the creation in the way that God intended, she reached out her hand to enjoy it in a way that God did not intend. Is that what you are doing, my friend? You say, well, I am going to have a good time, but are you trying to enjoy God's creation in a way that he has told you?
Will only bring sorrow into your life and judgment if you lead this world without Christ. All you say. But God made my body and He intended me to have a good time. Yes He did, but He also told you in His Word how to enjoy what He had made. Are you just going on independent of your Creator, unconcerned to know Him or to know His mind and will?
All friend? If so, your position is a very.
Serious 1 you say I don't believe in having to answer to God. I don't believe in a personal God. But friend, your unbelief will not change the fact. And more than this, there is something within you.
Some lurking voice within you that God has placed there, for we are also his offspring.
And that voice reminds you that you do have to do with Him, and that all that is in this world, all that it has to offer, God has made your heart so that it can't be satisfied with things, with possession, with natural love. No, it can't be. He made your heart too large for that, my friend. He made your heart such that it cannot be satisfied with anything less than understanding and knowing.
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Him and he wants you and he wants your company and he has written this wonderful book, the Bible, so that you might know two things. This book uncovers 2 Things that we would not know otherwise. This book is a revelation from God. It is not just a group of.
Historical events or a system of reasoning brought before us. It is a revelation, and it tells us two things.
One of those two things, it tells us what we are and it tells us what God is. It tells us what we are in ourselves. Isn't that what men are trying to find out? What is all the study of Psychology Today? It's an attempt to try and find out why people do things.
They do things and slowly come up with all kinds of answers and all kinds of ideals. And has it solved the world's problems? Is the world getting any better? No, it's getting worse. And why don't? Because they won't listen to what God says. God tells us what is the matter with the human race. It's not education that man needs. It's a new life that he needs.
Ye must be born again. He needs a new life. And who can give him that new life?
Only God.
Only God can give you the new life and sin has ruined this world. Isn't it lovely though that after Adam and Eve had sinned against God and that the very first words that God spoke after man had sinned? Or these Adam, where art thou?
You and I have sinned against God, but God is a seeking God.
As someone has said, God is holy and we make him a judge because of our sin. But he is love and none have made him such. No friends, no one made him love. He is love and he loves you, but we make him a judge by our sins. And he loved us so much that he sent his blessed Son into this world to settle the question of sin so that there would be no hindrance to the outlaw of his love. And that's the gospel.
And so I say, if you have come into this room tonight and you have an altar in your heart to the unknown God, you really don't know him. You've had no dealings with him. You shun him. Satan has succeeded thus far in your life. He doesn't care whether you're religious or not, as long as you have a religion that keeps you from a personal contact with God.
He doesn't mind if you follow it devotedly. He doesn't mind if you're.
Always regular in all your devotions. If He can only keep you from having a personal dealing with God and with the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what he wants to hinder. And that's what you dread if you're not saved. You hate to feel you're in the presence of God. You run from His presence just exactly like Adam did. And when somebody gets you, as you say, in a corner and talks to you about salvation, you feel uncomfortable and why.
Well, because you feel he might be bringing.
You into the presence of God, and you're afraid. You're afraid.
Oh, friend, if you only knew him, you wouldn't be afraid. There's no one who loves you so much as He. And although we have made Him a judge by our sins, we have not made Him love. He is love and He loves you, and He has taken up the question of your sins himself, as we had in Hebrews chapter 1. God, who at Sony times and in divers are different than different manners.
Spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. Read the Old Testament, and what do you have? God speaking over and over again. As soon as Adam sinned, he said, Where art thou? And then when Adam was finally brought unwillingly into his presence.
God said you have sinned Adam, as it were. He said you have sinned Adam. But I want to make a promise, and he made a promise on that very occasion that there would be one who would come. And as it says, the seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus would bruise the serpent's head.
And so he made a promise away back there in the garden of one who would come and who would bruise the serpent's head. And he didn't send Adam and Eve out of the garden called in fig leaf aprons. You know, often when artists try to picture the things of the Bible, it is amazing how they miss the wonders of the heart of God. I have seen a picture of Adam and Eve being driven out of the garden with fig leaf aprons on them.
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Friends, they didn't go out that.
Way no.
No, they didn't. The fig leaf aprons were their own making. And perhaps when you feel in the presence of God, you think there's something I can do to cover the fact that I am naked in the presence of a holy God. But God himself made the covering for Adam and Eve. God himself made it, and He made it through the death of a substitute. It tells us that he made coats of skins.
Some animal or animals had to die.
So that they might be clothed. And when they were driven out from the garden, they were clothed in the covering that God had provided. Yes, God spoke even in the Garden of Eden and said, as it were, you sinned, but I still love you. And I will send a Redeemer and I'll show you. The way of blessing is through the death of a substitute. And then he spoke over and over again.
When Abel offered his sacrifice, God accepted it.
And why? Because he put between himself and God the death of a substitute. Abel came to God in the right way. But what about Cain?
Well, Cain said he knew God, that he didn't because Cain approached God with the fruit of a cursed ground and God rejected him. He rejected him. He had religion, yes, but he had no sense of what he was or what God is. He didn't realize that. And you can have religion, I say, and still have no sense of what you are in the presence of God and what what God requires.
And so Abel, as I say, put between himself.
God the death of a substitute. And it says to Abel and to his offering, God had respect.
And it says in the 11TH of Hebrews by it he being dead yet speaketh.
And you only have to read carefully through the whole of the Old Testament and over and over again. God was teaching man this wonderful lesson, and that He alone man have sinned, and although he was guilty, that God Himself was the source of all His blessing. When the people were slaves in the land of Egypt, how did He shelter them from the judgment? By the death of a substitute. The blood was sprinkled on the lentil on the two side.
Home.
At sundry times and in different ways through the Old Testament, but that his heart might be fully known, he sent his son. Wonder of wonders, friends, God came down in the person of his son.
As though he might say like this all man doesn't know what my heart is. And so he came down in the person of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, and he walked through this world. He stood still at the cry of a blind man.
He wept at the grave of those who had lost the brother. He stopped the funeral procession and raised the dead one when he saw anyone in trouble. He was there to bless. And there he was in this world. And the world was made by him, the Scripture says, and the world knew him not. But friends, nothing would turn back.
The course of the love that was in his heart, he wanted to bless man he.
Had been sent of the Father, that man might be blessed. And in spite of all the rejection that he received, He went on. And as I read the Gospels, it touches my heart to see that when His kindness was refused, when they took up stones to cast at Him, He just went out another way and went on healing the people and showing the love of God to man.
Yes, friend, that's the heart of God displayed in a man.
But finally they took them and nailed them to a cross. Was this going to be the end? Was God going to say, well, man has shown what's in his heart, There's no hope for him now He turned that very cross into the place of blessing. And it says when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. And tonight we tell you that this one who came.
Down a heavenly stranger took up the question of sin, And it's settled now, and he is there at God's right hand. And what is he waiting for? Oh, he's waiting to bless. He's waiting to bless, and he wants you to be saved. Are you going on?
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You say, well, I'm so busy with education and there's been so many wonderful things discovered that I can hardly keep up reading all the current magazines and not keeping up with the news. I just don't have time for my Bible.
Yes, friend, are you glorying in your wisdom and your riches and in all these things, and you're still unconcerned about knowing the One who wants you to know Him, to realize what's in his heart, to have your sins put away, and to be a fit companion for Him in a more bright and blessed scene than that which was forfeited in the Garden of Eden? Oh, that's the wonderful.
Of what God has done, my friend. And tonight it's our privilege to announce these this glorious glad tidings.
And when Paul came to this city of Athens, as we probably are all aware, this was a very well educated city. It was in Greece. The Greeks rose to a great height of learning. They had philosophers who gave out some philosophies that are still being studied today. They were very clever. They were very advanced men. They had a great understanding of human nature.
And as Paul fought to these epochs, Epicurians.
These Stoics on Mars hills, what did he undertake to do? Did he discuss wisdom about their philosophies? No, he didn't try to enter into all that. That was man's attempt to try and understand the problems of life. And I'm sure you've made many such attempts. Perhaps, as another has said, you were either an Epicurean or a Stoic yourself. You're either.
Saying well, nor use worrying what's got to be. He's got to be.
And I'm not going to worry. And then you're a Stoic. And if you say, well, I'm going to have a good time, then perhaps you're an Epicurean. That's what they were. These men were there, and they thought what Paul brought to them was very strange. And he said, men of Athens, He said, as I walked through your street, I realized what your lack is. I'm not here to find fault with your philosophies, even one of your own.
Said for we are also his offspring, but he says one thing I did not notice, and that is that you don't know God, you don't know him. As I pass by and beheld your devotion, I saw an elder with this inscription to the unknown God.
And here, friends, here tonight, I want to ask you earnestly and solemnly in the presence of God, do you really know God? Well, you say I have my own ideas.
But friend, you can't know God apart from Revelation.
You can't know him, it says in Job can't stop by searching, find out God. Can't thou find out the Almighty to perfection? All man searching will never find out God. They can discover his wisdom in the creation, they can discover his power, and they can discover the measure of His goodness in the fact that he sends rain upon the just and on the unjust, and causes his sun to rise upon the evil and the good.
What? That doesn't tell you what his character is and God has made himself known. I'm bald to stand here tonight and say we have a revelation from God. God has made himself known. God has told us what his character is. We hear people say, well, I can't understand how a God of love would allow so many people to suffer in Vietnam.
Your friend God is a God of love, that's true. But how did you find out he's a God of love? Where did you learn that he's a God of love?
Well, you say, I always heard God. Yes, that came from the Bible, didn't it? It's this book that tells us God is love, God is love. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But the same book that tells us that God is love also tells us that God is light, that righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. It also tells us that God is a pure eyes into the whole evil and cannot look upon iniquity. God loves the Sinner, but he hates sin, and God must punish sin. God cannot pass over sin, and he can't pass over.
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Sin or my sin. So what did he do? All? He loved us so much. He couldn't be inconsistent with his character. He's unchangeable. But He sent his Son down into this world to accomplish redemption, to take up the question of sin. And again, I quote you that lovely verse that we read in Hebrews one when He had by himself.
Purged our sin.
Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty.
Himself purged our sins. Sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. You say, well, I can't help being born in sin. It wasn't my fault that I was born in sin. Well, I say to you, my friend, you're not going to hell because you were born in sin.
The Lord Jesus died for all, but if you go on rejecting Him and refusing Him, then you will land in that awful place of judgment.
Every baby that dies before the age of responsibility goes to be with pardon.
The young man came up to us in Parry Sound one time in Canada and he said, I can't understand God, who is a God of love, allowing all those little children and babies to perish in the bombing of Europe. And this was some years ago after the Second World War.
He said, I can understand about older people because they had sinned, but he said little children and babies, what about them? And I said, Oh my friend, you don't have to worry about those little children and babies. Every single one of them has gone to be with the Lord Jesus. Yes, it says it is not the will of your Father, which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
So marvelous was the work of Christ, and that all.
Those little ones that perished and in that tidal wave over and in Pakistan, every little one that perished has gone to be with Christ in glory. I said to him, what you need to think about is yourself. You are old enough, you are old enough to make a decision. And what has been your decision about the Lord Jesus? Have you received him or he is still rejecting him? What about that?
All, friend, how solemn to think. And that you who know the way of salvation, who have a revelation from God, should turn away from it, should refuse him. And the Bible says that God does give a testimony to man, to the heathen. He gives the testimony of creation to you in this land. He gives you the testimony of his word. And if you refuse the testimony that he gives you, God holds you without excuse.
You say, well, what about the heathen? Well, he says they're without excuse because they have the testimony God has given to them, and you have a further testimony. And if you who have the Bible and who live in a Christian land refuse the revelation that God has made of himself, you are in an exceedingly serious position. It's an awful thing to turn your back upon your Creator. It's a terrible thing.
To refuse the revelation of himself.
That he has given.
And so Paul told these people, he said, I saw your altar to the unknown God. And then he went on and told them about this one whom they didn't know. He told about Jesus and the resurrection. He told about the great creation that God had made, and he told about the judgment that was to come and all your friend.
God has made known to you about His Son coming into this world. I'm sure that most in this room have heard about Christ coming. You've heard about His death upon the cross. You've heard about the fact that sin must be punished.
Heard about salvation offered and can it be that up to this time you have this?
Despised it? Can it be that up to this moment you have refused all God's entreaties towards you, entreaties of love and grace and kindness? Oh, I beseech of you, my friend, don't be indifferent to such love. Don't turn away from this One who loves you so well. He went on, and he tells us.
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He isn't worshiped with man's hands as though he needed anything, seeing He give us to all life and breath and all things. God isn't asking you to bring something of material things to Him. He isn't asking you to erect a building to cover your sins. He isn't asking you to go through some ritual to cover your sins. Now He wants you to know something. He wants you to know what He has done for you.
For He has done for you. You and I couldn't do anything for ourselves. The scripture pictures us as being absolutely helpless. It says when we were yet without strength. In due time Christ died for the ungodly. It says in another place, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us, if God was to require money from you.
Perhaps you say I couldn't give If he was to require a perfect life, you know, you'd have to say there's no hope for me because I'm a Sinner. If he was to require that you should turn over a new leaf and become interested in the Bible. You might say, well, I just couldn't be interested in those things. I'm not that kind of a person. But all God has come to give you something, my friend.
The Lord Jesus took up the question of sin. God Himself took my sins and placed them upon the head of His own beloved Son. And the Lord Jesus cried. It is finished. He bore all the wrath and the judgment of God against sin, and His precious blood was shed so that you and I might know the remission of sins. Oh, what a wonderful.
Savior, I say. He's done it all. He's asking you to come.
As a bankrupt Sinner, he's asking you to come just as you are. You don't have to clean yourself up. You don't have to turn over a new leaf. You don't have to join a church to be saved. You don't have to start singing in the choir or something. No, friend. He wants you just the way you are. He is offering you something. He is the one who gives. It's often been said the world wants you for what it can get from you.
If you have talent, if you have personality, if you have money, if you're a good sport, the world will make a great bid for you. You boys and girls, you know this, that your teachers are looking for anybody that has something outstanding and they'll make a great bid for you and they'll make offers to you. And they'll tell you that they need you on the school team, they need you in the school because the world wants you for what you have and what you can contribute.
But God wants you to.
For what he can give to you. And the Bible abounds with stories of people who had come to the end. They had nothing to give.
They had nothing to give. A broken body, blind men, sick men, lepers, people who had nothing to give, sinners who were right down the bottom as far as sin was concerned, outcast from society. And that's the kind the Lord Jesus received. Why? Because they had come to the end of themselves. They didn't pretend to bring anything to God.
They came to him not as givers, but as receivers of salvation.
And that's what He wants tonight. He wants you to come, just as a little hymn says, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to Thee. O Lamb of God, I come. Yes, He wants you, I say, for what he can give to you, and what he will give to you. His salvation.
So it tells us here in this 17th of acts.
In the 29th verse. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by heart and man's device. In the times of this ignorance God winked at.
That is, they made their idols, they made all these things. They weren't half as responsible as we are who have open Bibles. God holds people responsible according to the knowledge that they have. And the United States is responsible because they have an open Bible. You're responsible. You boys and girls brought up in Christian homes. You are more responsible than anybody else on the face of the earth. You have heard the gospel. You know the way.
Salvation, as far as what you have heard is concerned, at least God is not a stranger to you. But you still may never have had a dealing with Him. You may never have had a dealing with Him. I say, as far as all you know is concerned, it has never moved your heart, it has never brought you to Jesus. But all we desire that tonight should be brought to Him, that you would be brought, as that lovely verse says, acquaint thou thyself with Him.
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And be at peace thereby good shall come of it. Yes, to become acquainted with him.
But it says, But now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
What does repentance mean?
Well, the word itself simply means a change of mind. A change of mind.
And if you're not saved, friend, you have wrong thoughts about God. You're like the man that we read of in the Gospels, who said I knew thee, that thou Wert and hard man, reaping where thou hadst not sown and gathering where thou hadst not. Have you listened to Satan's lie?
Satan has told you that if God is a hard taskmaster, and if you turn to Him, he'll take all the fun out of your life and he'll spoil it for you.
Friend, Satan is a liar and the father of it. He's doing his best to misrepresent God to you. He's doing his best just the same as he did with the heathen. He made some monstrous figure and this represented God to them, for they build an altar to the unknown God, and Satan has succeeded.
God was either a monstrous figure, he or he was unknown. Yes. And you, if you're not saved, you have listened to Satan's life and you're afraid to get saved because you think it's going to spoil all your fun and it's going to make you miserable. But I tell you, it's a lie. It's a lie of Satan, and God wants to give you a change of mind tonight.
He wants you to have right thoughts about yourself. You sound pretty good, fellow. I'm not as bad as you think I am.
I ask you, my friend, are you willing to accept God's thoughts about yourself?
Supposing you go to the doctor and you feel you're in pretty good shape, you'll feel there's nothing the matter with you. But the doctor looks you over and he hangs his head and he says, well, I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. You're going to have an operation. You have to have an operation. You've got a very serious condition.
Oh, you said I felt all right. I didn't know there was anything that matter.
But the doctor discovered it.
And the great physician is looking at you, my friend, the God who made you, the God who made heaven, saw that you might be eternally happy, has looked upon you. And as the little hymn says, the one who healed the leper is looking on thee now.
And all thy case discerning no frown is on his brow, Not all thy sins dark story can turn away his love Twas need like thine which brought him down from his home above. O friend, he's discerned your case. And what has he said about it? What did he say about me? What does he say about you?
All hath sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's the verdict of the great Physician, the one who looks you through and through. And there's no mistake. A medical doctor could make a mistake in a diagnosis, but the great physician makes no mistake. But wouldn't it be grand if when that physician looked at you and said your condition is serious?
But I've got good news for you. We have a remedy for your condition.
It's an absolutely sure remedy. There is no question that if you'll just take this remedy that you'll be well again. Would you refuse what he offered you, especially if it was free? Oh, friend, the great physician is looking upon you and you say I'm all right. I'm not too bad. I'm just as good as my neighbor. But the great position says otherwise.
The God with whom you have to do says differently. He looks into your heart and mine, and he says the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins.
Have often said, you know, for an illustration, supposing I had two eggs sitting here, 2 rotten eggs.
And so I dropped one of them on the floor.
Oh, there's an awful smell. A rotten egg, you say? What a horrible smell.
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So I hold up the other one. I put it to my nose. I say, well, this one's all right. There's no bad smell from this one.
Oh, you say, break it. It's just as bad as the other father. Dear friend, perhaps you know somebody and all the bad that's in their hearts come out that because it didn't all come out of your heart. You say I'm not as bad, but God's looking under the shell. And I want to tell you tonight that I thank God that I had a Christian home, that I was brought up by a father and mother who kept me from displaying what was in my heart.
But the God who looked under the shell has told me, and I found out.
That my heart is just as bad as any person I can think of. It's capable of doing anything, and it's not fit for heaven as it is at all. But God has given me a new life. I've been born into the family of God. I've been cleansed in the precious blood of Christ, and the One who sees everything has pronounced me clean. Every whip. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
Friends, God loves you so much that He doesn't just make this word to you an optional thing. He delivers it to you as a command. He says I want to bless you so much that I command you to change your thoughts about yourself and about me. You have wrong thoughts about yourself. You think you're pretty good, and you have wrong thoughts about me.
But in spite of all your sin, I love you.
Christ died for you. God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. All I say to you, dear young people here tonight, are you spending all your time trying to find out all the wonders of God's creation and how much of a good time you can have in this wonderful world that He's created, and leaving God out, shutting out the Savior?
Died for you, refusing his love, refusing his grace, and you say what's wrong with what I'm doing?
Remember that verse friends, The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God.
People don't think about what it is to forget God, to leave God out of their life.
Are you the puzzle about that verse? The plowing of the wicked is sin. The plowing of the wicked is sin. You say What is wrong with a man plowing in his field? Why it is the Bible say that sin?
Well, I thought of this little way of illustrating it, supposing that I were a farmer.
And one morning I get up and I look out in my field and there's a man out there plowing in the field.
And I say to my wife, I wonder what that man's doing out there in the field.
I said I I don't know. I don't know why he'd be out there. Did you ask him to come? No.
Well, I go out to him and I say, Sir, what are you doing here in this field? Well, he said, I didn't know there's anything wrong with plowing. Tell me what's wrong with plowing.
I say to him, but this is my property. You didn't speak to me. You didn't have any reference to your responsibility on my property. That's what I say is wrong. You're trespassing.
Well, he said I could, I could get some other, I could bring the harrows and do something different. If you don't like plowing, but I say that's not the point. You haven't recognized any responsibility to me in my field. And friend, God gives you life and breath in all things. And if you haven't recognized your responsibility to him and you're still closing his heart against his Son.
You're just the same as that van plowing in the field and you say there's nothing wrong, but God says yes.
There is something wrong. You've left God out.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. You're using your body, you're using your time for yourself, and you've left God out. And God commands you to change. He commands you to have right thoughts about yourself and about Him. You're a Sinner in His sight.
He loves you. Christ died for you. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Yes, you can be saved. And why does he command us to repent? Well, friends, isn't this lovely?
Because he's appointed today in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, you say. What's lovely about that?
Well, it's just lovely about this, that because He's holy and he must judge, He commands us to turn to Him before the day of judgment comes because he doesn't want to be our judge. He doesn't want to be your judge. Judgment is God's strange work, and he does not want to be your judge, my friend. He wants to be your Savior. He wants you to know what's in his heart. He wants you to belong to Him. He wants you to be.
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Able to say this night all I've been brought to the Savior. I see that He loves me. I see He died for me. I receive Him into my heart as my Savior.
Is it hard to go into the presence of 1 like this? Remember when the prodigal returned, he came back in all his rags and ruin, and it says his father saw him a great way off, a great way off, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
Did he wait for the son's confession now? As soon as the boy started for home, the father's eyes were watching, and when he saw him there, way down the road, why he ran. And the boy made the confession with his father's arms around his neck. And old friend, I hope you'll feel the arms of God around your neck tonight and that it'll make you willing to say what that boy said.
I've sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and.
No more worthy to be called thy son. I hope you'll confess your guilt before God. I hope you'll confess that you've left God out of your life and you've lived for self. You have not recognized your responsibility to the God who made you and in whose hand your breath is. You'll close your heart against his love. But I say in this gospel meeting, he's running to meet you.
He throws his arms around you to make it easy for you tonight.
To say I'm a Sinner, I believe it. I'm not worthy to be called thy son. And what does the Father say? Bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring in his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring him the fatted calf and kill it.
The boy had owned what he was. The father did the rest.
The best rod, the ring, the sandals, the feast, everything, all from the heart of the Father. And tonight I want you to know that God loves you. And God commands you to turn from those wrong thoughts you have. He commands you to acknowledge that you're a Sinner in his presence. And he commands you 2 to recognize that he loves you, that Christ died for you, and that you might turn to Him and.
This fallen free salvation, what would you think if the prodigal, when his father spoke in that way, if he refused to even let the father put the best robe on him? He didn't say even, well, you have to get cleaned up before I can put this robe on you. Oh no, he said, bring forth the best robe and put it on him. He didn't even have to do it himself. The father did the whole thing.
And if you will take your place as a Sinner tonight, friends, God will do the rest. God will do the rest.
Notice those verses again that we read in.
Jeremiah, Chapter 9.
I'd just like to call attention to them a little.
Jeremiah, Chapter 9.
Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorious glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord.
Or have you just been occupied up to this time with your wisdom, with your might, with your riches, with what you possess?
Well, I want you to find out something more than that, my friend.
I want you not tonight to get to know the one who made you, the one who loves you, the Savior who died for you. Let him glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness. He wants to exercise loving kindness towards you and judgment. You say, why does it say judgment? Well, he's a holy God and he's already.
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Sin at the cross.
Before the day of judgment comes for this world, and it surely is coming, He came before to execute judgment.
For my sins upon the head of His blessed Son.
Saw that there'd be no judgment for me.
I often tell this little incident. It's always a joy to my heart to think of it. That I went to see a dear man in the hospital in Ottawa was right near the end, just before the Lord took him home.
And he'd suffered a good deal, but he looked up to me with a bright face and he said, Gordon, isn't it lovely to know the judgments behind you and not ahead of you?
Or friend, he exercised judgment. The judgment for my sins was at the cross of Calvary. And you can have that Savior and you can look back to the cross of Calvary and say judgments passed for me. The judgment fell on my substitute.
And now there's no judgment ahead. That's what it says for the believer. There is judgment ahead if you reject Christ, but if you don't, it's behind you. If you receive Him, I should say it's behind. And the judgment for my sins was at the cross. Will you have this Savior tonight? Let him that.
Glorious glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth, for in those things I delight. And as we had in our Bible reading, when you accept Christ.
You are made the righteousness of God in Him. Could there be anything more grand?
God Himself in all His Holiness, looking at a Sinner like me and seeing me in Christ, No sins upon me all gone and in Christ, and all the loveliness and acceptance of his person and work before God. What a place. It can be yours tonight. It can be yours tonight. Just as I close, I'd like to turn to one more passage in the Psalms.
The 9th Psalm.
Psalm 9.
In verse 9.
The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee, For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
A dear brother many years ago read that tenth verse. And they that know thy name shall put their trust in thee. And lifting up his eyes from the page, he said these words. He said you couldn't help but trust him if you knew him.
You couldn't help but trust Him if you knew Him. And friend, I feebly tried to bring before you what the heart of God is towards you. I ask you to throw down that altar to the unknown God. I ask you to accept God's wonderful revelation of Himself and all the peace, the joy that will fill your heart in receiving this blessed Savior.
He's all that you need. He's a refuge in times of trouble.
He will be your righteousness before God. He will fill your heart and your life. He will not only put away your sins, but you will be born into the family of God. You'll have a new life. All He'll do it all for you, my friend. He wants to do what He loves you.
Are you going to refuse him tonight? Are you going to say no to his entreaties of love?
Are you going to be in a lost eternity because you were set on just enjoying yourself and leaving God out of your life? The wicked shall be turned into hell. You say, well, I don't know whether I'm a very wicked person, but finish the verse and all the nations that forget God, are you just leaving Him out of your life? Are you just going on and forgetting that you have a responsibility to Him?
Or maybe this be the night of decision in your life.
Why not bow your head and bow your heart in His presence and talk to Him? He's a living Savior. We trust in the living God. Look up to Him tonight, acknowledge your sin and His presence, and open your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and He will save you. He will save you. He will save you. Now to you dear boys and girls brought up in Christian homes. May God in His mercy Savior, before it's too late. Don't continue without.
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Him. He wants to be yours tonight.
Priesthood of Believers
Ambassadors for Christ
There Is One Body
Mysteries Revealed
1 Chronicles 12:32