Gospel—J. Hyland
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On an occasion like this, but I believe it sets before us in a very real and precious way, the one that we want to present tonight, the Savior of sinners, the man that we were speaking about this afternoon, who is indeed on high in the glory, and the one and the only one who can take away your sins, wash them in His precious blood so that you're fit for heaven. Tonight there is a Savior on high in the glory, a Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree.
A savior is willing to save. Now as ever, his arm is almighty.
His love great and free. And as we sing this chorus together, if there's someone here and you don't know, this precious savior.
May you listen to the words of this chorus as an invitation to your very heart tonight. Oh come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior receive him this moment and peace shall be thine. I'm going to suggest that we stand to sing this hymn hymn #10, and if someone could please start it.
Those are.
Darkness.
In love.
Horsemen.
What made it?
Our boldness.
And very much God.
Bless.
We are going to begin the Gospel meeting this evening by reading a number of scriptures. And I am going to make no apology for turning back and forth for these first few moments of the Gospel meeting to a number of scriptures, because it's the word of God in all its living power that we want to present to you tonight.
The living word that brings before us that wonderful Savior of whom we have just been singing.
Because we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever, and as we open our Bibles, and as we turn from page to page and book to book in this living word, do open your ears this evening.
Hear what God has to say to you. Open your heart to receive the message.
And I know it is the prayer of just so many in this room that if you are lost and in your sins tonight and on your way to hell, it is the prayer of so many that the word of God might speak to you, and that tonight you will not leave this room the same way you came in.
And by that I mean not just simply walking out the same door that you came in a few moments ago, but that you will leave this room no longer on the Broad Rd. that leads to destruction, but that you will leave this room knowing that your sins are forgiven and that you are on your way to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in God's happy home in heaven. Oh, we want to present to you tonight this glorious Savior. We want to present to you the one who loves you. We want to present to you tonight the one who died for you.
We want to bring before you that precious blood that cleanses from every stain of sin. And so with this in mind, let's begin in the book of Genesis, Genesis, Chapter 3.
Genesis chapter 3 and verse 9.
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him.
Where Art Thou? And let's go over now to the Book of Job.
Job, Chapter 14.
Job chapter 14 and verse 10.
But man dieth and wasteth away.
The Amen giveth up the ghost.
And where is he now? Let's go to the New Testament, to the book of Romans.
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Romans Chapter 7.
Romans Chapter 7.
I want to begin with the second clause of the verse.
Who Shall deliver me? Let's go Back a few pages to Acts Chapter 16.
Acts chapter 16 and verse 30.
And brought them out and said Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Let's go over further in the New Testament to first Peter, chapter 4.
First Peter, Chapter 4 and I'm going to begin reading.
About 2/3 of the way through the verse. What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Let's go to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 27.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 27 and verse 22.
Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus?
Which is called Christ, the book of Hebrews, chapter 2.
Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 3.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation and just one further portion back in Matthew, this time in the 24th chapter?
Matthew chapter 24 and I'm going to begin reading about the middle of verse 3.
Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Well, I realize we have read together many scriptures, but there is something common with all these scriptures. They may seem like a strange connection of verses from God's word at the beginning of a gospel meeting.
But I'm sure at closer examination some of us realize that these verses that we have read together are all in the form of a question.
You know the Bible, God's word is full of questions. We have read just a sample of perhaps 8 questions, 8 portions in the form of a question. And these are just a sample of the questions that God would ask us from his word. Just a sample of the questions that tonight God would direct to your heart and conscience and to mine. Because a question makes it very personal, doesn't it?
There are boys and girls and young people here who go off to school and I know that sometimes the teacher, when giving a lesson or a lecture, is talking to a whole group. There may be 20-30 or more in that lecture room or that classroom. But then when questions are directed, those questions are for individuals. You know, sometimes on sunny afternoons when I was a boy in school and.
I usually like to get secure a desk by the window so that I could dreamily lookout the window and think of things that I would rather be doing than being in class and listening to the lesson of the teacher. And sometimes the teacher would detect that Jim Highland was not paying attention to the lesson and so she would stop where he would stop the lesson and would ask a question with my name attached to it. That teacher was no longer talking to 20 or 30 students.
That teacher was seeking to get my attention. That teacher wanted me to pay attention to that lesson because come Friday, there might be a quiz or an exam on that lesson, and if I wasn't listening to what was being taught, there was going to be some difficulty at the end of the week or the end of the term.
If I hadn't taken in the information that had been put forth, but all tonight, we're not talking about some lesson in some classroom.
We're not talking about some lecture that you might attend at the university or the college.
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Where you go to school, We are talking tonight about God's message to you. And God brings these questions before us to direct it very, very personally and for a few moments tonight, I trust that this is the way we will listen to the gospel message.
For a few moments tonight.
Forget about the person beside you.
Forget about the person at school that you have plans with next week because God is speaking to you tonight as an individual and he's seeking to get your attention. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Are you listening to night? Are you listening to God's voice to you? Because if you don't listen to God's voice to you tonight, there will come a day. If you leave this world as a Christ rejecter, when you will hear his voice and oh how awful it will be.
If we were to go over to the Book of Revelation, we would find His voice there. Not his voice going out in mercy in the gospel, but His voice does the sound of many waters. That is His voice heard in judgment in a coming day, and you will hear His voice.
You get close to Niagara Falls or some other of the Great Falls of this world, Oh, you can't block it out. You hear the voice of that falls as those waters tumble, gallon after gallon, over the precipice. And there'll be a day when you'll try to block it out, but you won't be able to. There's a day when you must face the one that we're going to present from the scriptures tonight, the Lord Jesus. And if you refuse his salvation.
There will be a day when you want to escape, we read in Revelation. They cry for the mountains and the rocks to fall on them, and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb and the face of him that sitteth upon the throne. How awful it will be. And all dear boys and girls, dear young people, tonight. I don't know if you're fully aware, but there was a prayer meeting before this gospel, and you were especially prayed for.
Those of you who have parents, grandparents or others who are concerned about you sitting in this audience praying for your soul.
And you were especially prayed for tonight, and I wish you could have heard those prayers as the heart was poured out on your behalf.
And it is a searching thing to realize that there is a day coming when the opportunity will be forever over and you will look around, perhaps on a very occasion like this, perhaps tonight, perhaps before the hands of that clock make 8:00 PM You may look around this room and you may see a lot of empty chairs.
What will go through your mind? I don't know what will go through your mind, but it is searching to consider this, that when Elijah was caught away to heaven in a whirlwind, a chariot of fire, a little picture to us in the Old Testament of the rapture of the Saints out of this world, who was it that missed him? It wasn't the general populace in Israel, it was the sons of the prophets.
Young person, I want you to think about that tonight.
The sons and daughters of Christian parents.
You've come to meetings like this over and over and over again.
And if the Lord Jesus were to come before 8:00, where would you be?
I'm going to leave that for you to answer before a holy God.
Where would you be? Would you be left in this, these seats? Or would you rise in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, to be with the Lord Jesus, to meet him on the on the cloud? And so shall we ever be with the Lord?
We began tonight with a very searching question, didn't we? Where art thou?
Let this question burn into your soul tonight. Where art thou? We know the context here. Adam and Eve had been placed in this beautiful garden, and God had told them that they could eat of every tree of that garden. It had been provided for their good and for their happiness. Everything was provided at the hand of God.
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But there was one tree that they were not to eat of, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You know, that tree was really to be the recognition that Adam was responsible to God. Adam failed to recognize his responsibility toward God. And isn't that what people are doing today? They don't want to recognize their responsibility to God. I suppose that's why people try to tell themselves that when they die, it's all over and they are laid in the ground like any, like an animal.
Is that why people want to believe that? Indeed. Because if that is true and it's not true. But if that is true, then man has no responsibility to his maker. And we know the sad story here. Satan the tempter came and Eve was tempted and she took of that fruit. And then Adam her husband, in direct disobedience took of that fruit as well. And we know the consequences. The wages of sin is death and by one man's sin.
By one man's disobedience sin entered, and death by sin so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
And we find here that immediately Adam having received a conscience, he's afraid, and he hears the voice of the Lord God in the garden, and he hides himself. And God raises a question here to Adam. Did God know where Adam was? Indeed, he didn't know where Adam was, but he wanted to raise this question, to speak to his conscience, to make him realize his need and his guilt. And oh, tonight I trust.
That this will be impressed upon your soul as well, if you're still without Christ. To realize that your need is great and that not only are you a Sinner tonight, but you are a helpless Sinner, and that there's not one thing you can do to rid yourself of one sin.
At this juncture in the Gospel meeting, there is something that perhaps we should stress, and that is that even though we are sinners born into this world as sinners because of Adam's sin and sinners by practice, and those of us who have children realize this very keenly, it doesn't take very long to realize.
That were born into this world as sinners and that were sinners by practice. But let's stress something very, very important. Let's not put it off till the end of this gospel meeting because we may never.
We may never reach 8:00 tonight. The Lord Jesus may come. The coming of the Lord draws nigh. And let's stress right now the importance of the blood of Christ, because if you're still hearing your sins, the blood of Jesus Christ is the only remedy, the only cure for sin.
Again, there are some boys and girls here and I remember when I was a boy I liked to go out and play ball in the backfield and.
Other activities that would leave my clothes very, very soiled, very, very dirty, and I would come in with those white socks and that white T-shirt, just black with dirt and grime ground into it.
And my mother had a favorite detergent in those days. She thought it did a pretty good job. But you know, she didn't always use that particular detergent because sometimes she would go to the store and she would find that either they were out of that brand of detergent.
Or she would compare prices and she would find that there was another brand on sale.
And that it would be quite a saving to buy this other brand of detergent this week instead of her usual. And so she would bring this substitute home and she would take our grimy play clothes and she would put them in that washing machine and she would add that cup of soap.
And sometimes, she wasn't always satisfied with that soap, but I dare say that more often than not, it basically did the same job.
Didn't always get the dirt out, but neither did the regular brand, and so that soap substituted on that particular week. For whatever reason, it did basically the same job. But why do I bring this up? Because I want to impress upon our hearts tonight that there is no substitute for the blood of Jesus if we were to go out on the streets of the city of Shrewsbury or Saint Louis or any other of the surrounding cities around here tonight.
And ask people their opinions as to how to get to heaven. You know, people seem to like opinion polls today, but if we were to ask people their opinion as to how to get to heaven, I'm sure we would find a variety of opinions.
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If we asked 50 people, we might get almost that many opinions, but all what counts tonight is what the Word of God says.
Many, many years ago.
There was what they called a Parliament of religions, held in the city of Chicago.
And as the account goes, there was a representative from just about every known religion in the world, so-called present at that Parliament.
There were representatives from the Buddhist religion, the Hindu religion.
Islam and from many of the lesser known religions and theologies that are practiced in this world tonight.
There was Eastern religion and Western cult of every sort.
And deep and long were the theological discussions. Deep and long were the.
Discourses on this and that, and man's need and how to meet man's need and how man could merit favor before his God, and so on.
And this went on for some time. And then an earnest Christian man named Doctor Joseph Cook arose amid all those, as the world would say, learned people.
And he said to that crowd, he said, I'd like to present to you tonight a woman, a woman who is a Sinner. Blood stains are on her hands, and they're the blood stains of murder.
She's distressed and burdened under the under her guilt. She is looking for peace and relief. What can you tell me?
Oh, there was a great hush came over that crowd.
What could the man of Islam say? What could the Hindu say? What could these things offer with a case like that presented to them?
Joseph Cook looked towards the open, the hat toward the heavens as if they were open, he said. I hear a voice, he said. The Apostle John speaks the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
But hark another voice. This time it's the Apostle Peter.
Redeemed, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily, was foreordained before the foundation of the world. But one more witness the apostle Paul, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. Oh, this is the answer to man's need. This is the cure.
This is the remedy tonight that we want to impress upon you that him we so often sing in the form of a question.
What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh precious is the flow. Is that blood precious to you? Oh, I look into the faces of those who joy to speak of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It thrills our soul to think that we have been cleansed by that blood, that we have been brought in to a relationship with God and with his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because he has made peace through the blood of his cross.
Is there any peace in this world tonight? This world is in one turmoil and upheaval after another.
And I believe God is speaking very loudly to this world in these last days.
We have heard in the last few months of so many ushered into eternity.
As the result of what we would call natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes.
And not only so, but we're hearing a plane crashes and ships going down, and accidents of a magnitude that is astounding. God is speaking and He's speaking loudly. How loud does he have to speak to your soul this evening?
To make you wake up. It's high time to wake out of sleep.
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Adam, where art thou?
We have another question in the book of Job.
That we read together.
Man dieth and wasteth away.
Yay man giveth up the ghost and where is he?
The world was shocked a few weeks ago with the Downing of an Air Egypt plane in the Atlantic, with so many souls on board, ushered in a moment into eternity.
I don't know where each of those souls are tonight, but I know one thing on the certainty of God's word, that those souls 200 and some souls in eternity tonight those souls are either absent from the body and present with the Lord.
Or they are in a place of conscious torment.
If we were to go over to the book of Luke, we would find the Lord Jesus drawing aside the curtain and telling about two men who lived in this world. And it's true, they lived under very, very different circumstances.
But as Solomon says, one thing befalleth them all, and it is appointed unto man once to die. Those two men died. The story didn't end there, did it? The story doesn't end there, does it?
Two men died, one carried into a place of conscious bliss, one carried into a place of conscious torment.
That man realized his fate was fixed because when he spoke to as he saw a Lazarus in Abraham's bosom afar off, and as he spoke, he didn't ask to be released from that place. He knew his destiny was fixed. All he wanted was one drop of water to give him momentary relief from the condition of things that he was in.
How awful.
One of the most awful things about a lost eternity will be this.
No hope.
Think about that.
You know, if you're sick or you're going through some difficult situation, you can get through today, because there's always hope that things will be better tomorrow. We live for hope, don't we? We always hope that things will get a little better tomorrow and life will go on a little rosier and the pain won't be so intense. But what about in hell? It's like a clock with no hands. The hands of that clock on the wall in front of me are moving slowly around, marking time. But eternity will be like a clock with no hands.
Forever and ever and ever, all you must do with a living holy God. Tonight I'm going to relate a little incident that impressed me.
We had some expressions before us this afternoon in the Reading meeting as to the Creator, and I know when you young people and boys and girls go to school, this is undermined, perhaps more than we who are a little older realize.
But as I see my children coming up through the school system, I realize that this is being undermined, perhaps in a way that it never has been before. And I remember reading about a man.
Who was a governor? The governor of one of the provinces over in Malay and the Pacific Rim.
And this governor of Malaysia, he was a heathen idol worshipper.
He had many idols of wood in his home, and he would often sit in his courtyard and repair these idols. Sometimes an idol would get bumped, and perhaps a hand or a finger or a foot would be damaged. And so he would get out his tools and he would repair these idols and then he would return them to their place and he would pray on a daily basis to these idols.
One day he was sitting in his courtyard, surrounded by a number of these idols that needed some repair, and all of a sudden it hit him.
Here I am trusting in something that I have to repair with my own hands. I believe it's the book of Isaiah speaks of things that we have made with our own hands, and I know we wouldn't in the Western world perhaps fall down to an idol of wood or stone. We say how foolish for the heathen to think that these things can give them deliverance, but I believe we have many other kinds of idols.
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In this country, things we've made with our own hands, and we're looking to them for deliverance. We think they're the answer to society's problems, but they're not. And this governor, he realized all of a sudden that these idols could do nothing for him.
He stood up, and he squared his shoulders, and he gathered these idols together, and he began to walk through his home, and he began to pluck those idols from their shelves and from the corners where they were situated. And when his wife realized what he was doing, she was also surprised. And he said, wife, I realize that these idols are not the answer, that these idols can't help us. Oh, she said. I thought that for some time, but I was afraid to express it.
He took these idols of wood outside and he lit a match to them and he watched them burn.
But let's remember, this man had never had a Bible in his possession like you and me.
He had never heard of the God who sent his Son into this world. He had never heard John. 316 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. Never heard that. But he knew there must be a living God. He knew there must be a supreme being, someone greater than himself.
He wasn't left in the dark for too long.
Because it wasn't long until a man came through that part of the country.
And he was selling books, and among other books, he was selling the Word of God. He was selling Bibles. And news spread because this governor's decision had had an impact in that area. All knew what he had done and that he had castaway his idols.
And word quickly reached the governor that there was a man traveling in that part of the country and that he was selling a book that perhaps the governor would be very, very interested in.
The governor secured a Bible, and as the story goes, he and his wife would sit.
In the afternoon on their front porch, reading the word of God together.
And I guess we can't who've always had Bibles. I guess we can't perhaps enter in, at least I can't. To the thrill that went through their souls as they read chapter after chapter of the word of God. Telling of them of that one who lives in heaven and that one who, even though sin came in to this world, That one who was gracious and loving, that one who provided coats of skin for Adam and Eve. That one who provided for the children of Israel through the sacrifices.
And all when they came over to the New Testament and they read about the Son of God coming into this world, all their hearts leaped.
Their souls thrilled as they read the story.
And they did indeed come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
And oh, with joy, they went out to tell.
Their fellow citizens, and there was a great work of God in that area.
Two or three years later, a missionary came to that area, the first missionary that had ever come to that area. And he was all so surprised to find so many who not only knew the Lord Jesus as their savior, but that had come to the knowledge of the truth. And how surprised he was to find a deep appreciation and understanding of the precious truth of God from reading the word of God.
And all, what peace it brought to that governor and his wife, and what it peace it brought to many of those Malaysian people to rest on the word of God, to rest on the finished work of Christ.
And what security it gave them for eternity, because man does indeed die and waste waste away. And where is he?
We're not going to have time tonight to go over all these questions, but I read a question in Romans 7. Who shall deliver me?
Tonight, if you're without Christ, you're bound in the chains of sin, it tells us. In Proverbs, we're held with the cords of our sin.
We're prisoners, just like the children of Israel. When they were in the land of Egypt, did they have freedom? No. They were under the ******* of Pharaoh. A picture to us in the Old Testament of Satan. They were in Egypt, a picture to us of this world, and they were indeed under *******.
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But God delivered them, didn't he? And how did he do it all? The Passover lamb had to be slain. And oh tonight, who shall deliver me?
Oh, it's only the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only through that finished work of Calvary's cross that is the only deliverance. Oh, tonight, look as it were, to the cross of Christ.
We preach Christ and Him crucified. Another little story that I know some of you have read.
But there was a young man named Roger. I don't know what his last name was, but his first name was Roger, and he was a man just like some of the young people here, brought up in a Christian home. In fact, most of the young people here.
He sat in gospel meetings. He learned the gospel hymns.
He said his memory verse at Sunday school, but he did not know the Lord Jesus as his savior. He grew up and left home. He went to school. He studied hard.
But his real love was swimming and he was a good swimmer and he became became the swimming instructor at one of the colleges in the Midwest of the United States.
And one night Roger was lying in bed in his room.
And the Spirit of God began to bring before him the verses that he had learned in Sunday school as a child.
His mind went back to some of the gospel hymns that he had heard sung over and over and over again on occasions just like this.
He thought about him. He died. That we might be forgiven. He died to do us good, that we might go at last to heaven, saved by his precious blood. That was too much for Roger. He got up from his bed. He put his swimming trunks on and decided that perhaps a good swim in the university, the college pool, would do him good and get things off his mind and help him to relax.
And he could get off to sleep.
He walked to the pool.
And as I am told that the roof of that pool was glassed in and there was perhaps a full moon, fairly full anyway, and the light was streaming into that pool.
And so Roger, who knew every inch of that area, he decided that he didn't need to turn on the lights.
He walked around to the end of that pool.
He walked out to the end of that diving board.
He stood there, considering.
Eternal issues.
And as he says, he will never know, apart from the grace of God, what caused him to instead of diving into that pool.
Walk slowly back down that diving board around the end of the pool and down the steps at the corner of that pool.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't realize until his feet hit.
The cold tiles of the floor of that pool.
That that pool was completely empty of water.
It came out later that earlier that day the janitor had drained the pool to do some repairs.
And had failed to tell Roger.
And as he stood there on those cold tiles, he realized that had he jumped, he would have broken his neck and died. But let's back up for a moment. What was it really that kept Roger from jumping? Well, he told the story later, and he said as he stretched his arms out.
To jump into that pool, To dive into that pool, he saw reflected in the moonlight on the wall in front of him.
His own shadow in the shape of a cross.
And on that cold pool floor, he knelt that night to thank God for not just saving his life physically.
But to thank God for that eternal life that was offered to him, the gift of God eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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All the cross meant something to Roger. The cross of Christ. It meant something to the apostle Paul. Who could say, God forbid, that I should glory.
Saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
Does it mean something to your soul, to night the cross of Christ? And then to realize too, that the Lord Jesus at the end of those hours of darkness, when he bore my sins in his own body on the tree?
He cried and is finished, and he bowed his head, and he gave up the ghost because he said of his life, No man taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
And he lays down his precious life. He commends his spirit to the Father, and they come along. And the soldier with a spear pierces his side, and forthwith flows that comes throughout blood and water. And then, seeing that he is dead, they don't break his legs in fulfillment of the word of God, but they take him down, loving hands as God allowed it took him down from that cross, and laid him in a new tomb where never in a man laid.
And then on the third day, he rose triumphant and the Savior that we're Speaking of tonight.
Is the one that we were singing of There is a Savior not on the cross tonight, not in the tomb tonight, but there's a Savior on high in the glory. Because if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you are still in your sins. But He rose again for our justification. And are there any more thrilling words than those words spoken to the ladies who came and others who came early to the Sepulchre on the resurrection morning? He is not here.
He has risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay.
This is a vital part of the gospel. The Lord Jesus did not just rise in spirit, He rose bodily. In fact, that is why one reason why he remained on earth so long before his ascension, to give ample testimony to his own. As to his bodily resurrection. He could say, handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me have He appeared even to about 500 brothers.
At one time, and Scripture leaves us in no doubt as to the bodily resurrection.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's there tonight. And oh, it's just as if his ear is bending low to hear someone in this room, a boy, a girl, a young person, perhaps an older person too, receive him as savior. All come now to Jesus, that dear, loving Savior.
As I say, we're not going to be able to touch on all these questions, but I trust that the Spirit of God will take them and burn them into your soul.
But we did read that verse in Hebrews. How shall we escape?
If we neglect so great salvation.
I feel challenged tonight.
Sometimes I look into the faces on an occasion like this of those who have perhaps rarely or even never heard a clear gospel message, and that stirs one soul. And it is a tremendous challenge to seek to present from the word of God the gospel, simply and clearly. But sometimes I feel it's even a greater challenge.
To look into the faces of those who have heard it so many times have had, as it were it hammered into them.
Time and time again. And yet you are a neglector. Maybe not necessarily a rejecter, but a neglector. One who says not to night. I'll put it off. I'll wait a little longer. Oh, don't put it off. There was a man walking the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa.
And as he was walking along, he noticed a piece of paper lying in the gutter.
And all he could see of that piece of paper were the words £5000 reward offered.
Well, you can imagine his curiosity, to say nothing of his desire to have 5000 lbs. And so he stooped down and he picked up that piece of paper and it turned out to be a gospel tract. And that gospel tract raised this question or raised this challenge £5000 reward offered to the person who can answer the following question.
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How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
Needless to say, that reward has never been collected to this day.
It is a great salvation at a great cost. Oh, my friend, the gospel is not cheap.
It's free, but it's not cheap. It costs God his Son. It costs the Lord Jesus his life and the shedding of his precious blood. And the gospel is not cheap. It's costly, but it's free to you because the debt has been paid. And how shall we escape if we neglect?
So great salvation.
Are you going to neglect tonight? I believe that that really is what the enemy is whispering in your ear tonight.
He's not whispering in your ear and causing you to be a rejecter, perhaps.
I trust not anyway. But he's whispering in your ear and saying there's lots of time and even if the Lord comes and those believers are gone, there'll be another chance. Satan's not your friend. He wants to drag you down to hell. He's a liar and the father of lies.
The Lord Jesus said, When once the master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door, then they come and they begin to knock. And they say, Lord, Lord, open unto us all. There's a lot of earnest people there at the door, isn't there?
But does that door ever open again? No. Those words come from the other side of that door to ring in their ears for eternity. Depart from me often said that it's in contrast to the message tonight. 3 words perhaps can sum up the message tonight. Come unto me. That's the invitation. That's the message from a heart of of love. If you refuse the message of those 3 words, you will hear another 3 words in a coming day.
Depart from me.
Come unto me from the heart of a loving God, or depart from me to be eventually taken and bound, hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Oh, we're in earnest tonight. We're pleading tonight. A man was preaching the gospel one time, and there was a lady there who was not the Lord's. And on the way out that evening from the gospel meeting, she was asked what she thought of the message. Her comment was this. Well, the preacher is passionate about what he believes we are. Tonight we are in earnest. These things are real. There is something beyond this life.
And some of you will bear with the repetition of something that you heard recently.
But I was stirred.
In being handed a newspaper article some weeks ago as I was visiting in Scranton, PA.
And there had been, just before my arrival an article in the local newspaper and I am surprised but happy that they printed this article because this article was telling about a lady.
Who knew that she was at the end of this life?
And so she called for the man that she wished to take her funeral service.
After she had passed on.
And she went over a number of things with this man as to what she wanted at her funeral.
And when the man thought she was finished, he prepared to take his departure.
And she said there's one more thing I want you to do.
She said. When they lay me out in my coffin.
And when they come to pass by and pay their last respects, she said. I want you to make sure.
That there is a fork in my right hand.
This man had taken a good many funerals in his day, but he'd never had a request like this, and so he queried the lady as to why she wanted a fork in her right hand. Now, bear in mind, this was all printed in the Scranton Daily Press.
She told that man, she said. You know, I've been to a good many suppers and functions over the years.
And she said, as the plates from the main course were picked up.
I was more often than not told to keep my fork, that the best was yet to come. And she said I want you to make sure that that fork in my right hand is visible for all to see. And she said when you stand up to preach my funeral to those who have congregated on that occasion, she said I want you to explain very carefully why that fork is in my right hand and that for me the best has come that I'm absent from the body and present with the Lord.
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And I want you to impress upon all those there that for those who know Jesus the best is yet to come.
Isn't that interesting? But what about you?
Suppose that was you in that coffin. Would they be able to put a fork in your right hand, and to tell those who are gathered there to pay their lost respects that for you, the best has come?
An agent Christian I was just reading the other day of an aged Christian who was about to leave this world and with his last breaths, he told those at his bedside.
I want you to think of Maine tomorrow as the happiest being that you've ever known because he knew he was going from that deathbed to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I plead with you tonight. Don't go out the door. There are a number of doors in this room. Don't go out any one of these doors without settling this question of where you will spend eternity. There's a hymn we sometimes sing eternity where it floats in the air mid clamor. Silence. It always is there.
Oh, eternity, where man dies and wasteth away. Yay, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? And in Matthew we read too, that they came, and they said, when would the end be and what would be the sign? I suggest that we're right at the end now that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, he says, Behold, I come quickly, and at the end of this meeting many of our souls thrill as we look up and we say Amen Even so come Lord Jesus.
But what about you All to night come to the Saviour. He's pleading with you. We used to sing a little chorus in Sunday school. He loves you. He wants you. He died to redeem you only believe His word. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Let's pray our God and Father.