Gospel—Jim Hyland
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I'd like to start the Gospel Meeting this evening with Hymn #4 on the gospel hymn sheet. Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me. Long I was chained in sins darkness. Now by His grace, I am free.
Hymn #4. Someone could please start it?
This is a savior for me.
Save you and save you. Save your sinners like me.
Shining is what for my grandson?
Mr. Savior for me.
Just as I was erased.
Switching from judgment to play now, there is no condemnation.
Listen to say good morning.
Save, You don't save.
Save your sinners like me.
Change. It's life for my friend.
Before we pray, I'd like to sing a hymn on the back, especially for those who are younger. It's hymn #42. I know it says children's hymns and courses, but I'd like to sing this little song, especially for those who sat in these meetings with your parents and other adults. And you know the gospel so very well. You may be very young, but this little song tells us that no matter how young you are.
You can tonight, if you don't already, come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Hymn #42, someone started. Please.
The child of seven or even 3 or 4.
I swear. Open the door.
Lord, where am I?
Believe.
Like to read two familiar portions of the Word of God to begin with. The first one is in First Timothy chapter one.
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First Timothy Chapter one, verse 15.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, and then in Second Timothy, Chapter 3.
Second Timothy, chapter 3 and verse 15.
And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
My burden tonight in seeking to present the good news of the gospel, the glad tidings that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, is to make it as simple and plain as possible.
Not to try to present it in some new light this evening. Not to turn to some obscure portion of the word of God. Not to give some different kind of twist to things, but just to as simply and clearly as possible.
From the pages of this precious living book, to present the truth that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Because it's a person we want to present to you tonight. Tonight. We're not here to talk about trying to save the planet. We're not here to talk about regeneration. We're not here to talk about sociology or theology or turning over a new leaf. We're here to talk about a person.
The person of Christ, God's beloved Son, the one that God sent down from heaven.
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life, and my soul is stirred tonight as I look into the faces of an audience like this. And maybe there is someone here tonight who's never really heard a clear gospel message. Maybe you've come in tonight at the invitation of someone. But I suggest that most of us here, from the very early days of our youth, have heard the gospel message, and I look into the faces of boys and girls and young people.
And some who are not so young, who have heard the gospel over and over and over again from before the time they can remember, heard it from the Their parents around the dinner table, heard it at Sunday school from their teachers, were brought to gospel meetings from week to week.
Came to conferences like this, and yet perhaps you're still in your sins tonight. Perhaps you're still lost. And on the Broad Rd. that leads to destruction. I find it a great challenge to look into the faces of an audience that's heard it so many, many times. Recently. We had the privilege of traveling in South America and some of the Caribbean islands, and we have opportunity to go into places where perhaps the gospel has never been clearly presented.
We traveled miles and miles and hours into interior villages in Guyana, South America, just a couple of weeks ago. And at the little government schools, one room, school houses, when we told them we were missionaries with the good news of the gospel, they would welcome us in. They would want us to sing Jesus Loves Me. They'd want us to present the gospel. And how can't you stay a little longer? And when are you going to come back and bring us more?
Is that what you find in North America? You know, someone was we were reminded in one of the prayers that the prayer for the gospel that years ago when gospel meetings were announced, gospel halls and rooms like this would be sometimes filled to overflowing gospel tents and and community halls would overflow with the people that would have a desire to hear the glad tidings.
It's not like that anymore. Here in North America, thank God, there are places in the world where there's still a hunger to hear the gospel and the truth. And you know it is a real exercise before God to present the gospel simply and clearly in settings where you feel most have never heard a clear gospel before. But I wonder sometimes if it isn't even a greater burden and a greater challenge and exercise to present it to an audience like this.
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Who have heard it so many, many times. A brother was preaching recently. I believe we were on the island of Grenada last week and he was preaching the gospel and he made an interesting comment. He said there are those in the audience who fall into one of three categories, those who are saved.
Those who pretend they're saved.
And those who think they're saved, I pondered that, especially that last comment and those that think they are saved. And maybe there's someone here and you've been brought up in a Christian home, and it's a wonderful privilege and heritage. I trust we all learn to value it. Those who have us who have had that privilege, we all learn to value it more and more. But maybe you think you're saved. Maybe you think you're not so bad.
Maybe you think because you've learned the Gospel verses and because you have sat quietly around the dinner table and listened while dad read the scriptures.
And you've obediently come to meeting and you know about the way of salvation and so on. Maybe you think you're saved.
But I want each one of us tonight to search our hearts in the presence of God. And my prayer is that God would search our hearts and our consciences, that we might really know for sure, that we might know that we have eternal life.
You're saved. You're pretending to be saved. Solemn thing. Or maybe even more solemn, you think you're saved and you're still on the Broad Rd. that leads to destruction. But oh, here we find a faithful saying. Paul recording these words by divine inspiration under the direction of the spirit of God, he pens. This is a faithful saying. The Bible is full of faithful sayings.
Every statement God makes is in His love and faithfulness. But here is something that the Spirit of God is seeking to draw our attention to tonight in connection with the gospel and salvation. This is a faithful saying, but it's not only a faithful saying. It's worthy of all acceptation. It's worthy of being accepted. Because you might say, yes, God is faithful. And yes, I've learned that verse in Sunday School. And yes, there's truth to it, But have you made it your own?
Have you appropriated it for yourself? And what is it that is the faithful saying? What is it that's to be accepted? It's the Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Before I comment further on this, we also read in Second Timothy chapter 3, because Timothy was one who had a godly grandmother and a godly mother.
He'd had the privilege of hearing the word of God. It would have been parts of the Old Testament that they would have had available at that time. But he had sat under the word of God. Not only that, but he had heard the truth from the lips of Paul himself.
And Paul reminds him that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures, which, if I can put it simply for our purposes, tonight he had known the word of God that showed him how to be saved.
And again, I realize there are so many here and this is my particular burden tonight.
For you who have heard the word of God from the early days of your youth, it has been used to show you the way of salvation. If I was to step down from this podium and speak to you privately and ask you tell me in a sentence or two how to be saved, I suppose that most of you, even you boys and girls, would be able to give me something in connection with the gospel and being saved.
Timothy had known the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, the Word of God, that were able to make him wise unto salvation. But then there's something else.
Through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Because the moment came in Timothy's life when it wasn't enough to have heard it from his mother and grandmother. It wasn't enough to have heard it from the Apostle Paul, but he had to appropriate it for himself. It was through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
And I would like, with the Lord's help, to go to a number of other scriptures tonight. And I would like to take up this subject of salvation, really under 3 headings. Why, how and when? First of all, we might raise the question, why is it so important to be saved? Why do they have gospel meetings after a gospel meeting? Very similar to this one evening, a man who had been invited to the Gospel meeting. Actually it was a lady. I'm sorry.
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A lady who had been invited to the Gospel Meeting. She was going out the door and the preacher was shaking hands with folks as they exited the room.
And she was asked what she thought of the gospel message. She said to the preacher, At least you were passionate about what you preached. And we are passionate tonight. We're sincere. These are real things. These are eternal issues. We're not fooling around tonight. We're not here for Entertainment Tonight. We're here in the presence of God and the Word, to present the reality of eternity. Because these things don't just affect us for a little time.
They don't just affect us for this life, but this has to do with where you're going to be in eternity forever and ever and ever and ever.
This is serious. That's why we don't want you to be texting. We don't want you to be looking at your gadgets. We want you to be paying attention, listening to what God has to say from His word. He that hath years to hear, let Him hear.
God wants you to listen because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and we're born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. But let's turn to a couple of verses to show why we present the gospel and why we're in earnest, and why we really are passionate about it, and why God desires that you would listen and respond to the message.
Again, these are very, very familiar verses, but let's turn to them and see them written, recorded on the pages of God's Living Word, Romans chapter 6.
Romans chapter 6 and verse 23.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Just turn back a page to the third chapter.
Chapter 3.
And verse 23 for all have sinned and come short.
Of the glory of God. This really takes us back and thought, does it not? To the very beginning of man's history.
When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, and they were given their everything to enjoy at God's disposal. But there was one thing they were told not to do. Adam was told that he could eat of every tree of the garden, but that he was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam disobeyed God. Adam refused to recognize his responsibility to God.
And he reached out and ate of that tree, and gave to his wife. And it tells us by one man's disobedience, sin entered, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, and sin came in to separate man from God. And man needs to be reconciled to God, not God to man, but man to God, because sin has come in, and sin separates, your iniquities have separated between you and your God.
And furthermore for those who reject the Lord Jesus as their savior.
Reject God's offer of salvation and pardon and forgiveness from sins. God will have no choice but to send them to the lake of fire to a lost eternity where they will be in torment, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the memory of gospel meetings like this for all eternity. The memory of of scriptures to nag at their conscience and remind them that they had opportunity. That's why the Lord Jesus said.
The word which I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day.
Have you ever heard John 316 before?
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You probably have, and you've heard it again a moment ago at this meeting. But it will be a very solemn thing to lift up your eyes in hell and remember John 316 But not remember it, to have it as a point of refuge and salvation for you, but to have that very scripture rise in judgment. Because if you remember a verse like that in a lost eternity, that verse that was spoken will judge you and make you realize that you had opportunity.
And you refused it.
We spoke about 3 categories of people in this room, and there are different ways that we can divide people, I suppose in a room like this, there are three other categories. In this room. There are those who are acceptors, those who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, those who can sing Savior of sinners like me, those who rejoice to know that they're on their way to heaven.
To be with the Lord Jesus. Those who rejoice. To know they've been blessed with all spiritual blessings, as we had in our reading meetings. Those that rejoice. To know that they have an unchanging friend, a guide, one who's caring for them, comforting them, loving them all the way home to heaven. All our hearts rejoice. I know I look into the faces of dozens and dozens like myself who rejoice. I rejoice To know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior and confess him to you.
Once again tonight, those are acceptors, those who have accepted. But there are rejectors as well. There are those, I'm afraid, who've heard the gospel, and they have said, no, they don't want it, they've rejected it. But there's still another category. There are neglectors. There are those who, like Felix, say, when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee those who put it off. And Scripture says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
I know some of you are watching the clock and you're thinking this meeting will end around 8:00. Yes, it probably will end around 8:00. But I'm not going to tell you to wait till 8:00 to get saved because this meeting may end long before 8:00. This meeting may end before 7:30 because there's an event going to take place at any moment that is going to change everything as far as the gospel goes. And that event is the coming of the Lord Jesus.
And This is why, again, we're so in earnest, Because we're sinners without Christ. We're sinners, and on our way to hell, all have sinned. There's no difference.
I was just in Grenada recently and it brought back to mind when I had been there in 2008, I believe it was, or 2004. It was in September, just after Hurricane Ivan went through.
In September 2004, and we went in to take Bibles and literature, and we went in on a humanitarian pass to help out with the disastrous situation. Hurricane Ivan was a #5 hurricane. That's the highest number, and it staled over Grenada and actually churned the island like an egg beater. Then it left and then it turned around and came back. I have rarely seen devastation like I saw at that time.
But when we were there, this time, a brother, we were reminiscing a little bit about that time.
And the local brother we stay with in Grenada, he was telling me a little bit about that aftermath and how there were shortages of not only food but hardware and things to rebuild. And he said, Jim, I stood in line with millionaires to get a loaf of bread and a pound of nails, he said after Hurricane Ivan, it didn't matter your social class, it didn't matter how much money you had in the bank.
It didn't matter about anything concerning your standing in society, he said. I stood in line, shoulder to shoulder with millionaires and poppers. We were all in the same boat. I thought of that in connection with sin. It doesn't matter who we are. It doesn't matter the family we were born into. It doesn't matter the race we were born into. It doesn't matter what we've achieved in this world. How shall a man?
What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? No, Every one of us are born into this world as sinners. It's the great leveler, isn't it? It brings us in on the same ground. And furthermore, not only are we all born into this world as sinners. No difference. There's not a man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not, Solomon said.
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But we all must come and receive salvation.
In the same way and on the same ground, it doesn't matter again, your social class, it doesn't matter you're standing before man. It doesn't matter how much money you have or how little you have. You know, we were talking about this a little today. I have to tell a little incident. I remember one time when one of these very poor countries, Brother Garvin and I were approaching a little house, little clapboard, one room house.
We were going to visit an older sister in that home. She didn't realize we were approaching, but she was sweeping her front step. Little little piece of wood she had in front of her house. She was sweeping it off, I suppose, anticipating our visit, and at the top of her lungs she was singing, I have Christ, what want I more?
You know, that really spoke to my heart. She was full of Christ.
She was not only a saved soul, but she was in the enjoyment of Christ, and she didn't have very much of this world's goods.
She arranged a few sticks of furniture. We sang some hymns. We read the scriptures. I think she gave us a little cassava bread and some local papaya juice or something she had squeezed from the fruit of a tree Outback.
It was a wonderful time.
And what about you? Do you have Christ?
If you only had Christ, you wouldn't want more as your Savior and as the enjoyment of your soul. I'm not saying again, we despise the mercies we have. I'm thankful for this facility. I'm thankful for a good place to lay my head tonight. But all those things are not the bottom line. Do you know the Lord Jesus? Do you want real satisfaction, real joy in your soul, A joy of which it says?
Your joy, no man taketh from you.
Oh, it's only found in my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But again, to get back to this.
You know, in John 8, the Lord Jesus said if you die in your sins, you can't come where I am. You can't go to heaven in your sins. And what is the other alternative? It's the lake of fire. It's no fooling matter. It's not something to smile or laugh about. People joke about hell, but hell is a reality and it is a place where there's no getting out.
And no let up.
The Lord Jesus told about a man who lifted up his eyes in hell being in torment.
And you know, it's interesting that when that man made requests of Abraham, who he saw far off, he never asked to be released from that place. I believe he understood his destiny was fixed, but what he did ask for was one drop of water for momentary relief.
I have been out a number of times on the Sinai Peninsula in July or August and some of my brethren will confirm it's 100 and 2030° and that big sun blaring down with not a cloud in the sky. And sometimes I've wished that I could open one can and get one blast of cold air for momentary relief. At least I know in a few days I'll be back in Cairo and I'll be back on an air conditioned plane and back to North America.
But I have often wished, and when I'm in the tropics too, that you could open something and get one blast of momentary relief. That's what that man wanted in the form of a drop of water. He wanted momentary relief. You know he never got it and he never will. You know that man has been in that place of torment for over 2000 years because he was already there when the Lord Jesus told the story. And it was not a parable because Lazarus is named by name, and when the Lord told parables, he never named names.
But when he told real stories, sometimes he named names. And that man has been there for over 2000 years. And you know, it's just minuscule compared to the eternity that is ahead. Is that what you really want? That's not what God wants for you. God wants you to come to Christ. God provided A savior. The Lord Jesus has provided a remedy for sin. Why? For his glory. He wants to have.
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Heaven filled with those who are not only with Christ. But like Christ, He wants to display you in a coming day when he comes to be glorified in His Saints and be admired in all them that are about him in that day. That's what God wants, that's what the Lord Jesus wants. And He loves you so very much. He desires your blessing and he desires that you would live in this life for His glory and be to his praise and His glory.
For all eternity in heaven. And when he comes back in the coming day to be vindicated on this planet and to reign in righteousness, we're sinners. That's why we need to be to be saved. But you say, how can I be saved? You know, sometimes I think when we present the gospel, we perhaps fail to really bring it right down.
To.
Boil it down to the level of how can I be saved? Is it complicated? The preacher talks about sins forgiven. Christ died on the cross. He was buried. He rose again the 3rd day. He's in heaven. His blood is what cleanses from sin. But how do I make it my own? How do I get saved? Let's turn to a couple of scriptures. First of all in Acts chapter 16.
Acts, Chapter 16.
And verse 30.
Let me back up to verse 29 then he called This is the Philippian jailer for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? I'm going to stop there for a moment, because maybe there's someone here. Maybe there's a young boy, a young girl or someone not so young. And you're saying, but how can I really be saved?
You know this man, this jailer? I believe he already recognized that he was a Sinner.
That's what we have to recognize first as we've sought to impress upon our souls already in this meeting. And we have to realize that not only are we sinners, but that there's nothing we can do to get rid of our sins in ourselves. And this man came in, and he asked a very great question, and he was he was sincere. He thought he was going to lose his life physically, and he had heard Paul and Silas perhaps preaching on the streets of Philippi.
Heard their testimony in the prison, and now he was in earnest. Oh, would that there would be souls tonight in this room as earnest as this Philippian jailer, this man who was in charge, this man who was the warden in the jail so long ago in Philippi. And he asked sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul and Silas gave him an immediate answer. Notice what it says.
Verse 31 And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That wasn't a very long sermon or explanation, was it? Sometimes we have long gospel meetings, long explanations, but that's not the gospel message that this man got. He got a short, one sentence gospel message. And you know, that's all it took because if we had time we could go on and read.
How that he believed in God rejoicing with all his house. He recognized his need.
He asked the question as to how we've spoken about why. But this is how. How do I get saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Go over to the 20th chapter of the book of Acts.
This is Paul Speaking of having gone publicly and from house to house with the truth. And in verse 21 he says, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Why didn't they tell the Philippian jailer to repent first? Why did they just bring out the faith side of it? Because I believe that they recognized, and the Spirit of God recognized that this man already knew he was a Sinner.
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And he was in earnest to turn from his sins, and he wanted to know how.
But this is how its repentance toward God. That is, to recognize that I am a Sinner.
And that God is right in what he says and to turn around.
To have a change of mind, which is what repentance is, and to take sides with God, and then it's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's not complicated. Tonight. I want to try to put this in words that are so very simple that even a little child of seven or three or four can grasp this if you want to be saved tonight.
And you realize you're a Sinner and you need to be saved. Here's all you have to do. You just have to speak to the to God, to speak to the Lord in your heart. You don't have to say one word aloud, because he knows when you speak in your heart, he knows what you're saying. And you just need to come to him and say.
Yes, Lord, I know I'm a Sinner, but I receive you as my savior. It doesn't have to be exactly those words, but just to come in faith and say yes. There was a man, another man, in the days of the Lord Jesus, that he told about. He went up to the temple to pray. Well, there were two men. One says he stood and prayed thus with himself. In other words, his prayer never got above the temple roof. Why? Because he tried to tell God he was a pretty good fellow. He said, I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. He looked at the other man standing there, the publican. He said, Oh, Lord, I'm not bad like that man.
I'm not like him, but you know, it tells us men measuring themselves by themselves and among themselves are not wise. He measured himself not by God's standard, not by the word of God. He measured himself by his fellow man.
But the public And it says he wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote himself upon his breath, saying, God be merciful to me, a Sinner. That's all it takes, a simple prayer like that. And the Lord Jesus said, I tell you, I like that. I tell you how definite that language is. You rarely read language like that. I tell you this man went down to his house saved rather than the other. Was it some long complicated process?
Oh no. It's wonderful, after we're saved to confess to someone, to tell others because it confirms it in the soul as well as gives testimony for the Lord's glory. But oh, it is between you and God. It's between you and the Lord Jesus. I say it's so simple. You can just talk to him in your heart right where you are. I'm not going to ask you to come up front and make a public show. I'm not asking you to do something great or complicated.
It's like the servants of Naaman. So long ago when Naman was told to go wash, the servants finally came and said my master, if the if the prophet had asked thee to do some hard thing which thou not have done it, he was only to wash. It's not some hard thing that God is asking us to do. It's go wash not in the river Jordan like Nam or not in the pool of Siloam like the blind man was told to do.
But it's to wash in the blood of Jesus. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Oh, we sometimes sing. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
In connection with how that's we've talked about our part. What about God's part? Oh, he's willing and ready to save.
It's the blood of Jesus that cleanses from all sin. I've often told about a young man who was listening to a preacher preach the gospel, and the preacher was seeking to impress upon the audience the need for being washed in the blood of Christ that that was the only remedy for sin. And finally this young man stood up and he heckled the preacher and he said, listen, I don't understand how can blood cleanse sin?
Well, the preacher thought a moment.
And then he said, I'll ask you a question. There was some water on the podium and he lifted the glass of water and he said to the young men, my question for you is how does water quench thirst?
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Well, the young man thought a moment and he said, well, I don't know, but I do know it does. So said the preacher. I can't tell you exactly how blood cleanses sin, but I know it does, and I know there are so many here tonight who will testify.
To the cleansing power of the blood of the Lord Jesus. We delight to quote those verses. We have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sin, as we had this afternoon. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. It's the it's the the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you as a token upon the altar. It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. And on and on and on we can go. What a theme, the blood of Christ.
Again, we want to make much of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only remedy. It's the only cure for sin. There's nothing else, no substitute for the for the cleansing of sin apart from the blood. Oh, I know many of us have pictured so often in our minds eye that scene on Calvary's Hill where the Lord Jesus after those hours of darkness when he bore my sins in his own body on the tree.
He cried, It is finished. And then he said, Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit. He bowed his head and gave up his life like no other ever could or ever has, he could say of his life. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. And then we have all pictured how that soldier came. He came to the malefactor on one side of the Lord Jesus.
And he broke his legs to hasten his death. He came to the thief on the other side, and he did the same.
And when he came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, he break not his legs, but the soldier with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came throughout blood and water. I sometimes said, if it just said there came out blood and water, I would rejoice, and that would be enough. But there's a little word inserted there by the Spirit of God forthwith. It's just to me as if God said, this is the moment I've been waiting for.
And forthwith came out the blood and the water. God was in a hurry to bless his son had died because there had to be the death of an innocent victim. But there had to be the shedding of blood, the proof, the separation of the blood from the body was the proof of death. And without the shedding of blood is no remission. And the crowning act of man's hatred against the Son of God was the spear to plunge into his blessed side. And God said, this is the moment.
Forthwith came throughout blood and water. Oh, that blood is so precious to the heart of God.
And I trust it's precious to every heart here that we can say we're redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
God has provided the way of salvation. All we have to do is accept that provision. The gift of God, as we read earlier, is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We've spoken under the heading of why and how, but for these few moments that are left to us, if they really are left to us, I want to speak of when. And again, I have a special burden in connection with those that are younger.
And in that regard, I'd like to go back to the book of Ecclesiastes.
Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes. It's a book that when I found younger I found hard to pronounce and hard to find in my Bible. But if you open your Bible about to the middle, you should come to somewhere in the Psalms and then just go over toward the New Testament. Proverbs and the next book is Ecclesiastes. I want to read a verse in the 12Th chapter.
1212 Chapter of Ecclesiastes in verse one. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh. When thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them, I'm going to come right back to this verse, but I want to read another familiar verse in Second Corinthians chapter 6.
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2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 2. For he saith, I have heard thee in the 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.
When I read this verse in the 12Th chapter of Ecclesiastes, I'm remember, I'm in. I'm put in mind of when I was a boy. I suppose I was seven or eight years of age, but I've never forgotten it. When I was growing up in The Smiths Falls Rita Ferry area of the Ottawa Valley in the summer, we had Sunday school outside in the meeting room at Rita Ferry. There was a reading meeting in the after Sunday afternoon.
For the older folks and we children sat on logs and benches out under some big trees and someone would come and sing some gospel choruses with us, go over some memory work and give us the Bible's story and a simple gospel message. And I remember a man one time by the name of Dawn, he came to give us a gospel message and he told us a very interesting story about a time when he was a young boy.
He said when he was a young boy he had a very nice kite and he liked to fly a kite. I used to fly a kite back in the open fields behind my parents home on a windy autumn day and enjoyed flying a kite. But Don said he had got a new kite and it had a nice ball of string tied to it. And 1:00 Saturday morning there was no school and he got up early. It was a nice windy day. He could see the trees blowing outside his bedroom window. He got up and he grabbed his kite. He wasn't even going to wait for breakfast.
He was heading out the door to fly his kite and his mother stopped him, she said. Don, I've got to go out for a while and I'm expecting a very important phone call that I cannot miss and I would like you to stay in this morning and I would like you to listen for that phone call and take the message when it comes. Well, Dawn was very disappointed, but he loved his mom and there was no no other option and so he agreed to stay in that morning while his mother went on her errand.
But as he was there, alone in the house, he got thinking about certain things. He got looking at that kite and the ball of string on the end of it. Now, some of you boys and girls might find this a little hard to relate to, but back in the day that the telephones that sat on a table had a base and a receiver on top that you lifted and usually a dialer, and you prayed there wasn't too many zeros or nines because you had. If your fingers slipped on the 6th or 7th number, you had to put the receiver back on top, listen for the dial tone again, and then start over.
I know that's not the kind of phones you use today, but that was the kind of phone that was on the hall table in the home where Don grew up, and it was in the table where I on the hall table when I was growing up as well.
But Don got looking at that phone and looking at his ball of string, and he got thinking, I wonder how many times I can wind that string around the base of the phone and the receiver.
Before the phone rings. Well, the more he thought about it, the more he decided he wanted to try it. And so he united the string from the kite and he picked up the phone and he started to wrap the string around 1 Chord, 2 Chords on and on he went. The phone never rang and the ball of string kept getting smaller and smaller and more chords around the telephone. And all of a sudden you know what happened? The telephone rang.
But what Don hadn't thought about.
In his childish game was how am I going to answer the phone? How am I going to pick up the receiver with it bound with those cords to the base of the phone? And so he panicked and he started to unravel and the the pile of string fell in a tangle beside him and he unraveled and the phone rang and rang and rang and rang and rang and finally he got that string off the phone and he picked up the receiver.
And all he heard was a dial tone on the other end. He had missed the call and there were some consequences he told us about because he missed that call, and his mother was not pleased when she came home. But he used it to illustrate the point that while we are young, it is important to come to the Savior for many reasons. But one, and I believe is what is brought out here, is because as we get older.
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And it tells us that Satan binds us with the cords of sin. We get that in Proverbs. And as we get older, the heart becomes harder and more cords of sin bind our hearts. And I am thankful for older people who come to know the Lord, because it doesn't matter how old we are, the Lord can save anybody.
But it says here to remember our Creator, I'm going to again put this in our language for the gospel. We need to get saved in the days of our youth, because the day is going to come when we're going to say, oh, I don't want to hear about that, I'm not interested anymore.
They have an outreach Sunday school in Smiths Falls that they've had for many, many years since I was a young boy and before and you know, there have been those over the years who have as young children come to Sunday school.
Learned the Gospel verses, always willing to give out a song, listen to the Bible stories, participated in the activities. Then they got a little older and maybe they didn't come every week. They still came, they still listened. They got a little older and maybe they only came when there was a Sunday school picnic or treat. And then maybe they got to be 1314 and you went to pick them up for Sunday school and they said, no, we're not interested anymore. You see what this verse is saying? They never. They didn't get saved. Their hearts weren't opened.
When they were younger and they got older and they said we don't have any pleasure in those things. And so it says, remember now. I want to stress that little word now and that's why I read in Second Corinthians, because it's more than just getting saved when we're young, because we can always find somebody older than us and say we're young compared to them. I remember one time at a children's meeting, I was trying to impress this on the children and I said to.
Young man on the front row of young boy, I said, do you think I'm young? Oh no, he didn't think I was young. But Clem Buchanan was sitting on the other side of the room and I said, brother Buchanan, you think I'm young? Oh, yes, he said. I think you're young. You see, it's all relative. And so it's not just getting saved while we're young, but it's now because we don't know how long we have. Again, we have no lease on life. As we've been saying, the Lord Jesus is coming.
Says, when once the master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door. In other words, when the day of grace is over, the gospel will no longer go forth. And if people come and knock and wand in it, says, they'll come, and they'll say, Lord, Lord, open unto us, will the door ever be opened again? No, depart from me. I never knew you. You know the gospel tonight is come unto me. If you refuse that the message will be depart from me.
Is that complicated to understand? Come unto me tonight.
Or in a future day, having rejected the gospel or neglected it, depart from me. It's one or the other. The invitation tonight is to come and to come now. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. There's always an urgency about the gospel, not just remembering in the days of our youth, but remember now this moment. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. You say the Gospel meetings over and you look on your schedule and you say there's another gospel meeting schedule for tomorrow evening.
There's a children's meeting for tomorrow morning. Yes, there is. But oh, it may never come to pass. It may never take place because this is the day of salvation. This may be the last opportunity. I know that many of us have heard that for decades. Perhaps.
I can't tell you when the Lord is coming, but I know one thing. We are closer to the Lord's coming at 4 minutes to 8:00 tonight than we've ever been before.
And I know one thing, The coming of the Lord draweth nigh, as the book of James so plainly declares.
Oh, tonight, this Gospel meeting is concluding.
What can we say or just again, echo in the language of Scripture? Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners a little child of seven. Let's sing in closing that song, that chorus again to impress it upon our souls. That little chorus we sang already #42 A little child of seven. Someone started. Please.