Gospel—Jim Hyland
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Let's start the meeting this evening with hymn #9 on the Gospel Hymn Shape.
Come every soul by sin oppressed, there's mercy with the Lord and He will surely give you rest by trusting in His word. Yes, Jesus is the truth, the way that leads you into rest. Believe in Him without delay. You are fully blessed. Hymn #9. If someone could please start it.
And please roll the blood.
OK, hold on.
A 2nd.
To help you in the heart.
You know this, Virginia?
Let's ask God's help and blessings, our blessed God and Father, how thankful we are this evening for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for those glorious words, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And we're thankful too, that we could sing this invitation to come to the Savior and trust Him now. And we pray that if there's someone here in this room who's still lost and in their sins, that tonight they might realize their great need, but also realize.
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There is a great Savior. We pray that our work mightily by thy spirit. We ask it for the blessing of souls. We ask it for thy glory, for the glory of the Lord Jesus, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like to read a number of scriptures this evening at the beginning of this gospel meeting. The first one is in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah, chapter 53.
Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And then in Proverbs chapter 16.
Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 25. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
In the book of Jude, just before the Book of Revelation.
The book of Jude and the 11Th verse.
Woe unto them, For they have gone in the way of Cain.
We're going to stop there. We'll connect some further verses, but in connection with that which has been before us in these meetings, that is the tremendous place of blessing and privilege we have been brought into as believers in Christ. I'd like to speak tonight to any who are not saved, and I'd like to speak of the way in which we are brought into this place of blessing and relationship with God.
And with the Lord Jesus Christ, because the burden of our souls tonight is.
That there may be someone here who does not know Christ as their Savior. Someone who is not on their way to heaven. Someone who is not anticipating that moment when the Lord Jesus is going to come and call every believer out of this world at an event that we sometimes refer to as the Rapture or the Second Coming of Christ. And I'm solemnized to look into the faces of those who perhaps most, if not all.
Have heard the gospel message many, many times.
You know, sometimes I have had the opportunity and the privilege to present the gospel to large audiences where I felt that most in the audience had perhaps never heard a clear gospel before. And that is a very solemn responsibility to present the souls, perhaps for the first time, the good news.
Of the story of Jesus and his love to present as simply and clearly as possible the way of salvation. But you know, I sometimes wonder in looking into the faces of an audience like this tonight, if this isn't a greater challenge.
Those who have heard the story so many, many times. Those who, as it were, have seen the signpost. Those who have been pointed to the Way over and over and over again, and yet are indifferent.
To the road that they're on, indifferent to the way that they are traveling, and indifferent, most solemn of all, to the end of that course.
We're going to speak by the grace of God tonight of the way to blessing, the way to God the Father, the way to the Lord Jesus, the way to heaven. But I began with these verses because I want to impress upon our souls first of all that we are sinners and that we are all born into this world, sinners and on the wrong way. Everyone here tonight.
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Who is not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is traveling.
The wrong way.
I suppose most, if not all of us know what it is to be on a road and go the wrong way. I have very little, if any sense of direction. My wife gets so exasperated with me You could spin me in my backyard just about and I can't tell you how to get out. And sometimes we have got very, very confused traveling in cities and towns and areas that were not familiar with.
And sometimes my pride won't let me admit that I'm going the wrong way.
And when we're going the wrong way, there are several things that happen. Sometimes we start accelerating. We somehow think if we go a little faster, it'll just come out in the right direction and we start accelerating and we're traveling faster and faster. But we're still going the wrong way. We're just getting to the end of a wrong course a little quicker than we would have otherwise.
Usually when we realize we're on the wrong way.
Don't want to admit it. We like to blame somebody else. Sometimes I blame my wife if she's with me. I say to her, if she's reading the map, well why weren't you watching the roadside? Sometimes if she's watching the road signs, I say, well, couldn't you have followed the map? I remember one time she closed both the map in her eyes and said, who do you blame when I'm not along? I said it's very frustrating. It is very frustrating and you know what I'm talking about. But tonight.
We need to realize that all we like sheep have gone astray. The word all is all inclusive, isn't it? It doesn't exempt anyone. All we, like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. That makes it personal, you know. If we just stop at the first expression in this verse, all we like sheep have gone astray. That's fairly easy to admit.
It's fairly easy to admit that the human race has fallen, and if we're honest with ourselves, we don't have to look very far to realize that the human race has gone its own way. In fact, if there's one thing that man likes more than anything else, it's to have his own way.
You know human rights are glorified today.
Self will is not just practice today. It's always been practiced from the Garden of Eden down from the time of which we read by one man's disobedience, sin entered, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men. For that all have sinned and self will has been practiced down through the ages. But self will and human rights are not just practiced today, they're preached and they're glorified.
Perhaps some of you heard me tell this few days ago, but I will remember how this was brought home to my soul with my 4 year old sitting at the end of the kitchen table and some discipline had been enacted and she was sitting there sobbing and her mother came out into the room and she said, oh mother, if dad would only obey me, things would be a lot happier around here. Isn't that? Doesn't that express so very well the heart of man?
A four year old child.
Wanting to have her own way, wanting to be, as she thought, in control.
Of the circumstances I have seen more than once in the last couple of years.
That bumper sticker that perhaps some of you have seen? Question authority. We want to go our own way.
That is the heart of man.
But our own way as we're going to find out, please.
To an end.
That is eternally solemn.
There is a way, as we read in Proverbs, There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof.
Are the ways of death.
How far is Hell from Mayfield?
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Hell is at the end.
Of a light lived herself without Christ.
I suppose that most of us have seen on the door on the other side of the room there the sign that says it's all about you.
You know, tonight it's not all about you. It's all about Christ.
It's Christ and the way that has been provided.
Through the work of Calvary, it's for you, but it's not all about you.
Because the way that you're on tonight, if you don't know Christ, is the Broad Rd. that leads to destruction. It may seem right, And there are many who say, well, all roads lead to Rome. It's an old expression I used to hear when I was growing up. All roads lead to Rome. All roads don't lead to heaven.
You can be sincere.
And you can be sincerely wrong.
I've just returned from Egypt a few weeks ago and.
There are those in a country like Egypt that are very, very sincere about what they believe.
Perhaps in a sense more sincere than we are.
Those of us who know Christ as our Savior.
I was on an Air Egypt flight from Frankfurt to Cairo one evening.
And it was the Moslem hour of prayer.
There were many people praying in the Isle of that plane.
The flight attendants were praying in that plane.
They were not ashamed of what they believed.
They were not ashamed to show.
Their faith quote.
It spoke to my own soul. They're sincere. They're zealous for what they believe. They're sincerely wrong on the authority of God's word.
But tonight we're sincere. I trust in seeking to present the gospel, and I trust that there are those here tonight who are sincere.
In finding the way, there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
I read also in the book of Jude, because we find here that there are those that who are referred to as going in the Way of Kings.
I believe when it speaks of the way of Cain, what is really talking about is false religion. That's what Cain speaks to us. Now if we were to go back to the story of Cain and Abel, those two brothers, back in the book of Genesis, we would find that Abel on the one hand recognizing that his acceptance before God was based on the death and the bloodshed.
Of an innocent victim. He brought a sheep something from the flock and his his sacrifice was accepted, and it tells us he brought a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
Cain brought a sacrifice. Cain sought to approach God, but it was in a false way.
And I would just like to say tonight if there's someone here.
And you think that through some religious rights?
And some religious activities you are going to approach God and merit favor before God for your soul salvation.
I want to warn you faithfully on the authority of God's Word, that it's going to lead.
To eternity in the lake of fire.
Cain had opportunity to repent and.
And he refused it, and it says he went out from the presence of the Lord.
Very, very solemn. Religion is not what we're talking about today. Tonight, religion is not the way. You know when the Lord Jesus was here, There were those in the days of the Lord Jesus who had religion. They had religion this time.
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But you know, it was those very men, those religious leaders in Israel, that led the populace in rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. It was they who cried with one voice away with him, crucify him. It was they who said we have no king but Caesar, and they took him outside the walls of Jerusalem, that holy city.
That had deteriorated to such a point that it had religion without Christ. Because yes, it is possible to have religion without Christ. And they took him outside the walls of that city and had him nailed to a Roman cross. All they were careful about their religious rights. They were careful to do and not do certain things.
In, in, and around the trial and the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
But in the end, they rejected God's beloved Son.
They said, as it were, we will not have this man to reign over us.
Not only that, but again, I've been to many countries in this world where they have religion and plenty of religion, but it is religion without Christ.
Sad to say, there's much done to under the banner of Christianity.
That is religion without Christ. Oh, I don't want you to go in the way of Cain tonight. We're going to turn to some scriptures now, And these scriptures we turn to now, I trust will bring out the positive side of the gospel. But let me just for a moment stress again that if you are here tonight without Christ, you are a Sinner going your own way. You are on the Broadway that leads to destructions.
You are on your way to hell, but thank God you can change direction tonight. You ever drive down the freeway and you realized you were in the wrong on the wrong way. You were going the wrong direction and you wanted to turn around and there didn't seem to be any exits.
Or when you got to an exit it said no on ramp at this exit and you knew if you got off you couldn't get back on the other way or you came to a gap in the medium and it said no U-turn.
But tonight there's an off ramp and an on ramp and there is a media with a gap where you can make an immediate U-turn. Let's read some further scriptures. John's Gospel, chapter 14.
John's Gospel chapter 14 and verse 5.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus death unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under the Father but by me. And then I want to read a portion in Mark's Gospel.
First Gospel, chapter 10.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 10 and verse 17. And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Jesus said unto him, Why call us thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. And then I want to read in the 11Th chapter of the same book Mark's Gospel, Chapter 11 and verse 4.
And they went their way and found a colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met and they loose him. We'll stop there again for now. But here again we have the thought of the way, and we find the Lord Jesus having walked through this world and dispensed blessing on every hand. Now he is addressing his disciples for the last time.
Before he goes to the cross, and he brings before them many things, and he's speaking about the Father's house and his coming again to receive them there and so on. And Thomas listens to all this and he says, but Lord, how can we know the way? I want to apply this for our purposes tonight? How can we know the way?
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This book tells us the way. This book is the guidebook. If we read this book, there will be no doubt in our minds as to the way we don't have to speculate. We don't have to wonder.
You know, I suppose we all appreciate or most of us appreciate GPS and we plug those little devices in, in our vehicles and we punch in and address and we trust.
That's that GPS is going to get us where we want to go. I realize sometimes they're not completely accurate. Sometimes they take us the long way around.
But we appreciate Agps. God has given us Agps. God's plan of salvation. GPS God's plan of salvation. It's right here in this wonderful book and we could quote tonight verses.
That tell us the way of salvation. I'm going to quote to you a very familiar one right now. 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. Every time I quote that verse I think of a story.
An incident that took place during one of the great wars in Europe on a battlefield where there was a line of Allied soldiers.
Facing the enemy and they were under heavy shelling one day.
And one of those men was wounded, mortally, fatally wounded.
And as he the bullet hit him, he fell back to the bottom of the trench.
His comrade beside him jumped down to see how he was and realized very quickly that his life was Epping away.
He took his coat off and he rolled it up and tried to make his comrade a little more comfortable.
You know, I've had opportunity over the years to visit many of the battlefields of Europe. It's solemn to realize the conditions under which those men lived and fought.
But as he was making his friend a little more comfortable, his dying friend looked up, looked up, and in a weak voice he said to him, Can you tell me the way to heaven?
Interesting, isn't it? You know, I suppose in peace time, when everything's going well, men for the most part, will put all that aside.
But in the face of death, this man wanted to know the way to heaven. He was serious too.
His friend looked at him.
He had to shake his head. No use making something up under those kinds of conditions. No use telling his comrade to live a good life, do something good, get baptized.
He said to his friend. I don't know, but I'll try to find out.
He went back to his post and he spoke to his comrade next to him. He said, Can you tell me the way to heaven?
Shook his head. And from there, as the story goes, the question went on down the line. 16 men.
And none of them knew the way to heaven. All facing the barrels of the guns of the enemy. Not one of them could tell a dying comrade in the bottom of the trench the way to heaven.
Finally, the word passed to the next man.
And with a glad smile, he reached into his pocket and he pulled out a New Testament.
And he opened it to John. 316 He put his finger on it, and he passed it back to his comrade. And he said to his comrade, pass this testament down, and tell the last man to give his friend this verse, and if he receives the truth of this verse.
He knows the way to heaven and he can go there.
I've tried to picture the scene in my mind as I stood on some of those battlefields. I can hardly take it in. But that New Testament going down that road? Men facing death, holding their finger on John 316.
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Finally, it came down to the man's comrade. He put his finger on that verse and he jumped down beside his friend.
And he read him this verse. His friend with gasping. His life was ebbing also fast.
He read it again. His friend opened his eyes as he drank in those life giving words.
And with the words whosoever on his lips.
He drew his last breath.
Went from a cold, damp trench in a battlefield in Europe to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.
You know the story. You know the way tonight. But are you on that way? How can we know the way? The Lord Jesus gives this beautiful answer that has been quoted so many times on occasions like this? Jesus said unto him, I am the way. What the Lord Jesus was really saying in this verse is I'm the way to the Father.
I am the truth about the Father. I am the life that enjoys the Father. You see, there's no other way to the Father. Let me ask you a question tonight. Do you know God as your Father? Now? It is true that there is a sense in which we are all the children of God. There's one God and one Father of us all, because we're all his children by creation.
We are all his offspring. We read in the 17th chapter the book of Acts. But that's not what I'm asking you tonight. What I'm asking you tonight is do you, through the Lord Jesus Christ, know God as your father in the intimacy of relationship that so many here in this room and around planet Earth know him tonight?
You know Mary Magdalene when she saw the Lord Jesus in resurrection, he said, Go tell my brethren, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father to my God and your God. There was going to be a new intimacy of relationship in Christianity that had never been known before.
The Lord Jesus here was on his way to the cross.
And we know that from this point on, he goes out, they put him on trial eventually and then they lead him out to Calvary Cross and there with his hands stretched on a Roman cross.
I rejoiced to say before you all tonight. He bore my sins in his own body on the tree, in those hours of darkness.
My stripes were laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore my penalty for sin. I'm not afraid in my own soul of one charge of sin being brought up against me. Why? Because by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified.
When those hours of darkness were done and the judgment of sin was exhausted.
The Lord Jesus cried with a loud voice and said he is finished.
He cried again with a loud voice, and said, Father into my hands. I commend my spirit. He laid down his life in a way that no other has ever laid down their life in a way that no other ever could. I believe we already had it read to us in these meetings where the Lord Jesus, in anticipation of that moment, said in John's Gospel, chapter 10, 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. This commandment have I received of my Father.
They took him down from the cross after a soldier with a spear had pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
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Oh, we want to stress tonight the blood of Christ, because it is the blood of Christ that has made a way. We won't take time. But if we were to go over to the book of Hebrews and we were to read in the 9th and 10th chapters of the book of Hebrews.
We would find that in the Old Testament, prior to Christianity, it says the way into the holiest had not yet been made perfect, and in the Old Testament they could only come so far and no further.
The children of Israel, when they approached the Tabernacle in the wilderness, they could only come so far. There were Levites who went perhaps a little further. There were priests who went a little further. And there was the high priest who went into the holiest of all once a year, and that not without blood.
But there was always a distance. There was always a separation.
But through the blood of Christ, the way has been opened up fully.
So that the invitation can go forth in the gospel, the way has been made and it's the blood of Jesus Christ his Son that cleanseth us from all sin.
I grew up singing that very familiar question, What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. We sing another gospel hymn. Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?
Precious Precious Blood of Jesus Shed on Calvary.
Shed for rebels, shed for sinners, and thank God.
Yes, thank God Shed for me. Can you sing that in truth tonight? You know, I watched the boys and girls during a children's meeting sing those gospel songs. And it is wonderful to see the boys and girls on the front row and with a desire to give out a gospel song and to heartily sing it. But how often do we sing words?
And that's all they are.
They are words that really have no application or meaning.
For our own souls.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
We read in Mark's Gospel chapter 10 about a man and if we were to go, I believe it's to Matthew's Gospel we would find that he was a young man.
And he came to the Lord Jesus. If we were to read the whole story, he came and it seemed like he was in earnest. You know, I'm not sure why you came to this gospel meeting tonight. In fact, if we were to go up and down these roads, perhaps we would find these great a great variety of reasons.
Some of us came tonight because we thrill every time we hear the story of Jesus and his love.
Some of you came tonight because you were invited by someone who is concerned about your soul.
Some of you came tonight because you felt you had no choice. There may be many secondary reasons as to why you came tonight, but there is one overriding reason why you are here. God has brought you here tonight to hear once again His way of salvation. I have no doubt in my mind that every person sitting in these seats is here.
Because God allowed it and brought you here, because he does desire your blessing. But this man, he came to the Lord, he seemed sincere and he was a very fine man, you know, when they he met the Lord Jesus in the way, and the Lord Jesus spoke to him.
He thought he could do something to inherit eternal life.
Again, you'll allow me to make a little application tonight in the gospel, but I realized that some of you here have not been brought up in Christian homes, but many of you have been and are being brought up in Christian homes. But let me tell you, you don't inherit eternal life. You don't inherit salvation. You know, Timothy had a God fearing grandmother and a God fearing mother, but you know, the day came when Timothy had to make it his own.
It wasn't enough to have a godly heritage, and the Apostle Paul reminded him.
That from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
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The time came when Timothy had to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his own savior.
But this young man, when the Lord spoke to him concerning the law, he said, All this have I kept from my youth up. I don't think that was just an idle boss. If we were to notice carefully, the Lord quoted to him the man word part of the law. And this young man, I believe, was impeccable in his relationship to his fellow man. If I can illustrate it this way, let's suppose we had opportunity.
To go to this young man's home, we're gonna suppose we don't know. But we're gonna suppose he had a wife and maybe some young children. And let's suppose he did. And we stepped up to the door of his home and we spoke to his wife. She would probably have told us. You know, he's a good husband. Always come straight home after work. He provides. Well, I know he loves me. He's a good husband.
We step out in the yard and his children are playing.
And we say, what about your father? Always A great dad. Always comes home and plays with us. Has a little treat for us. Always has something for us to do with him. Great dad. We step outside his gate and we question some of the neighbors. Couldn't have a better neighbor. Always thoughtful. If there's some problem in the neighborhood, he's right there to help out. Good neighbor. We go to his place of work.
Oh, he always pulls his weight if he works on a team. He never slaps, he never, he never cheats on his timesheet, always pulls his his load. The great worker. This man was impeccable as far as his relationships to his fellow man. But what he didn't realize, he wasn't right. Godward, You know, the Lord Jesus looked at him and he loved him and he said one thing thou lackest he lacks salvation.
He locked the one thing that he needed most.
Last night, Brother Al was talking about my father-in-law.
Thank God he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior.
But you know, the difficulty over the years, 70 some years, with Gerald Byrne was this. He was just like the man we're talking about. If you were to talk to my wife tonight, she'd tell you that though she did not grow up in a Christian home, she grew up in a morally upright home. She hung on the garden gate with her sisters, waiting for their father to come home at night. He was a wonderful father. He was a good husband. If you were to go around your Carver and ask the older generation what they thought of Gerald Byrne, they tell you he was always there to help.
He was a good community man, always helped in every any charity cause.
That God there was. If someone's house burnt down, he'd be the first one there to help frame up a new house.
All those things he kept from his youth up, but he wasn't right Godward.
You know, when Gerald Byrne got saved, it was a rebuke in my face.
I really thought it would never happen.
But God allowed him to come to the brink of death. My wife called me one time. I was at a Saint Louis conference.
She said to me, Jim, I'm stepping on a plane in the morning, Mother has called and said.
This is the end. You know, that's about almost 40. I think it'll be four years. In fact, this Thanksgiving, God brought him to the brink of eternity, and God saved his soul.
And God brought him back for these few years. I don't think he's going to have much longer in his life, but God brought him back. He's not a demonstrative person. He's a very personal man. But he has been a quiet testimony in the Bay of Islands, Newfoundland for these 3 1/2 years.
Everyone who enters that house knows that Gerald Byrne has had a change of life and change of heart. There's his Bible open on the table. There's a block calendar with some scripture that he's been enjoying for the day. There's a devotional.
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With some words of ministry from the scriptures.
He found the way in his late 70s, yes, but he found the way. But all I want to warn you tonight, if you're on the Broadway that leads to destruction and you think you're a pretty good person. I don't care if you're on The Dirty side of the broad road or the clean side. I don't care if you're a down and outer or an up and outer. It all leads to destruction.
But straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth under life.
Few there be that find it, but it's available to you this evening.
We can't promise that it's going to be available in 15 minutes.
We can't promise you it's going to be available tomorrow, but it is available. You can make AU turn, you can take that off ramp off the wrong way and get on the on ramp to the right way right now.
We read about this donkey. The boys and girls know this story. In Mark's Gospel Chapter 11, he was tied where two ways met.
That's where we are right now.
We're at a place tonight where two ways meet the Broadway and the Narrow Way.
I'm facing 2 exits.
From this auditorium tonight, there's an exit behind you, and to my right, there's an exit behind you into my left.
And let's suppose for a moment that I bring here 2 banners, one says heaven and the other says hell.
And we'll suppose that over the door behind you, to my right, I put the banner heaven.
And over this other exit, we put the banner in hell.
And with the eye of God. Not my eye, but with the eye of God.
Resting upon you.
You had to exit this building.
By one of those two doors.
Which exit.
Would you have to leave by heaven or hell?
You could fool me, You could leave under the banner heaven and fool me, but you can't fool God.
You cannot fool God because he sees right into your heart. He sees not. As man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance. The Lord looks on the heart. You know, we began this evening with that verse about all we like sheep. You know, there's another animal that we're like the natural man is likened to in Scripture, and that's a donkey. You know, in the book of Job, we read man is born as a wild actor's coat.
The sheep is wayward, likes to go his own way. The donkey is stubborn.
Sums up the natural man pretty well, doesn't it? But you know, the Lord Jesus had his eye on that donkey.
And when they were told, go and loose them and bring them to me that donkey, as the children, sometimes sing the little song he went just the way that he should. And when the Lord Jesus wrote upon that donkey, the Lord Jesus was in control of an animal that naturally speaking, wouldn't have cooperated the way he did.
The Lord Jesus worked with that donkey. Oh, it's a little picture, isn't it, of the work of the Lord Jesus through the Spirit of God to bring stubborn, rebellious souls to himself.
To bring them into the right way. And that's the prayer of so many, you know.
There was a prayer meeting before this Gospel meeting, and if you're not saved tonight, I wish you could have listened in on some of those prayers. But there was one prayer that.
That particularly touched my heart this evening.
Because there was a brother prayed that the souls of those who know Christ.
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Would be refreshed.
Not by hearing the gospel, that's refreshing, but by hearing someone confess.
The name of Christ by hearing of someone who got saved tonight.
You know, there's nothing would thrill the souls of the soul of so many tonight. But to hear you turn and say, you know, I got saved tonight, I know the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. I'm now on the right way. Oh, I say there would be parents and loved ones and others just so thrilled.
There's nothing thrilled the soul more.
Then to hear someone say, I know Christ as my Savior and there's nothing thrilled the soul of the individual who confesses more than to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
You know tonight we have arisen, Savior. We spoke of the Lord Jesus and how he died on the cross. We spoke of His shed blood. But you know, they took him down from that cross. They laid him in that tomb as had been prophesied. He was with the rich in his death loving hands. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea took the body of the Lord Jesus down from the cross.
They laid them in that tomb.
But he's not there tonight. No, he's not. He is not here. He is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay.
Again, I have been to countries and parts of the world.
Where there are those who pray to those who are in the tomb, those who are dead.
But tonight we present one who died, it's true, but one who is risen.
One who stayed on earth long enough to give ample and complete testimony to his own that he had bodily risen from the dead, He said, Handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bone as ye seeming half. But there's something else tonight, too, Not just the fact that he rose from the dead, but a moment came, when under the eye of his own his feet left the mount of Olives.
And the cloud received him out of their sight, and they saw him no more. He ascended back to heaven because the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorification of Christ our gods. Amen to the work of Calvary. You want proof tonight that God is satisfied with the work of his Son on Calvary's cross? Do you want proof tonight that he'll receive you on the basis of what took place there at Golgotha so many years ago? Just look up my faith and see where God has placed him. God has seated him at his own right hand.
And given him a name which is above every name. And if God were to refuse you and me now?
If we avail ourselves of the finished work of Calgary, he would have to refuse his own dear son. And that is impossible. That is absolutely an unequivocally impossible God. If you come on the basis of the work of his son on Calvary's cross, he will receive you. Oh, come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior receive him this moment and peace.
Shall be thine. I'm going to tell one more story before I close. It's perhaps slightly irrelevant to our subject, but I thought of it this evening.
I come from the town of Smiths Falls. It's a town of nine or 10,000.
Outside or outside of Ottawa in eastern Ontario, Canada.
And some years ago, there was a Fire Chief in the town of Smiths Falls by the name of Mr. Lee. I don't know what his first name was because everybody called him Moose.
You know a moose is a big animal. You've ever seen a moose? There's no gift to a moose. When a car hits the moose, usually it's over for the car and driver.
And I suppose his nickname was Moose Lee because he was a great, big, strong, strapping fireman.
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We have in Smith Falls what's called a Volunteer Fire, a fire department, and they're not always that fast. On the scene of a fire and mostly one night early in the early in the morning, we hours in the morning he got a fire call. He always had his two way radio on by his bed. At home though, he would get the fire calls and he got a fire call.
He jumped out of bed and he got dressed and he rushed to the fire station, got there before the other men, he threw on his fire suit and he rushed to the scene of that fire.
He knew exactly where that fire was and he knew the family that lived in that two-story house. When he got there, the rest of the fire department had not yet arrived and he observed very quickly that the house was already well engulfed in flames. He looked around the yard and he didn't see anybody and.
So, concerned for the safety of those that lived in that house, he rushed up to the front door, pulled it open.
And as he looked up into that house, he saw the top of the stairs. A mother.
With a child on each side of it.
Without thinking of his own safety, he rushed up that stairs. He slung that mother over his shoulder. He picked up a child in this arm. He picked up a child in this arm, and as he turned to leave, he realized that there was a baby in the carriage.
Behind the mother, what was he going to do? He realized from experience he didn't have time to make two trips up that step up, down and up that stairs again.
And so he bent over, and with his teeth he grasped the clothes of that baby who was helpless to save itself, And he staggered down amidst the smoke and flames down that stairs. He got out to the front porch. He set the one child down. He set the other child down, took the mother off his shoulders and handed her a baby. And as he was in the process of doing that, the stairs behind them collapsed.
And if you talk to some of the older ones in Smiths Falls, they well remember that heroic incident.
We're mostly risked his life to save that family.
But tonight, at the close of this Gospel meeting, we are not talking about a brave fireman or anyone else who risked their lives to save their fellow man. We are talking, and have been talking about the Lord Jesus, the Lord of life and glory, who gave his wife shed His precious blood to save your soul.
So that you don't have to go to hell. You don't have to perish in your sins. Oh, he loves you. He wants you. He died to redeem you. Do you know the Lord Jesus as your savior tonight? Are you walking in what scripture refers to as the way of righteousness?
It's plain. How can we know the way it's plain in this word? And if tonight, after all this, you're not sure how to be saved, I plead with you, I beg you, I beseech you, not to go out of this room tonight if you don't understand the way of salvation. Because there are just so many who would be more than thrilled to sit down with you and to point you again.
To the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the Lord Jesus is the way to the Father. He's the truth about the Father. He's the life that enjoys the Father. Are you on your way? The Lord Jesus is coming so very soon. The way is going to be closed. The way is going to be blocked, but it's still open. Tonight come every soul by oppressed. There's mercy with the Lord.
Yes, Jesus is the way, the truth that leads you into rest. Believe in Him without delay and you are fully blessed. Let's pray our God and Father our souls are stirred at the end of this gospel meeting to think that there.