Gospel—Jim Hyland
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Like to begin the Gospel meeting this evening with hymn #38 on the gospel hymn sheet. I know not why God's wondrous grace to me He hath made known, nor why, unworthy as I am, He claimed me for his own, But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. I'm going to suggest that we stand up to sing this.
Hymn #38 and if someone will please start it.
I know not my God wonder and grace to me in high faith. No Norwalk learning how Thai good night before it is known by all my heartbeat in your life. I have my eyes.
I have seen his name and soul.
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Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father how thankful we are this evening for the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank Thee that He is indeed the Savior of sinners. We thank Thee that throughout this world today He has been presented as such in so many places and in so many ways. And we would pray that wherever the gospel has gone forth this day, that there might be much blessing and fruit. But now our hearts are burdened as this gospel meeting is before us in this room.
We think of this being the 2nd consecutive night that it has gone forth here, and we pray that there might be much fruit and blessing. We thank Thee for Thy living word. We thank thee for Thy spirit that works, convicting men of sin and drawing to the Savior. And so we pray that tonight there might be a mighty work that no one would leave this building lost and in their sins. We pray too that the hearts of thine own might be refreshed and encouraged as we go over once again.
The sweet story of Jesus and his love. So we look to thee for help and blessing. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory. Amen.
I'd also like to sing one verse of another hymn on the hymn sheet #24. We know there's a bride and a glorious HomeAway in the heavens high where all the redeemed shall with Jesus dwell. But will you be there and I just verse one? And if someone will, please start it?
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We're going to begin this evening by connecting 3 portions of the word of God. The first one is in the book of James.
James, Chapter 4.
James, Chapter 4 and verse 13.
Go to now ye that say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain, whereas ye know not what shall be on the Morrow. For what is your life? It is even as a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away for the ye ought to say, if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that.
And then in First Corinthians chapter one.
First Corinthians chapter one and verse 18.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved. It is the power of God.
Verse 21 For after that in the wisdom of God. The world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed. And one more portion for now in Matthews Gospel, chapter 24.
Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 24.
And verse 36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man know not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark.
And knew not until the flood came and took the mall away, so shall also the coming.
Of the Son of Man, be notice verse 42. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Well, these might seem like strange portions of Scripture to connect in this way at the beginning of a gospel meeting. And I would just say at the outset that we're going to take these scriptures and we're going to make some applications. What we're going to bring out of these scriptures are perhaps not their strict meaning.
In the context of the chapter in which we find them. But having said that, I want to stress that they are the living word of God.
The word of God that is living and powerful. And I believe that the applications that we are going to make are in keeping with the rest of Scripture and in connection with the gospel of the grace of God, which we hope, with the Lord's help, to present here this evening. And so I want to encourage you to open your ears to the word of God, to take in what God has to say, because God has a message for us tonight.
Just as he has always had a message down through the ages, God is still speaking. He's speaking from His word in the power of His spirit in so many, many ways. And I was impressed the first night that we were together when we had a little hymn sing out in the courtyard.
And Brother Dean Ruhle spoke on some things that we know, and it brought to mind the subject that I have on my heart this evening.
Because this evening I want to notice some things that we don't know we're going to notice, some things that we don't know, some things that we can never know, and some things that we should know and can know. If there is the proper exercise of soul and desire to learn. You know, this is a day of knowledge. Man thinks he's pretty smart. You know, some of us have had opportunity to travel to other parts of the world.
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And to go to museums and to view some of the ancient ruins of past societies. And you know, when you delve into past societies and how advanced they were, you realize that man really isn't on an upscale. He's on a downscale and he's on a downscale. He's on the skids pretty fast. I wasn't going to relate this, but I will relate it. And perhaps you will smile, but maybe it will make my point.
You know, man often speaks of evolution and how he evolved from some ape like creature and so on. But you know, I was eating a banana out in the courtyard this afternoon and I stopped by two brothers and I said, you know, man thinks he's pretty smart, but I said just look at the way he eats the banana. You know, when we eat a banana, we peel it from what we think is the top. Actually, if you saw bananas grow in the tropics as I often do.
We peel it from the bottom because that part that we think is a handle and we tear off that is actually the bottom of the banana. The banana on the hand grows up from that. And you know, a monkey will never peel a banana from the end of the banana that you and I do. You know why? Because when you peel a banana from what we think is the top, but it's really the bottom, you ever notice how often it's stringy? You know, if you peel the banana from the other end, it'll never string.
And I only say that to show that man thinks he's pretty smart today and he thinks he's evolved into something that has great capacity. And certainly God has allowed man.
To develop many things. And this is a day when the Bible says knowledge is increased.
If you want to prove that we're in the last days, just before the Lord Jesus is about to come, just consider that verse in the book of Daniel. Two things there, knowledge is increased and they run to and fro throughout the earth. We're on the go like never before and I'm just as guilty as the next person. And knowledge is on the increase. Not wisdom and understanding. You ever notice that? Not wisdom and understanding, but knowledge because.
They are three very distinct things, and we don't have time to distinguish those three things. But knowledge is increased and you young people understand this. It just seems like there's reams and reams of knowledge, reams and reams of writings to go through to get through a curriculum and to make sure you're prepared for those examinations that you get at school and university. Anybody in business knows that just to stay afloat in business, there's reams and reams, folders and binders of information.
Because things are changing so fast in the world in which we live, I watch them on the early flights out of Ottawa. Businessmen who can't even sit on a plane at 6:00 in the morning and enjoy a cup of coffee because they have to be on their laptop going over that information, reading through that binder that they're going to get out at their seminar when they land in Toronto or Montreal or Philadelphia, Chicago, wherever they're going.
And so knowledge is increased. But you know, there's a lot that man still doesn't know in all those fields, whether it's the medical field, that the technological field, whatever it is, there's still a lot that man doesn't know. And we're going to find some scripture that there's a lot that man doesn't know as well. And many things that, as I say, we can't know, only known to God. Because, you know, his thoughts are above our thoughts and his ways are above our ways if we could understand everything concerning God.
And his ways with mankind, his purposes for this, this planet, and so on. Why he wouldn't be God? No, He's above our thoughts. He's infinite and we're finite. And so we can't enter into many things. And we begin here in the book of James with a very, very solemn portion, because here we find He is. He says, go to now ye that say tomorrow.
We will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gained. And I see it every day. People rushing from city to city, people doing business again. You don't just sit at the airport and wait for your plane. No, you're on your BlackBerry. You go to the business lounge, you turn on the Internet, you fox, you do all those kinds of things. Everybody's rushing from city to city trying to buy and sell.
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And get gain. But you know, they're only living for the moment. I've often said this before, but because I travel with the airline so much, I have status with the airline with what is called aeroplanes, since Air Canada is my main carrier, They're part of the Star Alliance air network and they have a slogan live for the moment. Now I realize that that's only a slogan and advertising slogan trying to get people.
To not only fly more, but to fly with Air Canada and their Star Alliance partners so that they can get certain Air miles. And hopefully over the years they can build up gold or platinum status or something like that. But I often think of that when I bring up their web page to check my account. There it is. Live for the moment. Isn't that the spirit in which of the day in which we live, Everybody is just rushing, rushing and rushing and rushing. But they're only living for the moment.
And that's what he says here. He says they go into cities, they buy and sell and get gained. But he says wait a minute, we know not what shall be on the moral.
Isn't that searching to think about? Man rushes on with no thought of tomorrow and you know, many times he gets stopped in his tracks. You know it's frustrating when there's an hour delay at the airport. It's frustrating when you have to detour for a construction site and you lose an hour in your travel plans. We don't like that in the fast pace in which we live. But God says stop and consider because we don't know what is going to be.
On the moral Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. And he tells us here that our life is like a vapor. It only appears for a little time. Recently I went through the word of God to notice some of the things that God likens our life to. It's like a Weaver shuttle just there and back in a moment. It's like a shadow, it says, and many other things. It's like a lease that fades and there are quite a number of.
Times that our life is brought before us as something that appears and vanishes very, very quickly. Man, that is man's life, it says, is he's born like the sparks upward fly. You ever see sparks from the fire while they fly upward and they're gone in a moment. And here it says it's like a vapor. You ever plug the tea kettle in and watch the vapor as the water boils? Why, It just comes up for a few moments and then it disappears into thin air.
God says your life is like that. I sometimes illustrated it too for the boys and girls in this way.
We might be able to say your life is like a cloud that appears for a little time.
When I was a boy, I like to go out on a cloudy day and lie on the grass and watch the clouds as they passed overhead. And perhaps the boys and girls here have done this. You watch those clouds and often you can pick out forms in those clouds. Maybe you see a cloud and it looks like a man's head, or a cloud over here and it looks like a horse or a dog or something like that. But you know, you watch that cloud for a few moments as it passes overhead.
And it all breaks up and changes shape, and in a few minutes it's completely gone and another cloud has replaced it. God says your life is just like that. And that's why when we present the gospel, there's an urgency to the message. We never tell people to wait till the end of the message to get saved because we don't know if this message is going to end in the way that we anticipate or you might look at your schedule.
And you might say, well, this meeting is scheduled to end at 7:30. It probably will end around 7:30, but we're not going to guarantee you at 6:50 that there are another 40 minutes to present the gospel message because the coming of the Lord draws nigh. And so he says, your life is a vapor. It appears for a little time and it vanishes away. I've talked to some very elderly people in my lifetime.
Some people who have been over 100 years of age and all, they'll tell you, like Jacob, that few have been the days of their life, those that life seems to go very fast. I never thought I'd be to the point in life where I'd say that of myself. But as I look back over 50 years of life, life has just gone in the blink of an eye. I know sometimes when you're younger you think you'll never get to certain points in life, you know, I can remember when I wanted to be thirteen years of age. I thought it'd be wonderful to be a teenager.
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Well, I got there and I wasn't satisfied. Oh, if I could only be 16, I could drive a car. And when I got to be 16, I thought if I could only be 21, I'd be of age and my own boss. And you see how it goes. You get to about 25 and then you want it to slow down a little bit. But you know, it doesn't slow down. It just seems to get faster and faster. And so he says, we ought to say, I want you to notice this, if the Lord will, we shall live comma, You know, sometimes we read this quickly and we think of this in connection.
With our activities, and certainly as believers, we need to say, if the Lord will, we'll go here and there and do that. If the Lord will, we'll leave this building later on this evening and tomorrow we'll go to our homes, or tonight or whatever. But notice there's something before our activities we ought to say. If the Lord will, we shall live.
You know, Daniel stood before a man, King Belshazzar, perhaps one of the greatest men of his day. And Daniel said to Belshazzar, He said, the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified? We read in the New Testament He's the preserver of all men, And again he giveth life and breath to all things. God is the sustainer of the universe, the Lord Jesus, it says by him all things subsist.
And he gives us breath as we sit here. Have you glorified him? Do you know the Lord Jesus as your savior? Maybe you don't know the Lord Jesus as your savior. You know, it's a very sad thing. We're talking about things we don't know. It's a very sad thing if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your savior. You know, I've known the Lord Jesus by the grace of God as my savior most of my life. And as I've often said, I wouldn't want to trade places with anyone that isn't a Christian. What I've received in exchange for the forgiveness of my sins.
It's so much more than you could ever anticipate. And then that home above in heaven of which we were singing, We know there's a bright and a glorious HomeAway in the heavens high. I want to tell a little story tonight to illustrate what we're saying. And I realized that some of my brethren in my local area have heard me tell this story on one previous occasion, but I'm going to repeat it. A few months ago I was in Sandy Bay, Saint Vincent.
And Sandy Bay Saint Vincent is a beautiful little village on the hillside overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, on the windward side of that island. It's in the north of Saint Vincent, not the very last village, but one of the very northern villages in Saint Vincent. And as I leaned against the railing of a little house there, I listened to a very interesting and search searching story. The man who lived in that house, his name is Esford.
Esford is a fairly as an older man now, but he told me an interesting story. He said that in 1986 he owned a boat, and he would often take people for hire over to Saint Lucia, which is the next Caribbean island just north of Saint Vincent. It's about 26 miles or so across the open water.
And he would often. He was an experienced seaman, and he would often take people over in his small craft. That craft really couldn't hold more than five people, but it was seaworthy, and many had crossed to and fro from Saint Vincent to Saint Lucia and safely back. But there was a trip scheduled on a particular Thursday in 1986.
Esford as the captain of that boat.
And four other passengers on a Thursday evening were to go over to Saint Lucia. There were several things they were going to do there, several points of business, one of the main being that a Christian man from the village of Saint Vincent named Mr. Charles had asked us for if he would take him across to get some car parts that he needed. Mr. Charles was a mechanic and he did repairs on cars and he needed to get some parts for his business.
Early on that Thursday morning, Esper decided that he needed to make a quick trip to Kingstown. Kingstown is the capital of Saint Vincent, and it's in the South southern end of the island. It's probably from there about a good hour and a half drive. In fact, it might have even been more back in those days. The roads that we travel there now are better than they used to be, but it's at least an hour and a half drive, and so he jumped on his motorcycle early in the morning.
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Went down to Kingstown. He needed to do some errands and he needed to get some paperwork for himself and his four passengers to go over to Saint Lucia. He was on his way back out of Kingstown, and I suppose if you've never seen roads like this, it's hard to picture them. They are windy mountain roads that hug the sides of the Cliff. Sometimes you're looking up at the sky and sometimes down into the sea. They don't drive with much caution.
I've often said between Georgetown and Kingstown, you can get more chiropractic adjustments from slamming on the brake than most people will get in their entire life. But it's a windy mountain Rd. and he was coming out and they don't worry about dotted lines or solid lines. They just pass. Whenever they think it's, I was going to say safe. But whenever they think they can get by without scraping another vehicle, they they pass. And so he was coming along and there was a car, a Jeep in front of him.
That was going too slow for his liking and so he decided to pull out and to pass this Jeep. What he didn't realize was if he had looked in his rearview mirror. There was a motorcycle behind him as well, and that motorcycle decided to pull out and pass at the very same time. Well, what happened was those two motorcycles collided there in the middle of the road. Esford was thrown several feet from the motorcycle.
And so he hit his head. He was not knocked unconscious, strangely enough. Or, I say, perhaps, as I should say, the Lord allowed it so that the accident happened right in front of the home of a friend of his. And even more ironic, if I can put it that way, this friend was one of the four passengers that was planning to go with him later that evening to Saint Lucia. The friend saw what happened and rushed out to help him.
He quickly determined that his friend wasn't badly hurt and he was a mechanic as well, and so they did a few adjustments on the motorcycle, and in a little while Esford was on his way back up north to Sandy Bay. When he got home, he told his wife what had happened, and so his motorcycle was drivable. It was somewhat banged up, and his wife became concerned. At first, Esper said that he fully planned to go ahead with the trip.
But as the afternoon wore on, he had a slight headache.
And his wife pleaded with him not to go. She said you don't know what might develop. Some internal injury may show up and I think it would be best if you didn't go well. He listened to his wife and he called the others and told them that while they could use the boat, since a couple of them were also experienced seamen, that he wasn't going himself.
As evening came on, he went down to the beach to see the other four off.
And as they were about to push off, his cousin David came down to the beach as well to help launch their craft. The other four said to David, why don't you come with us? There's room in the boat. Well, there's room for five. And why don't you come with us? We'd be glad to have you. Well, he decided that he would go ahead. And though he hadn't made any preparations, he knew he had friends on the other island that would take care of him. And they were only going for a couple of days and.
So he decided to jump in the boat and go ahead to take Ashford's place, as Ashford put it to me. Well, they went over to Saint Lucia, they landed safely in Beaufort, and then they drove over the mountains to Castries, which is the capital. It's again a very windy mountain Rd. I've made that trip many times myself. They did their business. They stayed two nights. Saturday they came back and they were seen getting in their boat.
And heading back to Saint Vincent. Later that evening, another boat arrived in Sandy Bay from Saint Lucia, a boat that had left shortly after the one that David Ashford's cousin and the other four men were in. When they landed in Sandy Bay, they made inquiries as to whether the other boat had safely docked, and they were told that it had not arrived. There was immediate concern, and it wasn't long until the Saint Lucia boat went back out.
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To search those waters to see if there was any trace of the boat. And to this day that boat has never been found. Nor did they ever find the bodies of those five men that were aboard that boat. Those that were in the other St. Lucia boat had seen them leave and so it was confirmed that they had left, but they were lost at sea. And for me to stand here and speculate as to what happened would only be that.
It would simply be speculation. Nobody knows to this day. Did they capsize? Were they hijacked? You know, there's a lot of hijacking in that area of the Caribbean. There's a lot of drug running. There's a lot of people shot and thrown overboard in those waters. And the Coast Guard has warned me not to travel those waters anymore. I have traveled them, but I don't travel them anymore. I fly on a prop plane now if I'm going to Saint Lucia or other islands in those those areas.
We don't know what happened, but one thing for sure as Ashford stood there and tears came to his eyes, he said. My cousin David took my place and it cost him his life.
I wonder what where you would be if you had been one of the five men that was in that boat that day. Where would you be right now? You know, those men had every thought of returning to Saint Vincent on that Saturday evening. They've gone over to Saint Lucia to buy and to sell and to get gain and to come back with their having done their business. They never made it.
Esford said to me, said one thing for certain.
The Lord allowed it, and God has a purpose in all these things. I believe that Ashford is a believer, a simple believer, but I believe he is ready for eternity.
But what about his cousin David? I don't know. He doesn't know. We don't know about the other men except Mr. Charles, who we know had a bright testimony as a believer in that part of the island.
But you know there is one who took your place. There's one who took my place. And if you know him as your savior, you can say with certainty that he bore your sins in his own body on the tree. And so we read in the book of Corinthians, in First Corinthians chapter one. And here we find that the preaching of the cross is brought before us because tonight we want to stress for a few moments across.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, David, when he got into that boat, he had really no thought of dying.
And taking his cousin's place in that way. But you know the Lord Jesus, when he came into this world, he had the cross before him. He knew that he was going to go to the cross and that he was going to lay down his life, and nothing in his pathway deterred him from what was ahead.
He set his face to go to Jerusalem. Did he know what was going to happen at Jerusalem? Indeed he did. He knew that eventually wicked hands would be laid upon him, and they would take him from Gethsemane to pilots Judgment hall and from Pilots Judgment hall to the high Priest, and back again, and back and forth again. And then eventually they would lead him out to Calvary. They would lead him out to the place of a skull.
You know, again, man thinks he's pretty smart.
Man thinks he knows a lot of things. But you know what a skull is? It's an empty head, and it's the height was the height of man's intellect. The height of man's thought took their creator, took him out to Calvary, the place of a skull, and had him nailed to a Roman cross. And there he hung on Calvary as a spectacle for men and angels and for those that passed by and reviled him and others that sat down and watched him suffer in his agony.
And there at the end of those hours of darkness.
He gave up his life, he said. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father.
There he shed his precious blood. There one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side.
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And forthwith came there out blood and water.
But you know the preaching of the cross.
Is tonight, as Scripture says, foolishness?
But notice it's to them that perish foolishness.
How often have you given someone a trap and they've ridiculed it? How often have you spoke to somebody about their need of a savior? And they've lost. They've mocked. There are mockers. It's a characteristic of the last days, It tells us later on in scripture. It is to them that perish foolishness. Why? Because in the wisdom of God it please God that by the foolishness of preaching to save some.
And man cannot know God by his own intellect. God cannot know God by his own wisdom.
No, it has to be on the grounds of what God has said in His word.
And faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the only way that a person can be saved tonight. Maybe you say, I just find it hard to believe the gospel. I just find it difficult to take all that in. But God has told us that it's repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that is going to save a soul. Not whether you can reason it all out, not whether you can understand it all. But the way of righteousness tonight is so simple.
That it says a wayfaring man, though a fool may not err therein. It is so simple that as we sometimes sing, a little child of seven or even 3 or 4 May enter into heaven through Christ the open door. That's how simple the gospel is. That's why we had a children's meeting this morning, because the gospel is for the children, for the boys and girls, but you know, for those who are older, they have to come as a little child as well.
Because whether you're six or seven or whether you're 96 or 7.
It's all in the simplicity of putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the work that he accomplished at Calvary's Cross. And Paul said, we preach Christ.
And Christ crucified, he said. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I under the world.
What does the cross of Christ mean to you tonight? What does the Lord Jesus mean to you tonight?
What? Thinking of Christ is a question raised so long ago, a question that echoes down to through the ages, right to this room this evening. What do you think of the Lord Jesus Christ? What do you think of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, to Paul it was a thrill to preach Christ and Christ crucified. It was a thrill to consider the cross, because there though it was the place of a skull, though it was the emptiness of man's mind.
An intellect called that caused them to crucify the Lord all. To Paul it was precious. It was the power of God unto salvation. And all I trust it is to you tonight, because there's no blessing tonight. You'll never come to know the Lord Jesus as your Savior tonight without the cross, without the death and the shedding of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. And remember, it's the blood of Jesus Christ.
God's Son that cleanses from all sin. It's the blood of Jesus through whom we have.
Forgiveness. We're redeemed. Those of us who know Christ, we're redeemed. Not with corruptible things of silver and gold, not with those things that change in value from day-to-day and week to week. No, but with the precious blood of Christ. And when it says the precious blood of Christ, that's not my estimation of it. That's God's estimation. God says tonight that the blood of Christ is precious, and that's why there's no substitute for the blood of Christ.
It is only the blood we sometimes think what can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. But you know, we read, thou sought that solemn portion in Matthew's Gospel.
Where the Lord Jesus spoke of the days of Noah and how it was in the days of Noah, man went on living.
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And they just went on with daily life, enjoying life as it came. Because, you know, man features this world as a playground, a stage in which to indulge and entertain himself. And they did that in the days of Noah. And they knew not until the till the flood came and took them all away. I think there's two very solemn things contained in this statement. They knew not, you say well, didn't know a preach righteousness.
For about 120 years or so, yes, he did. He was a preacher of righteousness. Wasn't the building of the ark a testimony that there was a flood coming? Yes, it was, but they knew not. In other words, they went on in complete indifference to the preaching of Noah and the testimony of the ark as it was erected there. No doubt by Noah and his three sons. They had a testimony, but they knew not.
It's not that they didn't hear and see, but they chose to block it out.
They chose to turn away an indifference to what God was saying.
And the flood came. And what happened?
There is hardly a more solemn statement than this in the Word of God.
And took them all away.
Do you know there were boys and girls living on the earth in the days of Noah?
Do you know there were young people living on the earth in the days of Noah? There were middle-aged people living on the earth in the days of Noah.
And the flood came, and it was no respecter of persons, It took them all away.
Those who did not avail themselves of the refuge that was provided.
In the Ark, because I realized that only eight souls went into the Ark.
And I realize questions could be raised as to could the ark have taken everybody in that lived on the earth. But that's not the point tonight. The point is that there were only eight souls saved, and that God had refuge for those who had faith and believed his word and took heed to it. And Noah and his family were saved from the judgment that fell at that time. And all I want to impress upon our souls tonight.
That there is refuge from the storm of judgment that's coming on this world, and it is available to all. Whosoever will the Bible says, and whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And we don't know the hour that that judgment is going to fall, when it's the Son of Man. As was pointed out in the readings, it has to do with judgment.
With his right and authority to judge. And all judgment has been committed to the Son. And there is a time of judgment coming. It is appointed a day when he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained and God has appointed that day. If, if I can put it this way, it circles on God's calendar and nothing's going to frustrate it. You know, sometimes I slight things in on my calendar and it never happens or it doesn't happen when I plan.
Sometimes I have to postpone. Sometimes I even have to cancel dates that I've circled on my calendar. But God has a date. You don't know it. I don't know it, but God has a date when the judgments of this world by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be taken up, and it will be a solemn time for those who have rejected the Lord Jesus and those who are left behind when the Lord Jesus comes.
You know something else we don't know is when the Lord Jesus is going to come and give the shout and call the believers home. We know it soon. It tells us in the book of James, the coming of the Lord Draweth nigh. We don't know exactly when, but one thing is for sure, we've never been closer to the Lord's coming than we are right now. We've never been closer. And if that doesn't wake you up, I don't know what will stir your soul.
Because if the Lord Jesus were to come in the next 13 minutes before this meeting ends, there will be a lot of vacant chairs, empty. And maybe, just maybe, you'll look around and you will be the only one that's left in your seat.
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You know it is searching to realize that when Elijah was raptured away to heaven in a whirlwind and in a chariot of fire.
It wasn't the general populace in Israel or in the world that missed him.
It was the sons of the prophets.
You know, I look into the face tonight of the sons and daughters.
Of those who have praying parents and grandparents.
And if the Lord Jesus were to come tonight, and you looked around and saw mom and dad gone, and other loved ones gone, and maybe your friends gone, you will know, initially at least, what happened. Or there'll be a strong delusion, I believe, sent very quickly. So you'll believe something else, believe a lie, but you will realize.
That something has happened and that a great deal of the populace is no longer present here in this world.
I'd like to turn to John's Gospel, Chapter 9.
John's Gospel Chapter 9.
And verse 25.
He answered and said, whether he be a Sinner or no, I know not. One thing. I know that whereas I was blind, Now I see in this chapter we have a story about a blind man in the days of the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus came along and he gave this man back his sight. Now I believe that in this story we have brought before us by illustration a great truth, a truth far beyond just the ability of the Lord Jesus.
To give a blind blind man back his physical sight. No. You know, everyone of us in this room were born into this world blind. Not physically blind, but spiritually blind. John Newton, in that hymn that is still sung around the world today summed it up like this. Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a Wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found was blind.
But now I see. But you know, you read the life of John Newton. He wasn't born physically blind. No. But he realized at a point in his life that he had been born into this world, spiritually blind. And he also came to know the Lord Jesus as his savior, so that he received spiritual eyesight to see beauty in Christ, to see his own condition 1St and then beauty in Christ the Lord Jesus as his Savior. And I believe that's what's illustrated so beautifully here. So often this chapter is gone over.
On a gospel occasion like this, But we find that after this man received his sight.
He got lots of questions and he had to say on more than one occasion.
In fact, I think there's five times in this chapter that he admits things he doesn't know.
They asked him questions. His parents asked him questions. The Pharisees asked him questions. His neighbors asked questions. And on every occasion he had to admit that there were things he didn't know. But finally, he says here in this verse, he says, I don't know what you're asking me, but one thing I do know, I know that I was blind. And now I see I've got my sight. You know, he wasn't going to let the things he didn't know rob him of the enjoyment of the things that he did know.
You know, I love to meet a believer. Maybe they've just been saved and they say there's a lot of things I don't understand about the Bible and following the Lord. The one thing I know.
I was a Sinner and now I'm saved and that wonderful. Do you know that tonight maybe there's a lot of things you don't know? You say I just don't understand so much of the Bible and prophecy and all those things. But I hope that every one of us here can say, like the blind man, this one thing I know, just one thing he knew. But that was enough. We were saying, speaking about how this is a day of knowledge, if you went into an exam at school and you only knew one thing that you'd learned from the course.
Why you'd fail the exam? No, a student, a diligent student. One wouldn't walk into the exam saying, oh, I only know one thing or one little section of what we've gone over in the curriculum. No, you want to know many things, but here we find it's just one thing. And this one thing gave him confidence amidst all the other enigmas and questions. Oh, I trust. As I say at the end of this Gospel meeting, we all know this one thing. All I want to impress upon our souls again.
00:50:21
That we have no lease on life. We have some brethren here tonight from Trinidad and we've been thankful to have them in our midst with us this weekend. It's been an encouragement to many of us and I was handed a newspaper clipping by our brother yesterday.
It brought back to my memory.
Perhaps one of the most difficult experiences I've ever had in my life.
I think it's three years ago. I lose track of time in the busyness of life. But I think it's three years ago that on the streets of Trinidad, between Independence Square and a secondary school where we were going to speak, Garvin Seymour was with me from Saint Vincent. We were going to speak at a school that morning on Nelson St. just up from Independence Square in the heart of Trinidad, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
And at 10:30 in the morning I was mugged.
By a man, and I won't go into the story, but by a very notorious man.
Nicknamed by the police $0.10.
It's an experience that you don't get over very quickly when another human being violates your person. It's very different from having your house broken into having your car stolen, uh, and things like that.
But it happened in broad daylight by a man that the police told me.
Would kill for $0.10.
I was handed a newspaper article this weekend.
At the top of the page, it says the murder toll has jumped to 470.
And in big red letters it says $0.10 murdered.
And if we were you were to read this article with me.
You would find that at 23 years of age, this young man was gunned down on Nelson St. not very far from where the incident took place three years ago. He was gunned down in cold blood and he is an eternity tonight. A life of violence and crime. Several murders attributed to his gun. Lots of robberies, lots of crime.
But he's in eternity tonight.
You know, scripture says those that live by the sword die by the sword.
I'm solemnized by this article because.
I'm afraid.
That I didn't pray for $0.10 salvation.
Like perhaps I ought to have.
And I suppose he's in a lost eternity tonight.
Are the streets of Port of Spain, Trinidad, any safer tonight than they were back then? Probably not, but another soul is in eternity.
What about you? Tonight you say I don't haven't lived a life of crime. I don't have a list of murders attributed to me. I wasn't wanted by the police for years. I haven't run and had to hide. Maybe so, but there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But you know, salvation is offered to you tonight.
You know, someone said to me back at the time of this incident.
Someone said to me, you know, Jim, there is salvation for $0.10.
But not anymore.
There is salvation for you tonight, but I'm not going to promise you.
Anything beyond right now?
Can you say, like Paul, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day? Remember, as we said earlier, it's the cross of Calvary. It's the blood of Christ that's available to you tonight for salvation. Oh, don't go out the door lost unsaved tonight. Some of you have sat in this room for two consecutive nights.
00:55:22
And had the word of God read and quoted in your ear, it will be a serious solemn thing to go out tonight, still rejecting or neglecting, and to pass into a lost eternity. Oh, come tonight, jobs, that I know that my Redeemer liveth. You know, the one who's living. He's living. And is he your Redeemer tonight? And Paul again said, as we sang at the beginning of the meeting. I know.
Whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able.
To keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. And you can know tonight that you have eternal life and that you've passed from death unto life. Let's pray our God and Father how thankful we are tonight for the gospel and the one who's made it all possible. And now we pray blessing on Thy word our God. We pray that no one will go out of these doors tonight. Still on the Broad Rd. We pray that each one may come to know.
With certainty the Lord Jesus Christ, the joy of sins forgiven, being washed away, and the joy of being on their way to heaven. So we ask thy blessing on thy word. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.