Gospel—R. Bauman
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General Meetings Wheaton, August 1976. Gospel by Robert Bowman.
Shall we open our meeting tonight by singing hymn #25?
Hymn #25.
Time is gliding swiftly by. Death and judgment both draw nigh to the arms of Jesus. Fly, be in time. Oh, I pray you, count the cost ere the fatal line. Be crossed in your Christless Soul. Be lost, be in time. We'll sing the 1St, 3rd, and 4th stanzas of #25.
Life, at best, is very brief.
The falling of the league like the binding of the chief being heart.
But in the grace but now we have like that I will soon become.
And the pain of life if I am crying, living in time.
And your pride he comes to the end.
I am fighting for everybody and darkness falls from my.
Arms.
I went where is your?
Son.
I will die next day and he will die.
Run your way.
On my side for heaven denied being in Christ.
Before we sing another, I'd like just to emphasize the importance of the thoughts.
And sentiments of this little hymn.
You know there isn't much time left.
For each one of you.
Death, of course, is the cut off, and the grace of God doesn't mean anything. But for all of us, there's another cut off. The Lord himself is coming soon.
And when he does, it's forever too late friendly that are not safe in Christ.
Softly important to be in time. This is a solemn matter. Tonight we're going to talk about.
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A little poem. I like to say a clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to say just when the hands well stop at late or early hour. To lose one's wealth is sad indeed. Lose one's health is more. But to lose one's soul is such a loss that no one can restore. You have a precious soul, and that's why we're here tonight.
Were concerned, and thank God someone was concerned about my soul until my willful heart was won and I came to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our concern about everyone here that's lost. While I repeated that little poem, 25 souls were ushered into eternity. That's solemn, isn't it? Your next breath. 5 souls are ushered into eternity in every hour. 600 souls are ushered into eternity. I should say 6000 to 144,000 a day.
Souls are ushered into eternity.
Where are you going to spend eternity? Where will you be?
Where would you be 1,000,000 years from tonight? Where will you be?
You know the answer to that is the same place you'll be 1 split second after death, because that settles it. You're either safe in Christ or you're in your sins and you'll have an eternity. That's dreadful. I want to impress upon it. I know I'm taking a little time, but I don't think we can impress enough. As it says in Samuel, as the Lord liveth and as my soul liveth.
There's what one step between me and them and that's the way it is with you.
God knows the step you don't. Your next breath, every breath is in the hand of the Lord. He can close that hand when he desires and wishes you haven't any time you haven't any time you know this meeting. May be you're now or never.
I'm going to take one more minute before we sing a hymn. I remember a track that's sold here in BTP. I love it. It's called Now or Never. It's about a man whose vocation was egg collecting. This man and other men in the village in Europe where they lived along the seacoast, collected rare eggs from a large bird. They're hard to find. And this man and his colleagues, when they found a nest, it would be along the seashore.
In the rocks buried underneath in the Cliff and it was hard to reach.
And they wouldn't try it if the mother bird was around when they did. They worked together in a team.
And they have to. One man on top would guide the rope and make sure it's secure, and the other man would go down and get into that Cliff in the rock or that ledge and collect the eggs. They were rare. One day this man, when he was walking, saw one of these large nests and he was excited. It looked like it could have some very rare eggs and large ones in it. He went to find his associate, but he wasn't to be found.
He went to find someone else, but couldn't find them. He decided to do it alone.
He got his equipment and he went to the cliffs edge. He drove that spike in better than he usually did because he wanted to be sure it was in the crevice of the rock and wouldn't shake loose. He tied the knot of the rope firmer than they usually do. There was nobody on top to watch and he lowered that rope with the platform for him to sit on down to where he thought it was about opposite.
The ledge where the nest was, he lowered himself, got onto the platform, and then with body motion started to swing, and when he had enough momentum, he jumped to the ledge. And as he did, he saw those large eggs, wonderful, rare, precious, and he stood there looking at them in amazement. And just then a shadow crossed and he knew what had happened. He forgot to hang on to the line.
To the platform rope so he could pull it back and be safe. He turned around and the rope had already made a second swing and was out for its third, and every time the distance was lengthened between him and the platform. He looked down thousands of feet and the trees looked like toothpicks. The rocks were were jagged and the water was rough and he knew it was death. No one could find him, and so he got to the edge of that ledge.
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And he went down in the Crouch to spring, and when that rope came back the third time, he shouted something to give himself the willpower, now or never. And he jumped. He meant it. It was now or never. He made it. He grabbed that platform and hung on for dear life.
Friends, that's the way I feel about you tonight. If you're in your sins, this may be your now or never.
Because you have no assurance you'll wake up tomorrow. You'll have no assurance if you go to bed in your sins tonight, you'll wake up tomorrow. Let's sing another hymn #21.
Decides for Christ today and God's salvation seat, yield soul and body, heart and will to him who died for thee decide for Christ today Thyself. Thou canst not save, helpless and guilty, dead and blind no longer. Judgment phrase will Sing 21.
Besides.
Uh-huh.
Let us look to the Lord, ask his blessing and help.
Well, as cold water is to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. That's what we have tonight. Praise the Lord. It'd be terrible if we had only the truth to give about you and me. It would be dreadful. But we have good news. We have the story of the love of God, the grace of God, and the mercy of God. That's being offered once again tonight to everyone whosoever will have it. It's a wonderful story.
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You know the.
In Second King Seven, I think it'd be nice to turn to it just as an introduction in Second Kings the 7th chapter.
We have a situation.
In which Samaria was seized. There was a siege of Samaria.
And they were hemmed in, and the armies were all around.
And things were so bad in Samaria, in Second Kings Seven, that they were starving.
There was famine, there was loss of food, there was loss of water and they were starving and the enemy was awaiting outside the Syrians.
How dreadful the situation. In verse three we see there was 4 leprous men at the entering of that gate and they said why sit we here until we die? If we enter the city, the famine is in the city, we shall die there. If we sit still here we die also a desperate situation. It's just a picture of the situation of every lost Sinner. In this scene there isn't any hope.
It's hopeless desperate because you have to do with a holy God.
We've all sinned and that's our situation, each one of us. And apart from the grace of God, there is no hope. Well, they realize their situation and so they rose. And they said in verse five we will go right into the camp of the Syrians. They said if they kill us in verse four, we shall but die. They save us alive. We live. They just went right into the enemy's land. Well, the grace of God was ahead of them.
If you read on, which we won't take the time, the Lord made the noise as though there was a host of an enemy coming, horses and ***** and all other things, and they fled for their life. The Syrian Army left. And when these four lepers came to that place of the camp, they went into one tent in verse 8, and they ate and drank, and they carried silver and gold and raiment. And what did they do? They went and hit it. They came again, and they entered into another tent.
And they carried away all those wonderful things. They went and hid it. But finally one said to another, we do not well.
This is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. And that's the way we feel, dear friends. The grace of God, the riches through the blessing of God, which we've tasted by His grace. We would do not well if we held our peace.
I trust if there's any here tonight who hasn't felt that in his soul, the peace that only comes from having the Lord, His Savior, having your sins, forgiving forgiven and all the blessings that go with it, that you will be saved tonight, enter into that wonderful portion. That's why we preach the gospel.
Well, I have a few places of the word of God in which the Lord is looking down from heaven. They're all in the South. The first one is in Psalm 14, and I want to use them as an example of his goodness and grace.
In some in Psalm 14 we have these words, the fool that said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, They have done abominable work. There is nothing to do with good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and see God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none to do with good, no.
Not one.
If we turn to Romans 3, we find these same words plus other words which describe the state of man, the wickedness of man, the worthlessness of man, the hatred of man towards God, the willfulness of man. It's all true. It's in God's word.
And it is really the biography of everyone here. Our hearts are no different. All of our hearts are the same. We are all sinful creatures. We don't like to hear that. In fact, in Romans 3, we really have the likeness of man, God's picture of what man really and truly is when we have a likeness made, When we go to a photographer or portrait artist to have a likeness made, we're very careful to study the negatives of the proofs. We're very careful to look at them and pick them best one, the one we think that makes us look the best and flatters us most.
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What you know?
Romans 3 gives your likeness. You don't like it if man could take a picture of your heart.
And show it to you. You wouldn't let one friend see it if man could take a picture of what you really are and show it to you in all the wickedness and violence. You wouldn't let your wife see it or your husband. You wouldn't want anybody to see it. But it says here the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see.
The Lord took a look. You know, Does that amaze you, that God, that the Lord would take time to look down upon you and upon me and upon all of us in this scene?
Does it make you feel comfortable to think that he's looking upon you right now with an all seeing eye? He does. Let's look at Genesis One first, because he didn't find anything good here when he looked in Genesis One we have in the first verse. In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth.
In verse nine we have the waters separated from the dry land in verse 10.
God called the dry land earth and the water the seas. And it says God saw.
But it was good. He created, and he looked upon the creation, and he saw.
That it was good. If we'd read on, we'd see that God created the sun, the moon and the stars.
And in verse 18 it says he saw but it was good.
If we read on, we find that he put the birds, the fishes and the animals in this wonderful creation and in verse 26 or in verse 25 at the end we read God saw that it was good. In verse 26 we have God making man. Verse 27 it says he created man in his own image. And finally in verse 31 God saw everything that he had made and behold.
It was very good.
That's what he thought when he created this world. That's what he thought when he made man. We see some of the goodness and the beauty of the creation of God in nature today. In spite of man's pollution, in spite of man's ruination of it, we still see it and enjoy it. But when God created this scene, he saw everything that he made the whole. It was very good.
You know, that's wonderful, isn't it? Because God is good. He can do nothing else. It's all that he could do is good. If you take God out of good, you have nothing left. Take nothing out of good. You have God. God is good. And what he did was good. We read in the next hour, in the in the 18th or 19th Psalm at the heavens declare the glory of God in the firmament show his handiwork. You know we must have this starting point.
Before we can get into the gospel, I know once when I read about Sir Isaac Newton, the scientists who love the Lord, who had accepted the Lord as savior and who loved to tell others about him and read his Bible frequently. But he had a friend who was an astronomer, who loved to study the heavens, who loved to see the perfection of the stars and the constellations and the planet. But he didn't want to talk about a God. He was agnostic.
He didn't think God had anything to do with that. He didn't think he had anything to do with God. If there was a God, and that was a burden on Isaac Newtons heart, one of Isaacs friends made him as a gift a model. This small model was the solar system in perfect movement. All you had to do was turn a little handle and everything in the solar system rotated and moved perfectly.
It was a beautiful little model. So Isaac set that on the table in the middle of his room, and the next time his friend came, he was reading the Bible. His friend came in, he saw him reading the Bible. He scoffed, and then he saw the model.
He turned the handle and he said Isaac, who made it.
Well, Isaac Newton just smiled in red on.
And he turned the handle again. He was amazed at the perfection of it, because everything was going perfectly as it did in the heavens. And he said, Isaac, who made this? Who made this? He's a genius. And Isaac looked up. And he said, friend, no one made it, No one made it. It just happened. He said, I think it's wonderful. I studied. I look at it. I think it's grand. But no one made it, he said. You're joking. Tell me. I have to know who made this. I want to talk to him.
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He said no one needs this model. It's just the coincidence that it's the same as the heavens you studied. It just happened that way. I love to look at it just like you love look at the heavens, but there's no maker. And he said there has to be a maker. And Isaac said, you say there doesn't have to be a maker of the wonderful heavens that this is a model of, and yet you say the model has to have a maker. And that was the open door for him to look into God.
The God who were responsible to as the creator, Well, I trust there isn't any here tonight.
Who would say as our Psalm started in Psalm 14, No God. There is a God and you're responsible. He's the creator and all he can do is good, as we've read when he looked down if we turned to Genesis 6 after sin came in.
After all the good that he did when he looked down, let's see what he saw. Verse five in Genesis 6. God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Verse 12 God looked upon the earth and behold.
It was corrupt.
If for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Well, that's a sad story. That's a sad story for God to look and see. And we've got in this precious sound sound 14 The look of God when he looked down from heaven upon the children of men. He looked down from heaven to see. And what did he see?
But I'll have to tell you, friends, and I think you know it. In your own heart and mind, he saw ruination.
He saw that the creation was ruined by man. He saw that man himself was corrupt and evil. He saw that none of them looked toward him or sought after him at all. He saw that all of them were sinful in their hearts. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They're all gone aside. They are all together, become filthy. There's none to do with good, no?
Not one.
Well, isn't that a bad picture? You know, God looks down and he sees this. And if that was all we had to tell you tonight, it'd be a dreadful story. It'd be the truth, because God gives only the truth and the precious words. And we have this terrible indictment in Romans, the rest of the portion, if we had turned to it, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, there isn't one that is.
It escapes from that indictment of God.
Everyone of us alike have to fit into that pattern, each one of them. And if we looked at Jeremiah, it would say, if you take you much neither, if you wash you with neither, and take the much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, sayeth the Lord.
At the solemn thought, you're going to have to do with the holy God. You're going to have to answer to God for your sins. And we can read also in Jeremiah, Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leper remove his spots? And how can you, which are accustomed to do evil, do good? You can. There isn't anything you can do yourself. And finally, in Jeremiah, if we look at 17 verse nine, we won't take the time.
Will read about your heart because that's the source. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That's the description of the heart. Well, isn't that something for God to see? But that's what he sees when he looks down. Because we read in the sounds in the 14th Psalms that God the Lord looks down from heaven to sea, and he looked down from heaven to see men. And when he thought he saw nothing.
But ruination? Nothing but ruination. Well, let's turn to another Psalm 102, a place again where the Lord looked down from heaven and Psalm 102.
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And at the end of verse 18, the Lord looked down from the heights of his sanctuary.
From heaven.
Did the Lord behold the earth to hear?
He looked down to hear the groaning of the prisoner to lose those that are appointed to death.
Well, you know, the Lord looks down, and He wants to hear. He wants to hear each one of us repent. He wants to hear each one of us cry out to him for His mercy and grace and repent. He wants to hear every Sinner come to him.
With the true repentance of heart, because he wants to bless and save. It's a wonderful story. First, we have the Lord looking down the sea and we know what He saw. Every one of us in our heart has to confess that the true picture of man. It's a true picture of what man has done and does do. But the Lord looked down from heaven to hear, and what He wants to hear is repentance. What He wants to hear is repentance.
Oh, how wonderful it is when one repents.
You know, the Lord knows our condition, He knows our plight, and he has compassion.
Yes, great. In Exodus 3IN verse seven it says, as the Lord looked upon the children of Israel in Egypt, as the Lord looked upon his children in Egypt, He said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people. I've heard their cry, and I know their sorrow well. What he wanted to do was to bless them, to lead them out, to deliver them.
What he wants to hear from you, dear friend, is repentance. Repentance is merely taking God's side against yourself. Repentance is merely believing what God said in this precious word. So many people don't believe that they're a Sinner law. Many of them will say yes, I've done my share of wrong things, but I'm not lost. God says you're lost, desperately lost. There isn't one thing you can do, and he wants to hear.
A confession from your lips that you need him, that you need him, and he'll save your soul.
Turn to Luke 18. In Luke 18, we have a repentant heart.
And Luke 18, verse 10, Two men went up into the temple to pray.
The 1A Pharisee and the other Republicans. Now, I would say that these two men were at the right place. They were at God's house.
And they went for the right purpose. They went to pray. It's good that been pray.
The Pharisee went the wrong way, and the Republican the right way. The publican prayed a prayer of repentance. Let's read on. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the public, and standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven.
But smote upon his breath, saying, God be merciful to me.
A Sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Well, the Pharisee, they were people who were self-righteous. They were people who were religious but full of prize. You know, prize is a word that has a mighty big eye in the middle.
Rise. It is concerned with I, And if you notice, the prayer of the Pharisees I is repeated. It begins almost every thought. I thank thee. I am not as other men. I fast twice in the week I give tithes I possess. He was so absorbed with himself.
He had a long prayer to five times as long as the publicans prayer. The Pharisees loved long prayer.
But the Pharisee did not have any repentance. The Pharisee did not come to the God for anything except to tell him how good he was, the publican said. Be merciful to me a Sinner.
Took his place before a holding God as a Sinner in need. And that's what God looks down to here, you know. God looks down from heaven to here. He wants to hear the repentance of the Sinner. Come to him and God can step in and say this man is justified, justified. It's wonderful in the eyes of God. It's just as if this Sinner is just as if this publican had never sinned.
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God says, that's what I want. I want to hear the repentance soul. I want to hear him come and repent. You know, when sin came in the garden after God's wonderful creation, and Adam and Eve realized that sin had separated really between them and God, you know, a soul has a conscience. And when you realize that sin is separating between you and God, you're afraid. God came down right away into the garden to seek out Adam. He wanted to bless him. He called out Adam where ourselves.
The first recorded utterance of man and the word of God as I was afraid and I hid myself. Why was Adam afraid of God of his sin? Because he did his own will, Because he will disobey God. Because now amnesty was really in his heart against the thrice holy God. And God came down only to bless. He came down to clothing and he did. And you know God has been seeking ever since. They hear, they hear the cry of every Sinner.
To hear the cry of every Sinner repent so he can bless him, well we have in Luke 15.
If we turn to it.
15th chapter of Luke.
A young man who repented. I won't read the story. It's a long story and it's well known, but it's the prodigal son.
And this man, this boy, had left his father's house. He had gone his own way. But in verse 17 he came to himself and he said, I Perry, I perished, dear friend, each one of us, if we're still lost within our sins, have to cry. I perish, because there isn't anything ahead for us except the Paris, except the Paris, eternally into a sinner's hell. There is nothing, nothing ahead but that.
The judgment of a thrice holy God has to come upon us for our sins. Unless the Lord steps in and grace to a repentant Sinner, He says, I will arise and go to my Father, and I will say Father, I've sinned. That's repentance. He meant it from the heart. Father, I have sinned.
And I'm no more worthy. That's what the Lord wants to hear. He looked down from heaven to hear.
Repentance of a Sinner. And you know, we read that he arose and came to his father in verse 20, but when he was yet a great way off.
His father had compassion, ran and fell on his neck, and kept him and the sunset unto his father Father of sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and him no more worthy be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best rule, put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and choose on his feet, and bring hit her the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again.
He was lost in his spouse.
The Lord looked down from heaven to hear, and he's looking down from heaven right now to hear. And what he wants to hear is the repentance Sinner cry out to be saved. Oh, it's wonderful that God is waiting to save. He wants to save. It's the goodness of God that leaves the soul to repentance. It's the goodness of God that finally brought me to repentance. You know, it's the easiest thing in the world to be saved.
Because it's all been done by Jesus Christ and the cross, there isn't anything we have to do.
God sent the Son into the world to save sinners. He sent him here that the world may be saved and the blood of Jesus Christ is enough to cleanse every Sinner here from all your sins you've ever committed her. Well, the blood of Jesus Christ is all that it takes to save and cleanse the Sinner. And God has made full provision. And it's a wonderful thing that all we have to do to be saved is to believe God.
Accept Jesus Christ and the blood on the cross and you're saved just like that. Well, as I say, it's the easiest thing and yet it's the most difficult. It sounds like a paradox, but it's true. The reason is difficult is because of our own willful heart. The reason it's difficult is because of our minds that our identity with God is because of our adversary and enemy, Satan, who is our master until we're saved, who controls our thoughts that our mind and makes a placing out of it.
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It's because of our own stubborn will. That's why it's difficult. That's why it's difficult. It sounds like a paradox. You know, there was a man who was an evangelist, and he visited at a home of his family, some of his children. And when he was there, he was sitting in the Bible on his lap and reading, meditating. And his nephew was there in the room playing. And as he saw him doze off, he went over.
And he grabbed his Bible and he threw it on the floor in the middle of the room.
Just send, the boy's mother came in.
And she said.
You pick that Bible up right now, put it on uncle's lap where you found it.
The little boy looked at her and he shook his head and said no.
Well, he also had his eyes opened and he was watching and.
The mother said Joey, Get that Bible right this moment.
And you put it where you found it.
Well, the boy shook his head and said. No, I won't.
Start to walk away? Well, her voice became more firm and she said, now you're going to pick that Bible up this moment and give a dongle.
Well, the uncle said to himself. She's going to now.
Have to break the spirit of that boy. He's gonna break her heart later on. And he watched.
Little boy stood there because he knew his mother meant it now. And she said go on, pick up that Bible.
He stooped down, he got a hold of it, and he grunted and groaned and lifted his heart as he could. And finally he said, Mommy, it's too heavy.
Too heavy, she said. It wasn't too heavy to take it off. Off was lap. You get it and pick it up now He tried again. He says it's too heavy. Can't figure that she left. He knew what that meant. She came back. She had a switch and she stood there and he reached down and picked up that Bible and put it on the glass.
Well, it wasn't too difficult for him to pick up that Bible. But his stubborn will not in the way, didn't it? It isn't difficult to be saved. It's the easiest thing there is to be saved. Everyone in this room can be saved tonight. Each one of you has the prerequisite for heaven. Everyone here is qualified. You don't have to do a thing except for his pants and tell God I'm a Sinner who's ready. Save me and he'll save you. The Lord Jesus Christ will save you at that. Easy, if any. Leave this room lost and in their sins. It's not God's fault.
It's not the Lord's fault. It's yours. It's your stubborn wills, your stubborn hearts, your minds. Let's say there's some time left. Let's say I'll wait till later. That's all the problem, you know. It says the Lord looks down from heaven to here. He wanted to hear repentance. Oh, I trust he doesn't have to hear it out loud. He knows what's going on. He knows the thoughts before you think them. He knows the intents and the imaginations of your heart before you do.
What he wants to do.
Is here in your heart the fact that you realize your sins are going to force you into hell in a judgment of a thrice holy God unless.
You have Jesus Christ as Savior, God's provision out of love and grace. He wants to hear it. You know, it says in Acts 319, Repent, repent and be converted, that your sins might be blotted out.
No, Jill finally had to be brought to that place. When he said I am or myself, I repent and dust and ashes. Oh, was he ready for a blessing then? Was he ready to be blessed of God? Then he was in the right state when he said that.
Peter finally said to the Lord, Lord, depart from me on the sinful man.
Our Lord didn't depart. He took Peter to himself. Peter was ready. He resented. That's all it takes and acknowledged. But looking at yourself through the eyes of God, realizing that this book is true. It's the word of God, and when it says we're lost in our sins.
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Believe it. Believe it because it says it to bring you to himself so we can save your precious soul. Oh, when the thief from the cross finally said to the other thief, we're getting what we deserve. And he looked upon Jesus hanging between them and said, Lord, have mercy on me. Remember Me when thou cometh into thy Kingdom. Oh how wonderful that is to hear him first say we're getting what we deserve.
Are just do.
I'm a Sinner, but this man's done nothing on this. And he says, Remember Me when thou cometh in thy Kingdom. Well, the Lord said to that thief. This day thou shalt be with me this day. There's no time element involved. There's no lapse. If you repent, if you just look to the Lord as a Sinner and cry out, you'll be saved now in your seat where you are.
And that's wonderful thought. That's what it's about. That's the gospel. Well, the Lord looked down from heaven.
To hear and he wanted to hear repentance, because without repentance.
There's no deliverance. Let's look at one other point in Psalm Psalms numbers.
33.
Psalm 33 verse 13.
The Lord looked down from heaven.
The Lord looked down from heaven.
Let me see.
Verse 13 The Lord looked down from heaven, and he beholdeth all the sons of men. Verse 18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their souls from death and to keep them alive in famine.
Yes, the Lord looked down from heaven to deliver redemption.
He wants to save your soul. That's why the gospel is being preached. That's why the Lord looks down at all on this terrible scene that man has ruined. It's because in grace and in love, he wants to deliver. If we had read on in Acts 3 where we were reading in verse 7 when he said I know their sorrows. I hear their cry. It says I am come down to deliver them and to bring them up later on in Exodus. We have those precious words when I see the blood.
Over you, dear friends, there is no deliver, no deliver.
From your sins apart from the blood of Jesus, but with the blood of Jesus.
You could be cleansed from all sins until the Lord looked down from heaven, and the purpose now is to deliver.
How wonderful it is.
He looked down upon men. And if any day I have been.
And it profited Be not we read, he will deliver his soul.
From going down in the 5th and his life shall see the light of life.
How wonderful it is that all it takes to be delivered from hell, from judgment, which we deserve, You deserve, I deserve because of our sins.
Is that crying out to the Lord and he will deliver.
You know we have that precious verse of the Lord Jesus himself. Him that cometh to me. I will in no wise cast out.
The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, and upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death.
Oh, it's a wonderful, wonderful story.
And it's true, dear friends. The Lord looked down from heaven.
To deliver He's crying out for you now, just to come. Come as you are. Come in your sins, but confess and repent that you need him. You need him as savior.
There's a wonderful, wonderful example of this because men are so indifferent.
People are so indifferent to the terrible situation they're in. People feel there's a lot of time.
That's why we started with the hymn. We did. Life, at best, is very brief. People think that tomorrow is all right or later is all right.
You know, when the Titanic went down in April 1912, a lot of stories came out of that terrible disaster. But there's one story that touched my heart because it shows more than anything, the grace of God and the deliverance of God for one that really calls out in need. And that's why I think of it when I read this verse and the sounds that the Lord looked down upon men to deliver.
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That's his desire.
Well, there was a man who was saved through that terrible disaster. You know, the Titanic was supposed to be indestructible. A Titanic was 4646 thousand tons of great ships and all its maiden voyage to the United States.
That 2200 people aboard all the prize in that ship.
But it was going through the iceberg infested water and you know an unthinkable ship when it touches one of God's iceberg goes down. Well, there was 15117 souls had perished in the cold waters that time. Some were saved. There was a Scotch lad who was saved and he told his story four years later in Hamilton ON at a meeting.
This Scotts lad told about John Harpin of Glasgow. He wanted to tell about that man who was the means of his getting saved.
This guy's lad said I was on this Titanic. I'm one of the survivors.
He said. I found myself suddenly in that cold, icy, dark water.
And I was pleased to abort just a board that floated and I hung on to it, he said. I was desperate. I was scared. I didn't know if there were sharks in cold water or not, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold on long.
I was numb and I was scared, he said. Then suddenly I saw.
A little light, a little beam of light on a wave that came over another.
Clothing piece of board and on it was clinging this man.
He called out. He said, Friends, how are you? Are you all right?
And he told me his name was John Harper, from Glasgow, he said. I told him no. I'm cold and scared.
He said. Well, I didn't mean that, he said. Are you saved? Are you saved? There isn't much time left. Is the Lord your savior? Are you going to be in heaven if you die tonight?
Think of it.
Asking him that question he so I couldn't believe it. Is it at a time like that? Is no time for pretense? I told him no, I'm not saved.
I don't know the Lord as you say, he said. Well, I'm going to tell you, friends.
Call upon the name of the Lord, and thou shalt be saved. It says so right in the word of God. I know it's true. He said, Whosoever shall fall upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So call upon the name of the Lord, friend, call upon him. And he said, as he was saying Those words to wave took that board he was hanging on to, And John Harper disappeared.
He said. I thought to myself, what a strange thing, but a strange thing. He's concerned about me and he's in the same peril. And he said, as I started to say to myself, how do you call on the name of the Lord? How do you call on the Lord? What does he mean? He said. Then I saw the big wave bring the board back again. And there was John Harper again, he said, I'm so glad to see him. He called our friend. Are you saved yet? Are you saved?
I thought, no, no, I'm not saved yet. I'm not saved, he says. Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, friends quickly call upon him and he'll save you, He says. There isn't any time left, and the waves took him away.
He said it was a stranger feeling I had. I wanted to see him again. I wanted to see somebody.
I wasn't afraid when he was near, but he was gone. And he said I didn't know what to do. I had heard about the Lord Jesus. I had heard that he came and died for sinners, but I didn't know what to do. And as I was thinking these thoughts, he said, I saw the waves bring that plank over again, and I looked to see my friend John Harper. But he wasn't there just to play. He wasn't clinging to it anymore.
And this Scotch lad said it was right then and there that I cried out to the Lord.
I said, Lord, if you'll have me Sinner as I am, if you'll have me, please save my soul. And he said, I stand here tonight to tell you that I was the last man to see John Harper of Glasgow. But I want to see him again. I want to see him again when I see my savior face to face in glory. And I'm going to thank you. He said he was concerned about my soul. Well, that's one of the stories of the type heading but dear friend.
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You're in the same peril, I believe tonight, dear friend. Maybe your now or never.
You know, the Lord Jesus Christ in his goodness brings the gospel to you time and time again in this world.
It's the goodness of God that brings you that point where you realize you're going to perish, where you realize you must just repent to a holy God and say I do need thee to save me, as this Scotch lad did in his terrible flight. Well, he was brought through. Not only was his soul saved, he was saved to tell others about the Lord. And dear friend, I don't think there's much time for you or for me.
You know the Lord's coming, and when he does as I say, it's a cut off, not just death.
Because it's appointed unto men wants to die after death for judgment. But when the Lord comes, that's the great separation. Every one of us who are safe in Christ, every one of us who are saved, every one of us who love the Lord Jesus Christ by His grace, are going to be taken out of this scene.
And those that are left, It's forever too late. It's forever too late.
I'm going to repeat, God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, and the Lord is not willing that any parish.
Not willing that any parent. Well then what's the problem? Why is it there could be some in this room tonight still in their sins.
Why is it there could be some in this room tonight. Leave this building, a lot of those doors in that desperate situation that if death should take them, they'll be eternally in hell. It's astounding, isn't it? As I said before, you've got all the prerequisites that's needed.
Forever. God made sure that everyone in this room has the qualifications.
You're a Sinner. You only have to own it. That's the only difference. The Pharisee wouldn't do it. The publican did. That's the only difference. The publican cried out to God and said, I'm the Sinner, have mercy on me. That's all it took. He was justified. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ looked down from heaven to deliver. He looked down 1St to see and you know what He saw. And it's true. He looked down next to here and he wants to hear.
From your lips, from your heart repentance. He wants to hear you confess.
That you're a Sinner, lost, and you need his Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how wonderful it is. It's just that simple. It's just that easy. It's a pardon, full and free. Everyone that has the Lord and Savior is judgment free. He can walk as a child of God without any fear because that's what the blood of Jesus Christ does. It's a pardon, full and free. And I'd like to say in closing.
The Lord is offering a pardon to everyone in this room, everyone in this area, everyone in the state and in this world can be part of, And we know from the Watergate story recently what a pardon can do and can mean. It can mean you're free from the law, you're free from punishment, you're free from judgment for what you've done. Well, God has a pardon, and the pardons of God is full and free. You know, a pardon is a wonderful thing. I know a lot about pardon being in the law business.
But a pardon is a wonderful thing, and I want to tell you about a man who was pardoned because it gives the example of what happens to you if you're indifferent to God, love and grace. Tonight. This man's name was George Wilson, and it was during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. And George Wilson, in robbing a male, a male train killed the man. He killed a man, and he was tried and convicted.
And the sentence was George Wilson, Thou shalt hang by the neck until thou art dead.
The death penalty. And he was sitting, awaiting for that, and while he was waiting for that, the Marshall opened.
He opened the gate to his cell, the iron bars, and he went in there and handed him a paper. And that paper that was handed to George Wilson was a pardon, a full pardon by President Jackson. George Wilson handed it back and said to the Marshall, I don't accept it, I won't accept it. You'll have to anger me.
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The Marshall couldn't do it. He was in a quandary. He didn't know what to do. So he put the case before the Supreme Court of the United States. It's the first time the issue had come up.
First time the question had come up and Chief Justice Marshall made the decision.
And the decision was the law of the land and is the law of the land and always has been on pardons.
A pardon is an offer. It's a gift. You don't deserve it, but it's an offer.
And an offer is without value unless it's accepted.
Once accepted, it has every bit of efficacy, every bit of value.
Of the full pardon, but if it's not accepted, it's barely a piece of paper.
It has no power at all. It's an unaccepted offer.
Chief Justice Marshall said it's hard to believe that any man sentenced for death would refuse a pardon.
But if he refuses it, if he will not accept it, he must die.
George Wilson must be hanged by the left until he's dead. And he was.
You say? How foolish. How foolish for a man to refuse a pardon when he has to hang till he's dead. Dear friends, God has offered you a pardon. He is offering you a pardon for all the sins that you've committed, all those terrible things we've read. When God looked down to sea and he saw and he sees every moment he knows yet he offered you a pardon. But if you don't accept, like George Wilson, you're going to have to parry eternally in a sinner's health, in the lake of fire forever.
In the blackness of darkness of darkness.
Is solemn to think that anybody would refuse a pardon.
Well, dear friends, I would just say in closing.
But the Lord looked down the sea of his creation, and He saw everything was good.
What ruined it was sin. And we know what sin can do. We know about sin because all of us are sinners by birth and by practice. But the Lord looked down then to see, and he saw this condition of man. He's provided the remedy, and he's looked down to hear repentance. I would say everyone here who will look to the Lord in his heart and try out to be saved, well, be saved. And now the Lord looks down from heaven to deliver.
I know how wonderful it is. Whosoever.
To call upon the lame of the Lord shall be saved. That's the gospel friend. I trust there isn't one in this room.
Who would be so foolish as George Wilson to say I will not.
Received the pardon, I will not receive the grace of God. I will go on in my sins to Perry forever.
Shall we sing hymn #36?
Tomorrow's sun may never rise to bless thy long.
Deluded sites. This is the time will then be wise. Thou would be saved.
Why not tonight? Thou would be saved. Why not tonight?
Oh, do not let the words be far and close thine eyes.
Against the light.
Of the heart.