Gospel—A.C. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
General Meetings Toronto, April 1966. Gospel by Albert Hayhoe.
#10 There is a savior on high in the glory, a savior who suffered on Calvary St. as savior is willing to save. Now as ever, His arm is almighty, his love great and free. He waited in patience for sinners to trust him, and says, I receive thee now just as thou art.
Salvation and pardon I heartily offer to all who receive me.
By faith in their heart, oh come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior receive him. This moment and peace shall be vine, and we rise and sing #10.
Ha ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Oh man.
I realized.
That I got it.
Oh my God.
Could we also sing hymn #9?
Come every soul by sin oppress their mercy with the Lord, and He will surely give you rest by trusting in His word only. Trust him only. Trust him only trust him now.
He will save you. He will save you. He will save you. Now could we again rise and sing #9.
You turn with me tonight, please, to the book of Genesis.
The third chapter.
Genesis 3.
We read from verse 22.
And the Lord of God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil.
And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of a tree of life, and eat, and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground, from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way.
To keep the way of the tree of life.
A flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of life.
What a solemn picture we have here. I'm sure all are familiar with the early verses of the chapter.
00:15:00
The sad account of the fall of disobedience of man.
Having been placed in a situation surrounded by the abundant blessings of God, he lies an open ear to the whispering of that enemy of soul, Satan, who dared to suggest that the goodness of God was not complete, that God had withheld from man.
Something that would add to his happiness. And I believe we find that same suggestion, that same whispering all around us today. I believe that there are those present in this company tonight who have not yet come to the Lord Jesus Christ and received him as your Savior, because you have heard that very whisper yourself.
And have paid heed to it.
You look around and you see in this poor world that which seems.
So worthwhile, so charming, so attractive. And you feel somehow that it wouldn't mean a giving up of a great many of these wonderful things.
In order to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, do I not speak the truth?
If not, my friend, may I ask you your reason for saying here in this gospel meeting tonight with a heart still closed against one who loved you with a love stronger than death?
A heart still closed against one who went to the cross of Calvary.
To redeem the lost, and you have not yet received him.
Your sins have not yet been blotted out by his Most Precious Blood. Why not, my friend? Is it not true that you have listened to that whispering, which would suggest that there are other present things so worthwhile that the thought of receiving the Lord Jesus tonight is that which you put on? Is that which you would consider perhaps at a later time?
Well, we find that both Adam and Eve accepted this suggestion, took of that which was forbidden, and stood before God guilty and naked.
Their eyes were open, they knew that they were naked, and they tried to hide their guilt, first from one another and then from the sight of God.
And you have done the same, my friend. I want to speak to you faithfully tonight. I want to remind you, my friend, as you sit here in this company work, that respectable record behind you in which you boast. Tonight. I want to remind you that you may have hidden your guilt from the eyes of those who know you the very best, but you have not hidden your guilt from the.
Eye of God.
The eye of God, whom you Sunday must meet, is looking down at you tonight. My dear boy or girl? My dear girl, one I tell you, the eye of God is looking down upon you, and that heart of yours at this very moment is in either one or the other of these conditions.
Either cleanse by the precious blood of Christ or guilty, and you yourself condemn. And on your road to hell. Such is the condition of every one that is in this company tonight. They sought to hide their guilt from one another and from the eye of God, but they found themselves face to face with God.
They heard his voice. They found themselves standing before him.
And they could not deny their guilt. All my friend, by want to warn you tonight, but I warn you in earnest love.
That there is a day coming when you will face not someone who pleads with you in tones of the gospel of the grace of God.
But you will face the author of this book. You will face the God who inhabiteth eternity. Your eyes will look into the eyes of Jesus Christ.
00:20:09
And your beloved friend in that day will be found naked and guilty and condemned, or you will be found welcome home as one of those redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ.
Can you at the very beginning of this meeting, look up with confidence and with joy and say thank God, thank God, I know that my sins are gone. Thank God. I know that I am redeemed with a precious blood of Christ. Thank God. I know that my name is written down in the Lamb's book of life.
Letters who know not second birth labor to write their names on earth.
My joyousness, that gross divine on Heaven's scroll has written mine by matchless grace. I stand here and say it. My name is written in the Lambs book of life. My sins, which were many, are gone eternally, blown up forever through the precious blood of Christ, and the joy of my heart is this that I want to present to you the same Savior who earnestly, lovingly pleads with your heart tonight.
That you, too may share that joy in the 22nd verse of our chapter.
We see this grievous picture, man driven forth from the presence of God.
Have you pictured this? Did you see Adam and Eve standing there in their guilt?
Before God. And there in the distance they see the tree of life, whose fruit would grant them. I live forever upon this verse.
That God would not have it so? And are you not glad that such was the way of God?
Would you wish to dwell here forever in a scene that is crushed by sin and stained with tears and sorrow? God, I believe in matchless grace, by the way, to the tree of life. Last man should take of that tree and live forever in his guilt in a world that had just heard the curses.
Pronounced in the previous verses.
The author curses the enmity, the bruising, the sorrow, burn, special sweat, and finally the dust of death those curses pronounced.
And man driven forth from the presence of God with this final statement, a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way.
Of the tree of life. What a barrier, What a God. What a distance. Man from God's presence. Man removed beyond the reach of the tree of life and the way is barred.
By that flaming sword which the word tells us turned every way.
Everywhere, beloved friend, that way, which you cherish as the possibility of your Sunday meeting God and claiming the right to enter those courts of glory.
Do you not have a right, my friend, to determine who shall and who shall not cross the threshold of your own home? You claim that right, and you are entitled to it, and I have no doubt you have already exercised that right.
You have met or you refuse admittance. To whom you will when it comes to the threshold of your own home.
And yet man looks up and challenges God concerning that right to his eternal home of matchless glory. The heart of the picture stand, beloved Fred, gone. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, stand by the open gate of heaven and invites as welcome bear each and everyone upon this condition.
That you will grant God the joy of blotting out every stain of sin. He's able to do it. He delights to do it. He wishes to do it this night. That is a condition upon which any are free to enter the threshold of God's eternal home in glory. That you might give him the joy, I say.
00:25:27
Bluffing out those many stains of sin, could we turn from this?
Over to the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs.
Chapter 14.
Verse 12 Proverbs 14 verse 12.
A verse well known to most of us. There is a way.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Let us return in our thoughts and picture Adam and Eve banish from the Garden of Eden. The way to the tree of Life is barred by that flaming sore. There seems no possibility of man ever entering into the blessing pictured by that tree. Man, having turned from God, try to find happiness.
Tried to find that which will satisfy his Restless Heart in a poor world around him. The first man born outside Eden was called Cain, And the word of God says concerning that man were unto them. For they have gone in the way of Cain. Way to the tree of life was barred. God's holiness demanded it.
And Cain turns and goes away, against which everyone of us is solemnly worn well under them, but they are gone in the way of Cain. What is the way of Cain, my friend? We see it all around us in Toronto and everywhere else we go. The world came the way of a respectable man of religion.
Cain sought to draw near to the Lord.
And Cain prepared an offering what would display his own thoughtfulness, which would display his own industry and labor. And he presented to the Lord the fruit of the ground.
Our bloodless sacrifice, a sacrifice in which there was number evidence of Cain's guilt or of the need of atonement. And do we not see that all around us to day this weekend in which there is so much religious activity?
How much is going to be spoken of? The lost and guilty condition of man are the precious blood of Christ, and of the mighty work of redemption. I believe that a solemn reminder in the last epistle ever written were unto them, or they are gone in the way of Cain.
And if you, my beloved friend, purpose meeting God in a coming day.
On the merits of that which you have done, all of that which perhaps you yet hope to do.
Will you not be warned by that most solemn language, although is pronounced upon you?
Yes, with all your respectability, with all for enviable reputation, with all our devotedness to your religious activities, the world God pronounces a world upon you if you are not sheltered by the precious blood of Christ.
This is not my language, this is not my warning. It's the word of the heart of God, and it's the language of the word of God.
Were unto them they have gone in the way of cage, there is a way which seemeth right unto a man. But the endurance, How can I know the end thereof? I see around me those who grow to maturity, those who grow old and pass into eternity. And we stand at the horizon of life, and we cannot see beyond it. And we will call in the wisest man in every field of human search or education, and ask them.
00:30:21
What lies beyond the grave? There is not one that could answer. There is not one that could tell.
Then would we dare to stand here tonight and speak on so vital a subject beyond which the eye of man cannot deserve? I would not dare to be here if I did not have in my hand this night the precious living.
Eternal Word of God. If I could not open it and speak from its pages with all authority, this message would not be worth the breath that uttered it. But the Word of God says, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, and the warning follows. The end thereof are the ways of death.
All my friends being warned in time the end of the road that you are following, Are you sure of the end of that road?
I remember when I was a boy, my mother gave me a book. The name of that book was Scarlet and Gold, and in that book there was a picture that impressed me greatly. It showed 2 roles. One was a good deal more broad than the other, and at the end of that broad Rd. there was a similitude of a lake of fire. And at the end of that narrow Rd. there was the similitude of that which portrayed a scene of wondrous glory.
And at the point where those two roads diverged, there was a cross, and beneath that was written, chose you this day, choose you this day. I was only a very little boy when my mother gave me that book.
I can see that picture yet before my eyes, and I can recall the impression upon my boyish heart as I looked at that broad road and at that narrow Rd. which continued to divert until they ended the one in the glory, the other in the lake of fire. Beloved friend, it is a most solemn position for me to be in tonight.
To look forth upon this company and to realize that everyone of you, the boy and the girl, the young people, the fathers and mothers, every one of you, is Sunday going to reach the end of the journey.
And you will end it either in eternal glory redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ, or it says here the end thereof are the ways of death. And Hebrews would tell us.
It is appointed unto men once to die.
And after this.
Judgment. Could we turn also to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah?
Isaiah 53.
Verse 6.
Are we, like sheep, have gone astray? We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord have laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Have we heard this verse so often that we fail to see the marvel, the wonder, and the beauty of it? In the first part we read a statement which I'm sure your heart must bow to.
Oh, we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. Would you care to stand up and deny that this verse is true?
Care to suggest, my friend, that you have followed the way marked out by the Lord in the pages of His Word? You know that you have gone your own way. Many of us tonight look back and thank God for the day that came. We are downward course. We were left about a hand of matchless love. We were brought to our knees. We were made to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. And tonight we rejoice.
00:35:21
To know that we are His forever. But we do admit that it is most certainly the truth of God to say that we have gone everyone our own way. But how amazing, how remarkable are these two statements should be brought together in the one verse.
Oh, we like sheep of gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And then suddenly.
Without any deserving on our part whatsoever, we read the statement, and the Lord have laid on him the iniquity of us all. Good news, beloved friend, glorious news. This is if you have not accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you are on the broad and downward Rd. that leads to the lake of fire.
You've gone your own way. It may be a way that men would condemn.
Or it may be a way that men would most highly commend. It may be a respectable, clean life that you live. But if you know not Christ as Savior, according to the words of this book, from end to end you are lost, my friend, and this news is for you. The Lord have loved on him the iniquity of us all. I'd like to enlarge on that.
I'd like you to picture a scene which we find described in the Word of God.
It was brought to our attention today and it has been on my heart.
Picture in which the beloved disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Were gathered round about him in that upper room, and the Lord Jesus.
Had just told those disciples, whom He loved so dearly the news that touched their hearts. He was going to leave them. He was going to be taken from them. But he told them more than that. He opened his heart and began to tell them of his Father's house, the many mansion in the glory, and the amazing news that he was going to come and take them there.
Beloved, we've read this so often that perhaps once again.
We fail to enter into the feelings of those disciples as they hear for the first time. That would you have heard so often turn to 14th chapter of John.
Let not your heart be troubled you. believe in God, Believe also in me.
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there he may be also. And whether I go, ye know, and the way.
Ye know, Thomas said unto him. Lord, we know not whither thou goest? And how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him.
I I am the way.
What a marvelous picture this is. I say we have read it so awesome. We have heard it again and again, and perhaps the wonder of it escapes us.
Picture yourself numbered among the disciples. You've never heard this glorious news before. You'll love this one who's speaking. And he tells you that he's going to leave. He's going to the Father's house, the many mansions He speaks of the day when he will come again to take his own, to be with himself.
00:40:08
There was one there whose heart had a little uncertainty.
His name was Thomas, and I believe there are many of us that thank the Lord for the question Thomas raised that day.
Am I not true?
Thomas said.
Lord, how can we know the Way? Now isn't that marvelous? You know and I know that we are surrounded by a multitude of opinions and multitudes of creeds, a multitude of voices.
Many of which claim such infallible thoughts, and perhaps we listen to the one and the other in and our bewilderment men say, well, it's just not possible for us to speak with any certainty. We cannot be sure about these matters, for everyone seems to claim that they are right. I wouldn't dare to stand here tonight and claim that I was right.
But I do rejoice to be able to stand here before you with a living word of God in my hand, and find in its pages the statement that perhaps is the language of your heart tonight. How can we know?
Know.
The way.
The way to the tree of life was by that flaming sword brought upon mankind because of our old guilt. That's go that distance, that mighty debt remain between US and the blessings of God's heart. Oh what a distance. Oh what a gulf. You could never bridge it.
You could never pay the debt, nor could I. Thomas hears of a home in the glory. Time, appears of many mansions, and Thomas turns and says to the only one whose answers we can trust. How can we know the way, Oh, my beloved friend, if you were privileged this night to sit down face to face with the Lord Jesus and say to him, Lord, how can we?
Know the way? What would his answer be? What would his answer be? Would it have an uncertain sound to it? Would it leave you wondering? Would it point you to one of the denominations or creeds or sacraments that men boast of?
My beloved friend, hear the language of him who is truth itself. The Lord Jesus looked at Thomas and said.
I am the way we want to present Christ to you tonight, my friend. We don't want to present a creed. We don't want to present a denomination, nor anything that men's eyes can rest upon. But we do. Our hearts point to this night that the one who said to Thomas.
I am the way.
And I can stand here before you. I say it once more, and rejoice with all my heart to testify.
That the one who spoke that day to doting Thomas is my.
Old personal Savior. Old fashioned language. Of course it is, But there are many here who rejoice to make that same confession. I know the Lord Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior.
Can you say the same? Have you received him as your own?
And have your lips ever been opened to confess him as your Lord and Savior to anyone else?
Oh, her thrill of joy. It is from time to time to have someone open their heart to receive the Lord Jesus and ear from their lips, to confess Him as their own. But.
How was it possible for the Lord Jesus to say this?
Man was still at a distance from God. The girl from the barrier still were there. The debt was yet unpaid. And yet the Lord Jesus looks to Thomas and says I am the way. Oh my friend, it cost him. It cost him indeed to make this statement, but he paid the price. He went to the cross.
00:45:12
He shared his precious blood. He bowed his holy, his devoted hand.
And receive himself the debt, the burden, the worth, the guilt of all my sins, in order that now knowing Him and my Savior, there is no more God, no more distance, no more depth, and gone forever. He who said to Thomas I am the way, kept His promise, my friend.
He went to the cross that you might be redeemed, He died that you might be pardoned. When we think of that blessed, holy, sinless son of God who tried the path of this earth, I was just looking the other day at a map of the land of Palestine, and on that map there was traced as well as men can trace it.
The footsteps of the Lord Jesus.
As he went from one end of the land to the other from 1 village and one town to the other on foot.
The weary footsteps of Jesus, the Son of God, the trod, the pathways of this world through which you and I are now passing.
His very footsteps went up and down the land while he told the love of God. His hands were extracting deeds of tenderest love and kindness and compassion.
That I was looking at that map and amazed at the many weary miles the feet of my blessed Savior trod upon this earth. A brother looked over my shoulder. He saw what I was looking at.
And I think he must have known the thoughts that went through my heart.
And he said, brother, they took those feet and nailed them to the cross.
They did, my friend. They took the very feet that tried to wear Heather, this earth in love to God and men, and nailed them to the cross.
Took the very hands that administered to man's need in all his sorrow, and nailed them to the cross. They hated him. They cried them with thorns. They spit in his face. But all that?
Did not pay my debt, all that did not remove the distance, all that did not entitle the Lord Jesus to say to me, this knight, and to you, I am the way it was necessary that after all that man had done to him.
Darkness descended upon that scene, and there in the darkness there was laid upon the wholly devoted head of Jesus Christ, my Savior.
All my sin.
The guilt, the shame of them, and of judgment they deserve were all poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, my dear friend, tonight it's a joy to me to think of the one who loved me with a love that was stronger than death. But I wonder how your heart responds as you hear of such love. Are you going to go your own way that will only end in death and after this?
The judgment when they rose right by your side this night, the one there have such infinite cost. They love to say to you, I am the way, oh, what it cost him to say I am the way. He longs to have a joy of seeing yet one more soul redeemed through that precious blood, ready for those eternal courts of glory.
Will you not look at this little statement tonight, and bow with this very moment before the wonder and the simplicity of it, and say I receive him now as my savior? If he were here this night, he would stretch out those arms to you and stay calm unto me all he that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you.
00:50:09
Rest.
If you reject him, if you close your heart against him, if you refuse once more this night the pleadings of His love, if you rise up from this meeting without Christ and in your sins, you may you may be left here a little longer to try to find satisfaction in the empty pleasures of this poor world that has cast out Christ.
But you know this.
As Grace said in his eligibility in a country churchyard, I believe we learned it at school.
The path of glory lead but to the grave. The pies of glory lead but to the grave there is a glory, there is a fame, there is an honor, there is an entertainment that this poor world with us Christ offers, and men flock to try to find their satisfaction. Apart from him, the lamb can give peace and joy of heart.
Oh, I stand here before you tonight all alone. But I just know that there are many who would love to stand beside me and bear dirt for witness to the fact that the one who opened our poor blind eyes to see our nakedness and our guilt, and to see in Jesus Christ the Son of God, the one who bore the load of sin, the one whose precious blood was shared, that we might be reading.
Deemed, I say that one is able to bring.
Peace and happiness and joy and satisfaction while we wait for the day when we're going to see his face.
Could I just add this comment?
It was just.
35 years ago.
This Lord's Day.
That I first remembered in death.
The one who shed his blood to redeem me here in the city of Toronto 35 years ago, this Lord's Day.
And as I look tonight upon those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus, you know He died for you. You have accepted him as your savior. You're looking forward to the day when you're going to see Him and thank and praise Him for ever. Isn't it marvelous that in His wondrous grace he has provided for you and for me?
While we wait for the day when we shall see him and thank him more fully provide for us the marvelous privilege of showing that we remember showing forth his death.
You know there is a verse in the 8th chapter of Ezra will not take the time to turn to it, but it does speak there of those who are about to undertake a very, very difficult journey.
Fraught with many unseen dangers. And there began that journey with a fast at the river, the river of Ahaba. And they gathered together and fasted there The Scripture tells us that they might seek of the Lord.
A right way?
For ourselves and for our little ones, and for all our substances.
As I stand here tonight.
My thoughts go back to the day when I was numbered among the little ones, and I thank God.
I thank God for those.
Who prayed for me that a right way might be found for my footsteps. I thank God for a praying father and mother.
Are there boys and girls here who perhaps have reached the age when you're beginning to resent?
Some of the earnest and prayerful pleadings of your dear praying father and mother. You're waiting for the day when you can turn from these things and try to find in the trials of this world that which you hope will satisfy your heart. Or may I stand here tonight and tell their children, and tell their young people, that I publicly thank God with all my heart, that in the days of my childhood and of my youth.
00:55:29
There were those who prayed for my soul and prayed for my footsteps.
But now I'm beyond that. Now it's my responsibility.
As a Father to pray for the footsteps of myself and of our household, there are those who gathered, may I repeat it, and earnestly, with fasting and prayer, besought the Lord, that they might seek of him a right way.
For ourselves.
For our little ones and for all our substance.
This is not the gospel at the moment, but I trust the comment will be accepted, and I trust too, if there should be numbered in this company any who are yet at a distance from God.
Any between whom there is yet that gulf, that awful distance, that mighty death Sunday, and it may be at any moment.
You may actually find yourself face to face with him.
How would it be this night? How would it be?
I mentioned before this fact.
I was sitting in a restaurant some distance from here.
Across from me at the table there was a young man and a young lady greatly interested in one another.
And I had finished my meal and I turned and said to the young man, and I said, young man, it's 9:00.
If at 12:00 you were called upon to face God, would you be ready to meet him?
And you know, his face lit up with joy, he said. Yes, I would. I have accepted the Lord Jesus as my savior, and I'm ready to meet him.
Wasn't that a grand confession? Could you say that too? 12:00 is not far away, and you may not be here till that hour. I turned to the young lady, and I said, young lady, you heard what he said. If you were called upon to face God at 12:00, would you be ready?
She bowed her head and she said no, I would not.
No, I would not. And what would your answer be, beloved friend? What would your answer be?
I was speaking with a little boy not long ago who had accepted the Lord Jesus as his savior.
And he turned to his brothers and immediately wanted the joy of hearing his two brothers also confessed the Lord Jesus as savior. His brothers were not very old, for they turned to him and said, well, one of them spoke up and said, maybe I'll accept the Lord Jesus when I'm about 12 years old. Now why he chose that age I don't know. But his dear little brother turned to him and said, but before I could count to 12, the Lord might come and then where would you be?
Before I could count to 12 all we have come to the close of this meeting. We're going to rise up and leave, but as we do.
Every one of us is going to leave this hall redeemed and sheltered and cleansed by the precious blood of Christ and on our way to eternal glory, or we're going to leave lost and guilty and condemned.
And on the road to the lake of fire with absolutely no end.
To that awful torment, oh, May God granted this very moment, your heart may be open to receive Him who, without stretched arms, says to you, and he says it, perhaps for the last time.
01:00:07
I am the way, I am the way the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.