Gospel—A. Hayhoe
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General Meetings, Montreal, October 1975. Gospel by Albert Hayhoe.
We sing together hymn #2.
Comes his Jesus, gently calling.
Ye with care and toil oppressed with your guilt. How air appalling comes, and I will give you rest for your sin. He once has suffered on a cross the work was done, and the word by God now uttered to each weary soul is.
Come, come for Angel, hosts are musing, or they sight so strangely sad.
God beseeching man, refusing to be made forever glad from the world and its delusion. Now our voices rise as one while we shout God's invitation heaven itself.
Reactos come.
Haunted Jesus. Gently.
Calling.
Gathering.
The war.
The old lady.
Come over, They can't go our way.
For Angel.
Or they type of strangely.
Important as the glass.
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Pull the track out of his pocket and offer it to the lady who was at the front of the group. She took it from him and read the title aloud. And the title was If thou Knewest, the Gift of God. And she crumpled the track in anger, and turned and looked at him with hatred, and dropped it on the ground, and trampled on it and stepped on the Street car.
Disappeared from sight.
If thou knewest.
The gift of God, friend. I don't believe that your attitude is the same as that of the woman who trampled it under foot. Otherwise, I don't suppose you would be here tonight. But I warn you solemnly that no matter how polite you may be about it, if you refuse, if you reject, if you neglect the wonderful and costly gift of God, you'll be lost forever.
As truly as the woman who trotted under foot and turned upon the giver of the track with a sneer of hatred.
I want you to turn to that verse, please. And John's Gospel, chapter 4.
John's Gospel chapter 4, verse 10.
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God?
Oh, that's how I feel tonight. As I stand here, I feel my utter inability to present to you that which wells up within my heart if thou knewest the gift of God.
I want to speak about this tonight. I want to speak about the giving heart of God, and it seems proper that we should begin with the third chapter and the 16th verse.
John 316.
God.
So loved the world that he gave.
Aren't those marvelous words?
We say, well, we've heard these words often. Everyone knows that God is a God of love. Is that so? There are many parts of this world to which you and I could travel this night and find that the natural concept of those who think of some kind of supreme being is certainly not that of a God who loves. It's a revelation from God.
To make known to man that the one who gave you your being.
The one who gives you every breath that you draw, and the one whom you someday certainly shall meet, is a God who loves you. Oh, but that's a marvelous revelation. It's a marvelous item of news for God so loved the world.
That he gave.
I like to stop there and allow even those words to sink into my soul.
For you've heard the account, I doubt not of a little girl. Many, many years ago in Germany, when printing was first being introduced, her father worked in a print shop. And in those days everything was done laboriously, letter by letter, by hand, and many a sheep was spoiled, spoiled and wasted, and the little girl was walking around her father's shop.
And she discovered one of these discarded pieces of paper on the floor. She picked it up, tucked it in her dress, and took it off to her room to read, spread it out. And carefully, letter by letter, she read in German these words for God, some of the world that he gave. And then there was a big smudge of ink, and there were no more letters. But she read it over and over.
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And it dawned upon her for the very first time that God, whom she had heard of, was a God who had love in his heart. This was new to her. She had always thought of God as someone who hated her, someone who watched all her naughty and disobedient ways, and who was just waiting for the opportunity to punish her. She was terrified at the mention of his name or the thought of meeting him.
And when she read those words for God so loved the world that he gave, Her little heart was warmed by this wonderful bit of news.
So warmed that after a few days, her mother said to her. My dear.
What secret are you holding from me? For three days now. I know that you have a secret because I can see that there's been a difference in you. You seem so happy about something. Tell Mother what your secret is. And the little girl then began to wonder if perhaps she had done something she ought not to have done. She said. Well, Mother, I'll show you. I hope I didn't do anything wrong, but come please, to my room. She spread out the paper and said, Mother, I found this paper and Daddy's print shop.
And I brought it to my room and look what it says. And they read the words together. And it impressed the mother in the same way in which it had impressed her little daughter. For God so loved the world that he gave. And together they agreed that they would go and ask daddy, is this just part of a sentence? Is there more to it than this?
They went to him.
And quite casually, he said. Oh yes, there's more to it. I spoiled that page, but I have completed it now. Would you like to see it? Can you stand by while they read these words for the first time? Can you imagine what went on in their hearts when they read for the first time the word that you have heard, that I have heard so many times, so many years?
Committed them to memory. For God so loved the world that he gave. What was it He gave? And they read the words His only begotten Son. Is it true? Indeed it is true.
His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The wondrous truth lay hold of the heart of that mother and of that daughter, That the God who knew all about them, loved them enough to give this most wonderful of all gifts His only begotten Son, in order that they, in order that you, my friend, might know what the rest of this verse tells us, That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have.
Everlasting life, their delight was unbounded. They couldn't understand the indifference of the father, the printer. There were only words to him.
Thy wonder, I wonder, are there those in this room this evening who have been brought up in Christian homes and you could stand up right now, I have no doubt. And quote John 360, you wouldn't need to look at your Bible. You know it by heart, and I think you do too.
John 316. I think every child here could stand and quote it, but I want to ask you.
Do you really know that God loved you?
Not the person beside or behind you, but you so much that He gave his own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to take your place to die, for you to shed His precious blood that your sins.
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I wish I could point to everyone of you that your sins might be washed away, gone forever, that you might be the possessor of that wonderful gift which we may see later in the word of God, the gift of life everlasting.
Am I entitled to stand here and say I possess this wondrous reality? Jesus, the Son of God, died for me.
His blood has washed my sins away, and they are gone. Am I presumptuous to speak this way, or have I the authority of the word of God? I have God's word for it. And I rejoiced in the authority of this most wonderful book, for the day is coming. I'm going to leave this world and face the one who is the God of eternity, the one who knows all about me, you know, just before coming here.
I stood in a Funeral Home in our little town, looking at the body.
One of our townsmen, who in a moment had stepped from time into eternity. His sorrowing widow, was standing by, and I was speaking to her about the Lord Jesus. And there was a man standing in the background in the robe of religion.
And he heard me speak of the Lord Jesus.
And I don't think it pleased him very well. I think he felt that he was the one that ought to speak of these things and no one else. So he stepped up quite quickly and said, your name, please. And I told him my name, He said, I suppose you realize that the time comes to everyone when we must leave. I said, Yes, Sir, I know that I've seen many a person come to the time in life when they had to leave.
In fact, I will remember my dear father as he grew older and the time approached when he knew that he was going to leave both physically and mentally. I could see that the time was near when he would leave us, but I said I'll never forget the attitude of my father as he realized this.
Paul, what do you mean? Well Sir, I can still see my father raise his right arm and say, oh, if you only knew the prospect that was before me. I'm soon going to meet the man that loved me enough to die for me.
And the man took a step backward, and his face got very red. I didn't say another word to him. I walked away and left him beloved friend, it gloriously, wondrously true. The time will come for you, and the time will come for me. When we leave. It may be that one or another here might be called away in death. I know not. But this I do know that the moment is near hand when that glorious assembly shout is going to call the redeemed of the Lord home into his.
Wondrous presence. And when that moment comes, thank God. I repeat the words of my dad as he drew near that moment. I'm soon going to see the man that loved me enough to die for me. Is that true about you, friend? Is that the prospect that lies ahead for you? Here is the gift of all gifts, the gift that God's own heart has given to this poor world.
The gift that is offered to you this site. A person, not a religion, not a creed, not a plan, not a request from you that you surrender your life, that you give your heart to the Lord Jesus. That is not the gospel. The gospel is the giving heart of God.
He has given his beloved son.
And his beloved Son is my Savior. And God, whom I dreaded and whom I feared, is my Father, and he loves me. Now the 4th chapter once again to consider the verse that we began with chapter 4 of John and verse 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God.
To whom were these words addressed?
Well, first of all, they were addressed by Jesus.
A weary and thirsty man sitting on sigh cars well.
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God's beloved Son, the Creator of all things, the one that gives breath to every living thing, was sitting weary and thirsty upon Sychar's well, and there came forth from the city.
A woman whose life had been again and again stained with sin. She was astonished to find this man sitting thus on the well the conversation developed, and the Lord Jesus think of it. The Lord Jesus said to her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living.
Water. Isn't that wonderful living water. Have you ever been really thirsty?
I haven't been really thirsty very often.
But Bill McCullough is here tonight and I think he will remember, together with me, an occasion when both of us were.
Quite thirsty.
We had been together on a firefighting expedition.
And we had been inhaling a lot of smoke and through the heat of the day.
And had had nothing to drink, nor was there any evidence that there would be anything to drink for a long time, and not far from where we were working.
A heavy truckload of equipment rumbled past and left deep tracks in the soil. And I think Bill will remember what we did. We went over there and put our faces down in the tracks that those truck tires had made.
In the road and sucked up a little bit of mud that we could find there because we were thirsty. Now I believe that I have seen a thirst far, far more severe than that I see all around me today in this world through which I'm passing a first and an attempt to quench that thirst.
In the sin and entertainment and amusement of this poor, guilty Christ rejecting world, I see thirsty man and thirsty women going on to a thirsty eternity and refusing to hear the pleading tender invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ, who says it's our newest the gift of God, and who it is that settled of thee. Give me to drink, thou Wis have asked of him, and he would have given thee.
Living water.
Oh, how I thank God with an overflowing heart for that day that came in my early youth, when the stubborn, rebellious knees of mine were bowed in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
And I received him as God gift to me. I received the forgiveness of all my sins through the precious blood of Christ. And I received that which I didn't even ask for, for I can't truly say that I was looking for it. Then I was trembling under the burden of my guilt, and trembling at the prospect of hell at the end of the road. Those fears were by the grace of God, removed. But I'll tell you something else I discovered.
That the one who was offering himself to me as Savior has become to my soul over the years.
One who can truly satisfy. Are you thirsty, my friend? There's one who can satisfy you. Have you tried? Are you trying the broken, mocking cisterns of this poor world? And the devil suggests well that one didn't satisfy, but this one will.
Did you ever stop to think what the word amuse really means?
It means not to think. The word muse means think. The word amuse means not to think, and the devil's been busy at that for a long time. He wants to keep you. He wants to keep any one of us from thinking about these matters that are much more vital than those passing things that can only add to your pitiful thirst.
Beloved friend, there's one who can satisfy. There's one who says to you this night he would have given the living water. Why, even when we come to the very close of this book, the book of Revelations, as though God couldn't close that book, and all the tale of judgment found in that book without saying once more to him, that is a thirst will I give?
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The fountain of the water of life freely.
I warn you, friends, as I read these words, that there is at the end of a Christ plus journey and eternity.
Where there will be unending thirst.
You know, the Bible does not exaggerate, and the word of God pictures to us a man who had everything that life could give.
Who stepped out into into eternity lost. And the curtain is drawn aside so that you and I might look into the eternal destiny of that lost man. And we hear him crying out in anguish.
Saint Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.
As much water as could be held on the tip of a finger was never granted to him. Does the word of God exaggerate? No, beloved friends? This is why we are in earnest tonight, for we're looking into the face of the sons and daughters of Christian parents. We're looking into the faces of those who are bound for eternity. And you are bound for heaven to meet the Lord Jesus, to thank him for ever, for taking your place.
For shedding his blood to put your sins away or you are bound for that only other alternative, hell.
Described as a lake of fire, the condition of those in it described as weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth. It's not possible to exaggerate such language. Those words came from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ that I believe, my friend, if you were here this night.
He would look at you with much more yearning than ever this poor heart of mine is capable of, but he would warn you in solemn words of the destiny of your soul, if you have not accepted him as your savior, if your sins have not been blotted out.
By His Precious Blood. Oh, let me try, with God's help, to make it plain and simple, I say to everyone present here tonight.
That at this moment, under the sight of God, you are in either one or the other of two conditions, will you listen carefully?
You are either lost.
And guilty And on your road to hell right now. Or And this is the only other alternative known in the word of God, or else.
You are cleansed by the precious blood of Christ, redeemed and on your road to the glory. I'm going to pause to let you answer before God. In which of those two conditions are you at this moment? May I repeat them, that you may answer them?
Lost Guilty before God and on the road to hell.
Let it sink in or else and this is the only alternative.
Cleanse from all those sins by the precious blood of Christ.
Saved and on your way home to the glory to meet the Lord Jesus, if I say no more, I want you to sit silently for a moment and answer in your own soul, Please do In which of those conditions am I in the sight of God now?
Young and old, I want you to answer it. The eye of God looks down upon you, and he cares so much more than I care. Or you say don't dare point to me and call me lost and guilty. I know that nowadays men's consciences have become so hard and so indifferent because of the change of standards around about us and that which perhaps used to trouble the consciences of youth.
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A generation ago is now passed off as being perfectly acceptable. Nothing wrong. Who said it was wrong?
You know this woman to whom the Lord Jesus was speaking here in this chapter, realize, when he spoke to her, the guilt of her wayward, sinful life. The Lord said to her, Thou hath had five husbands, and he whom thou hast is not thy husband.
Did she say?
Excuse the language, but did she say what of it? That's what people say today. That kind of record usually brings the headlines in the paper. Nothing wrong at all. 5 husbands and he who now, now hast is not thy husband. What's wrong with that? Folks will not talk that way in the presence of God and friend. You are in the presence of God tonight. Let men change standards as they will. God's standards remain unalterable.
They changed.
The ways in which they measure things, they change the words that guide us, but you know very well that's whether it's called 32 above or zero, it's still freezing point. Whether it's called 212 or 100, it's still boiling points.
And whether the distance from here to otherwise 120 miles or 200 kilometers, it's still the same man can't change those inalterable laws that they know very well gone has established in creation. They remain fixed then may change the wording and you and I may have to learn a bit of a new language in order to fit in. That's all right. I'm not complaining about that. But what I'm saying is this, that they know very well that these inalterable laws of God.
In the universe remain fixed and they cannot touch them. And remember this, my friend, that although things today may be called perfectly acceptable, right, proper, and to be boasted of, if God's word calls it sin, it's sin in God's sight, and it's recorded in his book.
And I warn you that the day will come when you will stand before the one who penned, Who inspired the words of this book. The God who has kept the record of your life, the record of mine, Pay, doctor, paid of all the stains of my life were written down.
But thank God for His word that declares I even I am he that blot up out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins. They're gone. I was trying to make this plain.
To a group of children a while ago, and I suggested to them that if all those sins of ours were written here on a blackboard.
And then someone came along with an eraser and rubbed the mall off. Where would they be? On the blackboard? No where would they be on the eraser? No. Where then would they be? And one little fellow raised his hand and he said they'd be still in here.
He must have been an observant little fellow at school that when the teacher wrote something on the blackboard and then erased it, he tried hard to remember. Isn't it marvelous that God knows all about what these thoughts of our hearts might be? And so he says, not only are they blotted out and removed from the record, but God says to be remembered no more. Thank God for that.
Now will you turn with me please, to Galatians chapter 2?
Verse 20.
Just the last part of the 20th verse of Galatians chapter 2.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
The Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me the gift of all gifts God gave his only begotten Son. And now I find that even the heart of the Lord Jesus, the beloved Son of God, is included here in this most wonderful gift. And who was it that pen these words?
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The chief of sinners. These words he penned by divine inspiration. I hope it's not wrong for me to picture his penning of these words. I don't believe he just sat there as a secretary and recorded them by divine dictation. I believe they were part of the very soul language of the one who penned them, inspired though they were. And I think I see.
Paul writing the Son of God.
The one whom I hated. The one whose name I tried to block out from under heaven. The one who's devoted followers I arrested and imprisoned and consented to their death.
Who loved me? I don't think he hurried on to the next words.
I think he must have looked at those words in thrilled amazement. The Son of God who loved me when my heart was filled with rebellion and rejection and hatred. The Son of God who loved me and marvel of Marvels gay himself.
For me, I don't believe he hurried on to write the next verse. I wouldn't be surprised if the original page.
Held a few tear stains on it at the end of this verse as Paul looked upon those wondrous words. The Son of God loved me all the persecutors, and gave himself for me. Beloved friend, what a gift, What a giver. He loved you enough to give himself for you. Upon the cross of Calvary he gave himself, He knew before he left those courts of glory for Bethlehem.
He knew where the journey would lead him, to the cross of Calvary. But he loved you. He loved me, and he longed for my company up there in the glory. But there was a barrier. There was an impediment. I could not be there with those stains of sin.
There was only one thing that could take that stain, that could remove that impediment. And that one thing was the precious blood of that spotless holy victim, the Lord Jesus Christ. And again and again I delight to proclaim the blood of Jesus Christ.
His son cleanser us.
From all sin us. Does that mean you? Does that mean you Oh, if we could but go around this room and not miss anyone and just take everyone in coming right back here to myself and say the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth come now, do you belong in that verse? Would you have to step outside that circuit somewhere?
And say it's not yet true of Maine. It can be beloved friends.
Here you sit, surrounded by those who, by the grace of God, know the certainty of forgiveness through the precious blood of Christ. We know it on the authority of the Word of God. Would you step out from where you are in order to be outside the boundary of that most wonderful statement, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin? I remember reading. I think it was in the Traveler's Guide years ago.
About a gentleman who attended a gospel meeting.
It was either the custom in those days or he was a very fashionable gentleman, but he carried a cane.
And when he came near his home, returning from the Gospel meeting, his mind was going over and over what he had heard in the meeting. He knew that he was lost. He knew that he was a Sinner, fashionable and accepted by his neighbors. He knew that in the sight of God he was a Sinner, that he knew that in that gospel meeting he had heard proclaimed simply, lovingly, and faithfully the removal of every stain of sin.
By the precious blood of Christ, the gift that God delights to offer his own beloved Son, the water of life, eternal life, all what a giving God we have. And he knew that He walked out of the door of that little meeting hall, still lost, still guilty.
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And he stopped. Not far from his home. He stopped to think it over.
Took his cane and slowly, solemnly drew a line on the dirt Rd. in front of him. And he stood looking at that line and he said, if I step over that line, I hear and now accept the Lord Jesus as my Savior. If I walk around the end of it, I'm going to put it off. Not yet.
What would you recommend for that man?
There anyone here that would say, well, it would be perfectly all right if he walked around the end. You needn't make it quite that personal.
You needn't make it quite that urgent. He stood there and thoughts came to him of what it was going to mean to him.
His fashionable friends and their mockery. But then he fought of eternity. He thought of eternity. My friend lost forever. And he stepped across that line, Wendy, and announced to his wife and family, I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. Have you ever told anyone that in all your life? I'm going to be very, very pointed about this. I'm going to ask you plainly and clearly.
And I want you to answer it in your own soul. Have you, Have you ever in your life turn to anyone And said, I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior? I've heard those words, and they thrilled my soul. But I'll tell you, I know that it delighted the heart of God much more than it delighted my heart.
I remember one night after a gospel meeting in Smith Falls.
A young man took my hand, not given to, expressing himself very readily.
But he said to me with real warmth tonight, I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, and he was gone.
Well, I was very, very glad to hear that. I knew him well enough to know that it was real with him. And the last one to come out of the meeting room was his father.
And I shook the hand of his father, and I said just a little extra happy tonight.
A young man confessed the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.
Well, I know that father very well, and I just wish you could have seen the happy look on his face. Oh, I'm so glad to hear that. It's such good news.
When anyone except Christ as savior, I'm so happy. Who was it? I said it was her oldest son.
You know, I took a look at his face, My father, the 15th of Luke, joy in the presence of the angels of God. And I could see that joy reflected in the face of that Father, and I thought of the joy of heaven.
Why the gospel friend? Because God loves you, that's why. He's far more anxious to see your soul saved than any father ever has been. And I know that I'm looking to the faces of fathers that have shed tears. And here stand one right here.
Have been in tears before God.
That we might know that our children are under the shelter, the blood of Christ.
And if I have felt that way, if other fathers and mothers here have felt that way, have you ever thought of the heart of God? He loves you more than any human love.
And here Paul says.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. What a gift. Could you turn, please, to Romans 6?
Verse 23.
For the wage of a sin is death.
But the gifts of God.
Is eternal life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Another gift.
They're all wrapped up together, for the word of God just delights to enlarge upon that which is offered to you.
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In accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior here, He solemnly presents to us.
The wages of sin.
You remember when Jacob went to work for Laban? Laban inquired of him.
Tell me, what shall my wages be? You know, I looked at that question presented by Laban and thought it was a pretty serious question. Tell me, what shall thy wages be? You're going to reap wages, friend. And I can tell you what those wages are if you refuse to accept the gift that here is offered. The wage of a sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Would you, Would you spurn? Would you reject a gift like this? You know, it's just such a sad thing when a physician has to shake his head and look with sadness into the face of awaiting loved one when there's no hope.
I guess you've seen it.
Perhaps you've experienced it. I have not.
I've seen it in the hallway of the hospital.
And you can tell by the look of the Doctor, You can tell by the shake of his head that they've done everything that can be done, and the loved one is slipping away. But if the doctor came out and said we have found a remedy, your loved one will live.
Oh, what a difference. What gladness. Now, beloved friend. In this verse, God is offering a gift, the gift of eternal life, that which the believer now possesses, that which we shall enjoy throughout those endless ages. And we have been looking forward to the wonder of it as we have been going over the word of God today.
We're just looking forward to that most wonderful moment when the shout of our returning Savior will, in one glorious twinkling of an eye, cause home to enjoy in the atmosphere suited to it the eternal life which we already possess.
Do you possess this? It's not something to be paid for. It's not something to be earned, to be attained. It's something to be accepted as a gift. Now we give gifts to one another.
Sometimes.
Sometimes.
I hope this won't embarrass my wife, but perhaps you give as a gift to someone.
Something that you have in the home that you don't have any use for and you give it as a gift and you know very well it didn't cost you very much, if anything.
And you're a little bit embarrassed by the thankfulness of the one who receives it. Perhaps. On the other hand, you do pay a significant amount for a gift.
But when I think of this gift, beloved friend, this gift the most costly gift that heaven could give.
God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, giving himself the wonder of the water of life, eternal life, all of it wrapped up in the mighty sacrifice of Calvary, where the Lord Jesus bowed his head, yielded up his life, shed his precious blood that you might even read or hear such words as these. What a gift this is. And if you want to insult a giver, you just pull out your wallet when they offer you the gift.
And say now just let me just let me make a little contribution toward this. You know what your friend would would feel? You know how he or she would react? How pleased you are to think that someone loved you enough to purchase this gift.
And offer it to you out of love.
Beloved friend, the burden of my heart tonight is this. That God loves you so much that he has provided and offers with open arms gifts beyond my power to describe to you. But I'll tell you something. They're mine. It's a rich man that's standing up here. It's a rich man that's standing here. And I'm going to take these riches home to glory with me.
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For I have received, by the grace of God the wondrous gifts of his love that cost him, I say once more, the agony of Calvary.
Before we go on, and I know our time is just about endless, I want to take you to Calvary that you might see there. Why these gifts ought not to be spurred there upon the cross of Calvary, there upon that middle cross.
Hung crucified God's gift that be allowed Son of God. And God laid upon him as He hung there upon the cross.
My wretched sins, all of them.
Known to God, laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ, And then the strokes of judgment ought to have fallen upon me, fell instead upon God's beloved One, there from the cross of Calvary, and during those three hours of darkness during which he endured the agony, the wrath of God against sin.
He was forsaken of God for me because of my sins.
The three hours ended. He cried out in glorious triumph. It is finished.
He bowed his head. He yielded up his life.
A soldiers spear is thrust into his side and forthwith flowed their own blood and water. And God's word delights to declare the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanseth us from all sins. What a costly gift.
And what answer will you give? What answer will you give if you stand before God, Guilty. In a coming day, if the book is opened, and the record of those stains is found still to be there, you will be speechless. Oh, I have heard men in their mockery tell me when I stand before God in that day, I'll tell him, and I don't go any farther. I wouldn't dare repeat, but some men have uttered.
But I know very well, and you know it too, that in that day they'll stand there.
In space.
Absolutely speechless, sealed lips, the record of their life reviewed and the sentence of God pronounced depart from me into everlasting fire is solemn. Beloved friend gifts they are costly gifts they are. But if they are rejected, if you do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you rise up from where you sit and go out that door with those stains of sin still upon your heart, I warn you solemnly, beloved Friend, that although God is truly a God of love.
He cannot and he will not overlook one stain, Sid one lie.
Is enough to shut you out of heaven forever. It must be removed by the precious blood of Christ.
Our time is gone. But suppose, beloved friend, that you wish that this very moment.
To make all this your own, suppose that at this very moment you were to say, I don't want to go out of this door guilty. I don't want to put my head on my pillow. Loss. I want, I really want to have the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. Remember this, that Ephesians chapter 2 tells us by greater he saved through faith and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God. I stand here to admit that even the faith.
That accepted him long ago as my savior in itself was a gift from God, everything I owe to Him, and he's ready to do the same for you. Are you willing to own your need? You willingly put yourself in the hands of a physician when he diagnosis your problem and suggests that he knows the remedy. Beloved friend here is the one who has pronounced your your infirmity.
As a stain of sin and a sentence of death and the certainty of judgment beyond. But he has a remedy, that costly remedy, the precious Blood of Christ.
00:55:07
Well, may we say, as Paul did, thanks be unto God for his.
Unspeakable gift. Is that the language of your heart? Oh, I know. As I look up and down the Rose tonight, I can see that response.
Unspoken but shining from the face of many in this room tonight.
God for his unspeakable gift. I'm privileged to stand here and say it aloud, but I know you're saying it from your heart.
Come now. Is this really the language of your heart? Do you look up at this moment and say thanks be unto God for his?
Unspeakable gift He gave his Son, the Lord Jesus gave himself the water of life, eternal life, forgiveness, faith to trust in Him. All of it, all of it comes from Him.
I wish our time were not up, but it is beloved friend. The word of God is so full of it. Peace, I leave with you.
My peace I give unto you, There's not much of that in this poor, groaning, disappointed, troubled world.
Just come with me for a moment.
And let us sit down in the Coliseum and far away Rome.
And look down upon that most blood stained spot on the face of the earth, the sands of that great arena, and you'll see there in the middle of those sands a young girl. She has accepted Christ as Savior. She has been arrested and imprisoned because of her faith in Christ, and she stands there presently. The grating is open and out steps, arriving us lying. And she knows what's going to happen in a few moments. And you take a look at her face and what do you see, beloved friends?
Terror.
Of course I've never seen it, but you and I have read a count after account. I stood there and looked at that spot and just pictured before my eyes that which has so often been written of those who had to face the martyrs death because of their faith in Christ and beloved. I'll tell you, it's marvelously and gloriously true that one of the gifts that he delights to bestow is peace I give unto you.
And there the greatest testimony that ever stirred the hearts of those in Pagan days was reflected in the peace that was seen and those who laid down their life for the Lord Jesus Christ. I was just reading an account the other day.
Of those who spent their day.
Those endless.
Mild The darkness of the catacombs.
160 miles of tunnels beneath that city.
Over half a million laid down. Their lives were buried down there in those endless tunnels. And you know, my wife and I walked through the darkness of those tunnels. And there you'd look into a room and you'd see a pile of skeletons, a pile of them. They looked into another room. There was a little table, a little table in that room.
Table made of earth.
And I asked the gentleman, what would that be for?
We sit down here in the darkness.
They held the service of remembrance of the body and blood of Christ.
Beloved friend, I want to tell you that the Savior who loved me and died for me has given me the water of life. Everlasting life, Peace in this heart of mine has also put before me the happy.
And wonderful privilege of showing him as we did together in this room this morning.
Our.
To him for giving himself for us.
Privilege.
I had no intention of bringing that point in, but I trust it may touch the heart of someone.
He's given himself for you. Have you ever responded by showing him that you remember?
Could we sing the first hand on our hem sheet #1?
01:00:03
Almost persuaded now to believe, almost persuaded, Christ to receive, Seems thou son soul to say, go, spirit, go thy way some more convenient day on the alcohol.
Almost persuade.
All the way.
And cry.
Slowly.
Go there.
Go my way.
Far more convenient now.
All our gladden.
Invite you here.
Morning.
On my.