Gospel—E. Wakefield
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General Meetings, Toledo, November 1976. Gospel by Brother Wakefield.
Bring together #2 The second him on the sheep come to Jesus, gently calling, ye with tear and soil, oppressed with your guilt, however appalling, come, and I will give you rest for your sin. He once has suffered on the cross the work was done, and the word by God now uttered to each weary soul.
Is come hymn #2.
And I will get it right.
Everyone has fallen.
Slow.
Across the Star Wars white sun.
From the worst Lord God, now after.
May now be long.
Time.
Never die far.
Without that landing and.
The Father.
From the.
The slangers for you come.
Translator.
We saw our heads in prayer.
Might we sing in the 1St and the last verses a #4? Christ is the savior of sinners the 1St and the last verses of #4.
So I swear to God, blessings of grace, I shall, I tell his friends.
This is the savior for me.
Thank you.
Have sinners like me.
Having his life or heart land.
I like to look 1St at the 15th chapter of loop for one verse.
Before we turn back to it in a few moments.
Luke, Chapter 15.
And the 22nd verse.
But the father said to his servant, Bring forth the best Rd.
And put it on him in the 22nd chapter.
Of Matthew for one other verse.
And the 11Th verse.
And when the king came in to see the guest.
He saw there a man which had not.
On a wedding garment, then in the 27th chapter of Matthew.
And the 28th verse.
And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. When they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a Reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews, And they spit upon him, and took the Reed and smote him on the head after. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him.
And put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. Verse 45.
Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land until the 9th sound. And about the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli, Lama Sebastiani. That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the 28th chapter?
And verse 5.
And the Angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that she seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said, Come, see the place.
Where the Lord lay? Well, dear friends, you've noticed probably in reading these verses.
And the first passage we read, we read about the best role being put on to the prodigal son. The second scripture we found a man that dared to enter into the presence of the king without wearing a wedding garment. And the third scripture we have.
Them putting on the Lord Jesus, a scarlet Rome. Then we read about the three hours of darkness when the Savior.
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Bore my sins.
And his own body on the tree was made thin for me, and received from the hand of God.
The judgment which I deserve and then the last scripture we read.
Shows that the savior was number longer, dead but alive.
Now we'll consider first of all this well known 15 chapter of the Gospel of Luke.
My friends, I like to remind you that we come to these conferences quite often. I don't know how many there are in a year, maybe there's a dozen or so. And pretty well, the larger conferences, the same people are pretty well here. And I'm sure that in the audience like this was probably 700. Maybe here around that figure there's some here that are on the way to hell. There's some here tonight that have.
The Lord Jesus came, they'd be left right here in Toledo.
And they lost forever and have to spend eternity. And the dungeons of the damned enabled us. Say I knew John 316. I can quote in the very dungeons of the dams. John 524, I know the way to heaven. I know how I could have got there, but I put it off.
I was dreaming, you know, on Thursday.
I want to get a haircut.
And the Barber, a Jewish gentleman, started talking to me about the elections.
In the province, the Quebec, and he said, you know, it's a sad thing.
That so many English people in this problem and so many Jews are dreaming.
And he said they're trying to pretend that everything is all right. But he said not me. The very day after the election took place, I had all my money transferred to the City of Ottawa.
And he said, my friend, you know, think I'm kind of strange, but I'm ready. He said I am ready for what's going to happen when they seize the money of this problem. Well, he said everybody around me is dreaming. Or they're saying, don't worry, nothing is going to happen. Well, I said, Sir, that's interesting. But what about eternity? That's what they're doing. They're all dreaming.
They're all dreaming. And they're saying nothing's going to happen. Everything is going to be the same. We're going to get out of the mess we're in. Why, there'll be some genius come and fix everything up, and there's nothing to worry about. And he said, Exactly. They're dreaming, my friend. And that you may be dreaming on the very brink of hell, right on the very doorstep of hell you may be dreaming tonight. And so I trust that by the grace of God and by the leading of the Holy Spirit of God.
What we say to you tonight may be used to bring you to Christ, to bring you to the Savior of sinners.
Before it is forever too late, now this well known parable the Lord Jesus told.
Which I believe was really one part of three parables. We're only going to consider the one about the prodigal son. It starts at verse 11 and it tells the very same story that young man tonight and young ladies, and sad to say, young men and young ladies and Christian homes are faced with they want to get away from home. That seems to be the ambition of so many young people today. Let's get away from home.
And be on our own and live in an apartment where we'll have nobody to keep after.
Where we can live exactly the way we want to, and do exactly the things we want to do without our mother and father always preaching at us and warning us and trying to spoil our enjoyment of life. That's exactly what this young man did.
And so down he goes to the far country.
And it tells us in the 13th verse, not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country.
And there wasted his substance with riotous living. Now, my friends, these are the words.
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Of the Lord Jesus Christ. And just in this one verse, he really describes what exactly has happened happening today in North America. This is exactly what's happening. We're going into a far country away from God.
Away from the Bible. Away from everything to do with God's realities and God's eternity.
And God, truth. And there in that far country, they're wasting their substance with riotous living. Well, we know what that means, don't we? That means they're taking their God-given health and their God-given strength and all the abilities that God has given them, and they're just throwing them into the hands of the devil, and they're wasting their substance with riotous living.
But I want to warn you tonight, my friend, if you're here and you're living that kind of a life, there's an end coming to that kind of thing.
I know I believe that the Father who I believe speaks of God here.
Sent into that far country a famine, and the Lord Jesus says about this famine.
In verse 14 and when he had spent all. Now you know what that means, don't you?
And we I know what it means too. When everything was gone, then the Father sent into that country a mighty famine. He sent the famine. Now why did he send that famine? Was it to punish this young man? I believe it was to show that young man has nothingness, to show that young man his need of his father, to show that young man.
Later on in the chapter The Father's Heart and the Father's Love. And so it tells us.
That he began to be in want.
Well, I suppose many of us tonight who belong to the Lord have been to hospitals, different other places. And we've met young men just like this and young ladies and older people, and they're in want, and they have no more enjoyment of life because they're in want. And everything they had is gone. All the resources have come to an end, and there they are and want, and they're going on to eternity and they're miserable.
And they're unhappy. Maybe you're unhappy tonight. Maybe you'll say I wish to God that I could get rid of my sins. I went to God that I could get this question settled between my soul and God himself.
So what happens here? Well, it tells us in the 15th verse. And here is human reason, my friend. He went and joined himself.
To a citizen of that country.
And he sent them into his field to feed swine. Now this citizen of this country is the devil.
You see, this man was going down. Man's history is downward. All my friends believe, Not those.
To tell you that man's history is upward, but morally and spiritually, man's history is downward until he beats the God of the Bible, who saves his precious soul through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the cleansing power of that precious blood, and gives them a brand new life, a new beginning, so that the poor Sinner through faith in Christ is now a new creature.
Or a new creation in Christ Jesus, my friend. How wonderful.
And how blessed. We're going to see more of this later. Now it tells us in the 16th verse.
And he would train her filled his belly.
With the hush that the swine that eat now he's going down lower film, you see his pathway is leading downwards and who allows this pathway to lean down lead downwards. His father arranged all this down he was going. Now he's lower still and he's down reduced.
Be in the company of the swine.
Then he goes down further, and it tells us in the end of the 16th verse, and no man gave unto him All my friends, what a wonderful thing that Jesus and these few verses gives us exactly the history of every man of Adams race without Christ, every man. In these few words that Jesus spoke, we see the history of man. It's a downward path. Down he goes, my friend, and how solemn this is.
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Well, I've had the privilege of being in the prisons in the United States and visiting men there. And I've seen some men. They've gone down, down, down. They've gone there. They are as far down as they could go. I've talked to those men. I've heard their testimony. One of them said to me, I'm glad to be able to say that Jesus Christ is my personal savior, too. You see, he came to the end of himself.
Another man told me that I was released from prison on parole and he said I stole a car. I headed to the Canadian border, but I was intercepted by the police and brought back into this prison and thank God I'm here for here. I heard the gospel.
And my friends, as I think of those men in the prison, I think of the children, the young people of those who are Christians, with Christian mothers and fathers who hear this gospel so many times, they just absolutely despise them and they reject it. And God says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Now there may be some in this room tonight, because we don't know everybody here.
And you're just like this prodigal. There you are down at the very bottom, and you come into this room tonight. Maybe your parents had to struggle to get you here. But by the grace of God, you've come. And I want to tell you, my friends tonight, with God's help and by the grace of God, the history of this young man, That can be your history tonight. Notice what he says now in the 17th verse and when he came.
To himself.
When he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bred enough in despair, and I perished with hunger. Now he's beginning to turn back towards his father. First of all, he confesses the position he's in. I perish with hunger. I perish. Maybe tonight you're perishing in your sins.
You have to admit, if you are really an honest young man or a young woman or older person, you'd have to say that's true. I perish with hunger. Not physical food, but spiritual food. I perish. I've got so far away from God that I don't even thank God for my food.
And I never pray. I never pray. All my friends, how solemn. I never pray anymore. My mother taught me to pray.
My father taught me to pray, but I quit that long ago and now I perish with hunger. Knows what this young man did. Verse 18. I will arrive. Isn't that wonderful? I will arrive. You know, the Lord Jesus looked at a man and he said, follow me and it says, And he arose and he left off and he followed him. This young man arises.
And he said, I will go to my Father, and we will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. Now here's his confession. My friend, I want to ask you tonight if you have made this confession in the presence of God, Have you ever been in the presence of God, and said, I have sinned against heaven? And before thee I've never done that. You know, somebody has said, and I believe they're right.
There is no salvation without repentance.
There is no salvation without repentance. Now repentance can't save you, that's for sure. But my friend, repentance is, I believe, taken sides with God against yourself. I wrote to a young man in the prison just before we left Montreal and I said, Robert, you have to come to that place where you say I have sinned against the Lord.
And you're allowed to get down in your knees and acknowledge before him that you are a Sinner for your verses you quote to me. And the thing you say about knowing the Bible will not save your soul, for the Bible cannot save you. It's only Christ that says thank God for the Bible. It's the word of God, but it's Christ that saves my beloved friends. And the word of God turns us to Christ. For Christ is the Savior. He's the only savior.
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The only failure that God has for man is the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other only him. He's the failure of sinners like me. And so it says here.
And are no more worthy in verse 19 to be called thy son. Make me as one of Thy hired servants.
And he arose and came to his father. Notice now his father. This, this. Now begins the story of the Father's love, the story of the love of God. And who could better tell us than the Savior himself? Who could better tell us than the one who came into this world?
Whose heart was filled with love for poor, miserable, hell deserving creatures like you and me. He could tell it out and all its fullness. And so the Savior said, and these words now in verse 20. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran.
And fell on his neck snack and kissed him. I understand that. One translation. I don't know which one of his says he covered him with kisses. Isn't that beautiful? This young man who came back to his father was greeted by his father and my friend. The devil loves to tell people you know well. Redemption point has passed for me. I'd like to become a Christian. I'd like to be saved. But I've gone so far that there's no hope.
Brand, listen. That's not true. That's the devil's lie, the Lord Jesus said when he was here. Him that cometh to me. I will and no wise cast out. Absolutely.
There is no man in this world, I believe that gone past redemption point as long as his heart is beating. God loves you, God loves you. Isn't that wonderful That God loves you And that the Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners down in the gutters, sinners, sinners who sunk down with a very gutter almost of hell. And the Lord Jesus came into the world to die for them, to save them, to take their sins away.
All powerful Savior, beloved friends, who has power to break the verdict change, the very heaviest change of sin that there there are. He's able to break those chains. So he's a powerful living, mighty savior. Well, it tells us now in verse 20, And the sun said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in my state. Now this is solemn, isn't it? He doesn't say now I've sinned before these, but he goes a little further.
And he said, I've sinned in my sight, my dear young man tonight, or a young lady.
Or older person who may be here without Christ.
It's a grand thing to know that you've sinned in the sight of God, that you're guilty. You know, in the courts of this land, they have to have what they call witnesses, and these witnesses have to number at least two or three. One witness is not sufficient, but God doesn't need any witnesses.
The Sinner has sinned in his sight, and he knows, my friend all about you. He knows more about you than you know about yourself, because he sees everything.
Yes, indeed he does. And so this young man, as he got into his father's arms, he realized at last that his father could see him, and his father ran to meet him and his father.
Knew every detail in his life.
Those secret sins, those hidden sins, those thoughts are yours and mine. You know them all, don't you? Maybe you've forgotten, like I have many of them, but God knows them all. And how wonderful it is to have that record cleanse absolutely, spotlessly clean by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Word of God declares so wonderfully that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son.
Friends of us from all, ALL all sins. Well, now it tells us, going back to our chapter where we started to read at the beginning in the 22nd verse. But the father said to his servants, You see, the young man that makes me as one of I hired servants that father didn't want hired servants. He wanted that boy of his. He was looking for that boy to come back again.
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And here he says to his hired servants, He had servants enough, and God has servants enough, my friends.
The heavens are filled with mighty angels. What God wants is you, my friend, to come yourself. He wants you to trust him and to know that on that cross we're going to have in a humanist what the Lord Jesus said on that cross, or the Sinner who will have them? Well, he says bring forth the bathroom. I've enjoyed this thought that the best robe was for the worst. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that just like Donald, the very best for the very worst.
Bring forth the best robe and put it on him.
And put a ring on his hand. God's never ending eternal love or it's the love of Christ, my friends, God Maximus love. We can trace it through the word of God in the 13th chapter of John, that eternal love that he loved him unto the end. Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them under the end. In the 15th chapter, John verse nine, we have that divine love Speaking of the Lord's people, of course.
As my father hath loved me, so have I loved you continually in my love. Then we go on and we find that personal love. And Galatians 2 and 20 the Son of God who loved me, said the Apostle Paul, and gave himself for me that mighty maxless love of God found throughout the whole Bible, God's matchless love and this ring that the Father puts.
On the hand of the sun shows us that matchless, unmeasurable, eternal, never ending love of God, how blessed this is. And shoes on his feet. Isn't this wonderful? You know, I am told that in those days, the servants.
Went barefooted, but the sons were wore shoes. And so here was the sun coming back. He had to wear shoes. He was a son, He wasn't a servant. And secondly, it tells us of a new standing, no longer connected with this world as we had in this afternoon. No longer connected with this wicket world that's going on to judgment, but now a new standing, and that standing is in Christ.
And the believer in the Lord Jesus stands before God.
Dressed in Christ and nothing else will suit God absolutely. Your good work, your good deeds are not acceptable to God. You must come and receive from this giving, loving God what He has for you in His matchless love. Now there may be a girl here tonight.
Your father and mother have prayed for you, a young man whose father and mother are praying for right now. Their heads may be bowed. They may be praying for their children. I suppose there are some here. God loves you. Just imagine, and I like to say this again and again and again, that God has blocked the road to hell with the cross of Christ. Isn't that wonderful, my friend? Are you going to pass by this matchless, eternal love of God?
That match with love that God has for sinners. And so then he says in the 23rd verse and bring hit her the fatted calf and kill it, kill it and let us.
Eat and be married. Let us notice this. Let us who is this? The Father and this returned Son? Let us Isn't it wonderful that God brings us into fellowship with His beloved Son, so that as his children, dear Christians, he can say, let us eat?
And be married. And you know it tells us in the next verse, For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.
Those are the solemn words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was dead. Dead. Is that what you are tonight, a spiritual corpse? And you say, well, you know, I don't enjoy the Bible.
And I find these conferences sort of boring. I like to get into the meals, you know, and stay in the motel and look like a king for a couple of days. But when it comes to these Bible readings, I got no enjoyment of that. Your dad, my friends, no life towards God. Doesn't that trouble you? Doesn't that exercise you, a young person? Why? You're not interested in God's things because you're dead in sin and then you're lost. Lost anything of anything worse?
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And to be lost. Lost. Are you lost tonight? In whom? The God of this world.
Has blinded the minds of them that believe not to those that are lost of our gospel is hit. It is hit to those that are lost.
Lost and sinned. Lost. Oh, my friend, may these words think down into your hearts that man without Christ.
No matter how good a life you may be living, he's dead and he's lost and he's going into eternity to meet God about his sins. What a solemn thing. And then it says and they began to be married. They began to be married. Earlier in the chapter the young man began to be in want. But here he and his father, they began to be married seeking of that eternal, never ending heavenly joy.
That the people of God will enjoy in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And with God their Father for all eternal ages, all bring forth the best robe and put it on him. And that best roar would speak to us of God's righteousness. There nothing else would do. The Son may have found a robe on the way home, but that robe was no good. It had to be the robe that the Father himself provided God's own righteousness.
And every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ tonight in this room is dressed in God's righteousness. How wonderful. Well, going back now to the 22nd chapter of Matthew, we have something very solemn here. We're not going to go over the chapter, but there was a marriage given for the certain king, a marriage for his son, and the invitations went out. Each one received the invitation, the invitation.
To attend the marriage and you know they accepted the invitation. And apparently with every invitation there was a robe provided, a wedding garment apparently provided for everyone.
Who accepted the invitation? They received a wedding garment and they put the wedding garment on and they came.
Except one man.
And I suppose that one man would remind us of the self-righteous Sinner who says, well, I'm good enough, I don't need to be saved. You know, I I'm very religious and I do all kinds of good deeds and whenever any charities needed, I'm right there.
To meet the need of I give to my neighbors and my friends. I don't need a savior. Why? I'm good enough and I believe this wedding garment would speak to us of God's righteousness, God's salvation. And this man dares to come in and sit down with the guests. Notice that verse I read to you the third, the 12Th, the 11Th, 1St, and when the king came in to see the guests.
He saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.
What a contrast the best robe placed on the prodigal son.
Here is a man without a wedding garment. And when the king comes into the room and looks at those many guests, his eye rests on that one man. He stood out. He stood out. And my friend, I speak reverently. If it were possible for any Sinner of Adam's race to get into heaven without Christ, when God looks into that crowd, you would be singled out. What are you doing here without Christ?
What happened to this man?
Verse 12 And he said unto him, Fran.
How came a thou in? Hit her not having a wedding garment? Now notice and he was speechless.
He was speechless. I've talked to man about Christ and they say you just wait till I get before that judgment day. Believe me, I'll have some things to say to God about the unrighteousness of this poor world. What does it say here? And he was speechless. He had nothing to say, nothing to say to defend himself, nothing to say as to why he didn't have the wedding garment on. He was speechless before the majesty of that king.
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You know, my friend, when the unsaved we had this afternoon stand before the Great White Throne, they will be speechless, absolutely nothing to say. Now I want to remind you that these are the very words of the only man that ever lived in this world, who never told a lie. These are the words of the one who was God, manifest in the flesh. He did not exaggerate. He did not add to or take from. He told the truth.
Notice the 13th verse then said the king to the servant.
Buying him hands and foot. What does that mean? Why he lost his liberty. Now you know, the devil is very clever. And there's many, many people tonight in the United States of America who really say this, and they really believe it too. When I get to hell, all my friends will be there. I'm going to have a wonderful time. It's going to be a wonderful thing to get away from all the Christians and this day with the ungodly.
Forever and ever. But notice my friends buying him hand and foot, his liberty was gone. First of all, his speech was gone. Now his liberty is gone. And then it tells us.
In cast them out into outer darkness. Now his friends were gone. He couldn't see his friends. He couldn't see anybody. He was in outer darkness. Now these are the words of the Lord Jesus. Don't dare try to take from them.
Don't dare dare to try to add to them. These are the faithful words of the Blessed One who died on Calvary's cross to save you from going to this very fake.
Of everyone that rejects the precious Christ of God. Notice now what it says.
And cast them into outer darkness. He lost the light.
You got the light tonight. You have in your home the Bible. When you go home tonight, do you see on your father's desk?
Or your mother's Bureau. The Bible. You have the light there, don't you? The light will be gone, my friends. You come into this assembly and there's many lights here. Everybody that has a Bible has a light, but there'll be no light there. All light will be gone. He lost the light, and then there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He lost every bit of joy.
Every bit of peace that he had. All friend counts the cost, counts the cost.
Case you crossed that line tonight, that will lead you to hell.
Now, we don't like to pretend. I would rather preach Christ than preach town, that's for sure. But we must be faithful, My friends, Hell is at the end of a Christless life. Are you living a Christless life tonight? Are you tonight? Here one who Maybe you say, Well, I'm not really rejecting Christ, but I'm neglecting. I'm just putting it off until a better time. There's a day coming when I'm going to make my choice for Christ again. The word of God says, how shall we escape?
If we neglect so great salvation now in the 27th chapter of Matthew.
We came to the solemn account which God gives us of the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We live in a world that has rejected Christ. We live in a world that is history is written in blood.
We live in a world that's stained by the bloods of 10s of thousands of millions of men who died on battlefields and so on. But apart from all that, this world is stained with the blood of God's Son, God's Son. This world is stands with the blood of Christ and tells us here in the 28th verse and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe, I believe seeking a Jewish royalty.
The scarlet robe and mockery they put on him a scarlet robe. And they said, this man's a king. Why, we'll crown him king. And they put on him a crown of thorns, a mark of the curse. And there, beloved, let me bring you over back to that day. And there we have this scene of this glorious man as he stood there before Pontius Pilate with a scarlet robe on and the crown of thorns on his head.
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And men saw him.
And the devil saw him, and the demon saw him, and the Angel saw him. And God saw him. A sight for man, a sight for angels, the man, the Creator, the one who came down from heaven, born of a virgin, crowned with thorns by men who this before had said release unto us, Barabbas.
I'm sure what we what we heard this afternoon, young people about this world was indeed something to make us think. And I want to bring out to you that the man who started this world was a murderer. That great world system, his name was Cain. As our dear brother told us, he was a murderer. Barabbas, who the world chose, was a murderer. And the God and Prince of this world, the Lord Jesus said, is a murderer.
How can we expect anything else in this world but trouble, wars, fights, quarrels, strikes and everything else when the whole business was started by at least three murders, 3 murders connected with this great world system.
The devil, the God, and the Prince of this great world system came the originator who built that city, as our brother told us, and Barabbas, who was chosen by the world, who set away with Jesus, away with Jesus. In other words, they said we would rather have Barabbas come for supper, even though while we were not looking. It might kill us all, and the children and my wife and everybody, but we would rather have Barabbas with us than to have Jesus.
Anybody but Jesus, they say. This is solemn thing. This is the world young people you and I are living in tonight. And the newspapers, apart from the Bible, tell us what is happening in this great world system tonight.
Soon to come under the heavy hands of the judgment of Almighty God.
This is the world we're living in, my friends, and the world that crucified the Lord Jesus. They crucified him. Now the Savior hung on that cross from 9:00 AM.
To 3:00 PM.
For the first three hours he suffered at the hands of man.
For the last three hours he suffered at the hands of God.
And you know, a careless world. And men and women say, well of course I believe in the crucifixion. Didn't Jesus Christ die for everybody? That's true. But our brother pointed out a few weeks ago at a funeral service Christ died for all but Hebrews 9, verse 27, I believe is very careful to say that Christ bear the sins of many.
My friends, Christ didn't die. For every man sins in this world. He only died for the sins of many. And if you want to be numbered among the many, then you must have Christ. You must receive him as your personal savior. You must have Christ living in you. Not religion, my friend. No, but Christ a living Savior, one who burst the the very bars of death, and who came forth by absent over death.
The Son of God buried in his hands and feet and sides the marks he received on the cross of Calvary, who went back into heaven as a man who sat down at the right hand of God arisen, and a glorified Christ who will bear for eternal ages in his hands and feet inside those marks.
Forever tell God and man that Calvary's work is forever finished. But I point out to the verse that I read to you in verse 4045 now from the 6th hour.
There was darkness over all the land of the ninth hour.
The mighty sun that he placed in the heavens hid his face.
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As the creator.
God's beloved eternal Son, the maker of heaven and earth, and all the planets and everything that was made, was made since.
Can understand that can we? We can read the verse in Two Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21, that he was made sin for us. He knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him and the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane contemplating those three hours of darkness.
Said, Oh, my father will be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done, and there's men in this room tonight, and women who are faith in eternal damnation.
An eternal rule and an eternal hell. Maybe you're not moved at all. Maybe you're laughing and mocking. Maybe you're talking to your neighbor beside you and you don't fear the awfulness of being away from God for eternity and the very darkness of the damnation of hell.
My friends, what a solemn thing. Christ died for the ungodly. Here is Christ in this 46th verse and about the 9th hour. Jesus cried with a loud voice. The Savior was about to die, but he was God, my friend. He was the Son of God. He was God manifest in the flesh. And he cried with a loud voice. Not a weak voice like a man dying or a woman passing through death, but he cry with a loud voice.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Have you answered the question, my friend? Have you answered the question? I received a tape message from our brothers in the assembly at Walla Walla. He preached on this verse in the little Chapel in the Washington State Penitentiary, and he preached in this very question. My God, my God.
Why hast thou forsaken me? And he said, man, is there one man in this group tonight who can answer the questions? There wasn't one man who stirred. He turned to a man behind who he knew as a believer. And he said, Mike, can you answer that question? And this man that's been in prison, I suppose, nearly 10 years, he said, yes, I can. He said he was forsaken by God.
Because he was bearing my sins in his own body, on the tree, friend. When I heard that tape message in my home, I bowed my head and wept. And I thought of the boys and girls and the young men and young women who have been favored by God with the Bible read Morning and Union Night with the verses on their walls. Who heard this question asked and asked and asked again and again.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And I don't care. They don't answer the question. But a man in the prison behind those mighty penitentiary walls said he was bearing my sins in his own body on the tree. Yes, He died for you, my friend, if you'll have them. He loved us, dear Christians. He suffered for us the sufferings we never enter into for eternity. He loved us. He paid the price. He had to suffer agony.
If he bore our erection of sins and our guilt, and when he was made sins, and the stroke of judgment fell upon him, for God must punish sin, and God will punish sin, either he has punished it at Calvary cross, or he will punish it in the future.
An eternity. Which will it be, my friend? Then, in the last passage we read in the 28th chapter, Notice now the Angel answered, and sentence the women. Fear not ye, for I know that she seek Jesus, which was crucified. Now, now, dear Christians, this is a word for you and for me.
Heaven knows exactly what we're seeking.
The Angel here said, I know that she seeks Jesus, which was crucified. In case there were other people in that in the world called Joshua or Jesus. He's marked out here, beloved by the Angel of God. I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified. There's the difference. He was the crucified Jesus and he said he is not here. He's not here.
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And Luke's Gospel, it says, Why seek ye the living among the dead? Which brings us back to our brothers address this afternoon. Dear Christians, why do we seek the living among the dead? Why do we make friends of the unsaved, the ungodly, those who have no use for Christ, their dad, my friend, why seek ye the living among the dead? He's not here, he's risen, said the heavenly Angel, How glorious.
Blessed Christ lives. We don't preach a dead Christ. We preach a living Christ, a Christ that broke the bonds of death. Again, I say a Christ who has power to rise from the dead and come out of that sepulchre a living savior and thank God he's my savior.
I asked you before I bow my head in prayer. Are you going to be saved tonight? Are you going to cut off this question and be damned? Are you going to put off this question and lose your soul? Are you going to put off this question and have the wrath of God fall on you, and you'll be left in North America and all your loved ones and your father and your mother all gone home to glory, and you left in this wretched world?
Where men will seek death and not be able to find it.
These are the words of the living God, my friends. We don't preach religion. We preach Christ. Christ crucified, Christ risen. And Christ come in again. The Christ of Calvary, the one who said His precious blood and that blood has power to cleanse from all sins. It's the blood of Christ. It's the love of God. It's the love of Christ. Will you have that Savior tonight? Will you as I bow my head in prayer?
Will you say, oh God, I'm guilty, I'm a Sinner, I sinned against thee and in my sight, and I come tonight to the Lord Jesus Christ. I claim it as my Savior. I confess him as my Lord. I confess that the man the world spit upon, that the world crown with thorns, is not only Jesus, but God has made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ.
He's the Lord Jesus Christ, and if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved that precious verse.
Down in Fredericton, NB, last Saturday night was used by the grace of God to lead a young woman to tell another brother who was in the room. Tonight I got assurance. What did she do to get that assurance? She said I was saved two weeks ago. I think now she knows why she confessed. The Lord. Do you ever confess the Lord? Yes. Young boys and young girls.
Have you ever confessed the Lord? Why not tonight confess the Lord? He's Jesus, but He's the Lord Jesus.
May God bless his word for the glory of his eternal name.