Gospel—Bill Prost
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I'd like to welcome everyone to the Gospel meeting tonight.
And could we begin with?
Hymn #6.
In #6 God in mercy sent his Son.
To a world by sin undone, Jesus Christ was crucified. It was for sinners Jesus died number six.
God in mercy.
Satisfied.
While greater singing by.
OK.
Let's just pray together before we go any further.
I'd like to sing part of another hymn, this time on the Backpage one for the children, and I would hope that everyone here that's old enough to sing would be able to join in #40.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
I think everyone here pretty much except for maybe the very youngest, would know this. Him. We'll sing the 1St and the 2nd verses and the last verse of #40.
Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tell me so glad I said him being alone.
You know what it does in my heart? Good to hear everyone sing that last hymn. Jesus loves me.
Without wanting to offend anyone, I saw very definitely a few people that weren't singing the first hymn who joined in on the second one. You know that's wonderful, and I'm sure that you know the truth of it too. Jesus loves me.
And you and I can be very, very thankful that we live here in a land where for the most part, I don't say everyone, but for the most part, people at least know who the Lord Jesus is. You know, there are some parts of the world.
Where that is not sold.
You'll pardon the personal reference, but my son a few years ago, boy, quite a few years ago now, probably close to 15 years ago, taught school for a year way over on the other side of the world in a little country called Tajikistan. And during that, in that country, he had contact with some young people in their late teens and early 20s when he mentioned the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Their reaction was who is that?
Whom are you talking about? They had never heard his name before.
Very, very sad.
And yet, true, I don't suppose there's anyone here tonight that doesn't know the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the question we have for you tonight, where do you stand with the Lord Jesus Christ?
Back in Ontario where I live.
There is a man whom I have known for many years who now, among other things, acts as a chaplain in a large hospital.
Some years ago he told me that he was called to see a woman in intensive care. He had never met her before, nor had she met him, but she had asked that some kind of a chaplain would come and talk to her.
Evidently she was a woman who was very successful in the business world. She had done well for herself. She was going up on the corporate ladder, as we would say. She was making money. She was in a position of influence and a fair amount of responsibility.
I don't know exactly what happened to her, but suddenly she found herself in intensive care.
With a very real possibility that she would not pull through.
And her question to the chaplain that I referred to was this chaplain, what happens after death?
He gave her a good answer. I thought he knew that she was well aware of the importance of good contact in the business world. He looked at her straight in the eye and he said it all depends on whom you know.
00:10:13
It all depends on whom you know.
And tonight I want to tell you on the basis of this precious book, the Word of God, that your eternal destiny after you leave this world depends on whether you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
I want to turn first of all the two verses in the Bible, both of which talk about the gospel, that.
Let's turn to the first one.
I guess it doesn't matter which one we read first, but.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 5.
Or rather, chapter 4 will do. That's the one or one of the verses I had on my heart. Second Corinthians chapter 4.
And it says there in verse 3.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
In whom the God of this world, that Satan hath blinded the minds, glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine under them. And we could read that verse perhaps a little more accurately like this.
The God of this world that blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light.
Of the Gospel of the glory of Christ.
Should who is the image of God should shine unto them?
Now the other verse in Acts 20. Acts 20.
The Apostle Paul speaking here.
Rehearsing his ministry.
And he says here in verse 24 of Acts 20.
Referring to the fact that he was heading up to Jerusalem and various ones along the way had warned Paul not to go there, they said by the word of the Lord that there would be nothing but trouble and that he would be put in prison as a result of going up there.
Acts 20 and 24.
But none of these things move me.
Neither count on my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.
And the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
The word gospel means good news, and you and I know that there is not very much good news in the world today. Whether you pick up the newspaper, whether you watch the news on the television, whether you turn on the Internet, wherever you look, almost every day there is some new piece of bad news.
And for the most part it only shows.
Let us face it, what is in the natural heart of man?
But tonight we have good news for you. Nothing new, nothing different. It's the same gospel that has been preached for hundreds of years. But here we have two expressions relative to the gospel.
The gospel of the glory of Christ and the gospel of the grace of God. We want to talk about both of those tonight because I believe it is essential.
If we are going to understand the gospel.
To talk about both aspects of it, it's the same gospel.
The same good news? Excuse me.
But there are two different aspects of it and it is important to realize this.
First of all, we want to talk about the gospel of the glory of Christ. You say. What does that mean?
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Allow me to say, and I don't think anyone would argue with this, that in North American society, and especially in the last 30 or 40 years.
We have to face it that we have become pretty self-centered.
We tend to think of ourselves. We think of how everything revolves around us.
We tend to think of circumstances as to how they affect us, and we look upon ourselves, if we're not careful, as the center of everything.
May I tell you right here in a gospel meeting?
That although we are going to talk about you and about me, we are going to talk about the way that God has made provisions so that we can be saved.
That I am going to tell you first and foremost.
That the gospel is not primarily about you and me. Is that a surprise? It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. Let's turn to the first chapter of the book of Romans for a verse.
That bears that out, and here again the apostle Paul is talking about the gospel.
And let's notice what he says.
Romans one and verse one.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated. Now here it is under the gospel of God, which he had promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Now what does it say concerning you and me concerning how to get saved? That's not what it says concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
And then it says, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. What does that mean? That means, I say it again, that the gospel is not primarily about you and me.
You know, man has a lot of purposes in his heart today.
As we look around this world, every nation has its own purposes.
We're in Canada right now. Canada has purposes as a nation. the United States has purposes. But if we could speak very plainly, there are people on the other side of the world, for example, in the country of Iran. They have purposes too. They don't always square with the purposes we have on this side of the water, do they? Or if we were going to go in the other direction to North Korea, we would find that.
People there have purposes too, and they don't always line up too well with the purposes of people in North America and so on all around this world.
Men have their own purposes, but we tell you on the authority of the Word of God that God has his purposes tonight and God has purposed.
In a coming day, perhaps very soon.
To exalt, to glorify his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to set him as head over all things. We don't need to turn to all the scriptures that refer to that. But that is true. We read about it in the first chapter of Ephesians where it says that God in the dispensation of the fullness of times.
Has purposed to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him.
Many of man's purposes are going to fail.
Quite a few years ago now, long before many of us were born, not all of us, but many of us, there was a man in Europe by the name of Adolf Hitler, and he purposed to found what he called his 1000 Year Reich. 1000 years it was supposed to last. How long did it last? About 12 years. And then it crumbled into ruins. And so it has been with every kind of empire in this world.
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Some have lasted a long time. The Roman Empire lasted almost 500 years, maybe a bit more, but then it crumbled the Grecian empire under Alexander the Great Macedonia matter of a few years and then it was broken up by the.
Uh, various others that came in to break up that empire broke up into four different sections. As we know, all of the purposes of man are eventually going to come to nothing.
But God is going to exalt his beloved Son, and in connection with that, we want to tell you tonight on the authority of God's Word, that that same God whose purposes will definitely and clearly come to pass, you and I are responsible to him.
Is that rather a sobering thought? It ought to be. It ought to be.
Turn over to the book of Romans for a verse in the 14th chapter.
Verse 12.
So that everyone of us shall give account of himself to God.
Do we all understand what that means?
Do we need to explain it? Maybe we do I.
I can remember at least 25 years ago now, maybe more, reading that verse to a group of young people in a detention center in Toronto, ON and saying, what does that mean to you? What do those words mean to you? And none of them had any idea. The words might as well have been in a foreign language. What does it mean to give a count of? It means in simple terms that there is a time when everyone of us is going to stand before God.
And God is going to require of us an accounting of how we've lived our lives in this world.
Few hours ago today.
Somebody or somebody.
Decided to vandalize a couple of cars in the parking lot out here.
Will they be able to catch up with them? I don't know.
Sometimes they never catch people like that. Some years ago, twice over, our home was broken into twice. Never caught up with them, never found who they were.
Will they get away with it? They think they have, but there is a day coming when they will stand before God.
And I say to each one in this room, there is a day coming when you will give account to God. You know, it's a very serious thing to have to face God.
I read an article in a secular magazine a little while ago that shocked me.
It said that.
In the last five or ten years there is a tremendous turning toward religion among people in North America.
I thought, hmm, good, that hasn't been my experience, but maybe I haven't been in the right place at the right time. But then I read on and it said, yes, there are people turning to religion, but that religion is atheist atheism, which says essentially there is no God.
Now perhaps as you sit there tonight, and I don't know everyone here tonight, many I know.
And many I know who sit here tonight who would gladly stand up here right alongside me and say, yes, by the grace of God, I know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. But maybe there is someone here who is not saved. And I say to you.
Where do you stand relative to your responsibility before God?
Maybe you say. I would never talk like that. I would never say there is no God and I would never go out and break windows in someone's car, either just for vandalism or perhaps with a view to stealing. I would never go and assault anyone. I would never go and be guilty of murder or using drugs or getting drunk and disorderly or whatever it might happen to be.
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We won't turn to the versus though, but twice over in the book of the Psalms, it talks about those who say.
There is no God.
And it does not mean necessarily that they don't believe in the existence of a God, but rather that they don't want to believe that they have any responsibility toward him.
Oh, I say to you, on the authority of God's Word, and here it is as plain as we could get it, so that every one of us should give account of himself to God. And it's a frightening thing, isn't it, to stand before God in your sins.
I can remember very well talking again, if I may refer to that detention center in Toronto.
It was a solemn thing to go in there pretty much every Lord's Day. There were young people in there who had been guilty of the most serious crimes, even murder, and most of them were merely being held there until they came up for trial, usually within the week and maximum two weeks. Most of them were afraid, and with good reason, and we talked sometimes about that.
I said what will happen when you go to court?
All one of them said it will be a matter of the prosecuting lawyer that you know about what would happen. The prosecuting lawyer will read the charges against us and then evidence will be brought out and then our lawyers will present different evidence if they can find any, and then the judge.
We'll pronounce sentence.
I remember well saying to a group of events suppose.
That the judge had happened to be a bystander.
I said I'm not accusing you of having committed whatever crime you're charged with, but suppose you didn't do it. And as you can well imagine, the overwhelming majority, they certainly did do it. They weren't in there for nothing. The police rarely arrested someone who was innocent. I said if you did what you are being charged with and somehow the judge happened to be there as a bystander and saw you do it.
What then?
I still remember one young fellow's remark in the jargon of a teenager who apparently lived his life on the street.
Well then, man, you're dead.
I think we all understand those words, even though it's a kind of a vernacular way of expressing oneself. Man, you're dead. It wouldn't matter what evidence was presented or what the opposing lawyer said or what clever arguments were presented, would it? The judge knew exactly where you stood. And we tell you, and I say to my own soul on the authority of the word of God, that there is a God who knows everything about you and about me.
Everything we have ever done, everything we have ever said and everything that we have ever thought.
You know, those are very solemn things, aren't they? We have a responsibility toward God.
But maybe, we say, but we're not so bad.
We're not so bad. Yes, I know I have a responsibility toward God, and I know that I'll have to stand before God someday. But you know, I haven't done all that much that is wrong. And relative to many other people within the sphere of my acquaintance, I haven't been too bad of a person.
Is that going to work? Is God going to take that kind of an excuse? Let's turn back in the book of Romans to chapter 3. And it's good to have the word of God as a basis for what we're saying, because that's what counts.
Don't believe all this because I'm saying it because what I say doesn't matter for anything, but it's what the word of God says and it's this precious book that is going to be what God uses to judge in a coming day. It's what is written in this precious book that is going to count. As an old brother used to say, this book is open here before us tonight and it will be open forever in heaven.
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God says it will never pass away, and So what God has written in His Word carries the weight and authority of God Himself. Notice what it says here in Romans chapter 3.
Starting with the end of verse 22.
For there is no difference.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
It doesn't say all have sinned, but some have been bigger sinners than others.
In one sense that is true. All sins are not awake in the Word of God. There are several scriptures to which we could turn which would show us that, but at the same time.
Your heart and mind are all the same and if there is a man who is in life imprisonment for murder, If there is a man or a woman who is guilty of armed robbery.
If there are those.
And there are those you know it very well who are guilty not of 1 murder or two, but of multiple murders. We had one happen just up in my area in Ontario just last week.
Where a man was going to sell a truck, two men came about 9:30 in the evening, wanted to or at least pretended to want to buy it, and actually wanted to take it out for a short drive.
The owner of the truck went with them. They took him away, murdered him.
Took the truck. Now the police have gotten on their trail. They've recovered the truck. They've arrested at least one suspect. But the man who owned the truck was murdered. Oh, you say, I don't believe that that kind of thing would happen in Canada, and yet it has. And you say perhaps I would never do that. We tell you on the authority of God's word, and here's what it says, for there is no difference.
Your heart and mind are just the same.
Dave Mehrtens was talking this afternoon about his children going into a barn and smelling like cows.
I grew up on a farm.
And among other things, we had things that were worse than cows. And I don't say that to be funny. We had rotten eggs.
And if anyone has smelled a rotten egg, you know that it is worse than the cow.
And sometimes we would break rotten eggs and the smell was unbelievable.
But yet I might have one in this hand that I dropped on the ground and the smell was terrible, but the other one in this hand with the shell intact.
Can't smell anything. Why? Because the shell is holding it in, and anyone here that knows anything about eggs knows that there are ways of telling whether an egg is rotten or not without breaking it.
The one that the shell.
Was intact with.
It was just as bad as the other and we knew it, but the shell kept that smell from coming out. And if anyone here has been raised, and allow me to speak very solemnly to the children here tonight, maybe you've been raised in a Christian home and the young people here this evening. Maybe you've been raised in a Christian home and you perhaps are like that rotten egg with the shell around it. We can be thankful for a Christian a whole. I was raised in a Christian whole and I was thankful for the shell that my parents kept around me.
So that I did not get involved in all of the sin and wickedness that was out there. But was my heart, is my heart any better? Absolutely not. And I say to you children from a Christian home, you need to be saved just as much as the young person who goes out and does drugs or shoplifts or gets into trouble with the law in a very serious way.
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In fact, if anything, you are more responsible because you have been exposed to the gospel, you have heard the word of God, probably you can't even remember not hearing the word of God. You are more responsible and your heart is just the same.
You know, it's one thing to realize that I'm a Sinner, but it's another thing to realize that I'm a lost Sinner.
Permit another story that's personal.
I had a friend with whom I went to university. We started off together.
Kind of dates me. It's over 50 years ago now that we started university.
And he came from a very wealthy home, which I certainly didn't.
But somehow we got along well together, although he was by no means a believer in the Lord Jesus, but he took an interest in the gospel and he would admit that he was a Sinner, but I could not convince him that he was a lost Sinner.
Oh yes, he'd say with a laugh. I know I'm bad. But it didn't get home to his soul that he was a lost same boy.
And you know, tonight, sometimes we think lightly of sin because we're surrounded in this world with it, and we don't realize that not only are we sinners if we're not saved, but we are lost sinners.
Well, if that's all I had to tell you, that wouldn't be very much of A gospel message, would it? That wouldn't be good news. But we're going to turn back now to Acts 20, to that expression that we read there.
Acts 20 and verse 24.
To testify the gospel of the grace of God. I love that expression. I don't know another place in the Word of God where we get quite so beautifully put, Paul says. To testify the gospel of the grace of God. What is grace? What does the word mean? Well, Simply put, it means the favor, the goodness of God.
That is extended to you and to me when we don't deserve.
That wonderful you and I have to do with a God who loves us.
Do we realize that?
How many verses in the Word of God tell us? We sang it in our hymn, God is light and God is love. Both of those expressions come from the First Epistle of John and then that wonderful verse John 316. For God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The gospel of the grace of God. Oh, if there is a gospel of the glory of Christ, that God has exalted his beloved Son, and he has He has raised him from the dead, and it says in the Bible set him at his own right hand in power. But now God has come out in grace.
To who? To whosoever will.
Again, I say I don't know everyone here tonight, but perhaps you find it difficult to understand that word grace.
We have a Sunday school back home where I live in Hamilton, ON, and generally those children that come to that Sunday school have come from pretty rough backgrounds. Many of them from broken homes, many of them from homes where crime is rampant, many of them from homes where there isn't very much money. Many of them have been.
Abused in different ways.
And when we try to tell them that there is a God who loves them, that there is a God who wants to do something for them when they don't deserve it, they find it very hard to get that kind of thinking into their head. Why? Because very rarely has anyone in their short life shown the menu real love. Very rarely has anyone given them something, something good.
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That they didn't deserve very re. Very seldom has anyone shown them any real kindness, and so they have come to expect none. And to them, the idea that there is a God up there who loves them and who sent his son to die for them is an absolutely new thought that they find it hard to understand. I don't know if there is anyone here tonight like that, but if there is, if there's anyone here who's had a rough life, anyone here who says I haven't had very many breaks in my life.
I haven't had a very good time.
We want to tell you that there is a God up there whose love comes out to you.
Unconditionally.
Isn't that beautiful? And how has he demonstrated that life? Sometimes people tell us they love us. Sometimes people say I really care, but then there's no substance to it because they don't do anything to prove that they really care.
But it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
Again, I say perhaps there are those here, and I know many of you have grown up in Christian homes and maybe you've heard that from your earliest days, and maybe it doesn't have too much of an effect on you.
But can we think for a moment of what it must have meant for God?
Forgive his son.
To send his son down into this world well knowing the way that men would treat him, Well knowing that that beloved son would be rejected from all sides and eventually taken out and nailed to Calvary's cross.
There are fathers and mothers here. There are grandparents I know very well.
That you would not, nor would I be able willingly to give up my son, my daughter, my grandson, my granddaughter, and allow wicked men just to abuse them in that way. And yet God sent His Son. And then in those last three hours of darkness on the cross, the Lord Jesus was on the cross for six hours. And in the first three hours, men did their worst.
Tottenham made fun of them, offered him kind of a sour vinegar like drink when he was thirsty and so on.
But in those last three hours of darkness, God darken the whole scene so that the eye of man couldn't see what was going on.
Many, many years ago.
One of my uncles I.
I am told Asked his Sunday school teacher.
What did God do to the Lord Jesus in those hours of darkness to punish him for sin?
And the teacher very wisely replied, God made it so dark that no one could see. No one could see. And there the whole question of sin was settled once and for all. Oh, we say to you tonight that God is satisfied with the work of Christ. How do we know that? Because he raised him from the dead.
On that cross the Lord Jesus shed his precious blood, and we read in first John. Let's turn to a chapter one and verse 7.
First John chapter one and verse 7A. Well known verse, but we'll read it again.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light.
We have fellowship one with another, and here it is, and the blood.
Of Jesus Christ, his Son.
Cleanse us from all sins.
I don't suppose any of us here like to see blood?
It's not something we like to see because whenever we see blood it means that someone or perhaps an animal has been hurt.
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And sometimes, as we well know, the blood flow from a wound can be of such dimensions that unless it stopped, unless the individual receives a blood transfusion or something, they will die.
But the Lord Jesus Christ did not die. We speak with all reverence from loss of blood.
The blood flowed after he was dead because he dismissed his own spirit. No one took his life from him, he says. I lay it down of myself. You can't do that. I can't do that. Oh yes, we can commit suicide by doing something to ourselves, but none of us, by force of our thought patterns can dismiss our own spirit and die for the Lord Jesus, because of who he was did that.
And we read then that the soldier pierced his side with that spear, and forthwith came out blood and water. And it is that precious blood we say with all authority on God's Word tonight as the power to cleanse from all sin.
I keep referring to that detention home in Toronto, but we had many experiences there and I well remember talking to them.
About the power of the blood of Christ. Some of us are old enough to remember here when a man by the name of Adolf Eichmann was apprehended in South America and taken Brac back to Israel for trial. That's at least 50 years ago, maybe a little more now. A man who was personally responsible for overseeing the murder of at least 6,000,000 Jews, and probably.
Several millions more of Gypsies and other people during the time that the Nazis were in power in Germany. Eventually the Israeli the Israeli intelligence caught up with them in South America, apprehended them, and took them back to Israel for trial.
He was tried and found guilty and sentenced to be executed, but while he was awaiting execution, there were at least two believers who managed to gain access to him to bring before him the gospel of the grace of God.
I will remember in our local paper in Hamilton at that time, there were those and those who professed to be Christians too, who took strong.
Shall we say?
Exception to the fact that that was happening. You mean to tell me that God could forgive a man like that? You mean to tell me that a man like that could spend eternity with Christ in glory after murdering millions upon millions of people and now at the end of his life he can turn to Christ and be forgiven?
But remember asking those young people, I said, do you think the blood of Christ could wash away the sin of six or seven or 8 million murders? Could the gospel, Could the blood of Christ do that?
I remember.
One young fellow he looked at. There was silence for a moment or two, and then finally one young fellow said, Well, Sir.
It says all fit, it says all sin. So I guess he could be forgiven. Oh, I thank God for that answer. Could Adolf Eichmann. And by the way, he didn't turn to Christ. I'm sorry to tell you that. Now, I don't want to be dogmatic because no one knows what he might have done in the last few moments of his life, but to all outward appearances, he died in unrepentant man, I'm sorry to say.
But he didn't die without knowing the way of salvation, and he didn't die without knowing that there was that precious blood of Christ.
That would have washed away the sins of all those murders. Why? Because God is satisfied with the finished work of Christ. Are you going to say I'm not satisfied? Are you going to say it's not good enough for me?
I'm particularly concerned with children and young people here.
Back home in Ontario, I know a father back there.
And not too long ago.
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His young son, only about six years old, except to the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, he had for some time, apparently taken no interest in the things of God. Didn't want to hear a Bible story when he went to bed. Didn't want to hear the word of God that was read in their home regularly. Didn't want to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even at that young age, there was that rebellion in his heart against God.
Which, before we were saved, was characteristic of every one of us, I included.
But there came the day when the Lord broke down that little boy's heart, and he came to Christ.
And his father himself told me this, the little boy said.
Daddy.
Daddy, now you can stop, now you can stop. Pray for me to get saved.
He'd heard father and mother praying for him. He knew that there was earnestness in those prayers. And I say to every child here tonight who was growing up in a Christian home, whether you've heard those prayers out loud or not, I can assure you that your father and your mother have been praying and still are praying that you will come to Christ.
And maybe they think you are saved.
I will remember my dear brother, who has long since with the Lord.
And people used to come up to him when he was a boy, he told me and say, are you saved? Are you saved? Are you saved? And he got tired of it and he got a little bit angry inside.
And so finally he said, yes, I'm saved.
As it were, to get people off his back.
The Lord had his eye on that boy. He told me this himself.
When he was a grown man and an older man too, he said, Bill, you know what broke me down? He said a brother read in a gospel meeting. He said that all liars shall have their place in the lake of fire that burneth with fire and brimstone.
And you said I thought, oh, how awful, Said not only am IA liar, but I lied about the worst thing possible. I lied about being saved. Oh, he said that's terrible and it brought him to Christ.
Oh, if there's anyone here that's not saved, it's a serious thing to reject the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's turned out of the 17th chapter of Acts.
Our time is nearly gone.
Acts Chapter 17.
Verse 30.
Acts 17, verse 30.
And of the times of this ignorance, I believe that was perhaps in the Old Testament before the Lord Jesus came.
God winked at or passed over.
But now, But now command of all men everywhere to repent. Why?
Because he hath appointed a day in which he would judge the world in righteousness.
By that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from death.
Oh, we are compelled to tell you on the authority of God's Word, that if you go out of that door tonight without Christ, if you reject the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is judgment ahead. Oh God is not going to allow this world to go on as it is now indefinitely. Men think that they can continue to go on.
There's a lot of progress in this world, a lot of wonderful technology, even though there are some pretty serious.
Things going on that.
Are making men already become a little worried about the future of things in this world?
00:55:01
Even from a natural point of view, I read in an article just a little while ago that politically and economically this world is ripe for what could be called the perfect storm. We know what that expression means in meteorological circles, but they were talking about political and economic circles. This world is ripe for the perfect storm. Indeed it is. But that storm that is going to break upon this world in terms of God's judgment is far greater than any political and economic realities that may suddenly break apart.
Oh, it says God is appointed today. Yes, He knows the day you and I don't, when He will judge this world in righteousness. No one will get away. No one will hire a smart lawyer. No one will escape.
There is judgment for those who leave this world without Christ.
And how do we know that?
Where off you have given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead.
But a frightening thought that the very man who hung on Calvary's cross, the very one whom this world chose to insult, spit in the face of the Son of God, crowned with thorns, flogged them with Roman scourging, nailed them to a cross. That very one now is written and seated at God's right hand.
I've told this story before, but it bears repeating.
About a man who professed to be an atheist. And this was years ago. At least 75, maybe 100 years ago he professed to be an atheist.
But he sometimes found himself in a position of ignorance when people would talk about the things of the Lord and about the Lord Jesus Christ. So he decided he better at least get a little bit familiar with it so he could talk intelligently. And in order to do that, he made a trip to the land, as it was called in those days, the land of Palestine.
Nation of Israel had not come into place yet and he was taken, among other things.
To what is known as the garden tube. I have never been there, but there are those here I believe who have, and I have spoken to various ones who have been there. Whether or not it is the real tomb of the Lord Jesus, we don't know for sure, but at any rate it's very close to where it would have been and could easily have been the actual 2.
I believe it is owned by the British and the land around it, and I understand that anyone who takes a tour of that area, including a tour of the tomb, those tours are conducted by those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this man went there with a small group of people and was taken to see the Garden tomb. Well, he wasn't at all interested and rather was full of mockery. And as they were taken into the tomb there, he began to look around before the guide could say anything.
And in mocking tones, he said, What did you bring us here for? What's in here to see anyway? There is nothing here. That's what's the point of all this.
Well, he opened his mouth once too often, and the guy who was equal to the occasion, he drew himself up and he said, yes, Sir, I am glad you made that remark. You're right. There is nothing here. You want to see a tomb with something in it. There are millions of them in this world, and every other religious leader in this world is now in a tomb. But he said Christianity can show you an empty tomb.
The one that once was in this tomb is now risen and glorified at God's right hand. And he went on, and I believe quote of this verse. And if we could use that expression, he laid it on good and thick.
That struck hold on to that man's heart. Oh, what a serious position he was in, if indeed the one that had lain in that tomb was risen and glorified. What an awful position he was in.
We say to you tonight, on the authority of the Word of God, why not come to Christ? Why not accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior?
We'll sing another hymn now, but before we do.
I wanna say this. Maybe there is someone here tonight that is truly safe. Maybe you have really come to Christ, but you haven't told anyone. May I encourage you to tell someone? If you're truly saved tonight, tell someone. If you don't have anyone close to you to tell you, come up here afterwards. There are some of us that would love to hear you.
01:00:21
Confess the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Some years ago there was a gospel meeting in New Jersey and after that meeting there was a young boy that came up and said, I want you to know that I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. Oh, that was wonderful to hear, to hear. But there may be someone else here who is holding out and maybe in your heart there is still rebellion against God.
Let me tell you one more story, if I may.
Again, pardon a personal reference.
I'll refer to another young man with whom I started university same year.
And by all outward appearances, he was a Rascal.
He was a Rascal and he delighted to speak of the various things that he did.
Which were anything but upright.
But the Lord had his eye on that young man, and I remember well when I went back to a class reunion about 10 years ago, and there he was, saved.
Saved by the grace of God, I said. Lee, how did it happen? How did it happen? Because you were anything but a Christian when I knew you a few years ago.
Oh, he said. Bill, a man spoke to me.
At a fall fair when I was a teenager and he said I was with two other teenagers and we all three made a mockery of it. And I was the worst one. I made the most mockery of it. The others wanted to listen at least to what he had to say, but I wouldn't let them. I said don't bother with that nonsense and I wouldn't let them listen to them. And off we went just to have fun. But he said, you know, the Lord spoke to me. And eventually I came to the point that I realized.
That I was a lost Sinner. But he said Bill, it took, it took something. He said I knew I had to be saved. And so I went to my room and this was long after he had graduated and was practicing medicine. And he said, I stood there in my room and I said that I was a Sinner. And I said the words accepting Christ as my Savior.
He said. I knew I wasn't safe. I didn't feel any different.
And something, said Lee. Kneel down.
So, he said. I kneeled down on one knee.
And I said it again.
He said I knew I wasn't saved. I didn't feel any different at all. Not that feelings are the criterion by which we judge whether we're saved or not, but he said I knew it wasn't real. And something said Lee put both knees down. No, I don't want to be misunderstood. Our posture when we accept Christ is not important in that sense. You don't have to kneel down to become a Christian. Don't misunderstand me.
But with Lee, it was an indication of what was going on in his heart. And he said, Bill, I tried to put the other knee down and I couldn't get it down and I couldn't get it down. And I kept trying and it wouldn't go down. And he said finally I had to take both of my hands and take hold of that knee. And he said I literally forced it onto the floor of that bedroom.
And then I had owned myself as a lost Sinner and accepted Christ. And when I got up off my knees, I knew it was real. I knew I was safe. Oh, he said, the rebellion of my heart wasn't going to put that knee down. And I had to realize that there was still a vestige that wanted the benefits of salvation but wasn't willing to bow my knee fully to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, we trust that if there's anyone here that is not saved, you'll come to Christ tonight.
Let's sing part of another hymn now #14.
I'm sorry.
That's not to him. 25 Beg your pardon, 2525.
01:05:00
Life at best is very brief.
Like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheath being kind, fading days are telling fast that the dye will soon be cast in the fatal line be passed be in time.
First two first flowers soon decay. Youth and beauty pass away.
Oh, you have not long to stay being time while God's Spirit did. You come Sinner, do no longer roam, lest you seal your hopeless doom. Be in time.
Last two verses, please, of #25 versus 3:00 and 4:00.
Time is gliding swiftly by. Heaven and judgment go from God to the heart of the fighting. Time for my grave. Count the daughter.
Lloyd may cross, and your Christmas soul belongs being thine.
Big and thine, may and may.
One of the boys out here in the world kill me.
Until you're on your way, you can never make my no. Open your heart as you're crying. Become still alive being in time.
Or father.