If you find yourself unable to hear, just
raise your voice or your hand, and I
think we can make ourselves heard without this,
whatever it is.
It's nice to see you tonight.
I want to read, if I may, I
suppose the most familiar words from the Gospel
of Matthew.
If you have a Bible and care to
turn with me, but it is not my
custom to ask men and women to turn
with me, I know that there are many
folk who would much rather that the Scripture
was read to them, but evening by evening
I will be telling you from the portion
of the Word of God that I will
be reading, and if you wish to turn
you can, if you would rather listen, you
are at liberty so to do.
I am reading this evening from the 27th
chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.
When the morning was come, all the chief
priests and elders of the people took counsel
against Jesus to put him to death.
And when they had found him, they led
him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate,
the governor.
And Jesus stood before the governor, and the
governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king
of the Jews?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.
And when he was accused of the chief
priests and the elders, he answered nothing.
Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not
how many things they witness against thee?
And he answered him to never a word,
insomuch that the governor marveled greatly.
Now at that feast the governor was wont
to release unto the people a prisoner whom
they would.
And they had then a notable prisoner called
Barabbas.
Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said
unto them, Who will ye that I release
unto you?
Barabbas, or Jesus, who is called the Christ.
Verse 22, Then Pilate said unto them, What
shall I do with this called Christ?
And they all say unto him, Let him
be crucified.
And the governor said, Why, what evil hath
he done?
But they cried out the more, saying, Let
him be crucified.
And when Pilate saw that he could prevail
nothing, but that rather a tumult was made,
he took water and washed his hands before
the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the
blood of this just person.
See ye to it.
Then answered all the people and said, His
blood be on us and on our children.
Now may the Lord just add his blessing
to the reading of his own precious work.
I presume that most of you have already
this evening gathered that which is on my
heart.
For tonight and in the coming nights, if
the Lord will, I want to suggest that
the most important thing for any one of
us to do is to face the claims
of Jesus Christ.
And face them earnestly.
And face them thoughtfully.
And I suggest to you that if I
can get you to do that, then I
am persuaded that there's not a fellow or
a girl, there's not a man or a
woman, who will have to acknowledge that Jesus
Christ is the most unique person they've ever
thought of.
There's not a fellow or a god or
a man or a woman, if I can
get you to think with me a pinch,
but will acknowledge that his claims are the
most tremendous.
That there's no end to them.
And I would dare we come to the
close of the gatherings, that every fellow and
girl and man and woman here would also
acknowledge that that Christ has a claim on
their life.
And in responding to that claim, they will
find, like to use the words of my
friend Leslie Glenn, Life with a capital L.
And if you will please, you with a
capital Y.
So I text tonight, so simple and yet
so profound.
Sir, Madam, you young man, what shall I
do then with Jesus, who is called the
Christ?
No, no, I've got a big concern with
what you're going to do with me, it
doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Long ago I passed worrying what men think
of me or even think of my preaching.
But I am most concerned tonight as to
what you think of Jesus Christ.
For if you are wrong in your attitude
to him, then life and eternity will be
lived.
You will rue your thoughts concerning the Savior.
Now I want to suggest to you that
there are two great truths in the text
that we have quoted.
We have put before us, first of all,
the greatest person in the universe.
It's not that true.
What shall I do then with Jesus?
All you say for just a moment, Mr.
Preacher, it's all very well for you to
talk like that.
You tell me that Jesus is the greatest
person in the universe, while there have been
many great men.
Won't confuse you.
Why, the followers of Buddha would claim for
him that he was the greatest person that
ever lived.
If you go away from the lands that
bow before his land, then they will turn
over the homage who can claim almost as
many followers of Jesus.
The greatest person in the universe.
Yes, the greatest person in the universe.
And, sir, you will soon find out that
I don't stand in front of a congregation
like this and make statements without thinking about
them.
I spend too much of the months of
a year before a crowd of undergraduates from
the University of Cambridge to dare stand in
front of anyone and make a statement unless
I think it through.
Because I have too many people who come
to me afterwards and say, for just a
moment, and if I say that Jesus Christ
is the greatest person in the universe, I
don't ask you to accept that, but I
want you to understand that I believe it,
and I believe I can prove it as
well.
And then I won't suggest to you that
the second great truth in our text is
not only that it brings before the greatest
person in the universe, but it brings before
the greatest problem in the universe.
What shall I do, then, with Jesus, who
is called the Christ?
For what I do with Christ affects every
moment of my life.
What I do with Christ affects my attitude
in a service like this, my behavior in
front of others.
What I do with Jesus Christ affects my
work at school and at college.
For suddenly I begin to realize that life
has a purpose in it, or I dare
believe that life has no purpose in it.
What I do with Jesus Christ will affect,
indeed, my relationship with my husband or my
wife, with my children and my friends.
What I do with Jesus Christ will affect
my eternal destiny.
And I think that's important in any man's
reckoning.
So shall I say again, here is the
greatest person in the universe.
What shall I do, then, with Jesus?
Here is the greatest problem in the universe.
What shall I do with Jesus?
Firstly, then, now you young folk on the
side, please.
If you don't want to listen, please leave.
I didn't travel for thousands of miles like
this to come to a service and look
into the face of a crowd of diggity
children.
I beg you.
I speak of the Lord Jesus from the
Calvary.
I would expect, as I always get in
an American audience, respect for the things I
do.
It would be nice when you young folk
get converted.
Pardon me for that.
I don't love starting the service.
You shall understand, telling young folk off.
I said that first we have the greatest
person.
Then, of course, we have the greatest problem.
First, the greatest person, Jesus Christ.
Now, I'm going to suggest to you there
are three reasons that I believe that Jesus
Christ is the greatest person in the universe.
I believe he's the greatest person in the
universe, first of all, because he is the
only one who has ever revealed God.
Now repeat.
He is the only one who has ever
revealed God.
My older friend, tell me, is it not
true that many a time you have sat
in your chair, if you were in my
country I would say by the fireside, but
here by the central heating anyway, you've sat
down and you've said to yourself, oh, is
there a God?
I hear so many people speak of our
eternal being.
I hear so many statements for and against.
Is there a God?
And then is it possible for me to
know that God?
Well, I'm going to dare say that Jesus
is the greatest person in the universe because
he is the only one that has ever
revealed God.
If you want to know God, then you
can come to know him.
The Master himself looked into the face of
one of his disciples and said, He that
hath seen me hath seen the Father.
The second thing I want to say, that
Jesus Christ is the only one that has
ever lived who not only reveals God, but
the only one who ever lived who has
redeemed for God.
All we've got is a chance.
Is it not a chance that every one
of us in this house, when we examine
our own hearts and our own lives, we
know that we have not even reached the
standard we've set for ourselves?
Let alone the standard God has set for
us.
And yet there is one, blessed be God,
who has come from heaven to reveal God.
Blessed be his name, he came from heaven
to redeem for God.
Oh, my sin, oh the bliss of this
glorious thought!
My sin not in part, but the whole.
It's now to the cross, and I'll bear
it no more.
It is well, it is well, my soul.
But he not only redeems for God, as
he reveals God, but also he is the
only person and I challenge any man or
woman in this house to tell me anyone
else who's living who has lived of whom
these three things could be said.
He is the only one who reveals God,
the only one who redeems for God, and
he's the only one who reconciles to God.
For redemption and reconciliation is surely seen as
we catch in Jesus Christ a revelation of
God.
First, he's the only one who reveals God.
Now, I don't doubt that any person who
has any thought in them at all would
agree when I suggest that when we think
of the birth of the Lord Jesus, we
know that the Bible tells us that here
we have a revelation of God.
I was saying just the other evening, I
would repeat myself if you will permit me,
I was saying just the other evening that
in imagination many a time I wended my
way to a stable on that dark Galilean
night.
And there upon entering the stable I bathed
down into the face of a babe in
a manger.
I dared to say this, Emmanuel, God with
us.
For though there may be darkness in that
stable, that babe is the light of the
world.
Though there may be no food in that
stable, that babe is the bread of heaven.
Though there may be no nurse or midwife
in that stable, that babe is the great
physician.
I have said, I suppose, literally hundreds of
times as I have searched young men who
were preparing in some measure for the work
of God, I have said, young men, remember
this.
Remember this.
When you gaze at that babe, you do
not gaze at the Son of God.
You gaze at God.
God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
For my Bible says that the Father prepared
that body.
A body was found prepared.
My Bible says God the Spirit produced that
body, for He conceived of the Holy Ghost.
But my Bible says that God the Son
possessed that body.
A body that was prepared of the Father,
and produced of the Spirit, and possessed of
the Son, is a body that tells me
that God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Emmanuel, God,
is with us.
And I find the name of the message
of Christ.
Oh, friend, God tailored.
God took off hair more than He has
tailored.
But Jesus Christ came into the world to
reveal God.
I'm here suggesting to you that we have
a revelation of God in the birth of
the Lord Jesus, and there's no one else
in His birth who has revealed God like
this.
But we have a revelation of God in
the life of the Lord Jesus.
Now, I don't know you, you see.
I know nothing of your background.
I know nothing of your thinking.
I haven't had the privilege of sitting down,
really, with any one of you, and discussing
the things that really matter.
I only know this, though.
That if God's heart says a man or
woman here tonight, who has rejected Jesus Christ,
then you are facing the greatest problem anyone
could face.
This is the problem.
If Jesus was not what He claimed to
be, who was?
May I repeat that?
If Jesus was not who He claimed to
be, who was He?
He was the illegitimate son of a peasant.
Please, back say once.
If He wasn't what He claimed to be,
He was the illegitimate son of a peasant
who never went to school, who only once
in his life ever crossed the boundary of
a little country that has become almost the
smallest country in the world.
And yet, look what He's done.
He's transformed the history of this world.
Look what He's done.
He has followers today, two thousand years after
His birth and death, who would be prepared
to lay down their lives.
There are men and women today beyond the
Iron Curtain who are being cast into prison.
Many of them beaten and starved.
Many of them enjoying terrible suffering.
And they're doing it for one who was
the illegitimate son of a peasant.
When He died, that was the end of
Him.
They're doing it to a face that's based
upon an absolute lie.
That He never rose from the dead.
That it's not true.
And the people who said He rose from
the dead knew it wasn't true.
They knew it wasn't true.
But they stood up and said, We saw
Him.
We had caught Him.
We ate from Him.
And they're doing it for a pack of
lies.
Well, I don't want to go any further.
I want to tell you this, sir.
I haven't followed cunningly devised tables.
And the Christian faith can stand the searchlight
of any man's intelligence.
When I say to you that Jesus Christ
revealed God, I suggest to you it is
the only way you can account for Him.
That He went about lying dyes Jesus made
to see, dumb lips made to talk.
We're living in a day when people laugh
at the miracles.
Have you ever noticed anything?
Have you ever noticed that those Jews that
hated Him and would have done Him to
death, they never once came out and said
all that He'd done was wrong.
There wasn't a holy priest who said, He
said He raised from dead.
He never did.
Because Lazarus was there as evidence of the
fact that He had.
There wasn't one of those Jews who said,
He said He had lepers to behold.
He never did.
Because there were lepers all around.
All the denials of the miracles came about
500 years after the church came into being,
if you know anything of the edition.
People that hated Him didn't deny those things.
I dare say this to you tonight, as
you think of the Savior, you can only
account for Him that He was God.
His birth tells it, His life tells it,
but listen, you need something more than that.
Can I ask you to imagine something with
me?
Can I ask you to imagine that instead
of the cotton being at the back there,
it was way in the front here of
the platform.
And instead of the grand piano being there,
it was on the platform.
And instead of my being here to speak
to you, we have here the world's greatest
pianist.
I don't know who that is.
Who's that, Mr. O'Leary?
No, I don't know who that is.
Well, say Paderewski.
He's been dead a long while, was going
to perform on the piano.
Do you know something?
There wouldn't be any vacant seats.
This chapel would have been cracked.
And suddenly before the crack night, I say
to you, ladies and gentlemen, how are you?
And instead of sitting down at the grand
piano, the great pianist sat down at the
little one-octave toy piano.
What would you say?
You'd sit back in your seats and you'd
say, look, Jolly fellow, don't worry.
What?
Just one octave?
Too dangerous?
What?
Oh, please.
Before the world's greatest pianist could pour out
his soul in his music, he'd need more
than the one octave of a child's piano,
I would think.
Nothing wrong with his music, nothing wrong with
his ability to play, something wrong with the
instrument.
He'd need the full keyboard of a grand
piano that he might run his fingers over
there and tell you, in his music, what
his heart felt.
Sir, I thank God for the one octave
of the birth of Jesus Christ.
He revealed God.
Emmanuel, God's with us.
I thank God for the two octaves of
his birth and his life.
But we want the child to spring to
heaven and say, my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased.
But it needs more than the one octave
of his birth or the two octaves of
his birth and his life to reveal God.
It needs the full keyboard of his birth
and his life and his death.
And in the 8th chapter of John, some
of those disciples occurred his claims that he
claimed to be God.
And they turned to him and they said,
but is this true?
Tell me now.
And this is what Peasel said in the
8th of John, When you have lifted up
the Son of Man, then shall you know
that I am he.
Do you want to see God?
Do you want a revelation of God?
Then come with me to Calvary.
Dig upon a cross, seek out what dwells
on his hands and feet, put a crown
of thorns on his brow, and you'll see
God.
He reveals God, reveals the heart of God,
as he reveals his love for a poor,
lost world.
Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do.
He reveals the righteousness of God, as there
he reveals to us that the wages of
sin is death.
Oh, listen, friend, if you want to know
God, there's one place you've come to know
him, and that place is Calvary.
You'll see him there.
You see, I feel this is most important.
Would you permit me to bear just a
little word of simple testimony?
You will find I don't speak of myself.
This is the only thing I'll say during
the next few days.
But I wasn't brought up in a Christian
house.
I wasn't raised among folk who say their
prayers and read their Bible.
I didn't go to church, or chapel, or
Sunday school of my life.
I was a man before ever I heard
the Gospel, and I didn't hear it in
a place like this.
The first time I ever heard the Gospel
in my life, I heard it in a
pub.
I was leaning against a bar with a
pint of beer in my hand, and suddenly
the door opened, and a little girl came
in with a post box and a bundle
of war cry.
About the age of some of you girls
here.
She went from one to another, and she
said, Will you buy a war cry?
And half drunk, I said, I'll buy a
war cry, Missy, if you'll sing us a
song.
I know what you want.
And she said, I'll be very happy to
sing a song.
Will you ask the men to be quiet?
Oh, I've often said that was different.
You know, I didn't mind the girl singing
a hymn, but I didn't want to be
the chairman of a religious meeting in a
pub where I used to go.
Well, she put me on the spot.
She said, will you ask the men to
be quiet?
And I turned to a crowd of drinking,
cussing, barons.
I said, follow us.
Will you be quiet?
The girls were asleep.
She jumped up on the table in the
public bar of the Fife Way Hotel in
my hometown.
And she sat on a hill, piled raised
with an old, rugged, limbal, suffering chair.
And I love that old promise.
We're the dearest and best for a world
of lost sinners, they say.
Oh, I wasn't converted that night.
But that was the start in my life.
That was the start.
Not the realization that Christ was so wonderful,
but the realization that that girl thought he
was so wonderful, that God had revealed himself
to her.
And it was at the cross.
Oh, friends, can you tell me anyone else
that can reveal God but Jesus Christ?
Anyone.
But he is not only the one that
reveals God, he is the one that redeems
for God.
We sing sometimes to win our redemption.
Oh, what a wonderful story.
A polite message for you and for me,
that Jesus has purchased our pardon, and paid
all the debt on the tree.
He redeems for God.
Isn't that tremendous?
Also, what can we say about him?
He redeems.
May I be permitted to tell a story?
Now, please, again I must apologize to you.
I don't know any American stories.
And some of my stories are English stories,
as you'll understand.
But we have a story that is associated
with the British Medical Society.
Doctors in our country love to tell it.
It goes back to the years.
A woman was sitting up tall on the
northeast coast of England, the world's largest fishing
port.
They lived down by the angry road in
one of the slum areas of the city.
A mother with her three children.
A man was a fisherman in Murray South.
They didn't have any money.
And one day, the mother went to the
room of the wee boy, and she knew
not what to do as he was tossing
about with a fever.
And all day and all night she was
there by his side, trying to cool his
brow, trying to comfort the wee boy who
just cried.
She had to go out to the back
to hand some washing out, and as she
was taking out the washings, her neighbor said,
What did you take him to the doctor?
Doctor?
I don't have any money to take him
to the doctor.
The man is fishing, and he doesn't get
any money until he comes home, and he
hasn't been home for weeks.
What did you take him to Dr. Nelson?
He's a Christian doctor.
He looked at me, and as he looked,
he put her arms around a boy of
ten, and carried him a mile and a
half from the Anabey Road across Hull till
she came to the surgery of the great
Dr. Nelson.
Surprising what some mother could do.
Carry a boy of ten in her arms.
That's it.
As soon as the doctor looked at the
lad, he actually diagnosed that the boy had
diptych.
He laid it there upon his little table,
went to his drawer and took out his
pump and his little rubber tube, and placing
his rubber tube at the seat of poison,
he began with his little pump to pull
away the poison, when suddenly, the rubber tube
broke away from the pump, for he'd not
used it for a while.
And with no thought to himself, immediately the
great Dr. Nelson dropped his lips to that
pump and sucked out the poison.
In my country they love to tell that
that day a little slum boy had his
life saved.
But that day the great Dr. Nelson contracted
diptheria, from which he died and passed into
the presence of his God.
Ah, but what am I doing?
Whatever am I doing?
Why did I want to talk to you
about Dr. Nelson?
I know someone greater than Dr. Nelson.
I know one who's named Jesus.
The greatest physician the world has ever known.
Down from heaven he came, and there to
Calvary's cost he went, to the seat of
poison, to the seat of the wickedness of
the world, and there he took my sin,
and my soul, and made it his very
own.
He bore my burden to Calvary.
Listen.
He suffered and died alone.
Indeed, Peter put it this way, he bore
my sin in his body.
And I'm aware of this, you young folk,
and Greek prepositions are the hardest things in
the world to translate.
I know that, and I don't know what
you play in or into.
I only know that he bore my sin
in his body.
To the tree?
Oh, may I ask you this evening, is
it not a fact that there's no one
else that's ever lived who died on the
cross to redeem us to God, to take
the punishment of our sin?
But would you notice something more?
He is not only the only person that
reveals God, and the only person who redeems
for God, but he's the only person who
reconciles to God.
Look.
I need to know God.
And Jesus came to reveal Him.
I need to be redeemed for my sin.
My sin has been so awful.
He died on the cross.
You remember the lovely story of your great
Bishop MacDowell.
I know that American story.
I know that one.
You remember the lovely story of your great
Bishop MacDowell, when standing before a great company
of Episcopalian Methodists, he said, Brethren, I wouldn't
cross the road to take a new coat
of ethics to Japan, or a new coat
of moral brilliance, but I'd go round the
world a dozen times to tell one poor
sinner that there is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from a mangled vein, and sinners
plunge beneath its flood.
The Lord hath killed His Son, for He
redeems.
My sin needs to be washed away, and
He died to deal with that, that something
more of my sin has separated me from
God, and I need to be reconciled to
God.
God never needs to be reconciled to me.
It was my sin that turned my back
on Him.
He never turned His back on me.
I need to be reconciled to God, and
the wonder is this, isn't it?
Look, He reveals God at the cross.
John 8, When we have lifted up the
Son of Man, then shall ye know that
I am He.
Isaiah, He redeems for God at the cross.
John 3, As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son
of Man be lifted up.
Isaiah, He reconciles to God at the cross.
John 12, I will lift it up from
the earth.
I will draw all men unto me.
This He said, please don't all stop there,
just an ordinary comment.
This He said, signifying by what death He
should die.
You'll pardon me, brethren, won't you?
You'll pardon me.
But if ever I hear a verse misused,
it's that one.
How many times in a prayer meeting have
I heard brethren before the service say, Lord,
you said if you're lifted up, you'll draw
all men unto you, enable your heart to
lift you up, and I bang my head
and say, God, don't ask me to pray
it.
Why do you ask me to preach to
the crucified Christ again?
This He said, signifying by what death He
should die.
It's Calvary's cross that's before us there.
And, sir, because Christ died on the cross,
He will draw every man and woman to
Him.
There will not be a boy or girl
here tonight.
There will not be a man or a
woman here tonight, but will be drawn to
Him because He died.
Now, please, don't go from this place saying,
I've reached universal reconciliation, because I didn't.
I did not say you will be drawn
to Him for salvation.
I said you'll be drawn to Him.
You'll either be drawn to Him to be
reconciled, or one day, every man shall stand
up for Him and acknowledge that He's Lord,
that glory of God the Father.
But tonight, because He died, He's willing to
reconcile.
Would you please permit me to tell a
story that's an emotional one?
Now, I confess back to you what it
is.
It's an emotional story.
It's not the sort of story I usually
tell, but it's an emotional one.
I confess back to you.
I will tell it as powerfully as I
can.
But I want to tell it because I
think it illustrates what I want to get
over.
Some years ago, my wife and myself were
away in Cardiff, in South Wales.
We were staying on the missionary home, and
I was conducting services in Ebenezer Gospel.
It is my custom, while I'm home, always
to have children's services at six o'clock,
from six till seven or so, and then
the adults' meetings starting at half-past seven
and on.
It was about half-past ten at night.
We'd just got in from the service, and
I was preparing for bed when suddenly a
ring came at the front door.
And I went to the door, and standing
in the doorway there was a preacher.
Do you know, I can see him now,
scything me up.
I wonder why it is no one ever
takes me for a preacher, but they never
do, you know.
And there he was sort of scything me
up.
And he said, I'm sorry, there was a
service over, but I think I might have
come to the wrong place.
I'm looking for someone called Uncle Stan.
Well, you're looking at the wrong person, that's
not the children's boy.
What do you want?
Oh, he said, I'm glad I found you.
Well, he looked everywhere.
And this was the story he told.
So, after the children's service in the Gospel
Hall that evening, as the youngsters were going
out, a little boy, of about ten or
eleven, stepped out in front of a brick
trap and was knocked over.
He was rushed away into hospital and he
was gone.
No chance for him to live.
I suppose because he'd been to a children's
service, when he laid in his bed, he
kept asking for Uncle Stan.
Uncle Stan.
The police had tried everywhere.
They'd gone to where he'd been picked up
on the road.
They'd made inquiries in the glass.
They'd found me, half-past ten at that.
I sat in the police car and they
rushed me off to the hospital.
I walked into the ward and there I
pushed myself behind the curtains, for in our
long wars, when someone is seriously ill, they
have curtains around them.
I pushed myself beyond the curtains and I
went and looked down into the face of
the wall.
Now, you big grown men, you know, let
me ask you something.
What do you tell a boy who's dying
and you know he's dying if you don't
know Jesus Christ?
Now, simply put, what do you tell him?
Beyond a pack of lies.
Beyond saying you'll get better when you know
very well he won't.
What do you tell him?
Well, I looked down at the boy and
I put my hand on his shoulder and
with a smile I said, Jimmy, all I
know, not the exact words I said, is
you will appreciate for I was there with
a loved one the first.
And I said, Jimmy, you'll be going home
to the Lord Jesus soon.
I said, I'd better give him the love,
wouldn't you?
Tell him that when he's ready for me
to come, I'm ready to come.
And I just spoke to a boy who
before long, for he trusted the Saviour, he's
going home to be with the Lord, and
there's nothing wrong with a boy going home
to be with the Lord.
Nothing wrong with the boy.
And I stood by his bed.
Suddenly the curtains pushed aside and his mother
came in and then the story came out.
Some years before, a young girl had fallen
in love with a young boy and after
a while, maybe before talking, they married.
And the little boy was born about two
years after.
But somehow the marriage went apart.
Somehow they drifted apart.
They never intended to, but they drifted apart.
And eventually they went to a court and
they had a separation order.
Cursed, they, separation order.
And the boy was given to live with
his mother for six months And his dad
went back to Pontefract where he was a
coal miner and worked under the ground.
And his mom got herself a job.
She got herself a job in St. Mary's
Street in Cardiff, working in a little restaurant,
and she was working nights.
And the boy was left to look after
himself till she came home after ten.
That's how they found me before they found
his mother.
She was looking for him when he didn't
come home because he was working.
I wants to go!
And she said, oh no, Sam, you're staying.
And I stood there and after a while
his father came for she told them where
father was.
He'd been working back shift and he came
out of the ground and still had coal
dust on him.
And I wants to go, and he said
in his Welsh tongue, oh Sam, stay.
And I saw a little boy who took
his hands from the canter pane of his
bed and took his mummy's hand and took
his daddy's hand.
And I saw them as he leant from
the gutter and looked up at them.
And mummy, daddy, don't go away anymore.
Five days later there was an inquest.
I stood by the side of a little
grave in Ely cemetery in Cardiff.
And I said ashes to ashes, dust to
dust.
And I turned away and as I turned
away I saw husband slip his arm around
his wife's shoulder.
I saw him as he helped her up
into the car.
And I saw him as he followed her.
And I looked at them as their head
rested on his shoulder and I said, Reconciled.
But it needed the death of their son.
Reconciled.
Now I told that story tonight because if
you were with me last Sunday in Cardiff
I would have taken you along to a
little assembly that was the resort of one
of the tent missions we had in Cardiff
away at a place called Glenisham.
And I would have taken you into a
little chapel, well a chapel this size I
suppose but a congregation larger than this.
And at Sunday school I would have taken
you into a Sunday school and I would
have shown you 300 children.
And you would have said, who's the man
who's the superintendent?
And I'd say, that's the man.
He slipped his arms around his shoulder's wife,
his wife's shoulder.
And I would have taken you down to
a primary class with about 60 little tackers.
And the lady in charge would say to
his wife, Reconciled.
But it needed the death of their son.
And he'd come with me to the cross.
Nails in his hands and his feet and
a crown of thorns on his back.
And over the cross I want to write
you letters of flame.
Reconciled.
He is the only one who can reveal,
redeem.
What will you do then with Jesus?
He's the greatest person in the universe.
So here's the greatest part, what will you
do?
Now what did they do?
What did they do?
This is what we read.
Harper, let me quote it to you.
His blood be on us and on our
children.
Can I repeat?
His blood be on us and on our
children.
What are you saying to that?
What will you do then with Jesus?
Are you saying His blood be on us
and on our children?
Sir, I hope you're not an idiot, sir.
Sir, listen.
I hope you are.
You see, it's not the words, is it?
Is that true?
It's not the words, is it?
It's how you say it, isn't it?
You see, it's the cry of the condemned.
It's the cry of men and women who
couldn't care less.
What does it matter that Christ died?
His blood be on us and on our
children.
We couldn't care less.
It's the cry of the condemned.
It isn't.
It's not only the cry of the condemned.
It's the cry of the convicted.
When a man realises that God loved him
and Christ died for him, that man says,
He's got to be.
His blood be on us and on our
children.
It's our fault that he died.
It's my fault that he hung there.
His blood be on us.
It's the cry of the convicted.
It's the cry of the condemned.
Hallelujah.
It's the cry of the convicted.
Let me say it as a father of
two children.
Oh God, his blood be on us and
on our children.
I say, let me say it as a
grandfather.
I've got three grandchildren.
Listen, his blood be on us and on
our children.
For I know of no place where a
man can shatter from the love of God.
I know of no place where a man
can shatter from the consequences of his faith.
I know of no place where a man
or a woman can shatter from the problems
of life but under the blood of Jesus
Christ.
His blood be on us and on our
children.
That's what he said tonight.
The time allocated to me is gone.
But the responsibility hasn't gone.
It's just been taken off my shoulders and
put on yours.
I thank God that thirty years ago the
young man of twenty-four, I said, Yes
to Jesus Christ.
That I said his blood be on us.
What do you say to that?
Shall we pray?