As we come to worship the Lord this
morning, I'd like to direct your attention to
the Gospel of John, the fifteenth chapter, and
two verses, verses four and five.
Abide in me, and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except
it abide in the vine, no more can
ye except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in
him, the same, bringeth forth much fruit, for
without me ye can do nothing.
As we come
into thy presence, we invoke thy special blessing
on this service.
May it be an unusual service.
Bless the one who sings, may she sing
in the power of the Holy Spirit, even
beyond her own capabilities, and reach our hearts
as she ministers the word of God in
this way.
Bless all who participate, bless particularly thy servant,
Dr. Oswald J.
Smith, as he brings the message in just
a few minutes.
May this be an unusual service from every
standpoint, for we ask it in the name
of Jesus, and for his sake, amen.
Would you take your hymn books, please, and
turn to hymn number two hundred and two.
Hymn number two hundred and two, Like a
River, Glorious, as
we face the new year.
State upon Jehovah, what a firm, sure foundation
that is.
We welcome you to the People's Church this
morning, and those of you who have joined
us by way of television, a very warm
welcome to you as well.
We have some good music for you.
Dr. Oswald J.
Smith is going to come and minister, and
that is a rare treat, believe you me,
at the age of ninety-two.
We thank God for this.
Right now I'm going to introduce to you
Diane Hull.
She comes from near Detroit, she has three
lovely children, and she has a very wonderful
husband who lets her travel around, and he's
home looking after the children, and even a
dog besides.
And she's with us today, she comes originally
from England, she is not only a great
vocalist, but an excellent pianist as well.
And Diane, we welcome you warmly to the
People's Church.
Diane Hull, God bless you, you sing for
us this morning.
Good to have you here.
Viewers, if you will please, we'd like to
share together in reading number sixty-one, a
New Year's reading, number sixty-one.
We'll read responsibly this beautiful passage of the
Word of God.
I bless the holy name of God with
all my heart.
He has removed our sins as far away
from us as the east is from the
west.
He knows we are but dust, and that
our days are few and brief like grass,
like flowers blown by the wind and gone
forever.
And his faithfulness goes on and on to
each succeeding generation.
We glide along the tides of time as
swiftly as a racing river, and vanish as
quickly as a dream, and
some may even live to eighty.
But even the best of these years are
often emptiness and pain, soon they disappear and
we're gone.
Teach us to number our days, few they
are.
Norma Cooper will come and lead us.
For the Lord shall we.
Our loving heavenly Father, as we've read thy
word this morning, we've been reminded of the
fact that thou hast been so good to
us in giving us another year.
And as we look back on this last
Sunday of nineteen eighty-one, we look back
with deep gratitude in our hearts.
We want to thank thee for the way
thou hast kept us, preserved our lives, provided
for our every need, guided us through every
storm, sustained us in every trial, been sufficient
for every circumstance.
Oh, we thank thee this morning, and we
bless thee because we know that as thou
hast been with us in this year, thou
will be just the same in nineteen eighty
-two.
And we can go forward with confidence not
in ourselves, but in complete trust in thee,
knowing that thou dost go before us.
And we can commit an unknown future to
a known God, and be assured that thou
wilt lead us, and thou wilt bless and
thou wilt help us.
Father, this morning we want to commit our
lives afresh to thee.
We pray for everyone who does not know
Jesus Christ, that they will not dare to
venture into the darkness of nineteen eighty-two
without the light of life, that they will
not be so courageous as to face the
unknown without placing their hand in the hand
of God, trusting Christ as their Savior.
Oh, we pray that thou wilt help us
who do know thee, that we will not
take for granted thy mercy and grace, but
help us, help us, everyone, to truly commit
our lives afresh to thee, and give to
thee our heart, our strength, our all, and
determine that this new year we will live
wholly for God, lives that are well-pleasing
to thee, youthful lives, fruitful lives.
May this new year be the best year,
not necessarily materially, but oh, may it be
the best year spiritually.
Dear God, help us to glorify thee, for
thou art worthy.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So many,
many people, but first we're going to call
on Diane Hull to come and sing a
great truth in our hearts, the fact that
because he lives, I can face tomorrow.
Great song for the new year, Diane, God
bless you.
For the sake of our own people this
morning, I think I should say I have
a suspicion that many of you are doing
precisely what I have been doing relative to
the banquet on Tuesday night.
You all expect to come, but you haven't
bought a ticket yet, and I'm in that
same club.
Now, I intend after the service this morning
to buy two tickets, and I'm going to
be there.
And may I suggest to you, of course,
all of our elders who are not busy
elsewhere are going to be there with their
wives, and all of our Sunday school teachers,
if they're not busy elsewhere, will be there
with their wives.
Of course, all of our musical ministry, if
they're not busy elsewhere, will be there with
their wives or their husbands or in their
own single blessedness.
But may I suggest to you that you
get your ticket along with me after the
service this morning.
I became a little frightened when I heard
Pastor Joe say there's only a little over
150 tickets left, so I'm going to have
to buy it fast.
Now, we've arranged for tickets to be available
at just about any door that you go
out downstairs.
They'll be over on these doors.
They'll be in the lobby, so that you
will not have a long lineup in order
to purchase your ticket.
But I wonder if you would do that
together with me immediately after the service this
morning.
In one way, this service today and all
day is a bit sad for us here
in the People's Church because we're losing one
of our very valued pastors in the person
of Reverend John Rush.
Mr. Rush is going to preach for the
last time on this occasion, at least here
in the People's Church in our service tonight.
But I thought our morning crowd, which includes
his adult Bible class that meets over here
on my left every Sunday morning, which he
has taught for a long, long time now,
our morning service may not have the kind
of opportunity that you and I would like
to have to say God bless you to
Reverend and Mrs. John Rush and their family
as they move to become the pastor of
the Waverly Road Baptist Church.
Incidentally, if you live in the Waverly Road
Baptist Church area and you cannot possibly get
to the People's Church, or if you have
both legs broken, stumble into Waverly Road Baptist
because you will be hearing one of the
best preachers in Canada.
I wonder if our morning audience would like
to say goodbye to John.
Let's do that.
I am
very, very happy to introduce the speaker of
the morning because I've known him for a
long time.
And I'm delighted that God has enabled my
father, Dr. Oswald J.
Smith, to recover so that he was able
to be in the service last Sunday.
And he's able to preach this Sunday.
Just before Dr. Smith rises to bring the
message of the morning, the sales manager, one
of the executives of the Welch Publishing Company
here in Toronto that has already published a
great many of our books and has just
produced a beautiful treasury of five of Dr.
Smith's best-known books, Mr. David Cole would
like to come and make a presentation to
Dr. Smith.
And when he has done that, Dr. Smith
will respond and then continue with the message
of the morning.
Mr. David Cole of G.R. Welch Publishing
Company.
Thank you, Dr. Cole.
It is indeed a real privilege to be
at the People's Church this morning and to
be sharing this moment with you.
I've looked forward to this for a long
time because of our association with Dr. Oswald
and Dr. Paul.
And it is a real privilege to be
here.
It is unique in a way to be
able to stand here and to make a
presentation to such a tremendous, tremendous servant of
God as Dr. Oswald J.
Smith.
It is also unique in the history of
a country, in the history of a church,
and in the history of a publishing company
to have the opportunity of honoring such a
statesman as we will do this morning.
There is much one could say about the
life of Dr. Oswald J.
Smith, but we will reserve that for the
fall of 1982 when we will be coming
out with the life story of Dr. Oswald
J.
Smith.
But this morning we want to look at
the five books which the G.R. Welch
Company have put together in the Oswald J.
Smith Treasury.
Dr. Paul Smith alluded to the fact that
it was a beautiful edition, and we think
it is.
It is rare in the publishing industry to
find the works of a man that have
endured the test of time.
These five books have done that.
You will find books in here that go
back 30, 40, even 50 years when they
were originally published, and were still in print
when we came out with this edition.
This gives this treasury a unique background.
And so on behalf of the G.R.
Welch Company, Dr. Oswald Smith, I would like
to present this treasury to you as the
man most certainly whom God has used.
Let me say that I am delighted beyond
words to receive these five books published once
again and done by a company right here
in Toronto.
God has enabled me to write about 35
different books altogether.
And these 35 books have been scattered all
over the world, many in foreign languages as
well as English.
Altogether the English books number one and a
half million copies, and they are in circulation
at the present time throughout the world.
At least one and a quarter million are
in active circulation.
And now this company has chosen five of
them, five of the 35, and they've published
them so that after I'm gone they'll still
be getting out the message for the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And I trust that if you haven't had
them that you'll get them this morning and
that they'll be a real blessing to you
in the days that lie ahead.
I wonder if you realize the fact that
there are very, very few pulpits throughout the
entire world where a man in his nineties
is standing in the pulpit.
God has permitted me to live to be
92 years of age and to stand in
the pulpit of the people's church this morning.
I'm sure that not one percent of the
pulpits throughout the world have men standing in
them this morning who are over 90 years
of age.
And so I praise God for the opportunity
that is mine today, and I pray that
he'll bless and bless abundantly.
So I thank this organization for publishing five
of my books so that my message will
be carried on long after I'm gone.
I praise God for it.
Now this morning I want to turn to
Acts the 16th chapter and the 31st verse
where it reads very definitely in answering the
question, what must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved.
I want to emphasize saving faith and just
be as brief as I possibly can, and
yet I want to be simple enough so
that everyone in this audience will be able
to understand.
What is the meaning of saving faith?
Let me answer by saying there are three
steps that must be taken.
First of all, hear, h-e-a-r,
hear.
There must be a knowledge of salvation before
anyone can be saved.
That's why we send missionaries to the foreign
field.
They cannot possibly be saved until they have
a knowledge of God's salvation.
They must hear first of all.
Then in the second place, they must believe.
You hear the message first, and then you
believe the message.
I turned to the dictionary one time a
number of years ago to find out the
meaning of the word believe, and the dictionary
read like this, to consent with the mind,
to consent with the mind, no word about
the heart, no word about saving faith, no
word about getting saved or anything like that.
It just simply said that the meaning of
the word believe is to consent with the
mind.
Well, you know as well as I do
that it will not save anyone to consent
with the mind.
That has nothing whatever to do with salvation
except that it proves that you have a
knowledge of salvation.
To consent with the mind will not save.
I traveled all over France, all over Spain,
all over Italy, all over many of the
countries of Europe.
In fact, I've been in every country in
Europe except three, again and again and again.
And I found tens of thousands of people
who consent with the mind.
They believed that Jesus died.
They believed that God promised salvation and provided
it, yet they were not saved.
And I found them everywhere I went, unsaved
people in thousands upon thousands throughout Europe and
for that matter in the United States of
America and even in the Dominion of Canada
who had consented with the mind but had
never passed out of death and into life.
I went to another dictionary and I found
this in that dictionary, giving intellectually assent
to a truth.
In other words, this dictionary said that if
you give intellectually, if you assent intellectually to
a truth, then you have believed.
Now, of course, you know as well as
I do that you can believe intellectually as
much as you want to and never pass
out of death and into life.
And yet that's what thousands upon thousands have
done and they're still unsaved.
They're living the same life that they always
lived.
They're indulging in the same sins in which
they have always indulged, and they have consented
with the mind, and yet they are not
saved.
You find them everywhere you go.
Now, in the Old Testament scriptures, you have
the word trust used 152 times, 152
times.
The word trust is used in the Old
Testament.
When you come to the New Testament, you'll
find that the translators discarded the word trust
and they used the word believe, and therefore
you have the word believe occurring scores of
times in the New Testament scriptures.
Why did it not stay with the Old
Testament translation?
Trust, I'll never know.
If they had, this message this morning would
not be necessary.
It is not sufficient to believe the truths
of the New Testament, the truths of the
gospel.
You and I must trust the Lord Jesus
Christ as our own personal Savior before we
can be saved.
All my life, when I was a boy,
I believed the Bible.
I believed everything in the Bible.
I had no doubts of any kind, but
it was not until I was 16 years
of age that one day in Massey Hall,
I knelt down with other seekers and I
trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my own
personal Savior, and I've trusted him from that
day to this day because the only way
anyone can ever be saved is not by
believing, but by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.
One day, I came across the New English
Bible and I turned to Acts the 16th
chapter and the 31st verse to see what
it would say about believing.
In the authorized version, it says, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved.
In the New English Bible, to my utter
amazement and astonishment, it read like this, put
your trust in the Lord Jesus and you
will be saved.
Changed it completely, left out the word believe.
You don't find it there, but as it
is not in the original, you find in
the original the word trust, not believe.
And it should have read as the New
English Bible has translated it, it should have
read, put your trust in the Lord Jesus
and you will be saved.
And no one has ever been saved by
believing.
The only ones who have ever been saved
are those who have actually put their trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ for time and
eternity, and they have passed out of death
and into life.
In the first place, trust implies committal, and
the best illustration is a marriage ceremony where
the young woman, for the first time in
her life, hands herself over, puts herself into
the hands of the young man by her
side and trusts him to take care of
her, to look after her for the rest
of her life.
And the young man from that moment provides
a home in which they live, provides food
for their table, provides the clothes that she
needs and all the rest of her life
he takes care of her because she has
for the first time put her trust in
the young man of her choice.
And my friends, you can believe as much
as you want to believe, but not until
you put your trust in the Lord Jesus
will you know what it means to be
saved.
When you do that, then you pass out
of death and into life and you're saved.
In the second place, trust demands action.
There must come a moment in your life
when you put your trust in Jesus Christ.
Here is a chair, for instance.
I can believe a lot of things about
the chair, but I'm tired and I'm weary
and I want to sit down and rest,
but I'll never sit down, I'll never rest
until I put myself in charge of the
chair by sitting down in it and resting.
My friend, you may believe Jesus Christ as
much as you want to, but until you
take the step, trust, and hand your life
over to Jesus Christ for time and eternity,
will you be saved.
When you do that, you will pass out
of death and into life and you'll be
saved for all time to come.
Put your trust in the Lord Jesus and
you will be saved.
Shall we bow together in prayer?
While every head is bowed and every eye
is closed, I wonder how many people are
out here who can say, Dr. Smith, I
can remember the time, I can remember the
place, I know the situation, I have done
what you have been talking about, I have
in fact trusted, I have committed, I have
given myself over to, I've taken that action
and I know I am saved.
I wonder if you're here this morning and
you can say that wherever you are, whoever
you are, right now, while every head's bowed
and every eye is closed, would you put
your hand up together with me in testimony
all over the building?
Hold up there, now would you put them
down again?
It looked like almost everybody raised a hand,
but I wonder if there are those here
this morning who are saying, Dr. Smith, I
could not raise my hand on that question
because I don't know.
I was honest enough not to raise my
hand.
I'm not sure I ever have trusted Jesus
Christ as my Savior as you have talked
about this morning, and if you have found
that this has worked for you for nearly
80 years since you first trusted Christ, and
at 92 you're still talking about it, the
best I know how I'd like to trust
Christ this morning.
I'm not sure I understand it all, but
I want to do it, and I wish
you'd ask God to help me to do
it.
I could not raise my hand before, but
I will raise it now because I would
like you to remember me in prayer and
ask that God will meet my particular need.
Here's my hand.
As I raise my hand, I mean it
with all my heart.
As our heads are bowed and our eyes
are closed, if you're saying that right now,
wherever you are, whoever you are, would you
put your hand up?
Hold it there until I see it and
then put it down again.
Yes, I see you.
Down in here.
God bless you.
Down in here.
Over here.
God bless you.
I see you.
We'll pray for you.
Are there others?
Yes, down in here.
The Lord bless you.
We'll pray for you.
Are there others?
Upstairs or downstairs.
Over here.
God bless you.
Up in the gallery.
Yes, I see you up in the gallery.
There's some all over the building.
Are there others?
As we wait just a moment longer before
I pray.
Yes, down over here.
Down over here.
Yes, I see you.
I see you.
Yes, up in the balcony.
God bless you.
I see you.
Yes, God bless you.
God bless you.
I see you.
We're going to change the order of the
service.
There are hands still going up.
And I'm going to do something that I
did not expect to do, but I believe
we can.
I would like to ask the man who
preached the sermon, the founder of our church,
Dr. Smith, to pray for those who have
raised their hands and for anybody else who
has a spiritual need.
And in order that he can do that
in just a moment, I'm going to ask
you to come forward, stand in a group
around the communion table here at the front
of the church facing him.
He'll pray and ask God to meet your
particular need.
But it will mean more to you, and
I think it will help you more, if
you come closer and stand here so that
he can see you, and then he can
pray for you.
Our Heavenly Father, here are the people standing
in thy presence, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of them have never trusted before.
They have only believed.
But this morning, they are trusting thee as
their Savior for time and for eternity.
They are turning away from the things of
this life, the things of this world.
They are relying not upon their works or
upon anything that they're doing, but they are
relying upon the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting
him, not only to save them, but to
keep them through all the ages of eternity.
We commit them to thee.
We pray now that thou wilt gloriously save
each and every one of them.
And as they trust thee, may they rejoice
in thee and live for thee the rest
of their lives.
Hear us, our Father, and answer prayer, for
we ask it in Jesus' name and for
his sake.
Amen.