Shall we bow our heads and have a
word of prayer for a moment, please?
Once again, with our heads bowed and our
eyes closed, we wish to remind you that
we've come together for what we call another
gospel meeting.
We're so grateful to have the building, have
the facility, and so grateful to be able
to invite you to come, and we're so
grateful that you've come.
Some have come for one reason or another.
Maybe someone called you on the phone.
Maybe it's just your habit to come to
meetings with your wife or your husband or
your family.
And sometimes, maybe we've been coming for years
and we just take everything for granted.
I'm going to ask you tonight to pay
attention and listen as though this is your
first time that you've ever come to a
gospel meeting.
And I'm going to ask you to listen
as though this is your last time to
come.
May I ask you, with your heads bowed
and eyes closed, may I ask you in
love, dear friend, what if this was the
last opportunity?
And tonight, when you left this building, your
decision will seal your destiny.
And I'm going to ask you to listen
tonight as though this were the case, for
it may be for someone here.
Listen and ask God to help you to
believe.
In fact, why not just decide now, I'm
going to believe what the Bible says tonight,
and I'm going to do what the Bible
says tonight.
If you do, dear friend, this could be
the great turning point of your life.
It could change the entire course of your
life and make a new person out of
you.
But I don't know who is saved and
who is not.
Only you know your spiritual condition and relationship
before God, and the choice will be yours.
May God help you to make the right
decision tonight.
Now, our Father, we pray that as we
look into Thy Word, that the Spirit of
God Himself shall speak to each of our
hearts.
To those of us who are saved, we
pray that He will just seal it up
that much more as far as salvation is
concerned, and we might take on new dynamics,
new dimensions tonight in our own Christian life,
and that those of us, those here who
are unsaved, who are lost and in their
sin, we pray that tonight might be the
time in which they say yes to Christ.
I'll not be lost any longer.
I'll trust Him and save you.
May the Spirit of God do His work
in our hearts.
Tonight we pray in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Before we read this verse, I'd like to
tell you a little story I heard recently
of a minister, not a minister, but a
businessman, rather, who was a Christian businessman.
And one night, he was in his office,
and he was reading a book, and he
was reading a book, on the way home
from work.
He decided rather than riding the bus, he
would just walk home.
It was such a lovely night, and so
he was walking home from work.
He knew there would be quite some time
before the evening meal was ready, and he
wanted to relax.
And so as he was walking home through
the neighborhood before he got to his home,
he passed a little church building on the
corner there that was having church services.
And of course, this businessman, not being a
Christian and not being a church goer, and
knowing very little about what the church stood
for except of the basics, you might say,
that he learned in Sunday school, his childhood
days came back to his mind.
And he said to himself, Well, I have
a little time before I have to be
at home.
I think I'll just slip in the back
of the church building here and sit down
and listen to the service that's going on.
And so the businessman, who wasn't a Christian,
came in and slipped down quietly and sat
down in the back seat.
And it so happened that it was one
of those meetings where people were giving testimonies.
And so one person stood and gave a
testimony, and he says, Well, I'm having a
terrible time down at work for the cause
of Christ.
I'm being persecuted.
People are bothering me.
I'm not being promoted.
The workload is doubled, and everything's going wrong.
Please pray for me.
And he sat down.
Another dear person stood up.
The lady said, I'm having lumbago in my
back, and my back is aching.
I haven't had a good day.
I haven't had a day without pain for
years.
Please pray for me.
And the testimony went on and on and
on, and everyone that stood up that gave
a word of testimony really was testifying that
something that was wrong, some pressure that they
were having in life.
And then they said, Please pray for me,
and sat down.
Finally, after the minister had delivered the message
for the evening, he saw the businessman back
in the back, and of course, the businessman
hadn't said a thing, just sat and listened.
So the preacher made his way down the
aisle and got to the back door before
he dismissed the audience, and then he caught
the businessman right by the hand, and he
said, Say, you're a visitor, aren't you?
He says, Yes, I am.
He says, You're a Christian?
He says, No, I have enough troubles of
my own already.
And you know, friends, I think sometimes that
we as Christians, we reflect such a negative
testimony that the world looks at us and
they say, I don't want to be like
them.
I recall before I was saved, I used
to watch my mother, my dear mom, and
all of you dear friends here, and all
you would do is read that Bible and
sit in these church pews and sing these
songs, and you never did anything that had
any fun to it.
Well, I was wrong.
You know I was wrong, but I didn't
know I was wrong, and I thought that
being a Christian would be terribly boring and
there would be no fun in it.
And you know, this is the way that
many of the world looks at Christianity.
They see the negative side, and they say,
Well, you have no fun.
You're living without life.
You don't drink, smoke, or chew or go
with those that do.
You don't go to the nightclubs.
You don't go to the movies.
You don't go to the dances.
You don't go to all these things.
All you do is sit still.
But I like to tell you, dear friend,
tonight that the only life worth living is
the life in Christ, knowing the Lord Jesus
Christ as Savior.
And I think these are great days in
which Christians are living.
I think this is the best time in
life to give a testimony for the Lord
and unto the Lord to the lost people
of the world.
I believe the unsaved people are searching, and
when they meet Christians with a difference, with
a different life, and with a smile on
their face and a sting in their step,
they'll listen to them, and they'll hear them
out.
The fact of the matter is, we are
not doing it, many of us like we
ought to.
Now, I think we ought to turn the
tides tonight.
In fact, we're going to do so in
the Scriptures.
And instead of looking at the child of
God, we know what we have.
I want us to look at the unsaved
and see what they don't have.
Will you do that with me tonight?
And if you're here unsaved, I want you
to hear every verse of Scripture that we
read.
You see, we're on the winning side.
God is God.
Creation demands a creator.
Design does demand a designer.
A plan demands a planner.
And our own God-consciousness demands God.
And the Bible here proves that God does
exist.
And we are on the winning side.
We're going to win, and we don't have
to be ashamed about it at all.
And dear friend, if you're unsafe, you're going
to lose.
All the things in life worth having and
worth enjoying, you don't have.
And all the things in eternity that's worth
having, you don't have either.
Now, number one, we're going to share with
you about nine things tonight, or ten if
we have time.
Ten things that the Christ-rejector is without.
Now, I'm going to ask you, yes or
no, are you a Christian?
Well, the majority of you can say, oh
yes, thank God, I'm a Christian.
Well, my message to you tonight should be
one that will seal it up and just
make you shout and happy as far as
being a Christian is concerned.
But if you're an unsaved person, if you're
lost and in your sin tonight, I want
to share with you ten of the most
important things in life and death that you
don't have.
And all of what's left isn't worth having
if you miss these things.
Number one, Luke chapter 13 and verse 25.
When once the master of the house is
risen up and has shut the door, and
ye begin to stand outside and to knock
at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto
us.
And he shall answer and say unto you,
I know ye not from where ye are.
Then shall ye begin to say, We have
eaten and have drunk in thy presence, and
thou hast taught in our streets.
But he shall say, I tell you, I
know ye not from where you are.
Depart from me, all ye that workers of
iniquity.
This verse tells us that the unbeliever, the
lost individual, has no entrance to heaven.
He's without.
This is number one.
He's without an entrance to heaven.
Now, I travel quite a bit, and I
know what it means to pull up to
a motel or a hotel and have an
open bedroom, an entrance that I can go
into and rest.
And the Scripture teaches, and as far as
the Christian is concerned, in the book of
Revelation, that when we leave this life, there
is an entrance to heaven.
The doors will be opened, and I believe
we can take John's translation from earth to
heaven in Revelation chapter 4 and verse 1
as a type of the experience that every
believer would experience when he leaves this life,
if the Lord doesn't come first.
And the first thing that he sees is
an open door to heaven, and he sees
a throne, and he sees one that sat
upon the throne, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he sees all the description of a
beautiful, glorious, eternal heaven, and it's all his
forever.
Now, I want to share something with you.
I'm no doctor, nor surgeon, nor have anything
to do with medicine, nor life, nor death.
But I have talked to a number of
doctors, and just recently, a Dr. Cook, who
is the head doctor of the hospital in
Berrien, Michigan, where our brother Charlie Williams labors
for the Lord, and he verified this after
I have talked to a number of other
doctors.
They tell me that when a person dies,
that there are two ways of determining death.
One, by the heartbeat, and the other by
the brainwave.
In fact, in New York City at this
very time, there's a legal battle going on
between some company and some other company to
determine what is death.
When does a person die?
When the heart beats, or when the brainwave
stops, or when both together stop.
For instance, if you had a $100,000
insurance policy, and this insurance policy lasted until
noon a certain day, and your heart quit
beating at five minutes till twelve, and your
brainwave continued till five minutes after twelve, and
if you were not dead until both stopped,
my friend, you'd be out of business as
well, if the law says that both have
to stop.
And so I had this conversation with a
friend, in fact, with Dr. Kirk, and he
told me the same thing that a number
of other doctors have told me, that there
is definitely the beginning of the death experience,
and an ending of the death experience, and
usually there's about 30 minutes to an hour
difference.
Now, I'm not saying that one is the
heartbeat and the other is the brainwave.
I can't say that.
I'm just imagining things.
I have had doctors tell me that in
the hospitals, one reason they roll the corpse
of a person who has died as quickly
as possible to the morgue down in the
basement, so when they go out of that
twilight zone, there's usually a temporary secondary coming
back to life.
In other words, a person dies.
Everything stops as far as outward appearances are
concerned.
They lay that corpse out on a bed,
they put the sheet over the corpse's head,
and roll that corpse away, and that individual
seems to go into a twilight, sleepy zone.
And about 30 minutes later, they say, not
always, there comes a time in which just
briefly this corpse wakes up, and there's a
reason to believe that one is the gradual
backing out of this life, and the other
is the gradual arising to the eternal state.
And I've had more than one preacher tell
me who had been doctors and had made
studies of this, that you can always tell
the believers from the unbelievers, for the believers
die with a smile on their face.
And there is never a recapitulation 30 minutes
later.
But when an unbeliever dies, while he may
not know he's dying when he's going into
this 30-minute twilight zone, the reason they
roll that corpse out of the hospital so
no one can see it as quickly as
possible is because if he wakes up there
at the other end of this little stage
of time, and he sees the caverns of
the dam, and he realizes that he's in
hell, he screams to the top of his
voice before he drops over.
Now, I've been in occasions where I've seen
this happen.
And Dr. Cook told me a year ago,
he says, Bob, I've seen hundreds of these
experiences.
And he says, every time I see it,
it shatters me down to my toes.
And he never wants to see it again.
And I visited people in hospitals.
And I've seen dear Christians lean back on
the pillow and just smile like they'd seen
the Lord.
I'll tell you, dear friend, all the tribulations
that all the Christians ever experienced in the
life and history of the Church combined are
not worth the privilege of an open door
to heaven the moment we leave this life.
I'll tell you, I'd be happy to sacrifice
it all to know that one of these
days when I breathe my last, when they
snap the lid on my casket, oh brother,
Bob is going to be absent from the
body and present with the Lord forever.
Amen?
Amen.
But the Scripture says that the unsaved person
has no door.
The door is shut.
I mentioned St. Cloud Penitentiary in one of
the sermons recently.
I went to visit a dear friend in
the penitentiary in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and they
have four rows of doors you go through.
And I'll tell you, by the time they
open one door and you go through and
they clump that door behind you, and then
they open the next one and you go
through, they clump that door behind you, by
the time you go through these four doors,
my friend, you're in jail.
And you know you're in jail.
And I look back, you know, and I
hope those fellows don't go off duty.
I'll tell you that.
You get that I'm in jail feeling and
you want to begin to see those doors
open up.
Can you imagine what life will be like
when that time comes and the doors to
heaven are closed?
John says, And the gates were opened to
the unsaved person, while you may have everything
in this life.
When the time comes, there'll be no entrance
to heaven for you.
Now, number two, John chapter 15 and verse
25.
John chapter 15 and verse 25.
We see a second without, as far as
the unbeliever is concerned.
John chapter 15.
But this cometh to pass, that the word
might be fulfilled which is written in their
heart.
They hated me without a cause.
Without a cause.
You know what this means?
This means that every person who lives and
dies and goes to hell will go there
without one justifiable reason.
Did you know that?
When you end up in hell, you cannot
blame God for a moment.
God has opened the door.
God has provided the way.
And there is not one thing that the
Lord Jesus Christ has ever done to you
wrong.
Not one bad thing.
Everything that the Lord Jesus has ever done
for mankind, it was done good and for
the benefit of the human race.
And we cannot stand and point one finger
of accusation to God or to the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And yet, because of the sin of the
human heart, the scripture says they hated him
without a cause.
They had no cause to hate him.
That is, the cause was not in the
Lord Jesus Christ to hate him, but the
cause was in the wicked heart of man.
Dear friend, tonight you do not have one
reason in the world for rejecting Jesus Christ
as your Savior.
The reason you reject him is because sin
and the antichrist have found your heart and
you cannot stand and confess Christ apart from
the exercise of it.
I have been in testimony meetings before where
I have seen a person stand and give
a good, clear, ringing testimony of conversion to
Christ.
And right next door, right beside that person
or right nearby, here is a person who
professed to be a Christian.
He was trying to make everyone think he
was a Christian, and he was gripping the
table, he was gripping the bench, and he
could not get up.
Why?
Because Satan had him down.
And this is what it means in 1
John 4, in verse 1.
But it says, greater is he that is
in you than he that is in the
world, speaking of the Spirit.
And when God saves an individual, the Spirit
of God comes down into that individual, and
he breaks the chains that bind him, and
he sets him free, and he gives him
a message, and he's got to speak out
for the Lord.
What about you tonight?
My friends, you don't have one cause to
ever hate the Lord Jesus or reject him,
and yet you still do.
Why?
Because of sin.
Now, let's hurry on.
Romans chapter 1, in verse 20.
Romans chapter 1, in verse 20, and we
see a third thing that every Christ rejecter
in this world is without.
And by the way, you dear Christians here,
I hope you write these references down, because
this will put a spring in your step,
and a song in your heart, and a
victorious dynamic at the job or anywhere else.
You don't have to be the loser, you're
on the winning side.
It's the unbeliever that's the loser.
He's without all the things that count.
And when they begin to sneer you and
laugh at you and make fun of you,
you just remember they have no entrance to
heaven.
They have no cause to hate Christ.
And in Romans chapter 1, and verse 20,
we see a third without.
For the invisible things of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even
his eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse.
They not only are without a cause to
hate Christ, but the Bible teaches that there's
coming a time, it's called the judgment, the
great white throne judgment.
And every Christ rejecter that's ever been born
into the human race that died rejecting Christ
is going to have to stand before that
great white throne judgment.
And before that great white throne, it says,
and the books were opened, and another book
was opened.
And I believe in the books are recorded
all the sins of each of us except
those of us who are Christians.
And over in the book over here is
recorded all the believers.
And I believe the scripture seems to teach
that every person individually is going to have
to take his turn to come across the
front and stand before that throne naked before
God as far as sin is concerned.
And the book is going to be opened,
and the name is going to be sought
out.
And your name will not be found in
the book of life.
There'll be no Christians there.
They'll be behind the throne on the winning
side.
And then over on the other side, the
books, the volumes are going to be opened,
and your name will be found.
Oh yes, here it is.
And every sin of word, every sin of
deed, and every sin of thought will be
recorded, and it will be amplified, and you
will have to bow your head and agree
with God the Son.
Yes, I'm a sinner.
Yes, I'm worthy only of death and hell
and the grave.
I deserve to go to the lake of
fire.
And you'll have to take sides with God
against yourself.
You say, well, that isn't fair.
Oh yes, it is.
God has fully revealed Himself to mankind by
the things which we see, it says here
in Romans 1.20. I put Yosemite National
Park last year.
I told you, I think, about the bear.
They had a bear down there robbing garbage
cans.
People had food on the table, you know,
and the bear would come around, and when
people would go to meetings, he'd just eat
up all the sweet stuff—the ham, the burns,
and things of that nature.
I went down there, and I saw one
fellow as the bear came around to his
little dining area there.
He just picked up a garbage can lid
and a knife or something and started beating
on the lid like that, you know, and
the old bear got all wrapped.
So a few minutes later, this bear was
over at another little place, and the people
had left, and they had a nice, beautiful
basket there.
There was this bear in there carrying everything
all up, and I said, now, that's not
fair.
About thirty or forty of us had gathered
around there watching that bear just devour all
this sweet food.
And old Brother Bob was going to be
the hero, you know.
So I went and got this lid of
the garbage can, and I got myself a
stick, and I went over there, and I
started beating on that thing, and that old
bear paid no attention until I got just
about as far as from here to that
plaza.
And that bear turned around and roared at
me, and he chased me for a country
mile down that road.
And he almost caught me.
That's the thing.
My children were laughing, and just die.
My whole dad grew in the trees at
Yosemite National.
My wife still laughs at me.
That night when I went to bed, I
stacked up chairs in front of the door,
and I put her on that night.
So if that bear came in, I was
going over the wall.
But you know, on a rainy day, when
you see bear tracks, you don't have to
see the bear.
You know there's a bear around, don't you?
We don't have to see God to know
that God is there.
He's revealed himself.
Creation.
I asked a young man one time when
he got up at a summer youth camp,
I said, Johnny, our marriage camp brother, I
said, Johnny, how did you find yourself this
morning?
He said, well, I just got up, opened
my eyes, threw back the cover, and there
I was.
He said, Rick, lying right in bed.
And you know, you don't have to look
very far to see creation.
All you've got to do is get a
good, nice rest, wake up in the morning,
open your eyes and look around, and it's
all around you here.
Creation demands a creator, dear friend.
How did it get here?
They have proven that it did not come
by an evolutionary process.
It has been here, and when it got
here, it had to come all at one
time.
It came because God the Creator spoke it
into existence.
That's why.
A plan demands a planner.
Design demands a designer.
Look into the human eye.
I went to the doctor about a year
ago, and I bought some glasses, and I
had my eyes examined, and the doctor was
looking through my eyes, and he was saying,
ooh, ah, ooh, ah.
I said, doctor, I'm going to pay you,
but I didn't think it was going to
be that much.
And he says, the reason I'm saying that,
Mr. Bruton, is because the most beautiful thing
in life is the inside of a human
eye.
Man could not design such a thing.
Look at a flower.
Study the heartbeat of a human being, the
blood pressure, the nerve cells, the lungs, the
system of reproduction, a number of things, and
you cannot deny that there's a design, and
man is really just sneaking up on it.
He's just learning about it.
It's been here all the time.
Design demands a designer.
Plan demands a planner.
And every human being that's ever been born
in the human race knows that there is
a God somewhere.
He has a God consciousness.
The Bible says so right here.
Crucia says, no God.
Don't fool yourself for a moment.
There's no such thing as a 100 percent
pure, thoroughbred atheist.
Every man knows that there's a God, and
he's without excuse.
Man will not come to God, the scripture
says.
He doesn't want God.
Well, let's go on.
Romans chapter 5 and verse 6.
There's a fourth thing that every Christ rejecter
is without.
First of all, without entrance to heaven.
Secondly, without a cause to hate Christ.
Thirdly, without excuse.
No but God's at the judgment, at the
great white throne judgment.
You'll have to take sides with God, and
you'll be glad to do it.
All the evidence will be on God's side,
and you'll have no excuse whatsoever.
And then in Romans 5 and 6, but
when we were yet without strength in due
time, Christ died for the undone.
What does this mean, when we were yet
without strength?
It means without strength to do good.
Now we have strength.
I have strength to stand here and talk
to you, and it takes strength to sit
there and listen.
But it means without strength for man, as
far as man is concerned, to do anything
that pleases God.
All of the energy of mankind is spent
running from God and getting deeper and deeper
in sin, and man with his strength looks
back and he shakes his fist at God
and says, no God, I don't want you
in my life.
Go back.
I'd rather do it myself.
Now there may be someone here tonight that
says, oh yes, I have a little strength.
There's a little good in every man.
I talked to a man this afternoon that
told me that there's a little bit of
God in everyone, and man has a dynamic
within himself to do right or to do
wrong.
I said to myself, that dear brother hasn't
read Romans chapter 5.
You don't have one ounce of strength to
please God in your own ability.
And all the strength that you'll ever have,
you'll spend going the other way until God
by the Spirit reaches out and gets you
and pumps the information into you and pumps
the energy into you and gives you the
strength to turn around and say, oh God,
I surrender.
I'll not run any further.
I'll not go the other way.
Here I am.
Take me and use me for your glory.
I believe that what you say about your
son in the Bible is true.
That's conversion.
And the Scripture says that while we were
sinners, Christ died for us.
Isn't this wonderful?
Before we were ever born, before we had
ever committed one sin.
Some people say, well, you know, all of
my past sins are washed away.
Now I've got to be careful for the
future, for if I sin anymore, I'll lose
my salvation.
Listen, when Christ died on the cross, you
hadn't committed one sin.
They were all sins.
And 2,000 years ago, He died for
all of your sins.
The sins that you have committed, the sins
that you have committed today, and the sins
you're going to commit tomorrow.
Christ died for those sins.
And He says, here's the salvation.
My friend, if you're trying to work your
way to heaven or buy your way to
heaven or reform your way to heaven or
be good or do good or any other
way to earn or merit salvation, stop where
you are.
It's hopeless.
We are without strength to please God.
This is what it says.
Romans chapter 5 and verse 6, For when
we were yet without it, had you taken
sides with God on this matter and confessed,
God, I can't save myself.
I have nothing to offer.
All that I have to offer to you
is the sacrifice of your Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ.
That's what He wanted here.
Not faith in self and self-confidence that
the modernists say, but turning from self to
God and saying, Jesus paid it all, all
to Him I owe.
And if He paid it all, there's nothing
left for me to pay.
I'm just going to let Him pay the
ticket and claim it and be justified.
The lost person is without an instance to
heaven, without a cause to hate Christ, without
excuse and without strength to do good.
Now, turn in your Bible to Ephesians chapter
2 and verse 12.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 12, and we
see two, actually three, of the most pitiful
without God in the Bible.
Ephesians 2.12, That at that time ye
were without Christ.
Now, we assume this because you're not saying
that Christ rejected.
You have rejected Him.
You're without Him.
You don't know Him.
That at that time ye were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers from the covenant of promise, having no
hope and without God in the world.
I'll tell you if there's one thing that
I praise God for every day in my
life is that I have a hope.
Not only a hope beyond the grave, dear
friend, but I have a hope for today.
The hope that my heavenly Father watches over
me and nothing can harm me, nothing can
touch me except my heavenly Father allow it
for my ultimate good, day by day, hour
by hour, moment by moment, my hand is
in His, and I have a hope that
He will lead me right through life.
And the most pitiful people I have ever
met are those who have no hope, trying
to battle their way through life, bumping from
one corner to the next, not knowing where
to go.
They won't look to God.
They can't get help anywhere else, and life
is just a miserable thing isn't it?
If you're unsaved tonight, you see, you can't
come to God except through Christ, and when
you reject Christ, you're saying, God, get out
of my life, and you have no hope.
I have a dear friend who's with the
Lord now in heaven.
Until she died at the age of 82,
I think it is, dear Mrs. McLeod was
a wonderful, wonderful friend of mine, and they
used to visit Mrs. McLeod before her husband,
Charlie McLeod, died.
He was one of the old original pillars
of the assemblies, churches in the Bay Area
50 years ago.
A real man of God until he went
home to be with the Lord about five
years later, and in the last three years
of his life, he was an invalid all
the way.
Confined to the bed, he couldn't turn over,
he couldn't eat.
Dear Mrs. McLeod had to do everything for
her, and she in her 80s, late 70s
and 80s.
I used to drop by to visit Mrs.
McLeod every two or three weeks just to
kind of drop in and see how she
was doing and see if there's anything we
could do for her.
The young people of the assembly used to
go over and cut her front lawn.
If you teenagers want something to do for
the Lord, go find some widows occasionally and
cut the lawn and wash the windows and
do a few things like that.
We used to go over to see Mrs.
McLeod.
One day I went to see Mrs. McLeod
and she said, Oh Bob, come in, come
in.
Charlie was still alive at the time.
And we went in, we used to go
down the hall into the living room and
sit and talk about the Lord and see
how things were.
And Mrs. McLeod began to cry and she
says, Bob, she says, it's been two times.
I just can't go on another day.
She says, heavens are brash, God isn't there.
I pray and I pray and I pray
and I just can't reach God and God
has forsaken me.
She says, I'm almost ready to deny Christianity
altogether.
If God don't answer my prayers, if I
can't guarantee that, how could I know that
he saved me?
Maybe he's not even there.
And I've never met a dear Christian woman
so low in the faith.
And we got down and prayed and I
didn't know what to say.
I just said, well Lord, please reveal yourself
to Mrs. McLeod.
But I left a defeated young man that
day.
And I could give no hope to Mrs.
McLeod.
Somehow or another it was just too deep.
She had worn herself out taking care of
Charlie.
The following week I came back to visit
Mrs. McLeod and lo and behold, she came
bouncing to the door like a 19-year
-old girl, smile on her face, this is
happy.
I said, oh brother, something's happened.
And she says, oh Bob, come in, I
have some of the most wonderful news.
Now an 82-year-old woman.
And she walked with a spring in that
step right on into the living room.
And she says, Bob, she says, God really
revealed himself this week.
Let me tell you about it.
Next door neighbor who isn't a Christian, however,
used to keep a light on.
And this light, if this light was on,
it always meant that they were at home.
And so if Mrs. McLeod had any trouble
with Charlie, all she had to do was
pick up the phone and call the neighbor.
But they had another light that they always
turned on when they left.
So Mrs. McLeod looked out through the kitchen
window, and if that light was on, that
means they were not at home.
She'd better call someone else.
And one night, about two in the morning,
Brother Charlie couldn't turn over.
Never could turn over.
And Christine Christie, he called her, laid in
bed right next to him.
And he says, Christie, turn me over.
And Mrs. McLeod, she says, Bob, you'll never
know how I felt all day long.
And she took in ironing to make a
living.
Eighty-year-old woman taking in ironing for
a living.
Plus taking care of Charlie all day long
in this hospital bed, a tall bed.
She says, Charlie, she says, I'm so tired
I can't get out of bed.
She says, I'm just going to lay in
bed and take my foot and turn you
over.
And she reached over.
Now this sounds funny, but it's so pitiful.
She put her foot on Charlie, her hand,
and she turned him over and she pushed
him off the bed.
Now that wouldn't be too bad, but on
the way down, he got one foot between
the post and one foot between the mattress.
And there he was, upside down, with his
head on the floor and his foot wrapped
around the bed.
Oh, Charlie.
Christine.
Well, she said she jumped out of bed
and there she was.
She didn't know what to do.
She ran around and she got down under
poor old brother McLeod and tried to pick
him up, but she couldn't pick him up.
She didn't weigh as much as he did.
And she said she went into the kitchen
and she looked out and the light was
on that said they were not at home.
And there she was, hopeless.
Well, now listen to this, all of you
unbelievers.
She said, she said, Bob, she says, I
went in there and I got down beside
Charlie and I said, oh God, if you
have ever given grace to an individual, give
me grace to pick up Charlie.
She says, if you can't give me the
strength to pick up Charlie, you can't even
save a soul.
And I'm through.
And she said there's a strength that came
over her and she got down under Charlie
and she picked him up and set him
on the bed like he was a little
feather.
God restored him.
God communicated himself with her.
I was talking to a man this afternoon
who did not book personal God.
I told him I was down in the
country doing a little door-to-door work
and I met a man who said, well,
you'd wear fancy clothes up there at that
chapel.
I won't come, but I don't have any
shoes.
And I'm not telling you this to point
to me, I'm just giving you a little
illustration.
And he said, I would come if I
had some shoes.
And I looked down and I saw we
had the same size feet.
I said, brother, you've got yourself a pair
of shoes here.
And I took my shoes off.
And after I got back in the car
and started down this old dirt road, it
dawned upon me, I was 50 miles from
home and I was preaching that night and
I had no money in my pocket.
And I said, oh Lord, I need some
shoes.
And did you know, as I was sailing
down that dirt road with a cloud of
smoke behind me, of dust, you know how
it is on these country roads, there was
a man, I guess he thought I was
a reckless driver, he was walking in the
ditch.
And when I went by, he saw who
it was and waved and said, stop.
And I stopped and backed up.
And he said, brother Bob, he says, here's
a little piece of the Lord's money I've
been saving for a few weeks.
The Lord has exercised me to give it
to you.
A few little dollars rolled up around some
pennies.
And I didn't even count it.
And I went to the nearest little country
grocery store down in Bond Lee, North Carolina.
I went in there and they had one
pair of shoes, a pair of brown shoes
that fit me perfect.
And it came right to the point of
what that man did.
Now you call that coincidence?
We'll call it coincidence.
But I call it God.
And I call it a hope day by
day.
Now, dear friend, you don't have this hope
until you come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
They have said that an atheist is a
man who has no invisible means of support.
I've got an invisible means of support.
I can't see God, but blessed God, He
can see me and He watches over me
day by day, hour by hour, moment by
moment.
And even when I do wrong as a
loving Father, He just kind of gently leads
me around in the right direction, won't let
me go too far out of the way.
My friend, I've not only got a hope
beyond the grave, I've got a hope day
by day.
I can commit every day to my loving
God and Father and say, now you guide
me.
You don't have that hope without Christ.
And that is worth living for.
No hope and no God.
Now there are three other things I just
want to mention briefly.
In Hebrews 9.22 it says, without the
shedding of blood there is no remission, no
remission.
Do you know what the word remission means?
The word remission means release.
And without the shedding of the blood of
the Lord Jesus applied to an individual, there
is no release from sin.
That's what it means.
In other words, there's no hope of things
ever getting better for the unbeliever because every
day he sins more and the load of
sin gets heavier and heavier and heavier and
heavier and there he is carrying a tremendous
load of sin through life and it's getting
worse every day.
I may be speaking to someone in this
audience tonight and for the last month you've
contemplated suicide.
I have talked to a person who contemplated
suicide and went out and committed suicide.
In fact, just before I left California I
visited a lady who said, Mr. Brewton, there's
no more hope for me.
I'm going to end it all and she
shook my hand goodbye and said, you'll never
see me again.
Alive.
And I'm hoping and praying that she'll be
alive when I get back to California for
if I know people, I know that that
lady means no hope.
And I don't see how an unbeliever lives
in this world today with the pressure of
business and the pressure of life, the pressure
of people living together and rearing a family,
especially when the teenage time comes around and
they can't cope with the problem.
They have no Bible.
They have no guidelines.
They have no sure way.
And retaliation comes between husband and wife and
between parents and children and then the boss
jumped out his neck and everything goes wrong.
I can understand that.
That load of sin is so heavy they
don't know what to do with it and
it would be a release to end it
all.
I have good news for all you dear
friends tonight.
There is a release.
You can stand up straight.
God's yoke is easy.
His burden is light.
You can take a deep breath and every
area of your life can be put in
balance and harmony and life can become a
symphony before you walk out that door tonight.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses
us from all sin.
Hebrews 12, 14 gives us another one.
The unbeliever is without a sight of the
Lord.
It says without holiness no man shall see
the Lord.
No man shall see the Lord.
You can't be holy apart from Christ and
you'll never see God.
Revelation 14 and 10, there's another without.
It says that the wrath of God shall
be poured out on the unbeliever without mixture
and what it means is without weakening.
When we try to weaken something, we pour
water into it and we dilute it.
And what that word means is when the
time comes that God's wrath is actually poured
out on the unbeliever, it is without diluting
and you're going to have to absorb in
yourself all of an omnipotent God's wrath against
you and your sin.
Now just briefly, the last one.
I have 22 verses I could share with
you.
We'll turn to one, 2 Thessalonians 1, 89.
I don't want to keep you too long,
but my friend, nothing in all of life
is any more important than settling your sin
questions.
2 Thessalonians 1, 89, In flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and
from the glory of His power.
This is the last one.
Every person dying in their sins who's rejected
Jesus Christ as his Savior, not only is
without entrance to heaven, without a cause to
hate Christ, without excuse, without strength to do
good, without hope, without God, without release from
sin, without a sight of the Lord and
without his wrath, but he's without escape.
You know, some of the religious people come
along and say there'll be a second chance
after death.
A loving God couldn't punish someone for all
eternity.
There are 22 references in the New Testament
alone that clearly define that hell and the
lake of fire, the punishment that the unbeliever
receives when he leaves this life, is forever
without escape.
This is one of them.
And without escape means that you're locked up
in there forever.
How about you tonight?
What about it?
Now, really, who's on the winning side?
What do you have?
Name one good thing that the unbeliever, that
Christ rejecter, has in this life.
You don't have any.
Listen to this.
Hell, the prison house of despair.
Here are some things that won't be there.
No flowers will bloom on the banks of
hell.
No beauties of nature we love so well.
No comforts of home, music and song.
No friendship of joy will be found in
that throng.
No children to brighten the long, weary night.
No love nor peace, not one ray of
light.
No blood-washed soul with face beaming bright.
No loving smile in that region of night.
No mercy, no pity, pardon nor grace.
No water, oh God, what a terrible place.
The pangs of the human can tell.
Not one moment's ease.
There is no rest in hell.
Hell, the prison house of despair.
Here are some things that will be there.
Fire and brimstone are there, we know, for
God in his word hath told us so.
Memory, remorse, suffering and pain, weeping and wailing,
but all in vain.
Blasphemer, swearer, hater of God, placed rejecter while
here on earth trod.
Murderer, gambler, drunkard and liar will all have
his part in the lake of fire.
The filthy, the vile, the cruel, the mean,
what a horrible mob in hell will be
seen.
Yes, more than humans on earth can tell
are the torments and woes of eternal hell.
Dear friends, why would anyone want to die
and go to hell?
A young man converted during a special series
of evangelistic campaigns was one day given out
Christ on one of the streets in West
Virginia.
Some of the old cronies came by and
they said, aha, they begin to tease him
a little bit, and they said, all right,
if you're so smart, tell us where hell
is.
The young man didn't know what to say.
He knew very little about the Bible, but
he thought for a moment, and he turned
around and he said, hell is at the
end of a priceless road.
What about you tonight?
Are you headed down life's highway as fast
as time can carry toward the end of
a priceless life and a priceless grave down
to the caverns of the dam?
You don't have to be.
All you've got to do is stop right
where you are, open your heart and say,
Lord, you died for me on the cross.
All of my sins were placed upon you,
and God punished you for my sin.
I'll believe that, I'll claim it.
And that moment, dear friend, God writes your
name down in the Lamb's book of life
in indelible ink, and you're there forever.
Will you do it tonight?
God will help you to do it.
Shall we bow our heads and have a
word of prayer?
Now, we're not going to sing an invitation
song tonight.
I'd like to, but we're not.
I believe that when the Spirit of God
has the fruit ready to fall, it'll fall.
And tonight, I'm just going to ask the
organist or pianist, whichever one it is, just
to play while we dismiss.
I'm going to ask the Christians to walk
out of this auditorium quietly and silently.
Have your fellowship in the hall in the
back, please.
I'm going to ask every one of you
to pray that the Spirit of God will
speak possibly to that one person in this
meeting who needs to be sent.
Dear friend, in the beginning, I said I
was going to ask you to decide.
Have you decided?
Is there one good reason why you should
reject Christ any longer?
Certainly not.
And while the others are walking out of
this building, going toward the back, I'm going
to ask you, I'm going to come right
down here to the front, and I'm going
to stand in front of this pulpit down
on the floor, and I want you to
slip up and say, Mr. Brewton, I want
to be saved.
And we'll go into the little inquiry room
here with God's Word, and we'll point you
to the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world.
If you'll exercise your will, and if you'll
believe in Him, will you do it?
Now is your chance.
Now is the step.
Now is the time.
Our Father, we pray now that the Spirit
of God will do what man could never
do, cause any dear lost soul here to
turn from their wicked way, to turn from
self-effort and self-works and turn from
sin, and turn to meet face to face
with Christ our Savior.
May they come forward tonight, not that coming
forward will save, but may they step out
for Christ and settle the sin question once
and for all.
Our Father, we pray now Thou wilt dismiss
us with Thy blessing for each of us
who are saved.
Our Father, we pray that what we have
learned tonight shall be an additional dynamics that
we might live for the Lord tomorrow.
But for the unsaved, we pray Thou wilt
give no rest of heart.
Thou wilt make them roll and tumble and
toss back and forth on their bed, on
their pillow tonight if necessary.
Make them so miserable that they can't go
another day.
Make them want to settle it tonight, right
now, to come and trust the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Now, our Father, we commit Thy word to
be.
We know it shall not return void, but
it shall accomplish that which Thou dost please,
and we leave it there.
Dismiss us with Thy blessing, we pray in
Jesus' name.
Amen.
Christians may leave, but if you're unsafe, now's
your time to come forward.