Last words

Shall we speak to the Lord in prayer? Our Father, we thank Thee for all in our gathering this afternoon that can truly sing of a truth. Our Redeemer, we well remember when we could not sing this and we had no Savior. There was a void that we could not fill and an empty world.

We tried to find it and find satisfaction there, but we thank Thee for showing us that there was none that could satisfy but Christ. So, Lord, draw near to us now in this, the last activity of this conference. Thankful for the afternoon thus far, and we pray that there will be a freshness in the gospel that will attract others.

We thank Thee that the Lord Jesus Himself could say, even as we have just been reminded, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Help us, Lord our Father, to make Thy word simple and yet with a bit of searching, and trust, Lord, that there will be a dear boy or dear girl that's not yet ready to meet their Maker. May they even take a step of faith today, even this afternoon, and trust Him, whom to know is life eternal.

Hear us in our request, bless Thy good word wherever spoken, that which was spoken in private today, use it, that which will be spoken in public wherever, use it for His glory as we ask, giving thanks now in the Savior's name. Amen. John, please, chapter 5. John, chapter 5, reading in verse 24.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. There are some very simple and basic gospel verses that have been a blessing and used to multitudes of people. We believe that there are perhaps maybe a boy or a girl here today, and you have yet to accept and to believe what God wants you to believe.

You might know all about what this great salvation is. Perhaps maybe I should say there might be a knowledge, a head knowledge about this. But as of today, you cannot say, even as we were just singing, that Christ is my Redeemer.

And it is with that intent that we hope that we can be a help to someone in the gathering. I want to look at this verse in four simple ways that you'll be able to perhaps remember. There is a proclaimed salvation.

The Lord Jesus could say that. The very text that our brother shut closed the ministry meeting on, the very text was the fact that we used to go into all the world and make disciples. So, the Lord Jesus, even at the end of His gospels, even at the end of three of the four gospels, He closed with sending men.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So, there is something that is urgent about this. There is something that is very, very important about it.

Because I'm always interested in the words of a man, the last words of a man, I'll get it yet, the last words of a man before he either disappears or before he dies. And that is, what did he say? What was his last words? I remember standing beside my father in 2001, a couple of months before 9-11, and there was, the family was around, and we were all there, and he's under hospice care. And we knew that this afternoon he would leave.

I said to dad, I made a foolish statement. I said to dad, any advice for us? Kind of a, a crazy question to ask a man who's got about a half hour of time left. And he just shook his head.

He was all done speaking. But I saw that man witness for the Lord Jesus like I never have seen others. Because those several days before he died, he left no doubt in those nurses' minds and those many people that came into him, that this man had a joy that the man next bed didn't have.

So I'm always interested in the words, the last words of a man. So when I come to the end of Matthew, when I come to the end of Mark, when I come to the end of Luke and John, I discover that the Messiah, the Master, is sending out men. And as He sends out men, He sends them out with a message.

And that message is a proclaimed message. It's a message of salvation. In fact, when I come to the book of the Acts, I discover that the church is scattered.

And the reason why the church is scattered is because that the message might reach out to the four corners of the world, beginning at Jerusalem and all Judea and coming right down to downtown New Lenox, that they might have the gospel preached. So I discover today that it's a delight to be able to send out, or rather to be used and to be able to shout out a message that the Lord Jesus Himself shouted out. He preached the gospel in the temple.

Why shouldn't we preach the gospel? A man came to our meetings just recently, and he says, how come that you're here every Sunday night? How come that you were preaching the gospel every Sunday night? I said, sir, very simply, if the Lord Jesus preached the gospel and He told men to do that before He went to heaven, don't you think it would be a good idea to follow orders? So, dear children in the meeting this afternoon, you have a great, great privilege, a great privilege to hear words from by far better speakers. Sorry, Tom, but by far from the first speaker, you can hear words from better men. But dear children, you can't hear better words.

Verily, verily, the Lord Jesus reaches out His hand. He reaches out His arms. And He says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word.

There was a man stopped one day in Acts chapter 9 named Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus was stopped because God had a work for him to do. And that work for him to do was to carry the gospel to the Gentiles.

So, I find that in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that there's this going out. There's a proclamation of the gospel. There's the moving out, not the standing still.

I find in Acts chapter 8 that there's a man that is rather that the church is scattered and they become witnesses for the saving power of the Lord Jesus. And then, of course, the great apostle Paul, great Saul of Tarsus is stopped, a proclaimed salvation. Number two, I find that this great salvation is a very personal salvation, very, very personal.

And so, dear boy and dear girl in the meeting tonight, this afternoon, if there was some way that in my next 15 minutes that I have, that it's at my disposal, if there's some way, if your mind is tired and your body is tired, join the crowd. I'm tired too. But if there is some way that you could forget about the school tomorrow, if you could forget about what you're going to do tomorrow or even tonight, and if you could just somehow zero in on this great, all-important truth, that it's me.

It's me. I can no longer hide behind the facade of somebody else. I can no longer hide behind the fact that that gospel is maybe for a friend of mine or maybe for an uncle of mine or for some other part of the family, but it's me.

And when I come to an understanding, it's me. You could get saved this afternoon. You could trust the Savior on the very chair that you sit.

If you would just come to an understanding, it's my soul, because that is what happened the night that God saved me. But I could not get past. I could no longer skirt it.

I could no longer avoid it. I was under the impression that this world was going to satisfy, and so I tried it. And like many younger people here have, and many adults have, they've tried the world.

Yes, we tried the world, and we entered and we went into it, not to the full scale of the nonsense and the tragic lives that are today. Just to show you how much I tried the world, let me just give you a… There was a great big cottonwood tree in downtown Applington. Don't plan a trip to Applington, because there's not much there.

But there was a big cottonwood tree in Applington. I had never tried to smoke a cigarette in my life. How am I going to smoke this silly thing? The boys are begging, the boys are treating, they're trying to get me to light up this cigarette.

They want to see me cough. What does it do? So you know what I did? I sought out this big cottonwood tree so nobody would see me. That isn't what they do today.

There was the fear of God in my soul that if my father just happened to drive by, maybe he got the chores done quickly, and the Holsteins were milked, and he had to make some trip to Applington, just what if he drove by? I didn't want my father to see me smoke a cigarette. I saw the kids just the other day, I don't think they were more than 10 years of age, lighting up a cigarette and smoking it as they were going down the street. Where is the fear of God today? Gone.

So I really tried the world, didn't I? No, dear friend, I understood it was me, it was my sin, and dear boys, and dear girls, you're going to suffer for your sins. Until you come to this understanding, it's me, it's my soul, and I've got to come to an understanding it's me. It's a personal salvation.

It's the opposite, of course, to that which we could do. A personal salvation, it's so personal, it's so personal that every single one that is saved here this afternoon, we have a time when this happened, we have a place where this happened, and we have a manner how it happened. And so there's a time when in your life, when you are taken off that wide path of humanity, when you are transformed and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, you're taken out of darkness and you're put into God's marvelous life.

It is so real, friend, you'll never forget it. It is so real that it becomes so personal that you enjoy telling others how to get it. My father was saved in an upstairs, so personal, I'm going to tell you something about my family, and I don't want to bore you, so don't go to sleep.

But it's so personal that every single one has their time when it happened. My father was saved in his upstairs bedroom in the wee hours of the morning. My mother was saved in driving her automobile.

She could take you to the spot where she trusted the Lord Jesus, the Savior. She gets about a mile from Leonard de Boer's old house on the brick house there on the corner of that blacktop road, and she gets about a mile from the house and she says, oh God, and she throws up her hands in despair, oh God, you've got to help me. And before she'd come to the stop sign where Leonard de Boer lived, it had dawned upon her, God is not going to do anything more than what He's done.

And she trusted Him. My sister was saved on my grandfather's sofa. My brother was saved in my house talking to Leonard de Boer.

I was saved in my automobile on July 5th when I was a ninth, whoops, I'm not going to tell you the year anymore. I was 18 years of age, but every single one has that time when it happened. And you know what? The older you get, the more you appreciate, I'm saved.

Oh, it's so personal. It is so personal, and it is so precious. Not only, not only is it personal, but everyone has a, everyone has a spiritual birthday when this great day took place.

It was at the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there, by faith, I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Not only is it a personal salvation, but it is a present salvation.

Now, let me just talk a little bit more about the personal salvation. The personal salvation aspect, friend, dear boy, would you just zero in on this just for a second. You say to yourself, I have wanted to be saved.

I have tried to get God's salvation. I have longed that I might have my sins forgiven. I'm not doubting that, friend.

I'm not saying that that isn't true, but is it possible, as we were reminded last night, that you're trying to do something when the work is already done? I believe that there are children in this meeting here today, and it hasn't, it hasn't been made clear to you, it hasn't been made clear to you that the simplicity of God's salvation is here. And today, the darkness that boys and girls are in, they're looking for something more than what they're ever going to understand. God's salvation, friend, is coming to an acknowledgment that it's my sins.

It's a personal salvation because it was my sins that Jesus died for. It was my sins that He went to the cross for. It was my sins that He went into the garden of Gethsemane and sweat as it were great drops of blood.

It was for me. Just for me. I remember that night.

I knew I was going to have to tell you. I remember that night. I remember it because I discovered that I was lost.

There was nothing that I could do. It worked. I could not, I could not believe it.

I didn't know how to believe it. I was told to believe it, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And we tried to believe it, and that didn't work.

And so, I got to the point where I was lost. I even tried talking to gospel workers, and they couldn't help. But I was looking at a verse.

When was the last time you looked at your Bible, dear boys? I sit down beside you, and I ask you, do you really want to be saved? And they say, you say, of course. But when was the last time you looked at your book? God's salvation is here. God's salvation is right here.

Barely, barely. I say unto you, word as He said. He says it in His Word, friend.

And so, when I come to His Word, I understand that when He says it in His Word, He says it in His Word, not for the nation of China, and not for the nation of Africa. But yes, even though those are included, but He says it in His Word. For who? Just for me.

Just for me. We were visiting with a dear lady just not too long ago, had never been in her home before. And I have a hunch we're going to be back in her home many times.

She told us of a remarkable story. She never, she never even heard of what the Gospel Hall was, never heard of such a group of people. She has no idea how we gather.

And of course, Christians gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus is totally foreign to that dear woman. But she told us of a story that was just found out that in her despair and in her wit's end, she discovered it was for me. Just for me.

I could take you to a dear woman up in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She was on her way to bury her daughter. You see, her daughter had rolled the car in the ditch, and the car erupted into flames.

And that beautiful young woman was cooked in her own automobile. Diane Dunlap was going to the funeral. She got to the end of the driveway, and she burst into a series of wails.

And at the end of that driveway, wailing that her daughter missed God's salvation because Diane Dunlap knew she needed God's salvation. And while she was trying to compose herself at the end of that driveway, after having a good cry, it dawned upon her that the Lord Jesus went through sufferings that I'll never know. And before she went to the funeral, she got saved.

Why? How could she have gotten to Christ? Because at the end of that driveway, dear boy, she come to this realization, it was me. It was my sins. And when she discovered that Christ died for my sins, well, I don't know about you, but that's all I have.

That's all Kerwin's got and Brent. Christ died for me. Friend, would you take it personally today, tonight, today, not tomorrow night, but today, Jesus died for me.

Not only is it a personal salvation, but it is a present salvation. It's a salvation that is presently. Something I can enjoy now.

He that believeth on the Son has. I've got it. I can enjoy it.

Not only is it a present salvation. What do I have because of it's a present salvation? It's a salvation, friend, that gives me the forgiveness of sins. All my sins, not in part, but the whole have been nailed to the cross and I bear them no more.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul.

Forgiveness of sins, which brings me into brings me into acceptance as far as God is concerned. Not only do I have the forgiveness of sins, but I have freedom from guilt. All that has been in the past, everything that has been charged to my account.

A dear woman was coming to meetings and many years ago in La Crosse. And that dear woman, I could see her eyes going darting to the right and to the left. And she would sit there and several times through each one of our messages, she would be looking this way and looking that way.

And she had every right to look that way and this way because that woman was being chased. And the horrible life that that woman was living. Freedom from guilt.

I wish I could tell you today that their goal, that dear soul got to the Savior. I do not know. But friend, I do know this, that the moment I come in contact with the Savior, the moment I trusted Him helpless and hopelessly lost, discovering that when the Savior bowed His blessed head and said, It is finished.

He finished it for me. I can take it in. A son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

And I had freedom from guilt. You know what high school seniors are always interested in? They're always interested in being accepted by the boys. Always.

The years that I had, the high school days, we had the butch and then the duck tail. And then right down the back of the center of the head had to make sure that there was a groove when the duck tails come together. You'd be surprised, you'd be surprised how many fellows took exception to the fact if the tails didn't meet.

Just weird. But acceptance with fellow men acceptance with the boys. Oh, that was so essential.

But friend, let me tell you something. The night that I trusted Christ and the night that I got a hold of the fact that Christ died for sinners is the night that I was brought in and I was accepted with the White House. Oh, let me tell you, that'd be a poor place to be accepted.

I was accepted with heaven and God found favor with me and I was accepted by heaven and God in his marvelous sovereign electing grace brought me in. I have forgiveness of sins. There was freedom from guilt and favor with God.

And I'm going to enjoy, I'm going to enjoy a fortune for eternity. Dear children, in the meeting this afternoon, oh, if we could only implore you, if we could only implore to impress upon you that the Savior is soon coming. The master of the house is about to rise up and shut to the door.

And he that shall come will come and he will not tarry. It's a present salvation. You can't, friend, you cannot leave this world.

You cannot leave this world without him. You might live in this world and you might live in this world without Christ and multitudes and thousands and millions are doing that and living in this world without Christ. But dear boy, let me tell you something, you cannot die without Christ.

Don't ever think of it. It'd been better. I always, I don't like to say this phrase, but it'd been better if you'd never been born.

Because to go out into the darkness where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. I was touched with last night's meeting. If I hadn't gotten saved nearly over 50 years ago, I think I'd have got saved last night.

What a marvelous thing, friend, that one day a man, he went into the depths of darkness. He went through the waves and the billows of God's righteous wrath and wave after wave of God's punishment was placed upon him just for me and just for you. Would you take it as a present salvation? It's a promise salvation.

It's a promise. It's a salvation that has a promise to it. Listen to the words before I sit down.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, says the Savior, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath, hath, hath what? Hath everlasting life. And that everlasting life, friend, is not life here upon earth. Everlasting life, absent from the body and present with the Lord in the grandeur of the heavenly shore, where sin and sorrow are no more, where separations are a thing of the past, where we're going in and we're going in to see the King and forever to be with the King of kings and Lord of lords.

I do have to ask my dear children before I sit down, you know the Lord is coming. You're sitting likely beside in the same row. If you're not sitting beside someone, you're likely sitting in the same row with Christians.

As you take a look down your row one way or another, isn't there Christians in your row? Well, let me ask you, my dear children, the Lord Jesus is coming. You know that. I don't have to get up here and Mr. Hoy doesn't have to get up here to tell you that.

You know that. But what I do want to ask you is, what if he gives the shout tonight? What are you going to do tomorrow? What will you do tomorrow? And to add insult to injury, we're not going to be thinking about anybody on earth, because in the glory we're going to have a body like a new zone. And I thank God that all that was in the past is done and I'll be in heaven.

We won't be thinking about you. This great salvation can be yours. It can be your present salvation.

Will you trust him? Will you take God at his word? Will you simply believe God? Just take it. Just rest upon it. That when he said it, it's his word, friend, that when he said it, it's true.

He really did pay the price. He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life.