Four R s Gospel

I remember a story about a man who went to the doctor to be checked up in connection with his health, and everything was found in order in this man's body. The doctor checked from head to foot, and then the x-ray machine was brought into play, and this young man was found to have a very serious condition in his lungs. The doctor's eye couldn't see it, but the x-ray machine revealed that which was inside.

And tonight, by the grace of God, we have, I may speak reverently, an x-ray machine here that looks inside your heart and mine. And I would like to speak tonight on four points in the Word of God. First, ruin.

Second, repentance. Third, redemption. And fourth, reception when the sinner comes to Christ.

Let us look first at the third chapter of the Book of Romans, where God gives us his picture of you and me, beloved friends. Whether we be in the United States or Canada, whether we be in Africa or China or Russia, it doesn't matter. God gives us his true and faithful picture of what you and I are by nature, and we were born that way, this way.

We were born like this. We didn't become like this. We were born like this into the world.

Romans chapter 3, just a few verses. Romans chapter 3, starting to read at verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

Think of that. Not one righteous man in the whole world. That's what God says.

There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God.

They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Now, friends, I ask you not to use the human reason tonight, but to believe what God says. This is what God says. They are all gone out of the way.

They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Not one.

Their throat is an empty sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that what things however the law says, it says to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world, notice this, all the world become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.

Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now beloved friends, you have heard this before, most of you. But this is a gospel meeting, and we're going to preach by the grace of God the gospel that man is a ruined creature, that man is a fallen creature, and that man is a sinner before God.

I wonder tonight if everybody in this audience has come to this place where they say, I believe that God is telling the truth, that I am a sinner. And I speak to you young people tonight with Christian fathers and mothers, maybe you haven't come to the place down at the very bottom of the ladder because you are being preserved by the grace of God in a Christian home, but you are a sinner, the same as anybody else. And God says, there is no difference, for all have sinned, no exception.

Thank God there was one in the Lord Jesus, the sinless, holy Son of God, who never sinned, who couldn't sin because he was God. Nevertheless, you tonight, my friends, are a ruined sinner, ruined absolutely, and I too. And by the grace of God, back in 1930, I say by the grace of God, I found out that I was a lost, guilty, hell-bound sinner under the power of the devil, and I needed Christ.

And by the grace of God, I came to Jesus, and he saved my precious soul. My friends, tonight, God has nothing complimentary to say about man in the flesh. He says that man is a sinner and that man needs a Savior.

He is ruined. Oh, I ask you, dear friends, tonight, have you accepted this about yourself? Has this, and I speak reverently, this X-ray from God, gone into your soul, and you found in the Word of God in Mark's Gospel, chapter 7, where the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, opens up man's heart, your heart and my heart, and he mentions a lot of things that come from within, out, within, out of the heart. Oh, boys and girls, this is your heart.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your heart. Men and women, this is your heart. And Jesus said, and included in that list, I think of about 17 things, one of them is murder, murder.

Oh, there's this little boy here tonight, and this little girl realized that in their heart is murder. Oh, it doesn't take long for it to come out, does it? Well, we're ruined, beloved friends. But this is another point now, when we see this, that we're ruined.

Let us look at the 13th of Luke's Gospel, just a couple of verses there, Luke chapter 13, and these are the very words of the Son of God, Luke chapter 13, and verse 2. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things, I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. For those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem, I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. One more verse in Acts 20, Acts chapter 20, verse 21.

Acts 20, verse 21. Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks or Gentiles, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what is repentance? You know, people, when you ask that question, what is repentance? Well, they say it means you sort of shed a few tears and that's it.

That's not repentance, my friends. But I believe that by receiving what I read to you in Romans chapter 3 and believing that about you and about me will lead you to take sides with God against yourself and stand up like the publican of old and say, smiting upon your breast and mine, God be merciful to me, a sinner. The publican would not even lift his eyes up to heaven, but in the presence of God he said, God be merciful to me, a sinner.

I wonder, beloved friends, as we stand on these platforms and preach the gospel, how many really and honestly and truly believe these words. I am sure there are some that come to these meetings that are not saved, that have never, never come to that place where they say, I have sinned against God and I'm on my way to eternity and I'm a sinner and I'm guilty and I'm lost, I'm condemned and I'm going to hell unless God does something about it. My friend, tonight have you discovered that you are a sinner.

I believe with all my heart that the first step to heaven is to find out that you are a lost, guilty sinner. And I'm sure, beloved friends, that there are many who come to these conferences who are not saved, who have never come to the place where they say, I take sides with God against myself and I condemn not my neighbor, not the man in jail, but I condemn myself. I am a sinner.

Oh, beloved friends, has God done anything about this? He certainly has. Let us look at Ephesians chapter 1, this one verse in connection with redemption. Ephesians 1 and verse 7, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

Here we have something, beloved friends. Now God steps in and when the sinner says, I'm guilty, I'm lost, I'm undone, I'm wretched, I'm on the way to eternal darkness, then God steps in and notice what he says, In whom? He's speaking about a person and not religion. He's not speaking about a church.

He's speaking about a person. He says, In whom? Who is this person? It's my pleasure and my privilege tonight to present to you this glorious person who is the son of God himself, the mighty creator of heaven and earth, whose name among the names mentioned in Isaiah 9, verse 6, is the mighty God. Isn't that wonderful? The mighty God has been here in the world.

The mighty God, beloved friends, the maker of heaven and earth, has been in this world as a man, sinless and holy and spotless, born of a virgin. The son of God has been here. And as he walked up and down the streets of Palestine, men and women saw their God manifest in the flesh.

Yes, my friends, God has been here in the person of Christ. And he was rejected by this world and nailed to the cross of Calvary. And by that one perfect sacrifice and by the shedding of his precious blood, he has forever washed away the sins and the guilt of every born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God has done something about it. Oh, beloved friends, let me bring briefly before you, before I turn to my last point, some of the miracles that took place at Calvary as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, particularly and in the Gospel of John. One of the great miracles, I may say, that took place at Calvary was this, that the one with all power allowed himself to be bound.

The Bible says the word of God is not bound, but the living Christ, the living word of God, was bound by wicked men. And he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

And here, beloved friends, the one who made the world was laid upon a cross of wood and nailed there to that cross, lifted up between heaven and earth, a gazing stock for God himself, for the devil and the demons, and for all mankind and the angels to gaze upon the Christ of God nailed to the cross. What a miracle, beloved friends! They said to him, If thou be the Christ, save thyself, come down from the cross. Could he have done it? Yes, indeed.

As was mentioned this morning, I believe, he could have called out twelve legions of angels who would have gladly come down to this world and swept the whole world into hell. But he didn't do it. He allowed himself to be nailed to the cross.

And then another miracle, beloved. At noontime, when the sun reached the highest place of the heavens, God wrapped the scene in darkness as the Son of God was made sin and bore my sins in his own body on the tree. Now think of it, friends.

We read these verses many times till we stop to consider what it means. Millions upon millions upon millions of sins of all the children of God, of all those who have faith laid upon that blessed holy person, and the wrath of God poured upon him. Another miracle, he was forsaken of God.

You know, not one man had ever lived in this world. Could ever be forsaken of God. He would die in a second.

But the Son of God was forsaken for three long hours while he hung on that cross. What a miracle! And he cried out with a loud voice, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What a question! Have you found the answer to that question? Do you realize why he was forsaken? It was for you, my friend, if you have him as your Savior. And thank God it was for me.

God forsook him, the darling of his bosom, his own beloved son, the only man who never sinned, the one who could say, I always do those things that are pleasing in thy sight. And God forsook him for you, my friend, and for me, who by the grace of God tonight have found out the truth of why he was forsaken. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? We live in an ungodly age where men and women believe that to shed a few tears you betray yourself as a baby.

But how can anybody read these verses of the cross and not shed a few tears? My friends, if this doesn't move you to tears, what in God's world will move you to tears? That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was made sin and bore our sins in his own body on the tree and received from a holy God that blow which would have sunk you and me into hell. He received the blow in our place. Blessed Son of God, blessed substitute from God, wrath awful, copy drained.

He died for sinners. He died for the ungodly. He died for you, my friends.

And I know the devil has made man believe that God is against them, but it's not true. God loves you tonight. And Calvary's cross, that miracle, tells us the love of God for you, my beloved friends.

And then another miracle. The only man who ever lived or ever has lived or ever will live laid down his life. He dismissed his spirit.

Nobody else could do that. But the Christ of God did. He had power to lay down his life.

He had power to take it again. He had received this commandment from his Father. He laid down his life.

He died. He bowed his head, beloved friends. John 19, verse 30.

He bowed his head. Think of it. The only man who had a right to lift his head bowed his head.

You and I, as poor sinners, should bow our heads in shame. But Jesus bowed his head in death. Another miracle at the cross was this.

That the Roman soldier pierced his side and forthwith, out of a dead Christ, flowed that water and that blood. A miracle. A miracle.

I was saying last Lord's Day at Abbot St. Thomas in Ontario. I was speaking to an undertaker who was a Christian. And I asked him if he ever saw a dead man bleed.

And he said, Listen, brother, dead people just don't bleed. And I said to him, All right, I'll quote you a verse in the Bible. And I read him John 19, 34.

And this is what this undertaker said. He was a Christian. He said, Brother, that was the Son of God.

That was the Son of God. It was a miracle. A miracle.

And then the veil of the temple was rent at the cross, opening the way for man to come into God's holy presence and for God to come out to man and put his arms around the sinner and kiss him. Oh, the rocks were rent, beloved friends. And as we sometimes travel in the ranch and mountains and see those great rocks rent, I wonder if maybe at the cross, when the Lord Jesus bowed his head in death, those great rocks in the ranch and mountains and also in the Rockies were rent as the Creator bowed his head in death for poor sinners.

Miracles, beloved friends, miracles of Calvary. Oh, he loved you and he gave himself for you. My beloved sinner friend, tonight are you here? Do you believe this? You say, well, everybody believes it.

As a historical fact, maybe that is partly true. But the fact, and I speak reverently, that a man named Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross will never save your soul unless you receive him as your personal Savior. It is history that Jesus died.

It is history that Jesus shed his blood. But it is faith that says he died for me. He took my place.

As if I was the only man who ever lived in the world, he took my place. He died for me. Redemption bought back as a poor slave of the devil, captured by the devil at his will, purchased, redeemed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God.

Have your sins been washed away in the precious blood of Christ? You know, back in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, the lamb died. Its blood was shed. The blood was placed on the lintel in the side post.

And God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And those people that night had two grand and glorious facts brought before them. First of all, they had the blood of Christ, the blood of the Lamb, a type of the blood of Christ, and that made them safe.

And then they had the word of God, and that made them sure. And tonight, by the grace of God, and I know that many can say the same thing, I know my sins are gone, that God himself will remember them no more forever, that he's cast them behind his back into the depths of the sea, and he says, I'll never remember them again for eternity. They're gone forever, beloved friends.

The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. I'd like to tell a story about a young man whose name was sent to me from British Columbia, who was in the prison down in Mississippi, a young man who wrote a letter to an old Christian lady who wrote to me and said, please answer this young man. And this young man said in his letter something like this.

He said, I am in prison. I've been here for five years. I haven't got a friend in the world.

My mother and my father have put me out. All my friends have given me up. I have nobody.

Please help me. What a joy to write to that young man and tell him there's a friend. There's a friend who would everybody put you out.

When your mother and father say I don't want you, I disown you, a friend will say, come unto me and I will give you rest. He wrote me back and said, please tell me more about Jesus. Isn't that wonderful? And there's young people tonight in this room maybe who would never do that.

This young man behind prison bars, he did it. Tell me more about Jesus. I wrote back to him again.

I told him about the death of Christ, the cleansing power of his precious blood. And I said to him, please my dear young man, kneel down in your cell and tell God what you told me. You haven't got a friend in the world and that you're a sinner.

And he wrote back to me. Many weeks went by and finally his letter came. He said, I'm sorry for making you wait so long, but I have spinal meningitis.

I'm in the hospital and my friend is writing the letter for me as I dictate it. And he said this, I'm reading my Bible every day. He had been sent a Bible by this lady in British Columbia.

I'm reading my Bible every day and I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior. Friend, think of it. God went in behind the prison bars.

You can't keep God out of the penitentiary. The walls and the guards and the guns can't keep the grace of God out. Young Freddy Curtis received Christ.

Have you received Christ yet? Have you received Christ? Now our last point is reception in Luke 15. Let us notice this beautiful chapter. I suppose it's one of the favorite chapters of practically every gospel preacher who has the privilege, by the grace of God, to preach the gospel.

Luke 15. Now I must hurry because our time is passing. But notice first of all at the beginning of the chapter what it says in verse 4. What man are you having an hundred sheep if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost, notice now, until he find it.

Maybe you've come tonight to this gospel meeting by the grace of God and you are lost and the shepherd is looking for the sheep and you've been here maybe last year, the year before, and you're still lost. But oh, how blessed the shepherd didn't give up and thank God for nine years the shepherd sought me. For nine years, beloved friends, the shepherd sought my soul.

Thank God he found me. Notice what it says next. And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing.

It doesn't say the sheep rejoice, the shepherd rejoice. It was the joy of the shepherd to find the lost sheep. And oh, beloved friends, there's joy in heaven tonight over one sinner that repented.

And it says, the Lord Jesus said, there's joy in the presence of the angels of God. And I think this, beloved friends, who is in the presence of the angels? The Christ of God is there. That's where the Lord Jesus is.

And there's joy in his heart as one precious soul is found. And notice the next verse says, and when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders. Notice rejoicing.

His shoulders. The government of the world is on one shoulder, as we find in the book of Isaiah. But the sheep is put onto two shoulders.

And the sheep is carried all the way home. No such a thing has been saved on Saturday and lost on Sunday. That's not what God's gospel is.

Saved today and lost tomorrow. No. The sheep was carried all the way home by the shepherd.

How glorious. Now in the next part of this parable, I'll skip it because to save time, I want to take it down to the prodigal son. And notice what he says in the 18th verse.

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. This takes us right back to Romans 3, doesn't it? I have sinned, notice, not against man. I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose. Repentance.

He arose. He didn't just stay there and make that little statement. But he arose.

He was real, beloved. He was real. And he came to his father.

But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Isn't that beautiful? Notice the activity was on the father's part. And God is waiting for you tonight, my dear sinner friend.

He loves you. And he watches down that broad road that you're on to destruction. He waits for you to turn around and start back again, saying, I have sinned against heaven.

I'm not worthy of anything but hell and judgment. And come to him who waits for you. And then it says in the 21st verse, And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

But he's cut off. He doesn't say anything about make me as one of thy hired servants. God doesn't want servants.

No, my beloved sinner friend. He does not want servants. He wants you to come as you are.

No terms, but on God's terms to come empty as you are now, guilty, lost, defiled. I say if the biggest sinner in the state of Washington is here tonight, there's a Savior for you. He loves you.

When the whole world turns against you, Jesus will say, Come to me. I'm a Savior. Why is his name Jesus? Jehovah the Savior.

He came into the world to save sinners. Isn't that wonderful? This is the gospel, beloved friends. God loves you.

God wants you. God waits for you. Notice the reception he got now in the 22nd verse.

But the Father said to his servants. He had lots of servants. He didn't need this boy to be a servant.

He had all the servants he wanted right there. Bring forth the best robe. Isn't that wonderful? The very best for the very worst.

Oh, I think that's indeed precious, beloved friends. You and I, the very worst. God said, I have the very best for you.

The best robe. And put it on him. There's the young man.

Now notice. There he is. He had just come back from the pigs.

He had been feeding the pigs. That was his job. Who put him in the pig field? The citizen of the far country.

And who was the citizen of the far country? The devil. And where has the devil put you tonight, beloved friend, without Christ? He's put you among the pigs. The pigs.

There you are, wasting your substance, your health and your strength, wasted in sin. While God waits for you to come back to give you the best, the very best robe, which is his own righteousness. And there he was, now with the best robe on him.

Then it says, put a ring on his hand. Notice the hand that fed the pigs was now going to have a ring around it. What does it tell? The never-ending love of his Father.

The never-ending love of God, beloved friend. No end to it. The very hand that served the devil now can serve the Lord.

How blessed. With a ring on the hand telling of God's never-ending, God's eternal, God's matchless love, doesn't it move your heart? Oh, dear Christian, doesn't it touch your heart? God's never-ending love for the likes of you and me. Isn't it wonderful? Again I say, the very best for the very worst.

And put shoes on his feet. You see, I understand the servants didn't wear shoes. Now I believe the shoes would bring before us at least two thoughts.

First of all, a new standing. And every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has a standing for God accepted in the Beloved. We stand in all the wonders and the beauties of Christ.

And I say this, if Adam had never, never sinned and there was in the world people like you and me and were absolutely innocent, we had never sinned. Let us oppose that. I say the sinner tonight in Christ has a far better place than Adam ever had as an innocent creature in the Garden of Eden because the believer in Christ stands before God, his Father, dressed in God's righteousness, loved with an eternal love and with shoes on his feet because he's now brought back as a child, not a servant, but a child.

Relationship. And then, too, the shoes would remind us that we're separated from this world, dear Christian. We don't stand on the earth.

We don't belong to the world. We belong to heaven. We sing, heaven is our home.

I sing and I ask myself, I challenge my heart, do we really believe this? Is it a real fact? Is it true? You know, it's very easy to say these things, that Jesus may come tonight. This may be the last night the gospel we preach. Before tomorrow morning, sun rises, we may be in the glory.

It's very easy to say those things. But I ask you and I ask me, myself, I ask my own heart, do we really and honestly and truthfully, with all our hearts, believe that we do not belong to this Satan-ruled world, this great world system over which the devil is God and prince. And we are actually waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven at any moment.

For I am convinced as you are that the Lord is coming. Ungodly men say something has to happen, it must happen. Beloved friends, it's going to happen.

Jesus is coming again and every born-again Christian will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and those who are left behind will face the judgment and the wrath of God for all eternity. It's solemn, isn't it? Oh, my friend, if you're here tonight without Christ, how can you ever be happy? How can you ever laugh? How can you ever smile when before you is such a terrible place that the Lord Jesus Christ had to die on the cross of Calvary to keep us from going there? This is solemn, but it's true. Notice next now, he says, And bring hither the fatted calf.

Notice the fatted calf. While the young man was with the pigs in the field, wasting his money, his money all gone, his friends all gone, and there his company, his friends were the pigs. And there he is now, while he's away, his father has the fatted calf being prepared.

And could not that father enjoy every day walking out to that field and looking upon that fatted calf? Could he not do that? But notice, before the son could enjoy the fatted calf, the calf had to die. The calf had to die and kill it, it says. Oh, what does this tell us, beloved? How precious, that in a past eternity God enjoyed Christ.

God enjoyed Christ from a past eternity. But in order that sinners, saved by the grace of God, might enjoy Christ with the father, that one had to die on Calvary's cross. For as we had in our chapter, John 12, 24, except a corn or wheat fall into the ground and die, it abided alone.

But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. How blessed! God has enjoyed Christ forever in a past eternity. But now, God says, I will enjoy Christ with you.

And while the Christian is on earth, down here on earth, he can enjoy Christ, while in heaven above God is enjoying Christ. How blessed! And kill it, and let us, notice, let us eat and be merry. Who is the us? Oh, this boy who came back and said, I have sinned.

That's where the blessing came. I have sinned. He came under all the blessing because he owned himself to be a sinner.

And now he says, let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead. That speaks of the piece of silver, I believe, in the earlier part of this chapter. Because the piece of silver was dead.

It had no life. It couldn't cry. It couldn't do anything.

It was a piece of silver. It had to be picked up. A man without Christ is dead spiritually in his sins.

Why don't the unsaved come to the gospel? Why don't the unsaved read the Bible? Oh, they're spiritual corpses. Am I speaking tonight to a spiritual corpse in this room? And you don't enjoy the Bible? You don't enjoy prayer? You don't enjoy talking about Christ? You're a spiritual corpse. And you need Christ to give you life.

Then it says, and he is alive again. He was lost. That brings us back to the sheep.

The sheep in the earlier part of the chapter. He was lost and is found. Isn't that wonderful? And they began to be merry.

In verse 14 it says, and he began to be in want. Here it says, they began to be merry. Now when he was in want, the Father met him, met all his needs, met everything he needed, and they rejoiced together.

And my friend tonight, are you a sinner? Maybe you have a burden on your heart. Maybe you're in sorrow and trial. Maybe you have come to the place where you say, what a world.

What a world. And as you read the paper, page after page, murders, robberies, strikes, revolutions, troubles, shootings, deaths, prison escapes, and all kinds of things, you say, what a world, what a world. Oh my friend, let me point you to Jesus.

Let me present to you the Son of God, the Lord of glory, the Christ, the Lamb of God, the one who will soon come in the air to call us away, the one who will come later in judgment. Have you ever stopped to think what it will be to this world when they see the heavens open and that blessed one coming forth out of the heavens in all his power and his majesty and his might and with the word of his mouth he wipes out the whole western armies by the word of his mouth. And likewise the other nations later on.

What a solemn thing. Christ is coming, beloved friends. Are you deaf? Are you blind? Are you dead tonight? Christ has the answer for you.

You need Christ. You don't need religion. Oh, I believe God hates religion.

Friends, the world is full of religion. It was religion that murdered the Christ of God, the Pharisees and the scribes and the elders, the men of religion. I don't preach religion and I never would by the grace of God, but I preach a person and that person's name is Jesus.

He's the savior of sinners and he loves you tonight and his precious blood has power to cleanse from all sin. I remember reading, maybe I've told this before but it bears repeating, there was a preacher preaching one night and he preached and he said this, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin. And he noticed as he said those words that a man down in the audience reached forth his hand and took the seat in front of him and he squeezed it until his hand was white.

And after he got through preaching he went down and he said, please tell me, what's the matter with you? And he said, I'll tell you in private, please. He said, you know, I'm a murderer. I committed murder.

And he said, they've never caught me. They know nothing about it. But he said, I want to ask you this question, sir.

Is it really true? Is it really true? Is that verse you quoted really true? Will the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanse away murder? And the preacher said, I didn't say that, my friend, but God did. God did. And that settles it.

The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, think of that, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin. And there's none left. How blessed.

This is the gospel, my friends. Jesus loves you. God loves you.

God has blocked the road to hell with the cross of Christ. Are you going to pass the cross? Are you going to leave this room now in two or three minutes as you came in? Or are you going to bow your head and say, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I'm guilty.

Guilty. Guilty. There was a young man some years ago in the Washington State Penitentiary.

I went to visit him. He seemed to be a young man who knew the gospel because he quoted John 3.16. And I said to him, young man, when you meet the judge, plead guilty. Own yourself to be guilty and fall into his arms for mercy.

Well, I received a letter from my brother here in Walla Walla. He said he didn't take your advice. He pleaded not guilty, but he was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years behind the bars.

My friend tonight, are you going to plead not guilty tonight? And God will say, but you are guilty. And he'll condemn you and send you away into a lost eternity. Why not say I'm guilty and fall into the arms of Jesus that says in the word of God, Him that cometh to me, I will and no wise cast out.

God loves you. Christ died for you. There's no more sacrifice for sin.

If you haven't got the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, now that you sit in that chair, you are lost. You are right now speeding towards hell. We came here to Vancouver in four hours and 20 minutes as that great 747 sped through the air.

What a picture of the poor sinner speeding on his way to hell without Christ. Speeding on his way to hell. And tonight God says, stop, stop, stop, and look and listen.

There's a Savior for you. I can't tell you anything more, beloved friend. I commend to you the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is my personal Savior. I'm going to heaven. I can't go to hell because my life is in heaven with Christ.

He is my Savior. He died for sinners so he must have died for me. He died for the ungodly so he must have died for me.

And I say by the grace of God in 1930, I received him as my personal Savior. And my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus and the blood he spilled. I don't know any place else to go.

There's no other hiding place but in Christ. Oh, may God tonight speak to you, careless one, hardened one, you dear young people who have come to this conference. Maybe you came here from your home.

It's your custom to go to all the conferences. But maybe you've never received yet the Lord Jesus Christ. Why not tonight? Just as I bow my head, you bow your head before God.

Not before me. Bow your head before God and own yourself to be a guilty sinner and receive Christ. For as many as received him, to them gave he the authority to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name.

Just receive Christ. There's just one verse I want to quote in Romans 10 and 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Do you believe in the resurrection of Christ? If you do, will you own that that man the world insulted and crucified, nailed to a criminal's cross? Will you say to that blessed man, Lord Jesus, thou art the Lord.

May God bless his word. Let us bow our heads.