Calvary: the only starting and stopping place

Now, don't get too excited, but the brethren told me I could finish that message if I wanted to, but we're not going to finish that message. We're going to start where every person that's going to heaven starts. Luke's gospel, please, in chapter 23.

Gospel of Luke chapter 23. Matthew, Mark, Luke chapter 23. And verse number 33.

Luke 23 verse 33. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. The malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.

Now, let me read that to you or with you again. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. Malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.

I hope you don't think that they are just those Roman soldiers. They that crucified him includes everybody in this audience today. Every person, because of sin, made Calvary a necessity.

I want to share with you something I've been enjoying lately, and it's this. I want to speak as far as I'm concerned on the only starting place and the only stopping place in the life of anybody. Calvary was a stopping place.

They stopped here to crucify him. We'll come back to that. But every person going to heaven, every person that's saved, every person that enjoys the home that we've been hearing about and the necessary borders in it, every person that is genuinely born again has a link with Calvary.

Now, let me ask you this afternoon, do you have a link with Calvary? It's none of my business where you go on Sunday morning, if you go anywhere. It's none of my business. But it is my business just now to make sure, absolutely sure, that your stopping a place in life was something more than just a baptismal tank or a baptism anywhere.

Now, don't go over to the place and say, they don't believe in baptism there because I didn't see a baptismal tank. They baptize you. We believe in baptism as much as any and more than most.

But after salvation, after you've had this stopping place, you see, every person that is saved, it is a starting place because with us, we go back to a time, the other side of the cross, if you like, when we were guilty, lost sinners, deserving of God's wrath and judgment, deserving of hell and ultimately the lake of fire, discovered we are on a road taking us to a place we didn't want to go to. And the only way off that road, by the way, is John 10 and 9, I am the door, by me, of any man enter in, he shall be saved. You saved today? Ever tell anybody you're saved? I speak to everybody here today.

When last did you tell somebody you're saved? Oh, you say, that's for the gospel preachers. No, it's not. No, it's not.

I want to say that some of the best evangelists I know never get on a platform. My mother is one of them. She died in the north of Ireland.

The day she died, she gave out three gospel tracts the day she died. Imagine. I often think of that.

We had her funeral back here in Garneville, Iowa. I wondered who will be next sister to pass out three tracts. One of the sisters over in the north of Ireland insisted I go with her back to each of those shops, as they call them over there, and meet the clerks.

And I did. And just because the sister asked me to. And my mother was, she was gray, so I guess it's a giveaway on me.

Walked up the counter and this, Mrs. Gordon would say, I want you to introduce you to the son of a lady that was in here and bought something the other day. Oh, I remember that lady. She gave me one of those tracts.

Yeah, she said, she's gone. Oh, she go back to Canada? No, no. She's gone home to heaven.

And I can remember that lady standing there, home to heaven. Where are you going today? Where are you going? People have been saying to me since I come to the conference here, because we've been seven weeks in Ontario, you must be anxious to get home. And I am.

Home for me is not a house on 109 Bryan Drive in Sussex, New Brunswick. It's not the house. It's somebody that's there.

Happens to be my wife. Home. And there's some other ones around that street, just a little ways up the street.

They're called grandchildren. You'll find this interesting. She sent me a picture, all three of them.

I sent my wife back, you know, and I said, why don't you adopt all three of them? I says until eight o'clock, then send them back down the street. Okay. But anyhow, that being aside, let me ask you today, if you died today, where would you be? Where would you be? See, without a stopping place like those, without a link to Calvary, there's no life for heaven.

You have to have a link with Calvary. You see, that's why as Christians gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, if you come here tomorrow morning, you may say, well, they're having their communion. You could call it that if you like, but you know what they're doing? They're stopping where they got their start.

It isn't just about the place. It's about the person. Calvary would have absolutely no significance apart from the one that died at Calvary.

And as believers gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in accordance with the word of God, they will gather here tomorrow morning. There's a seat back there where there are those that come and observe that order called the seat of the unlearned. It doesn't mean you're not saved.

They observe that order and come to a conclusion, God is among you of a truth or not. But the people in that circle, you know what they relate to? A place called Calvary, where the Savior was crucified, where the Lord Jesus gave his life, where he died, where he shed his precious blood. A stopping place.

You know, there are places right here in the United States that people have said to me, you know, you should stop and see this and stop and see that. If I stopped at all the places they suggested, I wouldn't get anywhere, okay? And I know there's some wonderful places to see. Yosemite Park and Grand Canyon, I've flown over it, this sort of thing.

All kinds of stopping places. I stopped at some of them. I like them.

And I wouldn't mind going back. But there's other places I've stopped, and I don't care if I ever have to go back to it. I happen to fly up into northern Canada into a place called Labrador.

On the way up to Labrador, there's a little town along the St. Lawrence River called Chevre. There's no rail lines going in there. There's a boat that would go in there every other week.

There's no roads into Chevre. Population is 261 people. There happens to be a Christian I know, her husband's an overseer in the Pugwash Assembly in Nova Scotia.

That's her home. And I almost dread her call because she knows I'm going up to the conference in Lancelot, Labrador. Would you drop me off in Chevre? Yeah, I'll drop you off in Chevre.

It's October, but it'll be snowing. It'll be windy. It's rock barren.

And when I stopped there, I remember I had some other younger fellows with me the last time. I shut no engines down, okay? I'm afraid one wouldn't start. I don't want to be stuck in Chevre.

I don't speak French. And there's nothing else there. It's so barren.

I'm just glad that even to cancel a flight plan, I said to a young fellow on the plane, I said, go ahead and tell them we're landed. We're on for Blanc-en-Blanc, Quebec, which is near the Lancelot Assembly. You see, that's a place I really don't like stopping at.

And you know, for years of my life, I had no stopping place called Calvary. I couldn't relate to that place. I'd never visited it.

Now listen, I haven't taken a trip. I've been offered one across, and nothing against you if you've gone over there and you can relate to Gordon's Calvary. That's wonderful.

I plan on going when it's a little cheaper in the millennium, okay? I'll see it all then. Until then, I'll just hear the stories that others tell me about Calvary. So when I speak about stopping at Calvary, I'm not thinking of a tour overseas.

I'm talking about a spiritual experience in your life where you came face to face with the fact that if I am not saved, I'll never be in heaven. That there was someone that loved me so much that he died on Calvary's cross so I could be saved, so I could go to heaven. Do you have anything like that? We visited somebody the other day, and they said, she, well, my husband says that he remembers distinctly going up to the front.

This lady's coming to gospel meetings that we've been having. And she says, you know, he put up his hand and he made a commitment to Christ. I said, okay.

What was in that commitment? Well, she didn't know. What is he committed to? She didn't know either. Because just as we've been hearing, he lives just like that world out there.

There's absolutely no difference. Now, I'm not condemning what happened in that church building. That's none of my business.

What my business is right now is to make sure, to forge into your thinking the absolute necessity of a moment in your life when you are linked with Christ, when you trust in him as Savior, because that's what we do on Lord's Day morning. We come to remember the Lord Jesus Christ in the breaking of bread, the partaking of the cup, and we worship him in the beauty of holiness, in a pattern that is given to us in the Word of God. And invariably, you will hear Calvary mentioned.

Now, does it factor into your language? Does it factor into your life? Is there really a time that you can look back to when you were saved when you trusted Christ as your Savior, when you for the first time realized, there's a God that loved me so much, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life? It's a wonderful thing to be saved. Wonderful thing to be born again. Be absolutely sure of it, my friend.

Absolutely sure of it. Listen, you can come into this country here on a work permit. There's a lot of people think they're going to heaven on a work permit.

No such thing. Do the best you can. Be a respectable citizen.

All those commendable things. You can't go to, you cannot go to heaven on a work permit. You can come into this country as an alien visitor.

It simply means that you were born outside of the United States of America, but you're coming in here as a visitor, and you can get a card to do that. There's different ways by which you can come in here, but I want to tell you, you know what they look for? They look for a passport. I'm going to tell the Canadians that are here too, you might as well keep your passport, but go and get yourself a nexus.

This country, United States of America, is in a little time going to literally waive any Canadian passport away, simply because, and I'm not going into politics, simply because there's people that are print, countries printing passports over there faster than we can print newspaper, giving them to people they want to get rid of, and they get their way into Canada. And then from there, they come down and show a Canadian passport. The Americans are saying, no.

Personally, I don't blame them. I don't blame them. My point is this, to go to heaven, you have to be born again.

It's the only passport. The Lord Jesus said it irrevocably, John chapter three, verse number seven, to the most religious men of his day, except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God.

Wonderful thing to be born again. Wonderful to have a link with Calvary. Do you understand the Lord Jesus had very important stopping places when he came to earth.

He would stop for a blind man. Nobody else wanted him. He was an embarrassment.

He was in the way of society, but the Savior stopped for him. It says more than that, it says he stood still. I think that's wonderful.

I'll tell you something better than that. There was a warm summer night when he stood still for this lost guilty sinner, sitting at my feet, no vision in the wall, nothing mysterious. Simply had the word of God.

The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. John chapter four was another stopping place. And he stopped there.

What for? A woman with such a checkered past, the disciples marveled that he even talked at her, talked to her. They marveled. They thought, not her, not her.

Do you understand? To the most outcast in the Old Testament and New Testament that the Lord Jesus revealed himself unto were people with a hard past. I don't care what your past is today. You can be saved.

You can know your sins forgiven. You can know Christ is your Savior. Have the absolute peace and assurance that I'm going to heaven because Jesus died for me.

I'm telling you about places the Lord Jesus stopped. There'll be others. I want to tell you a place where all heaven stopped.

You know where all heaven stopped? Read Matthew chapter 27, Mark chapter 15, Luke chapter 23, John chapter 19. Heaven stood still at Calvary. Angels must looked with absolute marvel.

Some have said they folded their wings, whatever, as the Son of His love, the Son of God, was being nailed to a cross. It was a stopping place. It's a stopping place for all of humanity.

It's a stopping place for time. Come on. What parcel of property do you own that doesn't have A.D. on it, on the deed? B.C. before Christ, A.D. after his death.

Stopping place. I'm reminded, we're hearing of London, England from Brother Schutt this afternoon. I'm reminded of a town outside of London, England.

And just beyond that town during World War II, there's a little cemetery. That cemetery was called Calvary. Calvary, very interesting name.

It wasn't cavalry. Maybe they spelled it wrong in the original. I do not know why it was called Calvary.

And of course, in that cemetery after World War II, there was a lot of people buried that had family in the area of London. And there used to be a lot of people ride that train going out. And it would stop at Calvary.

People would get off, be a quietness. They get off with their bouquet of flowers. They'd go to a grave.

Someone placed their flowers, wait for the train, come back, catch the train back into London. As time went on, of course, that generation passed. And that train did not make regular stops.

But a man whose writings I read was on that train one time. And there was a conductor on that train. Here's how he announced.

He said this. He walked to the car. He says, next stopping place can be Calvary, only on request.

Next stopping place, Calvary, only on request. And sometimes that train would just simply go right past that cemetery. Nobody wanted to stop at Calvary.

You're not saved today. You know it. You've never been born again.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful afternoon, this beautiful day here, if you made a stopping place you've never made before? And that place was called Calvary. Stop there and realize, did anything happen for me at Calvary? Really? You know, I think of that often. He saved others.

There were people that knew that other people were saved. Himself he cannot save. That was the Lord Jesus they were taunting with that.

There's a thief crucified right beside him that saw everything there was to see, heard everything there was to hear. He saw things Judas never saw. Judas was dead at this time.

We talk about him kissing the door to heaven. Judas was never as close to the Son of God as the man we call the other thief was. Yeah, I don't know how to put it in a language that would be less jarring than to tell you something.

There was a man that went from Calvary to hell. We sing with children, all the way to Calvary, he went for me. He died to set me free.

That man went from Calvary to hell. Do you know why? He didn't think he needed to be there. The only salvation he wanted was something that could save him out of what his sin had brought him into.

Get me out of this mess. I meet people like that all the time. If they could get something that would get them out of the predicament that their sin has brought them in, that's fine.

That's all that man wanted. In fact, he didn't even know if he was the Christ. He says, if thou be not the Christ, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

Get us out of here. Notice his first word was if. People come to a meeting like this, meet Christians like this, look at a chart like this, superimposed in their thinking.

There's one little word that's so damning. It's the word if. If.

Know if about it, my friend. It's the absolute truth of the Word of God. This is what Peter says.

Acts chapter 4, verse number 12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Must be saved.

There was nothing nice about Calvary to look at it. I'm not so sure. Maybe it was a scene where there were skulls strewn around, a bald, bleak-looking place.

I'm not really into that. Something so graphic as that. But I tell you, one thing happened at Calvary, and it was this.

People did not die by lethal injection. They died by crucifixion. A horrible, horrid death.

And to think that's the death they had for the Son of God. A God that so loved us. A Savior that so loved us that He gave His life for us.

There was a man, some of the Christians would know him by reading his book, likely one of the most devotional books we have on what the Bible teaches, is J. Boyd Nicholson's. Whether you agree with me or not, that's mine. We'd have something in common.

He was a pilot during World War II. He flew the Lancasters. He got very, very sick at a Iowa conference he was at.

I was at a different conference back a number of years ago. And he called up my brother, wanted to know if I had room for him, fly him back to Toronto. I said, I'll do better than that.

I'll fly him right into St. Catharines. I knew he was in St. Catharines, lived in St. Catharines, and he was a sick man. And Mr. Paisley was on that flight too, and Mr. Nicholson was.

Of course, Mr. Paisley told me he had arranged this ride for him. And I don't think Mr. Paisley knew he was coming until he got to the conference visit. And that man was quite an artistic man, very capable man, and he drew a picture from an old pilot to a young one.

I felt like I should dig that out again. I think I still got it. Anyhow, why I'm telling you this story, I remember taking him in there and his wife's still glad to see him.

They only lived a few miles from St. Catharines Airport. He told a story one time I never forgot. Actually, I heard it on tape.

He told about flying over Burma, and he dropped all kinds of things out of that four-engine plane, but usually food it was behind enemy lines. This particular case, his plane was down for repairs and he was stranded in Burma. He and his first officer and a couple of the others hitchhiked a ride.

Now, this is in Burma, back into a small town to get some supplies or food just to get by on. Got in the back of a pickup truck. There's a little boy sitting there and he says, I don't know where he was going to get his next meal.

He said, I don't even know if he knew who his parents were. So I said to one of the service personnel, who is he? Oh, he says, just a kid around. He says, as we went along he started to sing, and I couldn't understand the language.

So he says, I tapped one of the other officers there. I said, you understand the language? He said, what's he singing? Oh, he says, he's singing some song about Jesus loves me. Imagine, Jesus loves me, this I know.

Didn't know who his parents were. Didn't know where his next meal was coming from. But he knew Jesus loved him.

Do you know that today? Does Calvary have any significance to you today? Or might I just as well be talking about Calgary, Canada? Calvary. When they come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucify him. You see, as believers we love to sing a hymn written by a lady by the name of Jenny Hussey.

She writes a beautiful hymn that we as believers sing, lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget thine agony, lest I forget thy love to me, lead me to Calvary. There's something wrong in any conference meeting, in any ministry, my own included, if somehow we don't create Christians back to Calvary. When the Apostle Paul wrote to those New Testament churches, most of those epistles are written against the background of problems.

What did he say? He said, I'm going to come have a week of ministry meetings, get you all straightened up. No, he didn't say that. He said, I'm going to come among you that there might be some fruit in the gospel.

And invariably, he brings more than any other writer the truth of the cross before believers. Calvary. Calvary and its significance.

Well, you see, you know, we could come very used to it. No, no. This isn't a place you become used to.

I have been saved for over 50 years. I've never become used to Calvary. I hope the day never comes when these two knees bow and bend where they belong, at the side of my bed, and I fail to thank God for saving me, for Calvary, for the truth of the cross.

We sing another hymn, dwelling on Mount Calvary, contrite shall our spirits be, rest and holiness shall find, fashioned like my Savior's mind. Wonder if you're going to stop at Calvary. Am I speaking to someone here today? No intentions of it.

Your train, your experience will simply race on by without ever stopping. Well, I want to tell you there will be a stopping place. It will not be a stopping place you want to find yourself in.

I can't think of anything more horrid or terrible than for a soul to sit here in this meeting today. See these people around you. The Bible calls them the excellent of all the earth.

It's not because they go to the gospel hall. It's because they're saved. They've had a stopping place at Calvary.

Do you? Honestly, just go back in your experience. Where does the cross factor in? Let me just qualify this a little bit. I can remember the verse really that spoke to me when I was saved.

I was one of these fellows that was, I was brought up in a Christian home. I'm sorry, brethren. I beg to differ.

I was brought up, as far as I was concerned, in the best home in the world. I had a father that could tell me how he got saved, and a mother. I used to ask them to tell me how they got saved.

I had a father. It didn't matter whether there was chicken buyers. We were on a big, large chicken farm.

It didn't matter whether they were there. So now my dad used to say, we're going to read, we read the Bible in this house. I used to feel sorry for those fellows.

They go, oh, well, can I get out of here? Well, they wanted to buy something from or sell them something. They had to sit down. Then when he's done, that was the hard part.

Now he says, we're going to pray. He said, in this house, we get on our knees and pray. Some little fellows, well, they sat in their chairs.

But you know something? I felt so good because I got down on my knees. God should surely take some note of that. Look at that heathen there.

He didn't. I could tell you the names of them. You know what I had to find out? No difference.

All in sinning comes short of the glory of God. I was at a conference, just like we're having here. Went out the door, scooped tracks off the table.

I was hoping nobody would see me because really I don't want my... I come from a very large family. I do. I have over 60 first cousins.

So I come from a large family. Didn't want them to know. But I knew how people get saved, just like you today.

I knew how people get saved. I thought, right, I got to get saved. I'm going to settle this.

Sat in a gospel meeting and I only know what Mr. Oswald McLeod was preaching on because he told me after. I didn't know this much that this boy got awakened in that meeting to the fact you're going to be in hell. Now up till then I believed it was a possibility.

It maybe could happen. You know what I discovered in that meeting? It's happening. That's where I am going.

And riding home with Mr. Tolman, who I didn't think is... He's in heaven so I won't have to worry about it. I didn't think he was as a good driver as my father. If somebody come across that road or he just drifted in the lane which he could do, it was all over.

I'd be in hell. I tried to get saved that night. I couldn't.

Went to school, come home the next night. I thought, right, I got to get it. This is the boy that knows how to get saved.

I have people tell me, well, I know how to get saved. Oh, do you? Go ahead. Let me know how you make out.

You know how to get saved? Go ahead. You can find out what I found out. I didn't know how to get saved.

I was as lost as could be. I had all those tracks behind us. I thought they were making me more confused.

I picked up one. I miss my tears. I can remember it yet.

Right across in bold print were these words, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. I thought if there's somebody that's lost, that's me. It's not those boys down the road that do things I don't do, only because my father wouldn't let me.

And some other guys I knew. I was the lost one. And right there then I realized, that's who he came for.

Now why I'm telling you that is this. I was sitting in a gospel meeting one time and there was a good gospel preacher. In fact, he did the wedding for my wife and I because he asked for it, so we give him the job.

Mr. McBain, wonderful winner of souls from Michigan, Jackson, Michigan. And he was saying in his preaching, if you didn't see Calvary of Christ dying for you, there's no way you could be saved. I thought that's me out.

I wasn't thinking about Calvary when the night I got saved. I was just appreciating, I was a lost one that he came to seek and to save me. But I knew the only way I could be saved is that he died on Calvary for me.

Understand friend, why it has significance today? How about you today? So you'll go on through, you'll rise off these seats, go up there like you heard nothing. Go on your way. And like I say, the horror of it, to die and go down to hell and to think about Calvary.

Remember my friend, frozen into your thinking will be what we're talking about today in a place you'll never be delivered from. And to think, I never stopped there. It's never that important to me.

As far as I was concerned, it was just preaching again. No, my friend, it's more than preaching. Only mentioned once in the Bible.

But when it comes to Calvary, my friend, there's choices. I'll tell you in this passage, these people made choices. Choices are required.

You've got to do something. See, there's a lot of people want to think they're on neutral ground. No, you're not neutral ground.

You can't be on neutral ground. You're either lost or saved. You're either going down or you're going up.

You're either on the broad way or the narrow way, one or the other. No such a thing as being on the narrow way or born on it. No such a thing.

Every person on the narrow way has at a time when they came to the door, the Lord Jesus said, I am the door by me of any man enter in, he shall be saved. How did he become the door? At Calvary. Absolutely, friend.

He didn't come to this earth, although he lived a wonderful example. He came to die. He called Pilate that.

To this end was I born. For this cause came I into the world, to bear witness of the truth and to bear witness of the truth meant he had to answer to the claims of the law, which meant someone had to die to put sin away. That made Calvary necessary.

That's why Calvary is so important. When they're coming to the place, which is called Calvary, there, they crucified him. You said, you kind of slowed in that reading and said they crucified him, that that included me.

Sorry, I wasn't around then. Oh, aren't you? I see. You weren't around either when Adam and Eve were in a garden and they sinned.

But whether you want to believe it or not, you came into the effects of that. You were born into this world. Now you can take it before that if you like, when you were born into this world, the Bible says, wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, death by sin, death is passed upon all men and all have sinned.

Had you a sin, but I wasn't Calvary. It was my sins that caused Christ to die on Calvary's cross. And it was your sins.

Everyone, everyone, my friend is implicated in the death of Christ, whether they like it or not. You know, the wonderful news of the gospel is in that same place where you were condemned, you can be cleared every charge against you by God, rightly so, as a guilty sinner can be cleared, knowing your sins forgiven and knowing for sure that you're going to be in heaven. This is something you don't want to make a mistake about.

We have a young girl coming to gospel meetings right now in Ontario. We got to know her as a friend, 21 years of age. She's had her run in the world and still looking back at it.

She told me the other night in the visit, she said, I'm afraid I'm failing my course. I said to her, calling her by name, I says, you can fail your course. She says, I don't want to fail it.

I says, you can fail it for some obvious reason. You've had interest in other things. That's why you're failing your course.

But I said, listen, when it comes to what we're talking about, you can do it over again. There's very few things in life you don't get a second run at. Really? There isn't.

Fail in business? I know some of the best businessmen in this country were failures to begin with. Look at them today. Some of the best writers, some of the best ones, they failed, but not the second time.

You can get a second go at it. Not this. Not this, my friend.

For you to die as you are in your sins and collide with that pillar called death and to realize, wait a minute, I didn't realize it was like this. Won't change it, my friend. Will not change it.

It's too late. No such thing as, well, I didn't understand. You know, people talk to me as if they're going to kind of talk God out of what you force him to do.

What you force him to do. See, people at times will say, well, you know, God doesn't send his children to hell. What loving God would send his children to hell? Well, first, let me say God doesn't send anybody to hell.

Well, you say, sure they do. My friends, it's your sins that are taking you to hell. God had his way.

Everybody be saved. If you have your way, you'll perish. You'll be there.

He doesn't really send people to heaven. You know what the Bible tells me? He carries them there. Every person saved, every person linked with Calvary, he carries them there.

I watched my mother die. And before I could put a hand on her, I knew she was gone. I said to those that came into the house that day over there in the north of Ireland, very kind people.

The emergency people were there as fast as they could be. She's all dressed in her, don't ask me the color. I'm just a little off.

Don't tell the FAA I'm a little off on the colors. But I said to them, can I have a minute or two? They said, Mr. McAllister, you and your father can have as long as you want. They had her laid down there on the carpet in the house where I was staying.

I bent over and gave her a kiss that she never felt and I'll never forget. And bowed my head and prayed and thanked God for a time when my mother stopped at Calvary, when she was saved, when she started for heaven. That was a wonderful piece to have.

With all that had to be done, the autopsy, body down to Antrim, flying it back here to the U.S. for the funeral. Overriding all of that was the absolute piece of where she was. Know all she ever wanted for her seven children? Same thing.

Just wanted them to be saved. Wanted to make sure that they stopped at Calvary. Wanted to make sure that Calvary had a significance for them.

My friend, this Bible holds out something for you today. Maybe you don't understand it. You say, well, I've never heard it like this before.

Well, read it. It's in your Bible. Make it the first thing because choices are required.

I'm going to tell you something else about choices are recorded. I could go through this Bible and show you choices that were recorded at Calvary. One is a man by the name of Pilate.

He made a choice that day. His choice is on record and we can read it. Judas made a choice and you'll make a choice.

Choices are not only required, but they are recorded. There's something else. Choices will be revealed.

If you die in your sins, I hope there's nobody here today. Nobody that will leave this conference or leave this meeting or the meeting tonight and die in their sins and look back to this and say, I could have been saved. No, no, my friend, we're not leading you through any process.

We don't do that. We will help you the way we can. We're not here to talk you into anything or out of anything.

We're here to tell you what this Bible says, that if you're ever going to be in heaven, Calvary, you must stop. On request only. That's a wonderful thing.

You see, the free will that we've all been given is a wonderful blessing, but sometimes mankind turns that into a curse as well because he forgets that God is going to hold him accountable for it. That choice will be revealed. It'll be very, very clear to you why you have missed salvation.

There is nobody, nobody that is in hell today, and I say it very respectfully, very guardedly, that has any question as to why they're there. There's a man by the name of Esau who wailed, wailed, Cain rather. Cain was his name.

Esau is later. Cain says, my punishment's greater than I can bear. He's bearing it.

He's bearing it. He knew what it was, and he knows why he's there. So will you.

You don't have to go there. You don't have to go there, friend. You don't have to put up your hand.

You don't have to say a prayer. The moment that a soul, an individual, accepts what Christ has done for them, God declares them saved. That's a wonderful thing.

I used to say to preachers what I often tell people now in gospel work, people say, well, you know, I believe that, but I can't say I'm saved. Okay. Who says you have to say you're saved? God says I'm saved.

He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life. God says that. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Not only are choices required, not only are they recorded and revealed, that choice can be regretted, and to have all eternity to do it. You know, there's things that we have done, places we have gone in life that we regret. Now, come on, let's face it, all of us.

But you know, there isn't a single person here today that's saved that ever regrets it. Never regret the day that they trusted Christ as their Savior, nor will you. I know people have regretted a church they joined.

I know others that have regretted different things they've done in life. They've bought land, whatever. Never regret the day they were saved.

Wonderful thing. Wonderful thing. Best choice I ever made was for Christ.

I used to be in the poultry business, and I had a farmer down in New Brunswick. And of course, when I went down to New Brunswick, I looked up all the poultry farmers, went to visit them. They're a tough bunch.

I thought, well, I'll talk to them. Got to know this man, George Sharp was his name. He was like, Sharp by name and Sharp in business.

He was a good operator. You got to put a picture of the Sharp farm on any calendar. Beautiful.

The man that worked for him was in our local church, our assembly in Sussex. His name was Douglas McLeod. Now, I'm sorry, I do have to agree with it.

Mr. Sharp brought me into his house one day. He sat me down. He said, listen, can you not help your friend out? He said, every choice he makes is a wrong one.

If there's a car down there on Lamb's car lot, nobody should buy. He buys it. And if there's a piece of property, which he did, up the road, nobody should buy.

Douglas buys it. He's my hired man. I like him.

He's an honorable man. But Murray helped him with his choices. I looked Mr. Sharp in the face.

I said, George, what you're telling me is absolutely true. Listen, I'm going to tell you about one choice that I've made that was a right one. He said, I know that.

I says, I come up this driveway and I see a farm that's marked by many, many right choices. I've been there, done that. You've made some choices.

You knew when to buy poultry hens. You knew the value of a quota in Canada. You knew the value of a dairy quota.

Right choices. But George, the most important one you failed at is you're not saved. And if you die where you are, you'll be in hell.

His wife was sitting right there. She tries to say she's saved. First time I visited him, I asked him, I said, are you a saved man, Mr. Sharp? Nope.

He says, I'm not. Hey, elder in his church, turned to his wife and said, you saved Mrs. Sharp? Yeah, yeah, saved. And little, it was almost like no asking more now.

Okay. Met Mr. Sharp next week outside Moffett's hardware, a little hardware in our town of Sussex. I said, well, that was an interesting visit, George.

I said, quite a thing. Francis says she's saved. He said, as far as I know, I'm the closest person to her.

I never heard it before in my life. Something's wrong. Something's wrong.

Wait a minute. I took Doug McLeod's funeral. I can stand there and all those Christians with their children around that open grave.

And it was raining like everything umbrellas, whatever. My the piece at which Doug died with it. He died.

I don't know if he had enough to, or if the brethren help with his funeral. Mr. Sharp. I was back last year.

I got back. They said, Mr. Sharp's in the hospital and he wants to see you. I went in to see him.

I made up my mind. I'm not going to preach to him. I'd done plenty of that.

He'd come to all kinds of gospel meetings, all kinds of gospel meetings we had in Sussex. I don't think there's a preacher came through. He didn't hear.

George had cancer, but George is going home on Wednesday. Sorry. On Friday.

I was in to see him as soon as I got home. Well, he says, what are you going to say something to me? I said, what do you want me to say to you? Well, he says, I thought you're going to have a little preach. I said, too late.

It's not too late. He said, I'm coming home. I said, George, you're not saved and you know it.

I said, I'll tell you what, I got a track at home. I'm sorry, brethren. I failed on this one.

I got track at home. I'm going to bring you. Yeah, you should bring it back.

In fact, the lady came in and she didn't mind. That's the way he was. He said, this is my friend, Murray McCandless.

He says, he preaches the gospel. I want you to meet him. And that was George Sharp.

I got the track. I'm going to take it to him the next day. I got a call.

He died that night. Track never got to him. I went to his funeral.

That minister, as she stood up there at the front with an urn of ashes, which were the remains of George Sharp that I knew, started to paint a picture of George's life that I knew nothing about, neither did his family, nor his wife. Listen, friend, when it comes to dying, you make sure that's all you've got to do. More than that? Well, you still can.

You go to this book. Search your past as you like. Ask yourself one question.

What significance does Calvary, does the cross have to me? Paul writes to Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1. He says, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish tasteless, but not to us which are saved, are saved. It is the power of God. It is, friend.

Can you speak like that today? That you are saved? That there's been that time when you were born again, when you trusted Christ as your Savior and you started from heaven? Let me say this. Knowing what I know now, I don't know how people exist. That's what all they're doing without knowing Christ as their Savior.