How Long?

I'd like to read with you in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah. Now, maybe not just an easy one to find, but if you go to Job, Psalms, go backwards, Job, Nehemiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and then Job, you'll find the book of Nehemiah there.

If you don't, it's all right, I'll just read it to you. Nehemiah chapter 2. Nehemiah chapter 2, and verse number 4, just for the connection, Nehemiah chapter 2, verse number 4, Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make requests? So I prayed to God, to the God of heaven. His request, of course, is that he go back to the city of Jerusalem and see it.

If it please the king, and if I serve it, have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldst send me unto Judah, unto the city of my father's sepulcher, that I may build it. Now comes the question. The king said unto me, the queen also sitting by him, For how long shall I journey be, and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the Lord to send me, and I sent him a time.

Now, over pleased to the book of the kings, if you would, 1 Kings chapter 18. Just turning back to 1 Kings chapter 18, Samuel, 1 Samuel, and first we're going to come back to Samuel, but 1 Kings chapter 18 and verse number 21. 1 Kings 18 and verse 21, And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? Now, here's the question.

If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. Now, mostly he doesn't say if Baal be God, because Baal was not a god, but was not the god, but a god.

Most of the people, people answered him not a word. They were caught. Finally, 2 Samuel, back to 2 Samuel, just before the kings in chapter 19.

2 Samuel chapter 19 and verse number 34. I like to speak about this man, Barzillai, particularly likely to Christians more than in the gospel, but tonight we're making an application of it in the gospel. 34, And Barzillai said unto the king, How long have I to live? I shall go up with the king unto Jerusalem.

How long have I to live? Now, the first one we read is the question, How long shall I journey be? My wife has dementia, and when I leave home, which she likes very much, I do it all the time, I print out what they call an itinerary. On that itinerary, it would say, Murray is leaving this morning, Thursday morning, driving to Moncton, picking up Tim Burton, then up to Holton, pick up the plane, fly to Bangor, pick up fuel, one stop, Port Europe, Michigan, next stop, Waterloo, Iowa. On Wednesday, Murray is going to Dr. Travis Harbaugh to have his implant put in.

So, she knows, just helps her know what I'm doing. But she's waiting for one thing. When are you coming back? So, the last line says this, I'm staying out there for the conference in Cedar Falls, Waterloo, and Lord willing, I will be back on the Monday after that, which is April the 20th.

So, she comes out in the morning, she sees that, reads it, and that's fine. God bless the dear soul. Just for the sake of the Christians, she'll always say to me, Don't you cut short, don't you deny invitations because of me.

I'm just fine. And in a sense, she is, really, just for your own interest, Sarah lives five houses up on the other side of the street, and she goes up there and helps her do housework, whatever, and then they get together and away they go. Her geriatric doctor is just coming to me.

I have to take her every six months, get an assessment. So, the doctor said, Mrs. McCandless, the hardest part of my work is that I have to suspend your license. Oh, she says.

That's her on her own. Oh, she says, that's no problem. If I want to go anywhere, I just go up the street and Sarah takes me.

The doctor goes, Oh, okay. So, there you are. But, she keeps coming back.

The whole of my journey is going to be, when I'm going to leave, when am I coming back? Now listen, we've left. Do you get that, sir? We've left. There was a day when you were born into this world, just like I was.

And just as sure as we were born into this world, we're going to leave this world. And the great question is, how long shall I journey be? Now, this chart behind me, you notice the two roads and the two destinies as we described that. And the Lord Jesus said, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the way, which leads us unto destruction.

And the majority of people are going in there at. Because straight is the gate, narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life. The one that's going upward, few there be that find it.

You will notice something very important. We're told how wide it is. Never told how long it is.

Some it can be very, very short. You know, a lot shorter than people planned. A lot shorter than ever they expected.

Often when I fly out of Canada, my first stop is into Bangor, Maine, for Fuel and U.S. Customs. I've been going there for years, like 40 years. It would be on—a while ago now, it was actually on the Sunday evening of January 25, 2026.

A Bombardier Challenger 610 jet from Houston, Texas, with the elite of society on board, six people, all of them lawyers, flying to Paris, France. That jet has beautiful configuration inside, those big wide seats that they have go into a bed configuration so those passengers could sleep while their pilot flies them over to Paris, France. On this particular night, that plane had landed earlier, come in, and those people I was sure I was telling my grandkids, who go with me often, they don't go to the terminal like we do.

We have to hobble our way in there. The kids run ahead of me to get some popcorn, if you can imagine. But those people would have had the airport limousine come out to their jet.

And there would be a red carpet—I've seen it happen—rolled out. They get into that. But when they get in that terminal, they sit on the same sofas as I do.

They talk to the same personnel, and I know them all by name in there—Henry, Heather, the different ones that look after fueling the aircraft. On this particular night, that plane landed, and there was a lightly falling of freezing rain and snow, a mixture. They called for some de-icing, and they got de-iced.

Unfortunately, they must have sat there just a little too long. And one of the likely—I think, and that's the new Gulfstream—I think it's the only corporate jet that you can stand up inside of it is a Bombardier 610. Big jet.

It can climb at 4,100 feet a minute, if you can get airborne and get climbing. This night, it raced down that runway. In fact, a legionnaire came out, they saw the conditions of things, and they turned around and went back to the terminal.

They didn't even fly. This night, the pilot made the decision to fly. Him and the co-pilot, experienced man, read the stories on both of them, and they took off.

That jet roared down that runway, and it rose to 60 feet, and the one wing dropped like that, and it inverted, and went into the ground and killed all six of them. All six. One of my granddaughters is not saved, and to be honest with you, I don't even like her flying with me, because if something happens, she's not ready.

I said to them, you know the seat you're sitting on, girls? That's where these people sat. I said, you know, if Grandpa had gone to them and said, you people have got 56 minutes to live. What's your plans? Put yourself in that place.

Okay. Here we are, 645. 56 minutes to live.

What would you do? I'd say, what do you mean? We're going to Paris. We're climbing 41,000 feet. Sometimes you could.

Not that night. All of them into eternity. Our son Tim, married to Mindy, who comes here often, on the next day was on a legion flight going to Florida.

Not the next day, a couple days later. He said, Dad, I was almost scared to look out the window and see where that jet burned. He said, thankfully there's some falling snow, and I couldn't see it.

Why I'm telling you this is what a reporter said. Here's what a reporter for the Bangor Times said. He said, what gave that reckless decision the green light? Did you hear what they said? What gave that reckless decision the green light to go? Pressure, privilege, or the blind confidence of the wealthy? Boy, that puts it well.

Somewhere in that is covered. What gave them that reckless decision? What said you can go? Was it pressure, privilege, or the blind confidence of the wealthy? You know, we're in this big jet. We know its capabilities.

We know what it can do. But I know what it can't do on ice, and he should have known what it couldn't do on ice. Whether he thought he would get away with it, whether he thought he just didn't have that much ice.

I said, I don't know. But none of them made France. All of them in their eternity.

What ages they were, I saw pictures of lovely-looking people. I don't know. I forget the ages of them.

It listed them in the—it was national news. It was on your Fox News, that exit. Bangor's greatest tragedy, that's what it said.

Last time I was in there, it gave me some feeling to look at those seats and realize that's where they sat. I said to Heather, the girl—she'd be the head girl at the counter—I said, Heather, were you here the night of the tragedy? Oh, she says, thank God I wasn't. I said to Henry, been there 25 years.

This happened about 7 or 8 o'clock at night. They'd be mostly day-shift people. Henry, were you here with that? No.

None of us wanted to be here, but there were some that were here. It was a very quiet, solemn night. As the firetrucks raced as first responders out to that burning wreck with the snow falling, trying to retrieve six bodies out of a burning aircraft.

Unbelievable. How long shall I journey be? You may never fly in a Challenger jet. You may never be on any kind of a plane.

You may not be traveling, but listen, we've all got a journey to take. We're talking about the destination. Some of you pilots in the meetings, and I didn't mean to talk on this, really.

With an old flying magazine, there's a contributor called Richard Collins. Nobody knows meteorology like Richard Collins did. He's gone now, and he's in Hagerstown, Maryland was his base.

And a good friend of his, Joe, I forget the man's last name, was a neighbor of our daughter's. He heard that I fly, and he mentioned the name Richard Collins to her. So, Joanie texts me, she says, Dad, would you know about a Richard Collins? She says, my neighbor Joe talks about him.

I said, sure do. I've read all of it. He's written a book called Flying in the Thunderstorms, dot, dot, don't do it.

Excellent book. He says he wants to meet you. So, Joe came over.

And I thought, okay, I usually look at my watch how much time I got to spend about flying, then we'll get on to the real thing. I saw tape across his forehead. Picked up a few things.

So, he says, I understand you were an avid reader of Richard Collins, my friend. Yeah, he says, I flew everywhere with Mr. Collins. I said, oh, very interesting.

Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha. Told me where he'd gone. He instructed over there how many hours he had, blah-blah-blah-blah, whatever.

Wanted to know when I flew, blah-blah-blah. Got all that done. I said, Joe, one question.

You're going to take your last flight, I don't mean down to Hagerstown Airport, from life itself. Where are you going to be? What's the destination? What's your destination, sir? What's your destination, young girl? Young boy, what's your destination? Heaven or hell, one or the other? First thing he said, I knew this was coming. He said, you know, he's Jewish.

I likely wouldn't think of it, but I've had some pretty serious cancer removed here on my forehead. He said, I've had a few heart issues, but I can still get whatever. So, he sent me a picture of himself.

I haven't even had time to reply to it since I got here. Murray, here I am, you won't believe it, flying again. He says, you sparked something in me to get me going again.

Well, whatever. I wish he wrote back, you know, you sparked something in me that made me think about eternity and where I'm going to take the last flight. I'm going to take my last flight.

So are you. Not necessarily in an airplane. But the question is asked, how long shall I journey be? So, I gave him a time.

Can you give a time tonight? No, you can't. I can't. Except the Bible tells us when.

It's appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. Okay? We all have an appointment with death, every single one in this meeting tonight. Appointed unto man once to die, after this, the judgment.

You'll never, this book is adequately clear, you'll never go beyond the appointment, but you could go before. The Bible said, why shouldst thou die before thy time? The purpose of this gospel meeting, my friend, is to get you to join the gospel hall or any other church. The purpose of this gospel meeting is for you to discover, just where am I tonight? To ask yourself a question that is very hard to answer at times.

If I died tonight, if I get a text or a call from some of these folks here that I know very well, you know that boy that was sitting in the meeting, the time we were sitting? That girl, that man, he's gone. Wouldn't be the first time it happened in meetings I've preached. People have said to me goodbye at the door, said, see you tomorrow night, Mr. McAnlis.

They didn't see me tomorrow night. They were gone. I'm going to be gone someday.

So are you. Great question is where? So he says, I set him a time. I don't know how certain Nehemiah was of getting back on this.

Nevertheless, he had every intention of coming back. My friend, listen, we're not coming back. I thank God I'm not coming back.

Mom and dad are in heaven. Alan and Ruth McAnlis are in heaven. Thank God.

Shirley's parents, Howard and Joyce, God so, in heaven. Thank God. Where will you be? I was raised in a home where a mother and father or father could tell me how they were saved, how they started for heaven.

Wonderful thing is you've been hearing tonight from Tim to be saved and know, come what may, I will be in heaven. Second question. This is a question by a prophet, and he knew these people very well.

These people are kind of, you know, half there, thinking about it, whatever, and he just asked them a very, very simple but a very solemn question. He said, how long halt ye between two opinions? Okay. If God be God, follow him.

If Baal, he doesn't say Baal, Baal, follow him. What's it say? They couldn't answer him. They couldn't answer him.

I've sat in homes of people and asked them very simple questions, and I've waited, and I've waited, which isn't easy for me to do, and I've waited. I've had to say, did you hear the question? Did you answer it? So, let me ask you, friend. Let me ask you tonight.

Are you ready to meet God? But, you know, that wrath that you've been hearing about tonight can be avoided, because there's one who birthed that wrath at Calvary. There's one who stepped into your place that took that judgment, so you could know. Like Barzillai, that old man, he says, how long have I to live? He didn't know.

He says, I'm 85 years old if I went on and read it for you. It could set a tide, but he's ready to go. He knew the Lord.

Do you tonight? Are you saved? Remember that? Some of you would remember that plane crash in Detroit, whatever year it was. It was a Northeast Flight 2255, if I remember correct. And I was flying through that area that day that crash happened.

That plane took off, and I forget now whether it was a spoiler or something, they didn't have it set right, and the settings were taken off on that DC-9. It crashed, ended up on Interstate 94, which goes right through there. But nobody survived.

They were picking through the red gate. They heard a little girl. They looked, and here, in front of the seat that had been ejected from the aircraft, was a little girl down over in front of the seat, half on it, half off of it.

You know what they discovered? When that girl's mother realized this plane isn't going to make it, she unbuckled herself, left her daughter buckled, and she threw herself in front of little Cecilia, and she survived it. Why? Somebody took the blast for her. Somebody took the wrath, the judgment of that moment for her.

That's what happened at Calvary. That's what happened at the cross. That's what happened to make a provision so we could be safe.

Somebody had to take the judgment. Somebody had to take the wrath. Somebody had to pay the debt.

He paid a debt I could not pay, okay? He paid it in full, and at Calvary's cross, he cried, finished, finished. I was thinking what he's speaking tonight. We have a lawyer in our assembly.

He's a lovely man. He's got another lawyer that he's been bringing, and this other lawyer said, you know, he said, I'm saved, but he said, I can't just pinpoint the moment. He said to Philippe, the other lawyer that's saved in the assembly, well, he said, listen, you'll know when it happened.

Anyhow, just make it short. Mr. Robert Plant, who was here today, visited that lawyer with Philippe, the three of them together, and Robert said to me, Murray said, I don't think that man has it. He got reading after their visit, John's Gospel.

Hardly know much about the Bible. Read down, came out in verse number 30 of John 19. It is finished.

Yes, he said, and for me. Right away, Calvary says, I know I'm saved, not because I have the minute, but because I have Christ. I realized that he paid the debt for me.

My, that's so sweet. I love it. I love the simplicity of it.

My friend, the difficulty is not to be saved. The difficulty is for you to realize your need and repent of your sin and admit to God tonight that you're not only going to hell, but you deserve to be there because of your sin. There's a Savior willing, ready, aware, wants to save you.

More than all these people put together. Who tonight that isn't saved wouldn't want you to be saved? We all do. But all of us combined could never, never be the same as the one that loved you, gave his son for you, so you could be saved.

Those beautiful words, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You say, I know that verse. I've learned it in Sunday school.

Yeah, have you? You know something worse than learning it in Sunday school is to try and etch it from your memory in hell. One of the verses will do you no good, but so many have been saved through that golden text tonight. Trust the Savior and be saved.

God bless this word. Shall we pray?