unto him. Now, in any passage
of the scripture, there is always a balance of truth for one class
or the other. Any paragraph, any text, is either
directed primarily to those in Christ or primarily to those
outside of Christ, but if rightly handled, there is rarely a passage
which does not speak in some measure to both classes. And
I seek to do this in the ministry of the Word Sunday by Sunday,
though we're in the Sermon on the Mount and this is basically
instruction for Christians, surely we have found much that is applicable
to those outside of the Savior. But this morning I want to focus
my remarks and my exposition of the Scripture to those of
you who, as you sit here this morning, are not savingly joined
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to make it very clear
to whom I am addressing myself this morning. Who is the preacher
talking to this morning? Well, I'm talking to every man,
every woman, every fellow, every girl, teenager, preteen, whoever
you be. who is not a child of God. Now,
by that I mean you are not savingly joined to Christ. We read in
1 John 5 that he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life. So I'm addressing myself to you
who do not possess Jesus Christ in a vital, saving relationship
with Him. I'm speaking to those of you
who have not experienced what Jesus Christ mentioned in the
third chapter of John when he said, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. I'm talking to those of
you who have not experienced that supernatural birth of the
Holy Spirit. To use another scriptural expression,
I'm talking to those of you who have not yet been soundly converted. Jesus said in Matthew 18, except
ye be converted, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
I'm talking to every fellow, every girl, every man, woman,
visitor, friend, member, I care not who you be, who has not experienced
what Jesus meant when he said, except ye be converted, ye shall
not enter the kingdom of heaven. In short, I am addressing myself
to every individual this morning who has not become what Paul
calls in 2 Corinthians 5, a new creature in Christ Jesus. For
Paul says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things
are passed away, behold, all things are become new. Now those of you who are in that
dreadful condition, who are coming to the close of 1965, and facing
the prospect of 1966, and you're not savingly joined to Christ,
you are not converted, you are not born of the Spirit, you are
not a new creature in Christ, you fall into several very distinct
categories this morning, and I'm aware that you do, and I
want you to be aware of that fact. Some of you here this morning
are not joined to Christ, you are not converted, you are not
new creatures, you have not been born again, and you are in that
state out of ignorance. Perhaps you're a visitor here
this morning and this may be the first time you've ever heard
the terms, born again, converted, new creature in Christ. And so,
one of the reasons why you are not joined to Christ is that
you've never heard that you need to be. And the scripture says
in the Old Testament that my people are destroyed for lack
of knowledge. And you are in that condition
out of ignorance. There are others of you in that
condition in indifference. You've heard the message. You've
heard me preach, and you've heard others preach, and you have enough
acquaintance with the Bible to know that you're a sinner, that
God is holy, that you cannot enter His presence unless your
sins are cleansed and your nature is changed by the power of the
Spirit, but you couldn't care less. You're in that condition
this morning in a state of indifference. You don't hate Christ, but you
don't love Him. You don't hate His gospel, but you don't love
that gospel. You don't despise his blood,
but neither do you look to that blood as the only hope of your
acceptance before God. The other things of life, making
a dollar, making a living, getting an education, having a good time,
these things, Jesus said, are the cares of the world, which
choke the word. And you're in that state, in
a state of indifference. Some of you ignorantly, some
of you indifferently. And then there are others of
you this morning that are in that condition rebelliously.
You know the great issues of eternity, so much so that you
would actually be delighted if no one ever again spoke to you
about your need of the Savior. Nothing could make you happier
this morning than for no preacher again to cross your path who
would look you in the eye and declare on the basis of the Word
of God, the Holy Scriptures, that unless you're born again
and repent, that you'll never, never, never enter the Kingdom
of Heaven. You see, you are not joined to
Christ, but unlike those who are not because of ignorance
and others indifferent, you are in that condition with a rebellious
attitude, and the cry of your heart is expressed in Luke 19.14.
We will not have this man to reign over us. Leave me alone
in my sins. Let me do as I please. And there
are others of you in that state, in what I would call an awakened
condition. You're no longer ignorant. You've
heard enough of the Bible to know that you're lost, and you
know enough of the testimony of your own conscience that there's
a day of reckoning coming. And you know there's no hope
in the world. You know there's no satisfaction
in the world. And you are here this morning
not joined to Christ. You make absolutely no profession
of Him, openly unsaved, no profession. And yet, you're in that condition
where you know that the issues of your relationship to God and
Christ are the only things that really matter in life. You wouldn't
dare speak against Christ and His truth, because you know if
there's ever to be any hope for you, it's to be found in His
truth and in His Son. And then there are others of
you who are not joined to Christ. You make no profession that you
are joined to Him, who are not only awakened, but you have gone
a step further. You are seeking sinners this
morning. You have become so disturbed
about this matter of your relationship to God in Christ that the cry
of your heart is the cry of the jailer, What must I do to be
saved? Where is He that I might find
Him? You're like the rich young ruler
who ran to Christ and fell before Him, saying, Good Master, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life? And yet, all of you have
this in common. You make absolutely no profession
of belonging to Jesus Christ. And I'm confident that there
are those of you here this morning who, if I were to ask you, Are
you a Christian? You'd say, No, I'm not. And you fall under these
four or five categories. Some of you utterly ignorant
of what these issues are. God has a word for you this morning.
Others of you indifferent, you couldn't care less. God has a
word for you this morning. Some of you rebelliously determined
to kick against the pricks. God has a word for you this morning.
Others of you awakened, beginning to come out of the slumber of
the night of sin. God has a word for you. There
are seeking sinners this morning. Some of you who are desperate
that you might know that you belong to Christ, God has a word
for you. And that's the first class of
unsaved people to which I address myself this morning, those of
you openly unsaved. Now, there's another class of
unsaved people to whom I'm speaking this morning, and you are the
class that I would call the false professors of Christianity. You
make a profession, and on the basis of some decision you've
made or some kind of profession with the lips, You have assumed
the name Christian. But listen, you know that you
don't have the real thing. You know that when Jesus talks
about people who draw nigh with their lips but their hearts are
far from him, you know that's you. When you read that Jesus
talked about whitewashed sepulchres that appear beautiful to men
but inwardly are full of uncleanness, you know he's talking to you.
But some of you who are false professors of Christianity and
know it, you're glad in that state. Jesus said in John 5.44,
How can ye believe which receive honor one of another, and seek
not the honor that cometh from God only? Some of you are pretty
content. You've got mother and dad and
pastor and others pretty well convinced you're a Christian.
You know you're not, but you're pretty content in that condition.
You've got them off your back. Dad and mom won't hound you because
you're pretty respectable, and you keep the outward standards
of Christianity, and your pastor and the elders can't come and
sit you down and deal with you in terms of a matter of church
discipline. You're pretty respectable, you come to church enough, but
you know you don't have the real thing, but you're content in
that condition. God has a word for you this morning. And bless
God, I trust there are some who, though you've made a profession
and know you don't have reality, you're getting well nigh sick
unto death about it. You're at the place where you're
tired of putting up a front. Would to God that we'd have a
church half full of people like that, who are sick and coming
to the place where they just say, I want reality or nothing
at all. And maybe there's someone like
that this morning. I trust so. And so that's the
second class of unsaved people to whom I'm addressing myself
this morning, those openly unsaved, no profession. Those of you who
make a profession but you know that you don't have reality.
And then the third class to which I address myself this morning
is what I would call the deceived professor of Christianity. You
name his name and you're convinced that you're a Christian. But
listen to me, listen. If your profession is true, this
Bible is a lie. And if this Bible is true, your
profession is a lie. You got me? You profess Christ
as Savior and Lord, and you're convinced you're a Christian.
But listen, if your profession is true, this book is a lie.
Why? Because this book says anyone
who is born of God loves righteousness and hates sin. You don't hate
sin, you love it. This book says those that are
born of God have a hunger after God, a desire to know His will
and to do it. You couldn't care less about
the will of God. All you're concerned about is your own will. This
book says those that are born of God, not the brethren, all
things being equal when they've got the chance, the people they
want to be with are those that love their Savior, and who talk
most about Him, and who reflect Him most in life. Not you. You'd rather be with the crowd
that talks about the things that interest you or detray you entirely.
Now, either your profession is true and this Bible's a lie,
or the Bible's true and your profession's a lie, and I know
which one it is, because my Bible says God cannot lie. My Bible
says, let God be true in every man alive. And I have a word
for you from God's word this morning. And every one of you
who are unsaved falls under one of those three categories this
morning. Openly unsaved, you make no profession. Those of
you who make a profession but know that you don't have reality.
Others of you who make a profession and think you have reality. But
if the Bible is true, you have a mere profession. For by your
works, You deny it. Now I am specifically addressing
those three classes of unsaved people this morning. And I am
not ignorant that I have others here who know him, who belong
to him, but I want to address myself to you more specifically
tonight. Now as we come to the end of
65 and face 66, what is my word to this class of people this
morning? First of all, I want to give
you some words of sober warning, then I want to give you some
words of warm entreaty, and then I want to lay before you some
words of blessed hope and encouragement. First of all, I want to warn
you. Young people, adults, friends,
visitors, members, I'm in earnest this morning. God bearing me
witness, I've literally cried out to Him. He would be pleased
to send these words of warning like a thunderbolt from heaven
into the hearts of some of you this morning, that it will so
disturb you that ere the gong sounds, the last note of the
twelfth hour of 1965, you'll be found safe in the ark of God's
salvation. What are my words of warning?
Oh, how often a well-placed warning, a well-timed warning has saved
life and limb. You're barreling down the highway
at 60 miles an hour, and then a sign comes into view of your
headlights. You're driving at night. Danger!
Sharp curve! And then it shows what that curve
is like, and you put on your brakes, and you slow down from
60 to 40. You're safe. A well-placed warning. If that sign had not been there,
and you came into that curve at 60, You'd be in the morgue
the next day. A well-placed warning. Heated
in time. And it saved your life. But oh,
how sad it is that unheated warnings have wrecked as many lives and
limbs as heated warnings have saved them. Over the radios this
past week, the warning has gone out from disc jockeys and announcers
and from newscasters Drinking and driving don't mix. People
have been warned. And yet you and I will listen
to the newscast tomorrow morning and be saddened that probably
well over 500 lives will be snuffed out on our highways this weekend.
And probably the great majority will trace right back to the
bottom. Warnings! Warnings! Warnings! Unheeded
death! This is tragic when it's in the
realm of physical life, but I tell you, beloved, it's more tragic
when it's in the realm of the spiritual life. And I want to
warn you this morning. And I want to warn you in terms
of what you've done in the past year, if 1965 leaves you still
unstable, whether openly so, whether making a perfection but
not having reality, or whether deceived, if 1965 leaves you
as it found you, still in your sins, you know what you've accomplished
in 1965? Three very terrible, frightening
things. Number one, 1965 has added great weight to the
inevitable judgment of God that will fall upon them. Will you
turn with me to the second chapter of Romans, Romans chapter 2, and listen to the words of the
Apostle Paul as he addresses a people similar to, I'm confident,
many here this morning. Romans 2, verses 4 and 5. For despisest thou the riches
of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after
thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath
against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment
of God. What does Paul say? He says to
a group of people, he said, don't you see how good God has been
to you? How he's been long-suffering
and how he's foreborn with you in the past days? Think of the
ways of God's goodness with you this morning. I'm talking to
those of you now who are not joined to Christ. Think of His
goodness over the past year. You sit here this morning with
soul and body intact. Sound of limb, sound of mind. He's put food upon your table.
He's sent breath into your lungs. Think of the blessings of love
of wife, of children, of friends. And yet you've lived every day
of 1965 with no thought of God's glory, No thought of God's honor,
no thought of God's will, and what's He done? As you've treated
Him this way, what's He done? He showered the riches of His
goodness upon your undeserving head. Riches of His goodness! Hundreds and thousands will await
tomorrow morning to the fear and the dread that the bombs
and the shelling and the killing in Vietnam Hundreds and thousands
live in constant dread and fear in other troubled spots of the
world. A third of the population of India living on a borderline
starvation diet. Nobody here living on a borderline
diet of starvation. None of us here need fear that
between now and the time the storm has ended that a shell
might rock this building and bring the roof down upon us.
Oh, think of the goodness of God. the goodness of God, the
riches of His goodness. Then Paul says, not only the
riches of His goodness, but the riches of His long-suffering
and His forbearance. Some of you listen to me, dear
young people. Some of you have sat here every Sunday for a whole
year, and you've heard sermon after sermon after sermon. And
the Son of God has been freely offered from this pulpit week
after week after week after week after week. He's been preached
poorly, yes, I'm sure at times, terribly poorly, and yet earnestly
and sincerely. And He's been held up as the
glorious Lord of glory in whom salvation is found. Have you not been urged to seek
Him? Have you not been entreated to call upon Him? Have you not
even with tears been pled with to flee to Christ? And yet 1965
finds you still in your sins. Oh, behold the riches of His
long-suffering and His forbearance. For if you're outside of Christ
this morning, every sin you've committed in 1965 has been like
a voice that has thundered up to God and it has called upon
His justice and said, O Almighty Justice, judge that sinner! As
the arm of God's justice would be raised to take the dagger
of His pure and holy wrath and plunge it in your breast, His
long-suffering has stayed the hand. Every sin has been a voice calling
upon God to judge you. The only reason the hand of justice
has not come down with the sword of wrath is the long-suffering
and the patience of God. Every sermon you've heard, every
appeal that you've been exposed to, every plea that has been
addressed to your ears, flee to Christ, come to the Savior,
seek the Savior, and you've turned the deaf ear, and you've stick
on the appeal of God's servants. That too has been a voice calling
unto God to judge the impenitence of your heart. And yet here you
are this morning, the last Sunday of 65, and you're not in hell,
and that's the only reason. Ah, dear young person, dear adult
friend or member, whoever you be, the only reason is the riches
of God's forbearance. The riches of God's forbearance. His longsuffering and His mercy. Now what is God's intent with
all this goodness? all this long-suffering, all
this mercy. Notice verse 4. Not knowing that
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Why has God shown
this goodness? Why are you here, sound of mind
and of lips? Why are you here with sufficient
to feed your body and to clothe your body? Why such riches of
goodness? Why such forbearance? Paul said,
God's intention is that He might break you by His goodness. Know
you not, he says, that the goodness of God has as its intention to
lead you to repentance, to cause you to reflect and say, what
a wretch I am! Here God sends rain upon the
soil that I might have food to eat. He gives me a mother and
dad and teaches them well that they might care for me and provide
for me. He gives me a sound mind and a strong body that I might
work and provide for myself and my children. And what have I
done with all this goodness? I've faced every day of sixty-five
with no thought but my lust, my will, my plans, my purposes,
and I'm miserable wretch. The hand that has stretched out
every day and fed me and cared for me, I haven't even looked
to that hand and said, thank you. Oh, God, what a miserable
wretch I am. Paul says that's what it ought
to do. Beholding is goodness. It ought to cause you to bow
in brokenness and repentance and seeking. As you look back
this morning, think of the sermons you've heard this past evening.
Think of the times when conscience has pricked you in those quiet
hours when you've laid upon your bed, and when all has been still,
and the clamor and din of that jungle music has gone from your
ears, young people. And then the clamor and din of
the children's appeals for this and that and mummy this and mummy
that and daddy this, and all of that's been silent. You've
been laying there upon your bed and conscience has begun to go
to work. and conscience has begun to thunder, you're slated for
judgment. What about that lie? What about
that area of cheating? What about that area of dishonesty?
What about that area of lust? What about that pride? And conscience
has begun to thunder, and you've begun to feel a little foretaste
of what it'll mean to stand before God in judgment. But what did
you do? Rather than obeying the voice of conscience and fall
to your knees in the quietness of the night hours and begin
to call upon God for mercy, what did you do? Maybe you reached over to your
little transistor radio and turned it on with more jungle music
to drive out the thoughts of God. Maybe you've gone out and
watched the late show until you practically fell off the chair.
Anything, but still the voice of God. Why? God shows such long-suffering
to you. For what end? That He might lead
you to repentance. That's God's intent. But what
have you done with God's long-suffering patience and goodness? Listen
to verse 5. But after thy hardness and impenitent
heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath. Do you get the equation? Paul
says you've taken the riches or the treasures of God's goodness
And they have summed up to the treasures of Israel. You see, you have misinterpreted
God's goodness and His long-suffering. You thought that God's goodness
and long-suffering was an indication that He didn't care whether you
turned to His Son or not. You thought that the indication
that you could sin and still not have God judge you and suck
out your life was an indication that God didn't know about your
sin. No, that's the mistake we read about in the 50th Psalm,
where God says, Because I kept silence when you sinned, thou
thoughtest that I was altogether like unto thee. Then God goes
on to say, But the day is coming when I will set your sins in
order before you. You see, you've misinterpreted
God's goodness. God's goodness was intended to
lead you to repentance, but you have regarded lightly. That's
what the word despise means. Despises thou the riches of His
goodness to treat with disdain and with lightness and scorn
and as a thing of little worth. God's intent was to lead to repentance. You have abused His goodness.
What's the result? Paul said, you've been treasuring
up wrath. Oh, you'll listen to me this
morning. Just as surely as you've added days to your age, and knowledge
to your mind, experience to your life, joys and sorrows to your
memory, just as sure as 1965 has added all of these things, So has 1965 added to the weight of the judgment
of God upon your soul unless you repent. I tell you, a thought
that's haunted me in my study this week is this, and I trust
it'll haunt some of you until you seek the Lord. Listen. If you don't repent and flee
to Christ, and be savingly joined to Him by the Spirit. In hell one day you will curse
every single day of 1965. And you'll have an eternity to
curse it! Why? Because every day lived
in impenitence added weight to the judgment of hell and you'll
curse every day of 1965 through all eternity. For though God showered the riches
of His goodness, showered the riches of His forbearance, instead
of it leading to repentance, you abused it and despised it.
And Paul says all it did was cause the great mountain of the
weight of God's judgment to grow higher and broader and heavier.
That's a sobering thought. I have pled with God by name
for almost every one of you, dear young people. often in the
past several days, because you've sat here week in, week out, but
I don't know your heart. I don't know where you stand.
I don't know if the past year has found you seeking the Lord
or simply sitting in a pew. I sought God for many of you
adults by name, for you've sat here You've listened. You've looked. You've shaken
my hand. You've gone out the door. I don't know if there's
been any closet that could witness that you've been seeking God.
I don't know if there are any tear-stained rugs that could
rise up this morning and witness that you've caught the Lord with
brokenness. I don't know that there are any
walls that could cry out that they've been witness to your
pleas for forgiveness and for mercy. I don't know if there's
any Bible that could open up this morning and witness that
its pages have been delightfully perused by your seeking heart. All I see is your face. That's
all I see, beloved. And if 65 finds you unsaved,
leaves you unsaved, the first thing you've done is you have
added weight to the inevitable judgment of God. What a warning! I said, Pastor, you spoiled the
New Year celebration! Beloved, if I could spoil it
so that you'd seek God, that'd be the best spoiling I'd ever
done. The second thing 65 has done, if it leaves you unsaved,
is that it's further hardened your heart to the truth of God. The thought of a hardened heart
is one of the most sobering doctrines in the Bible. The Bible states
that there is such a thing as a hardening of heart. All men's
hearts, by nature, are hard. Ezekiel 36 says, I will take
out the heart of stone. But when the Bible talks about
hardening the heart, it's talking about a peculiar hardness. We
read about it in Romans 2, but after thy hardness and impenitent
heart. In Hebrews 2, 7 and 8, God says
today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. May I
describe the process by which a heart is hardened? There's
man's part in this hardening, and there's God's part in this
hardening. What is our part in having a hardened heart? Here
it is. First of all, it's the process
by which we stifle the voice of conscience. In 1 Timothy 4
and verse 2, we read this, having their conscience seared as with
a hot iron, and the Greek word literally means cauterized. having
the conscience cauterized. You see, when something is burned
and then there builds up a scab, the scab is insensitive, and
that's the picture. Paul says people have taken conscience
and they've seared it so it's built up a thick layer of scabby
flesh that's unfeeling and conscience no longer speaks. Have you been
stifling the voice of conscience in the past year, young people?
If you've listened to anything that mom and dad have taught
you in family devotions, and anything your teachers taught
you in Sunday school, and anything your pastors tried to teach you,
your conscience has become awakened to certain issues. Now, what
have you done with the voice of conscience? As conscience
has spoken, have you sought to stifle the voice of conscience?
Have you sought to still and cause the voice of conscience
no longer to speak? If you stifle the voice of conscience
on the issues of sin, every time you and I sin and conscience
speaks, that little pricking is a preview of judgment. You
never told your conscience to condemn you when you sin. If
we had our way, we'd see to it we didn't have a conscience,
because conscience makes the most profligate, rigid sinner,
to some degree, bothered about his sin. Where did that conscience
come from? God put it there. And God says,
that's a little pledge that one day you're going to stand before
me. Every time conscience condemns, God says, that's a little pledge
of the day when you'll stand before me. And to have a hardened
heart is to stifle the voice of conscience, when conscience
pricks us about that little business dishonesty, about that impure
thought that's entertained, about that act that is impure and unclean,
about that step we take in a social relationship that is wrong, about
that liberty we take with a young woman or young man that is sin,
and conscience smites, but we stifle the voice of conscience.
And it gets a little bit easier to do it the next time, and conscience
speaks a little less loudly. And then it's a little bit more
easy the next time, and conscience speaks a bit more softly. Until
we can, with a high hand and a bold, brazen attitude, do that
now which once we did with trembling. Ah, dear person, you're hardening
quiet. And 1965, if it finds you unsaved,
has hardened your heart as you've stifled the voice of conscience
on the issues of sin, on the issues of the gospel. You see,
a preacher has two things in his advantage if he's preaching
the word of God. He has God on his side in this
book, and he has the conscience of his heroes on his side. When
I call upon you to repent and to flee to Christ, your conscience
affirms that this is the right thing to do, and you know it.
Now you can try to argue conscience down. That's a little pledge
of the fact that one day every knee will bow and every tongue
will confess that he is Lord. And just as when conscience condemns
about sin, that's a little preview of judgment, so when conscience
convinces you that the gospel is true and that you ought to
repent and plead at Christ, that's a little preview of the day when
you must bow before him and every knee will bow and every tongue
confess that he is Lord. The heart in your heart is to
stifle the voice of conscience. It's to reject the overtures
of God's mercy. I don't have time. Perhaps I
ought to bring sermon sometime on the hardness of heart. There
are too many illustrations in the Bible. But on your part,
dear one, Anything short of immediate response to God's dealings is
to harden your heart. God dealt with Pharaoh, and he
sent judgments, but it said after each judgment by which God tried
to awaken him, he hardened his heart. Then in answer to the
prayers of Moses, God would lift the judgment, and then it would
say, but Pharaoh hardened his heart. You see, he wouldn't respond
either to mercy or to judgment. He got a hard heart. That's what's
happened in the past year to some of you. God has showered
His mercy upon you, but you harden your hand. God has terrified
you with some judgment, perhaps some accident that could have
taken your life, perhaps some near miss. You were in a situation
driving your car, and to this hour you don't know how you escaped
a head-on collision. You just found yourself as though
some angel were there, pushing the cars apart. In those sober
moments you thought, where would I be if my life had been snuffed
out? God spoke through that. mere act of judgment. But you've
spurned His judgment, you've spurned His mercy, you've hardened
your heart. That's man's part. And it's frightful
that God has a part in the hardening of a heart of a sinner. For the
Bible says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. In Romans 9 we read, Whom
He wills, He hardens. That's a terrible thing, beloved,
that Almighty God has had a part in the hardening of some of your
hearts this past year. As you have stifled the voice
of conscience, as you have refused the overtures of God's mercy
and the warnings of God's judgment, what has God done? God's hardening
of the hearts of men has a twofold aspect. One is an aspect of permission,
the other is an aspect of desertion. You see, God's permitted you
to go on involved in that sin that's about to dampen. You see,
sometimes in mercy, God will arrange circumstances that bring
us up short, and we can't even follow the course of sin that
we want to. I think back of my high school
days, and I to this day praise God for certain things that happened
to me, that kept me from the course of action that my sinful,
unregenerate heart wanted. I thank God for And when God begins to harden
the heart of a man, He just lets him have his own way. He just
says, all right, I'll take off the restraints, I'll permit you
to go on in the course of your own wicked desire. Think of it. What a terrible thing. And that
state of permission then leads to a state of desertion, where
God no longer wounds the conscience, where God no longer causes His
Word to thunder to our hearts, Beloved, it's a terrible pain
that there may be some of you outside of Christ who will be
able to hear this sermon this morning and go on home and have
your Sunday dinner and watch the Colts and the Packers this
afternoon and go to bed tonight and never think once over thought
about your relationship to God. I tell you, beloved, that's the
most terrible state to be in. God is leaving you at the mercy
of your own stone heart. I fear for some of you precious
young people for this very reason. I never had the gospel preached
to me with earnestness and clarity and with entreaty, some as you
has had for a year, two, three, five, ten. Yet how I blessed God that the
little gospel I heard would hound me and trouble me day after day
and night after night until I found, by His grace, that pardon that
comes from the Savior. Can you hear a sermon like this
morning, boys, girls, teenagers, college students, adults? Listen
to me. Can you hear a message such as
addressed to you this morning and go home and throw it right
out of your mind? You're in a dangerous place.
God is deserving. That's the hardness of heart. The ultimate result will be that
there will no longer be a concern. The door of mercy will be forever
shut. I have trembled in my heart as
I've read this passage in Proverbs in preparation for the message
where God says in the first chapter of Proverbs, Notice these sobering words.
Proverbs chapter 1, beginning with verse 24. Because
I have called and ye have refused, I have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded. He hath said it not all of my
counsel and would none of my reproof. He said, I don't want
it, the prickings of conscience, the wooings of the spirit, the
pleas of God's servant. I don't want it. Now notice the
sobering words. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh is desolation and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind. When distress and anguish cometh
upon you, then shall they call upon me. But I will not answer. Then shall they seek me early. And they shall not find me, for
they did, for they hated knowledge, and they did not choose the fear
of the Lord. You tie that in with the parallel
passage in John 12, 37, we don't have time to look at it, where
God says of certain people they could not believe because God
had hardened their hearts. They came to a place where faith
was impossible. Beloved, a preacher of the gospel,
believing this book, how can I read those words but not fear
for some of you? For 1965 leaves you still in
your sins. And what have you accomplished?
You've added weight to the inevitable judgment of God. You've further
hardened your heart. And the third thing you've accomplished
is this. 1965 has brought you 365 days closer to death and to the
day of judgment. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, to judgment. That time of your death is hidden
in the secret counsels of God. But just as surely as the passage
from grade one leads to grade two, and ultimately leads to
graduation, just as surely as one second passes another and
leads to a minute, which leads to an hour, which leads to a
day, which leads to a week, to a month, to a year. So 1965 has
brought you one year closer to the day of death and of judgment. Whether we want to think of it
or not, it's true. Think of the man who sits in death row. I
visited one once. The sentence has been passed,
he's going to die. And he counts the days. 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 10, 5, 4,
3, 2, 1. The evening before he's to be
executed, they bring in his last meal. The irony of it, he can
choose his own menu. And then he sweats through the
night, it seems like an eternity. The sun begins to break over
the horizon, and some of its first rays filter into his dingy
cell. And then, when the key enters
the lock, all the blood drains from his system, for he knows
the hour has come. He hears the clanking of the
door, and the squeak as it opens, and he's called out to die. But I'd rather have that experience
a billion times than to have Almighty God summon
me out of the dust of the earth to stand before the great white
throne and open up the books and say, Sinner, here's your
record. Here's all the gospel truth you
heard but didn't obey. The sins that you've done and
wouldn't repent of. What do you say, Senator? To
hang one's head and mouth bestilled and hear the sentence depart
from me into everlasting life? Another 1965 has brought some
of you 365 days closer to that awful hour. And those are my
words of warning this morning, that this year has added weight
to judgment It's hardened your heart, and it's brought you closer
to judgment. Now may I speak very briefly
and warmly, I trust? Not only do I give you words
of warning, but I give you words of entreaty. What is an entreaty?
It's an earnest pleading, an impassioned beseeching. And my
entreaty this morning has this one goal. that those of you who
are not joined to Christ, whether you are openly unsaved, or whether
you've deceived others and you know you don't have reality,
or whether you've deceived yourself, my one entreaty is this, as the
old year comes to a close and the new year is before us, this
is my entreaty. Seek ye the Lord while ye may
be found. Break off with your sins. Cry out for mercy. Count no pain too great until
you know that you belong to the Savior. Now, on what basis do
I entreat you? I would entreat you, first of
all, by the testimony of your own conscience. Your conscience
tells you that what I've told you from God's Word this morning
is true. Your own conscience has been
your worst enemy, so you think, this morning. But it's your best
friend, beloved. You think conscience is your
enemy because conscience has told you, as I've been preaching,
it's true! And I plead with you this morning
by the testimony of conscience that you seek the Lord. I plead
with you by the brevity of life. We read this morning in Psalm
90 that our days are like a tail that's told they fly away. Could
ask Pop Silent tonight, this morning, passed over the 80 mark,
our dear Sister Blair, it seems but yesterday that you were running
around the backyard as a little girl and a little boy. in the
years of God, have they not? I could call them up to witness. Young people, listen, I could
call these whose gray hairs and whose four-score years have come,
and they would tell you how quickly, how quickly, how quickly! And
I plead with you by the brevity of life to seek the Lord while
He may be found. I plead with you not only by
the testimony of your conscience, by the brevity of life, But I
plead with you thirdly by the commands of your Creator. He
commands you to repent. Acts 17.30, God commandeth all
men everywhere to repent. He calls on you to turn. In Ezekiel
33, He says, Turn ye, turn ye. Why will ye die? He commands
you, Seek the Lord while ye may be found. Will you act as though
that you were your own Creator? That there was no God who made
you to whom you are accountable? I plead with you this morning
by the commands of your Creator. And fourthly, I entreat you by
the wounds of Christ. I entreat you by the wounds of
Christ. His open side and his pierced
hands were received for sinners. They show God's hatred for sin
in the only way of deliverance from sin and the extent of God's
love for sinners. Will your pride speak louder
than the wounds of Christ? Will your lusts be more persuasive
than the languid eyes of a dying God? Will your stubbornness withstand
the sight of the shrouded heavens when all was blackness? Will
the world drown out the dying cries of the Son of God? My God,
my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Dear young people, friends,
adults, visitors, I plead by the wounds of a dying Savior
who shed His blood for sinners, I plead by His wounds that on this last Lord's Day
of 1965, you seek Him. And then last of all, I plead
by the love of my own heart. The Apostle Paul said, I seek
not yours, but you. And with all the failures of
the pastor that rise up to condemn me, many times, sometimes, often,
in one day, one little ray of hope is when I read a verse like
this, I seek not yours, but you. God bearing me witness the thing
I want more than anything else, from you dear people to whom
He's called, is the salvation of your never-dying souls. That's
all I want. For this I live. For this I pray. For this, beloved, I sweat! For
this I study. For this I plead with God. And I plead with you this morning
by the love of my own heart, that you seek the Lord, that
you seek the Lord. Though the more I love you, the
less I be loved. Though I be unloved for plainness, I must
study plainness and preach plainly. Last night he was speaking to
Harold, saying, the preacher talked in big terms. He assumed
we were all Christians. I never knew he meant me. I mean
you this morning, beloved, and I mean none other. I mean you precious young people
whom I've faced for three years. And I've never had you come and
say, Pastor, I'm long lost. And you point me to the Savior. I plead with you by the love
of my heart that you seek the Lord this morning. For if my
ministry has merely informed your mind but left you in your
sins, do you know what I've done? I've been an instrument to make
hell a worse place for you. Because the Bible says to whom
much is given, much will be required. And if my ministry has merely
put information into your head, it's made the fires of hell hotter. Do you think I want to be one
who's going to be held accountable for that? I don't want it, beloved. But unless you repent, that's
all my ministry of three and a half years has done, is make
hell the worst place for If my preaching has merely caused
you to quit some sins and be respectable, but have no changed
heart, all I've done is make you a whitewashed sepulcher,
a twofold more of the child of hell. And so I entreat you this
morning, beloved, by the love of my heart. Seek the Lord while
he may be found. Call upon him while he's near. This is all I plead. Words of
entreaty. Words of entreaty. Then I close,
blessed God with words of hope. As we look back over a year,
which has done these two terrible things, it's added weight to
the inevitable judgment of God. It's hardened our hearts. What
hope is there? Thank God as we stand here on
this last day of 1965, I have blessed words of hope. The door
of mercy still stands open. 2 Peter 3.15 says, The long-suffering
of God is salvation. The only reason the door of mercy
has not swung shut upon your life is that God is a God of
mercy. Thou, Lord, art good, and ready
to forgive, and plenteous in mercy. Psalm 86, 5. Not only
does the door of mercy stand open, but, blessed be God, Christ
stands in the door of mercy. And He beckons you, not to a
church, not to a set of doctrines, but to His own lovely cell. He
says, Come unto Me. That's the issue. All visitors
here this morning, if you miss everything else, remember this.
We've set Christ before you. Miss Him, and you've missed life.
Have Him and you have all things. He says, come unto Me. He says,
those who come to Me, I will in no wise cast out. Christ stands
in the door of mercy, and then within that door of mercy, unspeakable
blessings await to entice us in. God would entice us this
morning. by the knowledge that sins may
be forgiven, by the knowledge that we shall have eternal life,
that we shall have pledge of everlasting presence with the
living God. God would entice us for the joys
of the Holy Spirit made real in the human heart here and now.
God would entice us with all the sweet delicacies of spiritual
delights that are the possession of the children of God. These
are the words of hope. that God extends this morning.
And if any of you perish, you'll have to perish over the wooings
of the Spirit, over the thunderings of conscience, over the yearnings
of your pastor. And in that day will you plead
that no one warned you, that no one wept over you, that no
one instructed you? No, beloved, you'll be without
excuse. As the old year goes out and
the new one comes in, I trust you'll hear the words of warning
I trust you'll hear the words of entreaty. I trust you'll hear
the words of hope. May God grant that this morning
shall be found in the day of judgment to have been a morning
owned by the Holy Spirit to the awakening and the conversion
of Son. Let us pray. Those of you who come with regularity
know that we do not countenance the idea that coming to an altar,
raising a hand, is getting saved. That's been made abundantly clear.
But I am constrained this morning as I've prayed and asked the
Lord for direction about this service. But I'm going to give
an invitation with an opportunity for an outward response to God's
truth. And I want to make clear what
that invitation is. I'm asking each one of you who
knows that this word was directed to you today. Openly unsaved. Deceived. You've been ashamed. And God's word has found you.
And you see the terrible thing that you've done with this past
year. You've treasured up wrath. You've hardened your heart. But
you've heard the entreaty this morning. You see the hope set
before you in Christ. And right now you say, Oh God,
I am determined to seek you until I know that my sins are forgiven
and I am joined to the Lord Jesus. Is that the response of your
heart to the Lord this morning? If it is, young person, visitor,
I'm going to ask you in a moment to give evidence of that expression
of your heart. For this purpose, and I want
to make it clear, that I might be able in the coming week to
follow through. Come, make an appointment to
meet with you that we might discuss together the matter of your soul's
salvation. Is it clear now what I'm asking?
You acknowledge you're not saved, you're not in Christ, you're
not a new creature, you've not been born again. And the warnings
have caught you this morning. The entreaties have wooed you.
The hope of God. has laid hold of you. And you
say, Pastor, I go on record this morning. I'm determined that
1966 will not find me still in my sins. I'm determined it will
find me in Christ. To that end, I'm seeking Him.
Will you pray with me and for me? And as I need help, will
you talk with me? Is that the response of your
heart to God this morning? If it is, just before we close,
I'm going to ask you to just raise your hand and indicate
that desire to me. This is not between you and the
Lord, it's between you and your pastor. Are there such young
people, adults? Yes, we see this, all right?
Any others now? This is an indication that you
desire, with all your heart, to be found in Christ. And to
that end, you want me to pray with you and then to speak with
you if I can be of help. That's what the invitation is.
This doesn't save you. This is an expression of your
desire. Some of you young people, God found you this morning. Though
all our pleading be to no avail. Are there others? Just before we
go. All right, any others? Blessed God, we thank you for
these who have indicated a desire to seek you. Oh, Father, enable
them, we pray, to look away from themselves and to look unto the
Savior. Enable them, oh God, to throw
the weight of their souls upon the Lord Jesus as He's freely
offered in the Gospel. Father, speak to yet others. for those that we've asked you
for and who've given no indication of their desire to seek you.
Lord, disturb them. Lord, trouble them. Lord, don't
give them over to a hard heart. Father, have mercy on them. Don't
leave them at the mercy of their own wicked hearts. But arrest
them, we pray, and bring them to yourself. Spirit of God, seal
the word. to the praise and honor of the
Lord Jesus, he asked it.