Peter Orasuk delivers a powerful sermon titled 'The Writing on the Wall,' emphasizing the dire consequences of being found wanting before God, as illustrated in Daniel 5. He draws parallels with the prodigal son in Luke 15, who, after squandering his inheritance, realizes his deep need for his father's love and provision. Orasuk highlights that true satisfaction and fulfillment can only be found in Christ, contrasting worldly pursuits with the eternal standard of heaven. He urges listeners to examine their lives and ensure they possess Christ, the only means to avoid eternal separation from God. The sermon concludes with the assurance that with the Lord as our shepherd, we shall not want.

Turn to the scriptures, please, Daniel and chapter 5. Read in that verse 24, Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written. And this is the writing that was written, meaning take all you forsaken. This is the interpretation of the thing, meaning God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Take all thou art weighed in the balances, and found one thing, and thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes, even the Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. And that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about three score and two years old. Now turn with me, please, to the gospel according to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. Luke 15 and verse 14. This is concerning the prodigal. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. He sent him into the fields to feed swine, and he would, if faint, have filled his belly with husks that the swine did eat. And no man or nobody gave unto him. And he went, when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he rose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. Now one more reading, please, the well-known passage, the 23rd Psalm. Psalm 23, Psalm 23, verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That's all we'll read. That would conclude the reading for this evening on my part, anyway. I want to look at an expression that is found in these three passages and really contain all my remarks this evening. I want to think of the truth of wanting. Wanting. Maybe to put them under this heading. In Daniel chapter 5, you have the truth of an individual's condition. Sadly enough, at the end of his days, he's found wanting. Found wanting. I want to think of that passage in Luke chapter 15, concerning an individual brought to a consciousness, and for the first time it said of this man, he began to be in want. Well, finally, that Psalm that needs no introduction, and that verse that possibly doesn't even need to be repeated, I want to think of its cure. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. When I look at wanting, I'm not so much looking at the truth of things that will meet our temporal needs or things that we would like to have to make life a little easier. I am talking about the sensitivity within every individual that oft times rises to the surface of a longing for something that human experience, human nature, and the world around us can't fill. When I look at this man in Daniel chapter 5, this king who sadly at the end of his days, it's interesting some of the terms we get from the scriptures. One of those terms is concerning something that is made apparently clear. You'll often hear somebody say this, can't you read the writing on the wall? Can't you read the writing on the wall? That's exactly where it comes from. It is literally drawing from this truth that God set before this man at the end of his days, this truth that the man was weighed in the balances, found wanting, and that judgment was coming as a result of it. You know, when I think of people today, you might say, well, I'm not a king in a Babylonian or a Persian-Median empire. I'm not an individual whose place is surrounded by enemies. I'm not a person that's had experiences like this man would have or was in the certain peril that this individual was in. How would this relate to me? There are three ways in which individuals in life without Christ are found wanting. First of all, when it comes to the truth of the standard of God, the standard of heaven. You know, a lot of individuals today oftentimes refer to God and they say this, the God that I believe in, the God that I believe in, you'll find it's almost a formation or a development of thought or a creation in their own minds of some form of a being that will let them, will accommodate their lifestyles, the things that they do, and they kind of trust in this thought that the God that I believe in, let me say this, there is only one God. There is only one God. That God is the God of the Bible. He has given us the Word of God and with the Bible he has given us the divine standard of heaven, the standard of heaven. I remember my kid sister and I, we used to go different times, we used to have to take her, now she's about eight years younger than me so it wasn't a real joy. I had to take her to the cinema sometime or we used to call it the movies. I suppose you can relate to what it was. It was a matinee. It was in the afternoons and it was kind of for children and we used to go every Saturday afternoon. We used to kind of save up some money and my mom and dad gave us the rest and they would give us about 80 cents I suppose. That was enough to cover the two bus fares there and back, two mallow bars, two bottles of Coca-Cola. Boy, what you could do back in those days with 80 cents and then again the 15 cents that was required for both of us each to get into the movie. I remember this particular Saturday, it was like every other Saturday. We got our chores done in the morning, we're all excited, we caught that bus down at Pennhorn Lake, we piled on board, met different other of my friends that were all excited about the particular matinee for that week and we went to see the movie. We stopped and bought our mallow bars outside because we would never buy them in, they cost more and we would bring our pop in with us or I'm sorry soda and we went and took it in and I remember taking the 30 cents and putting it on the counter right across from the woman in the wicket and shoving it across and she turned around she said, that's not enough. Well I said, what do you mean it's not enough? That's what we always pay, 15 cents each. No dear, she said, it's not 15 cents each, it's 35 cents each, it's gone up. I said, it can't have gone up. She said, it can and it has. As a matter of fact, we have been advertising it for weeks. It's been shown in the commercials of the matinee, it's been in the local newspaper, it's even been over the radio. That every person in the community should know that what's required to get in here is a certain amount and she said dear you haven't got enough even for one let alone two. Then I tried a little persuasion and I said to her, look it's just me and my kid sister, couldn't you just let us in this time for 15 cents each? I appreciate what she said, even then I understood it. Here's what she said, I have been turning away children all afternoon who didn't have enough and if I let you in I'd be making an exception. I can't do it, my job depends on it. You know as my sister and I obviously disillusioned, discouraged and depressed, ate our chocolate bars and what we bought with the extra 15 cents and took that bus trip home without going in and seeing that movie. Both of us were thinking like this, I wish we had what it took to get in. I wish we'd have listened and we found out what's required to get in there. Let me tell you something, that was just the experience of two children who were discouraged and disappointed but the principle is there. They're individuals and you think you're going to heaven and you're not. You're not going to heaven. You haven't got what it takes to get to heaven. You say, hold it sir, I've been baptized. Baptism is not the prerequisite for heaven. You say, I've joined a particular church and it's fundamental. That's not the prerequisite for heaven. You say, I'm living the best I can. That will never take you to heaven. There is one standard that God has for heaven. You know what it is? It's Christ. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath not life. And if you don't have Christ as your personal Savior, regardless of how good you live, how many times and how many ways you've been baptized, what church you belong to, no matter how fundamental, you are not going to heaven unless you have Christ as your Savior. More than that, the alternative to heaven is tragically this. You'll die in your sins and lift up your eyes in hell. To miss heaven is a certainty to be in hell. Now friend, tonight in this meeting, in my part of the meeting, I would consider it well spent if every person in this tent at this moment searched within themselves and asked themselves this question. Do I have what God says I need to get me to heaven? Do I have it? More than that, put it this way, do I have Him? Do I have Christ? You see, there's a standard for heaven. And that standard, as many as received Him, to them gave me power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name. If you trusted Christ, you're bound for heaven. And if you haven't, you're on your way to hell. I want to be very plain, and there's no need you be in there, because God gave His Son that you might have deliverance full and free. And God, through the Word, declares unto you, apart from this new birth or the experience whereby you've trusted Christ, you'll never be in heaven. That's God's standard for heaven, when it comes to the truth of that. I don't want you to speak out loud, but how many in this meeting have found one thing? You've come short. You've never trusted Christ. Oh, you can remember when you started going to that church. And you can remember when you started singing the hymns with the believers, and you even got to like some of them. Amazing Grace, what a lovely tune. But it comes to a time in your experience when you understood this, that I am a sinner, and I deserve God's judgment for my sins. But Christ died for my sins, and Him and Him alone is my sole claim to heaven. Do you have Christ? Or in this meeting, are you found one thing? Found one thing. You know, it's true not only when it comes to the truth of heaven's standard, but even to the truth of life satisfaction. Life satisfaction. You know, I've been trying to remember this name all day, and I probably have gotten it wrong, but if somebody can help me after the meeting, I'll say after the meeting, and tell me the name I'm looking for, I'd appreciate it. But I'll tell you the experience, and I'll name a man that might not necessarily be the individual. The story of the man that wrote Citizen Kane. I believe it was a man called Howard Hughes. It was either him or Victor Hugo. That man lived a very different life. He was a millionaire from a very young age. He had lots of money. More than that, he became a Hollywood producer. He owned his own movie theaters. He owned his own studios for producing all the different movies, so his movies always were produced. Some of them really didn't hit the mark as far as popularity in the world, but most of them today are considered classics. This man was known for every kind of vice you could get into, all the activities. He even had a zoo. A zoo. Mind you, right in his yard, where he brought in all different kinds of animals that were on the verge of extinction. He had stables that were full of horses. One of those horses, Nagadir, was one of the most famous race horses in the United States, and he had it. He owned it. Anything he fancied, he bought it. And if there was a man, and if wealth could satisfy you, and if possessions could satisfy you, and if fame could satisfy you, this would be a satisfied man. Later in his days, he became very paranoid about his health to the point that he had individuals that belonged to a cult, and I won't mention who they were, but they belonged to a cult, and they used to attend him with his food. He had his food prepared in a certain way. The fluids he drank in a certain way, and everybody who came into the room came in. They had masks on their faces. They wore rubber gloves, and everything in the room where he was was made up. And finally, with age, he began to break down. In spite of all he did to try and maintain his youth, he aged, and he started to die. On his deathbed, some of these individuals came that brought him water, that attended to him, that stood there in the room on duty continuously, just moments before he breathed his last. They came near to listen to his last words. And as the man reached down, he simply put his ear within range of those lips that were trying to say something, and here's what he heard him say, I want, I want, and he died. Books were written about what they thought his final request was. Individuals on the radio broadcast what their thoughts were for people that had known him. Some said, was it that son that was estranged to him that he wanted to kind of have a final farewell with? Was it that movie star that he had literally broken her heart and left her to the point she was just a broken, ruined individual that he wanted to say he was sorry to? Was it one of the four times he was married, one of those women that had been his wives, was it one of those? And finally that man, Jeff Crowrell, that had listened down and gone down to him, had listened to him as he breathed out his last and heard those words, I want, here's what he said, there was no other word, there was no other word. He was literally surmising his entire life with all his wealth, with all his riches, with all his pleasure, with everything else, he was simply saying this, I want, I want, I want, this world will never satisfy you. You could be the wealthiest man in Manchester, you could be the wealthiest man in the British Isles, in the world, and you'd never be satisfied. There's only one thing that satisfies the human heart, you know what it is? Christ. And in this meeting tonight, sad to say, maybe you've had a family and they brought you some joy, maybe you've got an education and you feel relatively proud about it, but the sad thing in this meeting tonight is this, if you haven't got Christ, you're found wanting, you're found wanting, you're wanting. When it comes to the truth of suffering, I've told this before, but I don't hesitate to tell it again, I've never told the full story of a young girl, and I would even try to preach all my points, of a young girl that came to gospel meetings, I was having a mean looking girl, her name was Ann Spite, and she looked every bit of it. I never knew a person could wear that much leather all at once. It was all black leather, and she had a look on her like a black storm cloud, and she would sit in that meeting and she sat there and I thought, after the first time she came, I thought she'd never come back again, but she did. You know, she came two or three times, in fact more than that, and different times she would sit there with sort of almost a luxurious grin on her face, and other times she sat there like she was really giving rapt attention, but one time she finally said this, she called me up and she said, I want you to be at the meeting early tomorrow night, because I want to talk to you. I went with the other man I was preaching with, he prayed while I talked to her. Now this was a girl that was 26 years old, and she told me a story that would break your heart, as far as what she had been through in her life, 26 years old. She'd been in mental institutions, and she'd had her health broken down. She was suffering from numerous physical impediments. She was a drug abuser. She was an alcoholic. She'd been abused by her father when she was a child. It was just one thing she'd gone to, adoptive homes, time after time, and each one had failed with her. And I can still remember what she said to me. Here's what she said, you men preached the other night on a place called hell, and you preached that individuals that die in their sins are going to be in that place called hell, and from there they're going to go to the lake of fire, and they're going to suffer forever and forever and forever. And that's what we preached, and that is the truth. But she said, surely this is hell. Surely this is hell. Surely I'm going through hell right now. Every day in this world is hell to me, without being insensitive, without trying to add something to her misery. I just turned around and I said, Anne, compared to where you will go if you die without Christ, this life, with all its miseries, will seem like a picnic to you. It will seem like a picnic. There are souls that are in hell, and if they could come back to suffer in a cancer ward, they'd come. What must hell be like? Where individuals without Christ must go, and the suffering and the agonies, the wrath of God poured upon them forever and forever, and the weight of their sins never reduced, and the separation with God never brought near. And for that individual in hell, they will always, always be found wanting. But let me tell you something about Anne's fight. She came two more nights, and then one night she got up and she went into the washroom at the back of the hall. I must admit, I surmised, a boy can be pretty evil in her surmising. I thought I could hear the clank of a bottle, and I thought Anne's probably gone for a little drink to kind of toughen her up. And she came out of that washroom. She sat down. She looked up at me, and she just turned around and she just nodded. And after the meeting, I said to her, Anne, something happened tonight. She said, I trusted the man that went through the experience of hell for me. Never went to hell. None of this nonsense that Christ went down to hell, but He experienced all the wrath and the fury and the judgment that we would have suffered forever. And that little note, I still have at home, so I have to find it. She simply said this, For once in my miserable life, I can say from the bottom of my heart, I am satisfied. I am satisfied. I am satisfied. Sir, in this meeting tonight, you will never be satisfied. You'll not meet the standard of God. You won't find satisfaction in life. And there'll be no end to your suffering under the judgment of God, unless you trust Christ. And if you trust Christ from your soul, can come this language for the first time. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I shall never be found wanting. God bless His word.