In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of sharing the gospel and being a witness for Jesus Christ. He challenges the notion that one can only proclaim the gospel from behind a pulpit, stating that our testimony should extend beyond the confines of a physical space. The speaker shares a personal story of a young boy named Fred who had a profound encounter with an old man at a gospel hall, leading him to recommit his life to Christ. The sermon also highlights the importance of studying the Bible and seeking to understand its teachings, as exemplified by a man who diligently sought knowledge about baptism, the Lord's table, and the return of Jesus.

Well friends, it's about a year and two weeks ago. As would you like. I must apologize tonight, I wrote and mentioned that my wife would be with me. Well, I don't know if it's known or not, but we've had to leave Senegal. And our love was there for health conditions. She's had a tropical germ in the intestines which seems to affect the head. And she very often go almost prostrate in headaches. Well on Saturday, going in for the Portage conference, we stayed in a home where someone was quite ill with influenza. And she seems to have picked up the germ. And it's affected the head and she's about ten miles out in a small town. I must apologize for her absence tonight. Before passing on God's message tonight, there's one little request I would like to make. And that is concerning Newman. If you don't know exactly where it is, you ask Mr. Rogers afterwards. But a year ago, a lady made a profession of faith by the name of Mrs. Potley. It was my privilege to meet the lady early in the meeting. And on the last Sunday evening, her husband came to the meeting. I wish you could meet Mr. Potley. He's about six feet four, a typical farmer, western farmer. And coming into the meeting that night, he walked about halfway up the hall. And he discovered the other men had their hats off and his was still on. So instead of stopping to go to the rear of the hall to remove it, he just pulled it off and shot it over a people's head onto a table. Well, then the battle of wits began. We did our utmost to penetrate the pedestal. And he seemed to do his utmost to hinder. I can see our friend Potley now, sitting down about three feet from the front, chewing gum and sitting quite as a man. But as the meeting progressed, we could see that the Lord was gaining the victory for His faith. And by the time we were lifting up our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the finished work of Calvary, we found that He was intently listening. Well justified in asking the people to leave the building quietly, prayerfully. And if anyone would like to stay behind, we would be only too glad to part with them. Everyone left, and it wasn't exactly to my amazement, because I see them would be praying during the meeting. But our friend Potley stayed behind. And after about 45 minutes dealing with him, I'll never forget the way that round, tough, westerner broke down, shed a few tears, and ascribed the Lord as his Savior. Said Eve, you know my wife, he said, had been vicious through life. He said many times I've had to strike her, to quiet her down. But said Eve, somehow when she was saved, she offered. And for the last 8 weeks she's done everything, she's actually brought my slippers to me at night. And before I couldn't get a kind word for years. And he said I feel if Jesus Christ can do a thing like that for my wife, I felt He could do it for me, and he said I'm saved now. Well on Tuesday I got a message in Jumo, when I got out of their firm on Thursday morning, and I was leaving on Friday evening. And I'll never forget what transpired in the town house. Getting there about 10 o'clock in the morning, I found the boys had been kept in school. And he sat me down to the head of the table, and sat everybody around. And he said now, he said on Monday the police came. I've been brought up, he said Catholic, and we're still registered as Catholic. And the police came on Monday and said that I should go back to the church. And the first indication was that the Lord had worked a work of grace in his heart, but he had not seen exactly how to use it. He said the police began to put his statements to me, and he said I couldn't answer. So I calmly told him if he was not off my firm within five minutes, he would be put in the pond. So you see, grace had not yet taken effect. But he said I began to think Monday night, if I couldn't answer that fellow, how am I going to answer the people in Denver, Massachusetts, and sojourn me at Jumo. So he said, Brother Davis, I want you to tell me everything you know about salvation. And to my amazement, he brought one of our few writing tablets, twenty-five cents, about baptism. And he began to write as I spoke. Then he wanted to know, if you please, everything I could tell him about baptism. We broke off for a midday meal. Then afterwards we sat around the table again, only about a twenty-minute break. And then he wanted to know everything, if you please, about the Lord's table. After that, he wanted to know everything about the Lord, he said. And if that was not enough, what would happen to the people left behind when Jesus came? We sat at that meal table with just a twenty-minute break from ten o'clock in the morning until ten to four at night. And I cannot help but think that man wanted to know more in one afternoon than many Christians I know have wanted to know in ten or fifteen years on the program he's on. But here's the tragedy. I wrote to Mr. Wynne earlier this year, and I said, Now, how is our brother Copley getting along? Our brother Davis, he said he's proved a disappointment. The new testament you gave him is being used consistently in Denver Magnet and also in the Buhler Grammarly. We see him at Sunday school occasionally, and sometimes for the gospel, and occasionally on a weeknight. But we have never yet seen him at the Lord's table. I wrote to Brother Copley, and he said, Well, perhaps you can come out and help me further. And today we've turned over the 2,400 miles on our way out. So we really value your prayer. We're going for meetings at Buhler, but remain unfriendly. The reason for the journey is to spend some more afternoons around the Copley meal table. So we do value your prayers as we go forward, leaving it to the Lord that he may work through us. So friends, will you please turn with me to John's Gospel, chapter 14. John's Gospel, chapter 14, and verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. He believed in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, there ye may be also. Will you please look at verse 3 again. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, there ye may be also. It's my privilege to work quite a deal among teenagers. Back in the East, especially in New York and New Jersey, there is a tremendous movement taking place among the assemblies concerning high schools. You may even have heard the name. It is called the I.D.A. The letters H.I. abbreviated for high school, and D.A. born again. I go to New Jersey about once or twice, sometimes three times a year. And every time it's my privilege to move among some of these Christian teen-agers. And at Bloomfield High School, New Jersey, we have no less than 47 high school kids that meet after school twice a week for prayer and a word of ministry. And I remember conducting one of these meetings on a particular afternoon, and one boy that had just moved up from grade school into junior high, and was struggling with the King's English, corrected me when I spoke and read that verse, verse three, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. This young boy, just beginning to struggle in the King's English, said, but sir, I see a doubt in that verse. A doubt, I asked? He said, oh yes, sir. Our English teacher tells us that it always gives an element of doubt. Well, the little fellow had taken one word and made it stand out boldly, that if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. Now supposing the boy was right, supposing there was an if in the statement, supposing our Lord said, now if, or supposing I go, supposing I go, I promise you this, there will be no supposition concerning my coming back. If I go, there is certainly no doubt about his coming back, all through the Old Testament Scripture we find that he is the promised Messiah. And now, coming down to John's Gospel, chapter fourteen, I find the promised one himself becomes the promiser. And the promise is this, I will with a certainty come again, he went, and therefore he must return, he promised. They were giving out some pamphlets one day, and I certainly thought someone had handed me a Gospel tract until I found it was advertising matter for a New York insurance company. They put it out, they must have copied our Tom Alston or other people's tracts, for it was put out in a perfect tract form. And the story on it could well have been a tract concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They went on to say that John, a twelve-year-old school champion swimmer, was swimming off the coast of the Atlantic one day with her father. Drifting and playing around in the water with her dad, they were unconsciously taken further away from the coast than safety permitted. After a while father looked up and, to his utter amazement, the coast was away in the distance. Knowing John's capabilities as a swimmer, he knew very well that even she could not make shore. So he left a definite and an absolute instruction with John, and the instruction was this, John, I want you to float, and when you get tired of floating, swim along for a little while not to get cramped, and then float again because I am going to swim to the shore for help. Now, John, don't get lonely, don't get nervous, and do as I tell you because if you float and swim, you'll be alright for several hours. Your father is going, but he's coming back for you, so, John, don't worry. And so the brave father began to swim to shore. Three hours later, he was picked up in the water, unconscious. In the oxygen tent, regaining consciousness in the hospital, he very frantically pointed, and they heard him say, John, the queen. Every small craft and every mortar boat in the vicinity began to search for water, and they estimated that seven hours after the father had let the girl, they certainly saw something floating on the water. They took it to be the body of John, but now getting closer, to their utter amazement, the supposed body sat up and began to wave. When they got within shouting distance, somebody shouted, Hey, John, were you not afraid while you were in the water all those hours? And a little astonishment passed over the girl's face. She said, Afraid? Why should I be afraid? My father promised to come back, and he's never yet brought his word. If I gave our brother Huffman that little pamphlet from the insurance company, I am confident there would be a good little gospel appeal put at the end of that. And it is a definite promise for every count of God, our great Lord and our Saviour that died on Paltish Cross. For our redemption, he said, I am going away, but now he said, if my God, I will come back and receive you unto myself, but where I am dead, he will be also. Our Lord, just like the little girl's father, has never yet broken his word, and he never will. And he has promised to come, and he will come. But Christian tonight, I want to ask you, especially you young people in the meeting, are you waiting? And are you looking for a disappearance? I am not giving you scriptures tonight for the sake of time. But when I turn over the pages of my Bible to Acts chapter 1, I come to the last words of our Lord and Saviour, upon the earth before his going, that he, I want you to be my witnesses. Do you think it is possible for me to give you the earthly life story of our Lord Jesus? You know, the Gospel of Luke was written, and we find that the Acts was a continuation, and they seem to tell us, and I perfectly agree with them, that you could not close the life story of Jesus Christ as we live today. But I would like to try in about two minutes to give you the earthly life story of our Lord. He was born in a manger. At a young age, he was taken into the land of Egypt, as they say. Later, as a young child, he was brought back into the land, and then there is a complete and an absolute silence concerning him until approximately thirty years of age. We find him ministering from Dan to Beersheba. After somewhere around three and a half years of ministering, we find he is taken and killed on a Roman cross, buried in a borrowed tomb. On the third day, he rose triumphantly, and then, if we have our Easter and Woodson to go by, about six weeks later, he was caught up into the heavens, and there, in two minutes, I have given you a complete picture of the life story of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, upon the earth. With one exception that I deliberately avoided. From the age of a young child to that glorious time of stepping out into the ministry of thirty, it seems as if a curtain of silence had been put over his life. We have today the mythical iron curtain of Russia. We have today the mythical bamboo curtain of China. And we seem to have a curtain of silence concerning the life of our Lord from childhood, young childhood, until approximately forty years of age. But it seems as if God blew apart the curtain, and as the curtain blew apart, we got one tiny glimpse of our Lord at the age of twelve. And now, at the age of twelve, he's disappointed, he says to his parents, for they've been struggling on the journey, and they've missed him. And coming back, we find they had occasion to rebuke him. Why do you treat us so, as the effect of their message? And the reply of the Lord Jesus Christ was this, Wish not. Don't you know that I must now be about my father's business? Please remember, especially young people in the meeting tonight, that at around the age of twelve to fourteen, there's a kind of an adolescence in the East, and they're beginning to mature earlier than in the Western Hemisphere. He is stepping out of childhood into youth. But I am certain that our Lord would not have spoken such to an earthly parent, concerning an earthly parent. He was certainly not referring to Joseph, but he says, in effect, I must now be about my heavenly father's business. Have you ever paused and realized that when I hear that statement from the Lord, I have the very first recorded words in Scripture of him upon the earth? There is not one word recorded of a statement of his before that tremendous statement that I must now be about my father's business. Then when I come to the book of Acts chapter one and verse eight, I come to the last recorded word. Never after these words do we hear of a word from him spoken upon the earth. We certainly hear of him speaking from the heavenlies to Saul of Tarsus. But now the last recorded word that ever left his lips upon the earth to this present time was this. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Caesarea, and even unto the uttermost parts of the earth. The first recorded word to the Lord Jesus is that I must be about my father's business. What exactly are those things? What is this father's business? This is the true and faithful claim and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world. What for? To do his father's business. To save sinners. His last recorded words are these. It is no longer I that can walk from Dan to Beersheba. It is no more I that can go along the coasts of Galilee. And now I have completed my purpose at hand. I as a boy of twelve could say it is my job. But now he says you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Caesarea, and even unto the uttermost parts of the earth. I find that people often say to me, Brother, I am not gifted to teach you the gospel. We have sisters sometimes say that Paul said that sisters should not use self-authority when dressed in the present. Sisters should be silent when dressed in the present. Therefore my lips are sealed in preaching the gospel to the unsaved. If it is a teenage boy in the meeting tonight, and because you cannot stand behind a few square feet of wood to proclaim the name of Jesus, don't let it envy you in your testimony to your Lord. My beloved sister, if you think you can only stand behind this little bit of lumber and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, I'll tell you something. I feel that my ministry in the gospel is more important away from the gospel platform than even it is when I am apart. You say, well how can I with you? I had a close friend. We were in our early twenties. We were Sunday school teachers together in the city of Glasgow, Britain. I found my way down to Jamaica serving the Lord, and dear Wilfrid Durham found his way down into Bombay, India. He went on to be with the Lord at the age of thirty-eight, giving away to poor children. But he had an army service centre in Bombay, and he was also looking after some work in a community assembly. And he told us the story that the old man, eighty years of age, the dear old man was almost blind, and the only way he could go to the worship meeting, Lord's Day by Lord's Day, was with the age of one-sixth, and also he would have a glinted, almost supported Bible under his arm. And walking down the narrow street of a little gospel chapel in Bombay, making his way, two British army service boys were walking up the other side of the street. Said Wilfrid Durham in his letter, the two English coacher boys began to laugh. The old man was going to remember his Lord. The two English coacher boys in a tacky uniform were out for a Sunday sport. And one stopped and nudged the other and shouted across the road, Good morning, Grandpa! The old man stopped. He said, Good morning, boys. Grandpa, is that a Bible you've got? Yes, boys. Grandpa, how is Jesus Christ this morning? The old man pulled himself up straight. Boys, said he, do my eyes deceive me this morning? Are you not wearing the uniform of a British army? Are you English born? Yes, Grandpa. Boys, perhaps I've made a mistake, but for sixty years I've been sitting on my knees and thanking God for your little island across the sea. Because it brought John William Cherry and others to bring us the gospel of Jesus Christ. And is it possible a man which has sent out missionaries to convert us, and now sending us boys to ask how Jesus Christ is, is it possible? Listen, boys, for a moment. Do you see my Bible? For over fifty-five years I've got on my knees every morning and every night. And you know, boys, I thank God for your little island, through the British and foreign Bible societies, sending out the word of God. Have I made a mistake? Is it possible you don't know how Jesus Christ is? Boys, he said, if you don't know, I'll tell you. Jesus Christ proclaimed yesterday, today and forever. Good morning, boys. And the old man made his way to the little gospel hall. Some of you will say that wasn't much of a testimony. It was a testimony for most of you. All the story goes on to tell us that two o'clock next morning, in the English church up above the city of Bombay in the hills, a little cot creaked and a boy named Fred got down on his knees as he said that. Within a couple of minutes another cot in the fence creaked and a boy said, he whispered, Tom, what are you doing? Fred, as a kid of twelve in a gospel hall in Britain, I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, I meant it. And that old man this morning showed me very plainly that I'd got away from him. Fred, he's never left me. He's the same yesterday and today. I left him and I'm coming back, Fred said, Tom. I'd never known him, but the old man's words had been on my lips all day. Can you tell me? And two o'clock on that Monday morning, Fred was restored to his God and Tom accepted Christ as his Savior. Today, in the mountains overlooking Bombay, there's a mission station. And the missionaries in church at that station are named Fred and Tom. All through the testimony of an old man eighty years of age. You, said Jesus Christ, shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and even unto the uttermost ends of the earth. Chapter seven closes with a tragedy. For then I find that Heaven is beaten. His face is terribly misshapen from the stone throne and He slumps to the foot of a looking-glass. And He says, Lord, will not you send for their cash? Did I say that was a tragedy? I cannot help but feel in my own mind that there's a greater tragedy in the commencement of chapter eight. And the tragedy I'm referring to is this. That we find chapter eight says that they were teaching the gospel, they moved down into Judea for f-e-a-r, for fear of the Jews. And later in the chapter, we find that Philip is teaching the gospel in Samaria, and in that generation the Apostle Paul had blazed the trail across the known world to this day. The fulfillment of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was fulfilled in one generation as to what is now. Recorded words were given first of all into Jerusalem, then into Judea, and then into Samaria, and then to the uttermost past of the earth, that statement, His most potent statement, was fulfilled completely in one generation. But did I say fear? Yes. I don't wish to bring theatricals or be melodramatic on your platform, but I do ask you this. When the Lord stood before His disciples and said, Now I want you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost past of the earth, He was caught up in a tragedy, He said, out of their sight. That was not just a little favored band of disciples, that was a representation of the church at large, even the church today. How do you think this all goes well? Do you think it was with a tongue like a whiplash? Do you think it was with a keen eagle eye? He said, you men get out and preach my gospel, come along, get out! No thanks. If I could possibly be an artist and paint a picture of that scene, I would put tears in their eyes. I would put the most loving look upon the Savior's face that ever pain could change. But I'm sure it was with a heart of love and not with a voice of a whiplash. But He entreated, He stated with them, Take my gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost past of the earth. I can no longer do it through my lips, but I can still continue the work through yours. Will you let me go? And that tragedy of chapter 8 is, it's instead of going for love, they stayed on the streetcar tracks of Jerusalem until fear brought them out at the stone feet. You know, the last twelve months it's been a little bit easier to get into the United States of America. I live about a hundred miles, a hundred and ten miles out of Toronto. And I have to drive in at 6.30, three mornings running, and spend three whole days in the consulate, the U.S. consulate in Toronto, and then drive back each night before I could get a visa, which is called a visitor's visa, to come into the states any time I wish. And in quite about thirty hours, and about six, yes, six to seven hundred mile journey, for the first four years of our living in Canada, in spite of it stamped on my passport giving me a free entry into the states, over time after time I was questioned and questioned, until I sometimes wondered if I could step into the states that day. And going back to Toronto, I saw your consul himself, and I said, Sir, can you tell me why it is that you let me spend thirty hours in your consulate, and yet I'm given the third degree every time I want to cross the border? Yes, he said, I'll tell you why it is, but he said, I'll put a stamp on and seal that. The reason is, Mr. Davis, is this. We are getting forty to sixty communists a day crossing the border. And we can't stop it. You see, your country is within fear, and is still in fear of communists. When I landed from Jamaica in Peterborough, Ontario, in 1963, I went down into the city of Ottawa, the capital of the nation, and I only saw one priest in roughly all the movies I spent for a gospel campaign walking the streets. You go there today, and the city is just riddled with nuns and priests. You find that Quebec is certainly not the only place that is a hundred percent Rome, but it is spreading like a prairie fire across Canada as hard as it can go. And I thank God, night after night, on tending me, that God has put a bitter enmity between Rome and Russia. And if they ever find a peace pact out of God, you and I would only preach the gospel in fear of our lives, a crushing one. And it might be better for us if they did, for there would be more people standing up, proclaiming the name of Christ. This is not a mother's request, it's the command of our Lord, I want you to be my witnesses. Now, what exactly is His expectancy? If I go, I will come again. His final command is that you shall be my witnesses. Now we find His expectancy is found in James, chapter 5, verses 7 and 9. For there we find that the husbandman awaited for precious jubilee, and verse 9, the judge summoned him before the barn. Are my hands willing hands, working hands, waiting to do the master's will? If you remember in that gospel, chapter 12, the husbandman sent his servant, and then he sent his son. We find that his son shut the winepress alone, and there the husbandman is awaiting the precious fruit of the earth. And has long patience for it. Must I go an empty-handed, not one soul to meet my love? Tell me, child of God, how I draw fruit that should be mine. For the master is still awaiting the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it. He is there in mind that the judge standeth before the barn. I worked in Jamaica with Mr. Harold Wildish. And not only in Jamaica, but also in Britain, we have passed cross and were linked together often. And on one occasion, we were on the east coast of Britain, in a little tiny country assembly that was having a one-day conference. I can see him now. I came into the little gospel chapel, a boy that was mentally retarded, but his name was Fred. And Fred came in, a youth of about eighteen in Britain, but religious would call him the finished idiot. But he was by no means an idiot, he knew Jesus Christ as Savior. He used to do the menial tasks around the farm for the man that employed him. But I can see Fred now, with that dreadlocked scarf around his neck, his hair all shaped, he pulled the cloth back off, and during the afternoon conference, he was perhaps cutting a flow. And sitting on the platform while Brother Wildish was speaking, I noticed Brother Wildish said something like this. He said, Fred, the judge standeth at the door. And you know, Fred, he said, I'm a worthless man. And Wildish pointed out his hands and said, you see my hands? They're the honest hands, he said, of a worthless man. I go to Jamaica, he said, and I labor for my Lord in the gospel. And then, I can hardly stand with exhaustion and take a fourteen day rest, and by the time I land in Britain, he said, you people in Britain have booked me up for meeting God all over the country, and I'm only too glad to get on the ship again to go back to Jamaica for a rest. I think, said Wildish, I do an honest day's work. These are the hands of a worthless man. And then I noticed Fred begin to chuckle, and as if he caught a gleam coming from the dear boy's face, he presented himself to the Lord as if he knew something was working in that poor old mind of Fred. And after meeting God, we made our way to the bank, and standing in the doorway was Fred. Fred said, Brother Wildish, show me their hands. What? Show me their hands. God, Brother Wildish, put his hands out, and Fred took them and began to feel carefully. He turned them over and examined the fingernails, and then he gave quite a slap. He said, they're not the hands of a worthless man, Mr. Wildish. Look at mine. Callouses and cuts all over them. The fingernails very grimy from the tractor grease. God forbid that we should criticize these worthless. And we have certainly loved him, Fred, but he put great importance on those hands of his to put cuts and hurts and callouses and grimes. He said, call your hands the hands of a worthless man. They're not the hands of a worthless man. God had gone to judge them just before the door, and it may be in the coming days that our Lord should say to you, show me your hands. Not thy bone-empty hands. Not one soul to meet my Lord. Let us beware, young people, we might say that's not the hands of a worthless man. Look at mine. There's no point to the hands that bears the scourge of callouses. The only scourge in the glory is just Jesus. Friends, I'm not receiving the Lord's promptings, but I'm just going to quickly bring to you now his coming. If I go, he said, I will come again with his promise. You shall be my witnesses to his command. The judge standeth at the door, the husbandman awaiteth the precious fruit of the earth, his expectancy, and now we see his coming. It seems to me, in the first book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, that somehow the apostle Paul had a very disappointing letter sent to him. I've often wondered what that letter could have been like, and I try to surmise in my own mind it could have gone something like this. Dear brother Paul, you came into our town and you teach the gospel, and during your gospel campaign, you know, that's the trouble with you young people today, well you don't understand Scripture, I'll tell you right now. You try to put the things of Scripture as something on a pedestal that is nearly out of reasoning for today. If you young teenagers want to learn the things of God, do it the way we taught that you may do. Read that precious book, and read it not once or twice or three times, but five, six, ten times, that particular portion of Scripture. Mr. Waldish used to do it, I used to do it, and we got dozens of teenagers do it, and I'll tell you a secret. They hear those teenagers, and they say the word of God. They sit down on a dark night in their little hut, and they close their eyes, and they try to visualize that they were in the Scripture that they've read so much during the day. And you know, surprisingly, Daniel becomes very real if he tries to take it upon that way. The disciples become very intimate if you try to put yourself as an onlooker into those lovely Bible stories. And do not try to think the things that were so good-looking that day. The proper evangelization today is exactly the same as the evangelization of all day. That's why I bring this political letter to you. You were preaching the gospel, Paul, and as you were preaching the gospel, my husband and I were saying, we began to come to your college meetings. We began to come into your ministry meetings. We came into your prayer meetings. And during those meetings, what's done in September 9th, we often used to hear you say the Lord is coming again. He's coming for us now, and we shall be brought up to be with him. But Paul, something's happened in our home, and it's shaken my faith. You know, Paul, that my husband and I used to go out each night and say, well, perhaps before that moon goes down tonight, Jesus will come. Possibly before the dawn of another day, he'll be here. But we'll be with him, like Paul told us. And we lived in our inexpectancy because he told us so much about Jesus coming again. But, Paul, something's happened, and I see tears stream from the table now. My husband's dead, and he lifts the blessing. And I think it's something like that, that we get that lovely reply of Paul, who says, now concerning them which are asleep, sorrow not, as to those which have no hope. Now listen, if there's an unsaved friend in the meeting tonight, listen very carefully. Concerning those, he said, which have sorrow not, such as those which have no hope, there shall be a great shout, and the trumpet of God shall sound, and the dead, listen, my friend, the dead in Christ shall rise up. And we which are alive shall be caught up together with them, and we shall leap in in the air, and so shall we be forever with the Lord. The coming of the Lord is in a moment, the scripture tells us, in the crinkling of an eye. That is the downward movement of a blade. And in that moment, the very slow motion is there. The Christian, not the unsaved, but the born-again child of God upon the earth, walking, moving, our being, Brother Rogers, Brother Hawthorne, Brother Jones, Brother Patterson, others, living creatures upon the earth, and their parents and forefathers which have died in Christ, his feet lower down. In the moment of the crinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ shall be raised up, and we shall be caught up together with them to meet Christ in the air. So shall we be forever with the Lord, comfort one another with these words. Wonderful comfort for the believer, but my, oh my, wonderful desolation for those not trusting in Christ. If there's a man or a woman, a boy or a girl in this meeting tonight, I want to give you only authority if a word of God is not my word, it's God's. But for you to die out of Christ, then it's going to seem as tragic thing which calls me first to advance letters to the Thessalonians, those which are without hope. Why? Because they're not washed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. What's going to happen to those that have died in their sins? What is going to happen for any, perhaps, somebody in this meeting tonight? But on the earth, when Jesus come, and may not settle the great transgressions, I believe, there's no need for me to bring you a long oration concerning the cross where the Christ you know it must be part of you, won't you? You know that Jesus Christ went to your sins on Calvary's cross. You know that that precious blood that flowed from his head, his hands, his feet, his thighs, is the only atonement for sin. I am not be taming you tonight to go into that euphoric, impromptu day. What I am going to impress upon you is that if you're outside of Christ, you're living in dangerous days. For the coming of the Lord's rod is nigh, it almost seems as if he can turn his footstep on the threshold at the door. Some of us were startled yesterday and today when we hear that it's Poland putting up their hands and pushing back the great nation of Russia. Some of us are wondering what's going to happen with the Jewish tsunami. Others of us are wondering what's going to happen to the Gaza Strip with the fighting on it. It's telling me word by word and letter by letter and paper after paper of your flesh that Jesus Christ is coming in an hour when he thinks not. We can almost hear him coming according to the false sermons of Scripture. My unfaithful friend, as time after time you've drawn the cross to the cross. As time after time you've been brought to a point of decision. You heard Jesus Christ knocking at your door. And you chased him and you said no, some other time, I'm too busy, I will not take him now. And Satan has had into your hat, Satan has slipped into your neck and up to this moment of time you are still saying no. What's going to be your ultimate end? I'll tell you what it's going to be. You're going to be on heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan and burned him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him this is verse five. What's going to happen to the people that died in their sins? What's going to happen to you that for life upon the earth he sits in Christ when he steps into the earth? But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years who have finished this end the first resurrection. When I go down to verse ten and I read and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Now let's get one thing straight. There are people at large today and they have possibly visited your home they've possibly knocked at your door trying to solve this riddle and they tell you that there is no such a thing as eternal destruction it is only false news. There are people that tell you that the only thing that you're going to lose is that you're going to lose the glories of heaven. You will be in a state of sleep or unconsciousness as there is no such a thing as eternal punishment. My friend, that is a lie of the hellish God. Isn't it? And the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were passed and it goes on and the devil that he sees then was cast into the lake of fire and incense and then he tells me and I saw the dead small and great men before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of all things which were written in the book according to their words. Verse 14 and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death. If you consider that second death so please please remember that it said and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire that is the place we find in verse 10 where Satan was cast into the lake of fire like an unconsciousness I don't know. Hell today is a waiting room for the lake of fire and it is a first class waiting room for the terrors of life for eternity. But I hear somebody else say that you get magic that they were judged according to their words. Please remember for he was caught up a thousand years before when Jesus Christ stepped into the air this is the rest of the dead both had died in their sins and whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I don't want to send you home scared or frightened and that is the reason that I close this meeting now it was never God's intention that you should find that your ultimate end that's the reason he sent his son today on Friday's call you are going to meet him at the place called Calvary and then meet him gloriously triumphantly in the air or you are going to reject him at the place called Calvary and you will hear from his lips he passed I know you now whose fault is it that he knows you now tonight again he is yearning he is longing he is pleading for you to come to him and accept him as your own person of saviour he is yearning that you might make that decision for him now it's got to be made for him on that great resurrection morning or are you going to continue in your waywardness continue in your rejection continue by doing what Satan's been doing for years tightening your hands and stripping your neck and rejecting things the decision tonight my friend is yours I can do no more but if you want to toss it over as God's person or you want to be your person but if there is one in this meeting tonight outside of Christ I advise you sir I advise you madam I advise you boy girl whoever you may be that Jesus said my spirit shall not always strike this man and he might have slipped into my mind within just a few minutes message of the soul of what I intended to say to you are you going to accept or are you going to reject tonight your blood is not upon my head but you must make that decision tonight are you going through that door saying yes to him or are you going through that door saying no I will not pepper this matter eternity tonight brother Hoffman will you close the meeting in time please