In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the passing of the year 1961 and the uncertainty of the future. He emphasizes the importance of preaching the truth, even if it is not always well-received. The speaker mentions that world leaders are exchanging greetings, but warns that conflicts and hardships will continue to arise. He references biblical passages that speak of nations rising against each other, persecution of believers, and the spread of false prophets. The sermon concludes with a mention of the desire for peace among nations and the hope for redemption and eternal peace through Jesus Christ.

Two texts tonight, and one is in Job and one is in Psalms. I'm going to take the texts, though I certainly don't intend to stick to them, and preach sermons from them. Sunday mornings, normally I preach exposition, preaching from the Book of Hebrews, and we'll resume that next Sunday morning. But tonight I want not to preach an expository sermon, but a tropical one. And in the twenty-third of Job, verse six, is the first text. Will he plead against me with his great power? No, but he would put strength in me. Job, under the pressure of his enemies, says, it's a prayer, though it's addressed to the people, really, but it's a prayer of his heart up to God. Will God plead against me with his great power? Then he answers it himself, he knows better. No, he said, he won't. But rather, he would put strength in me. And then in the eighty-fifth Psalm, verse eight, I will hear what God the Lord will speak. For he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints. But he adds, let them not return again to folly. Now, in a matter of a little over three hours, the year 1961 will have gone to join the days of the years of our life which has made up our past, and we are gazing out upon a new year. And I have never been a cheerful Charlie, precisely. And I pray that God will never let me lie to a congregation to make them feel good. I don't believe in goofball preaching. You know what I mean by that? They have a thing you can buy out back in some drugstores called goofballs, and they make you feel wonderful for the first forty miles and then crash you up against a bridge. And I've never believed in that kind of preaching. Tell the people the truth. And if they don't like it, they didn't like the words of Jesus, either. But a lot of them do. I've always been able to find enough that do to keep me busy. And so I would have to say, frankly, that the future tomorrow, next year, blooms there uncertainly before us. We see it in a foggy kind of way, a great bulk there toward which we're moving and can't help ourselves and can't turn back. And is that which we see a fog through which we can pass easily, or is it an iceberg against which we shall crash? What is it? Well, God sees it, and I believe that if we can see it as God sees it, we can go home tonight and sleep the sleep of the just and not worry too much. Now, I have learned over the radio that the statesmen of the world are at it again today. They've laid their pistols down long enough to send greetings to each other. Mr. K sent a greeting to Mr. D. Mr. K being Khrushchev and Mr. D being Mr. Diefenbaker. And he suggested that he thought it would be nice if we had peace between our two countries in 1961. And then Mr. K, down below the border, sent a greeting to Mr. K behind the curtain, and he said, we hope we can have peace. And it all sounds alike. I've heard that ever since the First World War. Peaceful greetings among the brethren who hate each other like the devil and would like to sink each other. But it's New Year and Christmas is just over, so we've had these peaceful greetings. Now, I'd like to say a little bit about our Lord and world peace. I believe that world peace is the greatest felt need of the world. I don't say that it is the greatest need, though it probably is for the moment. But it certainly is the greatest felt need of the world. And the reason that we feel the need for peace among nations is the likelihood that another war will destroy civilization. Now, you will note that I have not said that another war would destroy the human race or exterminate mankind from the world. That I do not believe at all. God made man in his own image. He preserved him once in the flood, and he will preserve him through the tribulation days ahead. Jesus, our Lord, came as a man to dwell among men, and it's never been the plan of God to exterminate the race which he made in his own image. But I have said that it is likely that another world war will destroy this present civilization. That's quite another matter. What do I mean by civilization? I mean the total of our accumulated education, the total of our art as found in the great art galleries of the world and built into our great buildings throughout the world, the total of our music that we know as the classics, semi-classics, and folk music all down the years that has accumulated now and gotten onto records and has become known throughout the world. I mean the accumulated benefits of science in the realms of medicine and diet and other such. And such a human social structure as we have built in a country like this, in a country such as the West, as we call it. And I believe it entirely possible that another war will bring this down. But you say it can't be. Well, don't say it can't be, because you'll remember there was a civilization once called Babylonian civilization and it went down. There was a civilization called the Assyrian and it went down. A civilization known as the Grecian civilization went down and was followed by the Roman. And we learn of other civilizations that have been in South America and parts of Asia which have not been as mechanically advanced as ours, but have been highly advanced in all human things. The human virtues and all the rest, before communism got into China, under the teaching of Confucius, who was not a religious teacher at all, as some people imagine, but a social and moral teacher and an educator. Under the teaching of this man, a civilization came that was as great as that of Rome or Greece, perhaps in some ways humanistically speaking, greater. And these have gone down. It's entirely possible for our technology-built civilization to be destroyed by war, such a war as would come if any war comes. And for that reason, the nations of the world feel the great need of peace. And they're not wholly hypocritical when they send their cablegrams to each other in the capitals of the world. They mean it in a way. Now, what has Jesus Christ our Lord got to say about peace among nations? Men say that Christ should either bring peace to the world or else admit defeat. This is the month, and we'll be at it for three hours, this is the month and this the happy morn, whereon the Son of Heaven's eternal King, of wedded maiden virgin mother born, our great redemption from above did bring. For so the holy prophets once did sing, how he our deadly forfeit should release, and with his Father work us a perpetual peace, so wrote Milton on the ode on the morning of Christ's nativity. And the civilized world, the part that is known about Christianity, Christendom all down the years have listened to this and have said the angels sang peace on earth, goodwill toward men. And the world says now, how is it that this man Jesus, who was born with an olive leaf in his little hand and grew up a man of peace and died a man of peace, this man at whose birth the angels sang of peace? He hasn't made good on it. He'll either have to secure peace pretty quick or else admit defeat. Well, in saying this, people only acknowledge that they have totally misunderstood the message and mission of Christ. They have totally misunderstood the message of Christ. They do not know what his message is. They have misunderstood and read into the Bible and they judge Christ after their own ideas instead of letting Christ judge them after his. And they create a Christianity. It may surprise some of you to know this. Peace, world peace. And if I were just to write such a message that anybody would dare about peace, peace, peace, the baby Jesus brought peace to the world. Well, the simple fact is, if you're going to listen to this, he authoritatively predicts. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. Ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and they shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another, and many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for the wit of the end come. Now it couldn't be that Jesus was singing about. He taught peace in the heart. He taught peace, wonderful peace among nations. He is specific and of the objector. Let me inquire. They are willing to talk about the gospel of nations. Do you know who we have as the Secretary General to take them? We have not a follower, and therefore the nations that count the same vote, and they are not going to be rich kings. Some people say, well, Christ hasn't failed, his church has failed. And the churches have failed to bring peace to the world. And let me ask you now, how many listen to the church? So the churches aren't going to listen, and neither are the statesmen of the world. We're not seeking life, we're not repenting, we're not humbling ourselves. And so let us not blame God for feeling that they've been stunned by the fact that the church is not fulfilling her purpose. Well, I'm not going to let any communist make me ashamed of myself. I'm not going to let any Christian as I should have been made into the church and say, you're not Christian, and of Italy, after a fashion. But there are no Christian nations. There are Gentile nations, Eagle, Russia. We are the nations of the world in whom there are Christians. And we thank God for them. I heard on the news report recently that some American Quakers have stood out against all preparedness, all defense preparedness. And they've said, we believe in peace, we don't believe in any defense preparedness, we don't believe in any national defense at all. And I said to my wife, they can say that and get away with it and not have their heads cut off or shot through the heart with a bullet only because of the guns that have protected them and do now protect them. The pacifists who try to, who do confuse the church with the nations and don't realize there's a difference between the church and the nations of the world. The nations, there will be nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, there'll be war and two. And to try to read the church into that and say, if the Lord were who he claims to be, he'd bring peace to the nations, is to confuse the Gentile nations with the church of Christ. The church of Christ is a relatively small minority group living among the Gentile nations of the world. And they're born of another seed, belong to another world. And so if there's no peace in 1962, I'm not going to go down to the basement and lie flat on my face, beating my little paddies on the cement and telling the Lord that Christ has failed and the church has failed and I've failed. No, he never told us we'd have peace in the world. He told us there would be wars and rumors of wars and confusions and earthquakes and famines and pestilences and betrayals and martyrs. But he told us to be ready and keep watching for such an hour as we knew not the Son of Man would come.