In this sermon, the preacher addresses the fear and uncertainty that people are experiencing in the world today. He emphasizes that despite the fear, believers should take comfort in the fact that God is always with them. The preacher shares a story about a father comforting his scared child in the dark, highlighting the presence of Jesus in our lives. He also mentions listening to news reports predicting the future, but asserts that no one can truly predict what will happen. The sermon concludes with a call to reflect on past mistakes, trust in God for a better future, and not rely on oneself.

Two texts tonight. 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 topical one. And in the twenty-third of Job, verse 6, 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 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 85th Psalm, verse 8, I will hear what God the Lord will speak. For he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints, but 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 40 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, looms there uncertainly before us. We see it in a foggy kind of way, a great bulk there toward which we are 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. 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 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 like, 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. 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 the civilization came that was as great as that of Rome or Greece, and 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 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 what just is not there. It's being done all the time. And they judge Christ after their own ideas instead of letting Christ judge them after his. And they create a Christianity of their own and then they try to make Christ conform to their own homemade Christianity. It may surprise some of you to know that our Lord Jesus Christ never promised peace, world peace, peace among the nations during this age. I don't know whether it'll surprise you or not, but it'll surprise a lot of people. And if I were just to write such an article and put it in one of the Toronto papers, there would be letters to the editor tearing my hide off and telling me to go back home. That anybody would dare say a thing like that. Did not Jesus Christ bring peace? And they get positively starry-eyed as they talk 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 baby after he grew up and began his minister, after he was anointed with the Holy Ghost, if you're going to listen to him and believe what he says, you'll have to believe that he never promised that there would be world peace in this age. Rather, he authoritatively predicted that there would be wars to the end. Let's look here in Matthew, the 24th chapter. Notice. 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. And 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. And 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 to witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. Now it couldn't be any plainer than that. I think anybody ought to be able to understand from this that our Lord never taught peace among the nations. He taught what this sextet here was singing about. He taught peace in the heart. He taught peace, peace, wonderful peace coming to the heart of the man who believes, but he never taught there would be peace among nations. He specifically and clearly taught otherwise. Now, if anybody objects and is of the objector, let me inquire a few things. Now, it doesn't have to be a hypothetical objective for I doubt whether anybody here is objecting to this. If anybody says, Well, but now wait a minute, Jesus Christ, if he's who he claims to be, ought to bring peace to the nations. Well, let me ask you a few questions. Where is the nation that is willing to follow his teaching? Are they up in Ottawa? Are they down in Washington? Are they in Tokyo? Are they in Moscow? No. They're willing to talk about him in a nice, friendly way, and they're willing to quote him for their purpose, but they're not willing to listen to him. They're not willing to live according to the scriptures. Therefore, there isn't anybody that's trying out his teaching so that our Lord, if he could and would bring peace to the nations, he'd have to bring peace on his terms, and they will not meet his terms. I want to ask again what place he's given now in the Council of Nations. Do you know who we have as the Secretary General to take the place of Doug Hammershult? We have a Buddhist who believes in Buddhism strongly. We have not a follower of Christ there in New York. We have a Buddhist as Secretary General. And therefore, the nations, the councils of the world, they're not going to listen to Christ. There are little nations, no bigger than a postage stamp, that have the same vote as a country the size of Canada or the United States, and they're not Christian nations. Some of them only are one jump removed from the jungle. And they're not going to listen to the man who came to bring peace to the hearts of men. They're not going to listen, and they're not going to obey him. I want to ask you, which ruler, which foreign minister, which President, which King, where can we find anybody that's willing to take Jesus at his word and follow him and believe? There just aren't. How can Christ bless levity? How can Christ bless hatred? How can he bless lust, suspicion, and bring peace? He cannot. 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? If the Church had a message, if this Church had a message for Toronto, how to bring peace to Toronto, would anybody listen to it? Not very many, certainly. Not very many listen to all the Churches put together. And if you were to add together all the people that are in the Churches this night, and there'll be more in the Churches because of what night it is in some Churches, there are fewer in this one because of our late hour, but if we were to add them all together, there would be a small drop in the bucket compared with the vast population. So the Churches aren't going to listen, and neither are the statesmen of the world. We're not seeking light, we're not repenting, we're not humbling ourselves, and so let us not blame our Lord Jesus Christ, who never said he would bring peace, and let us not blame the Church for not bringing peace to the world. I'm reading a book now. It happens to come out of InterVarsity, incidentally, and they're my friends and I'm theirs. But it's written by a couple of missionaries, and they're terribly hurt, these two boys, because of what Communism has done to the Church. And as I read the book, I've got a feeling that they've been stunned and shocked 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 ought to be ashamed of myself before the Lord. I haven't been as good a Christian as I should have been, but because I haven't been able to bring peace to the United States, I'm not going to be ashamed that I'm an American Christian. Because I can't bring peace to Canada, I'm not going to apologize to the Governor General. Because the Lord never sent me to bring peace to any nation, he sent me to preach the gospel of Christ and take out of the world a people for the name of Christ. And when a people has been taken out for the name of Christ, baptized into the body of Christ, and made into the Church, and that Church is fulfilled and she's reached her full size, then there will be a sound of rustling of the wings above, and our Lord shall come for his people. I believe in that. And I'm not going to allow old Khrushchev or Stalin or any of the rest of them to shock me and make me frightened. I'm not going to allow them to say, You're not Christian. Of course they're not Christian. There isn't a Christian nation in the world, ladies and gentlemen. There are nations where their preponderance of religion is Christian, and it's true of England, it's true of this country, it's true of the States, it's true probably of Germany and of Italy, after a fashion. But there are no Christian nations. There are Gentile nations. They're the nations of the world. Have you noticed that the nations do not have for their symbols? Have you noticed they don't have a lamb or a dove anywhere? I would brought up with the eagle. Everywhere you look, you'd see an eagle there with his mouth wide open and his claws. The eagle. Russia has a bear, England has a lion. We, the nations of the world, have not chosen the lamb and the dove. They've chosen the eagle, the bear, and the lion and the dragon. Because they're Gentile nations, not Christian nations. They're Gentile nations 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 mountain confusion and fighting and assassination until the Lord returns. 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 patties 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 at such an hour as we knew not, the Son of Man would come. Amen. And how does God see the nations and the world and the Church for the days ahead? Well, the message of Christ to men is first to the nations. I've read already, nations shall rise against nations. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the day of the coming of the Son of Man. I read in the book of Jeremiah, the 6th chapter, "...they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people, slightly saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace." There's no more beautiful word than peace, and yet I've heard it in context. And what does God say to Israel for this new year, a year they don't recognize? They start their year in September. He says that Israel shall be blinded in part until the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. He says they shall be a people wandering throughout the earth, persecuted and despised, till Christ shall come. Then there will be repentance and light and peace. What does God say to the true Church? He says to his true people there will be rejection and a cross to carry, and labor and waiting and watching and sacrifice and hard work. Then rapture in the Father's house and glory. This he says. But his call is to the individual. Always it's what Kierkegaard called that lone individual, that beautiful expression, that lone individual. Jesus Christ is walking as he walked in olden days, and he's saying to that lone individual, Come unto me. He says it to everybody. He's saying to the arrogant and the proud, Let him be converted and become as a child. Oh, there's been a lot of talk about what that means. What does it mean to be converted and become as a little child? A lot of men have wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out. I don't know whether I know or not, but I think we can all look at a baby and pretty much figure it out. Innocent, heartless, candid, completely honest, blunt to the point of embarrassment, trusting in their father and mother with complete trust. Jesus said, This is what pleases me. Not the sophistication of the Pharisee, not the smooth, suave etiquette of the man about town or the woman about the tavern, but the simple, direct candor of the child in the heart of man. The whole world has stood in admiration of Francis of Assisi, and about the only thing there was about Francis of Assisi was that he insisted upon living like a child while he was a grown-up man. That is, he insisted upon having a heart that was as candid and simple and loving and innocent, hiding nothing and being what he was. Jesus said, Let him be converted and become as a little child. We learn that just as soon as they teach us manners, they teach us to be hypocrites. You have to teach people manners. You couldn't raise a herd of buffaloes, you know. It doesn't take a child very long to cease from being that simple, humble little chap to being ashamed of being kissed or being ashamed of being patted on the head when they get a little older. Sophistication has taken over now, and they're trying to be something they're not. The little tiny girl puts on her mother's high-heeled spikes, and her long dress proudly goes about the house. She's trying to grow up. Simplicity soon goes. Pretty soon the gal she is when she gets out of bed at 6.30 and the gal she is at 8.15 when she leaves for work are two different women altogether. I heard of a man who married a very homely soprano. She was a wonderful singer. One night he turned the light on and saw her there, and punched her and said, Sing, honey, please, sing. You've heard that old one, but I'm just putting it in here not to tell you what to be and all. Civilization is built on hypocrisy and double-dealing. Advertising is built on it. Practically everything is built on it. When a man comes along and acts like a Christian, he's an amazement to the world. Jesus said, Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly. So that's what he says to the arrogant and the proud. What does he say to the weary in heart? He says, Come unto me, and I will give you rest. What does he say to the habit-bound? I want to read that, because that's just too good to try to quote, and maybe not quote correctly. Listen. And there was delivered unto Jesus the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. This is Jesus now. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised. So that's what he says to the habit-bound. There is in the habit that you can't break if you let the Lord Jesus Christ, if you give yourself to him. And what does he say to the lost soul? Well, look at that fifteenth chapter of Luke. There was a lost sheep, and a lost coin, and a lost boy. God showed me that one time when I was a very young man, that this lost boy, and this lost sheep, and this lost coin is all one. That it's the Father who receives the lost boy, it's the Son of God who looks for the lost sheep, and it's the Holy Ghost, the woman with the light, that looks for the lost coin. So we have the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all looking for his lost ones. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all looking for the lost. So to the lost he's saying, you're my lost sheep, come in. To the boy he's saying, you're my lost son. And to the lost coin he's saying, we're looking for you with the light. And if we find you and you find us, you will be saved. And what does he say to the sinful? He says, all manner of sin shall be forgiven unto men. I believe that. All manner of sin shall be forgiven unto men. I get letters. I get letters from all over the world, and they ask me questions. And a lot of people are worried about their unpardonable sin. And some are worried about demon possession. A young man called me from the city of Toronto, and then he called me long distance from Montreal and talked a long time. And then Christmas morning, 2.30, he called me again. Very fine, intelligent young man. Gracious, called me sir. All you good Canadians do that. That's a lovely thing that you don't hear much in the States. They call you Mac and Bud down there. But you folks have culture enough that you call a man sir, and I like to hear it. I'm even practicing now. But he called me sir, and he talked like a gentleman, but he's convinced that he's committed the unpardonable sin, or at any rate he's demon possessed. The terrible thing to me is that he was a happy Christian until he got in with a certain group and began to seek what he called the baptism, and then this trouble started. Now he doesn't know, but thinks that I'm mistaken. I said to him, listen son, you're having a nervous breakdown. Your trouble is nerves. He said, I know that's what you think, but I think these are demons. This is a demon. But there isn't anything anybody's done. The Roman soldier that raised a great five-pound sledge and drove a square nail through his holy palm, he can be forgiven. And the Pharisee that looked at him out of angry eyes and snarled his curses, he can be forgiven. And the harlot that looked out of her house and watched him as he went by can be forgiven. All manner of sin shall be forgiven unto the sons of men. That's my hope, that's my hope. And the lonely. These are lonely times. It must be lonely to be an old person. I'll never live to be old. If I hear anybody laugh, I'm going to come down there. But I'll never live to be old. Lonely. How many there are that are lonely? Go to the parks in the summertime, you'll see them sitting there lonely. Their generation is gone. I saw him once before as he passed by the door, and again paving stones resound as he totters o'er the ground with his cane. They say that in his prime, ere the pruning knife of time cut him down, not a better man was found by their crier on his round through the town. But now he walks the streets, and he looks at all he meets sad and wan, and he shakes his feeble head, and it seems as if he said they are gone. The mossy marble rests on the lips that he has kissed in their bloom, and the names he loved to hear have been carved for many a year on the tomb. It must be an awful experience of cosmic disaster to be left lonely in your old age without God. But, lo, he says, I will be with thee down to old age, and when hoary hair shall thy temples adorn, thou still shalt be like lamb in my bosom be born. He sang to old people. My father was about sixty years old when I talked to him and others talked to him and the Baptist preacher preached to him. My old father, that had lived for sin sixty years, gave his heart to Jesus Christ and was converted. Shortly after that he developed cancer. He used to sing, When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more, and the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair, and when the saved of earth have gathered over on the other shore, their role is called up yonder, I'll be there. And my hard old father, who never wept, shaked the tears out of his eyes and said, That's all that matters, that's all that matters. When he was sixty-three, he died. He never lived to be the lonely old man that he might have been. And if he had lived a long time, toasers live long, only they always get killed, I don't know. Were they accident-prone? I don't know whether they just wandered around or were they just plain dumb. But when I come to think of it, almost all of my relatives either lived a long time or else died of an accident. My grandfather died of an accident. He was an Englishman, by the way, English immigrant. They were on a log jam and tumbled off into it under the logs and drowned. My Uncle Clem fell off a wagon, hurt his leg and died, finally as a result of some sort of thing that happened to it. Uncle Ashley was walking with a friend in a rainy night and was hit by a streetcar, killed. Uncle Bucky, Bill, who was riding with his young son Ira, a train hit him and killed him and his son. They all get killed, you know. Otherwise than that, they lived a long time. But loneliness. Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if any man will open the door and hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him. And how can you be lonely when Jesus Christ is in your home and in your heart and in your life? How can you be? You can wake up in the night and the angels of God are singing, and the voice of the Lord is sounding in your ear. And then the fearful. Our Lord said there would be fearful. I listened for one hour today, from one to two or from two to three, whichever it was. I listened for one hour to the Canadian newsmen. And boy, there are some sharp ones now, tell me. From all over the world they'd gathered somewhere, I guess, here in Toronto. And they were giving a sum of all that had happened in the world. And then predicting what predictions might as well, let alone I could have done as well as they did. Nobody can predict the future. But as for summing up what there had been, they were sharp boys, all right. But you know, they were scared. And I've heard them from every place, from all corners of the world, of all nationalities, and they're all scared. People are afraid these days. A young fellow gets out of high school and says, what's the use of going to college? I'll get called into the service anyhow and time will be taken out of my life and probably taken out and shot. Let me make some money and have some fun while I can. The world's scared. Men's hearts are failing them for fear of things that are coming upon the earth. But our Lord says, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And if the Lord is with us, I can't see why we should be afraid. A preacher told us about going to sleep in the same room with his little boy, or little girl, I think it was, and the little girl, and she was scared there in the dark. And every once in a while she'd cry out and she'd say, Daddy, and he'd say, Yes, honey. Are you there? Yes, he said, I'm here. Go to sleep, and then there would be silence for three minutes. And then, Daddy, are you there? Yes, he said, I'm here. Finally she said, Daddy, are you awake? Yes. Is your face turned toward me? And he said, Yes. He said he never heard a peep out of her after that, because his face was turned toward her. You may be sure that he is and he that keepeth Israel never slumbers or sleeps, and his face is turned toward us. Keep that in mind. And will be all through these coming days. However the nations of the world must be dealt with, God's people in the world will have the benefit of his perpetual presence and his face. Did you know that the word presence, the word face, is the same thing in the Bible? The presence of God and the face of God, it's your kind of God. God never stands with his back to you. If God is there, God's face is toward you. So let's ask God these days, let us have sorrow for wasted days and wasted lives, but let's not be discouraged. He will forgive us, for he forgives all sins. Let us trust him for faith for a better tomorrow. But remember one thing now, over the next three hours or two hours and a half, don't trust yourself. I sat in a meeting one time with a group in an Alliance Church in the city of Akron, Ohio, at a watch-night meeting many years ago. There was present there a missionary of the time, a young man who got up, gripped his seat, and with an intensity that shook his body, told about what he planned to do for the New Year and how he was going to be a better, holier man. He was terribly shaken. I think with a violin in mind, Brother Sir Wilka turned to me and said, He's pulling his string too tight. He's pulling his string too tight. I think he had in mind the turning of the peg of the violin string until she snaps. He said he'd better watch. Well, I don't know whether it was that same year or not, this man was a great believer in divine healing and was quite ready to be sharp about anybody that wasn't. He had a lump on his neck here. The doctor didn't know what it was. He said, Oh, forget it, you'll be all right. But he came back. He went back. He wasn't all right. Others came. Finally, specialists began to come. Then they took him to the hospital where he didn't want to go. He believed that he was going to be all right. Suddenly he said, I see Jesus is with the Lord. Don't pull your string too tight. Because if you pull it too tight and make too many vows and too many resolutions, you'll be trusting in yourself. Don't do it. Let us trust in the Lord. Let us sum it up now in singing number 212. I think it is. Is it number 212? How firm a foundation ye Saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in these