In this sermon, the preacher shares a personal anecdote about walking up the steps to his kitchen door and reflects on how God can use even our foolishness for His purposes. He emphasizes the importance of entering into salvation and encourages listeners to make a decision to be saved. The preacher also mentions that while some people may take a long time to come to faith, the decision to become a Christian can happen in a moment. He concludes by challenging listeners to believe in Jesus and not seek another way to salvation.

This morning, it wasn't quite new, but I hadn't seen him in so long, he took me by surprise. And the thing that blessed me was, he said, how about coming and see us? He has a new wife, and this is really the wonderful part about serving the Lord is visitation. I'd rather do that, I think, than preach. So, if you're here and you don't like anything I say, I'm not going to promise you that I'll change it. I just want to talk about it. If you'd like any explanation of what we're trying to get across to you. If you'd just like a visit, why don't you say so, just let us know. Give us your name and address, and we'd be delighted to come and see you. We'll be around here for the next six weeks or so, and we'll be happy to come visit you. I'll turn to Hebrews chapter nine this morning, please. The ninth chapter, while we have something for the Hebrews. We're going to read this morning some of the most enlightening verses to be found in the entire Bible. We're going to take up a subject that will require our very diligent attention, and the Lord gives us the help that my heart is longing for. We're going to learn something this morning about the wonderful salvation of God, as to his profound depth, and at the same time, through that simple approach that God has opened up for us into his presence. We're reading Hebrews chapter nine, the ninth chapter of Hebrews, and the first verse. Then, Zerah the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service in an earthly sanctuary. So, there was a tabernacle made, and this is reference to the first part of the tabernacle, but it was a candlestick, and the table and the showbed, which is called the sanctuary. And, after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. Now, pay close attention to these evasions, please, and we'll be back to them later. Which had the golden fence and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about it. Wherein was the golden pot that had man on ear and rod that budded, and the table of the covenant. And, over it, the chariot bends of glory shattering the mercy seat, which we cannot now state particularly or in detail. Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But, into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. The holiest stood it thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, or had not been revealed. While, as the first tabernacle was still standing, which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, it could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and vivid washes and curtain ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come, and high priest of good things to come, by a great and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, none of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Now, the tenth chapter and the nineteenth verse. Chapter 10, verse 19. Having therefore brethren liberty or freedom to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God that hath drawn near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts shaken from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Last Sunday evening, in our consecutive messages on this chart, we took up the subject here of the clean footpath. Having learned in the message in the morning that all of us by nature are born dead in trespass and in sin, last Sunday evening we learned in the message on the clean footpath from the authority of the word of God that while all of us are born on the broad road to each of death and eventually to the make of fire, if we die without receiving Christ, that all unsaved people do not live on the same side of the broad road. The broad or righted section of the broad road being indicative of that segment of society that indulges in the grosser types of sin and vice and immorality, but the clean footpath side of the broad road being representative of that segment of society that professes to be saved who have never really trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. We learned this here in Satan's counterfeit narrow way. When Jesus died upon the cross and opened up a way of access into the presence of God for us, the devil, who is the God of this world, by whom we shall commence a series of free messages at 630 this evening, the first one being entitled, Who Made the Devil? That's tonight at 630, and then next Sunday morning and evening we'll take up the same subject. We learned that he is the master of deception. When Christ died and opened up a means of access into the presence of God and made that narrow way that leads to heaven, the devil invented a counterfeit, a substitute, which leaves people of the impression that because they know the language and have been raised in Christian homes and that it's evangelical, a fundamental environment, and they know all the right answers and can even tell other people how to be saved, many of them have never been saved themselves. I know personally a young man, as we mentioned, I believe it was last Sunday, who laid his own bride-to-be to the Lord, and he himself had not yet been saved. Now, he was brought up in a fine Christian home. So, the greatest dangers concerning people today in the evangelical attack on apostatism is not so much gross immorality as it is letting Satan lock one to sleep and giving you a sense of false security because you know all the answers, and you have a mental knowledge, you have an intellectual understanding of the doctrines of the Christian faith, but the devil has seduced you, or has deceived you rather, into believing that the thing could pass as suspicion. Let's remember what the text said in Proverbs 16.25, that is, the way the thing drives unto a man but to end it off are the ways of death. Now, this morning we're going to talk about the door, and we're going to use just a part of John 10.29, or nine letter, as a text. There we read those familiar words where Jesus said, I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved. We simply want to answer from the word of God, which is our sole authority for all the messages in this chart, some simple questions that might arise in our minds. What did the Lord Jesus mean when he said, I am the door? And, secondly, when he spoke about entering in and then about being saved? Now, in the word of God, the Lord often spoke in parables, and he used metaphors and symbols and so on, and I learned one good principle of reading the Bible and Bible interpretation, that if the passage you read makes a good sense, don't look for any other sense, because if you do, you'll come up with nonsense. Now, the Bible is to be taken literally except where it violates your God-given common sense. When Jesus took up a piece of bread at the Passover feast and said, this is my body which is broken for you, I knew that that wasn't his body. That was bread, that was a symbol of his broken body, and he broke it to tell us. Now, when Jesus says, I am the door, he is not a literal door, but he's trying to teach us something, and it's not hard for us to learn. You've got one in practically every room in your house, or else you've no way to get in. You've got one in the front of your house, in the back of your house, you've no way to get in and get out. It's a door, and what Jesus Christ is saying is simply this, I am the door that lets you in through the presence of God. I am the only means of access into the very presence of God. Salvation is by me and by no other. Now, let's keep this in mind. We are talking this morning about access and about entrance into the presence of God. Just as the door that you build and put in your house is that which you provide as a means of access, even so Jesus Christ is the door that lets you in through the presence of God. He is a means of entrance into God's presence. Now, I read these two passages with you here this morning in Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 because I've been so thrilled in my study of the Word of God, and in connection particularly with the fact that even those things which we consider to be so simple have a depth to them that none of us yet have ever been able to fathom. Now, we can swim in this ocean of this fathomless depth of inspiration, and yet I remembered not long ago I made a covenant with the Lord that I would try and eliminate from my vocabulary in preaching the word simplicity. You often hear people speak of the simple gospel, and of the simplicity of the gospel, and of God's simple plan of salvation. And, of course, I've changed and said that God has made the way of salvation not simple, but uncomplicated and uninvolved. What I like about the Bible is it uncomplicates things. Now, the self-voiced radio announcer that comes on, and the TV man, and wants you to borrow some money for him so he can get you on the hook, says, we uncomplicate things. Don't you believe it? Your life's complicated enough already. The only book in the world that uncomplicates things is the Word of God, and the Bible does tell us about this access into God's presence in an uncomplicated manner. Now, if I complicate this thing this morning, I want you to be sure that it was me and not the Lord, and I trust that I am perfectly under the control of the Spirit of God. But, what I want to show you this morning, with his help, is that which we consider to both be so simple and so uncomplicated as a door, and this is a picture of the salvation and means of entering into the presence of God. Yet, in the very most simple, if you will use it, of the simplest things of the Bible, there are depths that defy almost human understanding, and yet we can enjoy it. The Spirit of God is the one who enlightens and illumines. He teaches us the deep things of God. Now, we're talking about access and entrance, and I don't apologize for repetition because it's the secret of teaching and also of learning. The Bible doctrine of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ rests upon the types and pictures and the shadows of the Old Testament. When you read in the New Testament that we are redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish or without spot, that lamb without blemish or without spot is a reference to the Passover lamb. So, the New Testament doctrine of salvation through blood, the death of Christ, is simply based upon the type of Jewish approach to God in the Old Testament. Now, access is the same thing, and now we're going to go on a journey into the wilderness. Israel has just come up out of Egypt under the protected blood of the Passover lamb, and you'll find it recorded in the 25th chapter of the book of Exodus that God said to Moses, I want you to make me a place that I might tabernacle or make me a sanctuary that I might sojourn among the people of Israel. And then, God gave to Moses some elaborate details and blueprints for the constructing of what is referred to as the tabernacle in the wilderness. Now, the tabernacle in the wilderness was a magnificent structure of unparalleled beauty, and its component parts were minutely described in awe in the book of Exodus, if you'd like to read it sometime at your leisure. What we are occupied with this morning, in connection with the tabernacle in the wilderness, is not so much the 150 yard long house of court, 75 feet wide and seven and a half foot post, and a church, and a gate, but what we're interested in is the tabernacle proper that sat perhaps in the center of this enclosure, and perhaps along toward the rear. The tabernacle proper, according to the word of God, was 45 feet long, it was 15 feet wide, and it was 15 feet high from the floor to the ceiling. And, we get a picture of this. We tend to draw these walls in so they're 15 feet apart, and we level the ceiling off at 15 feet from the floor, and we draw the rear wall and put this wall here, right here, and make that 45 feet long. Now, this place had two main compartments, and that's the reason we read this section in chapter 9. If you notice, it says in verse 2, there was a tabernacle made the first, and this is a reference to the first compartment. It tells you the pieces of furniture that was in that section. And then, in verse 3, it says, after the second veil, or rather, behind the veil was the second compartment, and this is called the holiest of all. Now, you read your Bible very carefully, and you learn this, that wherever you read of the holy of holies, or the holiest, or the holy of all, it is synonymous with the literal presence of God. That is where God lived, and where he met with the nation of Israel. Now, that church, that ever-present veil, if you had come in from that end as a priest, you would have walked approximately 30 feet, and you would have come abruptly, face-to-face, with a beautiful veil made of cherry wood. And, it was tremendously long and neat and warm, and I loved to see it in its manufacture. It was so absolutely beautiful. But, there it was, about 15 feet from the rear wall, and it stretched from this wall to this wall, and from the floor right up to the ceiling. Now, the purpose of the veil was to hide God from the presence of man, because, you see, man had not yet any means of access into the presence of God, only representatively as a figure of a presence or access that we have into the presence of God today. Now, had you gone inside the veil, and gone to the back end of the tabernacle, in the middle way, right in the center, you would have found a box. This box would have been 45 by 27 by 27 inches, and this box was tethered with gold. It had a lid upon it made of one piece of beaten gold, and on that lid, on either end of this little 45-inch-long box, was an angelic being called a cherry of them. Now, these cherry of them were made of one beaten piece. The lid and the two angelic beings, without being attached to another, were made. Now, you're talking about fasting. They had them before you and I ever came along, and they made this thing out of one solid sheet of copper, and made two angelic beings, and their wings stretched forth like this, and touched one another over the lid of that box. Now, in the word of God, that lid on that box is called the mercy seat, the mercy seat. When you come to the New Testament, the word is translated by the word propitiation, which is a direct reference to the satisfactory sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And, in behind the curtain, over the mercy seat, God said to Moses, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. You build it like I tell you, and put it in there, and the priest can go in once a year with a very elaborate ritual with the blood of an animal killed on the outside. Put that blood on the top of the mercy seat, and God says this, I will meet with you there, and I will talk to you there from above the mercy seat between the cherry of them. So, in the wilderness journeys of the children of Israel, they had no access into the presence of God except through a human priest, and he could only go in once a year. That's recorded in Leviticus chapter 16. He went in and performed his priestly rites, came out and pronounced to the nation of Israel forgiveness for sin for approximately twelve months period, because this was repeated time after time, and you read that in the opening verses of the tenth chapter of the epistle to Hebrews. Now, remember that the goal that we're speaking about here, and all of its simplicity if I can't get away from using that word, is resting upon this judicious height. So, in that holiest of all is where God lives. That is synonymous with the literal, actual presence of God. This is where God met with the nation of Israel. Now, one thing about the book was that the veil hid. It was concealed, and only the high priest, as we said, could go in once a year. The message of the veil was this. So, many times in general, as a whole, the message of the veil had was to keep out. You have no right in here where God is. Now, even if the high priest went in, deviated one's hair's breadth from the instruction that God gave him as to how to approach the fibrous trees, he said he would have been killed on the spot. So, I think it would be well for us to remember that we are not to approach God in a haphazard and a careless manner, since it is a definitely prescribed method of salvation. There is a definite way to enter into God's presence. Now, whatever the tabernacle was done away with, in its place in the days of the Lord Jesus was the temple. Now, the temple was a more elaborate building and a more permanent structure, but it very obviously, when you read the Bible, still had the main part. It had the first part of the court, and then it had the present veil, and behind the veil was where God dwelt still over the mercy seat between the chariot beams. Now, notice in verse 19 we read a moment ago, now we're speaking about the old, and now watch this. Having, therefore, 10, 19, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest, notice we have liberty. It is strikingly interesting to notice that to go into the presence of God in the Old Testament was death, but to stay away now is death. Notice the contrast. This is what the grace of God has done. So, here it says, having liberty. The word boldness is better translated by the word freedom. Now, this is the very antithesis of what the Jews enjoyed, and remember that there is no understanding of the Hebrew epistle without a background knowledge of Exodus and Leviticus, because here it speaks of boldness, and this is in contrast to a lack of entrance into the presence of God in the Old Testament, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now, notice in verse 20 it says, by a new and a living way, and one translator puts it this way when it says, by which he hath consecrated for us. That means to make anew. He renders it by a new and newly sacrificed way. It speaks of the death of Jesus Christ as a means of access into the presence of God, in contrast to all of the Jewish sacrifices of the Old Testament. Now, I want you to notice something. In verse 20, watch it very carefully. After speaking of liberty to come into the very presence of God, there is that word holiness. Notice it's by the blood of Jesus, that's the death of Christ, the only thing that God accepts for sin, by a new and living way which he, the Lord Jesus, has consecrated for us through the veil. Now, watch this. That is to say, his flesh. And here, you learn by the marvelous doctrine of progressive revelation in the Bible that the veil in the tabernacle that kept people out from the presence of God was a type or a picture of the body of Jesus Christ. Now, I've distinctly declared this here. This is New Testament revelation, and notice what it says. It is a new and a living way which the Lord Jesus hath opened up for us in the presence of God through the veil. That is to say, his flesh, his literal body, his body. Do you not remember when he instituted the Lord's Suffering? He took the bread off of the table. He said, this is my body which is broken for you, and he was speaking of his coming death upon the cross. But now, we have this wonderful freedom and liberty to go into the presence of God. Now, I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 27 for a moment, and notice the historical record of the rending of the veil. Now, remember in the Old Testament, there was no means of access into the presence of God. The high priest could go in once a year, representing the nation of Israel, offering the sacrifice, the blood of an animal, but the people had no means of access into the presence of God. They were kept out. They were kept out. That ever-present veil stretching across there, hiding the presence of God from people, had one message. Keep out. Keep out. You have no right to hear it. Now, we read that Jesus has opened the way for us into the presence of God through the veil. That is to say, his body, his literal body. Now, notice in Matthew chapter 27, and let's look at the record of the death of Jesus Christ. Notice in verse 45, Now, from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. At about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lamma sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there when they heard that said, This man calleth for a life. And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let me, let us see whether life will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the goat, and, behold, the veil of the temple was wrenched in two from the top to the bottom. And, along those words, when Jesus cried out with a loud cry, and the goat had been finished, he dismissed his spirit, he died, and the moment he breathed his last breath, the veil of the temple was wrenched by hand in two from the top to the bottom. Incidentally, it signified that blessing must come from God down to man, because man is absolutely depraved, and that nothing is due to be saved except to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all God requires of you. God has provided salvation. Infinitely sovereign grace of God provides salvation. The only thing God requires of us is to receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, to believe that he died for us. Now, here we have this picture of this door being opened into the presence of God. Now, notice something very, very interesting, and I'll just bring you up to a detail or two. I'm not sure where I should have put this one, but, anyhow, I'm going to try it here. That in connection with the building of the tabernacle. In the Old Testament, there was a perpetual birth offering that they offered on the altar. One lamb in the morning at approximately nine o'clock, and the other lamb in the evening at three o'clock. And, you'll find this at the time that men went up to the temple to pray in the third chapter of the book of the Acts, when Peter and John healed the lame man at the peak of the beautiful temple. And, you'll read there it was when men went up to pray. Now, there are scholars that tell us that the death of Jesus Christ took place at the exact time that coincided perfectly with the offering of the evening sacrifice of the lamb. And, if this is true, I'm not an authority. I accept it because it's close enough for me that the very moment Jesus died and breathed his last on Calvary's cross to satisfy the judgment of God against us as sinners, the priest was offering a lamb in the outer court of the tabernacle. And, while in the process of offering a lamb, the lamb of God had taken away the sin of the world, breathed his last on the cross, and while this man was in the process of setting forth the death of Christ, the temple was split in half in two, and the veil rolled back like this. And now, look, what do you see? For the first time in the history of God's dealing with a human family, this is a box, that's 45 by 27 by 27, literally representing the actual presence of God, and there it is, look, naked and open under the eyes of repentant sinners, accessible to anybody that hopes to come, is the very presence of God. And now, praise God for such a message as this, without the mediation of human priesthood, without the benefit of parsons, pastors, priests, or popes, a poor repentant sinner can come into the very presence of God and be saved from all of his sins because Jesus has died, and the veil is lift, and the way into the presence of God is as wide open as the love of God and the blood of Jesus can make it, and there is no other gospel message that will save him, none other. There's no other way to be saved. Now, I'm not going to apologize, and I don't believe that's complicating the door at all. I believe that's exactly what Jesus meant when he said, I am the door. We're talking about access, my friends, we're talking about entrance. You know what I like about the Bible is, it speaks in such emphatic language. Now, when I hear some men trying to explain various doctrines of the Bible, when I get through listening to them, I wonder what he was getting at. One time I remarked this to one of my friends who was listening to a man, and I wondered what on earth he was getting at, and he said, well, you pity that poor fellow, he never realized what he was trying to get at either. What I like about the Bible is, it speaks with such absolute authority. Notice, no equivocation. Listen, Jesus said, I am the door. I am the door, and I am he that in him and in him he shall be saved. Now, you take the example in John 14 and verse 6. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Suppose some day you had the chance or the privilege of preaching on John 14, 6, and you open your Bible, and somebody slips on those revised prayer versions here and there, and places a good King James, and you start to read John 14, 6, and it doesn't say, I am the way, the truth, and the life, but much to your absolute horror and confusion, it says, I am one of the ways, some of the truth, and a part of the life. But, thanks God, the Bible doesn't speak like that. I am the way, the truth, and the life, and Jesus says, I am the door. Come by me, be saved, go the other way, and go to hell. Now, that's exactly as plain as the word of God speaks. Now, after you get saved, if you want to be baptized by strength, which is impossible, if you want to form your church governance structure this way or that way, if you want to believe in one way of doing things in the church, then go ahead, go your way. In my opinion, there's no other way into the presence of God except through the veil. Jesus died on the cross. He's the only means of access into the presence of God. I am the door. Do you see it? I am the door. Thank God for that. The crucified resurrected Christ, the death of Jesus Christ, forever satisfying the judgment of God against us as sinners. And, as a matter of fact, it's not my job to make you believe this, but to give you the simple statement of inspired Scripture, that in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14, we read that the Lord Jesus Christ, by one offering, has perfected forever them that are sanctified, and the value of the death of Jesus is so tremendous in the sight of God that it gives you a perfect standing with God when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior. Now, it doesn't make you perfect. It doesn't make you sinless, but it justifies you freely by the grace of God through the redemption that is in our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Now, that propitiation, I see again, is a satisfactory sacrifice of Christ that satisfies the righteous character of God against us and makes it possible for God to justify the ungodly and still remain just in self. That word propitiation, which speaks of that sacrifice that Christ made to open the doors and the presence of God, is translated by the word mercy seat in Hebrews 9 and 5 in reference to the mercy seat on the box lid where God met with people. And, you see, the mercy seat in the New Testament, where God met with Israel through human priesthood, has now been replaced by the mercy seat who is seated in heaven at God's right hand, and Jesus Christ is the place where God meets with sinners and nowhere else. He's the mercy seat. Now, let me be sure we get this just like in the Old Testament. That box, the Ark of the Covenant with the commandments in it, covered with a lid made of gold with two angelic beams, and God says, I will meet with you there, and I will come in with you there. The Ark of the Covenant and the lid on the box between the two of them is where God Almighty met with sinners in the Old Testament, but that has been replaced because Jesus has died and the veil is ripped and the way into the presence of God is wide open, and now the Lord Jesus Christ is the place where God meets with guilty sinners, crucified, resurrection, and coming again. And I wouldn't have thought it were today. Oh, my friend, listen, this is the gospel. What a wonderful message. This is the gospel. This is the news of God's salvation for sinners, and I want you to know that the welcome mat is out and the way into the presence of God is wide open. Why, you'd be surprised if I tell you, and I like to surprise people. You don't have to raise your hand and walk the aisle and sign the card and join the church and be baptized and shake the preacher's hand and nothing else. You just have to, by faith, you have to believe that Jesus died for you and come right into the presence of God so bodaciously, very reverently and fearfully, but with the absolute assurance that confidentially you'll be accepted when you bring the death of Jesus Christ as a means of access, having liberty to enter into the presence of Jesus by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us, by the blood of Jesus in the New Testament. While there may be varying means and shades of emphasis placed upon different facets of the blood and references in the New Testament, it always generally has reference to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. So, when we say, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus, we're talking about Christ dying for our sins. Not to be occupied with sentimentalism, but with the word of the living God. So, my friends, the way is open. Now, would you notice, that's what he meant when he said, I am the door. I don't know if I'll get the rest of this in, I don't know, but next he said, by me if any men enter in. Now, would you notice in this statement in John 10 and 9, you have, first of all, exclusion, and then you have inclusion. Think of the example when he said, by me, that exclusion is a possible means of access into the presence of God, you see? Now, very distinctly, the Bible declares in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. So, you see, this excluded other possible means into the presence of God. I have a dear brother and a friend in the Lord who said, one time, he never thought it was right to judge people, and he never really thought he should judge people. He was driving along one day, and he read a bulletin in the church yard that said, He said, I thought I'd better start judging something, or I'm going to get mixed up. So, you see, my dear friend, by me, look, by me, said Jesus, now, show me another way. Come on, sinner, come on. Take the five unsaved church members, show me another way to the presence of God. I dare you, by me. You believe that, don't you? Well, if you do, why don't you come? It looks awful hard for a man or woman to admit that they're wrong, doesn't it? The first step toward getting saved is admitting that you're wrong and lost, and you've got to realize that you're shut up for this way, my friend. There's no other place, no other way you can get into God's presence except through the Lord. But then, if by me, it's exclusion, then the other words in that part of the statement, Amen, would speak to us of inclusion. If by me excludes any other possible means in glory to God, you have this statement here that says it's Amen, and while by me it excludes any other means, Amen definitely teaches me that no one is excluded. Amen. Hear my voice. Amen. I like this wonderful passage in 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 3 through 5. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Listen. Who would have all men to be saved than to come to the knowledge of the truth? For there is one God and one mediator for between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself for ransom for all to be testified in due time. In 2 Peter, chapter 3, the Bible says, God is not slack concerning his promises, and some men count flatness, but he is longsuffering towards us, not willing that any should perish. And so, you have exclusion, no other means. But, thank God, nobody's excluded. God offers his salvation to all by even commemorating the feast, and the breaking of the bread, and the picture of John. The Lord Jesus said that the least that I would give for the life of this flesh, this body of mine, which I should give for the life of the world. The life of the world. My friend, listen. The Word of God teaches that when you refuse Jesus Christ as your Savior, that which forever shuts you out of the presence of God is your deliberate rejection of Jesus Christ. By the day to come, the judgment of God upon unrepentant sinners is predicated upon rejection. Jesus said, I am come that you might have life, but you will not come to me that you might have life. This is a condemnation that life has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. My friend, listen. God holds you morally responsible. The doctrine of election is very clearly and distinctly taught through the Word of God, and at the very same time, God also holds man accountable to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ, or else he wouldn't tell you to believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved. Do you all understand that? So, you see, God holds you responsible for that. The door is open, but you can sit right there in your seat, and you can live your life and die and go to hell if you do not exercise your own responsibility and free will, you'll never be saved. For notice, the latter part of that statement, by me if any men enter in, enter in. There's your responsibility to enter in. My friend, I want to tell you this. I've said it hundreds of times, and I don't think if I live this will be the last time. You'll never get into heaven accidentally. You'll never slip in accidentally. It requires purpose of heart. It requires purpose of heart, and Luke's account of this parable where Jesus said, Jesus gave the last place to each life, use it, be in it, find it. The dirtiest thing that says strive to enter at the straight gate. It doesn't mean you have to strive to get to heaven, though the work is connected with it, but it requires diligent purpose of heart. And I want you to know, my friend, if you're not going to live forever, and you're not going to get to heaven unless you make up your mind you'll want to be saved. Enter in, enter in. It takes a lot of people a long time to get saved. Many have been saved in their very late years. I remember a woman in West Virginia who had been saved when she was 84 years old. Eighty-four years old. I've seen others saved at various ages, and it teaches me this, that while it may take you a long time to get to the place where you want to be saved, it only requires a moment. It only requires a decision on your part to become a Christian. You know, a number of years ago I was taking my morning Constitution, or Constitutional, I think is the right word. I was getting ready to walk, and I'd gotten up a little late for my quiet time that morning. I had a bad conscience. I don't think I got up until five o'clock, and I was kind of short. My conscience was bogging me, and I didn't get to pray like I wanted to, so I said, I think I'll pray while I'm walking. So, we lived six-tenths of a mile off of 1551 South on Mount Moriah Road. And, I remember that morning I walked out and left, and Denise, who's a nurse, on the graveyard chair sitting there with a second cup of coffee. So, I walked up to the highway, and I'm praying all the way to the highway. And, I'll show you how soon you can fall from the sublime to the ridiculous. You'll never guess what I did on the way back. But, on the way back, I walked up to the door, up on the carport, and I opened the storm door, and there's one, two, three, four flights of brick steps, and the fourth one takes you right into the kitchen, right by the table. Well, as I opened the door, I said, Girls, guess what I learned this morning? And, Denise, I never forget what she said to me at two o'clock. She said, Shut the door and tell us, because it was cold. And, so I shut the door, stepped inside, and I said, Girls, you know what I learned this morning? What's that? One hundred and sixty-five steps from the highway to our kitchen door. What a confession you have to make for a preacher. Pray on your way up the steps on the way back. But, you know, it's wonderful how even God can use our stupidity, and such trivial matters as this to teach the spirit to listen. And, I'll ask not the area that I totally graduate from, or the graduate school that's here this morning, but I'll ask some of you ignorant people like me that didn't get out of the eighth grade along with me, if it took me one hundred and sixty-five steps to get from the highway to my kitchen door, how many did it take me to get in my house? And, you're going to educate people again? One? You're a lot stupider than I am. Thank you, brother. One step. One step. Now, suppose the weather had been thirty degrees below zero, and I had walked those steps from the highway to my house, and by one exercise of faith I could open the door with a temperature of approximately seventy degrees, and I could have stood there and I said, if you know it just tells on me I got the prettiest door in all of China Township. I am disheartened that other people in this country don't have as pretty a door as I've got. It's a pity. I've got the best door in all of town. And, I stand there with my hands in my pockets and I freeze as stiff as a board. If I don't go in, do you understand that? You must go in. Enter in. And, no matter which way you cut the pie, or slice the cake, or no matter which way you go at this thing of being safe, the monkey is on the back of the set. God has provided salvation, offers it to all, and listen, if you won't prove, the line forms right over here. That's the leading ocean. And, if you are convinced of all our surety from the word of God, but I'll give you the scripture reference now, in connection with the revelation of Jesus Christ, the inspired Bible distinctly declares that the Jesuits of God have visited on them that obey not the gospel. And, if you can't complain and believe that hell and the world can't judge you for refusing to obey, you cannot do it. Well, God is absolutely sovereign. He provided the salvation. He does the thing without the help from you. He holds you responsible to act. Enter in, my friend. Now, look, look. Look. How long have you been on this road? How long? I told you you didn't know. How many times have you said, I wonder what on earth it's like to be a Christian. This fellow preaches to me and gives me tractors. Sometimes I think he's crazy. Other times I think maybe he's got something I need myself. I've often wondered what it'd be like to be a Christian. Well, now, look. You'll never know until you sit here. Now, I'm here if any man enter in. See? Enter in. That's the door, my friend. Jesus Christ is the presence. I mean, that's such an independent approach. But, listen. You made me all about the door. Okay? You made all the doctors and Christians pay, but I ask you this. When did you enter the door? Now, look. I'll tell you one thing. I had a vision one time. Sure enough. When did you enter the door? I remember one time when I walked out and shook the preacher's hand. I had the best feeling ever had. Sure enough. When did you enter the door? I remember the time I got signed up and signed up and everything at that time. Good. But when did you enter the door? For every honest Christian, a preacher, if he's gotten a chance at all to know that he's got people in this church who've signed up and been baptized and they're yet to be regenerated. It's been about a year. I'm not so out of shape. I said, listen. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be free. Receive and accept and trust him. These are Bible words. And things doers do it now. And it may take you 30 years. It may take you 50 years to get the door, but only one step. You got it? Would you like to take that one today? Would you? I think we'll sing a song. I believe it's 361. Only a step to Jesus. Why not take it now? I trust that God will speak to you while we sing this song. We're going to pray now and ask God to open your heart and give you the courage to trust Jesus Christ. And if you'd like to come while we stand to sing, remember coming down to the front will not save you and neither will it help you to be saved. But if the Lord Jesus Christ is so wonderful, and he is, and if he's worth knowing, he's worth publicly confessing. If you'd like to, feel free to step right up. If not, remain behind and let us know. But anyway, get this thing. Remember, it's only a step. You dear young people raised in a Christian home, remember, it's because Mom and Daddy say they're going to get you to heaven. You've got to come to your step. We'll go right through the door. Shall we pray? Lord, God our Father, when we think of the eternal issues at stake and the power of the devil to blind the minds of the unbelieving and to resist the gospel and catch away the seed, O Lord Jesus Christ, in thy written power and authority we beseech thee, find a strong man now, and spoil his good. Give some poor weary soul to stay, with grace and courage to take that step and receive thy salvation. We pray in thy name, Lord Jesus, Amen. Number 361, shall we stand please?