As for man, As for God, As for me

Before we read a couple of verses, we'll just speak to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we thank Thee this afternoon that we can open Thy Word. We thank Thee for Thy Word to us just now and for reminding us of these beautiful truths from our brethren.

We thank Thee that it is food for the believer and yet now as we think of this next half hour and the importance of it, some in our gathering perhaps are not ready. They cannot appreciate what we have over these past two days and perhaps they're outside of Christ without a Savior. They have no part or lot in this matter and if they were honest they might feel the separation and perhaps of being on the outside.

Oh God, speak a word this afternoon to some seeking soul. May they understand the simplicity of Thy great salvation and that they too will be sent away rejoicing in the fact that my sins are gone. Christ is my Savior and we rejoice and will rejoice as days to come over the goodness of God in reaching a heart even at this meeting.

So Lord, draw near to us and draw near to us in a very, very special way. Touch a heart, we ask, giving thanks now for our Lord Jesus Christ and the price paid we give thanks in the Savior's name. Amen.

Psalm 103, reading it, verse 15. As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. Back just a few pages to Psalm 18.

Psalm 18, reading it, verse 30. As for God, His way is perfect. Psalm 17, reading it, verse 15.

As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness. There is something precious about these few verses that we can link together and for the fact of reminding us again of the awareness and of the simplicity of this great salvation that there are hopefully some here this afternoon that are still without Christ. There is wonderful to ponder again the fact that as for man, his days will pass.

We read that in Psalm 103. As for man, his days are going to pass. We read in Psalm number 18, as for God, His way is perfect.

So there is a reason why God's way is perfect and I hope to stress that for a few minutes before the meeting is over and then as for me, His presence gives peace. Now I don't know, I can remember just like it was yesterday of feeling sorry for people that are 60 years of age. I don't know where time goes.

It for some reason has disappeared. I used to hear the older generation say this, that time has no mercy. We heard that today and rightly so and my uncle said when he reached 70, he said I am surprised we got here so quickly.

So time flies. I can remember when my brother was just learning how to ride a pony and I was hoping he'd stay here today so I could embarrass him but he left and now he just turned 60. I don't know where all this, what did we do? I asked Gloria the other day, what did we do when we were in our 40s? That whole decade, where did that go? So if I could just plead with my young audience today that there is a importance to taking advantage while you're young in life.

A dear boy or girl in the meeting this afternoon, I don't know what what's in your mind. I cannot tell, nobody can. I don't know what your aspirations are.

I cannot tell the goals that you have, but perhaps if I could sit down with you and see how you are thinking, we might be able to have some sort of an idea, but dear children this afternoon, don't put salvation in the back burner. Don't put being saved away off in the distance, because as that beautiful group of kids, children, were sitting in that bleacher section this noon, there was just something about them. Some of you were there, weren't you? There was just something about them.

If you could, I wanted to say, if we could only turn you upside down and pour salvation in like we would pour a bottle of milk in a goat, because it is so very, very important. Life goes on. Life passes.

His days will pass. I want to speak for just a couple of minutes of how is it that my life will pass? There are four ways in which my life will pass. Number one, it will pass quickly.

I don't have to tell you that. You are aware of that, according to pass very, very quickly. Mr. Lively and I were visiting a home in Wisconsin, and it happened to be in Wisconsin, and this dear widow was telling us how that the old preachers, the preachers today just aren't what they used to be, and the good ones are dead and are in a nursing home or dying, and Mr. Lively feels his stomach and he says to me, I don't feel very good myself.

You know, these men that we listen to and we took so for granted, and perhaps maybe the men that we've listened to this afternoon and these older men that have ministered to us even yesterday and today, we take them for granted. Yet one of these days you are going to hear that so-and-so has been taken, so-and-so has had a heart attack, and these little pithy sayings that you and I remember, we'll no longer hear those, man. I am thinking that life is going to pass so very, very quickly, and someday you're going to hear that Al Christofferson has his picture in Truth and Tidings.

You know how you get your picture in Truth and Tidings? There's only one way. Bill's got a smile on his face. He knows.

Someday there will be six men that will carry a box to Yonder Cemetery, and they'll say, yeah, Al was a little different. He was a little hyper, but someday it's going to happen, and like those dear boys and girls that sat in the bleachers this afternoon, I asked them, how old do you have to be to die? And I got a variety of answers. One boy finally spoke up, and he says, from zero on up.

That was pretty good. From zero on up. You were there.

It's going to pass very, very quickly. Life is going to be here. Life is here, like the little vapor that appears upon the kettle, and then it vanishes away.

It's here today, and it's gone tomorrow. And I remember those grandparents, and I sat with them. I remember sitting with my uncles and aunts, and I remember one day, just like this comes to my mind right now, I'm playing with my little John Deere tractors.

What other kind would you have? But I'm playing with my little John Deere tractors in the sandbox, and there goes George Fries, and there goes Roy Webbers, and they're going in for dinner, and I'm just a little ashamed. And I looked at my neighbor, and I thought, my, those people, I felt sorry for them. Now I'm where they are, or I am where they were.

Life that goes by so quickly. It's like into the grass that it flourishes, and then it's cut down. It's like into the weaver's beam, the shuttle that goes by so fast and so quickly.

That which you had in a former day, the physical strength and the physical stamina, it soon disappears, and for some reason, when you get to a certain age, the shuttle doesn't work as good anymore, and the wind is taken out of you just a little quicker, and it isn't long, and then it isn't long, you're shuffling. And then there isn't long, there's a wheelchair, and then perhaps a little longer, a nursing home. I took a look at older Christians tonight, and today I get a lump on my throat because it doesn't seem right.

It doesn't seem right, but I take a look and I could name them, and I won't, but I see older Christians, and we love them, and I take a look at them, and they're the pillars of the church, and how we esteem them, and we hate to see them get older, but there's no way to stop it, and it isn't long that these older Christians that we look up to and esteem and respect and listen to are going to be taken one by one, and one by one, Mr. Lavery will have that funeral, and Robert Orr will have that funeral. One by one, they're going to be going. They're children.

Would you not consider why you're young in life? Will you not pay attention to why you're young? When the evil, lest the evil days come, then you'll be able to say, I don't want to have anything to do with this. Not only are they going to pass very quickly, but they're going to pass, I know of people and so do you, and life passes so sadly, so very, very sad, there doesn't seem to be anything about life that they appreciate. There's no goals.

There's no purpose of heart. There's absolutely no nothing. Everything is wrong.

They could find fault with a million dollars if you give it to them, because you didn't give it to them last week. And there's all kinds of people that live in a sad, sad way. You know, can't, nothing is ever right.

They find fault with everything. The air conditioning is, the air conditioning is too cool. The heat is too hot, and this is too, this is too bad, and this is wrong, and so on.

You know that statement that says, the whole world's not a joint but me and thee, and lately I've been thinking about thee. I stepped into McDonald's not too long ago, and I guess it was early this spring. We had two beautiful days in that cold, wet week, and 90-degree days, and I was in Hank in the area working, and I stepped into McDonald's to get a coffee, and there was this one big belly acher who was standing there beside me, and oh, man, it's just so hot.

I can't understand why it's got to be so hot. I finally couldn't take it. I said to him, after we spent, I said, sir, do you live around here? He says, yeah.

Did you forget that we'd just been through two weeks of cold, drizzly, wet weather? Well, yeah, I know, but this is so hot. Can't find good thing in anything. People can live so sadly.

People can pass their life, and they can pass their life so empty. There's no purpose of life, absolutely nothing in their hands, nothing in their life as far as emptiness, and all taken up, and for those that do have a purpose in heart, the ones that are living, and they have emptiness, they're all taken up with themselves, and how I can get more, and more, and more, and it's just emptiness. There's only one way to live your life happy, and you know what that is, don't you, boys? There's only one way I can live my life happily, and that is if I get to know the Savior, that the Christians know.

If I get to know the Savior, thank you, son. If I get to know the Savior that the Christians know, I can live my life in a happy way. I might not have much as far as this world's a concern.

Take the world, but many a Christian has had to say, take the world, but give me Jesus. All its joys are but a name. How true it is, friend.

Many, and many a man, and many a woman has found that out, had to hide the broken cisterns. I believe I could have almost said, we tried the broken cisterns, but all the waters failed. Even as we stooped to drink, they mocked us as we wailed, and that empty world, friend, will not satisfy a three-cornered heart.

Now, do you get that, boys? There's nothing in this world. If we could only attract you to the Savior today, dear young one. If we could only attract you to Christ, the one who is the altogether lovely one.

The one who is the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. This is the one that can give you purpose of heart. This is the one that can give you reasons, reasons to live.

I thought I was going to quit early, and I am. As far as man is concerned, his days will pass. As far as God is concerned, we read in Psalm 18, his way is perfect.

I love Psalm 18, and that little verse, as for God, his way is perfect. I don't have to go any further than that particular statement, because I can see God's pathway. I can see God's manners, or rather God's method, and as for God, his way is perfect.

Regardless of whether I'm talking about the believer, or whether I'm talking about God's purposes, and the way that the world is going, the way that the economy is going, the whole pattern as far as a nation is concerned. Yes, the United States of America is slowly, and perhaps maybe not so slowly, maybe it's hurriedly sliding down a slippery slope. And this country that was built on the fear of God, and men who knew what it was to stand for principles that were in the scriptures are no longer, and we're selling ourselves out to that which is the heathen.

But as for God, his way is perfect. Now how can it be perfect? Well, only one particular way, only one reason why his way is perfect, and that is God's plan and God's method is on an unconditional love. I don't understand how God can love a world like this.

I haven't been able to understand it for several years. How can God love a people that are built on greed, that are bent on getting ahead at all costs, and whether it costs them or whether it has to be illegally or legally, they're going to get ahead at all costs, whether I have to stab my neighbor in the back to get it, and whether I have to do this and that illegally to get it. Man is built on greed, gambling, the prisoner world, the immoral world, the absolute religious confusion out of bounds, and I stand up and I read that God so loved the world? I don't understand it.

The only way I can understand it, dear boys and dear girls, is this, that God separates the person from their sin and stands alone, that person stands alone and he can get past that sin life that they are living, and he looks at the individual and he says, I love that boy, I love that girl, and God so loved them in an unconditional love, barring none as far as their life is concerned. Unconditionally, he comes out of heaven and he sends his son all the way to Dark Gaul, for a boy that has sinned against God, and for a girl that doesn't deserve to be saved. I like to look at it in this way.

God's way is perfect because, number one, he gave. That's the first G. God, maybe that's the second one. God gave a gift through grace.

Because God gave, friend, God has given something, and God has given something that all men and all women can have, and it's a disgrace that this world is so bent on their own things, and on their own life and so on, that they haven't room, they haven't room to listen to the simple way of God's salvation. Some of you that are younger, and you know so very well, you've got grandparents out on the way to heaven, and perhaps maybe in the assembly that you're in, you've got parents that pray for you every day and every night, and perhaps the assembly is thinking about you in your youth. Oh, dear children, if you could only give this your priority.

Forget the sports world. The NFL won't take you to heaven, and neither will it make you happy. The hockey world won't give you one bit of peace, and neither will it make you happy, friend.

And the baseball world, the New York Yankees, friend, will not add one single bit to your happiness. Because God has given. The mighty God has given a gift.

Now, I don't know how he could do that to the greedy, to the prisoner, to the immoral world. How could he do that? Because it's built on unconditional love. How do I get this gift? I was hoping you'd ask me that.

How do I get the gift? You say, I have one simple old-fashioned, and my wife is over here, and she says, oh, no, not this illustration again. But I've got a $20 bill in my billfold. If I offer that to you, is it yours? I could offer that to you.

And you notice I didn't. I could offer that to you. Now, is it yours? That's right.

That gift, is it yours? If I only offer it to you? Is it? Because, friend, you need to reach out the empty hand and take it. My mother is going down the highway, 53 years of age, not saved. The whole family is.

It's about the time Tommy is getting married. Robert Oren sure remembers this well. My mother is driving down the highway, and as she's going down the gravel road, she cries out to God.

She had the gift offered. For years, she had the gift offered. She's going down the road, and she throws up her hands, and she says, Oh, God, you've got to help me.

And before she got the Leonard de Boer stop sign, she reached out the empty hand of faith, and she said, Why, God has done everything He's ever going to do. And she took it. She took it.

How did she take it? I think I see somebody over there say, How did she take it? Well, she understood something. How do you take something? You reach out the empty hand, and you take it. You accept it.

You rest upon it. You take it. There's nothing else for Him.

There's nothing more. Did you catch that? There's nothing else. But thank God, there's nothing more.

Wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through my believing. My Bible doesn't say that, and neither does yours. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ my Lord, plus nothing.

We were in a home in Ankeny, or rather in Des Moines, that's not too long ago. Been in that home about three times, and likely will be going back. He says to me, What do you believe? First time I was there.

He says, What do you believe? I said, What do I believe about what? I hate to be on the defensive side like that, so I put myself on the offensive. I said, What do I believe about what? Well, what do you believe about eternal security? I told him what I believed about eternal security, and we exchanged a few thoughts, and he says, Yes, isn't it wonderful, Al, that the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin, plus nothing, he added. Now, I took another cup of coffee, plus nothing.

He said, Friend, the work is done, and God's gift is perfect because it's built on an unconditional love, because it's God who gives the giving, and God doesn't want anything that you can give. He doesn't want your silly heart. He doesn't want what you can give in your pockets, friend.

He wants to give you something. I give unto them eternal life, says our blessed Lord. Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice.

I know them. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Dear boy this afternoon, will you let God do the giving? Will you let Jesus do the giving? And you do the receiving.

He gave a gift through grace. Dear children, it's never going to be any different. That's the way it is.

And before I sit down, I might never see some of these little ones again, but before I sit down, dear children, if you never take a gift, if you never come to an understanding it's a gift and nothing more, you put it down in your little notebook. I will never be in God's heaven. Never.

I've missed it. Multitudes are there because of a gift that was built on grace and given. But if you're not willing to take a gift from God, then friend, you're going to miss it.

But today, the Lord Jesus says, come unto Me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. We're not going to get to our last verse.

Ask for Me. His presence gives, His face gives peace. Isn't that beautiful, dear Christian? Thank you, son.

As we leave the conference, and as we go away, we can look into the face again of the man who bears the marks. We can look into the hands of one who bears the marks of Calvary. We look into the face so torn and so beaten and so bruised at Calvary.

And yet, when I look at his face, I think of what peace it has brought to every single sinner. Friend, take it today. The Lord Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.

May God help you to trust Him for His name's sake. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank Thee now for the food before us this evening, the dinner that has been made, the hands that have been working so hard and laboring so intently throughout the past two days. We thank Thee for Thy dear people here, and we pray, Lord, that as we go away, that we might sense the hand of God with us, that we might go away and say it was good for us to be there.

Part us now with Thy blessing. Take our thanks again for Thy kindness and grace. And again, once more, before we part, we bless the Redeemer's name.

We thank Thee for the price paid. We thank Thee that we belong to Him. We thank Thee for those that can have the way that have still not entered in through the door.

The door is still open, and today the Lord Jesus has come. Part us now with Thy blessing, and take our thanks in the Savior's name. Amen.