Where art Thou

We know, dear friends, there are many in this audience tonight to whom sudden death would be sudden glory. We know there's many young people here tonight that are saved, many old people, older people too, that know the Lord Jesus as their Savior. But this is a gospel meeting, and we would like to speak to those who are on the way to hell.

It's a very solemn thought, isn't it? A very solemn thought, and it's a subject to know today that's left out, a subject that men do not preach, a subject that men try to dodge, that is to say, the judgment of God. But tonight we want to solemnly warn you tonight, each one in this room, whether you're young or old, whether you're mother and father Christians or not, everyone must decide for or against Christ. Everyone in this room must make a decision.

And when 8.30 comes, if we're left here, and the Lord Jesus doesn't come in the meantime, you will have made your decision for or against Christ. You cannot be neutral. You cannot stand on neutral ground.

There is no neutral ground, my friends. Either tonight you're saved and heaven-bound or you're lost and hell-bound, and there's no middle ground. There's absolutely positively no neutral stand.

Saved or lost, heaven-bound or hell-bound. I want to bring before you tonight, in the Word of God, a few questions which we hope that God will use to awaken any in this room tonight who are lost. I'd like to turn to the third of Genesis, and a verse or two there.

Genesis chapter 3, in the Word of God, first verse. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conceptions.

In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desires shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. Thou shalt eat the herb of the field, and the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread. Till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for thus thou art, and unto thus shalt thou return.

And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. In the fourth chapter, in the ninth verse, the part of the tenth verse, the first part of the tenth verse, and he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

Well, this is a very solemn chapter we've read in the third of Genesis that tells us of the fall of man, that man has had a fall. And every one of us in this room have been affected by this fall, for God says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, there is no difference. And in this first question in the Bible, we find God asking man, he says, Where art thou? I'd like to ask you tonight, my friends, each one in this audience, where art thou tonight as concerns God? You know, it's a solemn thing that we have here the serpent.

We have here the serpent. His name is mentioned in the book of Revelation as the serpent. His name is Satan.

His name is the devil, and he's the enemy of God and man. And here we find him in the Garden of Eden, and here we find him attacking the very word of God. We live in the very same kind of a day today as it was at the very beginning of this blessed book we hold in our hands, when men are saying, What's the devil? Just imagine, men.

Men are saying the very same thing the devil said. Yea, hath God said. Yea, hath God said.

Recently we visited a man who was a gospel preacher, and he said one night he was asked to speak to a group of men who were all clergymen. And he said, When I finish presenting my message concerning the Lord Jesus, these men came to the front and said, Sir, do you mean to tell me in this modern age that you believe the Bible is the word of God? He said, I believe the Bible from Genesis chapter 1 to Revelation chapter 2, I believe, is the inspired word of the living God. And he said, These preachers laughed at me.

These preachers mocked at me because I believe the word of God. I say, my friends, those men are the servants of the devil, and they're using the same language that their master used before them when he said, Yea, hath God said. Has God spoken? Is it a fact, my friends, there is a God? Is it a fact that God has spoken? Is it a fact that God is calling to you tonight? Where art thou? Where, my friend, are you tonight hiding? Where are you hiding? Adam was hiding behind the trees of the garden.

He was hiding away from God. And before he hid behind the trees of the garden, he sowed fig leaves around him, and there he was in that garden, hiding behind the very trees of the garden, dressed in fig leaves aprons which he himself had made with his own hands. You know, friends, it's a very solemn thing.

I was speaking to a man the other day, and we handed him a gospel tract, and he said, I may as well tell you now that I'm not much for religion. And I said, Sir, we're in the same boat exactly. We're in the same boat.

I have no use for religion either. But today I said in this gospel tract, we don't present religion, we present Christ. We present Christ.

And this man, just like Adam, you know, we're all like Adam. We're all like Adam. This man, just like Adam, he said, Sir, I've lived a good, respectable life.

I'm religious myself. I belong to a certain denomination. And he said, I have lived what I would call a model life, and I believe I'm good enough.

We said, Sir, did you ever tell a lie in your life? And he said, Yes, I've told lies in my life. I have to confess that. And we said, Man, if you've told one lie in your life, you're going to hell.

You're going to hell, because the Bible says that not even a lie will ever enter into that city. Then he said, like Adam, you know, he put the fig leaves around himself, and he said, But, but, he said, Sir, I've got lots of good works. And we quoted him that verse in Ephesians 2, By grace are ye saved through faith in that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God. Not by works lest any man should boast. But, oh, my friends, the props were knocked down unto that poor man, and he found he was a sinner.

God knows whether he accepted Christ or not, but he found out that day from the Word of God that he was a sinner. Oh, you found out you're a sinner. Let me tell you another little instance of a man I visited recently who has a Christian mother.

She's breaking bread. He himself is an alcoholic. I sat in a chair opposite him.

And what do you think he told me? He said, Sir, when I was a little boy, I went up to the hall where the little sonnies would go up the road, and he said, I was saved. And he said, Because I was saved then, I'm saved now. And we said, Yes, that's true.

Those who are saved once are saved for eternity. But we have no right to call a man who's living like you're living a Christian. God says, we told this man, that every drunkard shall have his part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.

My friends, this man was hiding behind John chapter 10. And there's many children of God's people hide behind that glorious verse, which I believe with all my heart and soul by the grace of God, that once we're saved, we're saved for eternity. If we are saved, we're saved for God's eternity on the authority of the Word of God.

But my friends, tonight, where are you hiding? Are you hiding behind the fact that you one time nodded your head and said, Yes, I believe that Jesus died for me. But never got any higher than your, never any lower than your head. There it is in your head.

History. History, my friends, tells me that a man named Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, was buried, and the third day rose again. The Bible tells us that.

But world history too, my friends, and that will never save your soul unless you have personal contact with the Son of God yourself, unless you ask Christ into your heart, unless you receive the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior, unless you have been born again from above, unless your life has been changed by the grace of God, unless you have confessed the Lord Jesus, unless you've received Him, taken Him as your Savior. Oh, we live in solemn days. We live in days, my friends, when we need to preach the old-fashioned gospel, the old gospel of the grace of God, without any fear of man's criticism, without any fear of them saying you're preaching about judgment too much.

Friends, there is a hell. The cross of Christ, my friends, the cross of Christ tells us the awfulness of what it must be like as we see the Lord Jesus on that cross, dying for our sins, the just for the unjust. We will consider this later.

But tonight I want to ask you now, where art thou? For the devil has challenged God. The devil has challenged this book, and he says here to Eve, "'Yea, hath God said!' Yea, hath God said!" And this woman, she changed the word of God. God had told her in chapter 2 that they were not to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden.

The day they ate thereof they would surely die. The woman adds these words, "'Neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.'" Now, my friends, that's the kind of a day we live today, when the word of God is challenged, when men say, "'Hath God really spoken? Is it a fact the Bible is true? Is there really a hell?' Oh, I want to say to the young gospel preachers here, you young men who preach the gospel, do not change the word of God to be popular in this world. There is a hell.

God says there's a hell. The same God that says there's a heaven says there's a hell. And the second thing that we notice here in the fourth verse, the serpent said unto the woman, "'Ye shall not surely die.'" When you play with the word of God, when you change the word of God, when you add to the of God, when you subtract from the word of God, then you're doomed, my friends, you're doomed, because Satan immediately moves in.

And he said, "'Ye shall not surely die.'" Doesn't the devil say that today? Doesn't the devil say that today? Surely there's no hell. There can't be a hell, he says. The very devil himself says there cannot be a hell.

There must not be a hell. Surely a God of love wouldn't put his preachers in a place like that. The devil, my friends, oh, how clever he is.

How he's blinded the minds of those who believe not. Those who are lost. Is there somebody in this room tonight that's lost? I want to ask you solemnly, oh, my friends, I'm sure you don't know what you're doing.

I'm sure you don't realize this position you're in. Last night you climbed into your bed, and you went to sleep, and you slept through the night, just supposing you had passed away, just supposing your heart had stopped beating, just supposing the day you were a corpse, just supposing the day you were in your casket, where would you be? Would it be a solemn thing to be lost? Would it be a solemn thing to open your eyes in a lost eternity, and to find yourself lost forever without any hope, absolutely no hope forever and forever, for billions upon billions of years, to be lost? Doesn't it stagger the imagination? My friends, to be lost, to be away from God for eternity in your sin, in your sin. Whether you've sinned once, or whether you've sinned twice, or three times, you're a sinner.

And the Word of God says you're a sinner. Again, I repeat the verse, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is no difference.

Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. The wages of sin is death. And God says that after death is the judgment.

What a solemn thing. Where art thou? Well, Adam and Eve, we know, disobeyed God. And when they disobeyed God, they received a conscience that told them they had sinned.

And you have a conscience, too, and it tells you you've sinned. God tells you you've sinned. Your conscience tells you you've sinned.

You know, my friends, you're not right with God. You know you're not right with God. Tonight you're lost.

Just imagine, lost. And God says in the second chapter of Ephesians, those solemn words, without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world. Can you think of anything more solemn than to be without hope? Take away a man's hope and what he has left.

What has a man got left? We take away his hope. God says the man out of Christ, the man in his sins, the man that's lost, he's without hope, and without God, and without Christ in this world. What a solemn thing.

And so this first question we have, where art thou, reminds us of the fact that man is lost, L-O-S-T, lost. And it tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, I'll just read the verse to you. And God tells us, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them, verse 3, that are lost.

2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 3, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Oh, young boys tonight, young girls with Christian mothers and fathers, are you lost tonight? Lost. In whom the God of this world, that's the devil himself, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them.

Oh, how awful to be lost. You know, there's young people who've got godly fathers and mothers who are praying for their children, and they bring them to the meetings every Lord's Day night to hear the gospel. And these boys and girls are lost.

These young men, these young ladies are lost. Maybe there's a young man tonight in this room who's coming to this hall tonight, and you're lost, and you're on the way to hell. You have a praying mother and a praying father who loves your soul, and you're lost.

Oh, how solemn, my friends. And then in the fourth chapter, I read that verse where God says to Cain, what hast thou done? What hast thou done? Well, if man is lost, he's also guilty. And our first question, where art thou, reminds us of the fact that man is lost.

And our second question, what hast thou done, reminds us of the fact, the truth that man is guilty. God says in the third chapter of Romans that the whole world may become guilty, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. Man is lost, and man is guilty.

My friends, we haven't long to stay in this world. We haven't got very long to stay in this world. I saw a poor fellow in the office.

I was down in the Windsor station the other day. This poor chap has had lots of trouble physically. We've tried to point him to Christ, and he said to me, won't you please pray for me? Once again, I must go back to the hospital.

Once again, I must face surgery. Oh, my friends, the poor man is lost. And the remedy has been given to him.

He knows that by receiving Christ, he's told us by receiving Christ, he can be saved. Yet he puts off the question, why? Why does he do it? Because, my friends, the God of this world, the devil, has blinded his eyes. Has he blinded your eyes, young boy, young girl, young man, young lady? Has the devil blinded your eyes? You can't see.

You're blind, and you're going on to hell. Oh, we pray tonight you may hear the very words of God coming down from above into your very soul, where art thou, and what hast thou done. Oh, my friends, as we say again, as often before, that the first step to heaven is to find out you're a sinner.

You'll never get to heaven, my friends, until you find out you're lost, until you find out you're a sinner, that you need a Savior, until you come and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll never be saved. My friends, religion will not save your soul, and baptism will not save your soul, and coming to these meetings will not save your soul, and turning to religion will not save your soul.

Only Christ can save your precious soul. A friend of ours recently went to one of the travel agencies, and there were several people lined up asking how to get to this place, how to get to this place, and they were telling them and showing them on the map the routes to take. And when this Christian stepped up to the desk, he said, Sir, can you tell me the way to heaven? And the man said, Sure I can.

Keep the Ten Commandments. Oh, he said, Sir, you're giving me the wrong information. That's not the right information this time.

You may know the road to Montreal, you may know the road to Toronto, but you're on the wrong track for heaven. Yet how many people there are who really believe, honestly, sincerely believe that by keeping the Ten Commandments they'll get to heaven, and they can't even quote one of them. They can't even quote one of them.

And so, my friends, tonight we would solemnly warn you that man is a sinner, that man had a fall in the Garden of Eden, and that man is a sinner, that man is a lost sinner, and that man is a guilty sinner. What has God done in order that man might be brought out of this condition of being lost and guilty and on the way to eternal judgment? What has God done? For if anything has to be done, it must be done by God Himself, for man couldn't save himself, man couldn't get himself out of this tangle, this mess he's in. God must act, and praise God He has that.

Let us look at John 3.16, John 3.16, the very words of our blessed Lord Jesus Himself. This well-known verse that our dear boys and girls in Sunday school know and love so well, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Friends, God has accepted.

God saw man's lost state, and God sent down from heaven His only begotten Son, the Creator of this world, the One from eternity, the Son of God, came down into this world as a man born into a manger. The Son of God Himself left heaven and came down into this sin-cursed earth, became a man to walk around with men and to tell men that God loved them in this verse, and to die on the cross of Calvary for their sins. Yes, my friends, God did something about this.

God saw man lost and guilty. God told man he was lost and guilty, and God sent His Son into this world, for God must punish sin. God has to punish sin, and God will punish sin.

Either, my friends, God must punish the Lord Jesus and bring judgment upon Him for the believer, or God must judge man for his own sins. I'd like to take you now to the cross in the twenty-seventh chapter of Matthew to read another question. Here we find the Son of God.

Think of this now, friends. We've become so used to reading the Bible that we're sad to say maybe our hearts get hardened and cold against the truth of God. But here in this twenty-seventh chapter of Matthew, we find the only man in this world who never sinned on the cross of Calvary.

I said, the only one who was holy and sinless and spotless nailed at the cross of Calvary. And we find out from 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, that there on that cross the Son of God was made sin. Just imagine, the Son of God was made sin.

And in Peter's epistle, we find, who is his own self-bearer, our sins in his own body in the tree. Oh, my friends, have you seen the Lord Jesus on that cross? Have you seen him take your sins? Have you seen God place your sins on that blessed person? By the grace of God, the speaker has, my sins, my sins, which would have sat me in eternal darkness, were laid upon the person of our Lord Jesus Christ on that cross. And so on that cross he says, we notice verse 45, "'Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, Lamb of the Father, that is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' What a mystery this is! What a solemn, solemn mystery that God himself forsook the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. The very one that was here at the River Jordan in this world, who came out of the Jordan, the heavens were open, and God said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That very Savior was on that cross, forsaken by God.

My friends, I know there are many Christians in this room tonight who had the joy as I have of kneeling down beside our bedside and in the very ears of our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, quoting these very words to the Savior himself, and saying, Lord Jesus, thou hast forsaken for me. Forsaken on that cross, as thou didst bear my sins. My judgment was poured upon thy head.

Thou didst bear my judgment on that cross. Thou hast forsaken for me." Have you ever done that? What a joy, what a thrill to the heart to kneel down in the presence of God and to quote that blessed, solemn question asked by the Lord Jesus. Is there somebody in this room tonight, is there some lady or some man who has never, never realized before the solemn, solemn fact that God forsook on the cross his beloved Son, the sin bearer? Oh, he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastening of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. My friend, have you discovered that yet? Oh, your sin is forgiven.

My friend, tonight we don't want to preach a sermon. We want to solemnly warn you in God's name that you must leave this world. You must go into eternity.

You must meet God. You have to stand in the presence of God. You have to stand in God's presence.

You must have God's eyes pierced into your very eyes. He must look right into your very face. You must stand in God's presence.

Oh, in view of eternity, in view of the fact, my friends, of eternal judgment, I say, won't you come to Christ tonight? Won't you see yourself as lost? Won't you believe what God says, that you're a sinner? I ask those young people who've got godly fathers and mothers, praying fathers and mothers, won't you face this question? We've had in our Bible readings the solemn, solemn fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to snatch away out of this world every born-again, blood-washed child of God, and this poor world is going to go on to solemn, solemn judgment. That the very judgments of God will be poured on Detroit, Michigan. God's wrath will be poured out of heaven upon the very city of Detroit, upon the very city of New York, and Montreal, and Ottawa, and Toronto.

God's solemn judgment will be poured upon this world. But, my friends, before that judgment falls, there won't be a child of God in this world. Every blood-bought child of God, born-again, who have received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, will be taken up to heaven.

What a solemn, solemn day. My friend, will you hear this afternoon? Will you hear this morning? If you were unsaved here today, how would you sit here and not be stirred and moved as you heard our beloved brethren tell of a solemn, solemn judgment that's going to fall on this Christ-rejecting world? My friends, tonight you will live in a world that hates Christ, a world that's rejected the Son of God, a world that cast Christ out and crucified Him, a world that crowned the very head of the Son of God with a crown of thorns and spit in His very face. That's the kind of a world you and I are passing through tonight.

Where are you going to spend eternity? For instance, 50 years from tonight, where will you be? You'll be in eternity, no doubt. There won't be very many left in this room 75 years from tonight. There probably won't be very many in this audience who will be left in this world.

They will all have gone into eternity. I believe the Lord will come long before that. But my unsaved friends, you will have gone into eternity.

What a solemn thing to wake up lost, to find yourself lost outside of all the grace and the goodness of God, and then to come unto the solemn judgment of God. And Jesus said, there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Dare any man say there's no hell when Jesus said there is? Dare any man to say there's no judgment when God says there is? Oh, my friends, tonight there's a Savior.

The Lord Jesus has got the hose in His hands and feet and the spear mark on His thigh. And that man, that glorified man at God's right hand, is able to save to the uttermost all that will come unto God by Him. One night, a little girl in a big rainstorm went up to a house, and she knocked on the door.

And the man opened the door. He was a preacher, but sad to say he was a modernistic preacher, unsaved on the way to judgment himself. And she said, Sir, won't you come and get my mother in? He said, little girl, you know that I'm a preacher, I'm not a policeman.

You'd better get the policeman to get your mother in, as she's been drinking. She said, Sir, my mother's not drinking. My mother's dying.

She wants to get into heaven. Won't you please come and tell her how to get into heaven? Well, the man looked at the little girl, and he felt sorry. He went upstairs and put on his clothes.

He was getting ready for bed. He went down the street and up these stairs into this poor locality, into this old attic, and saw this poor woman on her deathbed. He realized he could do nothing for her.

He realized he had nothing for her. He looked at her and said, Sir, won't you tell me how to get to heaven? Can't you tell me how I can get into heaven? He said to himself, Well, I think I'll just try my mother's faith. My mother used to tell me verses.

So he said to her, There's a verse in the Bible that says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. She said, Mister, is that verse in the Bible? He said, Yes, it is. It's in the Bible, John 3, 16.

Are there any more verses in the Bible? He said, Yes. There's another wonderful verse in the Bible that says, The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. The woman said, Sir, are you sure that's in the Bible? He said, Yes, it is.

I know it is. My mother told me that verse years ago. She said, Mister, won't you pray with me? The man got down on his knees, and when he got off his knees, he said, I got her in, and I got myself in, too.

Oh, my friends, how wonderful the glorious gospel of Christ. God is able to save your precious soul tonight. One look at Christ, one look at the Son of God will bring life, everlasting life, eternal life.

Why, God is too rich to sell salvation, and man is too poor to buy salvation. So God gives life. God's a giving God.

The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Salvation's work is done. Jesus has died on the cross.

Redemption's work is finished. The precious blood has been shed upon that cross, and the very Savior of Calvary now adorns the very throne of God. Oh, manhood is invaded at the presence of God.

In the glory lands that the man on the very throne of God, and that man is the Savior of sinners. Or you may say, maybe there's somebody in this room tonight who says, Well, if you knew how bad I was, you wouldn't talk like that. My friends, Christ can save the vilest sinner.

Come with all your sins. Come just as you are. Come with your youth.

Maybe there's a drunkard tonight in this room. Maybe there's a man tonight who's a slave of drink. Maybe tonight you've come into this room and you've staggered into this room on an influence of liquor.

Maybe you're a slave of cigarettes or some other sin. I tell you, God can save your soul tonight. God can break the chains and bring you into blessing.

Oh, my friends, if you'll only just receive God's gift, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Just receive Christ into your heart. Just bow your head right in that chair now and say, I'm a sinner.

I'm guilty. I'm lost. I'm going to hell.

But, oh, have mercy on me. I believe the Lord Jesus died for my sins on the cross of Calvary. Immediately you will receive from that pierce of hand of the Son of God a pardon.

Your sins will be gone forever, and God himself won't be able to find them. They'll be gone under the shelter of the blood of Christ. You'll have eternal life.

You'll be an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. You'll come into all the blessings that a gracious God can give. If you will receive tonight the Lord Jesus as your Savior.

Oh, he was forsaken on that cross for me, a poor, vile, hell-deserving, wretched sinner. He was forsaken as he bore my sins and bore my judgment. And now there's no condemnation, my friends.

God has judged my substitute. Jesus took my place. I speak personally as a means of illustration only.

He took my place. He bore my judgment, and now there's no judgment, my friends. What a wonderful thing.

Oh, how blessed it is to be able to go to a man and say to him, My dear man, there's a judgment day coming, but there's no judgment for me. Oh, how wonderful to know there's no judgment. Christ bore the judgment at the cross.

The work is done, d-o-n-e, done. Calvary's work is done. There's nothing more to do, my friends.

Jesus said it is finished, and he bowed his head and died on that cross. Let's look at another verse, another question. In the 8th chapter of Romans, this wonderful question, Romans 8, we read the 32nd and 33rd verses.

He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies us. Oh, what a question. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Oh, how precious to be one of God's elect, to be saved by the grace of God.

And I like to think of this question. We've enjoyed this so often, my friends. I like to think of the devil coming forth, and God standing beside the poor sinner, saved by his matchless grace, with his arm around the sinner, saying, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? And the devil must turn and go away, and all the demons must go away, and man must go away.

Who shall lay anything? Who can lay anything? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies, the very God himself against whom we sin. He is the very God who justifies, and he is the very one that asks the question, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Oh, my friend, what a full salvation. What a wonderful salvation.

What a wonderful Savior who finished the work on the cross of Calvary. Now there's another question that God asks in Hebrews chapter 2, and part of the third verse. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Oh, this is a great salvation.

This is a salvation, my friends, that tells us in the first chapter of Romans, verse 16, the Apostle Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone that believes. I understand the word power can be translated dynamite. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the dynamite of God unto salvation, the very dynamite of God to blast man out of his sins, out of his death, out of his going down to the pit of hell and destruction.

The very power of God, my friends. Oh, how blessed this is. What a gospel.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? I'm sure tonight there's some in this room who are neglecting this salvation. I'm sure there's young people here who've never confessed Christ. They've never taken the stand for the Lord Jesus, and they're just drifting on, drifting on, just hoping and praying that maybe at the last moment they'll be able to flee to Christ for salvation.

God says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Oh, it's a great salvation because it's God's salvation. Everything that God has must be great, so this salvation is God's salvation, a great salvation. Secondly, it was worked out and finished by a great Savior.

The Lord Jesus himself, his name shall be great. Luke chapter 1. He's a great Savior. It's a great salvation.

A great price was paid, my friends, on the cross when the Lord Jesus bore our sins. He paid the great price, and now it's a great salvation. How are you going to escape if you neglect, you put off, you wait and wait? Young man, young lady who are waiting and waiting and waiting, putting off this question of your salvation, neglecting it.

God asks this question which God himself, and I speak reverently, cannot answer himself. How shall we escape if we neglect, not reject, but neglect so great salvation? My friends, how will you escape? How will you escape this great salvation? Oh, the solemn, solemn questions that God asks in his word. God asks that question, where art thou, my friend? Where art thou hiding tonight? Where are you hiding, sinner friend? Where are you trying to hide away from God? Oh, I say, come out tonight.

Come out and stand in the very presence of God. He says, Adam said to God, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. I like tonight to bring in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We strike out Adam's four eyes. Notice in that verse, four times he says, I, in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, wipes out those four eyes completely. I heard thy voice in the garden.

And we bring in the Christ in the finished work on the cross, and we say, thy voice is most sweet. And I was afraid. We bring in the cross of Christ and we say, perfect love casts out fear.

And I was afraid because I was naked. And we bring in the cross of Christ and we find man dressed in the best robe in God's own righteousness, standing before God in Christ and all the beauties and acceptability of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I hid myself.

And we bring in the cross of Christ and we say, ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. And so the cross of Christ wipes out those four eyes of Adam. And there we stand accepted in the beloved and all the beauty and loveliness of Christ before God, dressed in God's own righteousness, accepted in the beloved, our sins forever gone, justified, cleared, sanctified, set apart by God himself and ready for heaven, waiting for the shout.

Before I stop, I want to refer just back to Genesis again, in connection with what we had before us in our readings today, Genesis 5, in closing. We had today in our Bible readings about the Lord Jesus coming in judgment in this world, first of all coming for his dear, beloved saints to take them to glory. And I believe in the book of Genesis, beloved, we have the seed plot of the Bible.

And is it not remarkable that in the very fifth chapter of Genesis we find and type the saints of God snatched away to heaven? In verse 21, And Enoch lived sixty and five years in Begat Methuselah, and Enoch walked with God three hundred years in Begat's sons and daughters, and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years. And Enoch walked with God when he was not, for God took him. Oh, what a wonderful thing! Before the flood came, before God poured his judgment upon this world, as I said before, Enoch was snatched away up to heaven.

I suppose they were having a good time. I suppose that Enoch was a trouble to them. Enoch was telling them that the Lord was coming with ten thousand of the saints to judge the world, we find in Jews.

And I suppose he spoiled their parties and he spoiled their fun. But now he was snatched away. Enoch was gone.

And Methuselah lived to be the longest, had the longest life of anybody. Nine hundred and sixty nine years, I believe it was. His name means, after his death it shall be sent.

God held off the flood, allowed that man to live all those years in his long-suffering mercy. But finally, my friends, Enoch was taken to heaven. And some years after that the flood came, the judgment of God fell on this world.

Oh, how solemn! And now if you were to look in Hebrews 11, you would find that Enoch had a testimony that he pleased God. And you would also find that Enoch, as we read here, walked with God. Enoch walked with God, and Enoch pleased God.

And in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the Enoch chapter, we read those wonderful words. Let's look at them for a moment. In the first verse of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where the church is taken to glory, we find the very two words in this Enoch chapter, Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, as ye have received of us, how ye ought to walk and to please God, so that ye would abound more and more.

The very words that were mentioned of Enoch. He walked with God. He had this testimony that he pleased God.

In this very chapter, where we find the Lord Jesus coming in the air for his sake, we find the same two words, walked and pleased. Oh, how wonderful this is, my friends. Are you saved tonight? Are you a child of God? Are you on the world's side? Are you heading down the broad road to hell and to judgment? Oh, tonight Jesus says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Whomsoever will may come and take the water of life freely. Oh, my friends, God loves you. The Lord Jesus died for you.

Heaven's door stands wide open. All you have to do is I bow my head now in prayers and say, Oh, God, I'm a sinner. But I just come tonight and receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior.

Oh, will you do it tonight? May God grant you will.