Gospel

If you have your Bible with you, I'd like you to turn to the last book in your Bible, and the second last chapter, really. Revelation chapter 20, please. Revelation 20, verse number 15.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I want to read that to you again. I would have to admit to you, likely one of the most misquoted verses in our Bible.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Nothing about a name there. It says, whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

I have to confess to you that this verse really has been coming before me since the brethren here have asked us to share in this gospel meeting tonight. And yet I thought, what a verse really to end a gospel meeting with. And then when Mr. McLeod gave out that hymn, and whosoever will believe, and so on, and then read John chapter 3 as he did, it just confirmed in my mind that I had to at least read this with you tonight.

Very solemn verse. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I want to make it absolutely clear here tonight.

Every single person that has never found themselves in the whosoever of John 3 and 16 that we've been hearing so clearly about tonight will never find themselves in the divine records up there. They will be among this whosoever. The whosoever here that was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Do you know what that actually means? That means, my young man, you're going to stand. The very legs that carried you into this hall will actually take you to stand before that great white throne. Look into the face of an unerring judge whose judgments are right and righteous, and you will stand there.

It won't be a case whether you're going to plead guilty or not guilty or not. You are there, my friend, because you wouldn't plead guilty. And yet, really, it would cost you nothing.

I sat in a courtroom in St. Stephen, New Brunswick a month ago. And a good old true blue American, former veteran of Vietnam, was in that same courtroom. And he had unfortunately come into Canada with arms.

And the customs officer found out he had revolvers and guns with him. And he was fined. And his fine was $500.

That judge in that courtroom looked down, and he said to him, sir, how do you plead? He stood to his feet. He says, your honor, I plead guilty. He says, you understand that your fine is $500? He said, I do.

He says, do you have $500 to pay this court today? He says, your honor, I do. Then he says, you can take it to the clerk. Take it to the clerk, and your case is closed.

Do you understand tonight, my friend, that the costly side of this is not to plead guilty, not to plead guilty? Understand tonight, from your heart, if there was to go heavenward, just a plea of guilt that I am what God says I am. I am the sinner that God describes. And I have no claim upon heaven tonight.

If God was right and righteous with me, all he could do, all I force him to do, is to send me to hell on the lake of fire forever. Now you're going to wonder, what was Mr. McCandless doing in the courtroom in St. Stephen, New Brunswick? Phase two of the same story. Last winter, my wife and I were driving a semi tractor trailer for our boys, come back to the city of New York, and it was a snowy day.

It was a snowy day. Came through the state of Maine, come now into New Brunswick, and I thought there was just some super cautious drivers with four-way flashers on, on a four-lane highway. And I thought, the roads weren't that bad.

You know, if my wife's with me, I'm not going to scare her. I hope I wouldn't. I thought I was driving fairly good.

And so I pulled out, and I started passing these people, only to discover our roads are not like yours. They turn and bend. When I got along, I was passing a funeral procession.

I thought, oh, this isn't good. So I thought, well, I can't stop now. And I continued, I thought, this is going to get me.

Before I got too far, my cell phone rang, and Alan, our son, Alan's on the phone. He says, dad, RCMP just called. That's our Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

You passed a funeral procession. I said, I did. He said, he's going to be calling you.

He said, I went to school with a fellow. He said, I know him. He says, shouldn't go too bad.

Pretty soon, the officer calls up. He said, Mr. McCandless. He said, I have a complaint, he says, from people in a funeral procession that you passed them on the highway coming out of St. Stephen.

I said, I did, and I'm very, very sorry, sir. I, listen, he said, I've already told the family I know these people. They don't do that.

And I said, they don't. I stopped. I said, and I just explained the situation.

Now listen, I says, on top of that, you get the names of the people. I will go to them. I will call them.

I will go to them. I'll tell them. I'm sorry.

And I didn't mean to be passing that funeral procession, even though it is not illegal. It's an act of courtesy. That was last winter.

Let's summarize, though, doing what I do, after washing my car, and I saw the RCMP car come down the street. I thought, good, that's that neighbor's girl. She drives too fast on this street.

And I told my neighbor, he runs a tire shop. I told him, I says, Gordon, I says, get the girl to slow down. She's gonna hit one of the kids.

Good, he's going after her. He started walking toward me. He said, you're Mr. McCandless? He said, I am.

He said, I've got a summons for you. A summons for me. He said, you don't know about it? He said, give it to me.

I said, really? I was being charged with operating a vehicle without due care and precaution on such and such a date, such and such a highway, and placed to plead, and so on. I thought, okay, I've got a summons. And because I was gonna be in Mansfield, Ohio, Ohio having gossipings, I had to get a lawyer to get a plea for me.

Paid him $100 to do that. I was not guilty. So, lawyer called me up.

He said, Mr. McCandless, your court date is now in August. What's your plan? Let me just stop at this juncture. Listen, I'm speaking to people who are gonna stand.

If you don't get saved, young girl, you're gonna stand at the great white throne of judgment. Can I ask you tonight, what's your plan? What do you think I did? Sleep on it? Think about it? I thought about it, just like you do. I started to work with the plan.

I said to the lawyer, I said, well, what are your charges gonna be to defend this? Oh, he says, it's gonna be $800 or $900. I says, really? I says, I think a fella can still defend himself in the court of New Brunswick. Can he not? Yeah, he says.

Is that what you're gonna do? Just yeah. He's lots of luck. Now I'm on my own.

What do you think I do now? Just wait for the date to arrive? No, I'm planning. Oh, no, no, no, I'm planning. I'm gonna work with a plan.

You know what was going through my mind was this, the first thing I want to do, I wanna see the judge. I wanted to see what he looked like. I wanted to see if he's the kind of a guy I thought I could persuade and convince that I had been charged erroneously, that this wasn't right, this wasn't fair.

You know, you may smile at that, but you know there's people think they're gonna do that with God. As foolish as it may sound, I am looking in the faces of people that are working with a plan that is going to fail. You have some kind of mentality.

The devil has convinced you that you're going to look into the face of this unnamed throne-sitter and convince them that the charges against you aren't right. Let me tell you in advance, not gonna happen. So court day came, and not only summons me, it summons Alan, the two of us are down there.

And so what do you think the first thing I did was? Walked into the court like I did at the boy's cottage the week before with my Crocs on and my shorts and my cutoff shirt. Yeah, right. You know how I was in that court that day? Just like you were here this morning, I was just like I am now.

Well, that's a court of the land because I needed to have everything working for me that day. I was just like this. It's just pretty, it's just as good as the judge was.

And I had my book there. My book, and I had my different notes and who I was gonna call to the stand, who I was gonna ask them, the policeman was gonna put them up there and ask him. He wasn't even there.

Funeral director, he was there. He was gonna testify against me. I'll put him up there, ask him where his strobe was.

He didn't have a strobe there. And I'll put these other boys up that were going for the juggler. This was my plan.

So I walked in that court. Of course, when I addressed the judge, I just said, you, are you kidding? Are you kidding? I addressed him like my American friend did. I said, your honor.

Anyhow, I really didn't get too far. If I could finish it off, I'm in this deep now. Didn't get that far.

Policeman had come back and forth to me. I was sitting there all ready to go and these people were in the back room. And he said, listen, Mr. McCanlis, $180.

He said, you know, these aren't really normal people. These aren't just street people. I said, well, I'm not either.

Well, he said, you know, he says, if it goes wrong, he says, you're gonna have court costs. I says, we'll go court cost. Finally, there were some, they were in the attorney or the prosecutor attorney attorney's office and back and forth, back and forth.

No, I was set to go to work. Finally, they asked me to come in and meet the people, met the people and et cetera, et cetera. And I won't tell you all the details there.

I'm not gonna take the time on that. But they agreed to withdraw their charges. Now, at the same time, the prosecuting attorney had to announce that to the judge.

He was the one ultimately would withdraw charges. Went back in the courtroom. That judge looked down at me, said, Mr. McCanlis.

I said, yes, your honor. He says, my understanding that the people that have, had this charge put against you for your driving that day, have withdrawn that. He said, are you happy with that? I said, absolutely.

Mind you, under my breath, I said, should have been there in the first place. But yeah, I was very happy with it. I was relieved.

And as it would be, I gotta bet to you, I went home a happy man. In fact, thrilled. I was off the hook.

Didn't cost me $180. Didn't cost me 800. It was a good education.

I got the book out, Defending Yourself Under Budget Court. I read, here's what you do. Here's what you don't do.

I have a plan. What's your plan tonight? What is your plan? Just kind of, just blindsided and hope that it's not gonna happen. It's not gonna take place.

My friend, it's going to take place. It's gonna take place. And your arguments are gonna dissipate because there won't be any.

You will stand there, my friend, speechless. Let me tell you about, I'll look at this judge. I do not believe that the one whose face drew little children unto him will have to sit there on that day with some kind of a glaring stare into the face of guilty sinners.

I don't believe that. This book doesn't support that. I think the hardest thing that God ever does is to execute judgment.

It will be so hard for the pages of divine record to be turned to find that you are missing in record there. Now you're seeing, you're laboring quite a bit. This doesn't mention the name.

Whosoever was not found written in the book of life. Can I give you just my own thinking into why it is not name? Suppose it was name. Now I know there's other passages you can go to and it requires the name of that such as the book of life.

Suppose it was name. There are three other Murray McCandless's that live in the city of Toronto. Which one would it be? How would I know? But I know him among the whosoever.

Mr. Norman Crawford, and brother, we miss him at our conferences. I know you do. I remember many a time when he stood on this platform.

He told an interesting story one time when he went to the Hartford conference. Mr. Frank Turdicondese had bought him a ticket to the Hartford conference. Paid his way out.

Paid his way out. Well, it was way back. Good for him.

Proper thing. When Mr. Crawford on Monday morning got back to get on the aircraft. And anybody that knows Mr. Crawford know what would be done in a very gentlemen like way.

He had his ticket and there in good time. His luggage checked in and he walked down the aisle of that aircraft and he saw a man sitting right in his row, E17. So he looked at his ticket, E4 I think it was or something like that.

So he just in a nice way leaned over. He said to the man, is your name Norman Crawford? He said, it is. And the Norman Crawford you and I know walked off the airplane.

That's not gonna happen here, friend. That is not gonna happen. It will be you as an individual not found.

I would put it together like this. That really in John chapter three and verse 16, it is the whosoever was found. And Revelation 3, 20 and verse 15, it's whosoever was not found.

You see, the truth of the book is this. That if you will never find yourself in this book, okay? Nevermind your name. If you never find yourself in this book, you'll never be found in that book.

Now, if you got saved, putting your name in the verse and that or some preacher made the mistake by telling you to do that, fine. God bless you. God is a God of salvation and he works in spite of us.

I never tell anybody to put their name in any verse. I have no authority for doing that. They're already there.

I was in Luke 19 and 10 before I was born. Says for the son of man has come to seek and to save. Murray McCandless doesn't say that.

Says for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. I was the last one. Romans 5 and 6. For when we are yet without strength in due time, Christ died for Murray McCandless.

No. Although he did that. For when we are yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

God has placed you there, my friend. Find yourself in that whosoever tonight. A plea of guilt will cost you nothing.

But my friend, a plea that never goes from your heart will be the greatest colossal blunder you could make in your life. To have to depart from the welcoming eyes of the son of God that would bid little children to come unto him. And now he says to you, depart from me.

Now, this judge doesn't get irate like some of our judges do and you can't blame them. He'll still speak as he always speaks with absolute authority, absolute dignity. No court like his court.

Pray, brethren, pray that not one soul in this Heightsville Gospel Hall tonight stands there to be sentenced and sent from that divine presence into the lake of fire forever. I am visiting a man in his 30s in the Dorchester Penitentiary. That's one of our big penitentiaries in New Brunswick.

It was something that happened prior to when he got saved. And for that reason, he's paying time. He was visiting here a couple of weeks ago and Kenneth wasn't having an easy day.

We got talking and he started to explain what was wrong. He says, you know, Maria, I should never think this way. But there's times when I start to think.

I'm supposed to come up for parole. Excuse me, come up for review for parole sometime in October. They don't come and say to you, it's gonna be October the 17th.

You don't know until they come to you. They just don't bother doing that. Not in this place.

He said, do you know what I can't live with? And do you know what I can't sleep with? Is the horror of horrors. That they've forgotten I'm even here. That the judicial system of Canada has forgot that I'm on their records as a criminal and I'm incarcerated in the Dorchester prison.

And he says, what I can't take is that if they ever forgot that I'm here. You think of that. Nobody likes to be forgotten.

A child, maybe off to their father's somewhere. Or someone is to pick you up at school or somebody and there you stand and you think, they're not here. They're always here.

Nobody likes to be forgotten. I can prove to you from this Bible that if you die in your sins the way you are tonight, friend, if you die in your sins, you're going to a place where you will be forgotten. This is what the Bible says.

The Bible says, the memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. You can go further. Ecclesiastes chapter nine, it says the memory of them is forgotten.

Just as a God has a will and the power to remember no more my sins. This is that he's forgotten them. Don't make God less than he is.

God doesn't forget anything. He wills not to remember them. Do you understand he has the will to never remember you again? Never remember that boy that lived there near the Heightsville Gospel Hall, that girl that sat there in gospel meetings and heard gospel meeting after gospel meeting.

They say, no, no. They worked with some kind of a foolish plan that they were gonna convince the judge otherwise. That wasn't gonna work and that isn't gonna work, friend.

And it'll never work. And you find yourself there. Worse than that, worse than that.

As you'll never forget where you could have been. Luke chapter 13 supports that. People that find that door closed, what does it say? And ye shall see.

Not think about them, you'll see. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of heaven and you yourselves thrust out, thrust out to have to be in that dreaded place, my friend, of the departed dead. After a thousand years, they're still called the dead, Revelation chapter 20, even though I didn't read the verse.

And finally, there you go, down to a place where you will rise and fall forever under the waves of the judgments of God's wrath, never to be remembered again. Listen, let me speak for parents tonight that have children that are not saved. Heaven would not be heaven.

If for a flash, I had to remember a boy that missed his way and died in his sins and went to hell, it would cease to be heaven. That's why the man of Luke's gospel chapter 14 is insistent, is insistent that the house be filled. Heaven would cease to be heaven.

If I had to look down and think of a place that my girl could have sat there, my girl could have been here, but she's not. She took her own way, went her own course. And my friend, you're thinking tonight, the Bible says it's so empty.

Your thoughts about God and who he is and what you're going to do and how you're going to look at the judge and how you're going to convince him that whatever was against you really wasn't fair and it wasn't right because if you're not saved tonight, that is your thinking. Well, just as we've been hearing, when you discover what you are, what you are just a guilty wretch on the road to hell. Scott, I know doesn't mind me saying this.

I can remember preaching the gospel when this man and his brother used to come in dressed, hair down to his shoulder blades, chains, not enough chain in the country grew on his neck and his arms and his wrist. And really, if he could have pushed that back wall with another two feet, that's where he would have sat. And I thought it'll never happen.

Never happen. Not this boy. Big job at Island Tell, it was called then, his own pickup truck.

Life was going, life was big and life was, it was the DJ, it was the dances, it was the drinking, it was the parties, never. But you listen to a man stand on this platform tonight that is so thankful, he and I, that he'll never have to give an account for all of that at that great white throne of judgment. You will.

Whosoever, always a word of welcome. It's a warm word. Seemingly it loses that in Revelation chapter 20.

Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast. You think easier words, you think, could there not be just an easier word like they were just kind of let go. No, it says they were cast, they were flung into the lake of fire.

Needless. You die in your sins. I just, I don't even like to think of it, that I'm actually looking in the faces of some that'll look back and say, I remember.

Not because we're preaching it, God knows it. I remember that cool, damp September night sitting in the gospel hall right there in Highsville without raising my hand, without saying a prayer. I just simply admitted to God, I'm guilty.

I'm lost. And as you heard tonight, oh God, save me. Save me.

You know what the wonderful thing is? That everybody going to heaven is just the opposite way. I think it's sweet, Christians. I think it is.

There'll never be a time when the Lord will all kind of come up to me and say, just give me a minute now. You know how we do it. Can't get the name.

So you say, just, you know, and then finally say, oh yes, yes, yes. Back there in Southwestern. Not at all.

I'll tell you something. He'll know more about the night than I did. Do you know why that is? Because he did the saving.

Wonderful Savior. I concur what you've already heard. Wonderful Savior that has provided a wonderful salvation.

No wonder the writer of the Hebrew epistle said there is no escape for one that has provided such a great salvation. It's a great salvation. We can't, my friend, overstate it.

The occupant of the throne. The throne sitter, you would have to ask who he is. You'd have to ask.

I would suggest to you there's a reason his name's not given, okay? Do you know why? Because every mention of his name meant salvation. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Why mention a name now that salvation? That was in the day before.

That was gone. There's no salvation here. The one that will sit there, the occupant of the throne.

That one that sits on that throne is now your judge. I had not moved to the town that I live in, Sussex, too long and we had some property business to look after. I'd lived in a mobile home for a while and we bought a small house just outside of Sussex and I didn't know anybody.

Just went to the phone book and got a solicitor, a lawyer. Remember his name was Don Allen, lawyer Don Allen. And he just looked after the legal work and so I needed him again for some property things.

I went back in to the office, same, I didn't notice, I thought the same shit goes out that said Don Law Offices, Don Allen Law Offices. And I got in and the secretary was behind the desk and I said, I'd like to speak with Mr. Allen. And she said, Mr. McAnlis, that's likely not gonna happen.

I said, I'm sorry, I thought maybe he had died or something. No, she said, Mr. Allen was appointed to the bar, was appointed as a judge in this province as of yesterday. He says, she says, I hope you don't have to meet him.

I says, no, I don't wanna meet him either. I never had to meet, not him. See, the one that would have defended my case, the one that just took it at hand and looked after everything then sent you the bill, he didn't do that anymore.

You know what he did? He judged the case. Do you understand that everything, every debt, there's no cost, my friend, in your part tonight. The one that defends your case, the one that will stand and actually plead because of Calvary, at the right hand of the father, he bears evidence to Calvary, to a price that's been paid to set you free tonight.

The one of those beautiful words, 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. Most know that Mr. Peter Orszag and I preached a lot. In fact, I don't think there's any man I preached more series of gospel with than I did Mr. Peter Orszag.

Whenever he preached to John 3.16, Mr. Orszag loved fishing, loved fishing. And he'd come to that word sowing. You know what he used to call it? The fisherman's adverb.

Because you know, he says you'd come home from fishing, they'd say, well, how big were the fish? And they'd say, well, they were, of course, you can pull them out of the pail. You said they were so big. You said they were just so, you remember him saying that, so big.

All right, and that's fish. I'm telling about a God that so loved you tonight. You know the last thing God wants for you? Do you know the last thing the Savior wants to you, for you, is to have to face you then? That's the last thing he wants for you.

That's why he went to Calvary. That's why he paid the price. That's why he will forever bear evidence in heaven that he's been to Calvary.

Whatever you want to call him, the Bible calls the wounds. There will be forever the lamb freshly slain. There will be always something about the Son of God in glory that will remind us and every believer and make them forever a worshiper of him.

The one who bore the crown of thorns, the one who bore the judgment, the one who bore the wrath, the one who said, I came not to judge the world, but to save, came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them, is the one that could save you tonight. You know the purpose of the gospel preaching? The purpose of the gospel preaching is, my friend, to retrieve from you tonight, not a plea bargain. No, no, no, you don't bargain nothing with God.

It's to get you to repent. That's what the Bible calls it. And the Bible says, except you repent, you shall likewise perish.

There's never that guilty plea wrung from that heart of yours, my friend. You'll be in hell as sure as you're sitting in this meeting tonight. It need not be.

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. Shall we pray?