That while Christ's death is sufficient for all, its efficacy is realized only through personal reception of Him as Savior. The passage distinguishes between Christ dying "for all" and "instead of many," explaining that the former signifies provision and the latter signifies substitution upon personal faith. The core lesson is that salvation is a personal identification with Christ's atoning work, which brings immediate joy and eternal security. The message urges listeners to receive Christ without delay, highlighting the urgency due to impending death, inescapable judgment, the imminent return of Christ, the danger of increasing hardness of heart, and the profound influence one's decision has on others.
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And in this time frame, in this parenthesis between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth week of Daniel's prophecy, chapter nine, the gospel message goes out, whosoever will may come. The invitation goes out, as it has done tonight in song, if you're tired of the load of your sin, let Jesus come into your heart. If you desire a new life to begin, let Jesus come into your heart. And I say amen to what has been said. Thank you, musicians, for that good song. We are living in a time period known as the Day of Grace, the Church Age, or the Acceptable Year of the Lord.
Paul said, For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, And in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. I am one who believes that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for the entire world. Now, if we disagree, so be it. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ tasted death for every man. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the world.
I believe the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for the entire world, but I also believe that his death is efficient only to those who receive him. You need not turn to these scriptures. I'll simply refer to them. But in First Timothy chapter two, we read in verses five and six, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. And there the wording indicates that the Lord Jesus Christ died on behalf of all.
Whereas in Matthew's Gospel, chapter twenty, verse twenty-eight we read, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. You might ask, well, now what is the difference there First Timothy chapter two, verse six, he gave his life a ransom for all. And here, Matthew twenty twenty eight, and to give his life a ransom for many. The wording here in Matthew twenty, twenty eight is instead of. First Timothy two and six on behalf of all. Here instead of many.
And I believe the teaching of substitution is this. that the Lord Jesus Christ has made provision for all. For the grace of God, salvation bringing to all men hath appeared. I'm quoting it differently than in your English translation. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for all because he gave himself a ransom on behalf of all. But it's only when you receive him in that personal way as your Savior, when you make that personal identification with Christ that you are able to say, and all believers are able to say, he gave himself a ransom instead of me.
I believe scripturally I cannot say to unsaved people Christ died instead of you. I can say to unsaved people Christ died on your behalf. You can be saved. And it is when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ you will be able to say He died instead of me. Because it is when you trust Him in that personal way that His death and all that was accomplished thereby is reckoned over is imputed to your account. And would to God you would receive Christ in your heart and life today, that you would make that personal identification trusting this one who died for you, who died on your behalf, Would to God you would receive him tonight, this one who shed his precious blood, who was buried, who was raised again, this one who dealt with sin, who is the propitiation for our sins to God's complete and eternal satisfaction.
Would to God you would receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight in that personal way that you would receive him into your heart. If you're tired of the load of your sin, let Jesus come into your heart. When you receive Him, you will be able to say, He died instead of me. He died for me. He died as me. And thank God for all of those who can say that tonight. I am inclined to believe that in an audience of this size, there would be one, there would be some who are not saved. You've heard the gospel, you've been confronted with the claims of Christ, You have heard in song, you have heard in message, you have heard in testimony, you have heard many times over that you need to trust Christ as your Savior.
Why haven't you done so? I was telling some just yesterday, back in Pembroke, North Carolina, down in the Indian country, some dear, dear Christian friends. down there in that reservation area. Venus Brooks was an outstanding preacher of the Word of God of a few years back. He's with the Lord now, has been gone for some time. And I am down at Pembroke from time to time, and not too long ago I was told about his brother in his eighties who has been coming to that meeting and one or two others since he was a little boy.
And I was told by a sister, a sister in the flesh, please pray for him. He's not saved. And the sister said to me, here he comes in now. Is that the starting of the Sunday school hour? Here he comes now. Pray for him. So when I shook hands with him, I had met him before, but when I shook hands with him, I said, Mr. Brooks, I have heard some rather shocking news. What is that he said? I've heard that you're not saved. He says, no, I'm not. You're not saved. No, he says, I'm not.
How long have you been coming here? Oh, he said, I've been coming to this meeting and others in the area since I was a little boy. I said, Mr. Brooks, you've been under... some outstanding gospel preaching. Because I know of some men who have been through that area over the years preaching and teaching the Word of God. I said, you have been exposed to the gospel message time and time again. You have heard some of the best messages preached anywhere in the world. Yes, he said, I suppose you're right. I said, Mr.
Brooks, if you were to die today, we don't like to think about that, but if you were to die today, where would you go? He hung his head, he said, well, I guess I would go to hell. I said, you really believe that, don't you? He said, yes, I do. I said, well, I'm having difficulty with that. You believe that you're not saved, and if you were to die, you would go to hell. Man, why don't you receive Christ? Well, he said, I don't know. I said, you know, it's like Naaman in the Old Testament scriptures. If you were told to do some great thing, if you were told to pay some expensive price, I might could understand better why you don't commit yourself.
But salvation is free, not because it's cheap, but because it's paid for. Why don't you receive Christ? Well, he said, I don't know. The last time I was there, about a month ago, I said, Mr. Brooks, when he came in, I said, Mr. Brooks, maybe today is going to be the day that you're going to receive Christ. Well, he said, it's possible. And he hasn't received Christ, as far as I know. And I'm inclined to believe that in a meeting of this size, there would be one, perhaps a number here, who though you have been exposed to the Word of God, you would have to confess, no, I have not trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.
And people think I'm a Christian, but I know I'm not. Why haven't you trusted Christ? And why should you trust Christ tonight? Why should you trust Christ tonight? Well, in attempting to answer that question, I will suggest five things, five reasons as to why you should receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. And you have already heard my first reason in the first prayer. Paul said, he says, that today is the acceptable time.
Today is the day of salvation. Why should you receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? Right now. Because of impending death. That's the reason. Because of impending death. When I got to Marble Hill, Missouri last Monday, I talked to a brother in St. Louis, Roy Fluhart, maybe known to some of you.
Roy said, I wanted to get word to you, Eddie, that Joe Shortino died. He was in the South Side meetings. Joe Shortino. Yes. He took sick on Labor Day, rushed to the hospital. He was put on a life support system, but they finally decided to unplug the system and shortly thereafter he died. My, my, my, what a shock that was. And we can think of so many in our own experience. friends, relatives, taken, it seems so quickly.
You should be saved tonight because of impending death. Time passes so quickly, doesn't it? Oh, the brevity of life. I was telling some previously, I can remember going into the first grade in Richmond, Virginia at Springfield Elementary School, Mrs. Fowler, my first grade teacher. Going down the hallway, the room on the left, the last one on the left, there she was. Mrs. Fowler. My first grade teacher. Shortly after that, I was reading. See Dick run? Run, Dick run.
Run, run, run. See puff jump? You remember those books? Jump, pump, jump, jump, jump. First grade. My, my. Now I'm right at sixty. Time passes so quickly. When as a child I laughed and wept, time crept. When as a youth I dreamt and talked, time walked. When I became a full-grown man, time ran. When older still I daily grew, time flew. Soon shall I find in traveling on time gone and face eternity begun.
Time done. My unsaved friend, young and older, you should receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight because of impending death. You don't know when you're going to go out of this life. And I would not attempt to use scare tactics to make you or bring you to that point where you make some profession. But you know it's within the realm of possibility that your casket is at the funeral home right now. That's a solemn thought, isn't it? Impending death. In Psalm ninety verse nine we read, we spend our years as a tale that is told.
The end of the story soon comes. And it's over. At least so far as this life is concerned. We spend our years as a tale that is told. And the wording that is told are in italics, indicating it was not in the original, but supplied for continuity. We spend our years as a tale. A tale is a story. In the Hebrew, the word tale has in it the idea of a single thought. And thought is often used as a symbol of speed. There's nothing as swift as a thought.
It takes a ray of light headed for this Earth from the nearest star traveling at the rate of one hundred, eighty-six thousand, three hundred twenty-four miles per second, six and a quarter years to reach planet Earth. But in a thought we can be transported from here to heaven. There's nothing as quick as a thought. Life is but a tale. Just a thought. We read in First Chronicles twenty-nine in verse fifteen, Life is but a pilgrimage. We are strangers before thee and sojourners. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
Life is just a short journey. In Psalm thirty-nine in verse five, the psalmist said, Behold, thou hast made my days as an hand breath, and my age is as nothing before thee. Contrasted to eternity, even what we would call a long time on this earth, is just like the width of a hand. Time passes so quickly. James tells us that life is but a vapor. What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James four, fourteen.
Just a vapor. I'm a coffee drinker, but I'm also a hot tea drinker. And I'll plug in that electric tea kettle out of Canada. I don't think you can buy them in the States. plug it in and in a little bit I see the vapor coming up out of that you see the vapor and then you don't see it it's gone James says life is just like that passes so quickly why should you receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight because of impending death and after that inescapable judgment Hebrews nine twenty seven it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgment there's a man back in Burlington his name is Yoder Y-O-D-E-R his initials are T-O Yoder some speak of him as tall Yoder T-O Yoder he was coming to the chapel in Burlington he had been coming for a little while to the Sunday school
hour Another brother and I visited with he and his wife. And in the course of our conversation, he said something that indicated to us that he was under conviction. He spoke about how he and they enjoyed coming to the chapel. And he said, but you're speaking of salvation and being saved. And he said, I don't quite understand that. So we talked about that. So I said to him, I said, Mr. Yoder, when do you think you should be saved?
Well, he said, it should be soon. I said, you're right. I said, why don't you get saved six months from now? And he answered me in a way that I have never had anyone to answer that. He said, All right. He looked at me and said, All right. I said, You'll get saved six months from now. I said, But now, wait a minute. You might die before six months from now. He said, Well, yes, you're right. I said, Yes, we better make that three months from now.
He looked at me and he thought, he said, well, I might die before three months. I said, yes, you're right. I said, Mr. Yoda, I think maybe you'd better receive Christ tomorrow. He looked at me again and thought a little bit. He said, now I might not be living tomorrow. I said, yes, you have a point there. When do you think you should receive Christ? He said, I'd better receive him right now. You know, sometimes we come away from a person like that thinking, well, we hem the men to a corner. They didn't have anything else to say but that. And we might wonder at times, well, was it my smartness?
Was it my quickness or ingenuity? Was it a work of the Holy Spirit of God? Well, it's genuine with him. The man knows the Lord. Ken Lawson don't mind me referring to him. He came to me after the close of a service on one occasion and indicated that he was concerned about his soul. He was concerned about salvation. So we sat down in the chapel office there. We had a long talk. And I said, Ken, I want to put three questions to you. Three questions. He said, okay. I said, number one, do you know how to be saved?
He said, I think I do. I said, explain it to me. So he attempted, I said, well, wait a minute now, let's look at one or two scriptures. And so we went over it very carefully. And after doing so, I said, now let me get back to question number one. Do you know how to be saved? I said, I received my wife almost forty-two years ago. She received me. I became married. I wasn't a husband until I received a wife. I wasn't married until I received a wife. I am married because I received a wife. I'm saved because I received a savior. You understand that, Ken? He said, yes, I understand that.
All right, question number one. Do you know how to be saved? He said, yes, I think I understand it. All right, good. Question number two. Do you want to be saved? He said, yes, Eddie, I want to be saved. I said, good. I'm glad to hear you say that. Now, question number three. When do you want to be saved? Friends, he looked out of the window. He looked back at me. He looked down to the floor. He looked back at me. He looked up to the ceiling. He looked back at me. He said, now that is the question, isn't it? I said, that, Ken, is the question. When do you want to be saved?
Well, he said, I need to think about that. I said, Ken, I looked at him eyeball to eyeball. I said, Ken, you take all the time that you think you have. But let me point something out to you. I want you to know while you're thinking about it that you are not on neutral ground. And I read and quoted to him John three, eighteen. He that believeth on him is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned already. In fact, I had him to read it. I said, How many classes of people do you see there, Ken? He thought a little bit, and he said, Two, those who are not condemned and those who are condemned already.
I said, Which class would you be in? Well, he said, in the class condemned already. I said, exactly. You're not on neutral ground. I said, think of a building on fire. There's a person poised in the fourth or fifth-story window. They have a real fear of fire, and rightly so. They are poised there in the window, but they also have a fear of height. They're faced with a choice. Am I going to stay here and suffer the consequences? Or am I going to jump even though I'm afraid of heights? Am I going to jump into that net and be saved? I said, now while the person is thinking about it, they're already in one of the choices.
I said, Kim, you're condemned already. You're not on neutral ground, so you go ahead and take all the time that you think you have to think about it, but you're condemned already. I said, if you leave this life without Christ, you're going to be separated from God, and for Christ, from Christ, you're going to be without hope. Without salvation, you'll be doomed and damned forever. He sent me a letter from Hong Kong a few weeks later. A Christian friend had led him to the Lord. Why should you receive Christ tonight? Because of impending death.
after which is inescapable judgment. Secondly, why should you receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? Because of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a pre-tribulationist, and here again if we disagree, so be it. Here I stand. I know there are some in the Christian ranks who are moving their positions, going to the mid-trib and some post-trib and, well, I'm a pre-tribulationist.
I believe that the rapture is going to take place before the tribulation. I believe in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. By that, I mean, and we mean, that the Lord Jesus Christ could come back at any time. All believers are going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The dead in Christ shall be raised first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. It is a very solemn thing to read or to hear the Word of God, the testimony of God concerning His Son and turn from it.
And reject Christ. I don't care how nicely you put it, but refusing to receive Jesus Christ as Savior is tantamount to rejecting Him. And it means making God a liar. And I believe when the rapture takes place that all of those who have heard the gospel message will go into the tribulation period but will not come out of it. I believe from First Thessalonians chapter two that God is going to make such to believe a lie. That they might be damned because they believe not the truth.
It's a serious thing to reject Christ, to be confronted with the claims of Christ and to turn from Him. And if the rapture were to take place tonight, or when it does take place, if you are living, I believe you will go into that tribulation period, but you'll not come out of it. And if you die before the rapture takes place, then you will be separated from God and from Christ. from heaven for all eternity. You'll be without Christ and without hope. Why should you receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? Because of impending death, after which is inescapable judgment, because of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thirdly, as we heard in another prayer, you should receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight because of immediate joy. If you're tired of the Lord of your sin, let Jesus come into your heart, because life begins when Jesus comes in. God formed man out of the dust of the ground. There was that body, lifeless. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. In the plural, the breath of lives. Man became a living soul. That is, God communicated something of himself to his creature that gave to his creature eternal existence.
And when man disobeyed God and plunged himself and all of his posterity into sin and under its consequences, man was separated from God but still in that eternal state, in that eternal existence. I point out to new parents when I have occasion to visit with them after a new arrival, and usually somewhere along the line I will say to them something like this. God has now used the two of you to bring into existence a human being who's going to live on forever. That's solemn indeed. But it's true.
And you, my unsaved friend, have eternal existence, but you do not have the life of God in that when you leave this life unsaved, you will go out into eternity, but not to heaven, not to be with God, not to be with Christ, not to be with all the saved. You will be separated from God forever. As sin is the original source of guilt and fear, so God is the original source of joy and happiness, as we've been hearing. As the Catechism says, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
But in your unsaved condition, you don't. You can't enjoy God. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. You cannot understand divine truth because you do not have God's divine nature. Oh, but when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you receive eternal life, not just eternal existence, but the very life of God. And you are made a partaker of God's divine nature. Now having the life of God, being in the family of God, you have joy, real joy, wonderful joy, that only the Lord Jesus Christ can give.
When you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior immediately, you have the joy of God's salvation, of forgiveness, of being at peace with God, because the righteousness of God is imputed to you. And the work of righteousness is peace. And you're at peace with God and you'll have the peace of God in your heart. You'll have the joy of eternal security. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. You'll have the joy of freedom in Christ. Why should you receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? You should do so because of impending death. Because of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And because of immediate joy. Would to God you would let the Lord Jesus Christ come into your heart and life tonight? Fourthly, you should receive the Lord Jesus tonight as your Savior because of increasing hardness. There's a difference between conviction and conversion. Felix trembled when he listened to Paul preach concerning faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He trembled because of conviction. but there is nothing in the record about his conversion. And many have been under the sound of the gospel, and maybe you, my unsaved friend, young and older, maybe you have been under the sound of the gospel many times, and you can remember there was that time when your heart was so tender, you were so sensitive, you were under conviction, and you Admit it to yourself inwardly, I need Christ.
I need to trust Christ in that personal way as my Savior, but you haven't done so as yet. You continue to reject Him. Though you're confronted with the claims of Christ, you continue to put off this matter of deciding for Christ. And you face that danger of increasing hardness. Some years ago, a corps of engineers, civil engineers, came to a little town in Pennsylvania. They went up into the mountains and examined the dam that controlled the water of the stream that flowed down the valley. And the engineer said to the people in that area, the dam is unsafe, and you people are in danger.
You know what the people said? You can't scare us. You can't scare us. The engineers came back in the fall. They did their work again. They said to the people, we are warning you. The dam is unsafe. The people responded in the same way. The engineers came back again in the spring and warned the people again. The people said, and I'm quoting, we've been hearing that so many times. You can't scare us. Fifteen days later, a boy on horseback and a dead run came down the valley shouting, Run for your lives! The dam is gone!
And the water is coming! And would you believe many people laughed? In less than thirty minutes the water struck the town. The Johnstown... Johnstown was in ruins. Three thousand seven hundred people died in the Johnstown flood. They were hardened to the warning. They were hardened to the warning. Oh my, there was that time you were under such conviction and it was so difficult for you to walk out of a meeting like this. Now it's not difficult at all, is it? Back in our assembly when I was talking along this line on one occasion, Dr.
Dave Best came to me and he told about a young man that he knew of who was under such conviction. He knew he needed to receive Christ. But he kept putting it off, and finally, maybe it was Dr. Best who said to him, well, do you have difficulty now and walking away from a message like that? Oh, no, he says, I don't. He had become so hardened to it. And you face that danger, my unsaid friend, of increasing hardness. And fifthly, Why should you receive the Lord Jesus Christ tonight?
Because of your influence on others. You don't realize to what extent you are influencing other people. When I first went to Greensboro, we were in Greensboro at the assembly there, working with Brother H.D. McKay for a good number of years. When I first went to Greensboro, if my memory serves me correctly and Increasingly it's not. I believe the first family that I visited with was a family named Martin. And I was told that Mrs. Martin, though she was saved and in the fellowship, Mr.
Martin wasn't saved, never came to any of the services. So that day I went to visit the Martins. And I sensed that he was just tolerating me being there. So I said to him, Mr. Martin, I said, have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Are you saved? And he said in a rather gruff voice, he says, no, I haven't. I said, well, now, Mr. Martin, you know, if a person doesn't receive Christ, it means going to a lost eternity. It means going to hell. He said, young man, if I want to go to hell, he said, that's my business.
If I choose to go there, that's my business. I'm not bothering anyone else. If I want to go to hell, that's my business. Well, he got me a little excited. I said, Mr. Martin, you're right, sir. And I didn't come into your home to insult you. This is not my intention. I said, but I cannot let your remark go without me making some response to it. You're right, Mr. Martin. You can go to hell, because I believe God has made you with the power of choice, although God and His sovereignty determines the consequences of the choices you make and the choices everyone else makes.
You're right. You can go to hell if you want to. But I'm going to correct you in one point. You're not going to live as long as you have lived thus far. He was in his seventies then. You're not going to live as long as you have thus far. and go out of this life and go to hell with the thought that you're not hindering anyone else. Because you cannot live as long as you have lived without influencing perhaps a number of people. And it could very well be, Mr. Martin, that the greatest torment in hell for you will be to see others there whom you influence to be there. And I'm going to tell you, Mr. Martin, you need to receive Christ as your Savior.
Well, you can win an argument, but lose a soul. And it was my intention to just give him the gospel message and let the Holy Spirit of God do his work. Some years later, I preached his funeral service, a graveside funeral, and to my knowledge, he never trusted Christ as Savior. I read about meetings being conducted in a certain place, and it seemed that all of the people connected with that meeting were concerned about this one man in the community. And here he came out one night, he sat on the back row with his son Billy, and the preacher did something that I don't think I would be able to do, but at the close of his message, he was asking, who wanted to be saved?
Who wanted to trust Christ tonight? He looked back on the back row and he said, John, what about you? Do you want to trust Christ tonight? No, preacher, he said, not tonight. John, you mean to say you want to go to hell? Well, he said, I guess I'll go to hell, preacher. The preacher said, Billy, what about you? Billy stood up in the pew. He said, I'm going with daddy. My friend, you need to receive Christ tonight because of your influence on others. A mother wrote, A careful woman I ought to be, a little fellow follows me. I dare not go astray. For fear he'll go the self same way.
Not once can I escape his eyes. Whatever he sees me do, he tries. Like me, he says he's going to be. That little chap who follows me, he thinks that I am good and fine, believes in every word of mine. The base in me he must not see. This little chap who follows me, I must remember as I go through summer sun and winter snow, I'm building for the years to be. That little chap who follows me, Someone else wrote, touching others, the slightest breeze that ever blew, some slender grass has wavered. The smallest life I ever knew, some other life has flavored.
We cannot live our lives alone for other lives we touch, or either strengthened by our own or weakened just as much. My unsaved friend, why should you receive Christ as your Savior tonight? Because of impending death after which is inescapable judgment. Because of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of immediate joy. Because of the danger of increasing hardness. And because of your influence on others. If you're tired of the load of your sin, let Jesus come into your heart.