Gospel of John (2nd Yr Study 9 of 19, Chap 12 Cont 1hr 43mins) — G.W. North

A Blindness Testimony and the Need for Forgiveness

And asked the saver whether he could bring a young lady up to the local where I was stationed at that time and the story was, she was a Christian and he was a brother, he was, sorry, the field leader of the Red Sea Mission, was his brother, he was the whole base secretary, the two brothers that started it and this girl had suddenly gone blind, sitting in an office, when I say girl, comparatively, she was 20 years old or more and she'd gone blind, suddenly, sitting in a chair, he was a doctor, so of course he'd have a look at her there seemed to be no reason why she went blind, we had her examined in Moorfields, that's the big famous eye hospital in London where all the specialists work, and we've had her there, they've had a look at her, they cannot account for her sudden blindness what happened, we don't know, which you have to have there for prayer etc, alright, so it was agreed and she came up in the company of another young lady, who was also a worker in their office, both Christians and when they arrived, I went down and met them, and after observing her, asking no questions, except saying we're very glad you've come, that sort of thing you would say at this time, and I said to her companion, go up and put her into bed and the room in which she was placed was called Elim, anyway, if it means anything to him, and I'll come and see you in the morning so they popped her into bed, and I went up to see her next morning, she was the picture of misery, suddenly to lose her sight and she was curled up in bed, strangely curled up in bed, no crap, we started to talk, I said tell me about yourself and so she started, and I said oh no, I don't want to know these things, I want you to tell me right from the beginning your earliest memories, perhaps you may think that's psychology, well, you know that God is a psychologist he invented souls, a natural psyche, and she went right back in her memories, painfully she struggled up from her pillows I mean painfully in her mind, she told me, my first memory is standing with my mother in the garden I was only three, rang a bell in my mind, you may feel, because I was only three, when I spoke as I spoke I was standing with my mother, she was talking over the hedge between the neighbours garden and I and I heard my mother say, now you think, if you are parents, or going to be parents, and think you will have children you will be held culpable before God, unless you are very careful, you must receive children as a gift from God if you say you are God, and I heard my mother say, she said to the woman over the hedge, of course we didn't want this one the mother sublimely thought that her child would not understand this, so these three, it's an eye opener, when you know the truth and I knew we were at the root of her trouble, and I said to her, look my dear, she told me many other things beside us but now we must go back to this occasion in your life, when you heard that, if you had asked her a million other things, she wouldn't have remembered them but that went right down into that little receptive part, be careful if you ever have children and I said to her, you know my dear, if you want to receive your son, you have to forgive your mother for saying that and I quoted to her the Lord's own saying, if you don't forgive people their trespasses, neither will your heavenly father forgive you your trespasses very pleasant isn't it, written there in Matthew's gospel, for you to read and believe and I said if you will repent, God will give you a new pure heart, if you will receive it because that's where everything starts, in you physically, with a heart beating in your mother's womb forever your bone, your flesh was formed around it, or any bones were taking shape you have to go back to the heart, you must, because that's stuck in your mind and you've never forgiven your mother for saying that, she said no, I haven't, God will give you a new heart you haven't started to become a Christian, unless you have a new heart, not a child of God you understand that, it is a matter of forgiving, Moses preached forgiveness of sins.

New Birth, Forgiveness, and the Heart

There were Christians, not one of them, you keep that very clear, she listened I suppose she'd never heard anything like it before, I said many other things I said you must forgive your mother, she said I can't, she's not here I said it doesn't matter about her presence, it is the invisible presence of your mother through her word you have an invisible presence, you understand that, it's the presence of the soul it's the shape, if I may use that word, of your soul and your inward spiritual heart which God is most concerned with, I said never mind, you've got to ask your mother and I here and now to forgive you and forgive her, she wrestled with that, it was news to her after a while, I said God will give you a new spirit too, as well as a new heart he will make you a real born child of God, people are dogging along calling themselves Christians so she sat up in bed and she said, mother, I said put your arms round her dear, put your arms round her she needs forgiving to say I let you forgive her, and she needs your forgiveness too, and God's forgiveness too so she put her arms round her, this was absolutely news to her, she'd never heard anything like this before neither had I until God taught me in my heart, alright and she said mother, I said excuse me sir, you hear me sobbing, that's the result of the stroke I had a year or so ago she put her arms round her just as though, she said mother, I forgive you, you're a changed person immediately, it's the immediacy of God's work in you, it's an immediate change and a permanent one, oh, demean the child, and then I began to understand this position, she was in the fetus position in her bed, that was the peculiar way she was lying, you sometimes lie like this don't you, you think back, right praise the Lord, we prayed together, I said now, I'll come back tomorrow and talk to you about your blindness so I left her, and I went back the next morning, to deal with this sin, this thing, this offence, this real hatred that had come into her heart that's free, remember, and I said, how are you, oh, how about your sight, I said yes, I put my hand on her eyes I said, receive it now, she received it, the cause of her blindness was her mother's sin and her own compounding it was rejected in the womb, we did not want this, if you are a mother, or going to become a mother, you have a very responsible position so her memories went back to free, as mine went back, now I could keep going all morning to hear that kind of story now, like a lot of babies, we like to hear stories, don't you, well Jesus told a lot, you equate yourself with the stories he tells but then, we are going to catch up with our reading and our point, times when he never told stories, I've mentioned this before but he used the parabolic method, you will remember in chapter 12, where we were yesterday he said something which sounded most mysterious, I didn't stay, I mean time flies, look at the time, I was half gone this morning he said this, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground, and he's talking about you, you better listen except you fall into the ground and die, you will be forever alone, hell is a lonely place, you won't be the only one there, if you go but it's love, no love you'll see, no love, here then is a tremendous thing, he said if it doesn't, now listen this is a law operating in your life now if you don't fall into the ground and die, you'll forever abide alone and you won't have Jesus, though you may say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus all day long it's reality not words, after all Jesus is only a name, it's a wonderful one, be careful, all God's got to do is always give everything that he does think that one over, you can write it down, but you never forget it, here then beloved is the truth, that was a parabolic thing, corn of wheat falling into the ground and rising up you can picture it in your mind, you fill out the parable, here then is the tremendous truth, that you and I have to get into our hearts, and then we went on through there and he spoke about father glorify your name and God came back, but that's the result, God is never glorified in your life until you have fallen into the ground and died, spiritually, the old spirit of you, the real you I'm talking to your spirits now, you think I'm talking to your bodies, I am not, I'm talking to you, because that's who you are, who you really are, a thing that I cannot see, but if I'm long with you, begin to start to understand you and know you and he winds up that 12th chapter, just to go back to make the link, he says, as the father, verse 50, has said to me, that's what I speak, on the earth, although you remember with pleasure some of the things your father said, not many now this is the eternal connection, you've got a never dying spirit, that is you'll always have self-consciousness, always, that is the great I, I am self-conscious, God is self-conscious, he says I am, who I am that's the most important thing, I listen to you, if I listen to you for long, these are the bases of knowing people, not say, I'm a Christian, or I'm a Wesleyan, or I'm a Baptist, or I'm this, that and the other, listen, I shall recognize you, so don't get too acquainted with me, if you don't want me to know you, don't get too acquainted I shall listen for that I am, what I want, I think, I want to get deeper down in your thinking, I want to get to say to myself, who is this woman, who is this man talking to me, see there's a saying in England about birds of a feather flocking together, but God doesn't go by your fine feathers, that's a humanist approach, you who are you, and I shan't so much listen to what you call your testimony, your testimony will be coming out of your mouth when you least expect it to, wonderful isn't it, it really is, so really we're on the great truth now, now you're knowing that you have to be born again come out of the womb of God, his child, unusual language isn't it, to you it won't be, to people like God and brotherhood at the end, but that's it who are you, I am, that's who I am, Paul got very near to her in his gospel, that is, Corinthians, only part of his gospel were the things he preached in the Corinthian letter, when in the 15th chapter, which you think is the resurrection chapter, he says I preach unto you the gospel and then he goes down and says, more or less he says I'm not fit to be a preacher of the gospel, I persecuted this communion, I think he was, I think he did, but he said I found mercy of the Lord, then he says, now listen to this, by the grace of God, I am what I am he changes one letter, God said I am that, I am, Paul got as close to it as any man or woman there, I am, just changed the T into a W, what I am, by the grace keep that in the forefront of your mind, never go wrong, if you do, I mean deeply, seriously, it's the I am, what you say, oh I am going to the shops, I am going on a holiday, I am, I am, I am that's the thing, who are you, not what are you, we are all to accept the fact that we are all Christians, we wouldn't be here if we reasoned, unless we were, or not at all, we want to serve the Lord but that's quite immaterial, if you are, I am, in the gracious sense that Paul spoke it, I am, what I am, you'll be serving God, you won't be able not to, now here's the great thing, come to John, I should spend the morning preaching, I love preaching Jesus did spend nights and days preaching, quite natural, now then into 13, at this point in John's gospel comes the great division, John's gospel could be more or less divided into halves, the first 12 chapters given to what he did with selected incidents and sayings, but now, the last week of his life on earth is crammed into these chapters, you can divide John between 12 and 13, but don't divide them in the sense that you make them irrelevant to one another they go right on, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them, I love it all he knew to do, you'll be a cold, inefficient servant of the Lord unless you learn this secret, isn't all standing out in the street, I've done plenty of it, shouting out the gospel, having loved is all, Jesus only preached because he loved the people that was his incentive for preaching, he loved, but now he's particularising, having loved his own, most people out there were not his own, they professed to be what we would call, Christians only a word wasn't invented then we are Moses disciples, we have followed you around all over the country, listening to what you said, admiring you and what the works you have done, they weren't his own, listen, the good shepherd we pass through this chapter 10, I know my sheep, the shepherds and my sheep know me they follow me, indeed I call my own sheep by their names, very particular, you would know your name, well I only know the names of about one, that's him, oh God, the tremendous thing you must see, the particularisation of the gospel, known unto God, all his works, from the foundation of the world that's Luke writing, because you know he wrote the Acts of the Apostles, this is a marvellous thing for us to see, before he spoke, taking verse 50, I'm wanting to emphasise this chapterisation and versification in the Bible, you've got to avoid becoming the slave of other people's teachings before he said anything more, in John's gospel anyway, he comes back to the beginning, God's so loved, he's back there, be sure you love people before you talk to them, oh you should be fooled if you say you are full of God and the Holy Spirit you can't pretend with God you see, you can't pretend on this I'm a Christian kind of thing, you know what this word Christianity means, it's a great big umbrella under which people come and crawl, they call them churches, they're shells here is the thing to see beloved, he loves them, now listen, learn from this verse, you've got to learn to love to the end, marriage is based upon that, as long as we both shall live to the end let's go on, the devil now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him, Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God this should sum up your life and thinking, you've got to know, now you answered in your own heart that you've come from God, in other words you've been born again don't get mixed up to salvation and new birth will you, they would all have said it should be joined but to keep what God is specifically saying, he never mixed it up, neither did any of the bible writers, these are doctrines built up you've got to go back to the original, salvation is included in new birth but very often you find that when people talk about salvation, new birth is not included in it because they're coarse, they're vulgar, they're not sweet, they call themselves saved but the whole purpose of salvation is not to save you from hell, it's to save you from sin, shaken in iniquity and you can't be forgiven for that, keep the two ideas clear in your mind and it shall forever be muddled and you'll muddle everybody else that listens to you you can't be forgiven for being born in sin, nothing to do with you, you can be forgiven for just being you, what nationality you are, you can't be forgiven for that, keep it clear that the lack of thinking is so obvious as you go into church after church that isn't to say if you're truly born again you are saved or forgiven, I wish people learned to distinguish in their thinking, that's the art of thinking, the ability if you like to split hairs, not merely split hairs, I've used a phrase to know what it is Jesus is specific when he said you must be born again it didn't just mean you've got to be forgiven, John Baptist preached forgiveness, Moses preached forgiveness upon certain conditions, neither of them preached new birth, I know I'm making you think and that's what I want to do I had to discover it, Jesus after John had baptised them, they'd all been forgiven, they'd all gone down into Jordan, they'd all been baptised, now they were church members weren't they, but they weren't church members and the one that John Baptist came into the world for to introduce, he comes to a lot of forgiven people and says you must be born, what we synthesise these things made one equal the other, but they are not equal Jesus is above all, his teachings are wonderful, they'd all been baptised in water, wouldn't you say they were all Christians, all Christians should be baptised in water, I'm not saying about them one girl, Nicodemus was staggered to his roots, they can coincide of course, forgiveness, they can coincide, not the same, and into Judas' heart had come the devil really get Jesus you know where they couldn't sit don't you, one of his own disciples betrayed him, what official teaching, of course he wasn't born again, but Jesus had forgiven him his sins over and over and over again you can't be born again, over and over and over again, or just born, put it on the human level, you can't be born again, that's what confused Nicodemus, man when he's old, into his mother's womb, and Jesus knew of course, he shot everyone, knew the man didn't understand I haven't got a clue, I sometimes think this when I stand up in churches to preach, I wonder how many have a clue, I must be honest with you, let's go on Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, now beloved you take this in, I ought to have another 6 years ahead of me in which to teach you these things, nearly every verse is tremendous listen, you've got to know that you've come from God and that you're going to God, notice he didn't say I've come from heaven and I'm going back to heaven, it's the church that's fallen into that trap, he's gone to make a new heaven and a new earth.

The New Birth as an Event in God

John's the one that tells us these things, can you see what it's all about, I was going to say the trouble with God, excuse me God, I don't mean that, he said he will forgive you, because he loves you I wonder whether he says, wonder when they realise, whether they ever will, they're leaving another birth, when by your birth you get the nature, by your birth, by that you become a child by birth of your mother and your father you don't get forgiven by birth, you've got nothing to forgive yourself, unless your mother thought you kicked a bit before you were born and hurt her, I don't know, don't you understand, this new birth that we come onto is an event in God oh you should see, I meet people who say, it isn't very long, you know, I'm married, well a performance, one or two people worship in this church, I'm as old as that, but the next thing I listen for is, that's an event, tremendous, in the mother there's nothing to do with you, it has an event in God, have you ever become an event in God, not just forgiven by God, you do see now don't you, at least I've tried to make it play, so that you understand there's no reason why forgiveness should not coincide why did you come with your whole being open and your understanding enlightened, cup of tea please I don't know how old he was, was eating his first food for so many days and he, as a member of the rescue team that picked him out of the pit of death, he'd been put in there with the dead corpses, a living little fellow, and he'd gone and taken him out isn't that wonderful, glory be to God, do you know how to cry, inwardly, though your face may be dry, you see inward crying is much better than those volumes of tears that might flow out of your eyes, I'm looking at a young lady, she could cry at the drop of a hat, she apologised to me once, she said I'm always crying, she's not now, but there it is you see there it is beloved, and I looked at this, now you sit and look at it with me will you, there he was, he was oblivious to everything, except a white hand that had a hold of his little hair, and his other hand was up, and then he said that soldier man, or relief man, he said I'm going to adopt him I'm going to make him my son, what do you think of that, praise the Lord, I thank God, and then I get to the place where I can't thank him any more, I've thanked him so much I just sit there and drink it all in and take it as being my own, it's all for me, I'm one of his special ones, I'm one of his favourite, oh you are too, don't think I but the trouble is you may not think that you see, you may not think you're so blessed, you may not, but I do, and I don't know how to express it, although I'm supposed to be able to express things, I don't know how to do it that's how God got, he couldn't say it any more, he said if you want to know what I've got to say, look at him, he's my word, I'm saying it all in my son, there are things you can't say, you've got to be something don't you understand, if God was just talk, where could we have hope, he is, Alpha, Omega, everything is compressed within it, within that there's my hope, that's where I began, I began in God by his grace so many maybe millions of years ago, I don't know, that's where I began, in the heart of God, oh come with me and join in the mystery of this great thing, let it grip you all to understand God is wanting to shed self eternity every day, every minute, he's wanting to do it, he's wanting to swallow us all up in love, he's taken our sin, he's done everything else, he's suffered and suffered and suffered for you and for me isn't it wonderful, he wants you to be able to lie back in the glory of this eternity and live, not like something you see on pictures with some man fat lounging back in a harem or something, not something that panders to the flesh something that's real and glorious, that's going to stand you when your body's rotted away in the ground and you'll never be thinking about flesh anymore, this is what it's about, this great and glorious love of God, he's given us things that we can enjoy while we're in the body, praise his holy name but all these rightly understood are to point you to the greater, the one who in simplicity and in purity and in dead honesty to you, created you first in his heart, in his spirit you, what he, shall I say imagined, I don't mean merely imaginary, what he imagined, you know that no artist in this world can ever draw a picture before he sees it first in his imagination no architect can construct a building or at least, but first he sees it in his heart, in his imagination, so with God, what he wanted for you and for me, beloved, you must not come short of it, you must not fail here you must have it all, it's a way beyond what any preacher has ever been able to tell you or any teacher able to explain to you, we have a mind, it comes in the mind and God speaks these precious things, written them in the book and there are some who've read the book longer than others and understand a little bit more about it but all, beloved, to lie on his breast, that's one of those great words of Wesley Stiltz, to lie at the foot of the rock or rise to be hid in his breast General Booth's favourite hymn, what a marvellous thing it is for us to understand, beloved, you've got to come into this world, friend, you've got to come, here's the world of the spirit and this is how God began it, nothing, nothing of man will ever do, you look out on this world and I've heard it said, you know, the sneers and the jeers, for instance, when I was quite a young fellow, I can remember when the 14 -18 war was over and men came home from the front and they lived their lives and then there was a general strike in England, this is where our family came right down that is, not my wife, I mean my mum and dad, I can remember having to, I don't like to say this, but my mother, my own precious mother, with children crying around her skirts and determined to go out and steal bread to satisfy her hunger nothing, you grumble, what are you grumbling about, if you hadn't wasted so much money you'd be alright, and just as she was going out the door to do it, they came and knocked, she opened the door and there stood a dear saint of God with a loaf of bread in her hand.

Gratitude, Providence, and Divine Sovereignty

God prevented my mother from committing a crime, for she would have done it for me, and my sister, she would have done it what mother would see her children starve, I talk about the drinks in the East End of London, these are the reasons, beloved you're rich, you're rich, you're well off, and if you complain any more you're complaining against God.

So you believe you're God's child, do you? You believe he's looking after you, do you? You say, yeah, but this government I've got to tell you friend, it's time you got away from governments, it's what Norman said, I agreed with him, we were having a chat about that, he stood up and he said, whatever happens to us it's God's will.

You see, the whole thing for us to understand, beloved, is this, let me keep saying it, God helped me to make it plain, there were those engaged in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, you see, and you will say that men crucified him, but you must know that it was God that had it done, don't you see, for you.

So you say, these wicked men, God says, oh no, I had it done for you, it's whether you're on one side or the other, it's whether your vision is right, it's whether your understanding has come to any kind of fruition in these great things.

I'm not talking about the devil imposing things on us, do you not see what it's about? Oh God, make us grateful, make us understand, we'll stop grabbing for this, that and the other, we'll stop being jealous of other people, we'll be grateful for what we have.

Bless the name of the Lord, this will kill ambition in you, the ambition that wants to climb up over somebody's head, standing on their shoulders, this will slay it, that you believe that promotion cometh from the Lord, as the scripture says, it doesn't come from man.

Beloved, it all started with God slaying the Lamb, his own Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, I don't know why, I think there are going to be some questions I'm going to say to the Lord, I think, why Lord, why, why did you begin upon this when you knew this was going to happen.

Why did you do it? And then perhaps he'll look at me and say, nothing, but just look into my eyes and heart and I shall know my answer, he loves me, he loves me. The world's gone wrong from the beginning, no correcting it, and if as you read on in this glorious book, come to chapter 16, I heard a great voice out of the temple, in heaven this is, saying to the seven angels, go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his name. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea, they're squabbling about who shall fish where these days.

They don't know this is ahead, perhaps they wouldn't believe it if they read the book, I think probably one of the most atheistic countries in the world is France, and they're squabbling about the fish quota now, I know there are others.

And so we go on, the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers, and fountains of water, and they became blood, and I heard the angel of the water say, thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and was, and shalt be, because thou hast judged us.

I wonder if all this talk about water, and putting up prices for us, whether they know there's an angel of the waters, I wonder if they do, do you? Do you thank God for water? You would if you were in Rwanda, or at least you thank something, somebody, just think, one of the things I want to do is make all English people ashamed of themselves for the way they grumble.

They're dead scared that somebody else is going to have something better than them, that's what it's all about, it's all jealousy, wrong and right doesn't enter into it, where eternal things are concerned, they may among men.

Everything is astray from God, there cannot be right in this earth, there never has been, and there never will be, that's the thing to get hold of, and understand it in your heart, and get it deep down inside.

I'm not preaching politics, I take no part in them whatsoever, I never have, I'm a bit too old to start, I think the more you get entangled in the politics of this earth, the less you'll know about the politics of heaven, and the Lord wants us to get into this.

We read it right on, and on, and on, and this angel, he says, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou judgest us, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy.

Do you think that it's righteous, do you, if you had to judge, you say, what men, all their source of water supplies turn to blood, you say, if he's a God of love, why doesn't he do this, why doesn't he do the other, why does he let this suffering take place, why these great diseases, why, why, why, the never ending question.

There can't be a God, or if he's a God, then he's not a God of love, that is the calculation of the human heart, and you watch it doesn't get into you, for you sometimes, I imagine, if you are a normal human being, will be asking, why, why, why, over a million people, yes they are now.

If they get that right, it will start again next year, there's no stopping it now, it's all going to gather apace, until the end, that's what it's going to do, nothing will stop it, nothing, get that deep into your heart, nothing is going to stop it, because of what?

They shed the blood of saints and angels, and prophets, verse 6, and thou has given them blood to drink, they're worthy, and I heard another out of the altar say, even so, Lord God almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire, and men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him the glory.

And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

You see, beloved, the judgments of God never bring men and women to repentance, never, they blaspheme him, blaspheme him, blaspheme him, that's what they do, beloved. It's not only because they've shed the blood of saints, I can think of people who've been cut down, think of people who've been tied at the stake in rivers to drown, think of people who tried to climb up, I think of the Quakers in their real beginnings when they were men and women of power, of God in this land.

They were shut up, I can never drive past, or go by train past a certain city in this country, when I think of the time when the Quakers, men, God's messengers to this country, they were put in there, and they were on the ground floor, and their food was put on the top floor, and a rope was tied to the ceiling and if they wanted food, they had to climb up this rope to eat it, and they used to try climbing at the end, and drop down dead, that's how men have treated the messengers of the gospel, English men.

This country is ripe for judgment, beloved, so is every country, don't you think it doesn't matter, it's God's mercy and God's grace, beloved, that he hasn't poured out judgment upon the whole world yet but he's going to, beloved, you're in this tent, you are accountable to God now, for hearing the gospel, you've heard it sung, you've heard it read, you've heard it preached, from now on, whether you be 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, or whether you go right up to 80 I think there may be somebody a bit older than that here, it doesn't matter, beloved, you've heard it, you've heard that God slew his lamb before the foundation of the world, in his heart, in the blessed mystery of redemption, he did it, friend, he did it, and you are accountable for that from the moment you've heard about it you are accountable to God, at first you may not have understood this, you might have groped through feedly, trying to get hold of something, something to hope in, something to trust in, something that will last you through the eternity, into which you enter every moment you breathe did you know that?

There's no going back, you can't be unborn, you can't touch the past, unless the Lord God himself, who knows every minute of your life and mine, looks upon you and me with mercy and with grace no hope whatsoever, punishment won't make you do it, punishment won't make you come, no, men's hearts can get so hard that when God does things they say God and they swear, they curse, I've heard them going back to that first world war again, I can remember when just a little chap, and I could see women, in the Methodist church, I think it was, where we went then, at that particular time, and the husband wasn't there, and the excuse the wife used to give was always this, he's seen so much, you know, in the war, he's seen so much don't want any more now, before the 1418 war, men used to flock to the churches with their wives, I'm talking statistics now, after the 1418 war, it was more women than men, because they made the excuse, we've seen terribly, there can't be a God, or if there is, I rebel against him men are still saying the same things, and women too, and yet, he loves them, it's all happened, beloved, because when God made man, although he'd already slain his land to redeem him, he went astray be sure, every one of you in this room, unless you are the Lord's, and walking on with him, your mind will be disaffected, it will be poisoned, you will ask questions, and questions will be asked you, you will be shown pictures, and you will be sick at the sight of them I mean proper pictures, say where they're running corpses into a mass burial ground, you see them, where's God in all this, you'll say, where is he, I'll tell you friend, he's knocking at your heart's door, and I tell you this, it will get worse and worse this last war was worse than the 1418 war, this last great famine, and exterminating death and plague, worse than anything before, and yet we're not in the time when God is going to pour forth his vials of wrath you know beloved, you must have wrath if you must have love, of course you must, anger against love being refused, not just love of a young man wanting to propose to a young girl, and she says no, and he murders her, or something like that, that's all wrong, I'm not talking about that I'm talking about this, there is wrath as well as love, and this word grace that we talk about is based upon the long suffering of the love of God that he holds back from doing what this world so richly deserves that's right, grace, to allow you and me time and opportunity to get it right with him the gospel doesn't touch you, suffering doesn't touch you, only to make you harder and more callous, all these other things are all there, served up to you from Satan into your receptive heart and mind, that's right and you believe it, and you side with it, and he who preaches the gospel is not one, what a tremendous state everything is in, that's the world now I'm going to ask you a question, is your name written in the book of the life of the Lamb, is it?

You see God foreknew it all, he saw what was going to happen, never took him by surprise, he compiled a book you're sitting there, you tell me whether your name's in that book, you can all ask me, point your finger at me, I'll tell you about myself, I can't tell you about you, I can only tell you about God and myself, basically because I believe other people's names are there, of course, but it comes to this, I must know for myself, beloved, this is all about eternity, all about eternity, no marks, no yen, no francs, no pounds, no dollars there, nothing what a tremendous and glorious future we have to look forward to, you will know, the biggest troubles in the world are all about money, aren't they?

Well aren't they? They're all about money, and God allowed his son to be sold for 30 pieces of silver, by a traitor, I always wonder why he didn't say, well that's enough, that's finished with the world, they crucified my son, let's blot it all out, let's start all over again so he said, no, wait a moment, there were the unborn millions that he foresaw, he wanted to give you, friend, whoever you are, whatever your age, he wanted you to have the opportunity of knowing love, real eternal love love that redeemed your life by shedding his precious blood, love that knew you didn't know, knew you didn't understand, knew you wouldn't, knew you would read the newspapers, knew you would hear the gossip, knew you would watch the television, knew you would listen to the radio he knew who your friends would be, who your neighbours would be, who your school teachers would be, he knows it all, friend, and he loves you, and that's what it's about, this gospel, to rescue you from hell, from Satan, from death, from yourself and all the stored up misrepresentations, misunderstandings, wickednesses, rescue you from it all, make you white, make you pure, make you clean, and say, I'm going to make a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness and you and I will not be there unless we are righteous, he's not having anybody there that's going to spoil this great new creation, nobody, so he proposes to make you new, while you're on this earth, absolutely new, whoever you are, whatever you've done wherever you come from, wherever you may hope you're going, he proposes to make you new on this earth, right down here, absolutely new, he's not just talking about forgiving your sins, that's a sort of a prelude to it all he's proposing that he will take your sins away and prepare your heart by his grace to have a tremendous change take place inside, he'll deal with you, your ego, your personality, the way you come over to other people, the sound of your voice the attitude that you take in this world, in your home, with your neighbor, he proposes to take you up and be made a new creature, who wants that?