Heaven Can Wait — Aimee Semple McPherson

The Urgency of Eternity

Heaven? Heaven can wait? So said several people during the lifetime of the Bible, historians, and during modern life. The people of Noah's days said, oh, heaven can wait, but the fire came and took them away.

Heaven can wait, said the people of Noah's day, but the floods came and covered them in the midst of their sin. Heaven can wait, said the rich man, my barns are filled, and I have much good for many days, and that night he died.

And then whose were these things that he'd worked so hard to attain? First for is to decide once and for all where we're going to spend eternity. No question can possibly be so vitally important as that.

Life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf or the binding of a sheath. It is therefore very important that we decide once and for all that we will live for Jesus Christ, who came into this world to die that men might be redeemed.

Belshazzar and the Warning of Daniel 5

Today, the falling back of Poland, by the radio commentators whose voices came in from London, from Berlin, from Paris, from New York, of the Red Army as they moved in from Russia, solid walks and phalanxes.

Watching the people caught in the pinchers, as they themselves described it, and yet bravely trying to resist till the last, reminds me of tonight's chapter. For I have settled on the fifth chapter of Daniel as a theme, for heaven can wait, or man's opinion that it can wait.

Belshazzar and his people are much like the people of 1939. Grandfather thought that real godly men never could neither had had a definite experience with God beyond question of adultery. He knew what it was to pray, he knew what it meant to backslide in state of his God and the glory of the Lord in his heart.

But some of us who are younger on the American continent know that our forefathers brought the Bible. We know that they were men of prayer. We know that we like to square our shoulders and sing our father's God to thee, author of liberty, our father's God.

But what about our God? What about our God? If the Bible that came over him a loaf of bread and the Mayflower won't suffice, what about our Bible? And is it in our heart? Belshazzar had backslidden as the fifth chapter opens.

And though he had a very definite warning, a warning that has come to America and has come to the whole world, he did not repent. I believe a good revival will do all of us good, don't you? Say amen out there.

You say, well sister, are you going to preach about the handwriting on the wall? I am. You know, a little boy went home one day after hearing this chapter at not a fifth Sunday school, but another church.

And his mother said to him, well darling, what did they talk about at Sunday school today? He said, they talked about Amy, Amy Sample McPherson. He had it all wrong. It is meanie, meanie, tickle your person.

But he just had the name all mixed up in his little boy's mind. So much so that it got in the newspapers. But with a smiling aside tonight, God is still speaking to the world. Let us see if we can cause a story to rise before our minds.

National Repentance and the Need for Revival

The enemy is at the gate to the country. We would like to say America is a hundred percent for America. And yet we know that right in our country, we have people who are absolutely un-American. Lord, help us to live a godly, Christian, Bible-influenced life.

Amen? Till there's no room for anyone except those who love our God, the God in whom we trust. If people like the other way of living, let them go back to their own country and live that way. But over here, give us our God and give us our Bible is a prayer of our heart.

Belshazzar Chooses Feasting Instead of Fasting

...to Belshazzar. God has called him to fast. Belshazzar resorts to feasting. But the enemy is at his gate. But he said, look for the enemy. And my boss, I'll overwhelm him by showing him my power. Beloved, this is once when Belshazzar needed God.

He needed prayer and he needed to know that he was in a place where God was with him. It isn't so much a case of how strong or weak we are. We need to be right with God. Someone once said to Abraham Lincoln, well, I hope God's on our side.

He said, I'm not so much concerned about that, but I'm concerned whether or not I'm on God's side. Lord, help us to be on God's side. And so Belshazzar the king said, we will set a great feast. Not a great fast.

Instead of putting on sackcloth and ashes, let feasts, come slaves, set for God, let visitors assemble. And so the game caroling began. Happily, we read that the king entertained and drank wine before 1000 of his lords.

His warlords and his admirals and his chiefs and his concubines and his mighty men. Come, come to the feast. I see them gathering now. Here they come. The scene is called merrymaking. Listen to the radio to hear the great crisis of a world and then turn it immediately.

Oh, well, let's forget that. Let's have a little jitterbug music. Let's have a little bit of bravado. Why? We're the very same as they were back there. They dressed a little differently, but here is merrymaking.

He says, ha, let's have a good time. Let's forget that the enemy is at the gate. Come to welcome you royally. One of my princes stands at the gate. And next comes riches and takes a bow. He is followed closely by carnality.

Ah, he says, the things of this world are the pleasant things. I have no thoughts for eternity. Drunkenness, of course, attends among the thousands of the lords. Evolution and unbelief is invited to come right in.

War comes to the front and takes a bow, but the doors of Belshazzar are open. Avarice is among the guests. Here also comes vice and his cousin impiety. He doesn't know piousness at all. Profanity is one of the guests.

Frivolity, indeed, follows closely upon his heels. Jollity, guaranteed to be the life of every party, is absolutely. Have the people in the aisles rolling in laughter. Oh, we must have jollity. What does it matter if the enemy is at the gate and civilization is tottering on the brink of chaos?

What does it matter? Forget it. Stretch up the band. Music, maestro, please. Jollity is followed by pride and position, one by one. And the concubines and beautiful of the women come to gather and welcome them there.

So he says, I'll show the Medes and Persians and old Cyrus. He thinks that he can overtake my country. I have no need of prayer. I'll slap God right back with my answer. Feast, not fast, not fast. And so began the joy.

False Security and the Desecration of God's Temple

And now they're only to wait for the king. But remember, they're waiting in false security. But they say, oh, we'll never be forced to surrender. Why, the king would never offer to drink wine in our presence unless he was sure that all was well.

And now the compass sound. Thomas Johnson is taking the part he might have been taking. Says Belshazzar, he couldn't find. He says, let's pour forth the wine. Such wonderful wine. Such lovely wine. Ah, the sweetest of the countryside.

Let us be drunken. Don't worry with their cares. But we of Babylon wish a glory in the vine. Suddenly a thought occurs to the king. He says, why, after having tasted this wine, I realize that we should have better cups to drink it in.

Well, strike the gong, please. My servants to the temple, great God's temple. Bring in the gold and the silver vessels that were used upon the table of the Lord when they served the holy race, where the high priest did show forth the love of God.

Bring in the gold and the silver vessels from the temple of the Lord, and we'll drink wine. And this they did. Desecrating God's house, declaring that he no longer lives, heaven can wait. Why, it would be impossible for Cyrus to be digging in underneath.

Brother, you don't have to hear an airplane overhead or see a hand grenade burst. The enemy has flyer ways of digging under a niche in the mat. He can begin with your school children after school hours.

He can begin by pamphleteering, or he can begin by talks that will lead them away from God, and away from Christ, and away from the Bible, and away from the things that we know are the only rocks of ages that will stand.

Ah, the king said, Merriman, bring forth the girls of my court, and let them sing, and be glad and joyful before me. And as they gathered up, their garments rounded up, is in the air, lots of gold. The difference in dancing.

They've gotten away past the jitterbug, where is it now, the daisy or something? That's the way up the road, I know. They forgot great king, who now makes a feast, and he goes, drink up, my lads, drink up, ladies, drink up, Clark, and be welcome.

The Handwriting on the Wall

When suddenly a strange thing happens. First like trickling water, and then, a portion of a man's hand. The hour struck him, a strange fear has gripped Wall Street. It's gripped down the hearts of the nation.

It's gripped the stock exchange over London, and in Paris, and in Berlin. It's gripped by heartstrings, and what, what, what, what is this all? And suddenly, down, everyone, a portion of a hand is, do you see it?

The portion of the hand begins to write. It's not your language, no one but him that writes it. If such fear, a portion of a hand, what would the nation fear if they saw God's whole arm laid bare? If they said, God revealed, an important issue is our soul's salvation.

The hand is writing, Mimi, Mimi, Tico, Hugh Farson, the women at the feast, who had been his partners in jealousy, are now his partners in fear. The sight of him, confidence was changed. His color came and went.

His joints were, were dislocated because of the greatness of his fear. Physicians would tell us that's accompanied by great pain in the spine. That's influenced him to die of shock. Why? You don't know what it means, O King?

What, how do you know that it doesn't say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year? What are you so afraid for? You can't read it. Ah, therein is a sinner condemned, thine own sins have condemned thee already.

Get this with the finger of God, it could write no good of him, God must say. And so he fell. The duologers, tell me there's four big stars near the moon right now. What are they? Mars duologers, they're the diplomats.

If you wanted anything in your life, now's your chance. With chains of heady gold, it gives you to do one thing. Now look first, wise men, do you see that writing? Oh yes, King, we see it, we are of a tremble.

No. Studying the stars and casting everybody's horoscope and telling them all their history, past and present. Can you tell me what that means? We're not going to line up with Russia, our neighbor country, Canada, to be plungered in a long war.

You say, that's right, I don't know the answer. Well, I hope to God it's not so. Then I would say to you, God's finger is writing on the wall of the world today, every prophecy ever made here of wars and rumors of wars before the coming of the Lord.

But the wise men say, we cannot read it, that's the paper. And they say, oh, and you give the devil a little bit and he'll grab that up and he'll ask for more of your heart and of your life. And I say, friends, now's the time to make a psalm for God.

Fasting, Revival, and the Failure of Worldly Wisdom

We can never fight the enemy by feasting, it must be by fasting. These wise men were dealt with honorable, followers of their own best beliefs. They praised the gods of wood and stone and silver. But when you got them over in their sacred things, they were out of their sphere.

They were like a fish out of water. It was like a certain man who doesn't live so very far away from Los Angeles, was making a motion picture some years ago of the life of Christ. And he came to the scene of the twelve of supper and he walked up on the lot and he asked the man who was producing it, how much cost?

He said, this one scene costs a hundred thousand dollars for the fine details of the Lord's supper. And the man blew up. He said, what? What do you mean? One thousand dollars to feed twelve men? For why?

A thousand men for that amount of money at the Lord's supper. He couldn't understand the difference. Friends, if you take people out of their own sphere, they're into a world altogether different. And the wise men and the diplomats and the toothsayers and chaldeans are helpless.

Friends, do you know that God is writing on the wall? America, do you believe God is calling the people today for a great revival? A national calling upon God. Say amen. And I say back to the family altar, back to the old Bible and back to the beautiful figure coming in, a brethren aged lady and the queen mother of the court makes her appearance.

Daniel Interprets the Judgment

And she says, okay, I have not come to your feast, but I've come to tell you, give up hope until you've talked. Listen, my dear, I've just come from my own room to tell you that even though you've forgotten God, there's a man in the country that hasn't forgotten God.

I've been so busy taking orders of the BC egg tax. But listen, the enemy is here and there's God's hand on the wall. Send for Daniel. It can do no harm. The kings are all right and thank you for coming to bring this to my attention.

Call. Have Daniel brought. Call. God never forgets. And when the world cannot understand, then sometimes we go to church and send the preachers. Call. Quickly. And quickly in is brought Daniel, who is a living, a quiet, retired life.

Good old king, what is your pleasure? Is it Daniel? I understand the truth of all God. They tell me you know how to pray. Well, if you do, you're the only one of us that remembers how to pray. They tell me you can read whatever God writes.

Well, we've forgotten. We've lost the art. Tell us and we'll give you robes of beautiful purple and of red and we'll give you chains of gold. Daniel says, your gifts be to yourself or to another. You're in a fine position to offer me gifts when your whole kingdom is being taken underneath you and you don't even know the past is being hacked to blow up like a bomb right underneath you.

I'd like to get them, please show him the robes, show him the wonderful things I have for him. For all these treasures are yours. Take them. Well, then please read this. Can you read this? Can you read this?

He said, yes, I can read it. Incredibly, Daniel's voice reads for you, Darson, the word, simplicity, men to live and rise in their day and their empires and pile up their pyramids and then the whole drop of Napoleonic power, Zoroastrian power, whatever it is, is full.

God just nips it off at the top and lets it fall. Numbers, numbers, and the next word, personal, it means everybody says, numbered, numbered, ways, broken, language, picture of wine in front of an oncoming racing locomotive that shattered into a thousand bits, for years, leaves no time now to repent.

And all his people were too late. They were lost. The sword ran into the hilt and came out red with blood. He said, your, your time is past, and when the wall opens, no life remains, is gone. God has been laughed at once too often.

Numbers, heaven can wait. In that very night was Belshazzar's flame with a sword. His palace was overthrown and all of his kingdom conquered, and God truly measured and decided. It wasn't just a Polish corridor, but they made more than a corridor through his country for his soul, never gone.

The Coming Judgment and the Call to Choose God

Heaven laid above the ground. It's neither our father, or because our chosen fathers believed in God, terrified we're all set. Let us say, in my father's house, my savior still lives. The invisible hand, who's written with wars and rumors of wars, and the big people, he's worthy.

Now, heaven cannot wait. As a nation, we come, and we rise up, and we say, Lord, fill us with your glory, and let us know thee, whom the Lord writes is life eternal, and must be born again. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleansed us from all sin.

The Altar Call for Revival and Salvation

Shall we all bow our heads? With every head bowed, I'm going to ask, if every single person in the building that agrees with me, that we need a real revival, would say amen right now. On the main floor, instead of dividing you all up in sections, I think we're just in one mind here, will everyone lift your hand?

Who's a systemic person? I want to have his way with me. I want to be a real Christian. And for the things of the faith of our fathers, will you lift your hand? Everyone, please lift your hand. I'm proud of you.

Friends, will you all lift your hands? Come on, in a deep hurry to others. That's right, all through the whole house, hundreds of hands. Lift your hands, everyone, please. Now, up in the first balcony, the three center sections, upper and lower, will you all lift your hands, please?

All the wedding friends, will you all put your hands up and say, I want to live so God can bless me and use me. That's it. At my right, you can lift your hands. Everyone lift your hands. At my left, you can lift your hands.

God bless you. Now, in the third floor, way up there in the top gallery, you've been brave to stay up there this warm evening. In the three center sections, will everyone lift your hand? If the sister includes me in that prayer.

Move your hands on that side. At my right, lift your hands. Way up in the corner there, at the top gallery, lift your hands. At my left, in the top gallery, will you lift your hands? Young man, lift your hands.

Way up at the top row there, little young ladies, lift your hands. All right. Will everyone in the village, and some many standing at the door, will you lift your hands, too? Those of you standing outside, if you didn't like to come in and disturb the service, lift your hands.

Oh, you say, oh, Sister, I know that God's way is the right way. Lift your hands. All right. Now, will everyone stand, please, who lifted your hands, all over the building. Everyone who lifted your hands, stand up, or I'm going to pray for you, and you better lift.

Will you all stand, please? Everyone stand, all over the whole house. You can pray with me, Sister. I want to be a real Christian. I want to live for God with all my heart. Everyone stand, please. Will you all stand, all over the building.

Everyone's where I want to be, what God would have me to be. How many out there know you are a Christian? Say amen. How many know that you make lots of mistakes, though, and you'd like to be more like Christ?

Say amen. Will you get up to your feet? Come on, now. Let God speak to you. Let the Holy Spirit deal with you. Stand up. Oh, and I'll pray aloud with me. Dear Lord Jesus, they confess you, for men, everything.

Wash me in my precious blood, so that I may walk in robes of white. Lord, I, in the word of God, I believe in the precious blood, and I believe in the Holy Ghost, blood to my heart, for Jesus' sake. Everybody remain standing.

As you remain standing, wonders, you bring them down with you. We're all going to gather right around the entire front, and I'm going to meet every one of these personally, and I'm going to have a seat down here at the front for them to stay afterwards.

Everyone come forward, and let's all gather. Everyone come from the gallery, please, and from the balcony. Just come from every direction, and a tax from all places, with people who say, by God's grace, I wanted to have His way with me.

How many out there know that Jesus is your Savior? Put your hands up. Way up, now, if you really know it. Oh, I'm a Christian, but I have so many faults, and I want to live more like Jesus. Put your hands up.

How many want to be more like Jesus than you are, really be real Christians? I mean, just joining a church isn't enough? You want to be born again? Come on. Come on, now, just get right up to your feet, and come on.

Give these people a little bit of encouragement. You know, that takes a lot of faith. That takes a lot of grit to do that. Come on, everyone. Just say, oh, Jesus, just as I am, I'm coming. Jesus, without one plea, just as I am.

How many others would say, such a nice person, pray for me, too? You know, I'd be the miracle if it happened to you right here tonight. God can save your family. God can save your home. Won't you come down?

And always remember, I broke out. You came down here to see me first and preach on heaven can wait. You decided it couldn't wait. You saw the handwriting on the wall, and you said, oh, God, won't you come?

Just square your two shoulders back. Get on those feet of yours, and come on. Come on. Won't you come on? Let the tears roll down your face. Just bring them. God bless you. There's another star for your crown.

Sing softly, congregation. This should come right now. If not by your merit, but by his precious blood, you'll believe you'll be ready to meet God. Stand up, will you? You believe as far as the blood of Jesus is concerned, that you're under his blood.

You're the witness in your soul that you're a born-again child of God. You believe his Bible, sing for Christ. Now, just stay up on your feet, and I want you to sing that verse just as I am. And, oh, workers, will you go down every aisle and speak to the people who are sitting down?

Speak to every person that's seated, and say to them, brother, will you come? Sister, will you come to the altar? And come down with them. Come on, just as I am. Workers, and Susan, will you go speak to everyone?

Ushers, go to work. Don't stand there looking. Go speak to every person who's sitting down, and bring them with you, if you can. Just as the tears are running down their cheeks and faces, they're here now.

Bow down. You may be seated. Now, those who are in the audience, I know that if I should die tonight, I'd be ready to meet the Lord. I just love you for your honesty. Couldn't anything be better than that?

Perhaps the question is in your mind, well, would I know if I was saved? Brother, I think there are thousands here who'd shout the answer for me. Saved or not, that we are the child of God. When we're saved, you're saved, and you know it.

When you're not, well, then you're not. Because if you were, you'd know it. Your whole life would be turned over anew, and you'd be born again. And now, shall we pray? Everyone pray. Is anyone with that young couple?

Bless their heart. Dear Lord Jesus, I kneel at your feet. At the foot of the cross, I surrender my life. And by your grace, I'll obey you. Now, will you register each of these as soon as they're ready to go?

Closing Prayer and Invitations

And don't forget, I'm preaching Thursday night, and my subject Thursday night is to be an illustrated sermon. The sauce and the fire. And everyone here is to be dressed in icicles or else be on fire. So be sure to be here.

And Wednesday afternoon, we pray for the sick. And by God's grace, I'm preaching on the book of miracles. And next Sunday morning, and don't forget, a week from tonight, my topic is, Here Comes the Bride.

And there will be one of our loveliest young ladies who is to be wedded next Sunday evening. People are still coming to the altar and still praying. Let's give them a moment. It's time. I don't like to hurry them.

And Brother Tepert, will you lead a song while I take a moment out here to get ready for the wedding. And all those who came forward, please see that they get seats near the front for the wedding itself.

The Lord bless you.

All right, let's sing together. Where he leads me, I will follow. These at the altar are finding Christ. May God bless them and take them all the way with him.

Where he leads me, I will follow.