Krauss, Fred: Sinners Justified 1Thes4

Even though they went to a gospel hall. The thing that I was concerned about before I got saved, I wanted to see if this thing was real. I wanted to find out if it worked, if there was really reality to it. Well, thank God I was brought in touch with Christians that really lived it. And he brought it up with the right one. Our brother Sam McCrady, who's in the glory tonight. My wife worked for a lawyer in Florida by the name of Mr. Webb. And he said to Helen one day, he said, there's only two real estate agents that I would trust in this country, and one of them is Sam McCrady. Wonderful to have a good testimony, a good ring, a good standing before unsaved men. Well, that's the class of people that I was brought in touch with in my unsaved days, and I could see. I didn't hear the gospel, I saw the gospel, a living example of what a Christian is all about. And I often wondered, I said, well, how come that, uh, they seem to be able to get through to God, and they have a portion of life, and they're satisfied with it? I couldn't understand how they could, uh, go to meetings and enjoy the Bible, and they seem to have a portion of life that they were satisfied with. I couldn't understand why I couldn't get through to God. Whatever was in front of me, whatever was the problem, I couldn't understand why I couldn't get through to God. I soon found out, and our brother has mentioned it, your sins and your iniquities have separated you from your God. Well, our brother is deep. I thought it's a very easy thing to point the soul to Christ once they find out they're lost. Once they find out they're a lost sinner. It's one thing to believe you're a sinner, but it's another thing to believe that you're a lost sinner. Hopelessly lost. Do you believe that tonight? Two men among us were having gospel meetings, and a woman attended those meetings, and, uh, they were quite anxious to find out what depth of concern there was, what interest, what real concern there was with regards to soul trouble and with regards to salvation. So they said to us, they said, uh, if a letter was sent to your house, addressed the sinner. What would you do with it? She said, I'll give it to my husband. See, that woman had never in her lifetime been singled out as sinner. I'll never forget fifty one years ago, in the city of Florida, my father's home, in the front bedroom of that home. I remember getting down on my knees and my own simple way, and I had my own prayer too. Does God hear the prayer of sinners? Well, he hears this one. I remember saying, and I meant it, and I believed it. I said, Lord, I'm ungodly every minute, and I deserve to be in hell. I deserve to be punished in hell, Lord, forever for the sins that I've been guilty of. And I believed that, and I meant that. The preachers never had to labor the point when it came to hellfire and everlasting punishment. I knew that if I died the way I was, I'd be in hell, I'd be lost in hell forever. The moment I took that place, it wasn't too long. I was in Christ. Because quick as a flash, I didn't even have the verse open in the Bible, but those words flashed into my mind. Christ died for the ungodly. Five words, a five-word telegram from heaven. Christ died for the ungodly. And I remember saying to myself, if he died for the ungodly, blessed be his name, he died for me. Have you taking that in? The Lord Jesus went to Calvary to settle the sin question Godward and to purchase the right to become the door to heaven. That's what happened at Calvary. And you know when that door was open. Over nineteen hundred years ago, at the place called Calvary, the Lord Jesus tried triumphantly. It is finished. And the door to heaven is open. And it's just like the door to tabernacle, it never closes day or night. In a church in New York, they have over the archway there, very fashionable church, the gate to heaven, and at the side of the church they had a temporary sign, closed during July and August. Well, thank God the door we're talking about tonight never closes. Hallelujah. Never closes, even while we're laying on our bed sleeping, and, uh, the most of us sleep pretty sound, possibly snore like hogs at night. Even while we're sleeping and slumbering, souls are entering in. You know, I heard a man, and, uh, he said in ministry, uh, the Lord Jesus said, when Peter made that noble confession, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus said, upon this church, upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And he made the statement, Christ is building his church, not when you're having gospel meetings. Whether you're having gospel meetings or whether you're not, Christ is building his church. We put a lot of stock in preaching, you know, and we think God depends on preaching. Why, if we only had, uh, so and so here, why we'd have a time of revival, and we see souls there. Christ is saving souls, and they're being added to the building, and uh, the church will soon be completed. And it doesn't matter whether we have meetings or whether we're not. We believe in heaven's offering, but Christ is building and adding to the church. I am the door, says Christ. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. What kind of people enter in? Sinners. All that sin, our brother has said, and come short of the glory of God. Look, my friend, if there's a soul in this audience tonight that's really convinced that they're a sinner, I'll feel well rewarded for being up here. If, uh, sin is your trouble and your disease and your problems, and you're convinced that you're a sinner, I have good news for you. God's good Sunday evening news. What is it? This man received a sin. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's the class of people that enters in. And you'll notice that it's a question of the will. I am the door by me if. My, there's so much depends upon that little word if. It's been called the golden hinge of the Bible. If any man enter in, behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice. Isaiah one, if he be willing and obedient, he shall eat the good of the land, but if he refuse and rebel, he shall be devoured with his soul. God never saves his soul against their will. God never forces his salvation on anybody. And it's a wonderful thing to have your will broken and your pride humbled and to be really conquered by the gospel. That took place in my life thirty nine years ago. And I'm thankful to God that I entered in. I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, shall be saved. What is entering? One step will put you in Christ. Here you are in your sins, in darkness, without hope, without God in the world. One step will put you in Christ. God put Noah in the ark, and he put Moses in the cleft of the rock, and he'll do the same for you tonight. There is therefore now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. I remember when I come out of that front room, I can hardly believe it, like my brother here, uh, we were outsiders as far as the gospel was concerned. I went to the gospel hall Sunday school, but I remember going into that front room, a child of the day. My soul was as black as midnight, and I wandered on in the darkness, not a ray of light could I see, and I wondered if Christ would be, would save a person like me. I read it, I wondered. I come out of that bedroom on my way to heaven, a child of God in the family of God, and I want to tell you, I became a priest. Five minutes on the way to heaven, I, I, I worship, I commenced to worship. Isn't that unbelievable? Never went to any theological seminary, had no instruction about assembly principles. I remember sitting down by the, by the big easy chair in my father's home, and I remember seeing, uh, saying these words. I said, oh God, I thank you for sending Jesus all the way from heaven to die on the cross. And I want to tell you, I did it a lot better that day than I did this morning. The tears took me down my cheeks. That's worth it. Thankful that God I was saved. Even told the dog I was saved. Sure did. The old Salvation Army man says, when he was trying to give his testimony, about three or four beat him out, and one man was moving towards the platform, and the chaplain then was just barely busting to get out of. Oh man, he said, let me out of the wrong bus. Let me tell them how I got saved. Sounds humorous, but my, I was certainly happy that day. He is emotion, you better believe it. Conversion is the most emotional experience a person can go through in life. I, I, I, I, I, I don't have too much confidence in dry-eyed conversions. I'm talking about real tears, not crocodile tears, real tears. My, I remember when I come out of that funky room with the realization, my, when I drop off my knees, I need the burning thing is gone. And the other side. My dear mother was away that afternoon, in fact, my father away, and my brothers. And there's one thing about the old timers that a good smeller, they had good discernment, tremendous lack of discernment today among us. I remember and opened the door to meet my mother. She took one look at me, she sat down. What? You saved. I said, yes, mother. She this afternoon, upstairs. I said. And I was in the hallway of our home. Her shoulder and mine were left together, not tears of sorrow, man, tears of gladness. Imagine a soul being saved from the lowest hell, saved for the highest heaven. Greatest experience in life. I said to a little fella last Sunday night at the gospel meeting, he said, are you saved some? Yes, he said, I am. And I said, well, that's the most important thing, he said, sir, the most important thing in life, he said, that God's salvation can years of age. God bless him if he really has the root of the matter in him, and I believe he has. Christ opens the door. But look, my friend, if you don't obey the first text, you're going to learn the meaning of the second text that I read. The same hand that opened the door will close the door. And when that happens, abandon all hope. Once that happens, then, look, I was thinking while I brought it was speaking, there's two things to feel you do tonight. Death or the coming of the Lord. Either one. Once you step off the shore of Sinai and leave this life, your destiny is fixed, it's final, it's complete. Nothing can reverse it. There is a place, and I say it reverently, there is a place where God will not save, and there is a place where not even the blood of Christ will save. God never reaches down into hell to save a soul. My Bible tells me a great ransom cannot deliver thee. There's no gospel of the second chance. This is the time. This is the first one. We take it. And the other event that considered your doom is the coming of the Lord. When once the master host rises up, when will that take place? When the Lord comes, and we're on the verge of it. All the pieces are coming together like a jigsaw puzzle. God has the nations lined up, the, the stage is set, and some of the actors are on the stage. I wouldn't be surprised. Now, don't go away and say that Mr. Pearson said it. It could be. It could be that the Antichrist is in training right now, because he's going to be a military man. I'm not saying he is, but it could be. My, when that takes place, and there's nothing to hinder that, we believe in the prophetic prophecy there in First Thessalonians, the Lord shall descend from heaven to the earth with the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and gave him Christ the right face. Who will be on the inside when that happens? Once you read this, and you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, all those that had accepted Christ will be on the inside. Who will be on the outside? Here's a class of people, and they said, the gospel was picked up on our streets, in our streets. We have eaten and drunk in thy presence. They were on the outside. I have a cousin. I think, uh, I've had her up to a number of series of meetings in memos. She came from England. We have a battle royal every time we meet. Religious to the eyeball. Devoted to the church morning, noon, and night. And I don't know how many times I've quoted verses like our brother read tonight. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Do you think Mary will believe that? He said to Beth, my first wife, when we went there one day, he said, you know, uh, Beth, she said, Frank doesn't believe that I'll get to heaven by a good life. But you don't believe him, do you? Beth said, I go a hundred percent all the way with what Frank said. And yet, the whole peninsula that I say, Mary tonight is still unsaved. Eighty years of age. Still unsaved. She still thinks that she'll get to heaven. But my friend, it's utterly impossible for God to take you to heaven without Christ. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Utterly impossible for God to take you to heaven without trusting Christ, apart from works. There's a good deal said in the Bible of the coming of the Lord. We get it in the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the last book of the Bible. Behold, I come quickly. Why, the Bible gives us the fact of his coming. Can't be true of very much in this life. Can't be true of your wealth. May have lots of money tonight, penniless tomorrow. Heard of a man in the States, Christian, Ten million gone down the drain, built up an empire, lifetime worth, all gone down the drain. In the assembly, they can't be sure of your, uh, your money. Can't be sure of your health either. Maybe healthy and strong tonight, on a sick bed tomorrow. Can't be sure of your friends either. You may have a host of friends tonight, be friendless tomorrow. But I'll tell you one thing you can be sure of, the promises of God. What God has said he will carry out. Behold, I am from them. That promise is going to be fulfilled on the earth. The time of his coming, just in the hour that we think not. Be also ready for in such an hour as we think not, the Son of Man comes. Men have set dates for the coming of the man over in Italy. He said on a certain day, in a certain month, in a certain year, Christ is going to come. That day passed like any other day. The day is unknown. God only knows that day and that hour. But friend, before I close this meeting, I want you to think of the results of this time. I have a pretty good imagination, spiritual things are safe with a good imagination, as long as your imagination doesn't run away with you. I've often sat and said to myself, what would happen right now if the Lord was to come? Right now. five minutes after eight. What do you think would happen right now if the Lord was to come? Well, the people's voice would be silenced, would be hot, and numbering it party would rise to meet the Lord as a flash of lightning will rise to meet the Lord. And there's some in this audience will be left behind. The Word of God bears out that pri- uh, that principle. Two shall be sleeping in the same bed, one shall be taken, the other shall be left. Two grinding at the mill, one shall be taken, the other shall be left. I know that's in judgment, but the principle is there. But eternal separations when the Lord comes. My dear woman down in the States there, and she's a complete outsider. She got saved, and her husband didn't, and he was raised in a Christian home. Mr. Ramsey and Mr. Howard are having a meeting. A good wife, a spiritual woman, is a great blessing in a man's life. And, uh, so he was getting the idea, you know, he was trying to make himself believe that he was saved. And, uh, he said, I like to understand my history, and I feel at home, and I'm not under any strain of... One night, he came home from a meeting, and she said, uh, I have to really level off with these men. Looked him right in the eye. Now she said, don't get me wrong, we had a good relationship right down the line. I'm very thankful for that. I've forgotten his name now, but she says, look, and she broke down inside. She said, I can't bear the thought of being in heaven and you're not by my side. She said, look, you're not saved. Don't masquerade any longer. Don't you be putting on a front. Try to make yourself believe you're saved. She said, you're not saved. Went in the bedroom, left him there till he really took it over. Sometimes we talk too much, you know, we cloud things by words. Let the thing soak for a while. Boy stood there in the living room, and he looked out the living room window. And he said, it's true. It's true. I'm not a Christian. I'm not saved. Went into the bedroom, he says, my dear, you're right. But I must say, before that night closed, before that night became history, thank God he was in Christ. My friend, how would the coming of the Lord find you tonight? Mr. McClure, expositor of the word, I heard him in my early days, heard a few men. It is found in the scriptures, I keep this, W. J. McClure, for evil man in scriptures. He stayed with this dear woman. She was deaf and dumb, could neither speak nor hear. And he said she could describe the coming of the Lord far better than I can preach it. He said, I remember when I stayed with her for four or five weeks having meetings in that part of the country, and when I was leaving, I walked down, uh, the gravel walk there to the gate, and, uh, she walked down with me. She was just, uh, a little slip of a woman. He was a giant of a man. Very man in appearance, but he was in his room. And so he said she always had a message for me. When we got to the gate, she put down his wrist and he looked at her, and her face just beamed, just radiant, put her hand on her wrist. Up from it. And she placed her hand on him and herself, and she went. And Nitin Afir looked at her. Amen. Amen. I wonder if we in the people of God believe that tonight. I know we hold it as a doctrine, but is the coming of the Lord a living reality in your life? Perhaps today he may come. Joe McBride and Shelly told me one night, Frank, I was getting ready for a gospel news, and he says, I was up in my, uh, uh, the front bedroom, down on my knees, crying to God. You know, if you think preaching is easy, you come and try it for a while. Just give it a try. You know what, uh, something? I would rather haul cement eight hours a day, speaking after the manner of men and speaking after the flesh. Rather do that, come home and have a hefty meal and roll into bed and, uh, sleep like a baby. Preaching the gospel is not easy. We feel the burden of representing God. We really do. Sometimes we hardly know what to teach, and sometimes we wonder what it's going to take to awaken. Looking at bride is down on his knees, wondering what to teach about. He's just below the window, the children are playing that old familiar game, hide and seek. Here is a little fella up at the pole there, and he said, "Nine fifty, ninety seven, ninety eight, ninety nine." Ready or not, I promise. That's what the little fella cried at. Ready or not, I promise. Mr. McBride said, there's the message. Look, my friend, one of these days, and possibly sooner than you realize, Christ is going to say, ready or not, I'm coming. Saved or unsaved, righteous or unrighteous, believer or unbeliever, godly or ungodly, I'm coming. Ready or not? Why, thank God I'm ready. Mr. Howard and I went into a home in Vancouver, never met the lady in our lives before, Mrs. Trent. When we entered the room, she said, well, she said, I don't know you men, never met you, but she says there's one thing I do know, you're Christians. You belong to the Lord, as the best of us say. Peaches of the gospel. Well, she says, wonderful that you came to visit me. Now, she says, I want you to do three things, and I would to God that all our visits were characterized by these three things. She says, before you leave this room, I want you to read the Bible, to pray, and I want you to sing together. So, one of us read the Bible, then, uh, had a word of prayer, and Mr. Howard in his early days, you know, he didn't carry a pen. I don't know why he doesn't use it more now, because I was thrilled when he would put in with a tenor. He could really handle it. And, uh, we stood by that woman's bedside. She's, she's paralyzed on one side, and we stood there and we sang Some Golden Gables. Jesus will. Some Golden Gables, battles all won. We'll shout the victory right to the base, some golden day for you, for me. I can see him yet. He got up on one side of his body. With a picture of him, he says, hallelujah. Let it come, he says, the sooner the better. The sooner the better. Wonderful thing to be ready, isn't it? Isn't it a wonderful thing that Stanley Brady was ready? Wonderful thing that that young man was killed in a car accident was ready. Look, I don't know how I'm going to die, whether I'm going to go by the grave or by the sky to save. Thank God I'm ready, if I never reach home tonight. Thank God I breathe my last in this life with the absence from the body, present with the Lord. Christ opens the door, and it's open to you tonight, are you going to enter in? Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise stand faith. Christ closes the door, the same hand that opened it. My friend, in that hand, all things stand. Shall we pray? Our Father, we draw near to thee now at the close of this Lord's day, and we thank thee for the preaching of the gospel in this hour that we spent together. Thank thee for the interest of thy people that has made it possible to have a gospel meeting here tonight. We thank thee for those that are saved and have experienced what it means to be born again, what it means to be saved, and they're ready for death or for the coming of the Lord. Remember the unsaved in this audience that are not saved. Oh God, we trust they'll hear thy voice. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. We trust they'll hear thy voice and respond to it, realizing they're a sinner in need of salvation, and may they have the needed grace from thyself to enter in while there's room. Soon the door will close, and gospel meetings and invitations will all be a thing of the past. God bless thy word. Be pleased to draw near in a very definite way, and lead some souls to Christ even now. We pray that they'll not only be convicted, but that they'll be saved by thy sovereign grace. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.