At the cross, at the cross, there I first saw light, and the burden of my heart all went away in the way. I guess I didn't have proper communications with Brother Don about the trio singing at the close. We're just not prepared for that, so there won't be any trio at the close, but perhaps you would like to have a closing song at the close of the meeting. Shall we look in our Bibles to a few scriptures this evening? Perhaps we could just start with a little thought from the fourth chapter of John's Gospel. John's Gospel in the fourth chapter. And I'm really not going to read here very much, but, um... I'm going to talk about five different kinds of people tonight, and, um, I would like for you to check out very carefully, as carefully as you can, just exactly where you, uh, would like to line up yourself and where you do fit into the picture as we present these five points tonight. And I'm going, once again, to strive for extreme simplicity, because I make no apologies for saying whatsoever that the real burden, the real desire of the heart of the speakers tonight, the hearts of the Christians, and certainly the heart of God, is to see people come to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved people, if you're here tonight without Christ, we want to see you saved. We make no apology for that at all. I'm here to tell you, with no uncertain terms, that we want to see you saved tonight. I didn't say tomorrow, I said tonight. I'll tell you why. Because one of these days, there will be no tomorrow. We will have concluded our whole program down here so far as the church is concerned, and God will usher us out of this time right into eternity, and then it will be everlastingly too late for anyone who is not saved. We want you to be saved, and we want you to be sure of this salvation, and we want you to have the real thing. I tell you, I can almost say in the language of the apostle, as he wrote to the people at Galatia, in the region of Galatia, and I remember his words. At one time he said, I am afraid of you. And he also said, I stand in doubt of you. May I tell you tonight that I am afraid for some of you, that I stand in doubt of some of you? I just cannot bring myself to believe that in an audience of people this large, there are not some of you folks who need to be saved tonight. And I wouldn't be at all surprised, and only the Lord knows, but what there are some of you who have made professions of salvation, and you need to be saved too. You'll never go to heaven on a profession. And of all the people who are going to be disappointed when they find themselves outside a closed door, it's going to be you false professors. It really is. You would be far better off knowing that you were a sinner tonight and headed for the pit of hell than to suppose, than to assume, than to play Christian. Be far better for you to take your place just as you are before God tonight and get this matter settled between you and the Lord once and for all. And when I say I'm afraid for some of you, I mean just that. I mean that I'm not at all sure that everybody here tonight is a Christian, and if you are not a born again, if you are not a saved person, I'm very afraid for you. I have your concern upon my heart tonight as I stand here before you, and I feel called of God to speak the gospel tonight in the simplest language and in the simplest terms that I know how to put it, and just plead with the Lord that he'll save your precious soul. Now, I'll tell you one of the reasons why I start out the message like this, it's because of a little incident that's very fresh in my mind just of this past week. A young man called my home, and he got a hold of me on the phone, and he said, um, Milo. And then he told me who he was, and I hadn't heard from this chap for over three years. His name was Gary. The last time I had had any communications with Gary, they were sad ones, and I want to tell you they were sad. Now, this young lad was raised in a Christian home. At least his mother was a Christian, and I would say probably quite a godly woman. He was raised in an assembly of God's people, such as we use the word and the terminology assembly. He was raised in a group of the Lord's people who meet in New Testament church lines. He went to Sunday school, in this type of a Sunday school, and while there may have been a lot of things lacking, I'm sure of one thing, he got the word of God. I'm sure of that. This lad professed to be saved at a very early age. I don't know if it was at camp, in Sunday school, in the home, I don't know where. He came to Bible studies that I conducted for young people in our own home a number of times. He got through high school, he went to a city for some technical training, ended up rather shortly in the army. And it wasn't very long until I had a letter from Gary, and this is what the letter said. Stop sending me your literature. Now, his mother had sent in his name for Flashes, which is a little gospel digest that we publish there in Aslusa. It's a family paper, always carries lots of gospel articles. He wrote that he did not want to receive any more Christian literature from our publications in our office. He says, I have gone all out for occultism. He says, I'm on my own now, and I've declared my independency of God. He says, I'm doing my own thinking now, and I'm in deeply involved in delving into the mystical. And so he was going out for the whole works. I can't remember if I wrote to this lad again or not. I think I did, but I probably sort of assumed that I didn't even make a dent in his hard skull, and so kind of dismissed it from my mind, as I probably shouldn't have done. But somehow or other, after a long period of time, I have to confess that the lad's name did sort of slip from me, and and, um, I sort of gave up on him. Now I, I apologize for that. The phone rang the other day, he said, this is Gary. Gary? Gary who? And he told me who he was. And the next thing he says, praise the Lord. And you know, I couldn't hardly hang on to that phone. I almost dropped it. I said, what's happened to you? Oh, he says, I've just gotten straightened out with the Lord. And boy, I knew he needed to be straightened out. I was confident that, that that was the need, but oh, to hear him say that he'd gotten straightened out with the Lord. I says, where are you? He says, I'm downtown Aslusa. I says, hold it right there, stay right where you are. I'll be down to pick you up, and you come out and have lunch with us. So he says, OK, I'll be here. And so I went down and picked him up. I said, tell me the story, Gary. I couldn't hardly, we didn't even get to the car before we started getting the story. You know what he told me? He told me that he got saved about less than six months ago. Now, what does this mean? This means that everything that he had up to that time was absolutely nothing but a little old skinny false profession. And that's what happens when people get little old false professions that don't amount to anything many times. I'll tell you what people need. They need to be saved. That's what Gary needed. He needed to be saved, and thank the Lord, the Lord followed that man right through life, right into the army. He was in a serious accident up in the north country in which he was nearly killed, and that didn't even get to him. And finally, as a series of events, and he says, one of the things that really got me the most, he said, I'd be out hitchhiking from home to a place where he was going to school, and he says, who do you think would pick me up part of the time? It'd be some Christian, someone who would testify and witness to him, and he says, it just seemed like I couldn't get away from God. God was just dogging his steps, if I may use that expression reverently. Dog- God was just following that person carefully all through his life, and he wasn't going to let him get out of his reach, and he wasn't going to give up on him until that lad trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. He's out of the service now, and oh, to listen to his testimony, know what he said? He said, from here on, it's got to be the Lord first. He said, that's, that's it. He said, it's got to be the Lord first. Oh, let us pray together that the dear lad will follow up on that very testimony. But oh, don't you see why I said what I already said, and that is that Gary had a false profession. The mother, the elders, the Sunday school teacher never knew the difference, but God knew, and poor Gary was without Christ, and if he'd have been killed, he'd have gone to hell with his lost or with his false profession, lost in his sins. And beloved, tonight, that's exactly where you'll go if you're not saved. You'll go to hell with your profession, with all of your sins, whatever else, you'll go right into a sinner's hell if you don't get Christ. So I'd like to tell you tonight that, first of all, people need to be saved. Now, what kind of people need to be saved? And here we come to the little story in John's Gospel, chapter four. You know, when I look at John's Gospel, chapter four, I always thrill with the thought that here was a woman who can be saved. You know, in the third chapter of John's Gospel, you have the story of Nicodemus. You know what kind of a person Nicodemus was. Says he was a man of the Pharisees, he was religious, he was a ruler of the Jews, and he was an earnest man, and he came to the right person. Many times, you know, there are people who criticize Nicodemus, or at least they question him. Why did he come to Jesus by night? And I've even read people who tried to argue as to why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. And some people say, well, he came by night because he was too busy to come in the daytime. And somebody else says, oh no, he came to Jesus by night because he was afraid to come in the daytime. And I'll be frank with you, I couldn't care less. The thing that I'm concerned about is that he came. And the thing that I'm more concerned about is that he came in time. And the thing that I'm the most concerned about is that he came to the right person. And then he got the right thing. No, he didn't get a thing at all, he got a person. He got eternal life because he got Christ. And whether he was too busy to come in the daytime or whether he was too afraid to come in the daytime really is no concern of mine at all. I wouldn't, I wouldn't use a drop of ink to discuss it, but I'm glad he came. Do you know, as he came to the Lord Jesus and he sought out this person, the Lord Jesus told him that he needed to be born again. Nicodemus, you must be born again, and it was kind of a shock treatment to him. The Lord Jesus must have taken this man back a little bit. Me? Born again? Me? And of course, he didn't understand what the Lord Jesus was talking about. The impact of John chapter three is that the Lord Jesus teaches a morally upright, fine religious church-going man, so-called, he teaches him that he needs to be saved. Then when you get to John chapter four, we find out that we've got a different character altogether. You couldn't have two people much more in contrast than the woman in John four and the man in John three. You get to John chapter four and you've got an, an immoral woman. She's put away four, five husbands. She's living in adultery with a sixth one. I tell you, that woman lives on Red Light Street. She's the kind of a woman, you know, you walk on the other side of the street, that is, certain people would when they meet her. Oh, the poor woman had gone into the depths and degradation of sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with that woman that day, and you know what she discovered? She discovered that she could be saved. Now, here's what I get from the two chapters as I make them in comparison. Fine church-going people who are very moral and upright and religious need to be saved, and the poor old sinner who is a downcast, down-and-outer can be saved. You know, you don't need to tell people who are, um, who are down and out and who are the ruination of society and who are the red lighters on the certain street. You don't need to tell them they need to be saved. They know they need to be saved. It's these pious, religious, church-going people who need to know they need to be saved. These other people need to know they can be saved. And that's what the Lord Jesus explained to this woman in the course of the little conversation there, that she could be saved. But oh, this woman does need to be saved. So there's two kinds of people in the world today who need to be saved. Those who don't have any religion, those who are just lost and out and don't care. And then there are those who are very religious, they need to be saved too. I was up in North Dakota, uh, having some meetings last fall, and uh, during the two weeks or the week or however long I was there, during the series, I made it a point to try to contact every home in personal visitation, and I got out into the country one day, and I called on a certain lady. And you know, she wasn't too pleased that I called on her. I had a little lead into her home because I was staying at her son's house, and he says, I want you to go call on my parents. Well, his dad was a drunkard, and I tried to talk to him one day, but he was drunk, so I didn't get too far with him. But the mother was a different type of a person. She was a religious church-going woman, very pious and very moral and upright and all this, and so I called at her home. And you know what she asked me? She said, why do you come here? She said, why don't you, when you come to a community like this, look up the people who don't go to church? The ones who spend Sunday morning at the bar on the corner down there. Why don't you go to those people? Why, why do you come to visit a person like me? I go to church. And I says, oh, Mrs. Mertz, I don't think you understand. I says, now, uh, let's just reason about this for a little bit. I says, let's suppose, first of all, well, let- I told her, first of all, that I didn't have a private detective with me. I assured her that I didn't have anybody going around to find out who went to church and who didn't in the community. And I said, this is why I try to hit everybody and try to call at every home. But now I says, let's suppose I did know. Let's suppose that over here is Mr. A. He doesn't go to church, and he doesn't have any time for religion. He doesn't profess to be a Christian. He's just a down and out sinner, and he knows he's lost and going to hell. Uh, now, um, if he dies, Mrs. Mertz, where will he go? Well, of course, she knew that he would go to hell, and uh, with a little bit of reservation, she finally came out. Now, Mrs. Mertz, would he go? Where would he go? Well, of course, she- they hate to use that word so badly, but she finally came out with it when I forced it, and uh, she said, well, he would go to hell. Yeah, that's right. Mr. A doesn't go to church, he doesn't know the Lord, he doesn't care, and he's a sinner, and he dies, and he's going to go to hell. That's right, Mrs. Mertz. Good. Now, Mrs. Mertz, across from the street from Mr. A lives Mr. B, and he goes to church every Sunday, and he teaches Sunday school, and he's a Sunday school superintendent, and he gives liberally to the church, and he's, he's a very, very fine church-going person, and my, I want to tell you, he's got the respect of the community, and he's really looked upon as being a very fine religious church-going man. But you know, Mrs. Merks, he's never been born again, with all his religion. Now, if he dies and he has never trusted Christ and he has never been born again, where is he going to go? And she happened to be smart enough to know how the answer was. And finally, again, with a great deal of reservation, she said, well, he'll go to hell too if he's never been saved. Now, what's the difference? The one goes to hell with his religion, and the other one goes without. Now, who should I go and see? Who should I come and visit in this neighborhood? The ones who are going to hell with their religion, or the ones who are going to hell without their religion? Now, who should I go and see? And I think she got the point. I said, that's why I go and see everybody that I can possibly see within the scope of time that I'm here, because everybody in this community needs to hear about the Lord Jesus, and everybody in this community needs to be saved. And you don't have to go down the line very far until you run onto those who are really Christians, and you don't have to spend much time with them until you really find out they are Christians. And there are some who are just pretty quick to tell you that they are not Christians, although they wouldn't say it in that many words. The very words that they speak indicate they are not Christians. Now, um, turn to Acts chapter ten for a moment. Um, I think of this man as being one of the finest specimens of society I've ever read about anywhere in the Bible. Acts chapter ten, and we read in verse one that there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of a band called the Itaian band. Now this gives his social status in this world. Here's a man who has got a good position, prominence. And then we read in the second verse concerning his moral and spiritual qualities. He was a devout man. You with me now? Chapter ten of Acts and verse two. A devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. What do you think of him? Let's suppose you didn't know a thing about Cornelius except what you read in verses one and two. What would you say about this man? Well, I'll tell you, if somebody were to ask me if I thought this man was a Christian, and I didn't know a thing about this man except what I read in these first two verses, I'd say, amen, you've met a Christian. If you've ever met a Christian, you've sure met one in this man Cornelius. Why? Well, doesn't it look like he's a Christian? Well, look at it. He was a devout man. Isn't that what Christians ought to be? I appreciate Christians who are devout and devoted as well. And then it says he was one that feared God. Isn't that what ought to characterize all people who are Christians? And it says it did characterize him. He was a man who feared God, and it doesn't even say that he feared God for himself. He feared God with all his house. He was a Job type of a person. Here was a man who had his whole house under control, and he had taught the fear of the Lord to his whole family. Boy, I say this man is a real Christian, a going Christian, a good Christian. And then he find, we find out that he was a liberal giver. He gave much alms to the people. He wasn't a, a penny pincher, he wasn't a tight giver, he wasn't seeing how little he could give. He was a liberal giver, he gave much alms to the people. And then it says he was a praying man, and he believed in being consistent in his praying. He prayed to God always. How would you like to have this man for a neighbor? Wouldn't make a bad neighbor for anybody, would he? Hm? I'd rather have this man for a neighbor than I would an old drunkard. I would, I'll be honest with you. This fellow makes a good neighbor, makes a good citizen of the community, makes, makes a pretty good person. Notice what it says in verse twenty two. And Cornelius the centurion, a just man. This means that he was upright. So we find out that he was. Again, it repeats that he was one who feared God, and he was of good report among all the nations of the Jews. You name it, and this fellow seemed to have it. He had everything going for him that you can almost imagine for a person to be, except one thing. You know why? He needed to be saved. You say, how do you know he needed to be saved? All these things are characteristics of Christians. He's got to be a Christian. I'm here to tell you he wasn't a Christian, and I'll tell you why, because the Lord says so. Chapter eleven and verse fourteen. this is Peter rehearsing the whole story and telling how God dealt with him. Look at verse fourteen In this same connection, you can read the context if you wish at another time. Peter says, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved? Here was a man, Peter says, go to Cornelius's house, and when you get there, tell him words whereby he and his household will be saved. He needed to be saved, didn't he? There may be people like that here tonight. You may have all your religion, you may have all your churchianity, but if you've never been born again, you need to be saved. And I've got good news for you tonight. Brother Lindstedt and myself are here to tell you how to be saved. Tell you how to be saved. And if you don't get saved tonight, then I can only think of one reason. If the Spirit of God gives us the help that we certainly need, it's only going to be one reason why you would go out of this meeting tonight not saved, it's because you don't want to be saved. So we've got people who need to be saved. Now that takes in everybody here who isn't saved tonight. You can put yourself into category number one. You need to be saved if you have never been saved. Maybe somebody says, what do you mean saved? There could be somebody here tonight who's a stranger to the gospel and never heard these things before, and so you'd be surprised, you know, how little sometimes people understand of our terminology. So let me say this. To be saved means that your, your soul is saved, that you've got eternal life, and that now you have that eternal life, and it prepares you for eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. That's the way we're using the word saved tonight. Now, the thing that follows this is that people can be saved. Turn to First Thessalon- First Timothy, chapter two. First Timothy, chapter two. and now I want to tell you tonight that you can be saved. The first thing I've tried to tell you is that you need to be saved, whether you're upright and religious and church-going and pious, or whether you are a downer outer, or whether you are somewhere in between, you need to be saved. You'll never go to God's heaven without it. Now, the next thing is that, that you can be saved. You know why you can be saved? Because God says so. Uh, First Timothy chapter two. listen to these beautiful words. For sake of time, we'll start at verse three. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men, and this word men is all people. He doesn't just desire the salvation of the male race or the sex. He's interested in all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, isn't that good? Isn't that tremendous? This book says that God desires the salvation of all people. And my message tonight is a universal one. In fact, I'm so excited about this, I just wish I could preach it to everybody in the whole wide world. I don't know of anything that's more wonderful than to be able to tell people that they can be saved. Phone rang one day, a couple of years ago, and it was a hospital in Askusa. Mr. Vandykraw, could you come up to the hospital quickly, like? There's a man here who wants to see you. Who is he? And they gave me the name, and I said, I don't know him, but I'll be right up. So I changed my clothes quickly, went up to the hospital to see this man, stepped into the room where he was, and I recognized him. Uh, at a, at an open air meeting in Askusa, downtown, one evening, he came up when Brother John Elliot and I were preaching the gospel. Some others were there singing with us, and we were having an open-air meeting, and he came up and talked to us, and he was on the verge of committing suicide. He said he was going to go home and kill himself. Well, he didn't. This is a couple of years later, and he's still living, but he's in the hospital now, flat on his back. I step into the room, and he begins to weep. And then I recognized who he was, and I said, Mister, and I called him by his name, what's wrong? Oh, he says, Mr. Vandy Kroll. He says, I've got a heart condition. The doctor tells me it's a very sad heart, a very severe heart attack, and he says, I'm, I'm afraid I'm going to die, and I'm not saved. And he began to weep like a child. And I stood there by his bedside, and I thought, what can you do for a man who is emotionally upset, facing eternity without Christ, and he's got a bad heart. He's not in any condition for a sermon. I can't stay here long enough to talk to this man, to preach him a message. He's not in any mental condition to get a lot of verses. What can I say to this man? And you know, the Spirit of the Lord said to me, at least I felt the inward speaking of God's voice, give him John three sixteen. and I did. And I'll never apologize for John three sixteen again, if I ever did before, never. It's the best thing you can do to someone like that. I shared with you last night about dear Genevieve, some of you who are here, a lady I went to see yesterday, just before leaving on this trip. Dear Genevieve was an old neighbor of ours. Genevieve's daughter got saved several years ago, and I believe the girl really got saved. Perhaps never has been taught too well after that, but she really got to Christ, I do believe. And Genevieve and her husband taught this girl, the only daughter they had, they taught her all the way when it came to spiritual things. And then I see in the paper that Genevieve is in the hospital in Las Cruces, and then I get the call that Genevieve has been operated on, but the doctors just sewed her up. She's full of cancer, all through her abdomen. I visit with her husband outside the door as I step in, and he's, you know, he's real reluctant to let me go in. I say, yeah, but I have permission to go in and see your wife from the doctors and the nurses here, and I'm just going to step in. I want to share something with her. And I shared with him first, and he began to weep. And I felt like I was accomplishing quite a bit, or that the Lord was accomplishing quite a bit with a dear husband. Finally, I went in when the nurses were finished with her, and I went in. What could I say to a lady who is dying with cancer, opposing the gospel, doesn't know Christ, and is headed for a certain grave? What can you say? And the husband says, don't stay too long, and he was afraid I'd get her upset. What could I say? You know what I said? I gave her John three sixteen and shared the gospel with her from John three sixteen. You can't excel. It's the best message in the world when you're cramped for time, especially because the whole plan of salvation is right there in that nutshell, so to speak. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever, oh, that takes in a poor lady dying with cancer, pale face, thin body, cancer look through her eyes. That takes care of a whosoever like that. Oh, if the dear lady will just see herself as a whosoever. Whosoever what? Whosoever believeth. And if she'll just believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, God's son, died for her upon the cross of Calvary, as I shared that little message with her, you know what she could do? She could pass from death unto life. She could have this everlasting. Isn't it wonderful that you can tell a person like that, that they can be saved? Maybe they're not very anxious to hear it. She sort of turned her head away. I don't think she's at all concerned about this. I swear that she's not as concerned about her being saved as I am about her being saved, and I'm not as concerned as I ought to be. I hope she gets concerned. I know there are other people who know her well who are going to be praying for her salvation, but isn't it wonderful that you can step in just for a few minutes and tell somebody that they can be saved? And I said, Genevieve, if I didn't have another verse in the whole Bible, I would know on the authority of this one that I'm going to heaven. Genevieve, you can be saved too. No response. She got the message. The Spirit of God has to use it from that point on. How do I know? Because the Bible says that God will have all men to be saved. And that doesn't leave out anybody. So much so that it says in verse six— verse five, there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. You see, that follows. If God would have all men to be saved, then he's got to provide salvation for all men. That goes, and there it is. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did upon the cross of Calvary. He provided the ransom price, he paid the price in his own precious blood, and God, who would have all men to be saved, has provided salvation for all men, and the fact that the ransom price has been paid. Now all you have to do is just accept it. All you have to do is just avail yourself of the fact that Christ died for you upon the cross of Calvary. And when you, in simple faith, in believing, trusting, avail yourself of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you upon the cross of Calvary, when he said, it is finished, you'll be saved, beloved, you'll be saved. Wouldn't you like to go out of this building tonight saying, hallelujah, I'm saved? You say, well, I'm not that emotional. You might be surprised how emotional you become once you get saved. And if you're not that emotional, well, that's not against you either. Just so you're saved. We don't care how emotional you are. Just want to be sure your soul is saved. I want you to know that you're saved. And if you know you're saved, you'll be glad of it. To know you're saved is to be glad, and if you're saved and you know it, then your life will surely show it. Uh, everybody that's saved say amen. Okay? Now then, he gave himself a ransom for all, so everybody can be saved. Oh, wait a minute. I'm going to tell you in the next breath about some people who can't be saved. You say, boy, that's a contradiction. You listen. I am going to talk about some people who can't be saved. Will you turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter thirteen? And I'll tell you why they can't be saved. I hope there's not going to be a person here tonight who is going to fit into this classification. Hope not a person tonight will ever find yourself in this crowd, but there's going to be a lot of people in this company, and here you've got them. Luke chapter thirteen and verse twenty four. Jesus said, strive, agonize, get serious about this, to enter in at the straight gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and they shall not be able. Is it such a thing that some people are going to want to get in and won't be able? You can be sure there is. That's what God said. God says there are going to be some who are going to want to get in. Get in where? Get in through the door. What door? The door of salvation. Jesus said, I am the door, the door of heaven. There's going to be people who are going to want to come in that door, but the Lord Jesus said in plain English, if I can understand English, he says they won't be able. Why? Why won't some people be able? Well, let's find out what the Lord Jesus meant when he said that. Verse twenty five gives the answer. When once the master of the house has arisen up and shut to the door, and ye began to stand without and to knock, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence you are. Then they are going to come with all their little, you know, their little cliches. We've eaten and drunk in your presence, and they're going to tell the Lord. Listen to what he's going to say. Verse twenty seven: I tell you, I know you not whence you are. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, and these people are cast into a furnace of everlasting fire. These people are shut out from the door of salvation forever. Who is it that can't be saved? The people who are in hell tonight can't be saved, and the people who are left behind when the Lord Jesus comes can't be saved. And if the Lord Jesus Christ comes tonight, you can't be saved tomorrow. And if you should die tonight, you can't be saved ever again. See, what I'm really saying is solemn things, much more solemn than even I feel. Because it's very possible tonight that this is your last opportunity to be saved. You can be saved tonight. When can't you be saved? When the door is shut. How does the door go shut? In death or the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once the Master has risen up and shut that door, I always think about Noah and the company of people who must have rapped at that door. Noah, Noah, let us in. We want in now. But when the door was open and Noah was preaching, they didn't come. As soon as the door was closed and the floods began to come, then they want in, but it's too late. Beloved, the saddest words that I could echo into your ears tonight are those solemn words, too late, too late, too late, too late. Too late, too late will be their cry. Jesus of Nazareth has passed them by. The master of the house has risen up and shut the door. You know what we read in the book of Job in the thirty sixth chapter and the eighteenth verse? Listen to this. Because there is wrath, beware, lest he take thee away with a stroke. Get this, get this. Then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. Do you know there's one thing that the blood of Christ cannot do? It cannot buy a sinner out of hell. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ tonight is available and it is able to save every soul who will trust. But once the door has been shut, once you wake up in a lost eternity, once you're outside that closed door, the scripture speaks that in the tribulation period you won't be able to be saved, because you wouldn't believe the truth when it was presented to you. You'll believe a lie, and you can't be saved in the tribulation period if you've had an opportunity to be saved now. So don't count on it. And even the, the blood of Christ will not deliver you. The ransom price has been paid, but it can't deliver you once you're lost in hell forever. Don't you think that going to hell is any joke? There are some people, you know, who can speak lightly about going to hell. They talk about the company they're going to have there. Did you know that the Bible makes it very clear that you won't want any company there? I read about a man who died and went to hell. He lifted up his eyes in the torments, and he didn't even want his own brothers to come there. He said, oh, send Lazarus that he may tell my brothers not to come to this place. He didn't even want his own kinfolks there. You're not going to want any company in hell. You know what hell is going to be, if I understand anything about it at all? I believe it's going to be an eternal prayer meeting. And I know if you're not a Christian, you don't enjoy prayer meetings, but you're going to be in an eternal prayer meeting, and it's going to be the kind of a prayer meeting you never attended before. It's going to be one of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and people are going to be crying for a drop of water that they'll never get. Never, never, never. And it sends the chills up my spine when I hear people talk lightly and glibly about hell, playing cards, smoking pot, drinking whiskey, and all the rest of the stuff they're going to do there. You won't have any cards to play. You won't have any tobacco to smoke or anything else. You won't have any bottles to suck on. You won't have anything. You won't have one solitary thing in hell that's going to satisfy your passions, sexual or any other way. There'll be absolutely nothing there to satisfy your evil passions, and you're going to languish in hell for eternity. And beloved, if you don't believe it, oh, I would to God tonight that you would sit down to the word of God and see what these things are all about. I'm dead serious tonight. I'd like to see us saved. So much so that I'm here to tell you that, that you can be saved. Now I'm going to close very quickly because I'm, I'm going plenty far with the time, but I want to say a couple of more. I want to talk just for a moment about people who won't be saved. Now, have you got my little outline? It's pretty simple, but maybe I ought to repeat it. Okay, first of all, first of all, we talked about people who need to be saved. Secondly, we talked about people who can be saved. Thirdly, we talked about people who can't, cannot be saved when they're lost and past the deadline. But I've got to talk just for a minute about people who won't be saved. You know who they are? John chapter five, The Lord Jesus Christ said, and I can almost sense a teardrop in his eye when he said these tremendous words. Thirty ninth verse searched the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. They are they which testify of me. Now listen to it. Jesus said, ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Here's some people who won't be saved. Why won't they be saved? Because they will not come to me that they might have life. That's where life is. Life is in Christ. When Christ, who is our life, oh, I said something this morning about wanting to preach about eternal life, and I know I don't have time tonight anymore, but I got to say this, this eternal life that God gives us, the reason that it's eternal and the reason that it's good tomorrow and the next day and forever is because it's, it's Christ. Christ is our life. When you've received the Lord Jesus Christ, you've received eternal life. He's the life of God, and it's ours when we receive him. But the Lord Jesus Christ said with tenderness, you will not come to me that you might have life. You will not come. Could it be that there's a soul in this meeting tonight who's going to be just like that? I hope not. Could it be? Could it be that there's a some person tonight who says, I won't come, not tonight. I'll put it off. I'll wait until tomorrow. Beloved, I can't guarantee you a thing from God's word for tomorrow, not a thing. The only time that God offers you is N-O-W. You don't have the hour that's past, it's in eternity, and you'll never get it back. You can't be sure about the hour ahead. You may not be here when it. The only time that God gives you is all summed up in a little word, N-O-W. Come now and let us reason together, said the Lord Jesus. Behold, now is the accepted time, now the day of salvation. It won't come? If it won't come, then you won't be saved. Who will be saved? One last verse, Revelation chapter twenty two, And with this I close. It's the last invitation of the Bible, and I can't think of a more beautiful way for the Lord to close out his precious word as it's finished now, and the last things that we read in this wonderful book of Revelation. Revelation twenty two and verse seventeen, and the Spirit and the bride say, come. Let him that heareth say, come. Let him that is athirst come. Now, who will be saved? Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. Is there a whosoever here tonight? Sure, you're all whosoevers. Is there a whosoever will here tonight? Is there a whosoever will say, yes, I will tonight, I will take, as the psalmist put it, I will take the cup of salvation. Is there a person here tonight who will take it? You'll be saved if you'll take it. The Lord Jesus Christ died to provide it. It's yours for the o- for the free. It's offered to you in God's word. You don't have to beg for it. You don't have to pray for it. You don't have to groan for it. All you need to do is accept it. Accept it in the person of Jesus Christ tonight and be saved. And who can be saved? Whosoever will. That's who. Whosoever. Not nice. Oh, I'm so glad that God has put the terms that wide. It's as wide as the whole world. God would have all men to be saved because of that Christ died so that all men could be saved. He paid the ransom price, and now the message is whosoever, whosoever. Do you think you've got a good reason for going out of this meeting tonight unsaved? I don't think so. And I hope that before Brother Leonard is finished with his message tonight, that you'll be saved. And that you'll say, yes, Lord Jesus, I'm a whosoever. I'm a sinner. I need to be saved. I'll repent of my sin and trust the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. Oh, may it be so for your eternal good and happiness, and for the Lord Jesus Christ's eternal glory, Brother Leonard.