Heard him. He's been throughout South holding meetings since early May. We've just been waiting and praying for the time when our meetings would start in Greensboro. He'll be speaking each night except Saturday at seven-thirty, and we hope you'll come and bring others with you. And he'll be for the next two Sundays at eleven o'clock and seven-thirty. Brother Ford, it's a joy to welcome you here again to Greensboro. It's a joy to be here, a joy to see friends again. And I trust the coming evenings we will see very much of the blessing of the Lord. I want to start this series of services by turning to the first chapter of Paul's letter to the church at Philippi. If you have your Bibles and care to turn with me, although you may have your Bible and would much rather I just read the scripture, but the first chapter of Philippians, please. I would like to read a few verses at the beginning of the chapter, and then select the verse which is my text. Philippians chapter one. Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day unto now being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Verse twenty-one, for me to live is Christ, and to die is more of Christ. It's gay. May the Lord just add his blessing to the reading of his own precious word. For me to live is Christ. I wonder if I was to ask you individually, what makes life for you? I wonder what you'd say. If I was to ask the Church of God, what makes life for its members? I wonder what they would ask. There are some things that I have learned as I've been traveling from place to place in your lovely land. One of the things I have learned is this, that there are many men and women who would answer that question, what makes life? They would answer it by simply saying, life is made up of things. Of things. Are we not living in a day when so many are saying, as the prodigal son said long ago, Give me, give me, give me? And there are those who imagine that life consists of an abundance of things. If I have a good job, if I have a good home, if I have good prospects, if I all things make light, And then suddenly we open our newspaper, we turn the knob of our wireless, we listen to what's going on in the world and we find out that those that have the most things appear to be the most unhappy. We suddenly find that things are precious and things are essential. But the story that the Lord Jesus told in the twelfth chapter of Luke appears to be very modern. You remember he told a story of a farmer, a very rich farmer, who leaned over his fine-fired gate. and saw his pills of waving corn, and said to his soul, So thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy need, eat, drink, and be merry. And Jesus said thou to. Oh, please, sir. Please, madam. I didn't say it. The one who said it was the one who, in the sermon on the mount, said, If you call your brother a fool without a cause, you're in danger of hellfire. Oh, please, those are not my words. Jesus said that if you call your brother a fool without a cause, you're in danger of hellfire. So if Jesus said, thou fool, there must have been a cause. And the cause was that the man thought that life consisted in things. He proposed like a fool. He practiced like a fool. And sir, don't you forget this? He perished like a fool. Thou fool. But there are men and women who tell me that life consists of things, and there are men and women who tell me that life consists of theories. Oh, dear me, I get that so often, especially when I'm speaking to undergraduates. You would think that life has its beginning and its end in theory. Oh, if they can grasp some new philosophy, If they can listen to someone expound what they believe to be some new approach, then this is it. All life consists of theories. And I have little doubt that every one of you will acknowledge that there have been many thousands of men and women in your beloved land as in my beloved land. And they have taken their life occupied with theories. The difficulty is. The theories they follow today are not the theories they followed yesterday. And if I was to speak of the theories that they followed when I was a young man, they'd look at me and they'd say, You're a square. Well, they don't even call them that now because that theory's aimed at me. The Apostle, by the way, may I emphasize this? It thrills my heart. I don't know what it does to yours. But when I take my Bible in my hand, I'm utterly amazed that I'm reading something that's over two thousand years old. I don't know what you do in history, you young folk at school. I haven't the faintest idea. When I went to school, of course, for when it came to English literature, they told us something about Shakespeare, and they told us something about the father of all English literature. True, sir. And if you came from my county, they'd stick their chest out, and they'd ask you whatever you know of our great county poet, Hardy. Yes? There ain't basis of English literature. Doesn't go back any further than saucer, and that's only a few hundred years old. And I've got in my hand a book that the latest writers wrote over two thousand years ago. Or about two thousand years ago. And yet how applicable it is for today. I take it. And you'd almost think that what I'd read, I'd read in your local newspaper. It's so up to date. I mean, you take these people who imagine that life consists of theories, and then remember the words written to the church at Corinth, where the writer, led of the Holy Ghost, said, the world, by wisdom, knew not God. And you'll see where theories get you, away from God. But life doesn't just consist of things, does it? And it doesn't just consist of theories, does it? I can almost hear you young folk look at me and say, oh yeah. Things, they don't matter very much. Theories, they don't matter very much. I'll tell you what makes life frills. Now please, don't you misunderstand me. I believe things are important. By I did when a young man said to me, Could I have your daughter to be my wife? I thought things consisted very much then of things that mattered. But she'd be cared for broadly. When my son asked someone else to be joined to him, I said to him, Boy, can you keep her? I think things do can. I think theories can. Because I wouldn't give you much for a man who's not prepared to think through the claims of the Christian faith. And I believe skills can. Where do I do? I'll let you into a secret. As long as you don't tell anyone. I had a wonderful Christmas last year. My idea. We had a phone call. Granddaughter. Grampy, we've got a new pony. Anyone would think I didn't know about it. I got up in the forest and got it. But my son-in-law and the daughter had bought them a new pony. Grampy, would you break it in for the shower? Oh, bring it over. So they brought this pony over. And I put it in the shaft. Oh, I tell you, I've been found. Sitting up in a little breaking trap behind a pony that has never been in the shaft before. Put a kicking strap on it. Get up there. You know, I'd done it for years. And it was wonderful. until the time came to put it out on the main road with all the traffic. I didn't mind when it was in the field if it didn't go where I told it to. Well, you know, I just sang at it. But to put it on the road. And out we went. Mary was sitting up in the trap. The wife getting old with her. And I was walking to its head. And the traffic was going, and the old pony was picking her legs up. And we got to the corner. We stopped for the lights. always good to stop for the red light we were turning round to the right and a great what we would call a refuge lorry what do you call them sir garbage truck a great garbage truck came and threw alongside of us and this pony looked at this great thing and oh I was calming it down and calming it down And suddenly the lights changed. And he left off his air brakes. I don't know if it was the songs I'd been singing where I'd been breaking it in in the field. But the pony suddenly decided to go to heaven. And up he went. And took me with it and Mary in the trap. Oh, I like thrills. I'd like for him. Listen. Yeah, well, I'm still here. I'm still here. We had all right. But I tell you, it's not the first time you've driven in a trap, either. Oh, very nice. But there it was. I only know this. that if that consisted of life, it wouldn't be very much, would it? That lasted for a little while, and the memory of it still lasts. And when I go over and look over the hedge and see the ponies running about in the daughter's farm, well, it comes back again. But, friend, if that's all life was, what a miserable thing it would be. I hope you have some thrills in life. I hope your life not just go. I hope you have some theories in your thinking. I hope you don't accept everything someone says without reasoning it through. I hope you've some things. Please God you have. But life does not consist of things or theories or thrills. He's in prison. Poor half-blind man. He's lost his things. The theories of man have placed him in prison. They're meaningless to him. When it comes to thrills, what thrills are there? In closing your eyes in a stinking, dirty, damp jail. He writes to the church at Philippi and he says, For me to live is Christ is Christ. Oh friend, have you got life this morning? Have you Christ? For me to live is Christ. to die is death. I would like to lead you in thought just for a moment to three simple things. Life has to have a beginning. The entrance of life is Christ. Life has to have a continuance or its death. And so the entrance of life is Christ. But oh, hallelujah, the enjoyment of life is Christ. Life has an end. But oh, bless God for the Christian, we can say that if the entrance of life is Christ and the enjoyment of life is Christ, the enhancement of life, For me to live is Christ and to die? It's gain. It's gain. There's something more. The enhancement of life is Christ. This morning as we gathered around the table and remembered the Lord Jesus in the way he appointed, one of our brethren made reference to the fifteenth chapter of Luke. You'll forgive me, but it's been going round in my mind ever since. We sang a little hymn that reminded us of its truth. I wonder if I could take you just for a moment, a way there into the fifteenth chapter of Luke, and hear the prayer or the statement of the Father. My son was dead. This my son was dead. Never let us forget if you and I are going to enter into life, we have to realize the tremendous fact that we are but dead in trespasses and sins if we know not Christ. Dead in trespasses and sins. The Father gave us a say of his son who had gone into the far land with his things and his theories seeking his thrills. He dared to say of him that he was dead. But something happened. He was dead, but he's alive again. He was lost, but he's hanged. How was it that he came back to life? How was it that this man entered into life? May I remind you very simply of what happened. The first thing with this young man is the first thing that was happened for all of us if we will enter into life. He repented. In the far country amongst the pigs, he dared to say, I will arrive and I'll go to my father. And I'll say unto him, Father, I sinned against heaven and before thee, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy higher servants. And in that far country he saw something of the position to which he had gone, when he turned his back on his God, and turned his back on his father, and turned his back on his home. For he said, I sinned against God. He turned his back on God. He said, I'm going to repent. My friend, some years ago, in my country, there was a very wonderful man whose name will be known and whose memory will be revered by many of you this side of the water. Professor Rendell Short was one of the greatest surgeons of our country. was, as many of you now, associated with Muller's Holmes, and his work in the intervarsity Christian Fellowship has put them in his debt forever. I was speaking at a conference in the city of Bristol, England, with Professor Shaw. after the afternoon session it was open for a kind of questioning and of course I was but the boy the professor was there to answer everything and I just nodded my head you know they thought I knew something as soon as I opened my mouth they knew I didn't so I kept quiet but there it was but I will remember this question one of the folk in the congregation said professor what is the difference between or is there a difference between the preaching you listen to when you were a young man and the preaching we're listening to today I can see little professor short he was but a short man as well I can see him as he waited a moment and then said there is a vast difference between the preaching I listened to when I was a young man and the preaching that seems to be so prevalent today. When I was a young man, they preached, repent and believe the gospel. Today they preach, believe and be happy. Well, I want to tell you something. If you do believe, you'll be happy. For happy is the man whose transgression is forgiven him. But if you come to these services, join the week, and I hope and I'm sure you will, I want to promise you that also I will preach repent. My Bible says this is the gospel. Repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus. This man repented. He turned from his wicked way and his sin. He not only repented, but as I have said, he returned. He said, I will arise and go. It wasn't enough saying, I'm sorry I've sinned. I'm sorry I've sinned. But if he was to enter into the blessing of it, he had to return. And that's not an easy thing to do, sir, is it? We sang with the children as they left one step more, one step more. But I tell you, the hardest step you'll ever take is a step that'll take you away from where you're playing to Jesus Christ. So take the step. I remember when I was first converted, as most of you know, my background was not a Christian background. And when I was first converted, I used to see some of my old fighting friends, and they used to look at me, and they used to whistle and put their finger to their head, and they say, Hey, that! And I used to put my hands in my pocket and say, Lord, let me leave them there. Let me leave them there. And there they were, screwing their head. After a while, of course, it didn't bother me because I found out they didn't touch my head. They touched their own. But nevertheless, I am not ignorant of the fact that if you're prepared to return to Jesus Christ, it'll cost you something. I don't want to make little of that. I have a God that's looking for men and looking for women. And the poor half-blind preacher who found himself in a prison cell didn't mind the prison cell because Jesus was there with him. Yet when he repented in return, but he requested it. Oh, he said, I'll go to my father and I'll say, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he wrote that his father saw him when he was yet a great way off, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. I say it's a bit of a job to talk when someone's kissing you. He was able to get the first part out. Father, I sinned against heaven and before thee, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. But the tears of the dad The kisses of the Father stout him then. And he never said, Make me as one of thy hired servants. He was going to say it, but he never said it. The Father had something better for him than that. A servant? No. You'll come back as a son. Isn't it wonderful because of Calvary? Because of the fact that Christ died for our sins. Jesus Christ says to you and me tonight you can come or this morning you can come he says to you and me there is an entrance to life if you'll repent and return and request whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall hallelujah shall be said but I said the entrance of life is Jesus Christ for me to get life is Christ But for me to live is Christ. The enjoyment of life is Christ. I love that story, don't you? I love it. Do you remember what happened? His father said, bring forth the ring and put it on him and shoes for his feet and the best robe and till the passage off. I once heard a quaint old preacher, you know. I once heard him say, why that ring had been there for years waiting for him to come back. And the garments had been there in the muff bowls for years, waiting for him to come back. Why, he said the shoes had been there for years, waiting for him to come back. The calf had been there for years, waiting for him to come back. He wasn't much of a farmer, would he? It had been a bit tough as a calf had been waiting for years. I only know this. that if the calf hadn't been waiting for years, the one that provided it all had been waiting. And he's waiting for you this morning. And then they went in, and it says this, and they began. Did you get that, young people? They began to make Mary. It never says they stopped. They just began. You see, when you come to Christ, you never stop making Mary, you only begin. And here in time you'll begin to make Mary end in eternity at his right hand of pleasures forevermore. Oh, thank God for me to live. His Christly enjoyment of life is Christ. To know that day by day he's with you. We have just finished, as you know, some services in Burlington and the The Lord's been very gracious, and some have come to know the Lord as Savior, and it's been a joy. We've had some happy meetings. Enjoying the course of the day as I've been visiting, I had on one occasion, on one day, to visit some homes where every person I went to, every home I went to, the person was dying with a cancer. And please, I want to say something. I have no light answer to that. I have never found any books written by theologians that helped me in that ministry. To look into the face of a man who you know will not be with you much longer and to try and find some word of hope and help. I thank God for this fact that there as I spoke to these men concerning the Christ of God, I was able to remind them that in their position to know Jesus Christ is for no one who in the depth of their pain and of their sorrow and of their anxiety has promised to be with them. I have, and I have quoted it here before many times, I have a favorite verse in the Bible. It's found in the third chapter of Hebrews. David long ago cried, Oh, leave me not and forsake me not. Jesus in the thirteenth of Hebrews said, I will never be free of the things. out of the world, that we might boldly say, the Lord is my helper. Is that wonderful? The Lord is my helper. I will not hear what makes you do in this. And when the darkest things that could happen to a person happen, if Jesus is with you, What a difference. I'd rather part with Christ than without him. To me to enjoy life is great. I want to tell you this, that the Lord hasn't made me miserable. If I look miserable, it must be, well, what I have for breakfast is something I don't know. It's nothing to do with the Lord. Because I thank God that Jesus Christ has brought joy. But I said the entrance of life and the enjoyment of life is Christ. I want to remind you that the enhancement of life is Christ. If there is one thing certain, if Jesus Christ does not come back for his own, every one of us will face death. Please God, he will come back for his own. Very soon. But if he doesn't, if in his love for other sinners, he still needs open the door of salvation. Every one of us will have to face death. How many of us this morning can say, for me to live is Christ and to die? It's gay. It's gay. Now, please don't misunderstand me. Don't misunderstand me. I don't want to die. Not me. I've got a number of reasons I don't want to. I've got a wife. I've got a son. I've got a daughter. I've got a daughter-in-law. I've got a son-in-law. I've got one, two, three, four so far grandchildren. I've got a good reason why I don't want to die. I'm very much like the Bishop of Durham. You remember the story of the Bishop, or maybe you don't, but I suppose you do. The Bishop of Durham, you know, was taken very sick. He went to see his doctor, and the doctor said, you must go to Switzerland for six months. And the Bishop said, I can't go to Switzerland for six months. I'm too busy. Well, make up your mind. It's either Switzerland or heaven. Oh, he said, if it's as bad as that, I'll go to Switzerland. I'm like the Bishop of Darwin. I don't want you to think that I'm aping some spirituality I haven't got. But I want you to know this, that I am utterly convinced, utterly convinced that knowing Jesus Christ as my Savior has brought joy in time, and hallelujah will bring joy in eternity. For me to live is Christ, and to die is more of Christ, to be with Him, which is Father. And the Apostle Paul could say, I've entered life, I'm enjoying life, I have been enhanced in my life with the knowledge that the future is secure. Because what a time in my life when I bowed my knee. And I cried, Who art thou, Lord? What wilt thou have me to do? And I received that Saviour as my Saviour. I came to know that it was true, that faithful was the saying, and worthy of all expectation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Oh, friend, friend, have you found that out? Of course you found that out. That's not the question. The question is not, have you found it out that Christ died for them? The question is, have you taken him as your Savior? Have you opened your heart to him for my Bible says to as many as received him to them gave he the right to become the sons of God to enter life even to those that believe on his name may I ask if you have not received him And there are two people who know. You know in Christ now. But if you've not received him, will you receive him this morning? Will you ask him to enter your life? You with us will leave this service saved for me to live. Is Christ and to die is gain. The decision is yours. You make the right decision. Could I help you? Could I ask you to sing with me as we close the words of, I suppose, the loveliest of hymns? And I think it, just as I am, it's number two, Mr. Choir Master, please, sir. Two hundred and twenty-six. Two hundred and twenty-six. We've had a change of choir masters. Thank you. Two hundred and twenty-six. Just as I am. I believe when I was with you the last occasion I said this. I still feel very much the same. I'd rather you didn't sing it unless you meant it. It's such a lovely hymn. It has been blessed by God to the salvation of thousands. But I would rather you didn't sing just as I am, I come, unless you're willing to come, or having come, you want to come closer. But if you'll mean it, he'll receive you, because he said, him that cometh unto me, I shall in no wise task. Will you come? The first and last verse of two hundred and twenty-six. Just as I am without one plea, for thought my blood was shed for me, and thus thou best me. Oh God, I come, I come. Jump, love, I am, thou wilt receive. Well, welcome, pardon, cleanse I leave. Because of my promise, my believable lamb, of God I come. I come. Before I dismiss the service with prayer, I wonder if I may say what I say at the close of every service. I have in my hand a few copies of that lovely little gospel booklet, God's Way of Salvation. No, I may if I felt that the Lord wanted me to do, but as you know, I don't normally make appeal. I feel that this matter needs to be done. I say this reverently. In the coldness of one's own approach to the Lord. I don't want anyone to go from these meetings saying they were just emotional meetings. I'm not after your emotions alone. I'm after them, but not alone. I'm after your will. I'm after a man or a woman who will say yes to Jesus Christ in this service and then go back to his business and prove it. Back to his home and prove it. I may if I felt the Lord wanted me to, but I don't normally do it. But it is my custom at the close of every service to say, that I hold in my hand a few copies of that lovely little booklet, God's way of salvation, not my way, God's way. And if this morning there's someone who wants to enter into life, if you wish to take Christ as your Savior, would you afterwards just come and ask me for a booklet I'll be standing in the front. There are trained counselors here who'd love to speak. We are your servants. for Christ. Friend, what is your life? Shall we pray? Well, God and Father, we ask very simply that you will bless what has been said. Grant that each one of us here might realize that it's not just in things or theories or thrill. But it's in Jesus Christ who died for our sin, was raised again because of our justification that we can have life. Grant me this evening that there may be found some who will have life today. Dismiss us then with thy blessing. And may the love of God the Father and the grace of God the Son and the fellowship and communion of God the Holy Spirit be the enjoyed abiding portion of all who love the Lord in sincerity and interest now this day. And until that day shall dawn and these shadows flee away. And we enter into the enhancement of life and see him face to face. For Jesus' sake. Amen.