but I'd like to talk with you concerning God's heaven. God's heaven. And then on Tuesday evening, we're going to talk on God's heaven. God's heaven. First, we'll have the joy of your company. One night, and Tuesday, and of course, the other evening. Tonight, I'd like to read, if I may, those lovely verses in the twenty-second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter twenty-two, if we may please, and we will just read together from verse forty-one, the forty-first verse of the twenty-second chapter of Matthew. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What safety of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, the son of David. sayeth unto them, How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit now at my right hand, till I make thy enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither doth any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. What sent ye of Christ. How serious is your sin? Do you remember? He killed Abel away on the hillside. Abner, how serious is your sin? Abner, how stupid is your delay? You remember he ran to the city of Hedward, and the city of Hedward was the city of refuge. All he needed to do, listen for a new young man, would you notice this, please? Watch me a moment. Please watch me. All he needed to do, so he had absolute safety with this. You're watching? That's all he needed to do. He stood at the threshold of the city. Once there, it would have taken him into the city of refuge, and no one could have heard it. And the house you finished on the land. Why don't you catch this, Batman? And we haven't touched it. You do? Your son? Oh, there we are. We've never been asked. That's what I'd love to say. Abner, Abner, how stupid, Abner, that I'd say something else then. This is the most solemn thing of it all. Abner, how sudden was I that? All he needed to do was to take one cent. Just one cent. And he refused to take it. He wouldn't but do our pay. Smoke him under the fifth rib and he died. Young man, let me talk to you all. If you don't take the step and come to Jesus Christ, you'll perish. You'll die in a minute. Oh, take the step. One step more. Give me faith for one step more. Be kind for one other course. Thank you. Most of you have gathered already what is my text this evening. I believe it to be the most important question ever asked of man. No, all of us will agree that questions of the word of God are important. Who would pass lightly aside the first question of the Bible? Adam, where are you at now? Who would deal lightly with a question that occurs later on in the Old Testament? What do us now hear? When I come to the New Testament, it also is filled with questions. But I believe of all the questions of the Bible, the most important that you and I will ever be able to face are the words that Jesus used. What take ye of Christ? What take ye of Christ? I want to ask that question in For a very simple day, I want to ask, first of all, what do you think of his person? What do you think of his person? What did he have got? I want to ask, not only what do you think of his person, what do you think of his preach? If I look down my history books, I am not unmindful that there are many men who have stood at our report something that they have believed to be true, but here is one who stands right to death to you, head and shoulders above all others. What do you think of his preaching? I want to ask not only what do you think of his person, and what do you think of his preaching? I want to ask what do you think of his power? This despised Nazarene. Carpenter's son. This, if he was not what he professed to be, this is a legitimate son of a peasant. What do you think of his power? How do you explain it if he is what he claims to be? What do you think of his person? What do you think of his preaching? What do you think of his power? Oh, sir, I must add this. What do you think of his passion? what do you think when on Calvary's cross he died for our day this is not passion week but there is a sense in which every week is passion week for those that love the Lord what do you think of his passion but of course there's one other thing I must ask before I come to a close this what do you think of his purpose what was the purpose of this person's preaching This person's power, this person's passion. What do you think of this person? What think ye of grace? Of course there is a sense in which we need to turn to the Word of God and see what men in the Word of God have recorded his first hand. But I'm not going to take very long in doing this. I would first of all ask if I were to hear the big name. I would ask his friends what made it to him. I would ask, depose what they think of me. I would climb Jacob's ladder and swing through those pearly gates and walk through the streets of gold, and I would call them a reproach God, and I would pray my friends, thy house, that how about my father? A lot goes easy. He prayed. Those men that walked with him for three and a half years, Those men who listened to what he said, who saw what he did, those who came and hung upon the cross. You friends of Jesus, what think he of Christ? If I was to bring Peter here, he'd be in not a moment's doubt to tell me. For he would stand here tonight and tell me in words that men and women could understand this Jesus who knew crucified. God made both Lord and Christ. If I were to bring him to this service tonight, Thomas, and say, Thomas, what pinky of Christ? No pill with doubt. No pill with Christian, Thomas, what pinky of Christ? And he'd look at you and me, and he'd say, don't you remember what I did? I fell before him and said, my Lord and my God. If I were asked his foes what they think of Christ, I would nowhere stop. I would remember that the very man that sat in judgment overhead said, I find no fault in him. I remember the very person that sold him for thirty pieces of silver. Now it has said, thirty pieces of silver burn on a traitor's brain, thirty pieces of silver, oh, it's a headache! cries with abated breath, and casting it down before them, he runs to abandon death. And I would say, Judas, what do you think of Christ in Judas's day? I've betrayed innocent men. I'm not going to ask the countless multitude of other friends. I'm not going to ask the company of other enemies. You know them. Pilates, the Pharisees, the Centurion. You know what they say. I want just tonight to bow before the God of heaven, because I want to tell you this. If his friends had spoken well at him, and his foes had spoken well at him, and everyone else had spoken well at him, but the father didn't speak well at him, I would have nothing to lie. But I want to say, if his friends had spoken well at him, and his foes had spoken ill at him, but his father had spoken well at him, I'd have a salvation to us. So let me bow up and leave for a moment and say, Oh God, thou creator of heaven and earth, thou to whom we live and move and have our very peace, thou who dwelleth in life unapproachable. Tell us, what take ye a Christ? Down from the excellent glory come the words that we enjoyed this morning in our worship. This is my beloved son. in whom I find all my good luck. Oh, what a failure. What do you think of Christ? Who do you side with? What they did, right? But if we would start by asking his friends and his foes and his father, I now want to ask you, I want to ask you, what do you think of his person? What do you think of his person? You will remember the tremendous words in the seventh chapter of John. Is it verse fifteen? When hearing the Lord Jesus speaking to the multitudes, there were those who said, How is it that this man, this man that has no letters, has such understanding and knowledge, never having learned? It is that expression, never having learned. You see, young man, young woman, you're young woman in high school, always. I want to remind you that your problem is not really what you're going to do with Jesus. That's not your problem. Your problem is what are you going to do without him? Because you are facing this. If Jesus is not the Son of God, if Jesus is not the Savior of the world, how can you account for him? You can't account for him by his learning. He never went to school. You can't detain for him by his family. They were what we would call the evidence. You can't detain for him by the support of his disciples. Most of them were not bishops. And yet he was a man who has transformed the history of the world. He was a man who has claimed more followers than Julius Peter ever had. Here is a man who has gone forth wherever he went to bring blessings and countless motherships. How do you account for him? Come on, how do you account for him? What do you think of his person? What do you think of his lonely birth? What do you think of his lovely life? What do you think of his lonely death? What do you think of his lofty exaltation? What think he is right? He's lonely, Bury. That God should be with us? Marble it up! Marble it up! And I'm not unknowful that in the Old Testament God appears. I see him as he stands before Joshua and says, I hope for us, or for our enemy. I have to admit it. I see him as he stands in the midst of a burying fire which shall drag me, shall I defend him. Oh, he appears. He ever reappears. For now, blessed be his day. He has come into this city that is born and made. And I stand back and march. The God of the Old Testament is a God that would make me afraid. The God of the Old Testament is a God before whom I would bow and say, thou art mighty. Thou art almighty. Thou art almighty. I want to tell you this. I've never seen anyone fighting with a baby, have you? Oh dear, you might be frightened of how you're going to handle them. Oh, I've been frightened of that. When our little ones were given to me to ask God's blessing on them, I didn't know what it would be. I've been frightened of how to handle them. Not frightened of a baby. A baby can never hurt you. Are you frightened of God? I tell you what he says to you, don't you be frightened of me? I'm coming into the world as a baby. What do you think of his lowly bird? I say, what do you think of his lovely life? My Bible says he went about doing good. Blind eyes, Jesus, we sing with the children. Give us a bit. Those old choruses are still good at us. Do you think this one's filled the Bible passion of God? Blind eyes, Jesus, baby, baby, talk. Get men, too. He may get here. Get men, make a walk. Call these male lepers, too. Call the Jesus. Hey, boy, you girls. Passing more hard way to do that. Did you spend them? Could you? The education system of it. Really, it has. You know, some of those old choruses has some meat in them. Today it's all cornflakes. But he has some meat in them. What do you think about the Christ who went and made you who? Could I mean that, you who I'm here? Blind eyes, Jesus, made us all. Published, made us all. Lang men, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, what do you think of his lovely life? Tell me what do you think of his lonely death. I don't know why I'm quoting Corbett. Oh, he used to sing another one, you know. Do you know this one? Give me a sight, O Savior, of thy wondrous love to me. Oh, you know that one. You know that one. When I think of the Lord Jesus, and I see him on Calvary Psalms, I dare say this, what a lovely day. For my Bible says, to his own self. No one went with him. No one helped him. To his own self. They are a sensible body on the tree. Sir, I don't know about you, but I want to tell you something as a man. I'm ashamed to look at your face and tell you I love him. He's a grander. A grander. What do you think of his lovely exhortation? Oh, upon the grave, he arose with a mighty triumph to his own. As I reminded you of the day, they didn't mold a stone away from at his house. They only molded a way to let us look in and see what matters. as I look in and see, he's not there. Sweet. Oh, what an exaltation to go. Black and glory. Blessed be. Friend, the wonder of it is this. You know, I love those words. I'll be making reverence to them tomorrow, my nephew. I want my Christians to my clothes. But I'll be making reverence to them as we talk about past seven. But I love those words, don't you? I'm going to prepare a place. And I don't... It would be well worthwhile. I won't do this. It would be well worthwhile if we took a moment to do the thing of the place that we prepared for him. The place that is in check. When they came to the place called Charles. That's the place we prepared for him. You take the line I clear for the place he got to prepare for us. If you don't check. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, the wonder on it is that sort of thing. What can he of his person? The sinless, spotless son of God. He of whom it was said in his birth, that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God. He of whom it was said in his death, he offered himself without spot to God. That's after thirty-three years of the devil's process. No one else had ever known him. He offered him out without spot. What do you think of its person? What do you think of its preaching? Oh, never having learned, says the seventh chapter of John. But the seventh chapter of John goes on, and it says this, Never man spake like this man. In the middle of it, never having learned, never man spake like this man. Oh, wonder, honey. So you remember what had happened. It was the last day of the week. For seven long days, Those Jewish religious leaders have gone down to the well. They have filled their vessels with water. They have carried them on their shoulder. They marched through the script of Jerusalem singing, With joy shall we pour the water out of the well's salvation. And they poured the water out of their water out of their heads. They were trying to fulfill the words of the prophet that out of their temple would flow rivers of water. And they did it day by day, day by day, and they did it! been pouring all around. And on the last day of the feast, when there had been utteramania, she looked good in the midst of the day. Any man heard what it's come out of the industry. You're looking for water that's going to flow out of it. I tell you, I'm the water of love. You know, some of those soldiers that have been sent by the high priest in the case of Christ, they went back and the high priest said, Where are they? We've had you to torture him. We've had you to arrest him. Be with me. And they looked and they said, Never man spake like this man. Never man spake like this. What do you think of his preaching? I don't know what to say. I don't profess to be a great preacher. I just want to tell you what's on my heart. But I tell you I wish I could preach like that. I have a savior who one day preached a sermon about a little sparrow in a group. And nearly two thousand years after, as soon as I mention a sparrow, you say, I'm not too sparrow, so for a body. You'll forget ninety-nine points something of my sermon before you get out the door. For two thousand years, men have remembered his teaching about a little sparrow. I say, one day he walked down the road, and he saw a little an enemy, and the little young baby. And as he looked at that an enemy, he said, Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed as one of these. I never come home with a bunch of enemies as often I do to marry. But I'm two thousand years later saying, here, I'm a dear, for Solomon in all his glory wasn't a ray of hope. That's preaching, little insignificant things made to confound them. That is what it is. And then, do you think I'm not going to listen to him say, come up with me? If the promise shall I know of, she can't have it. Do you think enough of it to hear him say, Enter the inn by the straight gate? Why is the gate? Why is the gate? The door is the way. The gate's destruction. Now is the gate. Now is the gate. Now is the gate. Now is the gate. Now is the way. The lead is the light. Giving the nap of his preaching. Does it take no sign? If there is one thing I've learned about these teenage young folks, you know, I don't understand them all. Really, I don't. They're a bag of mystery to me. Of course, I expect they are to you as well. But if I've learned one thing about these teenage young folks since I've been here, I've learned this, that if there is one thing they despise, it's hypocrisy. It's hypocrisy. I want to look at them and say, you, your folk, don't be hypocrites yourself. Don't tell me you admire Jesus Christ and admire his preachings, unless you're willing to act upon him. What do you think of him? What do you think of his person? What do you think of his preaching? What do you think of his power? Oh, never having learned. Never man spake, not his man. But I love those words, isn't it? They're like a chamber of mine. Glorious words, aren't they? When we were minded of this, that he sat, he sat there, where never man had sat, on the back. of a unbroken cult. No man had ever said that. I want to tell you something. There are scores of men and women in this service. See, not next door or off the street in this service. So if I was to ask them would they, yes, the Lord sat on the back of an unbroken cult and put it under its control. And I have no difficulty to believe that because he sat on my life and brought me under his control. No one else sat there. Oh, friend, I don't spend time, as you know, giving stories of hope that over the years, God has been gracious enough to permit me to lead to the Lord. See, I don't keep the Lamb's Book of Life. God keeps that. And as I look back, have I seen many who after years have proved that their profession of faith in Christ was real? Then my heart is glad. Don't tell me you trust the Lord tonight. You let me see it in six months' time. I'd like to introduce you to the Lord tonight. I only know this, that if I was to allow my mind to run away with me and tell some of the stories of men and women I've seen absolutely transformed, all I would do was to say to you, I know a woman, I know a man, on whose life Jesus sat and brought it under his control for no one else never to be. No one else to ever to be. What do you think of his power? I have a question. Let me tell you one story. And I thrilled to tell it. It happened nearly thirty years ago. So please, I've got a right to tell it now. I was in the city of Aberdeen. In Scotland, you know. Aberdeen. We were having services in the way of the air. Union Street. That would be kind of loath to us. All the assemblies of Aberdeen and you have it in the United States. I was staying with a Miss Philip. She had a little fish and guests. I was seated in my room, getting ready for the afternoon service, for I had to go down to the fish market, to speak to the boys at the fish market. What about your mother? This fellow goes to the door? A great part of the witch. Good. This is Mr. Ford's baby. Yes. And I see him. She got a bit nervous. She brought him in. said, are you stand for it? I said, I am. He said, I want you to come down to the police station. You know, I thought of all the red luts I might have gone through. Of course, you wouldn't have thought of that, would you? Not much. I looked at him and I said, what do you want to see me for? He said, I'm afraid I can't tell you. The inspector wants to see you. Miss Phillips was standing there. You know, the preacher. Well, I said, sir, if you can't tell me what you want to see me about, I'm not at liberty to come. I'm busy. We said, Mr. Ward, I think you ought to come. I said, what about? He said, I'm not at liberty to tell you. I'm not at liberty to come. We said, would you phone the inspector? I will. Phone the inspector. I said, your sergeant is here asking me to come down to see you. What do you want to see, Madam? I said, Mr. Ward, I'm not familiar with the phone, but I think you'll be interested in slightly different, you know, things. You know what these things are. Good phone. And you know, I'll never think about it. I look, you're totally in pretty size for us. But he never did. Took me down to this. When I walked in, I went into the inspector's house, office, and said before, do you know James Grant? No, sir, I don't. We said, come up. Now, by that time, you know, I was about to come up. And I told him I said, Mr. You sent the police sergeant to the house where I'm staying with no explanation. You've brought me back here in a police car. You've asked me a question. I've given you an answer, and you tell me it's not true. You better explain yourself. I get him angry. Oh, he said, Mr. Borg. But he said, you know, well, I said, I don't know about that. Tell me about it. This was the story. He said, we had something happened last night that in all the years in my sleep or service I'd never seen. Huff, Huff, Hank, James Craig, walked into our office. We've known him for years. He'd just come out of here to head prison after serving seven years. And in my country, they served seven years, you know. He said he took to the office and he put on a tangent. You would know, dear, that an old blue sugar bag. You know what I've had to mix the waves of very little bags. Take it out of the language. Drop it down hard. I'm scared of it. He bought this sugar bag. And he put it on the counter and said, you better have it. It's all I've got left. I've sold it in the way. It's all I've got left of what you need. Have it in a few days. You better have it. He said, he opened it up. And I believe I've got it in memory. My memory, I have looked definitely at my notebook. And he said there were over two thousand pounds in that wheelchair. She said, the sergeant looked and didn't know what to say. He said, what are you putting in for then? He said, I went to the YMCA tonight and I heard a lot of all four that I trusted the Lord. How? All the police, all the probation officers who do nothing for it. Jesus came and he was lost. And in half an hour, he's gone and got the rest of the body in forty-five. If you came with me today, and this is why I tell the story, and this is why I'm glad, if you came with me this afternoon, the way to the city of, the city of Leeds, in Joseph Street got four, somebody named that. Joseph Street got four. You'd have gone in. I've seen the Bible last year with about forty young men resting. That's James' record. If you'd have gone in the back room, you'd have seen just little Haggard, a crowd of weak children, and you'd see him sitting in the middle of them, Mrs. Grace. So not only did God save them, but as though they were separated, they were brought back together, and you'd have gone through the pliable clashes of being there too long. That's what Jesus does, what no one else can do. That's what he does. I could repeat that story a thousand times, and I don't think I'm exaggerating. What do you think of is power? He takes where no one else is. He brings under control those who no one else can bring under his control. My dear friend, Emma, what might he say? Andrew comes in well, and I'm not any issuance. I wish Andrew had been here. I have asked you this for about a few seconds. Peter's from here told you exactly the same. where Jesus found it that someone's likely to go under his control. What do you think of his power? Listen to you young folk. Let me tell you something. This is the most important thing you'll ever do. Face the question, what do you think of her? What do you think of his person? What do you think of his preaching? What do you think of his power? What do you think of his passion? His passion? I love those words in the nineteenth chapter of John, verse forty-one. When speaking of the tomb, it said my lady went to tomb, where never manhood lay. Never having learned, Never man, great like this man. And which never man has fast? In a doom where never man has lain. I like that, don't you? You see, in the Old Testament, you know the story. You heard it in Sunday school. Not every Christian has heard it. Do you remember the Old Testament? There was a grave. And into that grave, the prophet of Israel. God was very careful to make sure those Jews would never die straight from the dead. Oh, yes, that comes of a prophet. They put him in a suit where he never mattered less. Hallelujah, up on the grave he arose. That passion of Calvary was shown to the world to be accented by heaven as God raised him from the dead. What do you think of his person? And what do you think of his preaching? And what do you think of his power? And what do you think of his passion? What do you think of his purpose? Why? Why? Why? Well, the Apostle, when he writes to Titus in that second chapter, sums it up this way, doesn't he? He dares to say that, first of all, that he might redeem us. Oh, I like that. That he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, fellows of footwork. Isn't that lovely? Redeem? us from all iniquity. That's her. To redeem us from all iniquity. To set us free from sin. His penalty. His power. One glory of today's presence. To set us free. To redeem us from all iniquity. Friend, have you been redeemed? Money that we send from your lovely hindrance. Redemption. Oh, wonderful story. Glad message for you and for me, that Jesus has purchased our pardon, and paid all the debt on the tree. Do you know I almost feel like calling my good friend Mrs. Hunt to come up here and sing it to the old Welsh tune of Trigger Bar. Redemption all one little story. Glad message for you and for me, that Jesus has purchased our pardon, and paid all the debt on the tree. Believe it all, and I believe it. receive a glad message. It's true. He's not arrogant or so hard to say here. So make sure he offers he is. To redeem us from all iniquity. But not only that. See. And I ask you the unprogressive question. I don't like anyone else in Egypt or in the United States. Are you a peculiar human? I... That's what the Bible says to purify unto itself a peculiar people. I don't see it, as a matter of fact. But when I go back home, about four weeks after going home, and I go back for very almost a week, then I have to be down in Denton, down to a little town in Denton, on a dinner at an air conference. But then I go up to, I go up to Essex. And when I go through the country of Essex, some of you men that were in the army and stationed that way, you'll know what I'm talking about. You'll go through a little village, just a quite little tax cottage village, and you'll see a little chapel building, and outside it will say, the meeting room of the peculiar presence. Not a bad name, isn't it? Are you peculiar? Oh, please. I don't mean peculiar. I mean, peculiar. I don't mean peculiar. Joseph was peculiar. But in the whole apocrypha? Oh, I do. I don't want to say anymore. No, he said, I will not sin against God and do nothing. But you, we're living in a world where people say we're peculiar because we say no to that which is wrong. All that time you'll do is God watching. I say, are you happy? Are you a stranger? Are you a stranger? Are you a stranger? No. Oh, no, you can never say unless you bow to that golden image. I'll cut you in the fire. I like the word, don't you? Our God is able to deliver us. And he will. But just notice that in any manner, we are good. Did you hear like that? Did you hear like a Paul and a Silas in the middle of the night? You know, when the jailer wanted to go to sleep, catch him awake by singing praises? Did you hear like that? Some of you young folks, your parents are late. I wake that night by the most... desperate. I wasn't going to call it music. Didn't even hear this. They didn't. They were peculiar. They were peculiar. God says to you tonight. He wants to purify. That's where it starts. He redeems us and purifies us. Purify unto himself. Unto who? Unto the one whose person and preaching and power and passion showed this purpose. Purify under its wrath of peculiarity. Salus of good work. I don't know why I'm talking to you young folk here, but I don't know. I don't know. I don't even know if you're any of them. I don't know. But I've heard something lovely about some of you young folk, not Shackville. Just to know. And I've heard it from a lady who's been back. I don't know. I don't understand. Some of you young folk are not a family. Low-rankly as one-mothers. Cut the walls of some of the older sisters in the cramped spirit. You, young folk, haven't you? I heard that all of you are going to do it. Are you going to admit? I'm going to admit you. I'm going to admit you. And I've got to admit you. You've got to be more passionate. You've got to be a passionate personality. Not even American. Now they have to be passionate. Show it what it means. You've got to be a good one. By the way, do I have you in my address? What, think ye of Christ? Doesn't he make a difference? Do you think enough tonight to say, Lord, If you are the one who came to redeem us for ministry, I will accept you as my redeemer. If you are willing to come into my life and purify unto yourself, clean out all the muck that's in there, I'm willing to let you in. If you're willing so to take charge of my life, that though the world may think me peculiar, I'll wear the badge with dignity. Peculiar, brethren. Take another crisis I get there. Because if you don't, you've no safety. But if you do not, in the word of our closing hymn, you'll be safe in the arms of Jesus. May we sing together, please. Number five hundred and thirty-five. There is no safety but the safety of these hands. Here are hands that bear the marks of the cross. And I'll stretch towards you and say to you, Will you trust me? Number five hundred and thirty-five. Oh God and Father, we pray that each one of us may find the safety of the arms of the Christ. The arms of the stretched out to us tonight. And we may hear that voice that says, Come, Him that cometh unto me shall in no wise ye come back. Grant that each one tonight shall bear. What, think, ye of Christ? He's altogether lost. He's my Savior. And my Lord, grant it may be so, for Jesus' sake. Amen. May I please