Dedicated To The Men of God Who Preach the Word of God As It Is To Men As They Are










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"Preach The Word"



Sermon by
Dr. R.A. Torrey

"GOD IS"



HEBREWS 11:6.
MY SUBJECT TONIGHT IS, "GOD IS." Two SHORT WORDS OF TRE-
mendous significance: "God is." If the thought that there is in
those two words gets into your mind and heart and stays there,
those two words will determine all your thinking; they will
determine your science, your philosophy; they will determine
your conduct, your character, your life here on earth, and they
will determine your eternity. God is.


We are told in Psalm 14:1, "The fool hath said in his heart,
There is no God." Please notice just where he says it, "in his
heart." That is to say, the fool denies the existence of God not
because he has any reason for believing that there is no God,
but because he does not wish to believe in the existence of
God. Now, any man who denies a fact simply because he does
not wish to believe it is a fool. And it is a fact that there is a
God.
 

I. NATURE PROVES THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Everywhere in nature we find order, beauty, symmetry, law,
design, adaptation of means to end, conclusively proving the
existence of an intelligent and beneficent Creator of the mate-
rial universe. You may look at nature in the vast, or you may
look at nature in the minute. You may take your telescope and
turn it up toward those wonderful and stupendous worlds of
light that we call stars, about which the astronomers are telling
us such amazing things in our day, or you may take your mi-
croscope and turn it down on the minutest form of animalcule
discernible by the most powerful of microscopes, and it is
everywhere the same, order, beauty, symmetry, law, design,
adaptation of means to end, conclusively proving, as I say, the
existence of an intelligent and beneficent Creator of the mate-
rial universe.


Suppose I should take out my watch and ask you, "Do you
think that that watch had an intelligent maker?" You would
reply, "Of course, that watch had an intelligent maker." Then
suppose I should ask you a second question, "Why do you be-
lieve that watch had an intelligent maker? Did you see the
watch made?" "No." "Did you ever see a watch made?" "No."
"How, then, do you know that the watch had an intelligent
maker?" You would reply at once, "Everything about the watch
shows the marks of intelligent design. The dial of the watch,
the figures on the dial in orderly procession, one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,' twelve; the three
hands of the watch, the second hand revolving once a minute,
the minute hand revolving once, an hour, and the hour hand
revolving once in twelve hours; the case of the watch, the hinge
in the back of the case, the winding apparatus—everything
about the watch proves that it had an intelligent maker." Then
suppose I should say, "No, you are mistaken, the watch did not
have an intelligent maker. The atoms that constitute the watch
danced around through endless aeons until, at last, by a 'for-
tuitous concurrence of atoms,' they danced together into their
present form, and so the watch came to be." 'What would you
say? I'll tell you what you would say. You would go out of this
place tonight saying, "That man may think he is very wise; he
may have taken various university degrees in this country, and
studied at various universities in Germany, but he talks quite
like a fool." And you would be altogether right.


But what is that watch, as a mere piece of mechanism, to say
nothing of the chemical reactions, to your eye? But when any-
one stands on a public platform and tells you that your eye,
and all the other countless million eyes of men and beasts, and
all the other innumerable forms of utility and beauty that go to
make up this wonderful thing that we call the universe, came
into being without an intelligent Creator; tells you that the
atoms that constitute the universe danced around through end-
less aeons and at last, by a "fortuitous concurrence of atoms,"
danced together into their present form, you call that man a
philosopher. But if he talked to you that way about the com-
mon ordinary affairs of everyday life, you would not call him a
philosopher, but you would spell the first syllable of that word
with two "o's" instead of an "i" and call him a "foolosopher"; or,
in plain language, you would call him a fool. Nature proves to
a demonstration the existence of God.


But someone will say, "Hold on, Dr. Torrey, you forget the
modern evolutionary hypothesis, and how it has taken all the
force out of the argument from design in nature." No, I do not
forget the evolutionary hypothesis which, by the way, is not
at all modern. Even Charles Darwin was born quite a little
more than a hundred years ago, and he wrote his first sketch of
his evolutionary hypothesis in 1844, eighty years ago, twelve
years before I was born, and he published the Origin of Species
by Natural Selection in 1859, sixty-five years ago—when I was
only three years old. But the evolutionary hypothesis did not
begin with him, nor did it even begin with Lamarck; nor, going
back for many centuries, did it begin with Lucretius. It treks
away back to at least six centuries before Christ. But I do not
forget it, whether ancient or modern. I have given some con-
siderable thought to it for the last fifty-one years, since I first
ran up against it.


Now let us suppose that the evolutionary hypothesis were
true. I do not say that it is true, I do not believe that it is true
in any sweeping all-inclusive way. I once was greatly disposed
to believe it, as most students are at a certain stage in their in-
tellectual career, but I gave it up. I gave it up not for religious
reasons; I do not know any conclusive religious reasons against
it: I gave it up for purely scientific reasons. I gave it up be-
cause it was absolutely unproven, and all really scientifically
discovered and proven facts were against it instead of for it.

 
A great many uninformed people, and some people who ought
to know better, talk about "the missing link." The missing link!
All the links are missing, there is not one single link. That is to
say, there is not one single instance of scientifically observed
and recorded transmutation of species; development of vari-
eties there are, but always with a tendency to revert to type,
but not one single instance of scientifically observed and re-
corded transmutation of species. If you doubt that statement
I refer you to any well-informed teacher of science. Put to him
the question, "Is there one single instance of scientifically ob-
served and recorded transmutation of species?" and if he is
really well informed he will tell you, "No, of course there is not,
for if there were a case of transmutation of species it would
take so long to take place that it could not be scientifically ob-
served and recorded." There are other facts that are proven
and known to be true, but which the obsessed evolutionists
try to ignore or obscure, that are against rather than for an all-
inclusive theory of evolution.
 

But never mind that. Let us suppose for the sake of the
argument that the evolutionary hypothesis were true; let us
suppose that the entire universe as we see it today, with all
its countless forms of beauty and utility, came into being by
a process of development from some unorganized primordial
protoplasm. If that were true it would be in a way a more strik-
ing proof of the existence and wisdom and power of God than
if the universe were created outright as we see it today, for the
question would at once arise with every really intelligent man,
"Who put into the primordial protoplasm the power of devel-
oping into the world as we see it today?" Which would be
more wonderful, for a man to make a watch outright as you
see that watch today, or for a man to make a second hand with
an inherent capacity for developing into a watch? And just so
it would be a more marvelous display in some ways of the wis-
dom and power of God if He had created some primordial pro-
toplasm with an inherent capacity of developing into this mar-
velous universe as you and I know it today than for Him to
have created the material universe outright as we see it today.

 Nature proves the existence of God.
 

II. HUMAN HISTORY PROVES THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
In the second place: the history of the human race proves
the existence of God. When we look at history in a small way,
the history of a single nation for a few years, history oftentimes
looks to us like an endless jar and jangle of conflicting passions
and ambitions of men, might always right and the weakest go-
ing to the wall. But when we look at history in a large way, not
the history of a single nation but of all nations, and not for a
few years but looking throughout the centuries, we soon dis-
cover back of the conflicting passions and ambitions of men a
restraining, constraining, all-controlling moral force overruling
the follies and sins of men, and instead of might always being
right and the weakest going to the wall, in the final outcome
right always being might and the wickedest going to the wall.
 

We soon discover, as Tennyson put it, that "through the ages
one increasing purpose runs"; or, as Matthew Arnold put it,
"There is a power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness."
We soon discover, if we are open-eyed and candid, that it is
just as true in history as it is recorded in the Word of God in
Psalm 76:10, that God makes the wrath of men to praise Him,
and the remainder of wrath doth He restrain. Nothing is
clearer to a really intelligent and profound student of history
than that men do not shape the destinies of nations but that
God shapes them, that God controls all the forces of human
history; that in the final outcome everything in human. History
conspires to punish sin and reward virtue; and that it is just as
true in the history of the nations as in the history of individu-
als, that whatever nations sow that shall they also reap. If we
ever had any doubts of this before, we certainly need to no
longer doubt it after our last and appalling war. There is no
force, or power, or reason sufficient to account for the final out-
come of that war but God, a righteous God. Time and time
again the God who hates iniquity and loves righteousness took
a hand in that war and brought the calculations of men to
naught; and "he that sitteth in the heavens laughed, and Jeho-
vah had them in derision" (Psalm 2:4). And today the condi:.
tion of affairs in Germany and in other lands conclusively
proves that God is, and that God reigns. History proves the
existence of God.


III. THE STORY OF JESUS OF NAZARETH PROVES 
       THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
 

In the third place, there is one particular history that proves
in a special way the existence of God, and that is the history of
Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the four Gospels. It is one of
the simplest and most universally believed principles of mod-
em science that every effect must have an adequate cause, and
the only cause that is at all adequate to account for the sinless
character of Jesus of Nazareth, His matchless teaching, His
works of supernatural power, and His resurrection from the
dead, is God standing back of that history. Of course, I know
perfectly well that a very strenuous effort is being made in
our day to eliminate the supernatural element from the four
gospels and to so reconstruct the story of Jesus of Nazareth
from the material that we have in the four gospels as to leave
out the miracles and have His character and conduct and
teaching left. This attempt is called by certain superficial peo-
ple, who boast of a scholarship which they do not possess, "the
modern view of the Bible," but there is nothing at all modem
about it. Only one who is totally uninformed as to the history
of Biblical criticism and interpretation, or else who deliber-
ately falsifies, will call it "the modern view."

The ablest attempt
that was ever made to reconstruct the story of Jesus of Naza-
reth so as to leave out the miracles and have only the character
and conduct left, was made by David Strauss. David Strauss
was a remarkable man;, he was a man of very wide and very
profound scholarship; he was a man of almost matchless pow-
ers of critical analysis; he was a man of untiring industry. And
he brought to bear all the powers of his singularly gifted mind
on the four gospel accounts of the birth, life, death, and resur-
rection of our Lord, with the purpose of doing away with the
miracles and so reconstructing the story as to have the char-
acter and conduct and teaching left, but the miracles all gone.
 

If anybody could have succeeded in that attempt David
Strauss was the man. At last he gave the results of his labor
to the world in his celebrated, epoch-making Leben Jesu, pub-
lished in the year 1833, ninety-one years ago, twenty-three
years before I was born, and I am not very young; published
when my father, who, if he were living today, would be one
hundred and two years old, was only eleven years old; and yet
these "scholarly critics" call this the modern view. As I have
said, if any man could have succeeded in such an attempt Da-
vid Strauss was the man, and for a time it seemed as though
David Strauss had succeeded. His Leben Jesu swept all the
universities of Germany, France, England, Scotland, and, to a
less extent, those of America, as the modem destructive criti-
cism has never swept them. David Strauss' Leben lesu seemed
to many so conclusive and unanswerable that anyone who did
not accept David Strauss' construction of the life of Jesus was
thought to be not quite up to date. But when David Strauss'
Leben fesu was itself subjected to rigid critical analysis it fell
all to pieces, and there is not a single scholar on earth today
who accepts David Strauss' construction' of the life of Jesus.
Some do accept his conclusions as to the miracles, because they
start out with the determination to believe his conclusions, but
they do not accept David Strauss' explanation of his conclu-
sions in his construction of the life of Jesus whereby he seeks
to justify his conclusions.
 

Where David Strauss failed, Ernest Renan tried his hand.
Ernest Renan was not by any means so great a man or scholar
as David Strauss, nevertheless he was a man who towered far
above the average thinker of his time. He was a man of some
considerable Semitic scholarship, a man of subtle imagination,
a man who was a master of an almost matchless literary style.
even depend upon the argument from the story of Jesus of
Nazareth as recorded in the four gospels; it once did. But to-
day I know God in personal experience. I know God more
truly and more intimately than I know any human being. God
is the one fact of which I am absolutely sure. God is to me the
one great reality that gives reality to all other realities. I know
that there is a God as surely as I know that I exist. There was
a certain man, Rev. William S. Jacoby, with whom for years
I was more intimately associated than with any other man. I
knew him better than I knew any other man; we were together
daily and we opened our hearts freely to one another. But I
know God far more intimately and surely than I knew William
S. Jacoby. Now, it is quite conceivable that some man might
have undertaken to prove to me by some subtle system of ideal-
istic philosophy that William S. Jacoby had no objective ex-
istence, that he was simply a form of my own subjective
thought, and when this philosopher got through his argument
I might not have been able to put my finger on the weak spot
in his argument, and yet, after all, I would still have known
that William S. Jacoby is. Just so, someone might undertake to
prove to me by some subtle and elusive system, of philosophy
that God had no objective existence, that God was simply a
form of my own subjective thinking, and when the man got
through I might not be able to put my finger on the weak spot
in his argument, nevertheless, after all, I would still know that
God is.


Suppose you were to go up to an opening in a wall and order
beefsteak and potatoes, and beefsteak and potatoes were
passed out; and the next day you ordered lamb chops and
pumpkin pie, and lamb chops and pumpkin pie were passed
out; and the next day you ordered turkey and cranberry sauce,
and turkey and cranberry sauce were passed out, and that that
went on day after day and you got what you asked each time.
Even though you saw no person back of that opening, would
you not know that there was some intelligent person there lis-
tening to your requests? Well, that is my exact experience with
He was universally regarded, I think, as the greatest literary
master of his day in France. He gave the result of his labour to
the world in his celebrated Vie de Jesus, or The Life of Jesus,
and it seemed to some for a while that Ernest Renan had suc-
ceeded where David Strauss had failed, and that the miracles
must go. But when Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus was itself sub-
jected to rigid critical analysis it also fell all to pieces, and there
is not a single scholar on earth today who accepts Ernest Re-
nan's construction of the life of Jesus.


Every other attempt of a similar character, and they have
been countless, has come to the same end, and today at least
this much is proven ( I believe that much more than this is
proven, but this is enough for my present purpose ), that the
story of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the four ,gospels is at
least substantially accurate history. I believe that much more
than that is proven, but that is enough for our present purpose.
If Jesus of Nazareth lived as the four gospels say He lived,
wrought as the four gospels say He wrought, taught as the four
gospels say He taught, died as the four gospels say He died,
and was raised again as the four gospels say He rose again,
then beyond a peradventure back of that history with its sin-
less life, its miracles of creative power, its matchless teaching,
its atoning death, and the triumphant resurrection of His cruci-
fied body from the dead, stands God.
 

IV. THE EXPERIENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER PROVES
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
In the fourth place, the personal experience of each indi-
vidual believer proves the existence of God. My firm and un-
shakable belief that there is a God does not rest today upon
the argument from design in nature; it once did. It does not
rest upon the argument from the hand of God in human his-
tory; it once did. That is the argument that originally brought
me back from blank and utter agnosticism into faith in the ex-
istence of a personal and righteous and beneficent God. My
firm and unshakable belief in the existence of God does not
him our end of the story. He said, "Let me tell you our end of
the story." Then he continued, "As we drew near to the close of
our morning session at Northfield, Dr. A. J. Gordon [who was
presiding in the absence of Mr. Moody] called me to the plat-
form and said, 'Mr. Moore, I have a feeling that Mr. Moody
needs some money for his work in Chicago. What do you say
to our taking up a collection?"' Mr. Moore approved. A collec-
tion was taken and God put it into the hearts of three thousand
people in Northfield, nearly one thousand miles away, to put
into the basket the exact sum we had asked for in Chicago. I
think it would have been difficult at that time to have con-
vinced any one of us that there was no God, or that God does
not answer prayer.


Many years ago I determined to put the theory that there
was a God, and that the God of the Bible was the true God,
and that He answered prayer on the conditions laid down in
the Bible, to the test of rigid, practical, personal experiment.
I say the theory that there was a God, for at that time it was
to me a theory, a theory that I firmly believed, but neverthe-
less a theory. I determined that I would risk all that men hold
dear on that theory, and on that theory I did risk my health,
my life, my reputation, and the life, health and welfare of my
wife and four children whom I had at that time. On that theory
I risked everything that men hold dear, and if there had been
no God, or if the God of the Bible were not the true God, or if
He did not answer prayer on the conditions laid down in the
Bible, years ago I would have lost all that men hold dear. But
I risked and I won, and today I know that there is a God, and
I know that the God of the Bible is the true God. There was
a time in my life when I literally lived by prayer. In a single
day I cut off every source of income that I had had before for
myself, my family, and my work. I gave up my salary, I gave
up all collections and all subscriptions for the work. I deter-
mined that I would ask no one for one single penny for the sup-
port of myself and wife and children, for the payment of hall
rent, for the support of missionaries.

 Day after day, week after week, month after month, year
after year, I have walked up to that aperture in heaven which
men call "prayer," and I have asked God for many things of
many kinds, and God has answered my prayer and given me
the very things that I asked, oftentimes when no human being
knew I needed it, and sometimes when it could not by any pos-
sibility have come except by the direct action of God. I have
asked God for fifty dollars, and fifty dollars came; for a hun-
dred dollars, and a hundred dollars came; for five thousand
dollars, and five thousand dollars came; for a hundred thou-
sand dollars, and got it.
 

I shall never forget a day during the World's Fair in
Chicago. Mr. Moody was carrying on, as you know, a great
campaign involving the expenditure of many thousands of dol-
lars. A little group of us, forming the inner circle of advisers,
met every day for dinner in Mr. Moody's rooms in the Bible
Institute in Chicago. One day, as we gathered together, before
we sat down to eat, Mr. Moody said, "We need seven thousand
dollars today for our work. I have already received one thou-
sand dollars, but before we eat I propose that we ask God for
the other six thousand dollars." We all knelt in prayer. Mr.
Moody, with that childlike trust that characterized his relation
to God, led us into the very presence of our Father and asked
for the six thousand dollars which was needed at once for the
worlc. We arose from our knees and sat down at the table. We
were a long time at the table discussing various phases of the
work. Before we arose from the table there came a knock at
the door, and I said, "Come in," and one of my students at the
Institute entered with a telegram in his hand. He took it to Mr.
Moody and Mr. Moody opened it and read it and said, "Here,
take it to Mr. Torrey," and then he said to me, "Read it to the
others." And I read, "Mr. Moody: Your friends in Northfield
had a feeling you needed money for your work in Chicago. We
have just taken up a collection and there is six thousand dollars
in the basket, and more to follow." It was signed by H. M.
Moore of Boston. Some months after I met Mr. Moore and told
work. I do not think that God asks all men to do that, nor do I
think that He asks one man to do it all the time, but I was clear
that God told me to do it then. I had had a strong society back
of me, and a generous society, but I felt sure that God had
asked me to take that step at that time, and so I asked the so-
ciety to hand the work over to me. They handed the work over
to me and very properly cut off all support in a day. From that
time on, every penny that was obtained for myself and my fam-
ily, and for all the work in all its phases, was obtained by
prayer. And the money came day after day, week after week,
month after month, sometimes in small amounts, sometimes
in large amounts, sometimes in ways most ordinary, and some-
times in ways apparently most extraordinary—but it came.
Never one penny of debt was incurred for one single hour; I
had taken the ground that I owed no man anything, either for
myself, the family, or the work; for running in debt is not trust-
ing God, it is disobeying God. For He says, "Owe no man any-
thing." As I say, the money came, and when I got through I
knew that there was a God, and I knew that the God of the
Bible was the true God. I and my family literally lived from
hand to mouth, from God's hand to our mouths, but we never
went hungry.


It is clear from these various arguments that I have pre-
sented to you, it is sure beyond a question, that there is a God.
The best proven fact in the universe is the existence of God—
that God is. Now we have seen that a man who denies a fact
simply because he does not wish to believe it is a fool, but the
man who denies the supreme fact because he does not wish to
believe it is the supreme fool. And not only is it a fact that
there is a God, but that is the supreme fact. The profoundest
and loftiest philosophy that was ever written is found in the
first four words of the Bible, "In the beginning God." In the be-
ginning of all true history, God; in the beginning of all correct
science, God; in the beginning of all real philosophy, God; in
the beginning of all right conduct, God: "in the beginning
God."

The existence of God is the supreme fact, the fact of
facts, and therefore anyone who denies it simply because he
does not wish to believe it is a supreme fool, the fool of fools.
So it is written in God's own Word, "The fool [that is, the su-
preme fool, the fool of fools, the prince of fools, the colossal,
archetypal fool] has said in his heart, There is no God." Yes,
beyond a peradventure, beyond the possibility of any honest
doubt or question, God is.
 

V. GOD IS INFINITELY GREAT
The second thing that the Bible teaches about God is that
God is a being of infinite greatness and majesty. We would all
do well to ponder the words which we find in Psalm 147:5:
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power:
His understanding is infinite.
The whole Bible, from the tremendous words of Genesis 1:1:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," to
the last verse of Revelation, gives voice in countless ways to the
thought of the infinite greatness and majesty of God. Indeed,
one of the chief points of difference between Bible thought and
much that is called "modern thought" and "New Thought" is
that in the Bible we have a very great God and a very small
man, except as "God's gentleness makes him great" ( Psalm
18:35); whereas in much that is called "modern thought" and
"New Thought" we have a very small God and a very great
man. One of the most popular of modern novelists said, "God
owes it to man to explain to man the mystery of evil." Ah, met
Ah, me! God owes it to man! A popular preacher in this city
announced one Sunday morning as his subject, "God's duty to
man." God's duty to man! Ah, mel Ah, mel If ever a man seems
like the double concentrated quintessence of consummate,
inane, imbecile and hopeless asininity, it is when he undertakes
to say what he thinks God ought to do.

VI. God Is INFINITELY HOLY
The next thing that the Bible teaches about God is that God
is infinitely holy. Oh, how the entire Bible, from beginning to
end, swells, pulsates and throbs with the stupendous thought
of the infinite holiness of God. That is its constantly repeated
message. What mean those stern judgments on sin recorded in
the Old Testament—the destruction of the entire old world by
a flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the blotting
out of the Canaanite nations, men, women and children; God's
stern and awful judgments on Israel which we have seen con-
tinued before our own eyes today? What does it all mean? It
means that God is holy and that He hates sin with infinite
hatred.


What means that constant flow of blood beginning in the
Garden of Eden when sin first entered, and, ever widening and
deepening book after book, the shedding of the blood of thou-
sands and tens of thousands of turtle doves, innocent lambs,
bullocks, sheep and goats; that awful river of blood—what
does it mean? It means that God is holy and man is a sinner,
and that "without shedding of blood there is no remission."
What means that supreme tragedy of all human history,
when the only sinless man this world ever knew was nailed to
a cross, and mocking mobs passed by and hurled at Him their
jests and jibes as He hung there in dying agony, and even the
face of God was veiled from Him until, with breaking heart,
He cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
What does it mean? It means that God is holy and that man
is a sinner, and that without the offering of a sufficient substi-
tute sacrifice there is no forgiveness of sin possible for any
man.


Perhaps the supreme expression of the holiness of God found
in the whole Bible is in 1 John 1:5: "God is light, and in him is
no darkness at all."
 

In Isaiah 6, which we read for our Scripture lesson tonight,
Isaiah gives us a leaf from his pwn autobiography. Isaiah was
perhaps the holiest man of his day, and yet he tells us that in
the year that King Uzziah died he saw the Lord sitting on the
throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple.
Above Him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with
two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with
two he flew (burning in their own intense holiness and yet cov-
ering their faces and feet in the presence of the infinitely Holy
One). And one cried unto another (kept crying) and said,
"Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full
of his glory." And when Isaiah saw and heard, holy man
though he was, he covered his face and cried, "Woe is me! for
I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have
seen the King, Jehovah of hosts." And if there should burst on
this audience this moment just one glimpse of God as He is in
His infinite holiness, this whole audience would fall on its face
to the floor and cry, "God, be merciful to me a sinner."


VII. WE MUST ALL MEET THIS GREAT AND HOLY GOD
There are many other things which the Bible tells us about
this wonderful Being whom we call God which we have not
time to take up tonight, but there is one great fact about God
that this Bible tells us which I must mention before I close, and
that is that you and I must meet God. These are the startling
words God Himself speaks in Amos 4:12: "Prepare to meet
thy God." We must all meet God. We must each one of us as
individuals meet God face to face. There are no exceptions;
the rich man must meet God, and the poor man must meet
God; the king upon his throne must meet God, the labourer in
the ditch must meet God; the great university professor, the
man of science, the brilliant orator, must meet God, and the
illiterate man that digs in the trench must meet God. We must
all meet this Being of infinite greatness and majesty; we must
meet this infinitely Holy One in whose presence the very sera-
phim veil their faces and feet and do perpetually cry, "Holy,.
holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts." So the question of questions,,
the question of greatest importance, that confronts you and
me tonight is this, "Am I ready to meet God?" How soon we
must meet Him none of us can tell. Within a year, according to
the average death rate of men, at least a hundred persons in
this audience tonight will have met God. In five years far more
than five times as many; in ten years far more, in twenty years
almost every one of us that is here tonight, and in forty years
practically every one of us. Are you ready to meet God?
Any one of us may meet God within twenty-four hours.

 
When I was holding meetings in Sherman, Texas, I ran over
early one Sunday morning to the city of Dennison and held an
early morning meeting for men only in the theater. I spoke on
the same subject on which I am speaking tonight. As I drew
to a close I said, "Someone here this morning may meet God
within twenty-four hours." The following week a minister
came down from Dennison to Sherman and recalled to me my
words, and then he said, "There was a young man in your au-
dience that morning perfectly well and strong. He was a laun-
dryman and very early the next morning, as he was driving
along in his laundry wagon, he came in contact with a live wire
that had fallen and was instantly killed. And," he continued,
"within the week since you were in Dennison twelve of our
citizens have passed into eternity." Oh, how soon we must meet
God! Are you ready to meet God?


What constitutes readiness to meet God? There is but one
ground upon which any sinner, and we are all sinners, can
meet a holy God with exultant joy, and not with overwhelm-
ing fear and dismay and despair, and that ground is the shed
blood of Jesus Christ. On the ground of that shed blood of
Christ the vilest sinner that ever lived on earth, but who has
turned from sin and accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Sav-
iour, can walk into the very presence of this infinitely Holy
God and look up into His face without fear, in loving confi-
dence, and call Him "Father." But outside of the shed blood of
Jesus Christ the best man or woman who ever walked this earth
cannot stand in God's presence for one moment. So the ques-
tion, "Am I ready to meet God?" resolves itself into this, "Am
I under the atoning blood of Jesus Christ?"
 

How does one get under the atoning blood? The answer to
this immeasurably important question is plainly given in God's
Word. There is but one way in which any man can get under
the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and that is by accepting Je-
sus Christ as'his personal Saviour, surrendering to Him as His
Lord and Master, openly confessing Him as such before the
world, and a life of daily conformity to His revealed will by
which he proves the reality of his faith. Listen to the way God
puts it in His own Word, John 3:36: "He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." Listen
to Romans 10:9,10: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness: and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation." Matthew 10:32,33: "Who-
soever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I con-
fess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my
Father which is in heaven."
I repeat the question, "Are you under the shed blood?" I
put it to each one of you here tonight, even though you may
be a church member, even though you may be nominally a
very active church worker, "Are you under the blood?" Are
you sure that you are under the blood? If not, will you get
under the blood right now?
To sum it all up, GOD is, God is infinitely great, God is in-
finitely holy. You and I must meet God. There is only one way
to meet Him with exultant joy and not with craven, cowering,
agonizing fear, and that is to be under the blood. There is only
one way to get under the blood, by accepting Jesus Christ as
your personal Saviour, surrendering to Him as your Lord and
Master, confessing Him as such before the world, and living a
life of daily conformity to His will, thereby proving the genu-
ineness of your faith. Are you under the blood? Will you get
under the blood right now?

 

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