John chapter 8 and verse 12. I better keep quiet. I will never get down to the message this evening. John chapter 8 and verse 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou barest record of thyself. Thy record is not true. Jesus answered and said unto them, And though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came and whither I go, but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh, I judge no man, and yet if I judge, my judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I am the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. ' Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he talked in the temple, and no man laid hands on him, for his hour was not yet come. Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, ye cannot come.' Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? Because he said, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, Ye shall die in your sins. For if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins. Amen. And may the Lord add His own blessing to the reading of His precious Word. Let us bow together in prayer. And let us this evening, all that name the name of Christ, every child of God tonight, let us earnestly pray that God might save Any who are lost in the service, this is our final opportunity at this point in time. It is to tell our final opportunity forever to minister from this pulpit. Let us pray that God might be pleased this evening to work savingly upon the hearts of any who are without Christ. Dear Lord, we do thank Thee for a sense of Thy presence. We do rejoice this evening afresh in the message of the gospel. It is indeed the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. We bless thee, our God, that there is light from heaven on the way back to God from the dark paths of sin. We rejoice that there is a door that is open so that all may go in. We bless thee that there is a way Lord, we thank Thee this evening for each and every one in this gathering who has been brought from darkness into marvelous light. There was a time in their experience when they were saved by the grace of God. They have been brought from treading the broad road that leads down to hell to tread the narrow way that leads on to life eternal. And so, our God and Father, as we rejoice in every soul that is saved by grace and washed in the precious blood of Jesus, we realize this evening that there are those in this gathering that need the Savior. We pray for them. We realize, our God, tonight that salvation is of the Lord. blinded and darkened, deceived, bound and feathered. Oh, we pray for those without Christ in this gathering. We pray indeed, as the Word is preached tonight, that Thou wouldst bring us solemnity upon this meeting, the very hush of eternity. And, O God, cause hearts to tremble as the Word is preached, and graciously work by the Holy Spirit, grant, O this very hour, that there might be those in this gathering who will be brought under conviction of sin, who will turn in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus. O, grant tonight that there might be those who would temple to die lest they perish, that they might cry out, What must I do to be saved? O, visit us In my saving grace and power, help us to speak well of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to speak with plainness and with boldness. Help us, our God, this evening to love sinners in this house. Help us to speak with compassion. And, O God, help us to be faithful to the Word. And we rejoice that where the Lord Jesus is lifted up, all shall be drawn unto Him. Draw sinners to thyself, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to take for my text this evening those solemn words of our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 21, John chapter 8. Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, ye cannot come." In these words of this verse, we see our Lord Jesus Christ giving some warning to that nation of carnal, careless, unbelieving Jews. And in this warning, we find the Lord Jesus is very plainly speaking of the awful consequences of their unbelief. When we read the words of our text, I think it is important to underline that little word, again. The very smallest words of Scripture are important. We believe in the fervent inspiration of the Word of God. We ought to live in the light of that. We ought to take careful note of the words of the Holy Ghost. Then said Jesus, again, unto them, Our Lord Jesus often spoke of His departure from this world. He often warned those Jewish hearers of His, of the consequences of their unbelief and their continued rejection of Him. And here again we find that He is speaking plainly and simply to them. He is speaking here to those who have slandered Him And yet again, He faithfully warns them of the consequences of their sin. He speaks to those who have resisted Him and rejected Him. And yet again, He warns them of the solemn and awful consequences of their iniquity. He speaks indeed to some in that congregation of that particular occasion that were desiring His death. And how often yet to those who sought to kill Him, Jesus spoke again. Oh, how we ought to marvel at the long-suffering of God! How we ought to marvel at the mercy of God! How long! God is provoked How long His overtures of mercy are resisted! How long He bears with those who slander Him and take His name in pain and trample on the earth with His holy laws! How long God bears with those who prove in their actions and in their words and in the attitude of their hearts that they are rebels against Him, haters of God, those who refused His scepter and His rule over them. Thank God for the mercy of God. And if you are in this gathering tonight unsealed, you ought to be thankful for the mercy of God. How many this day have been ushered out suddenly into eternity upon the highways of this country? How many in the hospital beds have breathed their last and gone out into the blackness of darkness forever. Their opportunities to hear the gospel have been taken from them by death. Their opportunities to repent and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are gone forever. And yet you are here tonight. God, in His grace and mercy and in His longsuffering, has brought you into this place in His providence an opportunity again is afforded to you. And might I ask you the question now, how often? How often has God not spoken to you? How often has the invitation of the gospel not sounded forth in your ear? How often have you not been warned about your Christless state? God in His mercy has brought you here. You ought to be thankful for the mercy of God. There are millions tonight who have never heard the Gospel. There are men and women across this globe tonight at this very point in time going out into eternity like that who have never heard the Gospel. God has been gracious to you. God has been merciful to you. Again and again and again and again, I want to say, that that's a privilege that you ought to thank God for. It's a privilege this evening that you hold a Bible in your hand, that you have liberty to read it, to come to a gospel-preaching church. That's a glorious privilege, but it brings the responsibility along with it. And oh, how we must tremble for those who go down into hell with a Bible in their hand, with gospel preaching sounding in their ears. How awful must be the doom of those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ. Often warned. Tell me, is it not a fact that you have been often warned when the Lord has spoken again and again to your soul? Well, this evening, for a short time, let us consider this solemn text. Let us consider together the consequences of that unbelief. the consequences of that rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find this text as it unfolds. It unfolds in tragedy. And I want to speak firstly of the tragedy of those who shall seek Me. You notice the Lord Jesus says, I go My way, and ye shall seek Me. and shall die in your sins." Those words, of course, were prophetic. There came a time when they were tragically fulfilled. In A.D. 70, when the armies of imperial Rome surrounded the city of Jerusalem, that hour of calamity commenced. That siege that was to bring famine and plague and, in the end, to bring an awful bloodletting among the nations of the Jews commenced. And in that terrible day, in that day, in the words of Paul, in Thessalonians, when wrath came upon them to the uttermost, when those writing in history spoke of it as if it was the greatest calamity that man had ever seen. Some even likened it to that last great day of judgment. And then that nation of the Jews there centered in Jerusalem was put to the fire and to the sword. We read in that awful day that those in that city sought the Messiah. They were looking for the coming of the Christ. And they were crying out and wailing and lamenting, Oh, where is our Messiah? And they are of their trouble and the day of their distress. But the Lord Jesus said to them that day, He said, There will dawn a day in your experience when ye will seek for me. But it would be a fruitless seeking. when they would cry aloud and spare not. And yet their cry would not be heard. Day of wrath. Day of judgment. Oh, how tragic. How tragic in that awful situation to see men and women stray in the mind. Oh, under the threat of imminent and awful death with their family and their little ones. Praying out for the Messiah. No answer when the heavens were as brass and the sword of judgment was at the gate. And it was a fruitless seeking after Christ. Oh, let me warn you this evening that there is such a thing in the Bible as a fruitless seeking after Christ. In Hebrews 12, there is a warning there that we are to be diligent, lest we be like that profane person Esau. And in verse 17 we are taught this, that he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Oh, there came a day when that young man sought the place of repentance for his sin, how he had sold his first right for a morsel. Although he sought carefully with tears, no place was found. " If you turn over to Proverbs 1, we read there some solemn and awful verses of the Word of God, the opening chapter of Proverbs. We read there, After the invitations had been spurned, In verse 24, Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man record it. But ye have said it not all my counsel, and with none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation. and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. When distress and anguish come up upon you, then shall they call upon Me. But I will not answer all the solemn, awful words. They shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me far that they hideth knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of My counsel. They despised all My reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way. and be filled with their own devices. Terrible words. Awful words. Oh, the tragedy of that. It's a reality. Speak to the gospel preacher. As a young man, just a student minister, I had an awful experience one day. I was asked to go along to the White Abbey Hospital outside Belfast to speak to a man who was dying. and a man who knew he was dying. He was a man some 80 years of age. His faculties were all about him. He could speak and hear and understand. Everything was functioning in a remarkable manner, but he was dying. He was dying. And he knew it. He was never going to leave that bed. His heart was damaged. It was just a matter of time. They were suffering heart attacks. They were coming. And anyone was going to take them out into eternity. I went to sit in his bed. And I spoke to that man about the things of God. I opened my Bible. And I read the Gospel to him. And as I read the Gospel to him, he would interjected, he would say, yes, that's all true. And then he began to tell me as a young man the gospel campaigns that he went to. He began to tell me about family and friends that were saved in times of the moving of the Spirit of God. He mentioned the great meetings of Nichols and he had vivid memories of those meetings. He'd attended practically every gospel campaign in that area for some 60, 70 years. And I said, Sir, are you saved? Oh, I was full of hope then. I'd been told he was all saved. But when he spoke like that, I said, Are you saved? No, he said, Young man, I'm not saved and I'll not be saved. No one had ever said that to me before in no circumstances. And I began to quote Scripture to him. warned him, spoke as plainly, as simply, as faithfully as I could. He knew it all. He could quote the Scriptures wholesale. He says, young man, I can't perceive it. I tried to persuade him that he could perceive it. And he told me a story in his own experience of that night when under conviction of sin for some time, there was a night in a meeting, a night when God was speaking in which men and women around him were being saved, that he wept. The night, he says, he was in the very verge of embracing Christ. And he said, there was a point that night when I turned my back on the Lord Jesus. And I came back the next night, and I never shed another tear. And I heard the gospel preached again and again and again, and it never moved me. He says, young man, I am lost and you are wasting your time. I spent hours with him. And he went out into eternity saying, I am lost. I am lost. I am lost. Oh, the tragedy of that. Oh, the tragedy. Friend, let me tell you this evening, you can't play with God. Some foolish young people think that. They put God into some portion of their mind and they say, well, when I get old, or when the day of trouble comes, or when I come to die, then I get right with God. You can't play with God like that. And deathbed repentances are very far and few between. And who's to say if you'll have a deathbed? Never mind a deathbed repentance. You can't mock God. You cannot say to the Almighty, I have my sin, I have my world, I have my thing, I've gone the way of the devil. Then when it conveniently sits me, I turn around and repent. You think and reason like that, friend, and I tell you, you will be bound for hell. You can't fool around with God. Where of this tragedy? If you're a young man or a woman, tonight out of Christ, And you are trying to put it off. You are trying to put it away to some future day in your life's experience. Oh, beware of the tragedy! When you get your feet on the road of Christ's rejection, you may find in that day you cannot get your feet off it. You get into the way of sin and allow sin to harden your heart. And I tell you, friend, you may find that when it comes to that day of calamity or that day of death, there'll be no softening of that heart of yours. You'll find that hardening is unto judgment and unto wrath. Beware of the tragedy. Beware of the tragedy. You see, you should learn tonight that God's Word says this today. Today, I'm not promising any man, woman, young person in this meeting that tomorrow you can get saved. I'm not promising that, for God Himself doesn't promise it. If you're saying, next Sunday, preacher, next Sunday, then you're in dangerous ground. God says, young man, tonight, young woman, tonight, now is the accepted time. Now is the accepted time. You'll be putting off God's accepted time lest you find a time that is unaccepted. A time when there will be a fruitless seeking after Christ. What a tragedy to be in the throes of death and to be saying, I'm lost. I'm lost. But there's a greater tragedy here because our Lord Jesus Christ continues in John chapter 8 And he says, I go my way and ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins. And shall die in your sins. This evening we all enjoy so much of God's goodness. The wages of sin have not as yet been paid out to us. Punishment as we deserve it has not been needed out. God in His mercy has showered us with so much of His goodness. health and strength we enjoy, the food and raiment we have, blessings of the faculties able to see, to hear, to speak, abilities of movement, homes, loved ones, families, parents, children. Oh, how many are God's blessings to us all. And yet, to you who are all saved tonight, all of that will end when death comes. You enjoy God's goodness now? But if you die in your sins, it comes to an end. Oh, how tragic to die in your sins. In visiting the older folk, particularly at times when there's been a bereavement in the congregation, you hear particularly those who are getting on in years, they speak about their death. And they say many things to a preacher. They say, well, I hope that when my time comes that I will die quietly, peacefully. I trust that when I come to die that there will be no pain and no suffering. I trust I will not be a burden to other people. I trust I will not be a burden to my family and to my loved ones. I hope when the end comes, it comes quickly. I trust, preacher, when I come to die, thou wilt be able to say, well, I've left my loved ones well provided for. Those are all the sorts of thoughts that come into people's minds about the subject of death when they're inclined to speak about it. Do you know the most important thing? The most important thing is to be absolutely sure of this, that you do not die in your sense. That's the vital thing. Nothing more important than that. To be absolutely sure that the guilt of sin has been pardoned, that you are washed in the precious blood of the Lamb. To be absolutely sure that the dominion of sin in that heart has been broken. That God's Holy Spirit in your life and experience has been bringing you into conformity. to God's dear Son. Ye shall die in your sins. That's the greatest tragedy of all. How difficult it is for the gospel preacher standing at the grave when that Christless coffin with that Christless corpse is lowered there. The family are standing, weeping. Friends and relatives are gathered round. And you know, there's a man who rejected Christ. There's a man who lived for the world. There's a man, to his last breathing moment, had no time for the gospel. Oh, how difficult it is to stand around that grave. You can say nothing about that man. You cannot bury him, ensure a certain hope of a glorious resurrection, as many are wont to do. It's tragic! Ye shall die in your sins. Oh, there's one thing, friend, this evening that you need to be absolutely sure about. It is this that sin has been dealt with in that life of yours. There's only one place where sin is dealt with, and that's Calvary. And there's only one who is able to save from sin, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me, are you found in Him tonight? Are you found, Paul? with all in Him? Are you washed in His blood? Can you say, I'm a part and soul? Bless His name! My sins are forgiven! They're gone! Hallelujah! Can you say that tonight? Can you say, yes, Preacher, I've experienced the work of grace in my heart. Sin's dominion has been broken within. I'm a new creature in Christ by the work of the Spirit of God in my soul. Are you saved tonight? Has sin been dealt with? That's what makes death the terror. It's the sting of death. You need to have that sting removed. And only the Lord Jesus, through his death on the cross of Calvary and the shedding of his precious blood and through his grace, can sin be dealt with. Oh, beware lest you die in your sins. We are told that in this text of Scripture that the Greek words have a peculiar emphasis and can be translated in this sin of yours, which we can relate to verse 24. as if the Lord Jesus Christ was putting peculiar and particular emphasis upon the sin. You know the words, that ye shall die in your sins for if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins in the sin of yours. It was unbelief. Unbelief. That's a damning sin. You don't have to be a drunkard to go to hell. You don't have to go out. and go down into the depths of sin to go to hell. Unbelief is a damning sin. Rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Failure to believe on Him and receive Him as Savior. That is enough to damn the soul. Are you found in unbelief tonight? You haven't believed God's testimony about your sin in this book? You shrugged it off? You said, no preacher, I'm not as bad as that. I don't deserve to go to hell to believe that. You shrugged off the warning of hell in this book. Oh, you said like someone said to me, I don't believe God would put me in hell. You're not a believer. Friend, I want to tell you, if you believe God's testimony about sin and about wrath to come in that book, You would flee to Christ tonight, right now. But unbelief, unbelief that keeps you from the Savior will bring you certainly down to eternal doom. Is it unbelief, he that believeth not, Jesus said, shall be damned. He that believeth not. Is that on your brow tonight? Does the Spirit of God see that in that heart of yours? He or she believeth not. You're not a believer. You're not a Christian. You're yet without Christ. Beware lest ye die in your sins. Oh, you say, preacher, I'm young. That's no intention of dying. Perhaps you're thinking, oh, I have many years before me. Don't we all think foolishly about time and eternity? When we're young we look out and we see life there spreading out as if it had no end. Yet all around us every day there are men and women of all ages being taken from our midst. Young man, young woman, all ages. Death's no respecter of persons. Aids not the cry of the mother comes in and snatches the infant from the cradle. There's no respect for the white hairs of age. comes in and cuts down the old, comes in and leaves the family without a mother or without a father, no respecter of persons. A thousand different ways friend of death can snatch you away. Beware, beware lest you die in your sins. When I was down in the west of the province, I lived after the church in County Monaghan in the south of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland. We built a church there God did great things for us. We were able to open it free of debt. And the Irish Times said it's a miracle church. God, in his providence, was pleased to speak in a most solemn way to that community on one occasion. When a free Presbyterian funeral had to be conducted there, the apostate clergy refused to give permission. That is, they wouldn't let us into the graveyard. Barred the gates and said, you can't preach in the graveyard. So we preached in the street. And the Reverend Ivan Foster preached that day. And of course, the word got out into the community about these pre-Presbyterians, or to use the term down there, the Paisleyites, were going to preach. And everybody came, Roman Catholics, Protestants, They all came out of curiosity. Some of them came, no doubt, to see if we had horns and hoots and tail, as many had been led to believe. But they came. It was a great crowd. And there, out at the front, underneath the Reverend Ivan Foster, as he preached, there stood free men. They listened. Free Protestant men who didn't go to church. farming men. Gospel was preached before that grave. Men were warned to prepare for eternity. These three men afterwards talked with the rest, as they are wont to do after a funeral in the country area. No doubt talked about the various things that are often talked about after a funeral, about the price of cattle, how late the grass is. how grieving it is when such talk follows the preaching of the Word of God. They got into their car, they went a mile down that road into Fermanagh Street in the town of Clonis and into the back of a lorry, two were killed instantly and the third one died on the way to the hospital. Three men, they just stood there, but minutes ago they were in eternity. within they are, all free. How suddenly, how tragically death can come to any of us tonight. Beware lest ye die in your sins. For that brings me to my final point, the greatest tragedy of all. The Lord Jesus says, Whither I go, ye cannot come. There is the greatest tragedy of all, eternal separation. from the Lord Jesus Christ, complete forever, to be shut out of heaven where He is, to be found in that eternal state that is irreversible and unchangeable. Whither I go, ye cannot come. Those are the words of the Lord Jesus this evening. Those words mean eternal hell. Those words, as we think upon them for a moment, they bring vividly before our minds all of that hopeless misery of the lost, eternally separated from the Lord Jesus, wherever I go, You cannot come. Why? Well, the holiness of God prevents it. Nothing unclean can enter into God's heaven. And friend, if you are not washed in the blood of the Lamb, you can never enter into God's heaven. Wherever I go, you cannot come. Righteousness of God prevents it. God's righteousness demands justice. demands that sin must be punished, that God in no way can clear the guilty. How did you die guilty? You cannot enter into God's heaven. It is for a pardoned people. If you have never known the forgiveness of sins and never been pardoned, you cannot enter in. Wherever I go, you cannot come. Your own character prevents it. For heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. Friend, you die in your sins. You will go to your own place. You will go to your own place. Do you understand that this evening? Are you uncomfortable in this meeting? Do you think you'd be comfortable in heaven? Do you find going to meetings something you seek to avoid? Do you think that you're going to be comfortable in that which can be well called the eternal Sabbath of God? Do you find your friendship in the world? You don't rub shoulders with the saints and you think you'll be comfortable in eternity, in heaven, in fellowship with holy angels and the saints of God perfected in holiness? It cannot be. Your character prevents it. You go to your own place. If you're ever to be in heaven, you need to be born again. You need to be prepared for heaven. Wherever I go, you cannot come. You'll be closed out. The Lord Jesus said, I am the light of the world. That's why the lost are in utter darkness. Oh, the tragedy! Oh, the hopelessness of those this evening that languish! in the darkness of hell. The Lord Jesus Christ is the source of joy to the believer. He is that abundant river that overflows with life abundant. Wherever I go, ye cannot come to be eternally separated from Him as to be in a state of absolute and utter misery and in a state of eternal death and damnation. greatest tragedy of all. I go my way, and ye shall die in your sins. Wherever I go, ye cannot come. Are you saved tonight? Tell me, as we close this meeting, what the solemn thoughts of death and eternity and judgment have come into hell and God. Are you saved tonight? Answer the question right now. Are you a Christian? Are you a Christian? Are you a child of God? Are you blood-washed? Twice born? And you say, yes, thank God, I'm heaven-bound. And I fear if I can read my title clear to a mansion in the skies, I'm saved by grace. Bless God, my sins are under the blood. The burden's gone. Hallelujah, one day I will be with Him. Is that your testimony this evening? Or must you say, Preacher, I am a poor, lost sinner. And if death came now and laid its icy grip upon this mortal, free him, and my soul was ushered right into God's great eternity, I would be lost, for I am with my Christ. Have you got to say that this evening? Must you confess before God In that heart of yours, I'm yet unsaved. I'm yet lost. I'm yet in my sins. I'm yet on the broad road. Oh, ends of my friend, I would say to you, flee away to Christ. Receive a Savior. He can pardon you. Bless God, He will receive you. Oh, if God has spoken, be in time. Be in time. Be in time right now. Take Him as your Savior. Leave this building. without assurances you've received them by faith, based on the Word of God, that your sins are forgiven you. You're saved by His grace. You can leave heaven bound. Oh, will you be saved? Will you be saved? Let's bow together in prayer. Every head bowed and every eye closed just for a moment. Let's have a moment of quietness before the Lord. I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Wherever I go, ye cannot come. Friend, tonight this is my final opportunity to speak to you. God helping us, we're concerned lest anyone in this meeting should again reject the Savior Again, turn aside from Him and go out without Christ, lest you go out and die and go to hell. And you know I do not know. I make no profession to judge the hearts of those before me tonight, but before God, as your heart bears witness, are you saved? And you say, no, preacher, I am not saved. God helping me, I'd love to know I'm saved. I'd love to be able to go out into that night and to know my sins are forgiven. I'd love to have the assurance in the face of death that I'm heaven-bound. I'd love to be saved. Can I be saved? Thank God you can be saved. That's what the Gospel is all about. That's why we're preached. That's our desire this evening. Oh, that you would come to Christ. Come to Him. who saves to the very uttermost all that come unto God by Him. Will you come? Will you come? Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. We're giving this simple appeal. If there's a man or woman in this building and they mean business, God helping them to be saved, they're going to settle it once and for all tonight. Would you just raise your hand where you sit and say, Preacher, by the grace of God tonight, I will be saved. I'll come to Christ. Would you just raise your hand, now, anyone? Let me see it for a moment. Is there one? Is there one here, out of Christ, without a Savior? Will you come? Will you come?