You know this world is full of preachers, but just a few were chosen. Stay tuned for Treasured Heritage, a preaching program spotlighting those servants who have gone on to glory. Isaiah 5417 says, this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And now, Treasured Heritage. The last few days I've had on my mind the word appointment. Appointment. And today I decided that tonight we'd preach on appointments. That everybody's going to meet and some that I've broken and won't have to meet. I hear people all the time talking about I've got an appointment. I've got an appointment. I hear people every once in a while say, you know, I miss my appointment. Brother, I'll mention some tonight you won't miss. And then I'll mention some you better miss. And you can miss. I take two books with me. Cruden's Concordance in a little leatherette form. They quit printing them. I used to give one to every preacher where I went for a meeting. It cost ten dollars a piece. I think wholesale about six or seven. It's the most practical little book. Looks like a little Bible. Cruden's Concordance. And the other book that I take, of course, is the King James Version of the Bible. That's all in my library anymore. I don't have anything else. I gave my library away, not because I don't need some sense, but I need more than sense, I need wisdom. And I've come to the place in these pressing times to believe and find out for sure I can get so much more out of the Bible and get it quicker than I can reading through books and papers and all the rest of it. And preachers, I believe if you and I really live by faith, we live by the Word of God. And I don't believe anybody that's a stranger to the book can live by faith. And anybody that doesn't live by faith, you just might as well quit praying about pleasing God because the Bible says it's impossible without faith to please God. We come up to the church house and we say, Lord, may this service please God. We'll just have it by faith then. It'll please him. Throw away your little bulletin and order of service and spot out my faith and wind up my faith. That'll please him. And the more I preach like that, the less invitations I get where the bulletin furnishes the order of service. I go where the preacher says, now you go by this and you stand when it says stand. And you come on where it says you come on. Now brother, I don't mean to be hard to get along with, but I mean I don't believe God's service ought to be that complicated. Turn with me please to the book of Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. There are two great passages in this one chapter, but one of which we're going to give our time to tonight. In Hebrews, chapter 9, verse 22, and then we'll go to the 27th verse. Without shedding of blood is no remission. Now, not if that's so, but since that's so, I know that everybody ought to have an appointment for the blood, because everybody's sin. But let's go to the 27th verse. And as it is appointed unto men, once to die, but after this, the judgment. Now, I will say that it's possible for us to miss that necessary appointment. It's possible. I mean, now, I heard a professor one time say, now students, if the Lord were to come right now, we'd all have to die before we could be raptured, or before we could go home. Because he said it's appointed unto man once to die. I believe the Lord let me miss that appointment as Jesus came right now. I don't believe I'd take time to die, I believe we're just going home alive. But, there's one thing I know tonight. If Jesus doesn't come, and I live out my life, I've got an appointment with death. I don't look forward to it. I'd rather go by the rapture route. But, I believe that if God gives me living grace, he'll give me dying grace. And I want to live like a Christian, and I also want to die like a Christian. So he said it's appointed unto man once to die, and after that, commit the judgment. Turn to Acts 17. Acts of the Holy Spirit. Acts 17. I've been reading and preaching from eight messages out of the book of Acts today. I love the book of Acts. That's where the action is. That's when the church is up to concert pitch. I mean that's when it's in tune. That's when the Holy Spirit filled them up. Made them like a cyclone. Had a rough time. And it's a bloody church. It is hated and despised by the world and especially by religion. But I tell you one thing. They turned the world upside down. And the world's turned upside down now, but the church ain't turning. The devil's got it turned upside down now. And so in this great chapter, the 17th chapter, we find these words in the 31st because he hath appointed a day in the which he would judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Now this comes at the close of the 30th verse, it says, now commanded all men everywhere to repent. One of the doctrines that is left out is repentance today. I mean, we don't have much repentance. People join the church, say they believe in Jesus, but I believe without great conviction there's not any good conversion. And I believe when we join the church without repentance, we won't be a blessing to the church. And I believe when we get people in the church that haven't repented and turned from sin, it'll weaken the church and we'll grow unhealthy churches. And really, I don't think our greatest need is to get more members. And this may be unpopular, but nevertheless, I believe if we had everything in our churches today on fire for God and filled with the Spirit of Christ, It'd be a sight what could be done for the Lord. Praise God, that's right. And so he said, he winked at the ignorance for a while, but he's commanding all men everywhere to repent. I believe repentance is necessary for salvation. The first sermon Jesus ever preached, the introduction message to Jesus in John's ministry was repentance. Jesus preached repentance. The last sermon Jesus ever preached was repentance. He's preaching to the seven churches in Asia Minor, saying if you don't repent, take your candlestick away from him. It's gone. You know, brethren, that's a sober thought. Did you know God's not obligated to keep, to bless anybody's church if it doesn't stay with the Lord? Did you know that churches can die today just like they died back in Asia Minor? You had a church, listen, God said to Saul, because you have rejected the Word, I've rejected you. I believe that God reserves the right to reject anything and everything that rejects his word. That includes a home, a church, a nation, or whatever it may be. But he said he's appointed a day in which he'll judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. That man is Jesus. Everything that we do is going to be judged in the light of our relationship to Jesus. Every bit of it. All right? God has not appointed us unto wrath, the Bible says. And yet, now to me, if we meet the appointment of wrath, that's out of the will of God. I do not believe that the Christian has to meet the appointment of wrath, the wrath of God. I want to say those things now before we get into the message and talk with you about some appointments that we're going to all have to meet. Number one is the appointment that I had nothing to do with at all. And that's my physical birth. The Bible says, Ecclesiastes, there's a time to be born. There's a time to die. And then in that 11th verse, He said, God has made everything beautiful in his own time. Now that means that birth can be beautiful, and death can be beautiful, everything beautiful in his own time, in his time. You know that verse that said, if the law, if the saw has lost his saver, you know who's saver that is? That's Jesus' saver. If the saw doesn't taste like Jesus, it's lost his savor. It spends forth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men or made a highway or a roadway. When? When it loses his savor. Brother, you and I are to taste like Jesus. We're to walk like Jesus. We're to talk like Jesus. and we're to be imitators and participators in him. Yes, there's the first birth. You know the doctors, they never have been able to explain the physical birth. They never have been able to predict with absolute accuracy when the child will come, when the baby will be born. You could offer a doctor $10,000 and say, doctor, if you'll tell me the week, the month, the day, the hour, the minute, the second that my baby will come, I'll give you $10,000. He said, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can never predict that at all. And yet God knows exactly when he's coming. God knows exactly. In due time, and there's a due time for everything in God's plan and program. Wouldn't it be wonderful? I was speaking today on that verse over in the book of Acts where Paul was going up to Jerusalem and they said, don't go. You know, they took the girdle and they tied it up and they said, now you're going to be tied up. And sure enough, they put a couple of chains on him when he got up there and beat him up. And he started climbing up the stairs and he said with blood running down his face, sir, permit me to speak to the people. I want to preach to them. If it had been me, I'd have been hollering for a doctor or somebody to bandage me up. But he said, let me stand here and preach to the people. And he said, all right, just go ahead. And he stood on the stairs with his bloody body and preached to the people. gave his wonderful testimony of how Jesus saved him. And then they tore into him again. Ah, listen, dear friends. Paul said, want to be like him? Be like him. Well, there's a birth, the first birth. I had nothing to do with it, but I was born on time. God knew it. I wasn't born in a hospital, but I got born. I mean, I was out there in that old country home, and my mother gave birth to me, and I accepted it, and I've been calling her my mother until she went home to be with the Lord, and God appointed me a birth. There's a next appointment that I'd like to mention to you, and this is one that many people have missed. I believe that it's in the will of God And there's been a second birthplace appointed. I believe it's God's will for sinners to be born again. I believe the Lord loves every sinner on the face of the earth, for God so loved the world, and that's big enough for me. And I believe that it's not his will that one should perish, and God has set up another birthplace for you. And yet, that's the one you have to use your hearing, and sense, and choose for yourself. After you heard the... because faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. I read in the book of Ezekiel today where he said, why will you die? Why will you die? In other words, if a man dies, he has to be willing to die. Oh, remember that old song, when the living rock Sheltering Rockies so nearby, why will you die? Why will you die? Oh, you're talking about them old songs while I go by the preacher. There is a well in the desert plain. His waters fall with entrancing strain Inviting every sin-sick soul Come on and drink, and you will be whole Then why will ye die? Oh, why will ye die? Don't miss that appointment here. God's got a well appointment. He's got a well. He's got a well curb, but Jesus sitting on the curb waiting for that old sinner. Don't miss that one. Don't miss that one. Oh, Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He said, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He said, Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Now then, I want to speak briefly about some broken appointments. some broken appointments. I've broken some appointments. When I was born the first time I had an appointment with hell and with sin and with the devil. One July night in a little country church then an old-fashioned slender tall preacher told about Jesus. I broke that appointment. I really did. The devil had it all set. I was to meet him and I was going home with him. And he was my daddy, he was my father. He had it all fixed up. And I was to live with him throughout a long eternity. That night when he presented Jesus, I broke that appointment with the devil and said I won't be showing up. I'm not coming. Oh, I changed directions that night. Yeah, listen. Jesus saved me that night. Ah, listen. And when I changed, and when I broke that appointment, I made an appointment with heaven that night. And brother, just sure as this broke so and it is, I made the permanent appointment. I mean, that's eternal. He said, I know that whatsoever the Lord did, it shall be forever. Nothing. And the Lord did it. If nothing can be put to it, nothing taken from it, and the Lord doeth it, that men may fear. And that night, when I broke that appointment with the old sand, old smutty face, and the devil in hell, I made an appointment with heaven. And he gave me everlasting life. He gave me eternal life. And he sealed my soul. And he wrote my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. And so I got something permanent. I got a relationship that night. And then along with that relationship, he gave me a fellowship. If we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. And so I'm glad tonight that Jesus gave me something eternal when I broke my appointment with Hale. But you know, there's another appointment. And this may not be organized to suit some of you, but this is just some thoughts that came in my soul. There's an appointment that many people ought to keep but they've never kept. This is no contradiction. I believe that God has set up an appointment for every child of God that's ever been saved. I believe he set an appointment with the dead. Watch it now. I believe that every person that ever gets saved ought to die to the flesh. Paul said, I die daily. Paul had an appointment, if I could say it, every morning early when he got up with the undertaker. He said to the undertaker, I want you to haul old Paul off today, and I want you to bring Jesus back when you come. I die daily. He said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I that lives, but Christ liveth in me. The greatest need, I believe, in our churches today is crucified church members. When you get crucified, your feelings won't get hurt no more. When we die to self, you can't hurt a dead man. No, you can't. Oh, listen, I'm crucified with Christ. To me, the greatest chapter in Christian living is, of course, I love Colossians and Philippians. The third chapter of Colossians, the third chapter of Philippians, Paul said, As he talked real spiritual talking, I'm afraid many folks have never entered into this conversation. He said, I've counted all what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. He goes on to say that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. being made conformable unto his death, not his life. Paul didn't ask for the miracles. He asked for the death of Christ. He asked for the death. He said, I want to know him in his death. He knew if he knew him in his death, he'd know him in his resurrection. He said that I may know him, that I may be found in him. Then he said that I may win Christ. That's a courting term, isn't it? Winning. He escorted, and listen, I believe when Paul was saved on the Damascus road, I believe he got engaged to Jesus and went steady from there on. I mean, he never did break that engagement at all. Oh, listen, dear friends, I believe that tonight you and I ought to be busy winning Christ, brought not to flirt with the world. You know, it's so strange. The things I preach today seem so new to some people. I mean, people just kind of get up in a knot, you know. You mention television. You mention a bunch of little old silly ball games and bowling alleys and a bunch of little Sunday flirting around with boats and motors and people say, well, what do you think? What do you expect of us? I don't expect any of you. God expects a lot of you, though. If he owns you, why don't he? He could use you, look like. He bought you lock, stock and barrel. My daddy never did buy a yearling, but what, he could kill him any time he got ready. I'll tell you something else. My daddy never would own a heifer that wouldn't have a calf. He'd shout, take her to butcher market. I asked him one day, had a great big old white fish cow and said, dad, if that old cow wouldn't have a calf, what'd you do? He said, hmm, what do you think I'd do? Take her to market, she'd be butchered. I said, what if the Lord would do us all like that? We didn't reproduce, he'd butcher us. You say, that's him. No, wait a minute. Maybe you haven't read John yet. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he butchers it. Huh? He takes it away. The Bible said that. Oh, listen, dear friends. God has a right to use what he buys. And I guarantee you, we're willing to say, oh, he owns me, all right. How much of you does he own? We ride that old tithing horse all over the country, ribs sticking out. We've talked about tithing, tithing, tithing. Do you tithe? Have you brought your tithe? Do you tithe? And let me tell you something, brother. You know what Jesus endorses in this matter of giving? It's all and not tithing. And just keep breathing, because I'm going to give an account to God for what I'm saying. Since when did a Christian give ten percent? They told me when I went through school, they said, you give one-seventh of your time to the Lord and one-tenth of your money to the Lord. Why, that'll make a hypocrite out of anybody. And that's what Jesus called them to. Listen, you've never learned to live. You preach your brother, listen to me. You've never learned to live until you recognize that everything you have belongs to God. Not how much you're going to give, but how much you're going to have to keep. First more blessed the giving is received. That's when we got so many little old measly tom-thumbs in our churches today. They've never learned the blessing of giving. That's when they said dried up and shriveled up. We haven't learned to give. Oh, I know we hear people get up over it a million times. Well, now y'all can't out-give God. I don't know if anybody's trying as hard as you. Oh brethren, I want y'all to give this tonight, will you? Sometimes they use me, you know, they say to this great man of God, he's doing a great work and he needs your help, and oh listen I want you to do, that's the reason I don't want much, I appreciate the way preachers take offence, so just get up there and tell them what it's about and let them give, see? Lord and tell them what to do about it. It's been spending 45 minutes begging for a bunch of money. I'm telling you, if you get it, they lose the blessing because you begged it out of them. Oh, hear me tonight, dear friends. God's people ought to give because they love Jesus. Didn't anybody beg that little widow? She's begging to give. She gave everything she had, and Jesus said, that's wonderful, it's good. Best giver of God. A little thing standing over there in a calico dress, a little homemade dress, a bonnet on. Jesus said, we got a great giver here today. I can see them chests sticking out with them fellas that wrote the big check and splashed it in Jesus' face. Jesus said, no, I'm not talking about y'all. I'm talking about this little woman right here. She gave everything she had. Everything she had. They're friends. Jesus gave everything he had. Paul gave everything he had. And I believe that God's people ought to come to the place where everything we have, including the wife, every child we've got, the car, everything we've got, you better not own something Jesus doesn't want. You better not be buying something he can't use. Broken appointments. Have you broken that appointment with death? Have you ever come to the place, have you really, where you've died to self? It doesn't make any difference. I mean, people can't hurt your feelings anymore. You're not going to complain or whine. Oh, so many times, so many times I've had a wife to say, brother-in-law, you really hurt my husband because he won't come back anymore. You hurt his feelings. And he left. Dear friends, you can't hurt a dead man. I say again, God's people need to keep an appointment with the undertaker. And when we die to share, then Jesus comes to live. He said if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Now then, there's another appointment that we're going to have to keep. And God will, he'll see that we keep this one. Every Christian is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. All of us. And for every ugly thing, for every deed done in the flesh, and everything we do has got to pass through the fire test. And he said there's wood, hay and stubble, gold, silver and precious stone. And you know which ones will stand the test. And you know what the gold and the silver and the precious stone, I know what the gold is. And that's number one, that's the Word of God. And everything we do that's going to go before the judgment that will stand is going to have to be done scripturally. I've got to be born of the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. I understand the judgment. The fact is, that'll fix me up for the judgment seat of Christ and not the white throne judgment. I mean, when I'm born of the Word of God, and Jesus said, you must be born again. And I tell you, when you know down in your heart that you've been born again, then I believe you're ready, and not until then, to perform some duties and works and services that have spanned the fireplace. Everything. You know, I'm amazed. I'm just amazed that so few people ever memorize any of the Bible anymore. We know so little. concerning the Word of God. I'm issuing a challenge again and I'm going to stay with it and some are accepting but most people are too lazy. And I'd like for every preacher here to accept this challenge for a renewed ministry and a greater ministry. It's something concrete you can get your hands on to and get into and God will bless you and your people will sit up and take notice and won't go to sleep so much under your preaching. You memorize 60 chapters of the Word of God the next five years. That's one every 30 days. I dare you to do it and then write me at the end of 60 months and say it hadn't made any difference in me. Oh yes it will brother. We've spent our time memorizing little texts when we ought to have been memorizing great chapters. You say, what chapters? Well, I'd certainly start off with Psalm 1, and Psalm 19, and Psalm 23, and 24, and 51, that great brokenhearted Psalm. I'd memorize Psalm 91, Psalm 100, Psalm 121, the Traveler's Psalm, before you get on the highway, quote that one, you know, how the Lord takes you out and brings you back. And then I'd memorize the Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. That's the greatest sermon ever preached to Christians. And I'd memorize Romans chapter 8 for sure. And then I'd memorize Hebrews chapter 11. You start off with those and see what the Lord does. What do you think he means when he said, Thy word hath I hid in my heart that I might not sin against God? I went off to college, to Bailyn, to the seminary, and they began to say, Memorize poetry. Memorize much poetry. Well, the thing was pretty, but it wasn't powerful. Older I get, I want something that'll break the devil's back, I mean neck too! I want something that'll get a man under conviction, and it's the word of God that'll do it! Then I'll tell you something else, I want something that'll keep my old heart clean too. Jesus said, now you're clean, do the work which I've spoken unto you. And I tell you, any time I memorize one chapter, that's what he spoke to me. I need some soap. I need some real fuller soap, now here it is right here. And preachers, we don't know enough of the book to command the respect of the people. The average preacher preaches sometimes because it's his duty to preach, not because it's his joy and delight. Oh, my brethren tonight, if you and I would go to work on the Word of God and memorize it, I mean by the yard, and by the page, and by the chapter, and if our eyes failed us, or if we went blind, just stand up and preach it anyhow! We have it in our heart! And then dear friends I say this tenderly without any complaint at all in some of the dark nights when my soul is disturbed and when the blessings and I can hear the cry of a million souls down in Egypt land and I wake up I can start quoting chapters Great 53rd chapter. Who hath believed thy report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord with thee? Preach sometimes, I preached and jumped out at the back window and run home. Didn't want to meet anybody. Went to sleep crying and quoting who hath believed thy report. Why, Lord, didn't I believe tonight? Why didn't those old sinners come tonight? Oh, listen. He shall go before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form to come to me. When we shall see him there is no beauty, and we shall desire him. He is despised and rejected, and man, the man of sorrows acquainted with grief, still is. The most despised man in Gainesville, Georgia is Jesus. He lasted three years when he entered his public ministry. I don't know how he could last three years if he came back. and exposed himself to the wickedness of this generation. And preachers, we might as well make up our mind. We cannot be any more popular in our community than Jesus if we follow him. If they love him, they'll love you. If they love his word, they'll love you if you identify yourself with his word. Christians, there's an appointment that you're going to keep. And I'm going to keep, we're going to all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, every one of you. But you know, there's another appointment that I'd like to mention in connection with that. This, too, I believe is a voluntary appointment. I believe that there's an appointment for you and I, after we're saved, and even as a sinner, we're to judge ourselves. There came a time in my little old ignorant life when I judged myself guilty of sin. I knew that I was a sinner, and so I accepted the fact that I was lost and undone, and then something else. I believe after we're saved, we're to judge ourselves from day to day. I judge myself unworthy. I judge myself insufficient. I judge myself without the knowledge that I need. I judge myself. He said if you judge yourself, you wouldn't have to be judged. And I tell you, there's another appointment that many times we want to keep, we want to judge others. And brethren, I'll just admit tonight, and I've said a thousand times and more, I never will judge anybody again. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to be unkind. I'm not going to criticize anybody else, because when I criticize him, sometimes I condemn myself. And brethren, let me say to this great host of preachers here tonight, that's one of the weaknesses ordinarily of the average preacher, is to criticize in particular his brethren. And I just plead guilty tonight, but I don't want to do that. Sometimes I get so disgusted with preachers that seem like won't preach the simple gospel of Jesus Christ until I feel like it's my business to straighten them out. But I just waste my time. I'll tell you something else. And that is there was a time in my ministry, and may this help the preachers that are here, when I thought that I could straighten out one man in my sermon. And I'd adapt a message to him. I found out, and God said, son, now why don't you get him off by yourself and work him over and love him and help him. Now you were starving all your sheep while you worked on that old goat the whole hour, see. I said, you ought to be ashamed. Poor old sheep went home hungry, see, and you didn't feed them. I said, Lord, I quit that. I'll quit that. I'm going to feed the sheep. He didn't say, entertain the goats. He said, you feed my sheep. Over which the Holy Ghost hath made you the overseer. Oh, listen. I tell you what. If we'll feed the sheep like we ought to, I believe the goats will take care of themselves. I really do. I believe the time will come. You know, it's just like that old preacher said one time when one of the people got converted. He said, I don't know how I'm going to give up the old crowd. He said, don't worry. Turn on your light. They'll give you up. I believe that's right. There's nothing that'll protect the church. and take care of it like just preaching the gospel. I believe I can say after 35 years of preaching, I've preached out and through nine-tenths of all the problems I've ever had. That is, I've preached my own personal problems away. I mean, my preaching's helped me. Because I can't preach one thing and live another. My preaching's straightened out my home. Yeah, that's right. I can't preach one thing to the husbands and then me go home and be different to my wife. And brethren, you'll find it to be so. You can't preach over a sorry home. You just might as well get that straightened out, as we said last night, be a honeycomb husband. And preachers, all of us, need to practice the simple gospel that we preach. There's a judgment seat for Christians. And then last of all, There's another appointment that we're going to have to keep. I've already suggested it. I don't have anything to do with it. God didn't tell me when it's going to come. I never looked for it, didn't think about it, and made no arrangements for it. But I'm going to be present and on time for this meeting, and they won't have it till I get there, and that's dead. That's right. They're going to all meet somewhere, whoever comes. And I want some preacher to get up and just preach away. I mean preach. I don't want some little sickly sentimentality. I don't want him to eulogize this old simple ignorant country boy and say you know this is a man that never made an enemy. You watch if he says that I've asked God for enough power in my right foot to kick the lid off the castle. Not that I'm trying to make enemies. God knows it grieves me when people don't love me and when they don't act right and don't understand. But brother, I don't know how you can live in such a mean world and not have some enemies. The best men on the face of this earth have some bad enemies. Jesus had the most bitter enemies. They were so bitter till they literally rejoiced to hear the hammers crack down on those old nails that drove them through his hands. His religious enemies stood there and smiled a smile of contentment when they saw the blood spurt when the crown of thorns came down on his blessed brow. Paul, the best man of his day, lied, went to the chopping block. and said in the message I read today why I'm not willing just to live by own, I'm willing to die also. Their plans as an appointment you're going to have to meet. I don't know why people think they're not going to ever die. 600 people died today because of their cigarettes and 600 more are going to die tomorrow. And yet they'll advertise every dirty piece of nicotine on radio, television, newspaper. Why? Money. And it's killing the American race of people. There's an appointment and you're going to keep it. You're going to keep it. There's an appointment with death. And the Bible said it's appointed unto man once to die. There was a man that lived 969 years, nearly a thousand years and yet he died. You go back and read the Old Testament and they said he lived so long and he died. He lived so many years and he died. Never lasts for much. He's on our way to our own funeral tonight. But dear friends, I believe that it's possible for every Christian in the will of God to live out his days. Paul said, I've finished the course. I've graduated. He graduated with honors, though it was a dishonorable death. Dear friend, let me ask you this. Does death hold any fear for you? We used to sing the old song, Will there be any stars in my crown? When at evening the sun goeth down. You know, people used to look forward to heaven. When God called me to preach many years ago, My daddy let me have an old Model A Ford with a mother-in-law seat in it. I took that old Ford and went down to Little Church in the sand country in Limestone County. I'd drive that old Ford down those old sandy roads, sometimes hit high center, get around stumps and I'd drive maybe down as far as I could go. I'd turn into a wire gap and I'd drive up that lane as far as I could go and then I'd cut it off and then I'd walk the rest of the way. Back up on some old sand hill I'd find one of these old-fashioned houses with old fireplace on one side you know and hall in the middle of it and little breeze blowing through on that quiet summer afternoon. There'd be a couple of old saints, old gray-haired saints sitting there and old dog-eared Bible in each lap. They'd be a-reading away you know. And when I'd walk up they'd be, they'd say brother Olaf I'm glad you come we're just talking about him. I want to ask you, do you believe we'll recognize our loved ones when we get to heaven? I've been asked that a thousand times. People don't ever talk like that anymore. Man, listen, you hear me tonight, and I'm not trying to be funny. You give the average American family wall to wall carpet, a couple of cars and a television set and a bowling bag with some old balls and a golf course to go to, and maybe an old camper to take off on Sunday, that's all heaven they want? That's not all they're going to have too? Oh, listen, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. We're so foolish. We talk about going out to relax and we come back so tense we're fighting everything in the car. Oh, we take our camper and we get away from everything, including God. Preacher said to me not long ago, he said, I'm looking forward to my vacation. He said, I'm not going to even take my Bible with me. He said, I want to get away from everything. He's already away from more than he knows about. I mean, what's wrong with us? You mean Jesus is a burden to be around? You mean heaven's not something sweet to talk about? And then there's one more appointment that's got to be met. And I've missed this one. And that's the White Throne Judgment. That's going to be a private judgment for a public crowd. You talk about a crowd, oh my soul. You talk about a solemn morning. I dream that the great judgment morning at dawn, the trumpet had blown. Dear friend, every sinner is going to be present and on time. Poor, trembling, lost, loved ones, kinfolks, neighbors, anybody without Christ. Unsaved preachers are going to stand stripped with no wedding garment, looking into the face, unspeakable, speechless, no argument, standing before the judge of all the earth, waiting for the judge to pass eternal sentence. All sinners are going to be there. Every sinner. The mysteries of the seas. All the wars when crumbling bodies fell from exploded planes. Bodies were devoured by sharks and those bodies would get together and walk out to the judgment. One of these mornings they'd go into the judgment. That's the most horrible morning the world will ever know. when poor trembling sinners will bow their sinful heads and say, I missed it. Oh, that old loudmouth preacher was right. Jesus could have saved me, but it's too late now. And we'll see them as they turn their backs on heaven and go down that long, black, dark corridor towards hell. They'll hear before they ever get there the screams walk inside those black gates from which they'll never return. That's an appointment every sinner's got to keep. Though the world laughs at it, you never hear it mentioned anymore. We used to sing songs on the judgment. The little black-haired lady came, the first church I ever pastored, and she said, Brother Olaf, I notice you don't have much special music. And I said, no ma'am, I don't guess there's anybody can render special music. And she said, I'd sing. I'd sing. I said, didn't you come tonight with your book? And she came that night. And she sang, and that's been 35 years ago. And that's one song that's never left me, and it never will. And she sang out loud. She opened her mouth wide. you could hear it all down through the trees and the little old sanded roads she's saying loss my soul is lost forever doomed forever more to dwell in the pains of outer darkness in the never Lost my soul is lost breath. And sinner friend, just as surely as my life is eternal, your death will be eternal. There'll be no penitentiary sentence to serve. There'll be no annihilation. It'll just be permanent. Away from the Lord and away from God's people. Would you like to know Christ tonight briefly? This is the way. Admit that you are a sinner. You've never been born again. Admit that you cannot save yourself. Admit that Jesus Christ died for the such as you and rose again the third day according to the scripture. And then do it today. And make now the time. And Jesus will save you. and wash you from your sins in his own precious blood. We appreciate you listening to Treasured Heritage. Tune in at the same time every weekday to hear God's Word.