Jesus is the ONLY WAY!

Thank you for cooperating with us with parking. I know every once in a while there’s not very many cars back there, but about the Sunday that we think everything’s fine. We’re going to be full again, and we happen to know that people have been turned away. For sure, Easter Sunday, we all have to participate and help with the parking. At least half of us have to park down at the school. It’s door to door. You get out of your car and you get right in the shuttle. He pulls right up to the door. It’s door to door service, and we really need your help on that particular Sunday, and more Sundays going forward. We need to give room for visitors. 

They don’t know about the school. They’ll come. The lot’s full, and they’ll go home. So we need your help, and thank you very, very much. In the front yard, that’s reserved for people who have walking disabilities, and we want to honor people for that. So thank you for helping us with that, and don’t forget to bring me a yummy next Sunday. I want to share with you today, I want to call my message today, only Jesus, Jesus only. There’s no other name given among men under heaven where we can be saved, and the word being saved is a Bible word. We need to be saved from ourselves. So I begin by reading something to you. I hardly ever read from the pulpit. I seldom have notes, but today I’m relying a little bit on some notes.

So I picked this up from somewhere. I don’t remember where. It doesn’t matter. But I will say, first of all, that this is my personal experience as well. My ministry, for the most part, was not in a local church. My ministry was travel, and 37 different countries preaching in the bush, in the bush lands of Kenya and Uganda and Tanzania, the Far East. I’ve traveled much, and I’ve yet to come across a people who don’t believe in God. It is, it is birthed in us, and I think it’s because we came from Him. We came from Him. And yes, I believe in the Bible account of creation. 

There’s nothing else that’s plausible. And there are always throwing things on the floor. 

So there’s a universal belief in God. So here’s the article I picked up. Humans at all times and 

in every place believe in the existence of God.

Three historic structures, like the Stonehenge in England, and there are other structures in other parts of Europe, all testify to the fact that man is a religious animal, distinct and radically different from the beasts and all living creatures upon the face of the earth. The earliest civilizations, Sumerians, Egyptians, the Incas, they all without exception, had a strong sense of religion. These people all attempted to somehow build a bridge to get to God. That’s called religion. When man tries to build a bridge, when man tries to do anything to reach out to God, that’s called religion. But when God reaches out to us, that’s amazing grace. The least people from time immemorial have always felt a bond with the maker, recognizing that maybe unknown deity was superior. The earliest records and structures all point to the fact that religion is not the opium of the people like Marx mistakenly believed. It’s rather the desperate and unsuccessful attempt to make amends with God.

Admittedly, he is the unknown God, as Paul took the hint from one of the numerous Athenian altars who’s worshipped in ignorance, superstition, and idolatry. But man inevitably lives and moves and exists in him. We are his offspring. Now the challenge is, what’s the right way? The challenge is, will the real God please stand up? Pope Francis is endeavoring now to convince the world that there is only one God, but that all religions are okay and they’re faithful, choose whatever path you want to, you will make it to God. He made a statement during an interreligious youth gathering in Singapore last year. It just happens, I found it. At the very time it was happening, it was on the television. And here were the Pope’s words, all religions are paths to God. He said, I will use an analogy. They’re like different languages and express the divine. He further clarified that God is for everyone and therefore we’re all God’s children.

This statement has sparked excitement and controversy with some Catholics expressing concern that it might contradict the traditional Catholic teachings about the uniqueness of Christ to the church as the path to salvation. While the Catholic church emphasizes the importance of Christ and the church, it also acknowledges that people of other faiths may be seeking and finding God in their own ways. Other interpretations, some view the Pope’s statement as a call for interreligious dialogue and respect, emphasizing the shared humanity of all people who seek God. This statement then has actually ignited a movement underneath the Catholic church banner. Don’t get upset with me this morning talking about the Catholic truth. I got to talk about other religions as well. We’re a part of a religious group, all these really. It’s important that we consider these things. It’s important that we talk about these things. And with immigration, I watched an astounding comment just this last week because of the election that’s coming and because of how the government’s been flipping and flopping in all kinds of ways.

We had to deal with the carbon dust and whatever and we had to do this and now Chili Con Carney says, well, maybe we can do away with that a little bit. We’ll just hammer on the industries again. And then it was discovered, well, we don’t have enough people. So every year, over the years, people have kept track, how many people were coming in. I believe in immigration. Every one of us is here as a response of immigration. And let’s, some of you were part of some kind of a Stonehenge in Canada. We all came from another place, correct? 

So we all believe in immigration. My parents, my grandparents all came from Europe. So immigration’s important and it should be acceptable everywhere. But all of a sudden, just in the last, in this last time of about the last eight or ten years, it went absolutely crazy. There was a point recently where you could not get a hotel room in Niagara Falls. It was filled with immigrants.

Immigrants that have been not just welcomed in but almost paid to come in. And now all of a sudden we have a housing crisis and somebody said, oh, I guess it’s all the millions of people that we let come through the door. And it’s just, it’s so, it’s so mind-boggling. Here’s the important fact about all the immigration, all of the languages and the religions that came with these people, they’re all around us. And it’s important that I, as I endeavor to reach out and talk to people about Jesus and if they are of the Hindu religion, it would be good for me to know just a little bit or of any other religious participation. And I have dialogue many, many times with Islamic people and have tried to come to an understanding of what they believe and where they’re at. And I get a little confused by times as I speak with them because there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of confusion in that religion. You wouldn’t know the way it’s put forth. But there’s a lot of mixed up stuff. The Quran, for instance.

The Quran was not written by people who knew their leader. It was written some 400 years after Muhammad had lived. The Quran came out 400 years later. And the people who wrote it, there were several of them, never knew him of course because he’d already been dead for 400 years. And yet that book is really in so many ways all about him. And so the name Allah by the way, I just used a sentence wrongly, Allah is not a name. Allah is a word that’s equal to the word in English, God. So God is not our Heavenly Father’s name. That’s not his name. Moses said out there at the burning bush, who shall I tell them sent me? And he never heard, well just tell them God because there were gods everywhere. Egypt has got everybody has their God, which God, which God, which God? Allah is just a word like God. When you ask an Islamic person what’s your God’s name? He says Allah, that’s not a name.

That’s not a name. And so there are so many confusions with religion, which way is the right way? And of course. Here I have my bully pulpit and I strongly suggest Jesus is the way. He’s the way. There’s no other religion in the world that’s founded upon someone who gave us all, someone who died for them. So many of these religions require death in order to appease God. It was in the 1980s, I was visiting a very special friend up in the hills of Kenya. Her name was Iris Shields. She was a missionary and she was doing an incredible thing there. She established a school whereby she could teach the gospel to the Kenyan school teachers so that the Kenyan school teachers in the classroom could teach the gospel to the kids. It was a wonderful thing and the honorable Daniel A. Rupp Moy, the president who April and I actually knew personally some years ago, established that every school teacher when they were taking their studies to be a teacher, they had to go to Goibe and under the tutelage of Iris Shields, they had to learn how to teach the gospel. Kenya, you could go to any village and I’ve done it. I took Rudy and Karen Krullik over to Kenya some years ago and he said, David, how many people in this town we’re coming into? What percentage do you think are Christians? I said, well, let’s ask them. So we got out of the car, and we’re standing outside a hotel. There’s people all on the street, there’s a marketplace here and there and I shouted,

 Bwanna askafreeway and everybody started saying, amen, amen, amen. Bwanna askafreeway means, let’s praise the Lord. And the whole place lit up, it was absolutely incredible but Iris took me for a little drive just outside of Kisumu. And there was this high, high jagged rock that was reaching up into the sky, a very pointed rock and she said, David, these people before we came and shared Jesus with them had several gods and he said, they were all mean gods, horrible gods who demanded, demanded, demanded and she said, up on that rock, people would throw members of their family as a sacrifice off of the precipice of that rock and their bodies would be dashed on the ground below. Little babies were hurled out, their little bodies to be crushed on the rocks below. 

All religions are the path to God. No, no. And the things that have been happening over in the Middle East, it’s all an answer to somehow establishing some kind of a godhood in the world where Sharia law will become the law. I just said a magic word, Sharia. I just said it again. And is this thing going out over the internet today? YouTube is going to go absolutely nuts because I said Sharia. Now they’re listening that they have ways of listening in on every conversation on a phone, whatever, and they’re going absolutely ballistic because we’re not allowed to say about certain religious efforts. We’re not allowed to say what we think of them, but they take our Lord’s name in vain.

Which is the right way? Well, we’re all friends and we’ve got to learn to get along. You throw your babies into the fire and this guy can spear this one and this one will behead that one. All paths are a good pathway to God. Nene! There’s only one way and his name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. I’ve had so many privileges. I went to China. It was just months after the Tiananmen Square problem. You remember that so very well, I’m sure. And when I got to the country, I wasn’t prepared for what I was going to experience. I did not know that the government after Tiananmen Square had made an announcement to beware of all foreigners. They’re spies.

So here I am sitting on a bus and all of these people are just. . . You can just tell, like, I’m a bad guy sitting among them. I was in a school teacher’s apartment. She was there from the United States and she was in a school teaching English because the Chinese people are recognizing, certainly then, if not even more so now, that the best way to conquer the world in every way economically and so on is to know the language of the people that you want to corral. So she’s there teaching English. And I said, so what’s it like over here? In this country with a Chinese government, she said, I’m so glad that you asked me. Maybe later today I’ll tell you. And then she went with her finger. That couldn’t come. And she’s going like this.

We got outside. We got some distance from the building. She says my apartment is bugged. And she said, I dare not say a thing. And she did tell me this one cute little story. She was on the phone with somebody and she said, you know, I’d like to invite you over for a cup of tea, but I’m going to have to go shopping and get some tea bags in order to serve. I’m fresh out of tea. And a few minutes later, she heard a little bit of a scuffle outside her door and she opened her door. Whoever was paid to listen in on her was listening to her and thought she’s a nice lady. They put some tea bags at the entry of her door. I thought that was cute. And so while I was there, I was the guest of a missionary who had a privilege in the hospital in a city. I’m going to say it wrong, but I looked it up on the internet.  So I’m going to say it phonetically.

Is that a good word? As it looks.

It’s called Shenzhen or something like that. And I went to Shenzhen on a boat overnight. That was an experience. It’s not very far to get from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. And in the daytime, I was taken to a hospital where all of the surgeons have to learn English. So part of their day is to sit in a classroom. And so this fellow that I was with, he had the privilege of teaching all of these surgeons English every time he went over. So he took me in and he said, this is my friend David Forrest. He’s from Canada. And today he’s your teacher. I thought, no, no, no, I’m not an English teacher.

And he said, here’s what we’ll do. He said, you can ask David a question and he will answer you in English. So he said, let’s see how your English is. Can you speak English well enough now that he will understand the question? And so from the get-go, when I stood up and I said, I trust you understanding me now, I spoke slowly. And I said, I’m only going to answer with one or two words each time. And I first of all want you to tell me what you do in this hospital. I want to know about you. Then you can ask me one question and I’ll give you a very brief answer. So there were about 35 people sitting in this room. All of them were doctors. So the first person lifted up his hand and I acknowledged him and he said, you’re from Canada. What do you do for employment? I said, I’m in a communist country.

You can get arrested. I don’t know. I had to be careful because, you know, so I said, I’m a teacher. And that was his question. You couldn’t ask anymore. Dr. Fellow said, he said, I perform surgery on the eye, whatever. So your teacher, what’s your favorite subject? I said, religion. The next person. I reattach fingers or toes. I do that kind of thing. Why? Oh, which religion is your favorite religion? I thought, I’m being ambushed here. I said, Christianity.

Next person. They told me what they did. And they said, why is Christianity your favorite religion? I said, because the founder of that religion is still alive and I know him personally. I thought, if I’m going to get ambushed, I’m going to go to jail. Let’s go to jail. If I’m going to get, if there’s going to be a charge and they say, I’m guilty. Then let’s get very guilty. The next person. Are you going to tell us about that person today? I said, I suppose I could tell a little bit. And I can’t remember exactly how it went. But here’s how it ended up. I told them that this Jesus lives in here. I said, I live in a house. The real me.

I live in a house. My person is a house. And I said, he’s living in my heart, in my very inner being. And there’s a door to my heart. And I said, so I opened the door and I let him come in. But I said, the way that that even happened was, I heard him knocking on my door and calling and saying, if you hear my voice, open the door. I was quoting scripture, you see. And I said, I responded and I opened the door. And I said, he came in. And he never left. And he’s always there. And I said, it’s like sitting, having lunch with him all the time. When you get together with friends, you eat food and you communicate. And I said, every day, it’s like a lunch and an encounter with him. And they wanted to know more. And I can’t remember all the details. Pretty soon, obviously, I was answering in sentences, right? And then my host said, we’ve got to wrap this up, David. These people got to go back and sew people up and do whatever they have to do. And I said, so does anybody want to say something last? I have to leave. And a doctor raised his hand. 

And again, he identified himself as what he does. And he said, if you come back to Shenzhen again, I believe that he’s going to have a house. That this Jesus will be inside of me. Another person raised their hand. And they repeated almost verbatim. And another one, and another one, another one. I stood there. Tears were running down my cheeks. I realized that Jesus is alive and he’s speaking into these people’s hearts.

And something that I shared with them resonated in such a wonderful fashion. So two more things about that. These people, about five of them, determined that they liked me. I don’t know why. One of them became the president of my fan club. And as far as I know, he’s still the only member. But they said, can we take you out for lunch? And I said, I’d love to. And of all things, what kind of a restaurant did they take me to? Chinese. And I kept on asking what was on this turntable the food was going around. And they said, you don’t want to know. Just enjoy it. So I could hear barking and meow. So I don’t know what it was. No, I don’t know.

I don’t know. So at any rate, going back now, I didn’t go back on a boat. I went back on a train. And on the train, my host. By the way, you’ve seen my host on television. That this guy got arrested over there for espionage, for spying. And he became a huge story in Canada, all over the world. His name is Kevin. Something got. I’m sorry. He’s my good friend. Kevin and his wife. They got arrested. She got out. But he was in jail for a long time. It was in terms of years.

And then finally, the Canadian government won the day and he got released. But he really paid the price for being over there and sharing the gospel. But on the train, on the way back to Hong Kong, he said, David, who told you to use that scripture about the door and etcetera. The door I said, well, nobody told me to. I said, it’s in the Bible. Yeah, but he said, you chose that one. You chose that one. Why did you choose that? I said, well, I don’t know. It just occurred to me. He said, this is so intriguing. He said historically now, historically, the tradition would be that a Chinese person would show up at your door and they probably would knock and then they would call. If the person on the inside heard that voice, they, of course, they would feel obligated to open the door.

Now, when they opened the door, they would greet, of course, the person standing there and even if the person standing there were to say, oh, I’m sorry, I must have the wrong door. It doesn’t matter. The person on the inside, here’s the voice. Here’s the knocking. They’re culturally obligated to open the door. The moment the doors open, the person on the outside, even if they’re there by mistake, first of all, the person who opens the door, they’re obligated to invite the person in. Now, this isn’t the house I was looking for. No, no, come on in. Let’s have tea. Let’s turn the mistake into something nice. And I’m putting those little words in there. I’m not sure that that’s what they would say. But the person who opens the door is obligated, let this person come in.

The fact that they were, that the person on the outside was invited to come in, culture says they’re obligated to go in. The moment they come in, the host is obligated to ask them to please be seated. The visitor is obligated to sit. The host is obligated to offer something, a cup of tea, if nothing else. And the visitor is obligated to receive the tea. He said, you told the gospel story according to Chinese culture. 

And you see, I told the people on that occasion too, the doctors, I said, and by the way, I said the hardware for the locking device from my heart, I’m in control of it. Jesus does not come. I said, the door to my heart is on the inside. And my host said, the cultural old time Chinese door, the locking device was on the inside. I never saw a door, I don’t know. But it was so intriguing that here these Chinese people who have lots of religion, lots of religious culture, the moment they heard about Jesus, they wanted to be a part of Him. There’s nobody like Jesus, only Jesus.

So this thing isn’t even working for me now. Oh, it was unplugged. So the universal problem is this, that all tribes, all peoples, all nations, people, they all believe in a God. But all of those gods are very demanding and that those gods are never satisfied. The Incas, you’ve surely seen these programs on television that exposed to us how they lived. They murdered people, but they just called it a sacrifice. I just can’t even imagine a religion that requires it. They would choose just somebody from the village. And this is what they would do. It was a bloodletting thing and the people will dance and they’ll carry on. But that God still requires more and more. These gods are never satisfied. The glorious thing about the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the glorious thing about the Lord Jesus of the Scriptures does not require us to bloodlet.

I see a crimson stream of blood. It flows from Calvary. It streams which reach the throne of God are sweeping over me. For God so loved the world, He gave His beloved Son so that by His stripes and by the nails that pierced His hands and His feet, we are the redeemed. The only thing He requires of us is to have faith and to accept His generosity. Buddhism is an Indian religion, philosophical tradition found in the teachings of the Buddha emphasizes. So this is the Buddha. This is what the Buddha offers, enlightenment and liberation from suffering if you learn to practice meditation and cultivate a mindful lifestyle. That’s the summation really of Buddhism. And then Hinduism, the entire universe is made up of God. You’re a God, I’m a God, we’re all God. So don’t worry about which God is right. We just had somebody announcing Singapore in robes that all paths are right.

So your path is right, mine is right, everything is okay. Down in Jamaica they say, drink some rum, be happy, be happy, man, be happy. We’re all going to get there, we’re fine. I’m a God, you’re a God. And the Hindu religion says that you are intrinsically divine and your purpose should be to seek and to realize that divinity that’s within you and to enjoy it. And they’re not exclusive, they say, well, just like the Pope, they say, well, all religions are just fine. You’re all little gods and you can make your mind up about the way you want to go. It’s important that we know these things, not to come against these people in any way, but to understand them so that we can invite them, taste and see that the Lord is good. Jesus said to a fellow, I am the way, I am the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. Those are heavy words. I am the way. Well what about Pastor Dave?

Pastor Dave is his zero. Jesus said, I am the way. What about a prophet? Profits are zero. Jesus said, I am the way. And I am the truth and I am the life and nobody can get to the Father but through me. He doesn’t mention anyone else helping that person to do so. So I can’t mediate for you. If you want to know Jesus, you have to embrace him for yourself. But can somebody help me? Someone can instruct you. Someone can read this verse to you. But there’s not a person in the world wearing a hat, a robe, sandals or anything else who can help you. 

There’s only one way to the heavenly Father and that’s through his son whose name is Jesus. Jesus announced it, Jesus acts chapter 4. This is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders. This is a disciple speaking in their own defense. They’ve been arrested for preaching Jesus. He’s the stone that the builders rejected. He’s the stone that the Jews rejected. And he’s become the cornerstone. They’re nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Isn’t it interesting? I’ve talked to people before and said, you know, you have to be born again. And that creates people terribly. They say, no, no, no, that’s your way. That’s your religion. I say, no, you believe in the Bible? Yes.

Well, Jesus told a man who was well versed in the Bible. He was a Pharisee. That means that he was high up in their religious Jewish fluency. He had it all together. And Jesus said to this man who came into the evening, he said, don’t marvel at this. I’ve got to tell you, you must be born again. And there wasn’t just that man, but we all have to be born again. But I was sprinkled when I was a baby in church. I hope you enjoyed the bath, but that does not get you into the cage. There’s only one way in it’s through Jesus. And if you’re a little baby and you don’t understand these things, how can we say you got to the Father through Jesus? You can’t lead a person who’s in a coma to Jesus. You can’t sprinkle him. You can’t do anything for him. That person has to know Jesus for himself.

My grandfather, my mother’s father, who was a tyrant, abused my mother in ways that are unspeakable in public places. And my mother was rescued by an auntie. And with the help of the children’s aid society, my mother was turned over to her auntie, my auntie Jean, who was her, my mother’s mother’s sister. My own mom died early, so I’m probably getting you mixed up here. My mom, her mom had died of an exploded appendix, and my grandfather then picked up with some floosi. And that floosi hated my mom and that woman, her name is Vera. I met her when I was a child. I was afraid of her. So I had horrendous memories of my grandparents. Then my mom one day called me and said, David, my mom had no relationship with her father all through her adult years. You wouldn’t mention anything about it. My mom didn’t want to talk about it.

But my mom called me one day and she said, I think you should know, David, your grandfather’s in a hospital in Toronto. I just thought you should know. I hadn’t seen this man for 25, 30 years. I went to Toronto. I went into this hospital room. He was in a coma. And I knew what he had done to my mom, all the tribulation, tribulation, trials, I felt for his soul. So I leaned down and I said, Edgar, my name is David Forrest. I’m your grandson. You need to know that you’re going to meet Jesus any moment. And I said, easy, they’re going to embrace you or turn his back on you. It’s entirely up to you, sir. I said, you know you’ve failed God. I don’t have to convince you of that.

Now he’s in a coma, but a nurse told me the hearing is the last to go. And I prayed the sinners prayer with that man, hoping that somehow he would connect and find his way to glory. Because the Bible says the books will be opened. And if your name is not found in that book, you’ll be cast out into a lake of fire. I don’t believe in the lake of fire. You will when you feel the heat. A lot of soldiers in the Second World War who were atheists became God-fearing men when they were in the trenches. Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon 150 years ago. The stories about his sermon are incredible. He had one sermon and it was entitled this. Sinners in the hands of an angry God. Why would God be so angry? What’s wrong with him? 

Because of our treatment of his son Jesus, all that he’s done to salvage us, all that he’s done to cure our wicked hearts. Can we turn our backs on him or do we use his name in a treacherous way? Jesus. Only Jesus. He said, I’m the door and if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and he will find pasture. He’s talking about us as being his sheep. Romans 10, 9, if you confess with your mouth. What do you think of David about these people who are of other religious streams? They’re not quite like us. Here’s what I believe. Like all the way, here’s where I am. Romans 10, 9, if that person you’re worried about confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead, they are saved. You don’t have to learn my songs. You don’t have to come and hear me spitting and carrying on and screeching every Sunday in order to get to heaven. You can go to any church you want to, but you’ve got to believe in your heart. 

You’ve got to confess with your mouth. According to Romans 10, 9, that’s what’s required. You don’t have to go to classes. That doesn’t even mention water baptism, does it? But water baptism and all of discipleship and following Jesus, it’s implied in it. If you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, that means you’re confessing him to be your Lord. That includes all of that. That means your language cleans up. It means your lifestyle cleans up. It means you’ve got to stop robbing banks. It means you’ve got to get water baptized. It means you need to read the Word of God. If you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

There’s one way to heaven. His name is Jesus. You don’t have to kill anybody. You don’t have to chop off heads. You don’t have to recite rhymes. You don’t have to learn at all. You don’t have to read the Bible through 55 times before you die. All you need to do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus raised him from the dead. You will be saved. I came to the realization when I was a very young man studying for the ministry. I remember knocking on a door in the town of Simcoe. It was a house right next door to a church. Doesn’t matter which church. And I had a group of young people that I took with me and they said, we’re going to go

out and talk to people about Jesus right at the door and we’re going to let God decide how that works out. 

Let’s just go and talk with people about it. Let’s just go and dialogue. So I had a group of teenagers and we went and so I knocked on the door. It never occurred to me. This is the mance, right? That’s an old word. This is the parsonage, another old word. There’s a minister in here. I didn’t know that. I knocked on the door and a man opened the door. I said, hi, my name’s David. And I said, I’m a student minister. Haven’t got all my pieces together. But I said, I’m out just wanting to talk to people about Jesus.

He said, well, I’m the pastor of the church next door. I said, oh, that’s wonderful. We shook hands. I said, isn’t it wonderful, sir, that we’re on our way to heaven? And the minister said, well, that’s a nice hope, isn’t it? I said, no, I said, hope is something you’re wishing for. Like maybe, maybe, maybe. I said, no, no. I said, sir, I’m going to heaven. He said, you can’t know that. I said, do you talk to your people like that? Well, he said, if he asks a question, he said, I’m going to be honest. I said, I’m going to be honest. I think, sir, you’re in trouble.

I said, that’s a terrible thing for a young whippersnapper like me. But I said, if you don’t know, I said, if you’re driving the bus and you don’t know the destination, if you’re the guy flying the airplane and you say, don’t worry if this is your first flight. This is my first flight to us. I said, the people are going to cry. No, no, no, no. I said, you’re the guy in charge. You’re the president. You’re the prime minister and you don’t know. I said, I can’t believe this. He said, you can’t show me in this scripture. I said, I can, but I haven’t got the time, sir. I’m on my way. I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t giving his people the assurance. On another occasion, I was at the Bible college at this point. And my pastor’s son, my very best friend from our teen days, we ended up sharing rooms together as, you know, attending the college.

And it turned out that the local two churches that were a part of our denomination contrived with the Bible college, let’s have special services at a particular church in the town. And so it was agreed by the college that all students would attend. You had to go. They were taking attendance. And so my friend and I were in this service and a man became my hero. This is the first time I ever heard him speak. His name was Robert Johnson. They brought him by training from Montreal and he was going to speak. And the whole focus of the three days of services was to do the work of an evangelist. That’s a scriptural term. That’s what Paul was saying to one of his younger students. Do the work of an evangelist. In other words, reach out and talk to people about Jesus. And so every night this man, what did like a race horse when he preached?

I love to watch him preach. He was something else. But when he got to the end of his service, there was always this tug. Come around the altar. This is what we call the altar. Just, it’s a space that we reserved. There’s an alt. This is an altar. Come around the altar and let’s pray about this. You need to be an evangelist. You need to be soul winners. Well, I was very moved in every service and so I went forward like everybody else did. And I’m standing there and I’m saying to Jesus, I’d love to win people to the Lord. That’s why I came to college. That’s what I want to do my whole life. I want to lead people to Jesus.

And all of a sudden I got this. I got this little something that came upon me. I can’t describe it for you, but I felt it was the Lord. There was no question. I knew that the Lord had spoken to me in here somewhere and said, you’ve been talking about this for a long time. It’s time for you to go and do it. And I thought it’s time. Like it’s time to go and do it. And I thought that’s the devil trying to trick me to get me out of this service. And then they’ll see that I’m missing on the list and I’ll get in trouble with the dean and with the president. I’m going to say no, no, I haven’t. And then I felt it getting stronger and stronger and stronger. And I became weepy. I became weepy as I stood there and I felt David, if you’ll go out tonight and trust the Lord, somebody needs to meet Jesus tonight. 

And as I stood there wrestling with this question in my mind, surrounded by a couple of hundred fellow students, a tap on my shoulder. I turned and it’s my buddy. And he just called me forest. He still just calls me forest. He says, forest, you might think I’m nuts. But he said, I feel compelled in my heart. We’re all standing here every night. We’re singing about, oh, I want to be a soul winner for Jesus. He said, why are we standing here? Why don’t we go and do it? He said, I feel I’m supposed to go, but I’m afraid to go. Will you go with me? I said, yes. So we dashed out and he had a car. We jumped in the car. He said, OK, we’re going to go and find somebody. 

He said, he said, God has somebody specific in mind. I said, agreed. He said, but we got to find that person. I said, right on. He started up the car back to the church parking lot and he got to George Street. He said, do we go left or do we go right? I said, it’s one way to the right. I think we should go right. See, we turned right and got to the next intersection. What do we do here? I said, you’re the driver. You’ve got to be led by the Lord. He said, you’re not helping at all. I said, you asked me to come along.

See, now I traded. I said, this is your gig. I didn’t tell him what was going on in my head. This is your gig. God’s leading, you drive. Well, we went into downtown Peterborough. And we got to this traffic lake. What to do? He said, what to do? I said, I don’t know. David turned left only one half of a block. Well, it was a full block, but it’s a short block. And now it’s at Water Street. And it’s the one way that goes opposite what we just get. He said, I think we’re supposed to turn left. I said, absolutely.

I don’t know. He turned left and he’s saying, and I’ve been mumbling on all along, how are we going to know? We might be driving for the next three days. I’ve got, you know, what’s supposed to happen? And as we’re just going slowly along the street and there’s these stores all along the right. OK. And we heard a window shatter and we looked at each other and said, that’s it. CSI, we should be making a movie. He pulled the car over. We got out of the car. We’re like, you know, we’re investigators and we’re walking around and there’s no windows broken in all of these windows. All these stores, there’s no window broken. And then all of a sudden we’re stepping in broken glass. There’s no window broken. Then we looked up and here there are apartment bill apartments on top of these.

And there’s the broken window. Aha. That’s the problem. The soul that we have to talk to you about Jesus is up there. Don’t ask me, folks. I can’t tell you how we worked all this out. We were just so convinced. OK. So here’s a door. I turned the knob and it was not locked. I opened it. It was a steep wooden stairway and there was no light on. So you’re looking up into this dark abyss. I stepped just inside. Big tall Mallory. Dave is right behind me. And I said, it’s too dark. He puts his hand on my back. He was such a wuss. David, if you’re listening in, I’m going to repeat it again. You cream puff. He puts his hand on my back. He says, go ahead. I’m right behind you. I thought, oh, good. He’s. All right. So I’m going up the stairs and my hands are on the wall either side. It’s a weird feeling going up the stairs. Maybe some of you at the top got a gun. You know, I don’t know. Or maybe there’s a monster up there.

The Loch Ness is up there. So we got to the top. I’m feeling around the wall. A door. Yeah. Oh, there’s a handle. Don’t rattle the handle. So I wrapped on the door. And I heard slippers on a wooden floor. And they came and they paused at the door. I gently knocked again. Very feeble voice. Who’s there? I said, I’m David. He says, I’m David too. He says, please open the door.

No, please open the door. We’re ministers. I say, well, we’re not really ministers. We want to be ministers. We’re studying to be ministers. Please go away. One of us said, we can’t go away. We heard the breaking glass. We’re on a mission here. We have to talk to you. Please don’t be afraid. Open the door. And then all of a sudden we heard clack, clack, clack. She had all these bolts on the door. And then she opens the door. It actually whined when she.

And there stands this little lady. She would have looked up to you, sweetie. She was a little person. She was just bones, the tiniest little thing. Her apartment was dimly lit. We said, please let us come in. You don’t have to be afraid. She became convinced we followed her into this dimly lit room. She sat down in a rocking chair. And David and I sat in a couple chairs far away. We wanted to feel comfortable. He said, what happened with the breaking glass? Who else is here? My daughter’s in the next room. Oh, we want to talk to her. No, no, you can’t. No, you can’t. No, you can’t. You can’t see her. No, no, she’s angry right now. And it turned out the daughter was drunk and she’d broken the window. And the little lady’s afraid of her own daughter. We said, we just want to come and talk to you about Jesus. And so we started outlining for her the concept of the biblical concepts of Jesus. And I remember saying to her, her name, by the way, was Mrs. Loscher, L-O-T-I-E-R. I said, Mrs. Loscher, I want to ask you a very personal question. Jesus is my personal friend. Do you know Jesus? And she replied,

Oh, I was a member of the first United right downtown here. All my life and my husband was too. I said, wow, that’s wonderful. But do you know Jesus? Do you know him? I was always faithful to the pastor and I always used to take pie to him. I said, I’m going to be a pastor. I hope there’s a lady like you that brings pie to me. But do you know Jesus? I always sang in the choir. I love singing in the choir. I said, well, you must have been something else. But you’re avoiding the question, aren’t you? Do you know Jesus? And she burst into tears. She said, you must be angels.

God must have sent you. My friend said, trust me, lady, we’re not angels. She said, I sit in this apartment all alone. I’ve gone to church all my life. But I don’t know if I die now, am I going to heaven? How does one know? How do you know? I slipped across the floor and on my knees kneeling on her knees. I let her in a prayer where she gave her heart to Jesus. After he finished praying, she stood up and the joy the Lord came all over. She wrapped her arms around me and she hugged me. And then she hugged David and then she hugged me. And she was so excited. I have to shorten the story.

My time has gone. It was not a week that went by and David came bursting into my room and threw a newspaper on my bed. And the captive story, the main story, was about a fire that had broken out downtown in an apartment up over the store. And two ladies were in desperate trouble in the hospital, a mother and her daughter. As we read on, it said, the daughter had broken the glass of the window. It said that. But then the daughter, for some reason, set fire to the apartment. And the two women were found standing in a bathtub in the bathroom trying to survive the raging fire. It was a wooden structure. It’s a wonder it didn’t just go up like straw.

The women were rescued and they were laying in the hospital. And David said, we got to go. We got to go. I said, yes, we do. We raced down to the hospital and to make a long story short, a nurse was very kind to me. And my friend David, the hero, he waited in the car. He waited in the car. You go, you go. And so I went, I had a mask on. I had a cap on. I had a gown on. And this nurse said, you can’t stay long. She said poor thing. She said her daughter down the hall is screaming murder. She said she is terrible. She said, this sweet little thing says nothing. But she said, David, she said, she’s baked from the inside. She said she’s an absolute mess. She said, we’re making her as comfortable as we can. I can’t describe what I saw. It did not look human.

No hair. Eyes were burned shut. Her little hands had no skin. They were just raw, resting on her little, under her little chest right here. And she said, she can’t speak. She can’t say anything. And she said, you have a friend, Mrs. Loser. This man says he knows you. No response. She said, I’ll leave you for a moment. Don’t stay long. I was crying the whole time. I’m going to answer. I’m going to tell you a question that was running in the car. I’m going to tell you a question that’s running in your head. How come God allows such things? I don’t know. And that’s what I said to her. Mrs. Loser, I said, I’m David. My other friend David, we came. We came to your apartment and her head rolled her face, rolled toward me. And she started making these sounds.

I said, yes, you remember me. You remember. Don’t try to talk. Just rest. Just rest. I said, I don’t know why God has allowed this. Please, please don’t hold God accountable for this moment. I said, just leave it with God. And as I’m trying to talk to her suddenly, you have to take my word for this. OK, it’s only happened once in my whole life. Suddenly there was somebody else in the room. And I started to shake and I’m crying profusely. I said, listen, Jesus is here now. I said, I said to him, he’s here right now. He’s coming to take your home. Don’t you be afraid?

When he reaches out his hand to you, you reach out. You take his hand. He’s taking you now to heaven. Aren’t you glad you know Jesus? I prayed a little prayer. I walked out. I took all these clothes. I threw them in a basket right there outside the door, raced down the hall, and got in the car. My buddy said, what happened? I said, drive, drive, drive, get back to the school. I tried to relate to them what I experienced up in that burn ward. When I got back to the school, I ran in and I put a lonely coin into a phone. And I called back to the hospital. I said, burn unit, please. And all of a sudden I heard a voice and it was a nurse.

I said, my name’s David. I was just there. I was a minister. How did you get out of here? She said, I never saw you leave. I said, that doesn’t matter. I said, I just want to know how she is. And she said, oh my, I’m sorry. She said, she is gone. I’m sorry. And I said, oh, I’m not. I said Jesus came for her. That, I guess, is why I was there to just be there and escort her into his arms. My name is David. I put my trousers on one leg at a time. I’m not a super person.

I’m just David. I’ve prayed with literally thousands of people all over the world to accept Jesus as their Savior, thousands. When I get to heaven, I don’t know how many of them will be there. I’m sure as God made little green apples, that little lady is going to be there. And how do I know this? Because there’s nobody like my Jesus. He doesn’t require us to do anything, just look and live. It requires that with my mouth, I say, Jesus, I believe. And I accept you into my heart. That’s what’s required. It is so important that every one of us be a Jesus promoter. Our country’s got all kinds of religions. We have more religions than we have Tim Hortons. All these people walking among us.

Different color of skin, different language. All have religions behind them culturally. 

Some of them have abandoned it because it’s empty. But isn’t it wonderful when you meet somebody who knows Jesus? There’s a life fair. You see it in their eyes. You hear the hope in their voice. There’s something wonderful and awesome about my Jesus. I hope you know him. 

I hope you know him. Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father. I pause this moment as we’re about to conclude this service. I pause now to say, Holy Spirit, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. Maybe you’re talking to someone or several.

I don’t know. They know how to take care of pastors. They sing in the choir. They’ve done so many wonderful things. But they don’t know for sure. They don’t know. Oh Lord Jesus, what a joy it would be. If someone today in this meeting would say, I confess with my mouth, the Lord Jesus. I believe that God raised him from the dead. I accept him as my friend and my Savior. I open up my whole life to him and I ask him to forgive me for all the sins that I committed that caused his pain on the cross. I confess that I have failed God, but I also confess I believe in Jesus

and I believe that by faith I’ll see him when I leave this planet. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. I’m not going to embarrass anyone in this room. Is there somebody who would raise a hand just now? And that hand says, David, I’m so glad you addressed this today. I needed to hear this. Is there anybody who feels that way? Thank you. Thank you. Are there any others today? I really needed to hear this today. Yes, thank you. It’s okay. It’s okay. You put your hand down.

Is there anybody who would raise a hand and say, I don’t know him, Dave, and I’d sure like to know him. If you’ll raise your hand, I’ll simply be praying for the next seven days about the person whose hand I saw. Is there anybody who would say, David, put me on that prayer list? I don’t know him like you do. Is there one? Gracious fathers, we conclude this service. We go out of here with joy, exuberance, and we’re on a mission. We’ll be listening for the sound of breaking glass. That might be the only hint. But we want desperately to share it with other people.

Do you know my friend Jesus? Help us to be bold enough to do so?

I ask it in your name. And if you believe that, say, Amen.