Gospel—Dean Rule
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I'd like to have a mini message if I could, to start before I get into the topic that I have on my heart. And why do I say a mini message? Because I've been looking at the clock until it reached 7 and came up here and stood up and I'll put a watch here. There's no guarantee that even though the time card says that we will be here until 8:00 tonight according to the plan, there's absolutely no guarantee that we have an hour ahead of us.
The Lord Jesus could come first.
And if he comes first, this room is going to be nearly empty. And so the question for you tonight is, will your seat still be?
Your seat be empty.
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, your seat will be empty if he comes. If you don't, it'll still be occupied.
And you're going to perhaps sit there for a few minutes and say, well, I wonder if perhaps I fell asleep, perhaps the people are off in the other room. They've gone to their cars. And you'll go out and you'll find it on the by, on the chairs that are here. The Bibles are still left there. You go out to the cars and find that the parking lot is still full.
And yet you're not going to be ignorant of what has happened.
And yet for you, there will never, ever, ever be another opportunity to be saved because you'll only believe a lie from then on. Your opportunity is now. A lot of people in this world who don't have the same opportunity that you have. And I have to be in a room like this tonight, have a Bible open before them on their lap or to be listening if they're not opening their Bible. And if you're not familiar with turning to the pages, that's OK Just listen. We'll read the verses.
But if that were to happen or something were to happen and.
You were to die.
Your last opportunity would be gone. And so I just want to read 2 verses, a mini message if I can before we go any further. The 1St is they're both very well known verses in Romans chapter 3.
Just to make it very clear.
If you don't hear anything else.
Romans, chapter 3.
Starting with the last four words of verse 22, Romans chapter 3, verse 22, the last four words.
They say there is no difference.
We live in a world where people are constantly comparing themselves with their neighbor, constantly comparing with themselves with people in the news. And if we want to, we can always say, well, I'm better than this than someone else. But God's standard of comparison is not the person next to you either where you study or where you work or where you live. It's not the person across on the other side of the earth. God is 1 standard of comparison, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
His Son, who is perfect and who has never sinned.
And if you can't equal him?
And none of us do, not even close. Then you've fallen short of God's standard and you can't go to heaven on your own. And so one other verse before we go in to sing a song, and then we're gonna read some of the verses in Acts chapter 20.
How do you change your situation? How do you change your eternal destiny? Testifying both to the Jews. I'm not aware that there's any Jews here tonight. Perhaps there are Jewish descent and also to the Greeks, which was the reference that was used in the word of God to those who were not Jews. Two things, repentance toward God. I talked to the younger ones here and most of the older ones. If I said to you if you needed to hit the reset button on some electronic.
Device.
You would not have any trouble finding the reset button. Repentance is God's reset button. It's not for an electronic device. It's God's reset button I'm thinking.
Because the human being has a tendency we do to justify ourselves, to think we're OK, to think we can do something on our own. But God's reset button says you need to stop, you need to think again. You need to realize that your thoughts have been wrong if you have not recognized.
What you've done and where you're headed. Everyone of us is sinners and apart from God, we're on. We're on the way to spend an eternity in the lake of fire. But it's like God says, you've got to stop. You've got to hit the reset button on your thinking. You've got to recognize that what you deserve is not anything good. You deserve to be.
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And for all eternity, but doesn't stop there. And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has an expression, the world in which we live, it says.
Seeing is believing.
But the Word of God teaches something else. The Word of God teaches that believing is seeing. What's the difference? People may have their two physical eyes functioning and they can see the things around them, but that doesn't mean they necessarily believe what's really important. But the moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you have sight, even though your physical eyes might be blind.
Because you're able to see things from a totally different point of view. Why? Because you have a new life, and that new life has a different point of view, a different way of seeing things. God doesn't ask you to do something, to reform your own life to make it better. No.
He says if I can put it that way, that's that's trash. It's no good.
I'm gonna give you a new one. He doesn't ask us to try to fix up what we are by nature. He says. I'm gonna give you a new nature that has different desires of different things. And So what do we need to have that, well, need to give us life. We need to repent and believe. And I'd like to sing one song before we go any further. And that's.
#32 What can wash away my sins? Nothing. The blood of Christ. If someone could start #32 for us, please.
Nothing but.
My flower and never mind me nothing up the blood of me on for thy flags and smiles.
Nothing but.
It is on.
My right so now nothing but the love of Jesus.
Oh crap comes in the flow.
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983189.
4.
The ideal thing this evening would be if the Lord Jesus himself.
Could be seen here, but that's not where he is now and you could listen to him directly. We know that's not possible at this time and so.
He did leave us.
A book that's totally different than any other book that's ever existed or ever will exist.
In a world that's where it's exploding because of electronic publishing and things. He left us the Bible and in the Bible we can read about him and the first thing or the subject that's on my heart tonight is that we have 5 senses and children, young people, but science classes or even in elementary school learn that we we have seeing and hearing and taste and.
Touch and smell we have.
Those five senses.
And he wants to interact with us on physically or spiritually, on every one of those senses.
But the one that like to spend most of the time on this evening is site, and so I'd like to start out this evening in Matthew chapter 2.
In verse 2.
Just to make sure we get the context, we'll read verse one, also Matthew chapter 2 and verse one.
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King.
Behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? We have seen his star.
In the east and are come to worship him.
Verse 9.
And when they heard the king, they departed. This was a man descendant of Esau, who had in his mind he converted to Judaism, and yet he was occupying a, a, a place there. And his purpose wasn't a right purpose, but theirs was. Verse 9 When they heard the king, they departed. And lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came, and stood over where the young child was.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
This world makes stars. This world makes stars out of entertainers. This world makes stars out of business people. This world makes stars out of.
Athletes.
But none of them ever had a star that could be observed going, and it was positioned over where this they were born when they were a young child, and it stayed there until these people could find it.
There's only ever been really one star.
In God's mind, if I can put it that way, in the 6000 years that human beings have been on earth, there's only one who deserves who has earned the right to be worshipped.
Earned the right to be recognized for who he is in that way understand and the word of God says where there's places and people to honor, but there's only ever been one star in his location was marked by a physical star in the sky that these men followed.
They searched until they found where he was.
And the question tonight is, have you been diligent in searching to find the only One who is the Savior?
More than you're searching, he's searching for you. He's done everything that he needs to do so that you could be saved and spend eternity with him. And what does he promise if you?
Find him, or he finds you. He finds those who seek for him, who diligently look for Him. And what does he bring? Exceeding great joy.
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Prosperity.
Does not.
Bring joy.
Power does not bring real joy.
Knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior does.
There is no other source of real joy.
Here's an example.
I was really struck.
Those of us who are a little bit older have followed some the history of the Soviet Union and how the people and under Hil Gorbachev got a tremendous degree of liberty that they never had before.
If you were to go to Moscow and Russia or Saint Petersburg, you'd find that they're two of the most expensive cities on earth.
In many ways, hotels, food and that sort of thing.
But if you were to sit on the subway or walk on the streets of that city with people who have in some cases, incredible, incredible wealth and look at their faces, you're going to find the majority don't show that they have joy because maybe they've accumulated liberty in some ways, but there's no real liberty apart from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
But these men that came from the East found joy. Did they find that at the home of someone who was exceedingly rich in earthly things? Let's go over to John chapter one and see more about this.
Unique.
Man, who is God at the same time the Lord Jesus Christ.
John, Chapter one.
And verse 34.
And I saw in their record that this is the Son of God.
There's only one in all the history of mankind that has been able to have that title, the one we're talking about tonight with God and is God and always will be. He wasn't always man, but He became man. We just read a little bit about that. And His man, He came to this earth. And why did He come to this earth? Because there was no other way for us if He didn't come to this earth to go be with Him and heaven. It wasn't by good teaching, although there's never been a teacher like Him. It wasn't by His perfect life, although that was necessary for Him to be the only sacrifice that there could be for our sins.
It was necessary for him to come and die, and he could not die as God. He had to come and give his life as man.
And so this is the Son of God. They recognized who he was, a few of them. Verse 35 again the next day after John stood and two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.
Why the lamb? Because he had to be the Lamb. They knew what the Lamb was back from the time of the Passover, but those lambs that died on in those Jewish homes could never take the first sin away at all. Waited until the Lamb of God came, the Lord Jesus Christ and two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following verse 38, and saith unto them, What seek? And they say unto him, Rabbi, which is to be.
Which is to say, being interpreted master.
We're dwellest now.
And they came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day.
Was about the 10th hour.
I don't think the accommodations.
Were the fanciest accommodations they ever visited.
There's a confusion in the world in which we live. I read about a person who was.
Saying that the Lord Jesus didn't spend very much time in Jerusalem because there were very few five star hotels for him to stay at.
And where they ever got that idea?
He was the man that when he was here on this earth, that said the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests.
But the Son of Man if not were to lay his head. And yet whatever simple accommodation he had at that point in time, he invited them to come and share it with him.
Why? Because he wants you to be in relationship with him.
He wants you to be in relationship with him and it would have been incredibly better to spend the hours with him and the simplest.
Of abode that there might have existed at that time in history, than to be able to go to the palace of a king.
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And be able to be entertained in that way. There's nothing, absolutely nothing, that replaces time with the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's no place it's better to be with him where he is than where he is right now in heaven.
Sitting here this afternoon thinking if I'm really thankful to be here, That's my third choice of where I'd like to be right now, because my first choice would be to be with him in heaven.
But that time is coming and it'll come. It is perfect, perfect time. The second choice would be if I could be my wife, but the Lord to direct that we be here this time.
There's nothing, absolutely nothing, in this world that compares with having a direct relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
He invited them, said come over and they spent time with him and So what happened? Verse.
40 and two of the two which heard John speak.
And followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And he first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted to Christ, and he brought him to Jesus. That's why there's a gospel meeting this evening. He found us and we want to tell you that he wants to find you. He wants you to be with him. He doesn't want to leave a single person behind. It's his heart that every creature, every person for a man, woman, boy or girl.
Know Him as Savior and be with Him for all eternity.
And so.
He provided all the travel plans. He didn't say you have to go to the local travel agent or connect on something on the Internet and get your ticket and get your plans made that way and get a passport. He provided it absolutely all provided. And the one thing he didn't tell us, he didn't tell us when the departure moment would be. It could be while we're here, it could be later because he's patient, because he's still waiting.
But what he did promise is that he's going to come back and he's going to take everyone who knows him as their savior to be with them for all eternity. Well, they went and started telling the others, and that's what we want to do to you tonight. I don't think there's anyone here who's hearing it for the first time. I don't see any face that I've never seen before. Perhaps there is, but I don't see that.
But perhaps there's some dead people in this room tonight. Perhaps there's some blind people in this room tonight. You say I'm not dead, I'm breathing. Yeah, you might be breathing. You might be having your senses, your natural senses functioning. But if you're without the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, the Bible says you're dead in trespasses and sins. And if you've never believed, you're blind to the light.
That shines.
And the one who is light, God is light, and God is love, and the Lord Jesus is God.
And so he is light and he is love. And verse 42, what did he do? He brought him to Jesus.
And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation of stone.
Verse 43 The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and find us Philip, and saith unto him.
Follow me.
Faithful men don't have a following. No one here is asking you to follow them.
Tonight none of us are. What we're saying is follow the Lord Jesus. He's the only one who should be followed. Verse 44. Now Philip was with Visaya, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip find us, Nathaniel, and say us and him. We found him and that's our message tonight. We found him.
If I could put it, yeah, we found it. But also more than that, he's found us.
The Savior. We found Him. Do you know Him?
We found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did right, Jesus of Nazareth.
Son of Joseph, Nathaniel sayeth unto him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Philip, Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
I was the same message that we saw earlier.
That was the message that the wise men came to where they could see him.
And that's the invitation tonight for you to come and see him. We could go over now for a minute to John Chapter 4.
The well known account of the woman at the well.
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The woman who around noonday was going to get water. Probably not a typical time if you were to go into the Middle East much of the year in the desert.
To go into Israel or been to Israel, but some of the countries and Arab speaking countries in the Middle East, you can walk around at noon and the temperature is likely to be 100 and 510°. And so people try to get out and do some of the things early in the morning or they do things into the evening. They try to stay away if they can from being out on the street as much as possible around noon with the noonday sun. But this woman picked the time that was perhaps different from when the others went to get water. Why? Because.
She was perhaps ashamed of her life.
But she was there at the perfect time, because who came along that day thirsty?
Asking for a drink of water. The Lord Jesus Christ came along that day and so he asked her for a drink of water and she questioned because he was a Jew and she was a Samaritan.
That wasn't the question for him.
He was there because He just physically could use a drink of water, but He was there for something more than that. He was there because He had living water, and He has living water for you tonight. Verse 14, the three verse 13, to get the context. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him will be a well of water springing up into everlasting life. He had more than physical water.
That he had created and that he could drink and satisfy his thirst. He had living water. He had the provision for her that could satisfy spiritual thirst then and forever.
Have you had a drink of the living water?
Verse.
16.
Now it's getting down to where he's going to probe a conscience and touch a heart. Verse 16 it said, Jesus saith unto her, Go.
Call my husband and come hit her.
Sometimes we say today this person knows how to touch the buttons or hit the hit the nail on the head or whatever expression you want to use. He went right to the point where he needed to reach her conscience and tonight he wants to reach your conscience. He wants to reach your heart. If you don't know him as Savior, It said in verse 17, the woman answered and said, I have no husband. It's true.
But it was totally incomplete as a statement. She wasn't married at that time.
You and I can often fool each other.
And I'm very thankful you don't know everything about my life because it would be a very shameful thing.
But I am thankful that he knows absolutely everything about me.
I am so thankful that there's not a single thing in my life that I've ever thought.
Or done or said that is hid from him. Why? Because he is love.
He is light, there's nothing hid from his sight, but he is love, and I'm glad there's absolutely nothing hid from him. Why? Because that means that when his blood washed my sins away.
There was nothing left.
Past, present or future that could come up later and condemn me?
This woman made some interesting statements. He said, he that thou now house is not thy husband, and that thou sayest truly. The woman sayeth unto them. Sir, I believe, I perceive that thou art a prophet. It wasn't a man who was known in the neighborhood, if I could put it that way, who had observed her history, perhaps her sad history there, which was known by many.
Verse 18 For thou hast had five husbands, we're going to go back, and he whom thou hast is not thy husband, and that thou sayest truly. So what did she go into town saying?
Verse 29.
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Did he go through and say now?
Woman, I'm going to go through and we're gonna it's gonna take some time, but I'm gonna recount everything you've ever done and since I can read what's on your mind, I'm gonna tell people what I'm gonna tell you what you said No, he didn't have her have to dig up everything in her past. She made a statement that.
We understand why she made it. It really wasn't exactly a true statement, but it said something very important. Verse 29 Come see a man.
Which told me all things that ever I did is not just the Christ.
Did he tell her everything she'd ever done? No. And if he was going to do that for any of us, it couldn't be done in a brief conversation by a well or in an afternoon in a town. Would take far longer than that. But what she was saying is.
He knows everything about me.
He knows everything about me. He knows everything about you.
If you thank them for that. If you thank them that he knows everything about you and he still loves you and he still died to save you.
She knew who it was. Is not this the Christ? And they went out of the city and came to him.
Instead of having the the one person came into the city and how many of the city went out to meet the man at the well that day? Have you ever met the man at the well who has living water verse? She said come see a man and that's what we invite you to do tonight. Come see a man in verse.
40.
5.
And when he was coming to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, and they went out to the feast.
You need to see the man. Have you ever met him? You know him as your savior.
Time went forward and I'd like to go forward because her time is going quickly to John.
Let's go to Matthew, perhaps to see this and Matthew chapter 27.
And.
Verse 45.
Now we've gone forward to the time where the Lord Jesus is on the cross. We've read different verses that have said come and see.
Come see a man.
They came and saw.
It doesn't say that here in verse 45. In verse 45 it says now from the 6th hour there was darkness.
Overall, the land.
Until the 9th hour.
There's going to be a place in this universe of eternal darkness.
The eternal darkness is in a place for humans such as you and I. It was a place that was prepared for the devil and his angels.
The Lake of Fire will be a place of outer, eternal darkness.
But from noon to 3:00 PM on that Friday, there was darkness over the earth. Those who would be able had been able to look up at those 3 crosses that were on.
Calvary's Hill.
And been able to see the face, if they were close enough of suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ from 9:00 AM to noon.
When he suffered at the hands of human beings such as ourselves, they could not look up and see his face in those three hours of darkness.
That was a time they could not come and see why.
Because in that time.
He was bearing the burden of my sins and all who will believe.
At that, those three hours of darkness, the wrath of a holy God came down on him.
The punishment fell on him condensed what you and I would have to suffer for all eternity.
In the lake of fire condensed in those three hours came.
Upon God's beloved Son, the Lamb of God.
Why? Because he loves you.
Because he loves me. Is there ever anything we'll do to deserve it? Absolutely not. What we deserve is an eternity.
In outer darkness, in the lake of fire, but he and his matchless love and grace and mercy.
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Die.
Is a personal reference. A few weeks ago was in a taxi and a in a country in the Middle East for 25 minutes or so talking to the taxi driver. The taxi driver.
Talked about a man we called a prophet.
You talked about Mohammed.
And I talked about a man who is a prophet, but more than that, he's a savior.
And we talked and we shared some things that we agreed on, he said. Muhammad said people shouldn't worship figures and worship idols and said agree with that.
But ask him one question before we came to the destination. I got out. I asked him, Who is the Lord Jesus Christ to you?
He answered some other questions.
When asking that question, it was only met with silence.
That's the question for you tonight.
Who is the Lord Jesus to you?
Someone you know a lot about because you've learned verses, because you've read a lot of the Bible, because you've sat in a lot of meetings like this. Or is it someone you know personally? Someone who have you responded to His love, to his sacrifice for you? Someone who you're looking forward to spend eternity with?
I've known.
Too many.
That I sat with in meetings like this.
Who have heard the gospel?
May have made a profession, may have been baptized, may have been breaking bread, and yet later it was evidently clear they never never knew the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
So my question is, do you?
Something totally different. Let's go to John chapter 20. Something totally different between the man we're talking about tonight and the man who's in a whose remains are in a grave in Mecca.
That grave still has.
Whatever is left of the mortal remains of Muhammad.
A or two ago things came out on the Internet, I assume in newspapers and things. They said some bones were found in a cave in Jerusalem. Maybe they're the.
Bones of the Lord Jesus Christ.
No, there are no bones left in Jerusalem. There's no bones left anywhere. He's risen.
He's in heaven. He rose from the grave, He walked on this earth.
There were many infallible proofs, he was seen of numerous people, and then he went up to heaven.
Verse one of chapter 20, the first day of the week, cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark.
Currency if the stone taken away from the sepulchre, and she runeth and cometh to Simon Peter, the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto him, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and they know not where they have laid him.
Her knowledge wasn't very good, but her heart was right.
She was early in the morning wondering what had happened. But Peter's verse three therefore went forth, and the other disciple came to the sepulchre, and they ran both together. The other disciple did outrun Peter. Maybe his conscience was still bothering and came first to the disciple.
To the sepulcher, and sipping down, looking, you saw the linen clothes lying, yet he went not in.
And come with Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and see if the linen clothes lie in the napkin. It was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
If it was a body that had been stolen out of a cave, things would have not been neatly folded up and wrapped together. There was no body that was stolen out of a cave. It was arisen, man. And if we can go over for a minute to Matthew chapter 28 and verse 6.
They got some really good news and perhaps it's the best news I can give you tonight. Matthew chapter 28. Let's read from verse five. And the Angel answered and said to the women, fear not ye, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. Who are you seeking tonight? Where are you going to find him?
Verse six He.
Is not here, for he has risen.
Eight of the most important words.
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And the most important book has ever existed. He's not here, he's risen.
Mohammed's in the tomb.
People go out.
And do a lot of crazy things because they think that's going to bring them some earthly pleasure, if I can put it that way, some carnal pleasure in heaven.
But their proof is in the tomb.
He stayed there, millions.
Go and circle that tomb each year.
Not the tomb of the Lord Jesus.
It's empty. He's risen.
He's risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay.
Well, it didn't stay there. Let's go over to Acts.
Chapter One.
In verse.
11.
Three from verse 9.
And when he has spoken these things.
Will they be held?
He was taken up.
In a cloud received Him out of their sight, and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven, this same Jesus which is taken up from you to heaven?
Shall so come in like manner?
As you've seen him go into heaven.
The most marvelous words. He's coming.
He's coming for me, not because I deserve it.
But because he saved me.
Is it coming for you?
Are you ready for him to come?
Are you looking forward to it? Are you saying I've got, I've got some time, I can wait?
Time.
Maybe one of the things you don't have.
Repeat a statement that I heard and impressed me and greatly, and I'm going to repeat it to you tonight.
When it comes time to die.
Make sure all you have to do is die. You may not have time to do anything else. When it comes time to die, make sure all you have to do is die.
There's a lot to see and we've just seen a little bit about him.
He wants us to hear him too. Let's go to John chapter 5 and we'll just be able to look at perhaps one thing on each of the other senses.
John chapter 5 and verse 24.
Verily, verily, I say unto you.
I could paraphrase it and perhaps say it's true, it's true. Pay attention. Barely, verily I say unto you.
He that heareth my word, that's what we have before us tonight. So here's another sense hearing.
If you put AT on the end of the word here, you have heart.
Tea, and not to make A an idol in any way of the cross, but that's what the shape of the letter T is.
It's the cross. What happened on Calvary's cross reaches to your heart.
When you hear it.
It has to get there.
I'd have said the difference the distance between heaven and hell is 12 inches. Ever measured it? But they say that's the distance from the brain to the heart and hear things in your ear.
Has it ever reached your heart? Has His love ever touched you to the point that you've responded? So what does it say? He's a heareth on him and believe it does not do it or anything like that. Believeth on him that sent me. It's not just believe on God. There's a lot of people if you ask him, do you believe on God, they say yes, I do. No, it's believeth on him that sent me. The recognition that God sent his Son the Lord Jesus to be the Savior of the world.
What are the three outcomes?
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We'll have in the future everlasting life, no?
Have it right now. That's everlasting life. So that's something we're waiting to get. It's something you get immediately at the moment you believe.
What's happened in the past and shall not come into in the future shall not come into condemnation or judgment. Her judgment ahead for this world. Verse 22 Says for the Father judgeth no man, but is committed all judgment under the Son. If you refuse his love, his grace, his mercy, the salvation that he offers you tonight, the last faith you will ever see.
For eternity is the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the throne, not his savior, then, but his judge.
Does he want to see you and be your judge? Absolutely not. But that's why he died for you.
Fully statements are made by people who say if God is a God of love.
He wouldn't send anyone to help. Several hundred homes around here received invitations this meeting tonight. What if we went to some of the homes that back to some of those homes and people that came out and got the bag said what is it? And you told them yesterday what the bag was and we grabbed those people by the arm and we dragged them in here. What would they be doing? They would be calling the police. They say you have no right to drag me there. No one's going to be dragged into heaven either. He works in hearts. But heaven is no place at all for someone who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
There's no place that compares with what we've heard today, that there's not much about it in the Bible because the only thing that really matters.
Is it will be with the Lord Jesus Christ and if you don't want him now, you won't want him for all eternity. There's no place made, as we've heard many times for those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior because God didn't say prepared a place for those who refuse the gospel. He prepared a place for the devil and his angels. He has no other alternative to send you if you refuse the gospel.
Shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verse 25 repeated those words, Verily, verily a say unto you, the hours coming. And now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that here shall live.
Well.
Here's a day.
And the Grays will be emptied of those who have already received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Their body will be transformed and joined back to their soul and spirit, which are already in paradise enjoying fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
But if there's anyone who's dead tonight in this room, dead in their trespasses and sins, he also tonight wants to call you and give you life. I want you to believe before it's too late. And so, yes, he has a message for you to hear. If you refuse to hear that, the sounds that you will hear for all eternity in the lake of fire are weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Next one, Psalm chapter 20. Excuse me, Psalm chapter 34.
So I'm chapter 34.
In verse 8.
Of taste and see.
That the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Doesn't see. Taste and see if the Lord is good, says Haste and see.
That the Lord is good.
The taste of what he is in your heart.
You find out he is good.
He's good.
And he wants the best for you. About 50 years ago, which dates me the front page of the Sunday school paper, the.
The first.
Bottom of the paper was this first we'll taste and see that the Lord is good. Remember a brother and I live. Then he sat down at a table in the center of the room, and he.
Got out of bag and he pulled out of that bag a plate.
And he pulled a brownie, pulled the bag out of the plate, out of the bag, and he he got a brownie out of it. I remember sitting there as a boy, eight or nine years old, and watching him eat that brownie.
00:50:02
And I can still sort of see that brownie to today.
And you could tell that he was evidently enjoying that brownie.
Well, I made an impression on me.
That brownie is long gone.
But if you've tasted.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know he's good.
And that'll last forever.
I'm gonna ask a few of the girls that are over there. Do you like grapes?
You wanna come up for a minute?
Does those look good?
You wanna try one and tell if it's good?
I'm gonna have one too. Is that OK? You think there's enough we could share with everyone?
What do you think about the grape? Is it good?
I think if I left this up here, other people would wanna come and have one later.
Maybe I think they would. Thank you for coming up.
These grapes are good.
The only way you're gonna know it, Put one in your mouth and taste it.
Taste and see.
The Lord is good.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
What he has for you is marvelous.
Then touch. We go to Matthew. We're coming to the last two, but Matthew.
Thank Chapter 9.
And behold, a woman, verse 20, which was diseased with an issue of blood, 12 years, came behind him and touched.
The hem of his garment.
She says within herself, if I may but touch his garment.
I shall be whole.
But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw, he said daughter be of good comfort.
My faith had made thee whole.
And the woman was made whole.
From that hour she had a long term problem with hemorrhaging of blood.
But she had a problem which is more serious than that, and that day both of her problems were met.
He doesn't say to you. You have to have a whole lot of faith.
It's not the quantity of the faith that matters.
The thing that matters is where is the faith put?
And the only object that you should put your faith in is a man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
You just touch him in faith.
You'll be made whole.
Doesn't promise now that you'll be made whole from every physical sickness.
It does promise that shall be made whole now.
In your spirit and your soul, you'll have a new life, a life which can never die. The Doctor on Earth can promise that, but that's what he promises.
And now to the last one I'd like to turn, and that's the sense of smell to a book, a Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon.
Chapter 4 we're going to read from verse 12, the last verses we'll read tonight.
Song of Solomon chapter 4 and verse 12. The garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse.
A spring shut up, a fountain sealed, They planted an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, campfire with spiknards, spike nerds and saffron, calamus and cinnamon with all trees of frankincense, muranalos with all the chief spices. A fountain of gardens, a well of living water and streams from Lebanon, Oaco, North Wind. And come now S blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out, that my beloved come into his garden.
Anita's pleasant fruits.
He doesn't come to save you just for you. He didn't come to save me just for me. He came to save us that from our hearts would go worship to Him for who He is, praise for what He's done, Thanksgiving for what He's done for us.
That's wonderful that he saved us for ourselves.
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For what you can also bring to him and what I can bring to him, a garden closed. If you go through neighborhoods in Chicagoland, they're most places in the United States, You find that that the yards are open and you can walk from one to the next and you can see the gardens. But there's a lot of places in the world where the gardens are not like that. Where we live, you're not considered to have taken possession of the property until you build a wall around it.
And when you build a wall around it, then it's actually find it something's pretty nice because you leave all the doors open during the day.
In Israel and Syria in this time, people had gardens and they were sometimes enclosed by a wall.
But out of those gardens could drift the aroma, the fragrance of the spices that were being grown there.
He saves you because he doesn't want you to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire Me. But that's not the only reason.
He wants something to reach Him of praise and worship and Thanksgiving for all eternity.
So the Waco north wind, sometimes the north wind is not very nice.
Sometimes the difficulties that come in life are not very good at the time.
It'd be an absolute lie if I stood up here and I said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and all your troubles will go away.
The reality is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're going to have troubles you've never had before.
Because now you have a battle. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you immediately pick up three enemies.
You pick up the enemy of Satan. You've been on his side. You changed sides. You pick up the enemy of the system of this world, which is against the Lord Jesus Christ. In your own flesh now provides the biggest battle, because it's one that will rage within you and tell the Lord Jesus comes.
It's a myth.
When someone says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and all your troubles will go away, but it's the truth, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and it's absolutely worth it. It's absolutely worth it, completely worth it. Nothing measures up to it. Yeah, the winds may be difficult, but what do they bring? Fragrance that comes out of the garden.
Part of the time I work with roses and I was just with a rose grower very last 10 days or so that has a fragrant yellow rose, which is named Creme Brulee after the dessert. And he said to customers, I have asked me to put one bunch of that yellow rose in each box I send to the United States. He said. Because the aroma of that rose goes through while it's traveling through all the other roses and they all come out being fragrant.
He wants our lives.
To be a fragrance that spreads and reaches out to those around us in that little time that's left here. We thank him for it.