Gospel—M. Payette
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Like to welcome everyone to the Gospel meeting.
And they like to start this season by singing #9 on the hymn sheet.
Come every soul by sin oppressed, there's mercy with the Lord, and He will surely give you rest by trusting in His Word. Only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now #9.
For Jesus.
Christ and restore.
Closure of my heart.
You see nothing fly through the way that it is never.
To grow.
The way I'll be laying on you are always like.
Before we look together in the Bible, the word of God will have a word of prayer.
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Our God and our Father, we, we just thanked you this evening that we can count on our health by thy spirit as we open thy word.
We just thank Thee for the glorious message that we can find in its pages concerning Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ Father, and the fact that Thou has given Him for us to save us forever from our sins and to give us a useful life and to spend eternity with the authorities in the Father's house. We thank You for this Father, and we would pray the earnestly the night Father, as we feel the days are so short that the coming of the Lord Jesus throw it in eye.
That we would be impressed tonight with the urgency of having the other Savior, Lord Jesus, and be rejoicing at the prospect of thy coming. So we pray, Father, that tonight, how would be pleased to help us as we open my word. And I would be pleased by thy Spirit to work in each heart and conscience and soul tonight to stir us up. And if there be any here, Father, we don't know of thy love, haven't received the Lord Jesus yet at tonight they would trust him and Jesus would save them now. So we pray, Father, in his most worthy and precious name, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen.
Well, tonight I have one verse that was set before me in the book of Romans.
In the 13th chapter.
And it's Romans chapter.
13.
Verse.
11.
And I'd like to spend a little time on this verse and speak from it. So let's read Romans chapter 13 and verse verse 11.
And at knowing the time.
That now it is high time to awake out of sleep.
For now, is our salvation near her.
Than when we believed.
And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer.
Than when we believed.
The first thing I'd like to mention.
Is to who?
This verse was written now. This is found in the Epistle to the Romans. The Romans were people that lived in the city of Rome.
But this letter wasn't sent to all the people living in the city of Rome. It was sent to a group of people that was living in the city of Rome. And if we go to the first chapter of the book of Romans, we'll find which people in the city of Rome this letter was addressed to.
Verse 7.
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be Saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now you could read this verse and include everybody in the city of Rome. Nobody in the city of Rome could say God doesn't love me.
But there were those in the city of Rome that had heard of the love of God manifested through the Lord Jesus who had come as a man on the earth.
To live down here as a man and then to die on the cross and to shed his precious blood.
To save sinners. And many people in Rome had heard this wonderful news and had believed the gospel, the good news of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus. And they had received the Lord Jesus as their Savior. And the apostle Paul knew of them, and he wrote a letter to them. So that's why he calls them the beloved of God, called to be Saints, or Saints by calling. So they were Romans, but they were Romans who had heard.
About the Lord Jesus and not only that, they had believed and that's what we had in our 13th chapter. In the 11Th verse it said that our salvation is nearer than when we believed.
So these are people that had believed.
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And I know in this room tonight there are many people who have believed exactly the same good news that the Romans that were beloved of God and Saints by calling had believed many, many years ago.
But I'm not sure that everybody in this room has believed the gospel like the ones Paul was writing to. And I'd like to be sure tonight that you understand the gospel, that you know what the good news is, and that you had the opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Brother was mentioning before about the hospitality room and Brother Mark didn't know where the room was, what the room number was.
Do you know what room you're in? Many of us are out there Ramada, because the brethren here have used their love and hospitality to give us quite a comfortable accommodations. And I know my room number. I'm sure those that are at the Ramada, you know your room number, but I wonder if you realize the room you're in tonight.
We're in a room tonight where God Himself.
Is longing for everyone here to know Him as Father and to know the Lord Jesus as their own personal Savior.
There might be other rooms on the face of this earth tonight in the States, perhaps in this community or in this State.
That the same message being proclaimed because God is so pleading and patient and long stuff. He wants his house to be full of happy people.
And I know many in this room, we're going to be part of that celestial company that we've been singing about because we know the Lord Jesus our Savior. But as I mentioned tonight, we want to be sure that everyone here understands and will trust Him. If you haven't already, only trust Him. Only trust Him.
And that's where boys and girls, younger ones, older ones too, young people, it doesn't matter.
It says in our verse and that knowing the time.
Now, when you're really, really small, you don't know the time, but as you grow older, maybe it's mommy or daddy, maybe in school when you see the clock.
There's a point in time where you know the time.
I'm not sure what age that happens, but let's try something. Let's suppose that the small needle or handle is on the 8th and the large needle is on the 10.
So the small the our needles on the 8th and the minute needles on the 10.
What time is it? Do you know the time? A boy of nine or a girl of nine? Do you know the time?
If the small needles on the 8th and the big needles on the 10, how many nine years old would tell me what time it is?
8:40.
10:40.
How old are you?
Well, you just got rivers, but you're pretty close.
Somebody else want to try that? Yes, Sir.
Pardon me 8:40.
8:50 It's pretty close. It's 750 usually, but you're pretty close. 750 OK, we'll make it easier. We'll try somebody 8 years old. Let's suppose the small needles on the five and the big needles on the 12Th.
How about somebody 8 years old?
5:00 This young man knows the time. He knows the time.
You know, boys and girls, some of us older ones, we don't know the time.
We don't know the time because now I tell you it's a lot later than a lot of people think. It's very, very, very late. This year is not over. It started with that tsunami over there in the Indian Ocean, 300,000 people disappeared, one little wave.
God is speaking to this world, and he's speaking faster and louder. We don't have much time. Do you know the time? It says it's high time?
It won't be very long.
And under some of you boys and girls, you've perhaps been to gospel many times.
And I hope, I pray that you've Simply put your trust in the Lord Jesus, say Lord Jesus, I want you to be my Savior. I know you're the Son of God. You came to die on the cross to save Center. Save me, please. He'll save you. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you now, the moment you ask him into your heart as your Savior, he's going to save you right there.
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But I know for a fact that a lot of people have heard about the Lord Jesus and they haven't received them yet as their own personal Savior.
And perhaps there's some in this room tonight, you know?
And it would be a real sad thing if I didn't see you in heaven, younger one or older one, that we wouldn't see you in heaven.
So it's important for us tonight to realize what time it is. The time is not the time on that clock, it's the time on God's clock.
You see, it says in our verse that our salvation is nearer than when we believe. But you know, this book to the Romans was written almost 2000 years ago.
He said that salvation is nearer than when we believed. Imagine today.
Imagine how near our salvation is today.
How much time is there left before the Lord Jesus comes from heaven to get and take unto Himself all those that He paid for with His own most precious blood?
There's not much time left. It's much, much, much high time, I might say, to awake out of sleep. You know, somebody that's sleeping is not conscious of what's going on. Things happen. Maybe somebody goes into your room and you're sleeping and mommy comes and puts your clothes away and you never notice it. You just sleep. All sorts of things are happening and you're sleeping.
What I want you to realize tonight, you're one's younger 1 and older ones. There's a lot of things happening.
And the Lord is just on the verge of coming.
Have you heard about him before?
Have you trusted him?
Are you following the crowd?
Well, perhaps some in the crowd will be left behind.
But none who know the Lord Jesus their Savior is going to be left behind.
Well, it speaks here.
Of salvation in the future tense. It's something that's going to come. And you know, if you study the Bible, you'll find that there's different aspects. The word salvation is used in different aspects, you might say. And there's three of them I'd like to consider tonight as we speak of it. There's a salvation of your soul and there's a salvation of your life and the salvation of your body.
And here in this verse, that's what he's Speaking of is something that's going to happen in the future is the salvation of our bodies, those that are believers in the Lord Jesus.
Even those that are dead have been buried are going to be raised from the dead, and those that are living, when the Lord Jesus comes, they tell us in the Scriptures, they're going to be changed and they're going to have a new body.
Everyone's going to have a body like the body of the Lord Jesus, a body of glory. And this is what they were waiting for. And it's something that's very, very, very near. But these ones who were waiting for the salvation of their body, if I could use that expression, they already had believed. They had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul, when he was speaking to the Roman sailor in the book of the Axis man says, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And Paul and Silas told him, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
These ones had already believed and they were saved. They were still waiting for salvation of their bodies, but their soul was already saved because they had been washed in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is my question to you tonight.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? This is a fact of history, that there was a man on the face of the earth. His name was Jesus Christ. We call Him Lord because we recognize that He wasn't just a man. He was God manifest in flesh. And this one who came down, whose name was Jesus, he walked down here and people saw Him. They spoke with Him and they saw the miracles that he performed. They listened to the discourse that He was telling them about the revelation that he was giving.
Of God is Father. And then they decided, most of them decided we won't have this man to rule over us.
And they requested that he be crucified and done away with. And the Roman governor, who was the, you might say, the head of that state in that country at that time, he commanded that they lead him away and crucify him after they beat him and crowned them with thorns.
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And whipped him and hit them, hit him with their fists. They nailed them on the cross and they derided him. And you know, God who gives us the Bible here, the God who wrote the epistle to the Romans, He saw that what they were doing to his Son, they saw what they were doing to the Lord Jesus. And God in heaven didn't do anything about it.
He just let it happen, the Lord Jesus himself, he says in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He could have had legions of angels to come and rescue him and help him.
He let it happen. You know why he let it happen? You know why God the Father let us men, wicked men, hurt his Son this way and reject them and mock him. Why did God let that happen? Do you know? Well, if you're in this room tonight and you're hearing my voice, you can know. We turn to John chapter 3, verse 16.
I know you boys and girls love you know it by heart, but it says in John 3 verse 16 God so loved the world.
Did God love all the people in Rome? Of course he loved all the people in Rome.
God loves all the people in the world. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It was God the Father who gave Him our hands, showed our own wickedness and how much we could hate God and what we did to the Lord Jesus. But God Himself had given him. God the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have.
Everlasting life.
Those Romans that the Apostle Paul is speaking to in the 13th chapter, verse 11, they had believed and they had everlasting life.
And they were waiting for the Son of God from heaven, just like the other ones in Thessalonica. They believe the gospel, They believed in the Lord Jesus. God forgave them their sins, gave them eternal life, and they were waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus from heaven.
Imagine that almost 2000 years ago, boys and girls, moms and dads, young people, young women, young men, they were waiting for the Son of God from heaven.
Here we are, 2005, many of us waiting for the Son of God from heaven. He's a lot closer today than he was then. And the events that we're seeing in this world is a cry from God to say wake up.
It's time to wake up.
Everyone of us, we need to wake up. Even if you know the Lord Jesus your Savior, you need to wake up. There were believers in the Lord Jesus. It's time to wake up.
If you read the next verses, we can just read these for ourselves, but in John and Romans 13, we'll just read on a few verses before we go back to our gospel message.
Romans 13 verse 11 it says it's high time to awake out of sleep for now. Is our salvation nearer than when we believe?
The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. You see, God has a message for us tonight, each one. If you don't know the Lord Jesus your Savior tonight, it's high time.
Maybe this is the first time you hear the gospel. You never heard it before.
You'd like to know how to get safe.
Most people in this room could tell you how to get saved tonight. They could tell you how they got saved. But you can be saved tonight. Only trust them. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus. You can say this prayer in your heart. Lord Jesus, save me. I've been bad. I've been a bad boy, a bad girl, a bad young man, a bad young girl. I've done things that are wrong. I deserve punishment.
But God loved me so much, He loved the world so much, He gave his only begotten Son that you would believe in him.
That's how we get saved, one at a time. You've got to believe in Him, trust Him. I can't trust him for you. I've trusted him for myself. And I've received a gift of God through faith in the Lord Jesus. And tonight, with many in this room, I'm waiting for the Son of God from heaven.
You know, if you were going on a trip at the airport, maybe some of you would travel by by plane or if you were going to the train station to travel by train and they said the train is going to leave at such an hour, you boys that know the time the train is going to leave at 5:00.
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And suppose that plane or that train exactly at 5:00 away goes.
And let's suppose that I still got a few minutes. I got to get my bag ready and I got to run to the station. And you run to the station and you get to the station and that teeny weeny needle there, that little thin one there, that small use on the five and the bigger ones on the 12. But that other little one there, it's going by the five, by the two, by the three. It's just a few seconds past 5:00.
But you know what? No matter how fast you run, if you're late, you're going to miss that train, You're going to miss that plane. Whether you miss it by 1 second, one day, one week, one month, one year, doesn't matter. You missed it.
Now there is only going to be 1 carrier you might say, to take people into their father's house. It's not a plane, it's not a train, it's the Lord Jesus himself.
I don't know when he's coming.
If I knew the hour, I'd be running around screaming at everybody. I don't know the hour, nobody knows the hour, but I can tell you it's not far off the hour. It might be tonight.
Maybe tomorrow.
The more you hear about things happening in the world, God is telling you, the Lord Jesus is telling you is telling me I'm coming quickly.
They won't be alone.
Are you planning to be late?
You're going on a trip. Are you planning to be late?
You're not planning to be late, you want to be on time.
Well, get ready for the hour when he's going to come and when is that going to be? It might be in the next 5 minutes. I might never get through this gospel meeting.
We might, many of us never go through the room, the doors of this room. We're just going to disappear in the heavens to be with the Lord Jesus. Maybe in the next few minutes. Are you ready?
When the meeting is over, the Lord hasn't come and say he was wrong. The Lord didn't come.
Don't think like that.
This is a serious matter.
Brother was praying in that room tonight, earnest for souls. He just brought tears to our eyes, thinking that some might be left behind.
We don't want anybody to be left behind. You know why? Because we love you. And you know why we love you? Because God loves you. He's put that love in our hearts for you. Moms and dad, they love their children. They want their children to be in heaven. Our young people, we want them to be in heaven.
Well, you know, in our verse here, it says our salvation is nearer than when we believe. And then he speaks of casting off the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light. Because anyone tonight, you know, who accepts the Lord Jesus in their heart as their own personal Savior.
God will forgive them all their sins, give them the gift of eternal life, make them his own very his very own children. And when the Lord Jesus comes, any moment now, that person, those people that have accepted the Lord as their Savior, they're going to be taken out of the world to meet the Lord in the air and he's going to take them all into the Father's house.
And you know how fast that's going to happen. The Lord Jesus says I come quickly. But there's two aspects to that. There's not much time left before he comes, but when he comes.
It's going to happen pretty fast.
And I'd like just to I'm going to do it with a noise because you won't see me blinking my eye. But if I blink my eye, I just blink my eye. And if this was the same event taking place in a twinkling of an eye, it would be all over.
35 Now, boys and girls, this is it. That's it. This was longer than it's going to take. When the Lord Jesus comes and the Christians disappear and are taken up in heaven in the twinkling of an eye, that's how fast it's going to happen. You're not going to be changed. You're going to be changed like that in the twinkling of an eye. They're dead in Christ in a moment's time, raised from the dead.
You're not just going to Molecules appear and then there's the body, no.
God's power, you know, scientists are like that. They say, oh, maybe God made the world, but it took him billions and trillions and zillions of years. Well, it doesn't say that in the word of God. Just God just says let there be light. And you know what? There was light. And how much time is there between the fact that he said let there be light and there was light. I don't find any time in the Bible here that it took even a fraction of a second. God said that there be light and there was light.
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And when God says this is the time, the Lord Jesus is going to come, and in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ are going to be raised, the living are to be changed, and together will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. It's a wonderful thing for us to know the Lord, and we know it's close. But tonight we want to let you know. We want you to come with us.
And even more than us, the Lord just wants you to be with Him in heaven.
The Lord is your Savior. Many of us do.
We need to realize, don't we?
That the Lord's coming is so soon. Maybe some of you young people you know, you know, you know these things. Perhaps you accepted the Lord in Sunday school.
And you're satisfied knowing you're saved.
But what about your life?
What about your life? You know, when you get to glory, you're going to know what's known. You're going to realize all these things that the Spirit of God would lay before you today, today if you read God's Word and listen to what he was saying.
And I believe myself.
I would be sorry.
For every wasted moment, for every joy that I could have brought to the Lord Jesus that I would have deprived him of. And it's our privilege, those of us who know the Lord Jesus, to live for him and to give him joy. You know the Lord Jesus died.
For you and me to be reconciled to God. That's Romans chapter 5.
Verse 10.
Romans chapter 5 verse 10 for if when we were enemies.
We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
We were enemies. That's what we are by nature. We're enemies of God. We're doing the very opposite of what we should be doing. We're disobeying God, and we're his enemies. But when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, and that happened when we accepted the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross.
For us personally, when we trusted him and he saved us, at the moment we trusted him. But then this verse goes on to say, if we were when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
So if you allow me to use the expression, we're saved by his death, we're saved from our sins by his death, from the consequences of sin, by his death, and we're on our way to heaven, we're made children of God through faith in Him. We received a gift of eternal life.
But this verse goes on to say we are saved by his life.
And I wonder if I'd be permitted just a few thoughts on that. You know, the Lord Jesus, once you receive him as your Savior, he comes and dwells in our bodies by our Spirit. And the life that he gives us, a new life that he gives us is the very life of the Lord Jesus. He lives in us by his Spirit.
And if we let him, he's going to give us a happy life, a youthful life, not a wasteful life. We had these verses this afternoon, those of us who were here reading in the Epistle to Peter, to being idle and fruitless. Well, you can't be idle and fruitless. If this is who's living in you and you're letting that life express itself, you'll have a happy life, a useful are you having a happy life?
Are you having a useful life, dear ones?
Young men, young women.
It's a question for each one of us, but it's a pressing question because the Lord is at hand.
A few moments and we'll be there. Don't you want to live for him? Well, he wants you to live for him, and he lives in you by his spirit. And if you let him, he'll do wonderful things in your life.
He's also living, you know, in the glory. Romans chapter 8, it tells us.
Of the activity of the Lord Jesus right now.
He's looking down in this room and he sees every boy and girl, young man, young women, older ones too. He sees everyone of us. He knows what you're thinking. He knows what's in your life. There's nothing hid before him.
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And if you don't know him tonight he's saying to you, oh, I want you to know me. Trust me. Believe in me. Receive me as your savior. I'll save you. I'll save you right now. Take you to my father's house. I'm coming soon to get those I died for. I redeemed my precious blood. I'll take you into my father's house.
And then I say I know him. I was saved when I was so and so. I was saved when I was in Sunday school. I was saved year ago.
Are you being saved by his life?
Oh, he would give you a happy life. And in Romans 8 it tells us.
Verse 34.
Romans 8 verse 34, Who is he that condemn it? It is Christ that died ye rather that is risen again. Who even is at the right hand of God? That's where He is right now. There's a man in the glory in heaven, a man in flesh and bones. That same Jesus who walked on the earth, He's gone up to heaven, disappeared from you. He's in the presence of God at the right hand of God from where He's coming again. And right now He is interceding, making intercession for us.
He was praying to his father. He is praying to his father, intercessing for those that are his.
To save you by his life.
A lot of people in America, you know, this is where advanced society, a lot of people in America and maybe others spend a lot of time, a lot of preoccupation with their body.
Making sure their body looks nice.
Getting rid of all these.
Little things that are out of place. Some people, well, just one of my younger daughters, really young, she had one or two Gray hair there and she was really upset. She pulled them out. You know, imagine what happened to me if I did that.
How people do things, you know, they fix their teeth and I mean, you got to have hygiene and everything, but you know, there's a sickness. There's a sickness of man about his body.
You know, death is a terrible thing.
And it does a terrible thing to your body, doesn't it?
Doesn't it?
That is a horrible, it's a horrible thing. It does a horrible thing to our bodies, bodies made by God. But he says no, they're just going to go to corruption.
I can't picture what it does to a soul to be separated from God forever. I can't picture it. I can't even imagine.
A soul made by God to enjoy his presence, to be happy.
To be separated from God forever and torment.
I should have listened. I should have believed. I should have trusted him. I was late. The train came and I missed it. The Lord Jesus came and I hadn't trusted, but I knew about it.
It doesn't have to be you.
It doesn't have to be. The Lord hasn't come yet. 720. We've got a few more minutes right now. You can just.
Close your eyes and say Lord Jesus.
It will. That's why he came. That's what he wants to do. It doesn't matter how you call upon. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
I worry about you young people.
I know your parents do too, you know.
Maybe mom or dad have asked you. Sometimes you know what time it is.
You got home later something. Do you know what time it is?
We're in 2005. It's not going to last another 50 years. I don't know when the Lord's going to come, but I just have this urgency in my soul.
To tell you tonight, make it quick. Why don't you do it right now? Don't take any chances.
You know the Lord as your Savior. You carry tracks around and tell people about the love of God.
Do we realize what it's going to be to be separated from God forever? We don't. God knows.
And to spare you that, and to spare me that, he sent his son, and he let him on the cross, and he first took him there as a man to save you and me.
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There's no greater gift. There's nothing greater than the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. And God did that for you. He did that for me.
Would you trust Him tonight? Please do we beg you. Let's just close in prayer.
Our God and our Father we.
Which is far before thee, and thank thee again for.
Thai wondrous love.
For saving our souls, for giving us the knowledge of salvation, for giving us this book. And to tell us about the Lord Jesus, to send thy Spirit into the world to convict us of sin and give us saving faith. We just thank Thee, Father. We thank you for all that has given us to know and enjoy, and we pray.
That we might be stirred up in our souls and we might know the time. We might realize the time, Father. And we would pray to you tonight, my Father, earnestly for anyone in this room.
Who still is without Christ, that they wouldn't put it off. They don't have to tell anybody about it. They just need to come to Thee Lord Jesus, Say Lord Jesus, save me. We pray that I would press them and thy Spirit would strive with them and not give them any rest or peace till they do.
And we thank you, Father, for this time together. We pray that I would just.
Bless the rest of our evening together and we thank you again for that wondrous love. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.