Gospel—Jim Hyland
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We'd like to begin The Gospel Meeting this evening with Hymn #10 on the Gospel Hymn sheet.
There is a savior on high in the glory. A savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A savior is willing to save. Now as ever, his arm is almighty, His love great and free. Hymn #10. Let's stand to sing this and if someone will please start start it.
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father how thankful we are tonight for that Savior of sinners. And we're thankful for each one in this room who has come to know the Lord Jesus as their Savior. We're thankful for that finished work of Calvary, that Precious Blood that has made it all possible. And our hearts rejoice tonight too, to realize that the gospel is going out around this planet in many ways.
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By in many places in our God, we pray that there might be much fruit for thy glory wherever the Gospel goes out this day. But now our hearts are particularly burdened as another Gospel meeting has been scheduled for this room. We pray that if there's someone here tonight who still lost and in their sins.
But tonight they might realize their awful condition, that they might realize that they are sinners, but that they might realize too that thou has provided a great savior. So we pray that thy word might have its effect tonight, that it might be as that hammer that breaks the rock in twain, but it might be that sword that pierces. We pray that thou at work mightily in the power of the Spirit tonight. So we ask thy help and blessing. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory.
Amen.
Like to begin this evening by reading 4 portions of the Word of God. Very familiar portions I might add. The first one is in First Timothy chapter one.
First Timothy chapter one.
Verse 15.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, and then in John's Gospel, chapter 10.
John's Gospel chapter 10 and verse 10.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy I am come that they might have life.
And that they might have it more abundantly And then in John 14.
John's Gospel, chapter 14.
And verse 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also. And one more portion in the Book of Revelation, Revelation, chapter one.
Revelation Chapter one and verse 7.
Behold, he cometh with clouds.
And every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him. And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so. Amen. I have it on my heart this evening in presenting the gospel, to speak from these portions which bring before us first of all, the fact that Jesus came into this world. Isn't it a wonderful fact to know that the Lord Jesus came into this world in incarnation? He came as a man. He could say a body Hast Thou prepared me? And we've traced it many times.
To that stable in Bethlehem where the Lord Jesus was born of a virgin, and where later on some shepherds heard the news out on the hillside of Judea and came to see the Lord Jesus born in Bethlehem. Manger to think of the angels looking down into this world.
For the first time, seeing their creator to see him not in power and glory, but come as a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger, accepting certain limitations in coming into this world in that way. We've traced him growing up. We've seen him as a 12 year old boy sitting in the temple asking questions and how they were all amazed at his understanding and answers.
This is just a little aside, but you know, it's interesting to read that account in Luke, because the Lord Jesus answered the very questions that he himself raised. He was sitting in the midst of the those who should have known the answers to the questions he raised. But you know, he had to say to them later on ye do err not knowing the scriptures. He said to Nicodemus, Art thou a teacher in Israel and knowest not these things? And they certainly didn't recognize him for who he really was.
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We've traced his public ministry. We've seen him going about dispensing blessing on every hand. And what a loving pathway it was. As he took young children up in his arms. As he addressed multitudes on the hillside and down by the sea. As he took individuals aside and spent time with them. As he sat weary with his journey and spoke with a woman who came to psych cars well.
Again stayed up one night to answer some questions that Nicodemus had. But we have traced his pathway to, as we sometimes sing a path uncheered by earthly smiles that led only to the cross. Because the Lord Jesus came into this world not simply to live a perfect life, not simply to dispense blessing and healing on every hand, but he came into this world to go to Calvary's cross.
And there to give himself as that great sacrifice for sin, because the wages of sin is death. And there was number other way that blessing could be dispensed for eternity apart from the Lord Jesus going to Calvary cross. And here we find that the Apostle Paul records by inspiration in writing to this young man Timothy This is a faithful saying. You know, the word of God is full of faithful sayings.
But isn't it interesting that there are a few sayings like this that our attention is particularly drawn to, lest we miss the fact that this is a faithful saying? If every saying of God is faithful, how much more, if I can put it this way, a saying that begins with the confirmation, This is a faithful saying, you know, if I look into the this audience tonight.
I realized that most, if not all, have heard the gospel message before. God has been very faithful with you. I have had many opportunities to stand up and present the gospel to audiences where I felt that perhaps most in that audience.
Had never heard a clear gospel before, Perhaps never heard the simple story of Jesus and his love. And it is a tremendous challenge to look into the faces of an audience like that and seek grace from the Lord to present the message simply and clearly.
But sometimes I wonder if it isn't even a greater challenge to look into the faces of those two with whom God has been faithful with for so many years.
What does God have to do tonight to wake you up to your need?
I remember some years ago I was driving across the United States of America.
And I was going through the state of Oklahoma and I was going through Oklahoma City when my transmission went out. The Lord was very merciful and I was able to get to a transmission shop.
And as I entered that shop and approached the counter, I was thankful to see on the counter.
A stack of New Testaments and gospel tracts with a sign free Take one. You know, that made me feel a lot better. It's rather disconcerting to get into a strange city and have car problems. You're always afraid that someone's going to perhaps take advantage of you. And so I was thankful to see these New Testaments and Gospel tracts on the counter. The office door opened and the owner of the shop, as I found out later, came toward me.
And as he crossed the floor, I realized that he had either been born severely handicapped or there had been some incident in his life that had caused him to be the way he was. It was all he could do to cross the floor. His limbs were somewhat twisted, his arms and legs. He spoke with a decided lisp.
And as he came forward, I introduced myself and it became very quickly evident that he was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he said to me, he said, you see this body I have? He said this is what it took for me to come to know Christ as my Savior. This is what it took for God to get my attention. He said. As a boy and as a youth, God spoke to me softly many times.
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He said I grew up in a Christian home. I came to Sunday school. I came to gospel meetings. But I hardened my heart as I got into my teens. I started to run with a bad crowd. I bought a motorcycle. I started to live a wildlife. And he said one night.
Coming home from a drunken brawl, I was in a very serious accident. They never thought I would pull through. But he said, as a result of that accident, it sobered me up. And I came to know the Lord Jesus as my savior. And he said, I thank God every day for these twisted limbs and the pain I deal with on an hourly basis. And I look into your face tonight and I know you've heard the gospel many times. Most of you at least.
And I wonder what God is going to have to use in your life to wake you up. He's speaking softly. His desire is that in the power of the Spirit, He speak in a still small voice. But if you don't listen, God loves you. He's merciful, and He may have to speak very loud. But this is a faithful saying. God is faithful, and this faithful saying tells us very clearly.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, no doubt about it. We stand tonight, and on the authority of God's Word, we present to you the man Christ Jesus.
The one that's we've been saying who went to Calvary's cross? The one who allowed Wicked Man to take him and nail him to a Roman gibbet. Do you realize? As they lifted the hammer that pounded those nails, he gave them the very breath and strength to do it.
As they lifted that cross, and the Lord Jesus hung there as a spectacle for men and angels, He gave them the strength to lift that cross. He gave those the very breath that they used to curse him and revile him as they passed by, and as many sat down and watched him in his agony.
He giveth to all life and breath and all things, and yet Daniel could say to the greatest king of the day.
The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified? But Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He came to dispense blessing, and he came to die for sinners. He came to shed his precious blood.
I have had opportunity for many years.
To go each January to the Bahamas.
And with liberty from the Bahamian government to go from school to school.
And to present the gospel to the student body at a prearranged time.
They will March those students usually into an outdoor courtyard. There are sometimes as many as 1500 students. They stand at attention while I have opportunity to present the gospel to them. And when I'm done, I'm able to leave material, messages of love, a wallet, calendar, something with the scripture so that each student at the end of the day can take something home with the word of God.
We try to make the message for them as simple as possible. Often I will try to work in something in their current events, something from their history or geography, and I remember 1 January I was flying from Toronto to Nassau.
And as I was on the flight, I was wondering and praying about what to present to the boys and girls and youths in the schools in the Bahamas that year. And as I was considering this, I reached forward and took the In Flight magazine out of the seat pocket in front of me.
And I sort of idly thumbed through it and I noticed an article that caught my attention.
It was an article, really an advertisement, but a several page advertisement advertising and telling about a new museum that had just opened a few months before in downtown Nassau. It's there and if you ever have opportunity to visit it, it's very interesting. It's called the Pirates of Nassau Museum and it goes through the history and it's rather well done, the history of pirates that sailed back in the days of pirates.
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Around the Bahamian waters.
And it was very interesting. Something just seemed to say to me, take some time when you get to NASA and go downtown.
And see that museum? In those days, I stayed in an apartment that was just a few blocks from that museum. And so when I got settled in my room, I went down and I went through that museum.
And they went through the various famous pirates that sailed around the Bahamian islands. And as I listened to the commentaries and saw displays with the history of those pirates, one thing struck me that those pirates.
Came to the waters of the Bahamas and landed on those islands for one reason. They had one motive, and that was to get something for themselves. They came to the Bahamas to get they wanted the treasure they wanted, anything that they felt was of value, and they didn't care in plundering whether they killed, whether they destroyed whatever it took. They were going to get what they came after.
And I was able to go from school to school, having gone through that museum and learned a little of their history.
And to tell the boys and girls and the young people that while the pirates that came to Nassau came to get, there was a man who came into this world not to get something for himself, but he came to give. He came to give. He came for blessing. He came at the bidding of God his father, and he came into the world to save sinners. Just a little aside, but perhaps it will impress upon us the awful reality of a lost eternity.
And rejecting God's offer of salvation through the man Christ Jesus.
But I've always been fascinated with one of those pirates.
His name where he's commonly known as Blackbeard, and he is no legend.
His name was Arthur was Edward Teach. History tells us he died somewhere around 1778 or 7/17/18. I'm sorry. And he was a very real person, one of the most ferocious pirates that ever sailed the Caribbean. And the story goes that on one occasion he said to his men, we're going down below in the ship.
You know, he would wear in his hair and in his beard these cords, braided cords that he would keep smoking.
And it would give him a fierce kind of look around his face a very gave him a very ferocious aura, which is exactly what he wanted to create. But he said to his men, one day we're all going down below and we're going to light some sulfur and brimstone and we're going to close the Hatch and we're going to see who can stay down in the hold of the ship with that burning acid and brimstone.
The longest. And so he forced his men down that ladder.
The Hatch was closed, and he lit that brimstone, and one by one those men, choking and gasping for breath, ascended that ladder and got out of there.
Blackbeard prided himself in the fact that he was able to stay down there the longest, and I shudder to tell you what he said that he said that because he was able to stay down there the longest.
He was best suited of all his men to spend time in hell.
Not solemn.
You know the solemn thing about it is.
That there was a hatch in a ladder that those men, including Blackbeard, behave. Albeit be he the last one finally got out of there. But in hell, there's no hope. Hell is hopeless.
How will be for eternity? There was a man that the Lord Jesus told about who went to hell and he never asked to get out of hell because I would. I believe he knew his destiny was fixed. All he asked for was that somebody come over to him and bring him momentary relief.
From his situation, he never got it and he never will.
Oh, it's a solemn thing to reject God's offer of mercy and salvation when you know the gospel message that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
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We might ask the question and it's partially answered here. Why did the Lord Jesus come? Well, this verse tells us it leaves us in. No doubt he came to save sinners. But there was a further reason given to us in the verse that we read in John's Gospel chapter 10.
Because there he said, the Lord Jesus said himself, I am come that they might have life.
You know the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I want to ask each of our hearts tonight, Are you the possessor of divine eternal life tonight?
Do you have everlasting life? God is offering it to you tonight as a free gift. It's there, as we would say, for the taking, and I am thankful for many who have received the Lord Jesus.
From time to time I have the solemn responsibility of taking funerals.
And some of the hardest funerals I've ever taken are the funerals of unbelievers.
Young man I grew up with called me one day. I hadn't seen him for years. We were close friends.
In our cottage days around Bass Lake at Rita Ferry. But he called me just out of the blue one day.
He said. Jim, my grandmother has passed away.
He said Her grandchildren.
Have no illusions as to where she is in eternity.
But we would like there to be a testimony at her funeral.
There will be a few there. And would you come and take Grandma's funeral?
I talked before the funeral to some that I knew had visited this lady. She was, I believe, in her 90s.
I talked to some who had visited her and kept up a contact. In later years. I tried to get some thread, some shred of evidence that maybe there was a spark of life there. The more I talked to people, the more I realized that that Lady was probably in a lost eternity, and it was a solemn thing to stand up and take her funeral. On another occasion, I stood up to take the funeral of a man in his 80s and his ten children were on the front row. They all knew the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Every one of them.
And they said to me before that funeral, we're afraid that our father hardened his heart to the end.
I'm going to repeat a little incident that I know some of you heard me say last week in Lawrenceville.
But it has really impressed itself upon my soul.
Few weeks ago I was in Saint Vincent.
West Indies. I landed on a Thursday evening and Friday. Saturday and Sunday I attended 3 funerals, 3 very different funerals.
I first of all attended the funeral of a lady who was in her seventies, 74 years of age. Her name was Irma Collins.
Irma Collins was born.
With deformed legs, she never walked.
And at 8 years of age, her parents dropped her off at what we would call the poor house.
I won't try to describe it to you. I believe James House has been to the poor House with me.
If you think I'm exaggerating, you can ask him after the stench.
What you hear, what you see, it's defies description, but Irma was for many years a bright testimony.
As a young girl, she came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior, abandoned by her parents and taken up by the Savior of sinners, the great shepherd who cared for her all her life. And you would walk in there. In the midst all that squalor, there was a bright spot. Oh, Irma wasn't perfect. She had her complaints. But you never left without a bright smile and a hug and a thanks for sharing the word of God.
She passed away.
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And you'll pardon me, but.
As I went to her funeral.
And as I looked into her face.
I couldn't help but think of that expression far better.
And I'm going to use very bad grammar to.
Try to convey something that perhaps can't really be conveyed. But all I could think of was for Irma. It was much more, far better than for most. I know for every one that passes into the presence of the Lord its fullness of joy. But to think of Irma?
Going from that corner in the poor house to the presence of the Lord Jesus.
It just did something to my soul that I will never forget.
The next day I attended the funeral of a young man, 29 years of age, grew up in a Christian home. His mother still gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus in Camden Park, Saint Vincent. But as a young man he turned his back on all that.
Lived a very, very wild life, went off to Trinidad and as a result.
Of his wildlife, he got one of those dreaded diseases.
And a few weeks before his funeral, he came home to die. And as far as we know, he hardened his heart to the end, too.
The next day, I stood up and looked into the faces of 350 people.
Who had crowded a hall in Dixon Village and the courtyard outside. They had come to pay their last respects to a 94 year old sister who had had one of the brightest testimonies in her village that I have ever seen.
She, to the end of her life, was a joy to visit. Everyone who knew her knew that she belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ. And she had, some days before I got to Saint Vincent, quietly slipped into the presence of the Lord again, absent from the body and present with the Lord. But what about you? What about you, if someone had to stand up this week and take your funeral?
Would they have the assurance from your testimony that you were with the Lord Jesus?
That you had accepted him, that you had received that gift of eternal life, That you were washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus, of which blood we read, The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Or would the person who stood up to take stand up to take your funeral have to say, well, I'm not sure, but everybody else here has opportunity, you know, That's what you have to do at a funeral where you're not sure if the person was saved.
You have to say you know it's too late for the person in the coffin. But this funeral is not for the dead, it's for the living.
Because the living still have opportunity. You have opportunity tonight. The Lord Jesus said I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. But we've talked about those who've drawn their last breath and been laid in the grave. But I want to stress something else too, and that is what we read in John chapter 14, where the Lord Jesus said I will come again.
He came the first time Christ Jesus came into the world. The Lord Jesus said I am come when he was here, but he also has said I will come again. We sang about the Lord Jesus tonight, but not so much on earth. Yes, we did sing about the crucifixion, but we also saying there is a Savior on high in the glory. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead. He seated at the Father's right hand.
He's there as the savior of sinners. But he says I will come again. And when he said to the disciples, I will come again, he gave it to them as a promise, as a comfort. Their hearts were troubled. They were afraid as they thought of the Lord Jesus going away and leaving them.
They had walked with the Lord Jesus, those years of his public ministry, and now he had told them that he was going to return to the Father. They were afraid. They were scared. But he said as a comfort and as a promise, I will come again. And he said, when I come again, I'm going to take you to a wonderful place called the Father's house. And by going to the cross, by dying and shedding my blood, by rising again, by going back to the Father's house, I'm going to have that place prepared for you.
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So that I can come again and receive you unto myself. But the seriousness of the matter is the coming again of the Lord Jesus is going to mean different things for different people.
I know there's just so many here tonight who thrill when we speak of what we often call the Rapture, the coming of the Lord Jesus when he descends from heaven with a shout. And the voice of the Archangel and the dead in Christ rise 1St. And we which are alive and remain are going to be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And we're ever going to be with the Lord. And yes, we do comfort one another with these words, but what about you tonight when we talk about the coming of Christ?
Does that make you feel a little bit uncomfortable? It should. It should make you feel downright scared. Because if the Lord Jesus were to come tonight before this Gospels over in the next few minutes, which may very well happen.
There will be an instantaneous exodus from this room of those who are saved.
And there will be, for those who are lost, the reality of looking around and seeing empty chairs and realizing what has happened.
And to realize too the hopelessness of the situation, because it tells us when once the master of the house has risen up and shut to the door, then they come and they begin to knock, and they say, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and what's going to happen?
A voice is going to come from the other side of that door. The door isn't going to be cracked open to see who's there.
A voice is going to come from the other side of that door depart from Mia. I never knew you. You know the message. If we could boil the message of the gospel down tonight to one simple statement, it might be this come unto me. But the message to those who refuse that invitation and statement tonight will be depart from me. It's come unto me tonight it may be depart from me.
Later on, that's why we are serious about preaching the gospel, because it is serious. It's eternal, it's final. And if you leave this world without Christ, it's the end. Or if Christ comes tonight, it's the end of any opportunity to receive.
God's offer of salvation and mercy, but it's not the end for you.
As we've been saying, the end will be to stand at the Great White Throne judgment and to be cast into the Lake of Fire.
I remember several years ago, after a Gospel meeting in Trinidad, a young lady, young girl stood up. She was 16 years of age.
She stood up after that gospel meeting and she said I want to let everybody know that tonight I've come to know the Lord Jesus.
As my Savior, you know, most of us at that gospel meeting initially were shocked.
The reason we were shocked is because Abigail was from a Christian home.
And not only was she from a Christian home, but I had stayed in her parents home many times. In fact, on that occasion Brother Garvin Seymour and I were staying with her parents.
And if you had asked us that morning whether we thought Abigail was the Lords or not, we would have given an affirmative yes. We would have said yes. I'm sure she knows the Lord. She always seemed interested when the Bible was read.
She always joined in the singing of a hymn around the table. She was always at the meetings. To all outward appearances, it looked like she was a believer.
But she was not.
And that night, as the gospel was presented by Brother Garvin, it touched her heart. The Spirit of God used the word of God in the power of the Spirit, and she came to know the Lord Jesus as her savior and all what rejoicing there was in that meeting room that night. We sang some hymns, we prayed, we rejoiced together, We shed some tears of joy.
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But I thought about that incident and I thought, I wonder how many 16 year olds.
Sit in a gospel meeting like this, coming from a Christian home, opening their Bible at the dinner table when the Bibles read, joining in the singing of the hymns. But there's no reality in their hearts.
Judith accompanied with the disciples and the Lord Jesus for probably over three years.
And, you know, so clever was Judas and his cover up that he never gave himself away. You know, when you're with people, traveling with people, you get to know them pretty well. I've traveled with some brothers and you get to know a side of those brothers that perhaps nobody else really knows, even just with three or four weeks. Sometimes. Judas traveled with the other disciples all those years, but he was so clever in his cover up that when they came to the table at the end.
And the Lord said there was a betrayer amongst them. They all looked at each other and said, is it I? Is it I? They had to ask the Lord, who is it? You would have thought that at least some of them would have suspected that it was Judas, that he might have done something that would have given him away. But I believe the solemn lesson we learned is it's possible to be a professor, to not be real, to not know the Lord Jesus, but to pass amongst family and friends.
As knowing Christ as your Savior, you know the Lord finally exposed the heart of Judas. And your heart will be exposed someday too if you go on rejecting the Lord Jesus. But before we close, I just want to comment on the verse I read in Revelation chapter one as well, because there we have really another part to the coming of the Lord Jesus in John 14. He said I will come again and receive you unto myself. That's his coming to take away the believers at any moment to the Father's house.
But there is a day coming when he's going to come back to this world. Not in loneliness and grace. Not wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger. Not walking the dusty streets of Palestine. Not weary with his journey sitting thus on the well, Not as taking a few moments to rest his weary head on a pillow in the back of a boat. No, he's coming in power and glory, and every eye is going to see him in that day.
And there's going to be a great whaling because he's going to come in power and judgment.
He's going to come in glory and it tells us later on they're going to cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them.
And to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb in the face of him that sitteth upon the throne. Are they going to find any refuge then? Not for one moment. They're not going to be able to escape in that day. Are you going to be part of those who want to escape judgment and are not able?
It will be a very serious thing. And as I say, the end result will be to be cast from the presence of God for all eternity into a place where there's no love, there's no friendship, there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, there's wailing, there's torment. There's no relief in that place. But oh, tonight, how wonderful that we've come to the end of this gospel meeting and the Lord hasn't come, I really wondered.
If I would be able to take my seat after this gospel meeting, or if the Lord Jesus would come. We've had some wonderful things before us in this meeting concerning that future day of glory. It's going to happen. It's going to happen at any moment. The Lord Jesus is going to come, and then things are going to unfold on this in this world, but all tonight in God's long-suffering, patience and grace. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
He has allowed another gospel meaning to run its course, and as I pray now, if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I beseech you to bow your head and quietly talk to Him in your heart. He hears what you say, even though you don't say it aloud, but talk to Him in your heart.
Confess the fact that you are a Sinner and receive him as Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And scripture tells us whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Let's pray our God and Father.
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We're thankful for the gospel, and we're thankful for that unspeakable gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, thankful for that precious blood. We rejoice in the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and we're thankful that He is coming again but our God and Father. In the meantime, we pray for blessing on Thy word. We pray that no one would go out of this room lost and in their sins. Use Thy word and convicting power tonight, and by thy spirit draw souls to the Savior. We ask Thy blessing.
We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory. Amen.