Gospel—Tim Roach
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Good evening.
A few minutes ago we there were some brothers gathered in a room down here. Room 105 for, therefore, a prayer meeting for the gospel. Well, there's a couple brothers there waiting outside the door. I got there and the door was locked. We were too late. We couldn't get in. We were too late for the prayer meeting.
Thankfully, your brother saw us. He came open the door.
Allowed us to come in.
We have the Gospel Meeting here again tonight. You have heard the gospel many times.
But if the Lord were to come today?
And you were not saved. You would not have another chance. You could not knock on the door and have the door open to you. The door would not open. You would knock, and the Lord would say, I don't know who you are.
Let's sing hymn #9 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 let's sing #9.
Come every soul by sin.
We will say good evening, we'll save you, he will say.
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Let's pray our God and Father. We give thanks for that the gospel can go out once again. And we just think of anybody here who might not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. That there might be a conviction of soul. That they might listen to the word of God tonight. That they might receive the word of God and believe in their heart. That God hath raised him from the dead.
And that they might be saved tonight. We just asked for this blessing. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
We start at the beginning, back with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam had no sin.
But then Adam was disobedient and he became a Sinner.
At this point.
Sin became a part of Adam's nature, and this in nature was passed down to all of Adam's children. And this sin nature of Adam has been passed down to your parents and down to you and me and to everybody else in this room. We all have that sinful nature of Adam, and we call this nature an Adamic nature.
Because it came from Adam and this nature is a part of you, a part of who you are, and it's been passed on to you through your parents. Just like you look similar to as you look like your parents, your mother, your father, you have received that that sin nature from your your parents and it's been passed down from Adam. You do sins.
Because you have the seed of sin in you.
And the same as an apple tree produces apples, you the Sinner produce sins. Let's go to Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 and we'll read verse 12.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Just interesting that I went and checked through the whole Bible and if I'm not mistaken, it never says that a plant or an animal dies.
In the Bible, death is reserved for people.
For sinners, the soul that sins, it shall die. We read about animals that are slain, or they're killed or they're sacrificed, but we never read that they're put to death, Unless I'm mistaken, the Bible.
Reserves death for people. The wages of sin is death. Death is a punishment for sinners.
And an animal is not a Sinner. And so our verse here in verse 12, because of Adam's disobedience, death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And so Cain was a murderer. Lamech was an adulterer. Job was self-righteous. Jacob was a schemer. Ananias and Sapphira they were liars.
We know Judas was a thief, and when the Lord Jesus came into his own country, he marveled at their unbelief. Unbelief may be the worst sin of all, because if you don't believe, there will be judgment, there will be hell, there will be death. And so all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then Rahab was in Harlot. I was a prostitute.
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She was a bad woman.
And her body became it was a temptation for many men.
And many wicked men had succumbed to the lure of gratification with this woman.
And they use this woman as a means to their selfish end.
Maybe you are not involved with a prostitute.
But maybe you are involved with your boyfriend or your girlfriend at a level that would dishonor God.
The time that you have intimate relations with a person.
Who is not your own husband?
Or your wife and you have lost something because they have gotten something from you which does not belong to them. Let's go to 1St Corinthians 6 and very clearly tells us.
That fornication is a sin, and it's a bad sin.
First Corinthians chapter 6, verse 15.
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
What Know ye not, that he which is joined to in harlot is 1 body? For two saith, he shall be 1 flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is 1 Spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, But he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not, that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.
So these verses are pretty straightforward. If you have had sexual relations with another person before you get married, it will be difficult for you to give yourself completely to your husband or wife because part of you belongs to that other person because you too have become one body outside the bounds of marriage.
Well, maybe.
You say, well, I have never done such a thing, and maybe your sin is not as egregious or as or as as bad as rehabs sin, and maybe you are very careful how you live.
Yeah, maybe you've told a lie, or maybe you've disobeyed your mother once, and you may think that you're not bad enough for this gospel stuff.
Or this punishment in hell. You're not bad enough for that.
But that doesn't matter, because just the fact that you were born into this world means that you are a Sinner. Do you remember? You have the nature of Adam. You have that sinful nature in you, and just the fact that you have been born with that sinful nature qualifies for you, qualifies you for hell. It doesn't matter if you haven't told a lie or anything. You are a Sinner because you have the sinful nature, and so if you repent.
And you turn away from your sin and you trust the Lord. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is faithful, and He's just to forgive your sin. And there's no sin too little, There's no sin too dirty. There's no sin too bad that God cannot forgive if you repent in faith.
Well, Rahab was repentant, and I believe there was evidence of her repentance.
She turned from her wickedness and she went to help the people of God and she rescued 2 spies that had been sent to Jericho to spy out the land.
Rahab had become a woman of faith and when a person is saved, there are two requirements for salvation. One is belief and the other is repentance. They go together. Let's look in Acts chapter 20.
Acts, Chapter 20.
In verse 21, we'll see how repentance and faith go together.
Acts 20 verse 21 Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. Repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Well, that is the crux of our message tonight. Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.
There was a way of salvation.
For the people of Jericho, Rahab told The Good News of salvation. You come into my house, you will be saved, and by faith.
Her family came into that place of salvation. Now I want to talk about the Battle of Jericho. The children of Israel had just won a great victory at Jericho. Nothing like this had ever happened before. They had marched around the city once each day.
For six days. And then on the 7th day they marched around 7 times and after they marched around seven times the priests blew their trumpets and there might have been 2 million plus or minus people in the in the in the nation of Israel at that time. And they were marching around the walls. And after the priests blew the trumpets the people shouted and the walls of Jericho fell down, they came tumbling down and it says they fell down flat.
Well, some days earlier there were two spies.
Who had come into the city of Jericho to spy out the land? And as we had said earlier, they came into the House of Rahab, and Rahab hid these two spies. Because the villagers of the city, the city people, they were coming looking for those spies and they were going to kill them. And so she hid them so they wouldn't be killed. And so the spies promised Rahab that if you put a red rope in your window, that she and everyone else who would be in the house with her.
Would be saved from the destruction of Jericho. Let's look at the story in Joshua Chapter 6.
Joshua Chapter 6.
And it reviews and it goes over what we have just spoken of.
Joshua Chapter 6 and we'll start at verse 20. We'll start with the people shouted.
When the priests blew with the trumpets, and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet.
And the people shouted with the great shout that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him. And they took the city. They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, an ox and sheep and *** with the edge of the sword.
Wow, this sounds rather brutal, but let it be a warning to you. God is no respecter of persons. They destroyed everyone who was in the city, men and women.
Young children, old people, everybody was put to death because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know boys and girls are sinners too. Maybe you've stolen something or you lied to your brother or sitter sister.
Maybe you have an argument with them. Maybe you cheat in a game because you don't like to lose. Maybe you're taking the best for yourself and you may think that you're not so bad. And yeah, you may be a good person, but if you do not believe in God, if you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
You are lost in your sins.
And you are condemned already, and you are on your way to a lost eternity.
In hell. And if you do not believe on the Lord Jesus, the wrath of God's judgment abides on you even now.
It abides on you and you will be destroyed, just like all the people of Jericho.
You will be destroyed.
But wait, what about Rahab? Remember the promise that she had?
She was in that city that was just destroyed. She was still in the city.
Was she under all the rubble?
Her house was situated on top of the wall and we read it in the verses. The walls fell down flat. Where was Rahab?
Well, we're not told exactly what happened to her house. Perhaps one section of the wall was still standing with her house on top. But what we do know is that everyone in Rahab's house was safe.
She and her family who were in the house, they escaped the wrath of God.
Joshua told the spies go in and rescue Rahab.
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So let's look at verse 23. Joshua 623. And the young men that were the spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father, and her mother and her brethren and all that she had. And they brought all her out, all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. And they burnt the city with fire. And all that was there in only the silver and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron they put into the treasury.
Of the House of the Lord.
And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's household and all that she had.
And she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day, because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And so they rescued the household of Rahab. Judgment and destruction were all around her, but she was safe. It was a great day, a great day of blessing for Rahab and her family. Rahab was saved by faith.
She had that red cord in her window and she was confident that she would be rescued.
But we too have a red cord. You have a red cord available to you, and it is the blood of Jesus Christ. Let's look at Romans Chapter 3.
We had those verses today in Exodus chapter 12. When I see the blood, I will Passover you.
The believer does not need to fear the Angel of death.
And justice. Like the Israelis, we're covered by the blood over the door. The blood completely makes you safe and removes your sin and removes the judgment that abides on you. Romans 3, verse 25. Here we see that our salvation is sure and steadfast. There's no uncertainty that when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved in Romans 325.
Says whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God.
Remission of sins is forgiveness.
And God is righteous to forgive sins because it is because the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, was shed there at Calvary's Cross, and it is the blood that cleanses us.
From all our sins.
Well, we have spoken about the salvation of Rahab the bad woman.
She was saved by faith and even her sin was remitted, was taken away by the blood of Jesus Christ when the Lord Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood. But notice in the story.
That she never did confess her sins.
She was saved by faith.
Let's go to Joshua 7.
And this brings us to our next story. It's about Akan and.
Some days after the great victory at Jericho, Israel was fighting another enemy at the city of AI, and the spies were sent out.
To see what they were up against.
And the spies went in and then they saw what they were up against. And they came back with the report. And the report came back that the city only had a few people and they were weak and there would be no problem for Israel to destroy this city. And so the spies said they should divide the people and just send in a few soldiers. Well, we're told that pride goes before destruction. And so Israel, they felt they were too good and too strong and they didn't need God's help. And this time.
So they they do. They split up and only 3000 men went into the battle. Well, we read the story, we know that Israel lost badly, and they turned tail and they ran.
36 men were killed and Israel was afraid. Joshua, he couldn't believe it. He was astounded that God would let him down like this and lose the battle. And so he gets down on his face.
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To the dirt. And he puts, and he puts the dust on his head, and he bows before the ark of the Lord.
And he prays. And here's Joshua's prayer in Joshua Chapter 7. Let's go to verse 6.
And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord, until the eventide he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord.
God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over, Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites? To destroy us would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side. Jordan, O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environment around us, and cut off our name from the earth.
And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
We see that Joshua, in spite of the loss and the shame that would come on the people, Joshua was concerned about the dishonor to the name of the Lord. And Josh, the Lord says to Joshua get up. Israel has sinned and Joshua realizes that this, the battle that was lost, was the judgment of God because of the sin of Israel. And what is the sin? He wonders.
Was it the sin of Israel or was it the sin of one person? And let's go look at John at verse 10.
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up.
Wherefore lies thou Thus upon thy face Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them. For they have taken even of the accursed thing, and have also stolen and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
This is a story about a can. Was it the sin of Israel or was it the sin of Akan? The sin of Akan affected the whole nation of Israel. And this is so true that when one person does, it can affect many others. You may think that you are not so influential that you could disturb so many others.
But people are watching you, and what you do will affect the actions of others, and the things that they do will affect you. And so back to Joshua and Akan.
By some means they had a system to choose the guilty person, and so at first the the tribe of Judah was chosen. They they had some sort of. I'm not sure how they did it, but they chose.
The tribe of Judah and next the family of the Tsar Heights was chosen. Then the man Zabdi was chosen and then his son Carmi. And last of all it was determined that Akan was the guilty man.
Let's look in verse 19, Joshua 17, seven verse 19. And here Joshua says to Akan he says, my son give.
Glory to the Lord God of Israel. Give glory to the God of Israel.
And make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done. Hide it not from me.
So Joshua says to Akan, give the glory to God and to confess your sins.
And so I ask you, is it possible for an unbeliever to give glory to God?
Yes, it is true because when a Sinner bows the knee and confesses to God, God is glorified. It does not matter whether a person is saved or not. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Verse 20 And here's Akin's He makes his confession. Verse 20 and a can't answer Joshua and said, indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw this among the spoils, A goodly babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold, 50 shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them.
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And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
You might say that Akan suddenly had heightened awareness syndrome. He remembered in explicit detail the events of his sin.
Some of you, like Akan, will give an account of yourself at the Great White Throne and you at that time you will also have.
Heightened awareness and there will be no medical excuse. There will be no psychological excuse.
You won't have an excuse for sin in that day. You will not be able to say I was Born This Way. If you have rejected Jesus as your Lord, you and every other unbeliever will be forced to bow the knee to Jesus Christ and to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And you will do this.
To the glory of God the Father.
Well, God will receive all the glory.
As you and all the other unbelievers.
As all those sinners are bound, hand and foot, and cast into the lake of fire and into outer darkness, and there will be weeping and wailing, and the gnashing of teeth, and you will be angry at God, you will be full of hatred at God, and you will be ever forever quivering in your condemned conscience.
A conscience that will never let you forget for all eternity that you rejected Jesus.
As your Lord and savior.
But the eternal damnation of your soul is not the will.
Of a loving God. There is a way of escape through Jesus Christ.
Jesus says I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father.
But by me you must come to Jesus Christ, to the Father, through Jesus Christ, Jesus loves you, he says, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, and the Lord Jesus gave himself for you. So the message for you tonight is come, admit that you're a Sinner. Come to Jesus with your burden of sin yourself, righteous sin, your immoral sin. Come to Jesus. Jesus says, come, and I will give you rest.
You must come believing, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you will be saved.
And if when you are saved, you will receive.
A new life you'll receive, An eternal life that loves the Lord Jesus.
And you will receive a guarantee that you will enter into heaven, into the presence of the Lord.
In the Father's house, you will have a guarantee that you will never perish.
You know, it's a beautiful thing to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
As your savior, let's go to John Chapter 5.
John Chapter 5.
And verse 24.
And here in this verse we'll find the way of salvation.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me.
Has everlasting life.
And shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. This is a most beautiful thing. Here believe and receive eternal life.
I ask some people, how do you get saved? How can you get saved? And they often respond to me. Confess your sins.
Or keep the commandments.
And that sounds nice to confess your sins. But what happens if you forget one of your sins and you forget to confess that one sin? All your confession is worthless because it only takes the one sin for you to be lost.
You are going to a lost eternity. You are doomed to hell.
I hear others say, well, in order to get to heaven, you have to ask the Lord Jesus to come into your heart.
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And you will be saved. Well, how is that going to work? That is a sure way to send your child to hell. Tell him to ask Jesus to come into your heart. It's not even biblical.
To ask Jesus to come into your heart. But I hear so many people saying that. And if you notice the verse that we just read, it says you must hear the word of God and believe on the Lord Jesus and you will receive eternal life. There's nothing here about confessing your sins. There's nothing here about keeping the commandments. There's nothing here about asking Jesus to come into your heart in order for you to get to heaven.
It's important that the confession of sins by an unbeliever does not bring forgiveness of sin. You can only be justified by faith. And This is why you must come to Jesus. You must come believing. Let's look in Acts chapter 10.
Acts, Chapter 10.
And verse 43.
Partway through the verse Acts 1043, all the prophets give witness.
That through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission.
Of sins.
There's nothing in this verse about confessing your sins. There's nothing in this verse about your ability to do good work. There's nothing in here about confession. Don't believe in your confession. Rahab did not confess her sin, but she had faith in God and she was saved.
Akan He had no faith, but we see that he confessed. He gave glory to God and he confessed his sins.
And he was immediately sentenced to death. Remember, we started out the meeting by understanding that death is a term of judgment for the Sinner. And Akan was immediately sentenced to death when he confessed. You are no different than a can. Your sin is that you believe not.
Your sentence is that you are condemned already.
And your judgment is?
The wrath of God abides on you.
You also.
Will have to come and and give glory to God and confess your sins. You will give an account of yourself to God, and then you will be summerly dispatched into the lake of fire.
The angels, they will bind you hand and foot, and they will cast you into an eternal damnation in the pit of Hell.
Joshua 7 verse 22.
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran into the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent and the silver under it.
And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. And Joshua and all Israel. With him took Akan the son of Zira, and the silver, and the garment and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his ***** and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
And Joshua said.
Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones, and they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day.
It was a public display of Akan's greed and his lust, and of his selfishness and of his covetousness. A can despise the name of the Lord. And he stole a goodly babylonish garment, and he took 200 shekels of silver, and he took a wedge of gold.
The gold and the silver were supposed to be put into the treasury of the Lord.
So Akan stole the money.
From the Lord.
A can and all that he had were taken.
They were stoned to death.
And they were burned with fire and they were buried out of sight.
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You'll notice that Akan's wife was not included in the destruction. Why do you think that?
Perhaps she did not agree with the actions of her husband and her children and she wanted no part of it.
Ladies.
Even though you are one body with your husband.
You are still an individual before God.
And you one day will stand before God and give an account of yourself.
And it's better to obey God rather than your husband if you are asked or expected to be a part of some sin against the Lord Jesus.
Such as cheating on your taxes. April 18th is coming up very soon, and that's the day of reckoning when we have to pay our taxes by that date.
Maybe you're not giving to the Lord Jesus what belongs to him.
A can and his children and even his children were destroyed.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord, we can destroy our children with the lust of riches, just like Akan did. The children were a part of the deception in this story.
And they were part of the covering up of the truth. And they had lust for riches in their heart, just like Atan did.
Well then they took a pile of put stones. They put a big pile of stones on top of a can's grave as a sign to the people of Israel so they would remember the wrath of God against sin. Verse 26.
So the Lord turned.
From the fierceness of his anger.
After sin.
Has been put away.
God can. If I can say it this way, he can relax.
He can rest.
And what does this mean for you?
God sent the Lord Jesus Christ to go to the cross to be punished for sin. And at that time, during the three hours of darkness, Jesus took the fierceness of the anger of God against himself. And he did this in order to have a basis by which to turn away his fierce anger that is building up against you.
Jesus loves you and he offers this gift of salvation.
He offers you salvation. He offers you a sinless life. He offers you a holy life.
He offers you eternal life.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved that verse John 316 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Whosoever it's for everybody, it's for you, that land that we talked about in Exodus 12. They made sure the lamb the lamb was or they made sure that if the household was too little for the land.
The lamb was never too little for the household. That's a provision that the Lord gives. He gives us the satisfaction that God needs in order to cover our sin. And it can never be too little to cover your sin and my sin, Eternal life. It's a gift from God to you. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Won't you receive it tonight?
Won't you receive it tonight? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
In closing, I want to compare the end of rehab to the end of a can.
Rahab did not confess her sin, but she was saved by faith and she lived.
Akan confessed his sin and he died without faith.
Rahab was saved with life. Akan was destroyed.
With life, and God was glorified in both.
Which way will you give God glory tonight?
Will you give God the glory by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? By receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord?
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Please don't walk out of the door tonight.
Don't turn your back on God and walk out that door. The Lord Jesus is here tonight. He's saying to you, come, come believing. There's that him that says come believing. It's not in here, so he won't sing it. But that's the importance for you to come in faith, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe we could sing #12.
Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bids me come to thee. O Lamb of God, I come. I come. Why don't you pray that prayer tonight? Sing this song as a prayer tonight, Lord Jesus, I come. I come just as I am.
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I may have been locked out of that that room for the prayer meeting tonight.
The door was shut. Soon the door of heaven will be shut and you will not have a second chance to get in. But right now, you still have opportunity. You have opportunity tonight to accept the Lord as your savior. And if anybody here has questions or you you want to consider salvation, I'll be sitting over here for a while.
And I'd like to talk with you. Let's pray.