Gospel—John Kaiser
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Welcome to the.
2nd and final Gospel meeting The special meeting this weekend. This could be the final gospel meeting. This building for all time, it could be the final gospel meeting.
In this area of all time, we don't know.
It goes right along with the memory verse we had for this morning. That memory verse was Christ Jesus came into the world.
To save sinners. One of the most rich, meaningful statements.
In the Bible.
Think about how much is contained in that Christ Jesus, the Anointed One, the Son of God, came from heaven into this world for the express purpose of saving the very worst thing in this world, which is sinners.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. God loved the world.
Of sinners lost and ruined by the fall salvation full at highest cost He offers free to all.
That's something worth thinking about. God loves the world.
And there's long and grave and boy, the fall. Something can fall asleep. And everybody has gone here in awe of the trend of all the whole.
Nsnoise.
Bring my daughter, fall over the space, and to the Lord sake, the most dangerous soul.
And from the power and the power, and cross him.
I'm I'm planning for the world.
Wondered what's wrong twice one Christmas.
Cry to make it.
In from sunset and it comes from the clouds to die on telescope.
Entertainment A lot of different forms of entertainment that are popular in this world, and one reason the entertainment is popular is because people identify with it.
They see a football game and they identify with a team. They identify with a favorite player, or perhaps it's, umm, a movie they see, and they identify with the particular character in the movie or a particular actor.
How well do you identify in the Gospel tonight? You notice the gospel message as we sung in the first verse. It says he offers it free to all.
00:05:02
That's what it says in the first verse, but in the chorus it says, oh, it was love. Twas wondrous love, the love of God.
To me.
That's the ultimate in identification.
A link between ourselves, the God of the universe.
And me, you personally, you identify with that. Do you recognize tonight that God?
Is extremely.
Infinitely interested in you, each one of us here as an individual. How many of us, of course, would have sent to that? We say yes, it's true.
Well, do you enjoy it then tonight?
Do you enjoy it? You know, sometimes at gossip meetings we sing a couple of hymns to start with. But instead of a second hymn this evening I'd like to to read together the 145th song, Psalm 145.
And I hope.
That as we read it together, I'm going to read it. You can follow.
You identify with.
If you feel like saying Amen at a certain point, there's nothing wrong with that. You might get somebody else back on track.
Psalm 145 is headed David, Psalm of Praise.
I will extol thee, my God, O King, I will bless thy name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another. That's what we're doing here tonight. And shall declare thy mighty axe. I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works, and man shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts. And I will declare.
Thy greatness they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness.
And shall sing of thy righteousness.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
Slow to anger and of great mercy, the Lord is good.
To all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord, and Thy Saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy Kingdom, and talk of Thy power to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His Kingdom.
Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raises up all that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou give us them their meat. In due season thou openest thine hand.
And satisfy us the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all His works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love Him.
But all the wicked will he destroy my mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, And let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. Now before we pray, I want to read some other verses. It may be that you had trouble identifying with this song, so let's turn to the book of James.
And see if these verses fit.
00:10:03
James.
Chapter 4.
Mercedes.
Draw nigh to God.
And he will draw nigh to you.
Clamp your hands, the sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.
That's great.
This evening, our God and Father we acknowledge.
Collectively and hopefully individually.
Our responsibility before.
We have just read of my great goodness.
Of thy righteousness.
Demonstrated at Calvary.
Our God and Father.
We would pray that each one of us might be conscious tonight.
That thou art and I.
That's an issue of distance is one of our own creating.
And that thou hast provided the remedy.
In our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank Thee and seek thy blessing in His name. Amen.
I want you to think about those words tonight. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
I don't suppose there's anyone here that questions whether those words are true.
It's a statement from the Word of God.
And it's a logical statement too. If I draw near to something, if I approach something in relative terms, it approaches me.
It's the law of physics.
God says draw near. It's God saying it. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. But what I want you to understand tonight is that God.
Has not left.
The ball in your court, so to speak.
He has taken the initiative.
And he has drawn near 1St.
He made the first move.
Someone asked her.
A man about to tell the story of his salvation, and I don't remember the story very well, but.
He was telling how God saved him and someone said, oh, you didn't tell the rest of the story. Oh, he said, I forgot. I ran from God for 30 years, but he caught me.
God is far more interested.
In you tonight.
Than you could imagine his being, and far more interested in you tonight than you can imagine yourself ever being in him.
It may be that you're not very interested tonight.
But God is still interested in you.
God is not only interested in you. God is not a spectator. He's not just an observer. God is involved in every life.
Here tonight, not only involved in your life, but he knows every thought. He knows your feelings. He created them. He can analyze them like no psychologists on earth. He knows how you're put together. Every one of us is wired a little bit different.
But God understands all that. He knows just what we need.
Let's look back at the 1St chapter in the Bible.
And see how God introduces himself.
Genesis chapter one.
Verse one In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. What else is there that encompasses all we know of creation? The simple statement is God did it.
All right, so everything you got to deal with, you got to deal with something that God created.
You have problems in life, you're in God's realm. You're in a in a situation that he is totally in control of.
00:15:09
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Well.
Darkness is a something we're fairly familiar with.
Some people don't like it at all.
Matter of fact, most of us don't like it in large chunks. It's nice to have a darkened room for sleeping.
But we used to talk, we used to talk about Africa as being the dark continent. They weren't just talking about the the cut, the color of the races there. They were talking about the moral character of the continent. Christianity. The light of Christianity had not penetrated. We talked about the dark places on the earth.
And there's all kinds of them.
And there's dark hearts. Notice what it says here in darkness was upon the face of the deep. There was no light there.
But there was something else there.
Notice what else was there. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.
Was visible. No, the Spirit of God is not visible and there was no light beside.
But the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. Why? Well, we're not told exactly why, but it's significant that God himself would tell us this at all, because it's not exactly part of the creation process, and it's not something that if we were writing this account, we would might have bothered to record. But God wants us to know that at the very beginning. The Spirit.
Of God.
The spirit of life.
Hovered, moved over or upon.
This debt plan.
The first contact.
God.
Demonstrating an interest in this.
Planetary corpse, if you want to call it the disordered mess that's described as it says here, the earth was without form and void. There's nothing attractive about it. Darkness is upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved on the face of the waters and I, I tried to visualize that I, I can't, I can't visualize something totally in dark in the dark. It says the earth is without form and void. And so we can't picture that very well either is.
A mess.
But over that mess.
Was the spirit of God and that we can visualize not picture in our minds, but we've seen a fog lie over a land.
This was not a fog, this was the Spirit of God.
I I perhaps.
I've thought of it in other terms.
As an artist looking at a blank canvas, or perhaps a mechanic looking at a wrecked car, seeing what could be done with it, thinking.
Planning.
Purposing something new.
And God had a plan. He had a purpose. And that plan and that purpose encompasses everyone here in this room tonight.
God has a purpose for you. He had a plan for you. God is not an idle spectator. He wasn't just. However, the Spirit was not hovering over the waters just out of the coincidence.
This expression of interest.
Expression of purpose.
And so we find God taking the initiative right from the beginning.
Now let's turn to some instances. We have a couple of instances we have in the New Testament.
Let's turn first to umm. Before we get into, let's just turn to the Gospel John chapter one.
And we have at the beginning described here different beginning in a sense, but.
We'll go back to that John one verse one. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
00:20:14
We'll go down to.
The seventh verse of the umm let's say the ninth verse that that was the true light the shines the light that every man that cometh into the world, he was in the world and the world was made by him.
And the world knew him not. We had the verse this morning. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That was God's idea. That was never man's idea. Even after the Lord Jesus tried to tell his disciples that he had come to die, they couldn't accept it.
But this was God's idea.
God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever.
That makes it personal. Believe it in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Let's turn to John 3 now.
And we find the Lord Jesus.
Here visiting Nicodemus.
And I should say Nicodemus visiting the Lord Jesus. I want to just read part of this story, make it umm gospel John chapter 3 verse one. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodel Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God.
Be with him.
So here's a man who knows something.
It's a religious man.
And apparently he had something to say to Lord Jesus. I suspect he was looking for some responses and I don't think he expected the response he got.
Is anyone here like that tonight? You said I've got questions. I've got doubts. I that I've I've I've heard about Jesus.
For a long time, but I'm just not sure, says Nicodemus. Came to Jesus by night.
He came on his initiative.
He came.
But there's some things he needed to learn, and he didn't know what he needed to learn. The Lord Jesus did.
Jesus answered and said to him, verily, verily, saying to thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Now interesting, Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus talking in generality. He said we know.
We know, we know.
And Jesus said.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
And Nicodemus took it personally.
He shifted out of this we business and how often I run into this, this sort of thing. You talk to people, you give them the gospel and uh yeah, Jesus came into the world to save us.
It's hard to get people to think about it personally. We, we, we haven't. It's difficult for us to comprehend that God is interested in us individually, but He is.
Nicodemus said to him, How can a man? He answered the Lord Jesus on the same terms. How can a man be born again when he is old? It's no longer this we business.
Have you personally brought your questions to the Lord Jesus Christ?
God hasn't changed.
The Lord Jesus Christ has not changed. The Spirit of God has not changed, just as the Spirit of God hovered over those waters in the beginning.
God is still.
Interested. I like I I sometimes wonder if hovering is not the right word to use even on a congregation like this, because God is just as interested now as he was then and the Lord Jesus.
00:25:04
Hasn't changed. He's approachable. Nicodemus didn't throw up his hands and say, well, I didn't come to find out about that. He was listening and he answered the Lord Jesus, how can a man be born when he is old? He asked the question, he got the answer.
Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the King of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Are you born of the Spirit this evening?
Has there been a work of God in you?
Or is the picture in Genesis does that describe you, the Spirit of God over a dead body?
Which are you? Are you a living soul tonight, or are you dead to God?
Hey, let's look at John chapter 4.
We find the Lord Jesus meeting another person.
John chapter 4, verse one. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples, He left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Cycar, near to the parcel ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the 6th hour.
You know, it's wonderful to consider the Lord Jesus. We think of the Lord Jesus who slept in the boat and then rose to calm the winds and the waves.
And we?
Forget why he might have slept, because he was weary. It says he was weary here. The Lord Jesus came down and felt what we feel. He suffered what we suffered.
Apart from sin.
And so Jesus.
It says verse six. Now Jacob as well was there in Jesus, and therefore being worried with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the 6th hour. Then cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.
Jesus said to her, Give me to drink, for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou being a Jew, ask drink of me, which Emma won't know Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritan? Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me the drink.
That would have asked of him, and he would have given the.
Living Water.
She didn't realize who she was talking to. She saw this tired Jew sitting on the edge of a well, and she was surprised that he would even speak to her.
And Jesus said if you knew who it was.
That speaks to you. You'd ask. You'd ask for what?
You would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.
Do you know who's speaking to you tonight?
No, it's not some funny guy up on a platform.
I could leave this platform and God would still be speaking to you.
God's Word speaks to you, and He speaks to you through circumstances, and He speaks to you through your conscience. Every one of us has a conscience, and we carry God's ally wherever we go.
God speaks to us through our conscience, He speaks to us through creation, but primarily He speaks to us through His Word. And if we know, if we recognize who is speaking and who He is.
We turn around and ask, what have you asked from God recently?
I guarantee you.
So he can supply better than you ask.
He's able to do exceedingly abundant above all that we ask or think.
00:30:04
How often we had the experience where we asked for something from somebody and then later on say, well, I wish I'd, I wish I thought to ask a little bit better.
Whenever you ask from God, He gives better.
Then we ask, and he's because he's able to. Now, sometimes it doesn't look like it's better, but he knows what's better, and that's part of knowing Him and trusting the person. If you knew the gift of God, who was the gift of God? That's Jesus and who it is.
That says to you, give me the drink you would have asked of him.
I want to challenge you tonight. You haven't spoken to the Lord Jesus lately.
Speak to him, ask him. Tell him what you want, what you need.
You know.
None of us are capable of really great communication.
But the Bible says open rebuke is better than secret love. Core communication is better than none. God desires to hear from you.
And he desires for you to hear him tonight, Jesus said, if you knew who it was.
That said to you, give me the drink, you would have asked. Why is it we don't ask?
Because we're not paying attention to who he is and what he can do.
Now.
I'd like to look at.
Of some verses in Revelation chapter 3.
Revelation chapter 3 and verse 14.
This is a letter to a church.
Letter Revelations, chapter 3, verse 14. And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans rite.
These things saith thee, Amen. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou art cold or hot. So then, because they are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew the out of my mouth, because thou sayest I am rich, and increase with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched.
And miserable and poor, and blind and naked, I countily to buy of me gold.
Tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white, raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, And anoint thine eyes with thy Sabbath. Thou mayest see as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will Sup with him, and he with me.
The beginning our reading I quoted that verse draw nigh to God, draw near to God and he will draw near to you and some people think well that's.
That means go to church.
It's not what it means.
We're talking about a person to person relationship and it's not necessarily found or improved by attending a church.
The reason I read this epistle here is because this section of scripture here is because it's a description of a church where the Lord Jesus portrays himself as outside the church.
That's the picture we get here.
He's standing outside.
He says.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. He's on the outside.
But there's just a door between. He's that close. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
00:35:03
What is knocking for? Well, knocking does several things. It gets our attention.
It directs our attention as well. Someone hears a knock, you run toward where the knocking is coming from is usually right on. The knocking is usually on the door. So it not only gets our attention, it directs our attention to what the obstacle is. Is there something in your life that's standing between you and the Lord Jesus Christ and through your conscience? God has been knocking at the door. The Lord Jesus has been knocking at the door.
And you say I I don't know how to get out, get get rid of it.
You know, I I got good news for you. Most doors are on hinges. It's just a matter of opening the door.
If any man open the door, I will come in.
You say I, I, I've got this, this thing that's between me and my soul and God, I can't deal with it. Look down at verse 7. Interesting here.
Umm.
Revelation chapter 3, verse 7. The Angel of the church at Philadelphia write these things, saith, He that is holy, and he that is true, he that hath the key of David, He that opens, and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man opens. The Lord can handle doors too.
The issue really is, are you willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ? It's a matter of the heart. Are you willing to say yes to the Lord Jesus Christ? Now you say, well, I, I received him as my savior. That's fine. What this section of scripture is actually written to is people who say I've who profess to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior but are not currently enjoying fellowship with him.
Because something has come between.
Did that describe you?
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. But remember, God is taking the initiative. He wants you.
What is your response?
If the Lord Jesus should say to you tonight, I stand at the door and knock.
It says here if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in.
What's your response? Are you willing to open the door to the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? Are you willing to deal with whatever stands between your soul and Him?
Now we skipped over as an interesting passage in John chapter 14, and look at that for just a minute.
John 14.
And uh, we'll start. This is familiar territory here. Very often read. We'll read the 1St.
Six or 7-8 verses of this chapter. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. 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 whither I go, you know and the way you know Thomas Beth and him. Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith in him. I am the way, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father.
But by me?
If you had known me, you should have known my father also, and from henceforth you know him and have seen him.
Philip says in him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you?
And yet hast thou not known me? Philip had been with the Lord Jesus for the better part of three years, constantly listening to him teach and preach, seeing him heal and raise the dead, and he didn't realize who he's dealing with. How well do you know the Lord Jesus?
Could the Lord Jesus say those words to you?
How long time have I been with you and you haven't known me? Been with Him, been in His presence, been in His company? How well do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? And yet he's right there.
00:40:01
You know the the umm.
5th verse says here Thomas says to him, Lord we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? And Jesus said I am the way, I'm right here, I'm the way.
It's just like this woman at the well, she didn't realize with whom she was dealing.
You're not dealing.
With the gospel preacher tonight, you're not dealing with the brethren tonight.
We're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, a person, the Son of God.
Who is near tonight?
Who has been near to you?
And how are you responding to him?
Let's look back now. We're gonna close shortly. Psalm 145, and I wanna read those verses again. Psalm 145, just a few verses.
18 Psalm 145, verse 18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him. In truth, the Lord is near you if Scripture says it. If it weren't true, it would not be here.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him.
To all that call upon him. In truth, that's a comfort. It means that the Lord is attentive. He's interested. He's involved in your life.
We have a similar thought in Philippians chapter 4.
Let's look at it for a moment, just to refresh our memories.
Verse five let your moderation or yielding this be known to all men. The Lord is at hand when Paul spoke to the to the.
In in Acts chapter 17 when he spoke to the man of Mars Hill, he brought out the same truth that God is near.
And yet you find this, you find this interesting, you find the heathen situation described in Ephesians chapter 2 That says they are far off without hope, and yet Paul comes and says God is near because Paul had come to them with the gospel.
God is near to you tonight.
Nearer than we can appreciate.
How do you respond to the one who says, Behold, I stand, I'm here, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will Sup with him and he with me. It's his idea, it's his desire, it's your opportunity.
What will you do with the nearby?
Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's close by singing hymn number.
Umm, 38.
I know not why God Wanderers grace.
Here I'm getting alone.
No, why? I murder Jesus as well. I am really straightforward by God's. I have a feeling that you have A and I am down to earth's way that you deny it. Let us hear you and let you hear the balloon.
00:45:05
In the world, I don't know if I get to work in front of you, and I don't know if I'm onto farewells. My God laughing.
A little over 50 years ago I was at a conference in Oak Park, IL.
And I heard that brother preach. I have a feeling it may have been brother Ernie Wakefield.
And I heard the gospel since I was a child, very young child. My parents were very faithful and giving me the gospel and I believed it.
I believe that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
I believed he was the savior. I believe he was everything and more than my parents said he was.
There's no question in my mind about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Except one, I said to my Father after that meeting. I know that Jesus died for sinners.
And I know I received him as my savior, but how do I know he's received me?
I wasn't sure.
That he had accepted me. I had accepted him, but I wasn't sure he'd accepted me.
I think I told this story here once before.
My father quoted a single verse to me that.
I've appreciated all my life.
Jesus said him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.
Have you come to him? It's that simple, just the way. Think of poor stumbling this poor stumbling disciples that spoke to him and got an answer, Nicodemus that came to him and got an answer.
They could come, he received them, he fed them, he met their needs, and he'll do the same for you.
Jesus said him that comes to me, I will in no wise castle, I will turn him away. Some of us have had the experience of of trying to get help from somebody at one time or another and got turned away. We got discouraged. And maybe you've been looking at people and saying I'm not sure I want to be a Christian because of the way some Christians has treated you.
That's not the issue. I haven't said anything about Christians saving anybody, but Jesus is the Savior.
Christ Jesus came. Think about it. He came in the world to save sinners. He didn't come in vain. He came fully prepared, fully equipped.
00:50:06
Fully purpose and he has safe centers and he saved you tonight. Let's pray.