Gospel—Ron Klassen
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10-4 oh 10-4 oh 10-4 001 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh one oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
God, why did you?
Wildlife do not.
For a moment I would desire to.
Quote what? I'll name the person later, but he quoted in the word of God.
You might say his life and the impact that the grace of God had upon his life.
One thing he said, 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.
So the chief of sinners was saved many years ago.
And that means that everyone else is eligible to come in. But how many would tell you if you approach them with the grace of God would say, I've gone too far, I'm too bad this is common, You know it. It's painful to think of getting an answer like that.
But this dear man went on to say.
The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
He went on to say.
For me, to live is Christ, and to die is eternal gain.
At the end of his life he said something like this.
I have finished my course. I have finished the course.
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I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith.
You say what was the end of a life like this?
Was to be taken out in martyrdom.
Life closed on Earth.
By contrast, I want to speak of another life. There are those in this room.
That will remember our brother Bill Price getting ready to give out the Gospel Lord's Day evening.
And he announced to us the death of Princess Diana of Wales.
We were shocked.
But not surprised.
For instance, Diana grew up.
And she married Prince Charles.
And she turned in the royal family.
And they were blessed with two sons. I trust they were blessed with two sons. I'm not sure.
And as time went on, she became.
A person in the public eye photographed.
The most in all times.
Posed with different clothes, hats, gloves, circumstances.
Photo after photo.
It was known, probably worldwide.
And was a real idol.
And a role model.
For the populace of this world.
Time came when she divorced her husband.
Very sad time.
And the photographing kept on.
And you could tell by the photographs that things were degenerating and going down.
But still up in the public eye.
And so for those.
That looked on with spiritual understanding, knew that something was going to happen.
And to think of getting into that limousine.
In Paris, France.
And the driver going down the road 95 miles an hour.
Went under an overpass and hit the support.
And she died shortly after.
Passed into eternity.
I'm not going to try to determine her destination.
I believe that was the one who was the judge of all the earth. But I am going to say this.
Now, when she closed her eyes in death.
Her destiny was settled.
And anyone else who closes their eyes in death, their destiny is settled, even either to heaven through the realms of the blessed, or to the dark infernal regions of the damned.
Nothing can be changed afterward.
Well, we have these two lives.
And I just raised this question.
If you had to make a choice.
Of what life you wanted to live? What would your choice be?
Last night our brother gave out that hand. Decide for Christ.
Said he hadn't began a gospel meeting to his memory because.
Last night he didn't know if he was going to get through the hour.
We're looking for the Lord to come and take all the redeemed home to glory, and tonight we're in the same situation.
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And again to say, decide for Christ now.
I trust somebody got saved last night. That is such a delightful thing to think.
One being convicted by the words spoken.
And put their hand in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, to know that you have passed from death unto life, that you're not living in peril any longer.
But I wonder.
If there are those in this room.
That passed that hour and went out as you came in, still in your sins.
It was brought before us the power of Satan, and the tremendous battle is going on, light against darkness and darkness against light.
And you know in your heart that perhaps there are some sinful things.
That you wanna do.
Before you decide for Christ.
You're in grave peril tonight.
Do you realize what sin is before God?
Word of God tells us it's lawlessness.
What happens to a person in this country who goes out on a lawless course?
They're up for to be apprehended, tried.
Condemned to die.
Someone else has said that sin is a capital crime against the majesty of God. Who is God Simply your maker and your maker. One day you must meet and it's going to be either.
In grace and in glory, where it's going to be standing before the great white throne, standing on nothing, to be condemned by the words of your own mouth.
For the few moments that we have.
I wanna go back to the first life, the apostle Paul known as Saul of Tarsus, later the chosen vessel to give us the truth of the gospel, the grace of God and the gospel of the glory.
And he said to a company of Christians, he said I would rather speak 5 words with my understanding than 10,000 in an unknown tongue.
Oh, the beauty of simplicity of the word, You enjoy it, I enjoy it. These 5 words, we're going to have the gospel. They'll carry the gospel message and they're in this order.
Peace, love, grace.
Faith and hope.
Have you heard these words?
Since Saturday afternoon in the ministry.
The address Gospels, you say? Yes, we've heard them over and over and over again.
These 5 words are very distinct one from the other.
But they are very harmonious, they work together.
For the salvation of your soul.
There's something else that these words have in common.
And that is that they are personified in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What's personified? That's kind of a a big word, kind of hard to get around. What does it mean personify? Does it mean that the Lord Jesus was a very special example of these five things?
No, it doesn't mean that, although he was that, but it means that.
We looked to him.
His peace personified, his love personified, His grace personified, his faith personified, and he's our hope personified. He is the source and the resource for any bankrupt center here this evening.
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Oh, you say? What a resource?
Those are things that I need in my life. Not going to list the contrast. You know what they are.
So for a few moments, we're going to.
Look at where these words first appear in this precious book, and the last time they appear.
And see if the gospel cannot be found in those five words. Let's turn first to ex uh Genesis chapter 15.
You might wonder, well, what why this particular order?
It was amazing to realize that peace.
In the word of God comes more times than love. I speak of love without a prefix and a suffix, and then they become less and less, and hope. Is that the least?
And so we're looking at peace as something very important. We've heard about peace today, yesterday.
But here's the first time that it's recorded in verse 15.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.
Thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
You know we're talking about death.
Piece and going into death joke could say death is the king of terrors.
It tells us in Hebrews about the Old Testament Saints that because of the fear of death they were held in *******.
Someone put it this way. They didn't know where they were going when they left this world, but they knew where they were when they got there.
Into the presence of the Lord.
And so here's Abraham.
He's got a lot of years ahead of them.
But death was going to come by and by. He learned to know the God of glory. He learned to know God Almighty. That was for him.
And so peace is spoken of to Abraham and respect to death. You know, that's a test as to where you stand tonight. Are you ready to die? The Lord said I'm going to take you. What would your reaction be?
My dear father was on his death bed.
And perhaps many of you enjoy the Christian calendar that are.
Sister Mina has put out for many years.
We have a habit in our home to read that little calendar verse before we pray and eat our breakfast.
Sometimes there's a thought there that causes us to thank the Lord in our prayer.
And her were laborers terminate on December 31St. We have the sister with us here that's taking over.
And if you visit with her and encourage her, she appreciates it because it takes a lot of courage and the leading of the Spirit of God to be able to give the Word in season timely. Well anyway, when my father was on his deathbed.
This little calendar slip appeared and it says.
Oh death, where is thy sting?
Oh great, where is thy victory?
A little poem underneath says, Teach me to live, that I may dread the grave as little as my bad. Are we dreading to go to bed tonight and say that's far from our minds?
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Is the grave any different than that?
Says Teach me to die so that I may rise glorious at the resurrection day.
Well, I enjoyed this with my dear father.
And I could see that his life was heavy in a way. He was very peaceful.
And the last thing he said to me that I could understand him, he said Ron.
I've never been this low in my life.
No Fear in his eyes.
He knew he was going. Just a few hours later, he got his summons to come home.
Oh peace, the gift of God's love.
We read as to.
These words.
He is our piece. Peace appears 404 times in the precious Word of God.
I don't want to notice the last time in the Book of Revelation where peace is mentioned.
Let's consider it Revelation chapter 6.
Revelation chapter 6.
And verse 4.
And there went out another horse that was red, and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, that they should kill one another. And there was given unto him a great sword.
Peace taken from the earth that's coming.
It's been mentioned that we have seen some very strong forerunners to this time.
There are those in this world down through the avenue of time as long as I've been alive, that would say, you know, I think that we're in the seven years of the great tribulation.
Because there were just so many things going on in the world that caused concern.
This world is ripening for judgment. This world is guilty of crucifying the Lord of glory.
And God hasn't vindicated yet.
But man knows that the wrecking day is coming.
And to think of the moment that the Saints are raptured out of this world and the Spirit of God is gone. No restraining power.
Peace is gone.
I wouldn't want to live here 5 minutes after the Lord's dear people leave, no.
Pace is gone.
Let's go to love back to the book of Genesis. Kinda waves from Genesis to Revelation.
We turn to the 27th chapter of Genesis for the first time that love is mentioned.
Genesis 27, verse 3.
Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, and thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meats such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that I may.
That my soul may bless thee before I die.
You say love here in this verse.
Why it's lost its luster.
It's dropped down to carnality.
You know that marks the love of this world, doesn't it? It's lost its lover. Uh, it's luster.
It's beauty.
And it's called free love. It's worthless.
And sad to say, we have Isaac and Rebecca.
Who we admire as a couple in marriage and the principles that went with that marriage.
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And to think that things came down to this point.
Where on this particular day, the family was gonna turn upside down.
No ballast, no stability and the line and the deceitfulness and the confusion that broke out in this family.
Oh, you say, not interested in love like that.
That's false.
But you know, we read in first John.
Chapter 4 These words the IT says there that he that dwelleth in love. Let me add the word personified. He that dwelleth in love personified dwelleth in God.
Oh, now we have a real love.
An unchanging love before us.
And that's the love that is in the gospel. That's the love that reaches out to your sin sick soul would draw you into this mighty current.
And find your way on the glory in the mighty current of the love of God.
Let's notice the last time love is found in the Book of Revelation again, Chapter 3.
And verse 19.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Oh, we might say.
I'm not.
Not too fond of this kind of love.
But you know, if we've been called out of darkness into his marvelous light, we need to be preserved.
You know, if we're without chastisement, it tells us that we are ******** and not sons. But whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. What's the point? The point of discipline, whether it's with our children?
So we carry out discipline with tears and have to discipline them. Our desire is to temper their souls and sweeten their spirits.
Say, well, how can that work? Well, it does work. And when the Lord takes us in the hand and we're beyond the discipline of our parents.
It's still the same. He's working with our spirits.
What a work, the pain that he has to go to, to break me down, that I might show the Spirit of Christ and reflect it back.
Whom I love, I rebuke and chasten if you're in that role tonight.
Realize why you are, what the purpose of it is. God is not against us, He's for us every turn of our life.
Let's go back to the Book of Genesis to consider the first time we find grace.
Wonderful grace.
6th chapter of Genesis.
Genesis chapter 6 and verse 8. But Noah found grace.
In the eyes of the Lord.
You know, if we could go back to the day that Noah lived.
And we looked around the city.
We would find that it was filled with violence and corruption.
And no doubt this was very hard on Noah.
To have to see this and contend with it every day.
And so he did something.
That every one of us need to do, and that's to look up into the eyes of God.
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We expect judgment, we deserve it, but we look up into the eyes of God and he saw that there was grace there.
To think how he must have looked up with such anxious thoughts to know what God was going to do. He knew that that condition of things couldn't keep going on.
And to think of God speaking to Noah and saying Noah build an ark.
For the saving of your house.
What words of grace?
To find a way of deliverance.
And it took a lot of effort.
But you know, I'm afraid if it would have been my task to build that ark, seeing the size of it, to think of the size of being able to put 500 box cars into that ark.
To get the idea of how big it was.
And to spend 120 years building, keeping it going, getting the material.
All in view of saving yourself and your family.
Now this is wonderful. There's an arc tonight. It's available to the parents with their children to get into that art that ark is Christ and to be safe evermore.
No, it didn't perish in the judgment, but it certainly came.
It came in a way that covered the whole earth with water 20 cubits above the highest point. No survivors except those in the ark.
And God set the bow in the sky to say it wasn't going to destroy the earth with water, but it's in line for fire.
Think of the building of man that is going on here in the United States.
I think it's all given over, going to be given over to fire melt with fervent heat.
So that there won't be any souvenirs, if I can put it that way.
For the Saints in the eternal state that will dwell on the earth.
It's gone. All of man is gone.
Probably most of us know in this room were the last Grace is found. We had it before us already this afternoon.
The last verse of the Bible.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
We're looking for the Rapture was brought out.
And until it comes, grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Do you feel a need for God's grace?
Wanna tell you these 5 words? Grace's first and its last in the Bible. And that's what our lives are going to be. A testimony to the grace of God from the first day of our conversion to the last.
Wonderful grace.
Let's look at faith in the book of Deuteronomy.
Under faith.
Deuteronomy 32.
May surprise some to make the statement that faith is the word. Faith is only found twice in the Old Testament.
That doesn't mean that there wasn't faith all through the Old Testament, for there was. But the word is only mentioned twice, once in a very negative way. We have it here in verse 20 of the 32nd chapter. And he said, I will hide my face from them. I will seek what their end shall be, for they are a very froward generation, children, and whom is no faith.
Is there anyone here tonight?
That is without faith.
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You know what the opposite of faith is?
It's pride.
How many souls in this world are kept out?
Of the circle of blessing because of pride in their hearts.
There's an acrostic to pride. PRIDE. It is pursuing riches.
I decide everything.
Isn't doesn't that describe the man of the world, the person of the world?
May not get rich, but that's what you're driving for.
And that'll keep you out of heaven.
But think of faith. The acrostic is.
Forsaking. Oh, I take him. What a contrast.
Sad to say.
I believe that this characterizes.
The young in this world.
To try to awaken them to the reality of the gospel.
They're dead. They're tattooed.
Their bodies are disfigured.
Everything imaginable.
That shows that man is going back to heathen them in the United States of America.
No faith.
I wanted to tell you.
A conversion of a man.
This took place about two months ago.
Was a man that was a Jew the age of 59? Was a terminal case cancer?
And he was in a ward where they take nothing but terminal cases.
There was a woman.
Christian woman.
That are life's work is to play the heart, to sing the hymns of the faith.
She goes in this ward, I don't know how large it is, but everybody's a terminal case in there and their five year old children and.
Old folks in between.
And she walked into the room of this Jew.
And she has no doubt a very nice way about her. And she engaged in conversation with him. And finally she said, would you like for me to play the harp and sing to you?
Well, he says, what kind of songs do you sing? Says, well, I sang the songs of the faith.
He says I'm an atheist, please just get out of the room, don't bother to come back.
And his wife was there, and some of the family.
A little later the chaplain came in. He didn't know about the woman with the harp, and he walked up to the man and.
Gage in conversation with him and.
He said the Jews said to him, who are you? Oh, he says, I'm just the chaplain. He said I just circulate around here to try to comfort folks. He said we don't need you either. You get out of here and don't bother to come back. I'm an atheist. And the family all said Amen to it.
The chaplain looked at the man and he said to him.
I'm gonna pray for you.
I'm going to pray for you, he said. Don't bother. Get out.
The next morning, the regular nurse came in.
And she did whatever she needed to do.
And in the well she was attending to him. He said that could you get the chaplain for me?
Well, I I think I can. She didn't know anything about what happened the day before.
So she said I'll try to get him so.
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She contacted the chaplain and she said and the man and such and such, your own wants to see you.
And he just stiffened, he said. What room number? Such and such 0.
He said to her, How did he seem to to you?
Well, he seemed peaceful to me.
So it was a great trepidation. He went back in the room and his wife and some of the family were there and.
Walked up to the man laying there in bed and said how are you doing?
The chaplain, I wanna tell you something, he said. Last night I had a dream.
He said. I dreamt that I was in a very beautiful place and there was a stream that was flowing by.
He said. As I was standing there, I saw a man on the other side of the stream.
And the man said to me, would you like me to help you across the stream?
He said. I said to him, who are you? He said, I'm Jesus, give me your hand.
So he said. I gave him my hand and I looked up into his face and I realized.
Jesus is alive.
He wasn't a corpse that was carried away and put somewhere else where nobody could find him. He was alive.
By this time, his wife, the rest of the family were up on their feet and they said, get out of here, Chaplain, he's had a bad night. We're atheists and.
When things subsided, this dear man said to the chaplain, He still has a hold of my hand.
And they stormed out of that room. They never came back. They didn't attend the funeral and they didn't pay a cent for the cost of the funeral.
The chaplain came back in the next day to see how he was doing. He was a little weaker.
And the Jewish man said to him, Chaplain, I'd like to make a request of you.
He said. What can I do for you?
He says I want you to baptize me.
Well, the chat on just it took him so by surprise that he would make that request of him.
So he says well.
OK.
But why do you wanna be baptized? He says. Because I wanna be identified with Jesus.
I don't know what he did to baptize him, but he helped him back into bed.
The next morning he walked into his room again to see how he was doing.
It was very weak and just at the close of leaving.
And the chaplain bent down.
And he heard this dear man say, He still has a hold of my hand.
And a little while later, he was gone.
Faith.
A man in whom was no faith, and yet in a few hours to think of the faith that flooded his soul to.
Have contact with Jesus and know that He was His passport to glory, like a brand plucked from the burning.
Telling another story that happened in this same complex.
The little 5 year old girl.
Victim of cancer.
From a Hindu family.
And they're there in her room.
She's laying there and she goes into a coma.
And so they start their lighting of candles and whatever they do and view of death coming in.
They were moving on to whatever point they wanna get to and all of a sudden.
That little girl's eyes opened. She sat up in bed.
She said I see Jesus.
Fell back on her pillow and was gone.
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That shattered that family.
I asked the question.
Where did that seed come from? Or seeds that dropped into that young heart?
That could identify Jesus.
You know we say God is sovereign.
I have to add another word. God is so sovereign.
And to think of the work of the Spirit of God going out through this Dark World, ******* souls and gathering them in. All these are just recent conversions.
Let's look at the last time we have faith again in the Book of Revelation.
Faith in the Book of Revelation, how it closes. I believe in the 14th chapter.
And verse 12 it says, here is the patience of the Saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Here is faith that is personified.
Here's the era, the time that's coming, called the great Tribulation. Here, the earthly Saints going through the perils of this time. They don't know when they wake up in the morning will they be alive at the end of the day. And they don't know when they go to bed if they'll be alive by tomorrow morning, still alive by tomorrow morning.
What sustains them?
Their faith and trust in Jesus.
I wouldn't volunteer to live for that time, but to think that the Lord is sufficient for any time.
Anywhere. Any era.
All faith is a very simple thing, though little understood.
We read that it takes this flight to scenes above, beyond the sphere of sin.
Oh, how wonderful, the gospel.
Brings faith.
Now we have hope, the last one. Let's turn to the book of Ruth for the first time that we have.
The word hope.
The Book of Ruth, chapter one.
And verse 12.
Turn again, my daughters, go your way.
For I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope if I should have an husband also tonight.
And should also their sons, would he tarry for them till they be grown?
What a negative.
Side of hope It's no hope here.
Here's Naomi that's been in Moab for 10 years.
So you went there with her husband and two sons, the two sons got married and in short order her husband died and the two sons and left her with two Moabitish daughter-in-laws.
After 10 years, she heard that God had visited his people with bread.
And she wanted to return to the land.
Where the famine had ceased. And yet when she went out in the famine, she said, I went out full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.
She's walking down the road and gets to the border of Israel.
Moab and she looks at those two mobile.
Probably was acquainted with the scriptures that said that a Moabite shall gonna paraphrase it shall never come into the congregation of Jehovah for all eternity.
You can imagine how she must have felt.
Trying to persuade them to go back, one did.
But there was one named Ruth.
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She didn't say to her mother-in-law. Well, you know, just let me go with you and and I'll kind of test things out. Oh no. She drove her steak down deep.
She ended up by saying, And where thou die, thy people shall be my people, and where thou die us there will I die and be buried.
Enjoyed what? Our brother Londine, once speaking on the book of Ruth, he said, you know.
The Lord gave Ruth a straight line right into the Congregation of Israel.
Gave her a husband by the name of Boaz.
And of all things, to be in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ through that marriage.
I have her name appear in Matthew chapter one.
Hope.
You know what I think of the Apostle Paul.
Maybe reading this, I don't know, but he says these words at that time.
Ye were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise.
Having no hope and without God in the world.
I really answered to Ruth, didn't it? That answers to you and I.
We may not be Moabites by nationality, but we are by.
By character.
And to think that there's hope for us.
All the gate of heaven is open tonight.
God is calling from heaven and bidding you come.
You might enter in.
The password tonight is Christ.
A living, glorified man.
That's all it takes to pass through the Gate of Heaven.
To eternal hope and blessing.
Let's look at the last time we have hope. That was covered very nicely in the reading the first John chapter 3.
And verse 2.
Beloved now, are we the sons or children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
And every man that have this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Mentioned earlier.
About being in the valley of decision.
Thinking about wanting to do a few more sinful things before you have to stop.
Wanna tell you something? If you decide for Christ now, you will be. You'll have to receive in nature.
That loves to please God.
All the transformation of souls that.
They looked so hopeless.
They turned to Christ.
Nobody had to tell them.
You know, to drop this off and don't do this and don't go there. I didn't need that kind of instruction. Were they losers? Were they sorry? Not a one. What a testimony.
Well, this blessed hope.
Of the Lord's imminent return.
To think of the change that we're going to experience, we're going to be like Christ, morally and physically.
Here it is morally, we have a physically the third chapter of Philippians.
This is hope.
May the Spirit of God.
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Make these words precious to your heart.
And to have these words on your lips as you speak to one another.
Oh, this is the heart of Christianity. Peace, love, grace, faith, and hope. Shall we close by singing #38 We have three of these words in this hand. We might mark them as we sing them, and the other two that are not here. The tenor of it is still in this hymn. We can sing it with that in mind.
I know.
Oh our God and Father, we are so thankful for the gospel, Thy grace that it can still be proclaimed, and we pray that there would be that exercise and energy to proclaim the gospel through the week.
That is before us. Maybe we will be gone before the sun rises to meet thee there in the air and to experience the wonderful change that we will experience. And to think that we won't need faith and hope any longer. But faith, love will abide. Oh bless the Lord and our peace under score, and we will not need grace, but.
We know that grace will be the greatest feature of Thy glory and soul. Blessed Lord, we just ask Thee to work and by Thy Spirit with any that are in the valley of decision here tonight that they may realize that we're at the end and they must make a decision before it's too late. So we pray to take us to our destiny with reflection.
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And that there might be rest for us and restored for the morning, if we're still here to gather together in this room.