Gospel—T. Sester
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Welcome to the Gospel meeting tonight. My name is Ted Tester from Gresham. I'm humbled to think that I have the privilege to give the gospel to you tonight.
It's a privilege to give the gospel.
One of the problems I had to having the gospel tonight.
I was thinking about anyone in this room sitting through three days of meetings and not being saved.
If you have heard the gospel before, you are a gospel hardened soul.
If this is the first time you've been here, welcome to the Gospel meeting.
The Lord Jesus Christ, He loves you very much, much more than I could ever love someone.
Tonight I'd like to open with singing #13 Man of Sorrows. What a name, the name for the Lord Jesus, for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Bearing shame and scoffing, rude in my place, condemned, He stood, sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Guilty, vile and helpless, we spotless Lamb of God was he.
Full atonement can it be Hallelujah, what a savior. It's another verse I'd like to read. Lifted up was he to die? It is finished. Was his cry now in heaven exalted high Hallelujah what a savior. We sing 3 verses here of #13 and found in the alone the peace, the joy I thought so long the bliss till now unknown, now none but Christ can satisfy none other name for me there's love and life and lasting joy.
Lord Jesus found in thee, you know if you're not saved, you cannot sing this song tonight. You can, you can just listen along, but you cannot say these words. Oh Christ and me, my soul have found. You know, you're empty tonight. If you don't have Christ, you have nothing. This world is thirsty, this world is hopeless. This world has nothing to offer. And you know, if you're not saved in this room, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, your Savior.
I don't need to tell you how miserable you are. You know there's something inside of you that is wanting. It's something that needs to be filled. And the Lord Jesus tonight would like to give you peace and joy. So let's sing #19 oh Christ.
Ian.
Nsnoise.
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Nsnoise.
So we can open our Bibles to Romans chapter one.
Romans chapter one.
Romans chapter one and the end of verse one says the Gospel of God verse 3 concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
That is what we have to talk about. The Word of God tonight is the authority by which I can stand here. I'm the authority on no subjects. But with this subject we're gonna speak of tonight, I can say with confidence that I have the Word of God if these are my ideas tonight.
Then it's not worth talking about. But tonight we have the authority of the Word of God.
I was thinking about that last verse that we sang in our song.
It says, Till grace the sightless eyes received thy loveliness to see.
You know, the Lord Jesus is a very lovely person.
But tonight, if you don't have him as your Savior, there's no beauty that you found in the Lord Jesus, it says in Isaiah 52. There's no beauty that we should desire him, but tonight.
Those of us that know the Lord Jesus Christ, we found beauty in that one. He's our Savior tonight. If you don't know him, it doesn't mean anything to you. And tonight.
By the Spirit of God working in your soul.
We'd like you to see that the Lord Jesus loves you. He died for you. He wants to redeem you. He wants to bring you back to God.
We're gonna turn and read in Genesis 1, just the one verse. We had it last night, but we need to see.
What it says we all know this by heart, but we need to stick to the word of God tonight it says Genesis one and verse one in the beginning God period the heaven and the earth.
Then it says a little bit later that God saw that it was good.
In the verse 10 it says that it was good and then we had a verse read today.
And it's in, I believe, Genesis chapter 5.
In verse 12.
It's Genesis chapter 6, pardon me, verse 11 and it says in the earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence.
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They say what happened in six chapters. It was good and then it was corrupt. Well, there's something called sin. And my friend, your sins will separate you from a holy God. Your sins will separate you from blessing. Your sins will keep you out of heaven. Your sins will make you miserable. You'll die in your sins. You'll be punished for your sins. Your sins have separated you from God.
The problem was.
Is Adam sin and we are Adam's children? We sin.
We were born in SH, sin and shape and iniquity.
You are born into sin.
You're born lost. Your mother was lost. Your father was lost. You were born lost.
You without the Lord Jesus Christ are lost.
I was the grace of God. I'm a Sinner saved by grace. I'm not referred to in scripture as a Sinner anymore. I'm a St. A called 1A chosen one. But you know, I had to take my place as a Sinner before God, everyone in this room.
If they're saved tonight had to take their place as a Sinner before God. The only qualification to becoming saved is to admit that you are a Sinner.
That's what you have to do is you have to admit that you are a Sinner.
You know, if you don't believe that you're a Sinner and you don't believe the word of God, there's nothing I can do for you tonight because it says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
You know, I've made the mistake of trying to debate this with people. Doesn't work.
Doesn't work.
I dangled a man over hell for about an hour and a half.
I thought he would be scared.
He got it from dinner and thanked me for the debate. He is entertained. He goes to gospel meetings to be entertained.
Is there anybody in this room?
That is not saved, but finds a gospel meeting entertaining.
It was incredible to me. Without faith, it's impossible to believe God. You have to have faith tonight, but you know the Lord Jesus wants to give you that faith.
Let's read that.
There's nothing you have to do tonight. It's not one thing.
We're going to read another verse.
That's not the answer to that question, but it says.
In Galatians 2 and 20, I just turned to that verse. It says the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, you know?
God loves you.
Jesus died for you.
He sent his son.
To pay the price that you could never deserve, that you could never pay. In Ephesians chapter 2, we have the, uh, answer to the question about.
How you can get this gift?
In Ephesians chapter 2, it says for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You know, I didn't bring anything to the Lord Jesus except for my sins tonight. That's all you have to do. You don't have to bring anything. You don't have to do anything because there's something I could do that I would boast in my goodness or my work.
He wants to give you the gift of faith to believe.
You know.
The Lord Jesus does not want to force His way upon you. I want to look at a little story in Second King. He doesn't want to force his wave on you, but he's gonna work with you so tenderly. But he wants to warn you also at the same time. We read in Second Kings of a man that was proud. It's a well known story, probably one of my favorite stories because I can relate with this man.
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You know, I was always thinking about what to talk about tonight.
I was thinking, why would somebody sit in this room for three nights, listen to speakers who are much, much more skilled than I am?
And they're not saved.
Could it be they're proud?
You know, I'm a proud person.
You know, we've had a lot about pride as an underlying discussion here in these meetings. You know, if you want blessing, Christian or non Christian alike, you've got to humble yourself, you've got to let the Lord come in and you've got to empty yourself and surrender tonight.
You need to let the Lord have His way in your life.
Maybe tonight can be the first day of your brand new life.
Maybe you can just say, you know, I'm tired. I'm tired of doing it my way. I just wanna do it his way.
And you know, we're gonna see that here with Naman Second Kings chapter 5. We'll read a few verses here. It says now name and captain of the host of the king of Syria was a great man with his master and honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a lever.
You might be a great man tonight.
You might be in your 60s.
You might be 16, it doesn't matter.
Gospel is a special the gospel mean as a special place in my heart, I was saved in the gospel mean.
You know, I think there's two kinds of people in this room.
I'm embarrassed to say this.
I don't think I was saved because the Lord Jesus loved me so much and I wanted to come. You know that verses in the Bible. Come unto me, all ye that are labor and are heavy laden and I will give you a rest. I was scared to die in my sins and I knew I was a Sinner.
Maybe you're not attracted to the Lord Jesus.
Maybe there's no beauty in him. Maybe the story of the cross is just an historical fact for you.
But there is one that you will have to do with.
There is one you will have to do with.
Some of us were just talking about a man who.
I think you call him an atheist. We get a little bit older.
Things he's thinking about things.
He's thinking about his life coming to an end. You know what I'm thinking about tonight. Behold, I come quickly. The Lord Jesus might come before this clock at 7:45.
And if he comes and you're in your sins.
You will go to hell.
It doesn't matter how great you are. It doesn't matter how.
What you think of yourself. It doesn't matter what your wife thinks of you, or your boyfriend thinks of you, or your friends at school think of you, or your people at the office think of you.
Or the people you go to meeting with think of you. It really doesn't matter. This is a discussion that you must have with your Creator.
This is something that you have to do with personally, not anything to do with a person next to you. Your father or mother can't make this choice.
You have to do with this.
Everyone here in this room.
It's a little bit like Neiman.
Just this one little word at the end of the verse just kind of ruins it for you. But he was a lever. You can tell me all about all the things you have going, but if you're a Sinner, you have nothing.
You know, I talked to men.
I talked to a wealthy man.
And they just love to talk about themselves. I don't know if you ever noticed that because all they got.
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I, I, I. Let's see if we see that.
Verse two. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid. And she waited on Neiman's wife. And she said unto her, Mistress, Would God, my Lord, were with the prophet, that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy.
And one went in and told his Lord, saying thus and thus.
So the maid that is the land of Israel and the king of Syria said, Go to go, and I will send a letter unto the king Israel. And he departed and took him with him 10 talents of silver and 6000 pieces of gold and 10 changes of raiment. That sound like enough?
I couldn't do this because I don't have this much.
Some people are trying everything.
Everything.
We're going to find out it's not enough. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent name and my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes and said, Oh my God, to kill and to make alive, that this man does send me to recover a man of his leprosy. Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
And it was so when Elijah the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had read his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of Elijah.
I must say thank you for being at this gospel meeting tonight.
You might be in your sins tonight, but you're here in this room.
Nieman with all his pride, Naaman with his sins, Naaman with his leprosy, says any king. What is he going to hear?
And Elisha.
Sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan 7 times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
Tonight, that's the gospel.
Believe and thou shalt live. Wash and thou shalt be clean.
You don't need any more than that.
Wash and be clean.
Your sins tonight can be washed away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You can wash all your sins away.
They do a perfectly, perfectly clean so you can be seen in Christ.
What that means is when God sees you, He sees his Son.
You're just not gonna see you as a Sinner anymore. Your name can be written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
You know that's what's gonna get you in heaven tonight is if your name is written in that book of life.
Is your name written down in the Lamb's Book of Life?
Let's continue on.
Verse 11 But Nieman was wroth, and he went away.
And he said, Behold, I thought.
Tonight this Gospel maybe meeting may be very disappointing to you. You thought you were coming to hear something new.
There's nothing new you're gonna hear tonight.
It's the old story of Jesus and his love.
He got angry.
Tonight, do you wanna do something?
It says all your righteousness.
Is as filthy rags. All the good things that you can do are to God worth nothing?
It says the plowing of the wicked is sin. There's nothing that you can do for God in your sins.
You need to be saved. You need your sins washed away. Naaman needed to be washed from his leprosy.
He says, Behold, I thought, I want to turn to Isaiah 55.
You know this seems to be.
The big roadblock and a lot of people's minds is this, I thought Word and Isaiah 55.
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In verse one it says ho everyone at Thurston.
Come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy, eat. Ye come by wine and milk, without money, without price.
There's three incline your ear, and come unto me here, and your soul shall live.
Verse six. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
I wanna queue in on verse six. Seek ye the Lord. While he may be found, he may not be found in 5 minutes.
Think about this room.
And you'll be the only one in this room.
I can't think about worst setting. Not one worst setting, I mean left behind.
That's scary.
My brother and I used to take turns going to my mom and dad's room to make sure they were still there.
Do you know what it's like to be in your sins without Christ? It's serious.
Call Ye upon him while he is near. Doesn't that infer that he's not going to be near?
He's not going to always be near. That door of grace is shutting. We don't know when it says, behold, I come quickly.
This is what God says, verse seven. Let the wicked forsake his way.
You have to repent of your sins tonight. There's a verse in Psalms talks about being sorry.
You have to be sorry for your sins. Are you sorry for your sins tonight?
And the unrighteous man has fought.
Verse 8.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts. You see, this is the problem. Your thoughts and my thoughts aren't his thoughts.
Tonight we're dealing with God. We are not dealing with another man like we are.
You have to leave your thoughts aside and you have to take his thoughts. He's the authority on this subject. You are not the authority.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Verse 11 is a comfort. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.
Back to our story in Second Kings.
His name is that I fought and he got angry.
He said I sure he surely would come out to meet to me and call on the name of the Lord as God and strike his hand over the place and recover the lever. Verse 12 we're not a banner and far, far rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel may not washing them and be clean. So we turned and went away in a rage. You might have the solution tonight I'm gonna ask you a question. How's it working out for you?
Do you have peace through God? Do you have peace?
Tonight, if you're in your sins, it's not working out well for you. It's not.
I had a man and he wants to argue with his book.
And you know, I just had to look at this, man, and I was like, man, it's not working out very well for you.
It was not working out well for him at all. And you know, he used to go to Sunday school. I didn't know the man talked about his, talked about how I get along with his mom and dad, said your mom and dad are the Christians. Yes, they used to take me to Sunday school.
He said. Ted, do you know what my problem is?
He said I need to get saved.
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I the blood just dropped out of my body. I I didn't know what to say.
He said. But I'm too proud to get saved.
Yeah, man, I don't think it's still safe. That was just a few weeks ago.
It's not working out well for him, you know.
Do you think this leprosy was gonna be cured until Naman came God's way?
You to come to God's house. You got to come God's way.
You know, to come to our house, you gotta cross this little.
Culvert.
There's no other way into the house.
No one's tried. You can't. There's a stream in front of the house.
Just simple illustration.
To go to God's house, you gotta come God's way.
So what does he have to do?
Verse 13 And his servants come near and spake unto him, and said to my father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing which thou not have done it, how much rather than when he said to thee, wash and be clean. You know the Spirit of God is in this room tonight, and he's working with souls and he's working with hearts, and he wants to bring you to Christ. He wants you to feel the weight of your sin tonight.
You may never have felt the weight of your sin till tonight.
He wants you to be miserable in your sins.
He wants to give you life.
He wants to give you Christ.
He wants to. It's like the Spirit of God is like these servants. They came near to Naaman.
How much rather when he said to the wash and be clean. Verse 14 is an awesome verse. Then he went down and dipped himself seven times, and Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God and his flesh came again.
Like in the flush of a little child. And he was clean.
That kind of rhymes with a verse that says and thou shalt be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. There's no maybe there.
Tonight, this is what the Word of God says.
We'll look very briefly in Luke.
Gospel of Luke.
Gospel of Luke, chapter 12.
There's another man I wanna read about. It's just a few verses.
Luke, chapter 12.
Verse 16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentiful.
Any spot within himself.
We know that's a mistake from the last.
Portion we just read.
What shall I do?
Because I have no room were to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And this I will say to my soul.
Seoul that has much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry.
Didn't really count this out so I'm doing this off memory but I think I is the middle letter and pride tonight. You gotta leave your pride alone. This man is completely full of himself if you don't have Christ.
You're probably very very self-conscious about everything you do. You're either trying to be perfect and do everything just right and earn your way, as we've had the last couple nights, and trying to make your good outweigh your bad or.
You know your center.
You're like that woman in John Four. You're not gonna fight it. You just know.
The gospel is for either one, but tonight I have a special burden with a Christ rejector who has listened to the gospel many times and their gospel hardened.
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I wanna focus.
On verse 20.
20 But God said, tonight, it's not important what I have to say, but this is what God said. But God said unto him, Thou fool, It says, The fool has said in his heart, There's no God.
This night.
This night thy soul shall be required of thee.
Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided?
Return a few chapters later.
That rich man that is in hell tonight.
He said. Can you send a message back to my brothers and tell them not to come to this place? Don't come.
What did Abraham say?
He said they have Moses and the prophets if they don't believe them.
That keyword believe.
Without faith, it's impossible to believe God.
I wanna read that just so I don't misquote it.
Chapter 16.
Verse 28 For I have 5 brethren that may testify unto them, lest they come into this place of torment. Abraham says unto them, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
And he said, Nay, father Abraham, But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
This is a solemn verse, verse 31 And he said unto them, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, that's the word of God.
Neither will they be persuaded, though 1 rose from the dead.
If that rich man came and gave you the gospel behind this pulpit tonight, you would not believe. Not unless you are willing to accept the gift of faith that He's going to give you tonight. If you just take it, He's not going to force His love upon you tonight.
You know, people want evidence. We heard that last night.
What my Bible said right there is if you had a man from hell come give this gospel, you would not believe.
We have incredible, incredible hearts. Our hearts are so wicked. It says they're desperately wicked. Who can know it? You can't trust your heart. Do not trust your heart. What you need to do tonight is trust the Word of God.
I wanna read.
A couple of verses in closing Romans 3 and verse 23.
For all have sinned and come short of the gospel.
Come short to the glory of God.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know tonight, if you're in your sins, you're a mess.
I'd like to turn back to Romans chapter one and verse 16.
You know, if all we had to do is talk about you and your sins, it'd be a very, very, very depressing subject. But there's an answer. God does not point out the problem without giving an answer. And we started the meeting tonight. It's concerning his Son Jesus Christ, and you know, he's risen from the dead, and he's my Lord.
You have to deal with a risen savior. He's not a dead savior.
He's a man, the son of man.
He's seated at his father's right hand.
The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.
It says in Philippians that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that he is Lord. You will confess that he is Lord. And verse 16, Romans one and verse 16, it says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation.
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The words that we have here are life, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says for the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. There's power in the gospel. They can change your life. Will you let it change your life tonight?
You know, our brother Ernie Wakefield used to say, and I believe it's so true, the cross, the road to hell is blocked with a cross of Christ. Tonight you've got to say no to Christ to go to hell. The provision has been made.
Gods, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. We thank him. Our God and Father, we thank thee for Savior, the Lord Jesus. We just thank thee tonight that many of us can say that we're redeemed with a precious blood of Christ. We thank Thee that we're safe. We thank thee that we have a hope.
We just pray for any soul in this room that does not know thee. We pray that before they get up off their seat tonight, go to ask the end of their heart in Jesus name, Amen.