Gospel—Stan Allan
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I'd like to welcome each one to the gospel meeting this evening, and I wonder if we could start off by singing #37 #37 the Gospel of Thy Grace. My stubborn heart has won.
For God so loved the world, and gave his only Son, that whosoever will believe, shall everlasting life receive? Shall everlasting life receive.
And we could just stand in the same 37 the God full of migraines.
Hey, my sovereign heart has gone.
More God no love the world.
In a hell of a time.
However, will be leaving come out her life staying like racing time.
Oh, James.
No, I'm dying that way behind whatever.
Will be shallow her last day my grave station.
Never fly.
Everything.
Just ask God blessing our God and Father, we come before this evening and we thank Thee for each one in this room who can truly say the gospel of Thy grace. My stubborn heart has won and all we thank Thee for that wonderful verse that we've quoted so often. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life and all our GS. We would pray tonight, if there is one soul in this room that has never come to Thee, never acknowledge that they are sinners and have never accepted Thee as their Lord and Savior, we pray that they might do it. Lord, we know that we're living right at the moment when Thou are going to give the shout, and everyone who knows they will be ushered into Thy presence, and those left behind will be left for the awful judgment of God.
And so he would just pray that, umm, there might be some that would be stirred tonight to accept the Savior. And so we ask thee for help. We know we can do nothing without thee, and we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe just sing one more hymn? How about #15?
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Oh blessed gospel sound yet there is room. It tells to all around. Yes, there is room number 15.
Oh bless the God of all time.
It's unfair.
Where's your name? I'll stay here together.
Is ruined.
All things are ready.
Yeah, there is room.
Crying instead of reading things.
Hey, hey.
I'm glad you're well made it. Yeah, very strong.
Yeah, I don't understand. Spread the lane by.
Yeah, there is room.
Stop in the astrology. Oh my God.
Yes, you're going to go.
To salvation stay from you will find the way.
That grace no more will say.
This room.
I was just wondering this evening if we could turn to Romans chapter one.
Romans chapter one.
And I would like to read umm I think the 1St umm 18 verses of Romans chapter one.
Paul A a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated onto the Gospel of God which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God.
With powers according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations. For His name, among whom are ye also called? Also the called of Jesus Christ to all. Let it be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be in A to be Saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers, making requests, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God.
To come unto you, for I long to see you, that I may import unto you some, uh, impart unto you. Some spiritual gift to the Angie may be established, that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and him, uh, you and me. Now I would not have you ignorance, brethren, but OFT times I purpose to come unto you. But was less hitherto uh, than I might have some fruit among you also, even.
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As among other Gentiles, I am a debtor both of the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise, so much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. But for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the June 1St, and also to the Gen. to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, or by faith to faith as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
Well, I know that this particular passage is really very well known to most of us here tonight and we know this is a gospel meaning and there wasn't a, umm, my desire to sort of expound these 15 verses.
But you know, I was just thinking, it says there in that third verse, it's the gospel concerning his Son Jesus, uh, Christ our Lord. And that's what we want to proclaim tonight. And you know, I was just thinking that in the New Testament we have 4 gospels, uh, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And who do they present to us? They present to us the Lord Jesus Christ.
And umm, you might wonder, why is it that, uh, we have 4, uh, written gospels about the life of the Lord Jesus? Well, I believe it would be easier for us to understand this if I gave an example, You know, back in the 1940s, the, uh, King of England was King George the 6th. And just supposing, uh, that that particular time the royal family decided they wanted a portrait.
Made of umm, King George the 6th. So they called in a painter and they said, uh, we would like to umm, have you paint a, a, a picture of umm, King George the sixth. Well, the painter would probably say, uh, well what kind of a painting would you like of King George the 6th? Would you like to see him as a family man? Or would you like to see him as a, an Admiral of the fleet or perhaps the general of an army?
Or perhaps, umm, you would like to see him as, umm, the one who opens Parliament? Uh, what is your thought? Well, supposing one of the families said, well, you know, I wouldn't worry about all those things. Just put it all together into one picture. Well, you know, the painter would say, what are you talking about? I can't present him as a family man and as an Admiral of the fleet and, uh, on general, the Army and, uh, the opening of Parliament.
It's gonna be one or the other. Well, you know, that's exactly what God has done. He has given us a four fold picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. So in the first, uh, umm, Gospel, Matthew, we have the Lord Jesus presented as the Messiah, the King of Israel. And you know, his genealogy goes back through David to Abraham because they were the fathers of the Jewish race. And so the Lord Jesus.
Is presented in that way in Matthew and then in Mark, of course, we have them presented as the service, the one who came down here to do the will of God. And then in Luke, as we had before us this afternoon, the Lord Jesus is presented to us as the son of the Son of man. And so the genealogy in that particular, uh, gospel goes all the way back to Adam, not to Abraham or to, uh, David, but all the way back to Adam. Why? Because he's the son of man.
And then, of course, in John.
We don't get any genealogy at all.
Very similar to Mark. There's no genealogy in Mark. Why? Because as servants, you're not interested in where it came from. All you want them to do there is to do the job that you've given them to do. And of course, in John, there's no genealogy. Why? Because the lower genius was here before there were any genealogies. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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Our way back at the very beginning, before there was any world, and even before that to the Lord Jesus always was. So at the very beginning of the gospel, at least of the New Testament, we have the Lord Jesus presented in this wonderful way. And then if you go to the next book, the book of the Acts, what do you find? You have there the Lord Jesus presented as the one who was risen from the dead.
The one who has ascended up to God's right hand. And then you have the Spirit of God coming down and uniting all of the believers into one body, the church. And then you have the gospel going out. And that's what we want to present to tonight, the gospel concerning God's Son. And that's very interesting if you just turn back to the very first chapter of the book of the Acts.
There's a book, there's a, there's a verse that I like to call the key, uh, to the book of the Acts.
And it's the first chapter and the eighth verse.
And notice what it says.
But he shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come unto you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And isn't that exactly what you get in the book of the Acts? First of all, the gospel is proclaimed in Jerusalem. Then it's proclaimed in Judea.
That has proclaimed in Samaria, and then it's proclaimed to the Gentile, the Gentiles, and finally to Rome itself, which was the metropolis of, of the Roman Empire at that particular time. And you know, the wonderful thing is that, umm, there in the second chapter of the book of the Acts, Peter gets up and he preaches the Gospel. He didn't have any microphone, he didn't have any tape recorders, he didn't have any television.
But he went up there and he spoke the gospel and what happened? 3000 people were saved, 3001 preacher.
You know, uh, Doctor Wollstone, who was a preacher of the gospel many years ago.
Uh, he said, you know, at the very beginning of the church's history on earth, the gospel went out, 3000 people were saved in one preaching. But he said, you know, it seems to take today, 3000 preachings to see one saved. That's what's happened. Well, I don't think he was too far off the mark when he said that, but, umm, how important it is, the gospel. And so we have here.
In, uh, Romans chapter one, we'll go back to it and umm, you'll notice it says there Paul, uh, a servant of Jesus Christ. You know, I think it could read Paul a bonds, a bond slave of Jesus Christ. You know, that's really interesting that it says that because you know, Paul at one time was an enemy of the gospel of Christ. He went around arresting Christians, putting them in prison.
And yet the time came when he recognized that he was a, that he was unsaved, that he needed to be saved. We know you were struck down there on the, on the road to Damascus and, uh, he came to realize that he was a Sinner and that he needed salvation and he came to be a bond slave of Jesus Christ and you know.
There needs to be a change in your life and mine. Umm.
And that can only come about through the Gospel message. And, umm, I was just thinking of a story that's very interesting. You know, back in the, in the early part of the 19th century, France was at war with Great Britain. And, uh, during that particular time, there was a sea battle and the British Admiral was able to defeat the umm, French commander of the French fleet.
And, uh, the French commander was brought into the presence of the British Admiral.
And, uh, the, the British, the French, uh, commander recognized that the British Admiral was a man that he had gone to school with, actually gone to school with him. And he put out his hand to shake hands. And, uh, the British Admiral said your sword first.
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Your sword first. In other words, he could not greet him as a friend until he was willing to take his sword and lay down his arms at the at the feet of the of the of the British Admiral. And so he said your sword 1St. And you know that's what you need to do. Dear senator friend, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you've got to surrender yourself. You've got to realize that you're a Sinner. You've got to acknowledge your sins before a thrice holy God.
The day is coming when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And dear friend, tonight you have the privilege of bowing the knee to Jesus as your Savior, acknowledging that He is the Savior of sinners. Or if you refuse to do it.
Then the day is coming when you're going to be forced to bow your knee and you'll meet him as your judge. What's it going to be with you tonight, dear friend? Well, it says here Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ called an apostle, separated onto the gospel of God. You know, uh, what does that word gospel mean? You know, I could ask some of the younger ones here, what does the word gospel mean?
I'm not gonna put anybody on the spot, but often we hear the answer given.
It means good news.
Umm, and that is true, but you know, it's something more than just the good news or the glad tidings. It is the gospel of God. It's the good news of God and how important that is. And tonight.
The The God would seek to present to you the Lord Jesus would seek to present to you his gospel well.
Umm.
It's known as the second verse. It says which he had promised a four by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Did you ever think that the gospel was actually promised in the Old Testament?
You know, if you were to turn back and let's just look for a moment in Isaiah chapter 55.
And just this, this is only one example, of course, but uh, the gospel of the grace of God was promised in the Old Testament.
Notice what it says there in that first verse of Isaiah 55.
Hold everyone that thirst us, come ye to the waters, he that has no money.
Tom Yee, buy and eat. Yay, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isn't that the gospel message really? Doesn't the Lord Jesus tonight want to offer you our salvation without money and without price? You know, man likes to pay for things. They, they say, well, surely I have to pay for this, uh, gospel.
No, it says here come without money and, uh, buy, come, buy and eat, come and buy wine and milk without money and without price. So back there in the Old Testament, uh, there was, uh, a little hint, you might say of the gospel message that was going to go live, although it never really went out until the New Testament times. Well, in the Old Testament, of course, instead of the gospel of God, there was the writing of God. What was the writing of God?
The writing of God was the 10 commandments. Thou shalt not take the Lord, the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. We can repeat all of those various, uh, commandments, but umm, it was the writing of God. You know what makes me think of a story that I've heard that's actually, umm, and it just didn't actually happen. But supposing, uh, I know in Canada here, we don't have the death penalty anymore.
In the United States, they still do. Let's just suppose my wife came from Ohio. I'll use that as an example, just opposing, uh, there's a man who committed murder in, uh, the state of Ohio and he's been arrested, he's been found guilty and umm, uh, he's condemned to die by hanging. And just supposing I, uh, come there to the prison and I say I'd like to speak to so and so.
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The man who was condemned to die. And under my arm I take a huge book with me, a big book, and I go down and I see the man that's in the prison.
And umm, I introduced myself and tell him who I am. And I say I just wanna tell you that I have here under my arm the laws of Ohio. And you know, if you would only keep these laws, you wouldn't be in this position. You are in prisons. You know, the man would look at me as thinking I'm half crazy. Why are you coming to me with the book, with the laws of, of umm, Ohio telling me what I should do?
When really I've already committed the I've broken the laws that are in that book and I'm condemned to die because of it. That's the way he would look. He'd say, you're crazy to come to me. I don't want anything to do with it.
And uh, so the law cannot, cannot save anyone under the law of God, we're all condemned to die and go to a lost eternity. Why? Because we're sinners. It says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I'm gonna tell you a true story now. And this happened in on in Ohio.
Some years ago.
Some years ago there was a man who committed murder and uh, he was found guilty. He was put in prison and he was condemned to hang to death by hanging or might have been an electric chair. I'm not just sure.
And you know, he was a young man and his mother was terribly distraught when she heard what her, her son had done. So you know what she did? She went to the umm, the governor of Ohio, and she pleaded with the governor and she said you're the only one that can go, go down there and grant a pardon to my son. Please do it. Give him another chance. He's had a hard life and he has ha hasn't had any breaks. Please do it. Well, the governor wouldn't give any promises.
But anyway, a few days later, the governor decided to go down to the prison.
And he went down to the prison and, uh, he told the man who he was and said he would like to see so and so. Well, before he went to see him, he decided to take off, uh, some of the, the clothes that sort of made him look like the governor. And he dressed himself up a little more like a clergyman. And he took a Bible with him. And he was led down to the cell where this man, this condemned man was. And, umm, he introduced himself and said, hello, Sir.
I'm here. I would like to give you some. I would like to speak to you. And, uh, the young man wouldn't talk to him. He went off and stood in the corner and sort of turned away from him and he said, I'm not gonna do anything. I just like to speak to you for a few moments. No, I don't wanna listen. And so he stayed in the corner.
So we stayed in the corner and umm, excuse me?
So, umm.
He said, well, look, I think it would be in your best interest to come and let me speak to you. I have something to say. And he wouldn't have it. Wouldn't have it well.
The governor decided there was nothing he could do, so he turned around sad and went away. Well, a few minutes later, I suppose, maybe 5 or 10 minutes later, the turnkey came back and said did you have a good conversation with the governor of Ohio? And, uh, the man said there was no governor of Ohio here and he said yes, he was.
He was here and he wanted to speak to you. He said, you mean that man with the Bible was the governor of Ohio? He said yes. And you know, all of a sudden he realized what he had done. He had been rejecting the very one, the only one who could have delivered him from that prison. And he broke down and he wept and he cried. And he said, I have nobody to blame but myself because I have rejected the offer that he wanted to give me.
And he was taken out later and he was put to death.
And dear friend, tonight God is offering you salvation at great cost to Himself. You know, some people say.
They say, umm, you know, the gospel is too cheap. I don't believe it. It's just too cheap. You know what makes me think of another illustration just opposing a A young girl is engaged to be married and, uh, her fiance goes out and he buys her a diamond ring.
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Costing him a great deal of money. And he brings it in and he gives it to the girl and the girl looks at it and says that's too cheap, that's no good.
You know you can't measure what something is worth by how much you got it for.
It's it's measured by how much it costs the person that gave it to you. And you know, you might not think that the gospel of God is very important that it's too cheap, but I wanna tell you, dear friend, it cost you it cost God the gift of his only son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, if you went back to.
The Old Testament and you read the story in Genesis 22 of Abraham. Do you remember that story? Do you remember how God had tested Abraham? First of all, he had promised Abraham a son. When Abraham was like 9090 years old, God said, I'm going to give you a son and that son was born a miracle. Never hear anybody today giving birth to a son at 100 years old.
And yet that's what happened to Sarah. And now God says to Abraham, I want you to take that son, that son whom you love, your only begotten son. I want you to offer him up as a sacrifice.
Now, you know, God does not endorse human sacrifice at all, but He was testing Abraham and I believe that that particular story was told. Why? To show.
What it cost God to give his only Son? You know, you might not think the gospel is very important, but it costs God.
His son. He came into this world 2000 years ago, born in a Manger. The world didn't even have room for him in the end.
And he went about doing good, raising the sick, cleansing the leper, raising the dead to life. And what they do to him, they spit in his face, they pluck their hairs from his cheeks. And they said away with a crucified We do not want this man to reign over us. That's what they did to God's Son.
And you think that God is ever going to forget what they did? In no way. And yet tonight He is offering salvation to boys and girls, to teenagers, to men and women. And I ask you tonight, have you ever accepted the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior?
I remember hearing the gospel when I was young.
And, uh, I remember going home and getting on my knees and accepting Jesus as my savior. Have you done that? Well, tonight you have the opportunity. He is waiting. Why is it that God has not? Why isn't the Lord Jesus has not come back and taken us all to be with himself? It's because he's waiting for you to be saved. But I want to say he's not gonna weigh an awful lot longer. We're living right at the end.
The Gospel door will soon be closed and it will be too late. Why not come to Jesus tonight before it is forever too late? Well, as I said back in the Old Testament, there were the 10 commandments.
That was the writing of God. What do you want, the Gospel of God or the writing of God?
Well, you know as well as I do that everyone has broken the law. Uh, you know, some people, they boast and say, well, I've never killed anybody and, umm, I try to do the very best I can. But you know, you've often heard the example. Just supposing a man was, uh, hanging over a Cliff and, umm, he was being held by A10 length chain. How many links would it take to break in order for him to go down to the bottom of that Cliff?
Only one limp, right? And you wouldn't say the link broke. What would you say? You would say the chain broke. The chain broke. And if you have just committed, if you have only broken one of the laws, then you're guilty of them all. You know, the apostle Paul, he was probably one of the most upright men, naturally speaking. He said that he had kept every law except the last one. What was the last law? Thou shalt not covenant. Covenant.
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How many here have never coveted?
You know, I understand there was, there was a man living down as living in the depression years. Nobody here remembers the Depression, not even me. But umm, there was a man living. He didn't have any money. You know, back in those days, people didn't have a lot. In fact, I remember my father telling me that he made $22.00 a week back in the Depression.
Well, $22.00 today wouldn't go very far, would it? But anyway, this man said he couldn't afford hardly anything. But he said his wife used to like to go down, uh, and downtown to the, to the stores and covet what was in the stores. And so every one of us have coveted. And yet if we've broken that one law, we're guilty of the mom. That's what James tells us. And, uh, so we're all guilty and we're all condemned.
Well, and I wanna say this too, that God is a just God. And you know, some people say, well, if God is a God of love, why would he send anybody to hell? But you know, if we go around here in Nova Scotia, they're building a prison up there in, in uh, New Glasgow, uh, for prisoners and one in Amherst. There's one here in Halifax. There's prisons all around.
Why? Because man realizes that umm crime has to be dealt with. Could you imagine if there was a judge here in Nova Scotia that UMM said, Oh well, you've committed a murder, but that's OK, you can go home, we'll forget about it. And supposing he let all the people in all the prisons free, you know, what would they do with that judge? They would, they would get rid of them. They fire them. Because man recognizes the need for justice, doesn't it?
And I want to say this, that God is just, He's righteous.
And he must punish sin. And it's often been said that every one of us are going to have to give an account of ourselves one day, saved and unsafe. Now it's true, when I stand before the Lord Jesus, all my sins are going to be dealt with through the his blood. When he died on the cross, his blood washed away all my sins and I will go free. But dear friend, tonight, if you don't know Jesus as your Savior and uh, you've never come under the shelter of his blood shed on Calvary.
Then the day is coming when you are going to be judged and you're going to be turned into hell for all eternity. What a solemn thing it is. And so the time to be saved is tonight. Well it says here in the the third verse concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. So the gospel is concerning God's Son and I just wanna say that.
If you were to go back, uh, to John one again, it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. Who was that? It was the Son of God in a past eternity. And then when the Lord Jesus came into the world, Psalm 2 tells us that God said, thou art my son this day. Have I begotten them And now in the fourth verse.
It says and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So the Lord Jesus today is proclaimed as the Son of God.
You realize who that man was that walked here 2000 years ago? It was God manifest in the flesh. He came down here into this world. He went to the cross.
And there he gave his life. Why that I might spend eternity with him? I wanna say that as I said before, your sins and my sins had to be dealt with. Why is it that I'm going to having to, uh, when the Lord Jesus comes? Is it because I'm better than you are? No. How is it I can go to heaven? It's because God punished his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ for my sins in his own body on the cross. He took the judgment that I deserved.
And now I have accepted his offer of salvation and I can go free. But oh, tonight, if you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, if you've never taken that step, then you're gonna have to pay the punishment for your sins. Well, it says here declared to be the Son of God with power according to the resurrection of the dead. And then of course it goes on and says in the ninth verse, God is my witness.
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Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son. Maybe we just turn over to the 14th verse for a moment.
I think this is an interesting verse. It says I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise.
Well, who are the Greeks? Who are the Greeks? Well, you know, they were the educated people. Uh, they were the ones who were the philosophers, the ones who spent a great deal of time searching after wisdom. And umm, Paul felt he was a debtor to them. He felt that he had to preach the gospel to them because they were the educated ones and they needed the gospel. And then he talks about the, uh, Barbarians. Well, who were the Barbarians?
Well, you know, a barbarian was, well, you remember back in Acts 28 when Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta, uh, he talked about the barbarous people, uh, showing no little kindness, No little kindness. Well, who were the barbarous people? The barbarous people were simply people who were not Romans. Back in those days, you were either a Roman citizen or you were a barbarian. And Paul here says that he was a debtor.
Both to the Greeks, the wise men or the Barbarians, I suppose you could say to the Greeks were the umm.
They were the, umm, civilized ones, the ones who sort of didn't do all the gross things that the Barbarians did. And so we sort of sums it up there when he says both to the whys and to the unwise. I want to ask tonight, is there anyone here that does not fit into either category? You know, you might pride yourself and your wisdom. Perhaps you have a PhD or a master's degree or something like that.
There might be others here that never got through grade 12. We all could be put into this one area, couldn't we, either wise or unwise. But he says here, so as much as in me is I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also. So he ended up preaching the gospel even in the capital of the Roman Empire and we know that's where he was imprisoned.
Well, we find that in the book of the Acts, Paul was the preacher of the gospel and then in the book of Romans, he became the, uh, teacher of the gospel, you might say. And it's very interesting. If you went to the second chapter, you have the two groups mentioned in the first part of the second chapter. You really have the educated class, the civilized class, the ones that think they were pretty good and they wouldn't do all the gross things that the Barbarians would do.
And of course, in the first chapter, at the end of the chapter, I forgot to mention this, but from verse 19 down to the end, you have the horrible things that the Barbarians went on with. So Paul speaks about the Barbarians, then he talks about the educated, umm, civilized people. And then finally you'll notice in that second chapter he says, umm.
Umm. In verse.
Umm 17 Behold, thou art called a Jew and rests in the lawn. Make thyself a boast of God. You know the Jews, they took great pride that they knew the God of the universe. Maybe the Romans didn't know, maybe the Gentiles didn't know it, or the Barbarians, but they knew about the real God. But you know, Paul had to speak very plainly to them because they didn't live up to what they knew. And you know what happened at the end of the third chapter?
And we know this very well. It says in the third chapter and in the 22nd verse it says there is no difference. Maybe you pride yourself on your education and uh, what you know, but there's no difference. Maybe you say, well, I know the Bible fairly well, maybe so no difference. There is no difference for all have sinned.
And come short of the glory of God, the Barbarians, the Gen. the umm, educated Greeks, the Jews, they're all guilty before God. And that's what we have here in this, uh, in this third chapter. And you know what it tells, There's a gospel tract that was written one time. It was about a, a man, I think his name was Joe Quitman. I'm not sure. Anyway, uh, there was a gospel man who was speaking to this man, Joe Whitman. And he was reading to him this third, this third chapter.
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And umm, you know, he, he started reading like for instance, verse, umm, 12 They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is no, none that doeth good. No, not one. And Joe Whitman said except Joe Whitman and then they went on their throat as an open sepulchre, except Joe Whitman, uh, with their tongues, they have used the seat except Joe Whitman and he went right down the chapter and this is the way he talks.
And.
The the man thought, well, I gotta read this chapter again. So I read the chapter again and he said the same thing except so with except Joe Witness and he said no, I gotta read it again. He read it again and all of a sudden the man began to realize that he was a Sinner and he broke down and he confessed that he needed to be saved. Have you got to that point tonight, dear friend? Have you got into God's presence or recognizing that you're a Sinner?
And that you need to be saved. It's so easy in order to point to someone else and think, well, I'm better than so. And so, you know, it makes me think of a man one time who went to a a, a boys reform school. I think it was in Kansas City, MO.
And they were talking to the young boys there about the gospel.
And umm, he uh, saw, saw this boy sitting there. He was thirteen years old. He was in the reform school. And he said, umm, well, first of all, he said to the whole group, he said.
How, how many here have never sinned at all? And there was this 13 year old boy that put off his hand said I've never seen him. I've never seen him. And he said, oh, just a minute. Now let's analyze this a little bit. You mean to say that you've never punched anybody?
You've never said an angry word to somebody. Umm, you've never stolen any little thing. Well, he said, umm, yeah, I suppose I have. Uh, yes. So would you say that you've committed once in a day? Uh, yes, I think so. Well, there's 365 days in the year, that's 365 cents. And here 13 years old, ten years you would have committed 3650 fins and then for three more years you probably say you, you've committed about 5000 cents.
And then, you know, another boy spoke up and he said, huh, that boy doesn't sin once a day. He sends 10 times a day.
And so he had to recognize that he was a Sinner.
And I think if we're honest with ourselves, we have to recognize that we're truly sinners. Well, you notice what Paul says here in this, uh, first chapter. I'm coming to the end of what I wanted to say, but it says there in the 16th verse, I am not. I was just thinking of this verse because, umm, umm, our brother Derek was pointing out in Second Timothy how Paul could say, I'm not ashamed. And here's another one. I am not ashamed.
Of the gospel of Christ, Lord, it is the power of God unto salvation. You know, often we have to say as Christians, we're ashamed, aren't we, to preach the gospel or, or to speak to someone about the gospel. I have to hang my head and say, there's been times I felt that way. But you know, why was it that Paul could say, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ where it is the power of God unto salvation? I'll tell you why. I'm going to tell you a story.
I just read this about a week ago.
There was this Christian man who was in Ethiopia and uh, he was giving out Bibles and he asked if he could go to this prison and ghetto Bibles. So he did. He was led down in the prison and uh, this man came out of the crowd and umm, the man, he came out of the crowd and he started licking the Bible that the man had in his hand, licking the Bible and he couldn't understand the, umm, the man who was giving what the Bible couldn't understand why this was the case.
And he said, look, if you want to buy them, I'll give you 1 freely. And umm, you know the man said I'm gonna tell you a story. He said you've met me before.
He said several years ago, when Ethiopia was under the Communists, I was the governor of the province of arson and he said I made a decree that all the Lutheran churches in the province of Arsene were to be shut down.
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And you came to me.
And you asked why I had shut down all those churches in the province of Arsene. And I told you that the reason I shut them down was that there was no place any longer in Ethiopia for that kind of religion. We don't want the Bibles. We don't want to hear anything about the gospel in this in this country again. And he said, you know what you did? He said you took the Bible and you started reading it to me.
And he said, you know what, you, you know what I did? He said, I grabbed the, the Bible from you. I tore pages out of it. I threw it on the ground and I spit on it. And he said, you know what you said to me? He said, the day is coming when you're gonna have to lick the spit off the Bible that you've been spitting on. And he said today I want you to know that that prophecy is coming true. I'm licking the spit off the Bible. I have come to see that I am a lost, guilty Sinner and I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.
Isn't that the power of God? The change of life?
I know that there have been lies right here in this room that have been changed through the power of God.
I'll tell you another story. I just read this one on the Internet the other day. There was this young man, I shouldn't say younger. He was 60 years old. I guess he lived in Iran and umm, his wife and his children all got saved and he was a Muslim and he was furious.
Uh, he was furious about his wife and his children being being saved. And he said if you don't convert back to Islam.
I'm gonna beat you up. And he did. He started abusing them and hitting them and swiping at them and everything, and it became very dangerous. And finally he got so frustrated, he said if you don't convert back to Islam, I'm going to kill everyone of you. And so his wife and his children all had to flee. They not only fled the house, but they fled the country. I'm not sure just where they went, but umm, he.
He was still very angry and he started reading the Koran and.
Finally he said, he said, God, I want you to show yourself to me. And he prayed this prayer. Show you show yourself to me. And uh, nothing happened. Uh, several days went by, nothing happened. Finally he said, I'm going to believe in the God that reveals himself to me.
And so one night he went to bed and he slept. And in his sleep a man came walking down the road on a donkey. And the man said to him, I'm gonna wash away your sins.
If you'll only believe, I will wash away your sins. And he woke up and he said, I don't understand what this is all about. He went home the next night and he slept and he dreamed the very same dream, but this time there was another man in the dream. And the man said, you know who that man is that's talking to you on the donkey and says you'll wash away your sins if you only believe. And he said no. He said that's Jesus Christ.
And the next night he had the very same dream, and you know, he got so.
He was so stirred by this, he went to the very gathering of Christians that his wife and his children had gone to and told them that he wanted to know about this man named Jesus Christ. And you know what the result was? He accepted the Lord Jesus and his Savior. Is that not the power of God unto salvation? And you know the wonderful thing was that he got in contact with his family again.
And today he's living with his wife and his children, and they're rejoicing and going on for the Lord.
That isn't the power of God. What is? And so Paul can say here, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the two first and also to the Greek. But you know what goes on and says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written that just shall live by faith. I don't have time, but LaGuardia says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteous ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness.
In other words, dear friends, the do the judgment is hanging over this world. Very soon the door will be closed forever. And you know, there's a verse that I was just struck by recently, and I'll close with this Second Thessalonians, Second Thessalonians, chapter one.
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2nd Thessalonians, chapter one.
And it says there in the seventh verse.
To you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. You notice there's two groups there, those that know not God. There are some people in this world who have never known God and the Lord is going to deal with them. But then it says those that obey not the gospel of God. You know sometimes the gospel goes out as if.
God is just giving you an invitation, and you may receive it or you may not receive it, but here it says that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, God is commanding every man everywhere to repent. It's not a choice. Well, it is a choice, but the point is you must obey or face the consequences.
Have you ever obeyed? Have you ever come to Jesus?
You realize that He loves you, that He gave his life for you, and he's asking you to accept him as Savior. If not, it says he's gonna come in vengeance with inflaming fire, taking vengeance on them that obey not the gospel. Well, we trust that tonight you will accept Jesus before it is forever too late. Let's just look to the Lord.
Our God and Father, we come before thee this evening, and we think of what a solemn thing it is to walk out of this room.
Not knowing the Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord, we would just plead with me, if there's someone here tonight who has never confessed thee as the Lord and Savior, that they might do so tonight. You think of that verse that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. We pray that there might be someone tonight who are confessing as Lord and Savior. We ask thee for Thy blessing on my word.
And the worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.