Gospel—Mike Campbell
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One, I see by the clock that it's 7:00, so it's time to begin. You have your him seat. Let's turn to #35 #35 Oh what a Savior that died for me from condemnation. He hath made me free. He that believeth on the sunset, He hath everlasting life #35.
Oh what a savior that he died for me.
Right before we look at God's Word, let's have word of prayer. Our Father, we thank Thee for that wonderful message and that it is true. He that believeth from the Son hath everlasting life. And that is what we are here to share this evening. Perhaps if there is someone here in this room that does not know that wonderful Savior who died for them, and tonight that they would come to know Him, to accept Him, and to know us, to know life eternal.
And Father, we come.
And our weakness and our inability. But we thank Thee, that's our table to save us all. The Thou art able to reach them with Thy truth and do far more above than what we could ever ask or think. And we thank Thee that Thy word has promised that it will not come back unto Thee void, but will accomplish the purpose that Thou has sent for him. So Father, we pray that in this meeting, we pray that thou give clarity and thought, clearness and simplicity in the message.
And that Christ would be honored and glorified through what is preached this evening. We just ask this and his precious and holy name, Amen. Amen. Let's turn in the book of Exodus, the book of Exodus, Chapter 9.
I want to reach you 13 verses starting at verse 13 going down to verse 26.
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Chapter 9.
And the thought that's kind of on my mind is how do we respond to God's word? How do people respond to the message of the gospel? And I think we see a wonderful picture of that in Exodus Chapter 9, starting at verse 13.
Exodus Chapter 9, starting in verse 13. And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, that my people go, that they may serve me.
Try well at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servant and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my hands, I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
And then very deep for this cause have I raised thee up for the show. Indeed My power and that My name may be be declared throughout all the earth, as yet exalted, thou lies up against my people.
That thou will not let them go. Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof, even until now. Send therefore now and gather thy cattle, and all thou hast in the field. For every man and beast which shall be found in the field and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. He that fear of the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses.
He that regardeth not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.
And the Lord son of the Moses, stretch forth thy hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man and upon beasts, and upon every herb of the field, throughout all the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven. And the Lord sent Thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground, and the Lord reigned hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled with, mingled with the hail, very grievous such as there was none.
Like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
And the hail smoked throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast. And the hail smote every herb of the field and break every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hand.
Back during the days of the Soviet Union went basically atheism was the state religion. There was a matinee idol, a star movie star and also a play actor who played in many Broadway productions. His name was Alexander Rostovich and Rastevet was playing a new role. He was going to play Jesus Christ in the blasphemy miss play called Christ in a Tuxedo. And what he was supposed to do is Ross the bed was to come out beard with the long road kind of like Solomon's head of Christ, that kind of picture that they have. And so he was to come out in that long Rd.
He was to take a Bible, open it to the Beatitudes, read a couple of verses, and then after he did that he would rip his rope off and say give me my tuxedo, my top hat, and start to sing and dance and all kinds of blasphemy with stuff.
Well, the day of the first performance, he came out looking very solemn, you know, as he was to be an actor and he was going to try to be dramatic.
And he got his Bible and he read, blessed is the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. And at that point, Roth, the web began to tremble. And it was they were wondering, people looking on backstage, why is he trembling? And not only did he begin to tremble, but he kept reading the Bible. He didn't stop. And then backstage there were, you know, like that trying to say, mom, move along, get back, get into the production.
And then people started stomping their feet saying, come on, Rasta Bev. And then that's what they're saying, Rasta Bev, come on, you gotta move along. Stop reading the Bible. But he ignored them and he kept reading. So finally the stage manager was bringing the curtain down before they could get the curtain down, Rostovibs that he remembered when he was a young boy. Lord, Remember Me when thou comest unto thy Kingdom. And that night Rossave became a believer. Now you wouldn't think that reading a few verses from the Beatitude now.
I've I've heard a lot of gospel messages down through the years. I'm sure you have too.
I've never recalled hearing anybody preach the gospel from a few verses in the Beatitudes.
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Goddess versus the preacher preached on Isaiah 1/3 the ox knoweth his owner and the ***** master's crib, but Israel does not know my people, does not consider that's what he preached on and the man, you know, just kind of laughed it off, went his own way. The next day he was working his animals, his oxen out in the field and.
At one point he was getting frustrated and he was beating his ox and beating them and at one point he saw one of his oxen looking up to him with such.
And he realized that what that preacher said was true about his own soul, and he came to know Christ from that verse.
And that shows us the power of the Scriptures. The Bible tells us that the Word of God is quick. We're living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword.
And what a wonderful thing that we have this message to preach, this book to preach, and we know it's true.
And tonight, when I consider this passage.
I can say from the standpoint of that powerful word, that fact that this Bible that we have is a powerful message is wonderful. It's amazing. It's the only true message that men have and that men will hear, though many of them scoff at it and laugh and jeer and say it's full of, you know, contradictions and all the rest, it's still the most amazing message that man will ever hear, a message of redeeming law, of the Savior who shed his precious blood, that men would go to heaven.
And as I was concerned this passage, I saw a wonderful parallel between the message that Moses has to give to Pharaoh here and the message. Look at how people respond to the message of the Word of God, how people respond to us when we preach the gospel number. We even hid out a track how people respond because we see that picture here in this passage. And I want to know this three things. First of all, the receiving of the passage, then the response of the receiving of the message, the response to the message and the results of the message that we find here.
Now look at the first part. Receiving the message. Well, message where? Where did Moses get this message? Did he have a dream one day and say well?
I got a great idea. Let's tell Pharaoh, let my people go. No. Did he decide, well, I'm gonna look up on the latest psychology book or the latest philosophies of the land of Egypt because Moses had education and learning. Did he look that up and say, well, I found this wonderful passage in this latest philosopher telling me to tell you, Pharaoh, that my people go, no, he did not. It says, let's go back to verse 13.
So and the Lord said unto Moses.
So this message that Moses received is not a man made message. It's not a message that he dreamed up or had a bad dream some night after eating too much hot and spicy food or whatever. No, it's a message that he received from God.
It's a message that came from heaven.
And that's important because that is the same message that we have to share with you this evening in the gospel.
It's not a message that we thought up and thought it would be a good idea to present to you tonight. It's not a message that in fact, it's not a message any man would come up because it runs counter to everything that men believe. If you look at all the predominant philosophies that exist in the world, they start with the spaces. Man is basically good and he somehow has to come to this idea or this understanding, and once he understands and accepts how good he is, everything will be wonderful. We'll have utopia.
Well, paradise from your and yet this message runs counter to every other human philosophy because every other human philosophy has a basis. But what does the Bible say about us as individuals? The Bible says there is none good. No, not one. The Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God includes every person in this room.
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So it's not a man made message, it's not something that.
Sounds like a good idea, and we'll just preach it. No, it's a message that runs counter to what the world wants there. People want to be tickled and told in their ears that everything's gonna be wonderful and they're gonna be have prosperity and they're gonna have this and that.
But the Bible declares the truth about you and about me.
That we are sinners, that we are laws and there is nothing we could ever do to save ourselves, and that the only way you and I could ever know salvation is through that wonderful man Jesus who died on that tree tree and shed his blood and paid the price. Jesus paid it all to him. I owe sin had left the Crimson stain. He washed it with his snow. So how wonderful that we have a God-given message to share with you that we don't have to come up here and try to figure out some way to entertain you.
That may some sometimes Christian groups, people do they come up with entertainment that we don't have to come up and try to find some way to tickle your ears. No, we can share with you what God has given to us to share with you, just as God gave to Moses. Go tell Pharaoh this.
And so we stand here this evening giving you an authoritative message, a God-given message.
You know, that's important to establish because I perhaps there's someone here that's not saved this evening and you've heard over and over again that the Bible's full miss Bible's just, you know, imaginary tales or wonderful little stories we tell children. But the Bible's not true because after all, scientists prove this and they've done this and they've done that. And we hear this over and over again. I work in the public schools in, in Maine. And I mean, some of the things you hear.
It grieves your heart that you hear teachers telling their students.
But I'm thankful that I don't have to share that Milwaukee with anyone.
For with you that I can preach to you the word of God. Now I I just want to take a quick moment and share with you why I believe the Bible is the word of God just quickly and because we could do a whole message on this alone. And I don't have time to do that. I have to keep on and watch because I cannot see that clock from here. I don't want my glasses on.
So if I go over, you'll have to forgive me, but anyway, let me just quickly give you 5 reasons why the Bible is the word of God, because it's, I think it's important to establish that in your mind that this is God's message for your soul. First reason, these are all based on the on the word Bible. The first one, the letter B stands for. I call this because of the three CS. The three CS are claims, consistency and continuous. What do I mean by that? First of all, the Bible.
Claims to be the word of God over 2000 times in the Old Testament. It says thus saith the Lord. We read one of them here. The Lord said the Moses, what thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews. Let my people go over 2000 times. Now if the Bible didn't claim to be the word of God, we couldn't say it was the word of God, but it says it's the word of God. We're told that all scripture is given by inspiration of God or God breathed into it life and power. And so we have a book that comes from God. So claims to be the word of God.
And of course, it is the Word of God. Consistency means that. Consider the amazing.
Composing of this Bible, you have 40 different men writing a lucrative about 106,000 or 1600 years spread out over time, 40 different individuals, different walks of life. You had kings, you had shepherds, you had farmers, you had fishermen. And they write a book that's consistent all throughout that same threat of redemption, that same wondrous message.
Of Gods love. Sometimes you can't get two people together and have them not you know have not have a fight. People will disagree sometimes even this we as brethren sometimes have disagreements over things, but forty different individuals over 1600 years of writing as as it says in Peter that gods that God speak through holy man who gave them his words and then continuance continuous just simply means look at the wonderful preservation of this book.
You know, it's interesting, Voltaire, before he died, he was a he was an atheist and he was a noted writer and all the rest. And people respect him. But before he died, he said he made this prophecy. He said over 100 years after my death, Christianity will be no more. There will be no more Bible. People will burn it and be gone.
You know, sometimes I think the Lord has a sense of humor in the sense that the 100th anniversary of his death, the Bible Society bought his house and we're printing Bibles.
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So, so much for his prophecy.
And then the letter I stands for the insurmountable resurrection. You see, if you study the Bible, the Bible tells us First Corinthians chapter 15 that what is the reason why we can stand here so confidently and tell you that saith the Lord, because of the resurrection. The resurrection in Acts 17, God said he is guaranteed that every man will be judged. Why? Because he raised Jesus from the dead.
We're told in First Corinthians 15 that if Jesus had not rose, you and I would be yet in our sins. Our preaching would be vain, our faith would be in vain. There would be no reason to be here. There would be nothing to share with you.
But because of that fact that Jesus is alive.
We stand there confidently this evening.
We have God's message to share and of course, this could take hours to go over all the evidence. I just wanted you to consider one thing. A lot of people try to explain away the resurrection of Jesus Christ and say this or that. You know, they say that Jesus simply swoon. He didn't die. Now when you think about that's pretty stupid because Jesus obviously was pierced through the heart. The only way that they could have saw blood and water, there's a vessel around the heart.
That when there's increased stress, fills up with water. And so when they Pierce them in the side with the spear, it says, I'll blow blood and water. And the only way that could have happened is if Jesus was pierced through the heart. And if you get pierced through the heart, you're not going to swim, you're going to be dead. It's that simple. And so they say he swoon. Some people say, well, they went through the wrong tomb. Well, that's pretty much stupid because somebody could have said, hey, go over here, you know, that would have been solving that pretty easily.
And so they all have these theories, but what is the Common Core of each one of those theories that there is an empty?
That's a Common Core. They're all trying to explain why it's empty, but they have to mend. It's empty. Even the Roman soldiers, they came to the Jews, and the Jews said, well, go ahead and tell everybody. And they said, well, we can't do that because we'll be put to death. And they said, we'll cover it over with your bosses. You'll be OK. What were they trying to do? Explain that there was an empty tomb?
There was a man named Frank Morrison who wrote a book called Who Moved the Stone.
And then he tells in the first chapter, he meant to write a different book because Frank Morrison was an intellectual, he was a great writer and he wanted to write a book that the resurrection wasn't true. But he said in the first chapter that as he studied the evidence, he had to write a different book because he said the evidence is overwhelming at the resurrection is true. So once again, support the fact that this book, this message we share is the word of God, second letter being it stands for Bible prophecy.
And that's just simply, we could go on and talk about that for a long time. Consider the prophecies about Jesus Christ, over 300 different prophecies about Jesus and about his birth and where he would be born. When the wise men came to find out where is he this morning, King of the Jews? Where do they find the answer in the Bible? They said in Bethlehem, Africa, and they had to. And that showed you how precise the Bible because it was another Bethlehem. And so it says in Bethlehem, Africa, telling them exactly where you would find him. They found it in the Bible because the Bible predicted that thousands of years.
The government, it's interesting, there is a man named Peter Stoner. He was a scientist and a mathematician. He wrote a book called Science Speaks and he wanted to apply mathematical principles to the Bible. And so he had himself and the students figure out what it would be for a man from the time that the prophecy was given to the time it was fulfilled to be able to fill just 8 prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, concerning, you know, his birth or whatever. They just chose 8 prophecies. And he said the odds of that happening was one in 10 to the 17th power.
In order to understand that if you had one and 10 to the 17 silver dollars, you could cover the whole state of Texas 2 feet for that. And that would be like taking one of those silver dollars and marking you next with and then stirring the whole state up and then sending someone out belonging and say go find that X. How would that be? And yet there are over 300 prophecies fulfilled about Jesus Christ.
That's why we confidently preach this book. That's why we have a God-given message to share. Because the Bible prophecy as well.
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And then something I call the legacy of history, just simply to start with, now rhyme with the word Bible.
And that simply means that over the years, scoffers have tried to say this and that the Bible can't be true because we don't have any other historical records about. In fact, it wasn't long ago that scholars so-called said that David was just a mythical figure, King David of the Old Testament, because they said we don't have any other historical evidence that he existed outside of the Bible. So we're not going to accept what the Bible has to say. And of course, recently in the last couple years, they found descriptions that spoke about the House of David.
From other kings and from other historical sites. And yet all the time they said David was mythical Belshazzar in the book of Daniel. They said, no, there's no Belshazzar in the Nabatonius was the emperor of of battle on that time until he found inscriptions. They just have to dig a little farther. And they found inscriptions that said that Navidonis had a surname Belshazzar. And they were cold regions for a while because Navidonius went out and fought some wars and he left Belshazzar there.
And so once again, history archaeology proves the Bible to be true over and over again.
And then the last one. And of course, to me, this is one of the most powerful. The letter E is the evidence of changed lives.
Only this book that we have, only this message of the gospel can transform people that were down and out with the dregs of society and change their life drastically. In fact, someone atheist came to Harry Ironside and said to him, let's have a debate.
And hindsight said, OK, I'll debate you on what condition the condition is this? He said you need to bring 10 people that will come up and testify that atheism changes their lives. The fact that they didn't believe in God transformed them from being in the gutter and brought them up into being a.
Good citizen, our King has transformed their life. He said. I'll bring 100 people that were at the bottom of society, that were drunkards, that were harlots, and they will testify to what Jesus Christ did for their life. And they said, well, I'm sorry, I'm busy that day. He turned it down.
This interesting man, his name is Jim Tucker. Jim Tucker at the age of 10 saw his mother beat by another man killed. So Jim Tucker had no other relatives. So he went into the other homes. Eventually juvenile hall, eventually reformed school prevention prison.
In fact, in 1956 or just probably 1956, he was on the FBI's Most Wanted list. In that time, he had over 600 counts of robbery and other criminal acts, but they eventually caught him In 1956. They sent him to 90 years in prison.
And Jim Tucker was a tough guy. He was determined he wasn't going to back down from anybody. In fact they called him the animal in prison. They say he could he could have bench pressed over £400. He was just a big strong guy.
In fact, in those days when they put you in solitary for a while, they wouldn't leave you any more than 29 days because they said if they left you longer it would drive you crazy. Jim Tucker spent three years in solitaire in one stretch.
He was that kind of a guy. He was so violent, so vicious.
That they had to keep leaving salt here because when they leave them out, he would hurt somebody and that come back in again. So they left it at one stretch, three years in solitary and never enough to anybody longer than 29 days.
Well, after many years.
Jim Tucker, the animal, was released from prison. He got paroled after many years, and as he got back out, he started getting more trouble and started to have more of a situation, and he realized that his life was not good.
He realized he was older. In fact, in 27 years of being in prison, no one ever wrote or communicated or visited 27 years in prison. No one ever cared about it. In fact, the only time he ever got to communicate in prison was when the guard came with the telegram to season that his brother died. And of course he couldn't go to the funeral, but.
So he was going to jump off a building, he said that's it, I can't, you can't handle it anymore. He said. Yes, I'm a tough guy. Yes, I can handle lane thing, but I have no one. No one cares for me.
And he went to jump off the building and he looked out over the precipice and he just couldn't jump.
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And so he went back to his room.
You didn't know what he was gonna do, and he opened a drawer and saw a Bible.
And he read the message of Christ's love for sinners.
They got saved and he set out. He said afterwards, he said no one wanted me but Jesus. No one wanted me but Jesus. That book that we preached, that's the message we have for you. It could change your life. It could take you from being a sitter on your way to a sinner's house and put you in heaven.
That sounds like a good idea.
It came from God. Now, secondly, what was the message that Moses got? Well, to simplify, to break it down into two to two things, the message was basically two parts. He said Hail's coming, or we could say coming judgment. And the second part is there is a way of escape. What was the way of escape? He said, take your animals, put them inside. You go inside, stay in there. Don't leave them out in the fields. If you leave them out in the fields, they'll die.
That was a message, the message of just judgment coming. I'm going to judge the land. And we read that God said he was doing it for a purpose to to convince them, to show them that he was the true God.
And also message of a way of escape. And of course, that's the same message that we have to share with you tonight. There is coming judgment. It's not popular to tell people that, but it's true. It's what the Bible says, Hebrews 927 says, and as is appointed to man wants to die. But what but after this judgment?
Revelation 20/11/15.
Tells us of the final destiny of men outside of Christ. Let me read it to you can turn there too if you wish. Revelation 20, starting verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And the books were open, and another book was open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in them, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever is not found written in the book of Life was cast in two. The lake of fire. That is the final destiny, folks, for you if you're outside of Jesus Christ.
That is your final destiny and justice, as sure as this Bible is the word of God.
God said that this is where the soul that rejects Jesus, whose name is not found in the book of Life, will end up. I wish that I had a tongue of an Angel or some way to describe to you the horror that awaits.
The last soul to wake up in a place like that.
The Richmond Foundation lifted up his eyes, being a Chaldean torment as the scripture says.
I wish that I could describe that to you.
Play.
I don't know if I could. I wish I could.
Did you see the wonderful thing is I can describe to you something that's wonderful, just as that is terrible, just as that is tragic, just as that is sorrowful. The beauty is that second part of the message. There was coming judgment for them. There was hail. There's coming judgment for you, dear friend outside of Christ. It's called ending up in that place called the Lake of fire. But the beautiful message tonight is there is a way of escape for you. There's a way. There was a way of escape from me.
I want to reach you. Romans chapter 5, verses 8-9. But God commanded his love toward us.
And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us much more than being now justified by His blood. We shall be saved from wrath through him. That's God's way of escape. Jesus died for you. He paid the price in Calvary for you. He shed that precious blood for you. What can wash away my saying nothing but the blood of Jesus? What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. All precious is the flow that makes me want to snow. No other fountain.
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I know nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Justified by that vote because Jesus loved you enough therefore, to die for you to take your place, to suffer what you rightfully deserve, what I rightfully deserved on that cruel tree.
But you know, man tries to find what they trying to find other ways to escape. They try they say they know better than God. In fact, Proverbs 1625 says there is a way that he was right into a man. But the answer over what our death the answer of the ways of death. But men think that they have the solution. They say well just do some good things, you know, be good to people, be kind, be loving and that that'll be all right. God will just kind of gloss over.
Everything else.
The bottomselves of God is holy. In fact, the only way that God could provide salvation for you and for me is to send his blessed Son to come to this earth and dine across that perfect one who did no sin, who knew no sin. He died for you in Calgary. That's the only way God could forgive your sin and mine. He can't just say, Oh well you're a bad boy Mike, but I'll let him anyway. No, no, no, Jesus had to die. He had to stop. His Bible says that God would be just in Romans and to justify.
Of him who believe the conscience.
People say, well, just do some good things.
Ephesians tells us. For by grace are you saved? Not, not of yourselves.
It's it's not of works with any man Chipotle, nothing you can do. There's no good work you can do. There's no trying you can do. There's no effort that you can make.
It's already been done for you. Stop trying to do something. Look to the one who did it. Look to the one who hung in the cross for you. He's already accomplished the work and completed it. While some people turn and they think the way of escape is religion. So they go to church, you know, and it's like someone said, going trying to go to church to make yourself Christians, like trying to go to McDonald's to make yourself a hamburger. It doesn't work.
And so they think that they do these little duties, if they, you know, bow on their knees or follow the observances of their church, that all will be well for them to have them.
But the Bible says what? Acts 412 Neither is there salvation in any other. They're not salvation in your religion. There's not salvation in some other thing that you're trying to do. There's neither is there salvation out there. But there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
It's not salvation and going to church is not salvation and getting baptized. There's not salvation in doing religious duties. It's not salvation anything but the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son.
Of course, some people go the opposite direction. They say, well, I'm just going to ignore the thing altogether. I'm going to save my mind. There is no God. And of course, we're told the fool is said in his heart, there is no God. And they're just going to deny and say, well, I'm just going to disregard it because, you know, the atheists in Great Britain put up signs and the buses few years ago saying there's probably no God, so don't worry. No, they said there's probably no God. Of course, what happens if there is a God and there is, they're in trouble.
But there's probably no God, so don't worry. That's what they're doing. They're trying to bury their head on the sand. Say we're not going to worry about it because the Bible says you have this life to prepare. This is your time. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. This is the time for you to consider your very soul.
And it was him that says, where were you spending eternity? This question comes to you and me. Tell me, what shall your answer be? Where were you spending eternity?
Where are you gonna spend eternity, Fred? You have to decide in this life, this is your time. Jesus provided the way escape for you. But if you just go on your merry old way and refuse that way of escape.
It could be eternally too white for you.
So I mean by the grace of God.
Than any of us have reached heaven.
And we don't have the time to dilly down, because the time is drawing here. At any moment the Lord could come and things will be drastically different upon this planner.
You know, they say in Stroudsburg, PA, in one of the graves there, there's a man's name who died in the Civil War day of his life and his birth. And below that are the words Abraham Lincoln substitute. Abraham Lincoln chose randomly someone who died in the Battle of Gettysburg and put Abraham Lincoln substitute different. Who's your substitute? Who took your place? Who died for you? Let me tell you who did Jesus died for you. He suffered for you. He endured the agony of Calvary for you.
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That you could go to heaven so that you could have that way of escape.
As wonderful as it was, Lincoln acknowledging that man's sacrifice doesn't no good if he ended up in the center as hell.
How wonderful that you can say this evening Jesus is my sister.
You took my place in the tree and because of that I can go through.
So that's the message.
It's a God-given message and it had two parts coming judgment.
In a way of escape.
Now let's look at the response to it.
And go back to Exodus Chapter 9, verse 20.
Exodus Chapter 9, verse 20.
Says.
He that feared the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses.
And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.
This right here is a picture to me of how people respond to the word of God.
Notice there's two responses here.
Those that fear the word of the Lord went inside as they were told to do. Those that regarded not the word of the Lord just lived another day, as if there was no coming judgment, as if there was no reason to fear, as if there was nothing to worry about.
Now that word fear there means to reverence or or of course the idea of fear. In other words, these people saw God at work, they saw his power they got they saw that the Lord could do things that even the the magician so-called and Egypt couldn't do. And they realized they better be smart and put their animals inside and stay inside themselves.
Of course, fear can be an excellent motivator to to sinners in the book of Jude we read and others say, with fear pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh.
Yes, we've reached a message of love and mercy and grace, but sometimes there you need to know if you have a reason to fear that there is a holy God, and if he was willing to send his Son to die for you because that was the only way he could provide salvation, then what is he going to do with you when you reject his Son? When you say no to Jesus and say I'm going to do it my own way, I'm going to find my own way of escape, but your own way of escape ends in destruction. Jesus talked about what the two roads there was a broad road and many to be defined.
Many to be that go down.
You know they say all roads lead to heaven, but they don't. I'll tell you what, all the roads on the Broad Rd. will lead to hell. There's only one Rd. that leads to heaven, Jesus. And I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. But if you're on any of the roads that leads to hell doesn't lead to heaven. The only Rd. that leads to heaven is through God's precious Son. That's it. No other.
There was a Welsh minister one time who was preaching on the pulpit and he said friends.
I have a question to ask, so I cannot answer it. He said you cannot answer it. If I brought an Angel from heaven down to us, he said he would not be able to answer it. And his people were looking at and wondering, what is she talking about? He said the question is this, How shall I escape if I neglect so great salvation?
The answer is you can't escape.
Scott is guaranteed that judgment is coming to the center at 17, as we said, to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He guaranteed that. He's guaranteed that one day you will stand before Him in judgment. But if you stand in the one who took the judgment for you, that's a different case. You don't have to worry about judgment then, because he already bore your judgment. He bore the wrath of God in Calvary. You need to stand in him. You need to be in Christ.
But the question is, how are you going to respond to them? You know, you go out and hand out things to people and they throw them in the trash or they laugh at you and scoff at you. Or they say, well, one time passing out, the guy says, I'm too busy, I got a ball game to watch.
People can react that way, but what? How are they reacting that way? What they're reacting that way to their own structure? Saddest thing?
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Because they're too responsive. You can fear the Word, you take God's way of mistake, or you can regard not the Word. And you don't even have to do anything. Just go on your way, continue to live your life and say I don't wanna have anything to do with Christ, go on your way. And the Bible says that he that believeth on the Son, John 336 hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
So if you regard not the word.
Go your own way, says the wrath of God abiding.
There was a Chinese businessman that was fascinated with microscopes and so he bought his own because he had the money and he started to study things under the microscope and.
One day he took some rice he was going to cook for dinner and started studying it under the microscope. And he saw to his dismay that there were tiny little, little creatures, little, you know, microscopic creatures crawling on his rice, and he was going to eat for dinner.
And since that was basically his staple, his main staple, he didn't know what to do. So he decided the only way out was he destroyed the microscope. That's the way a lot of sinners are. Get rid of this book. I don't want to have to listen to what you have to say. I'll throw this out and just ignore it. Don't regard what the Bible says. But friends, you can try to burn this book, but you're not going to be successful because people tried that down to the ages, and the Bible's still here. The Bible stands like a rock undone.
And the raging storms of time, its pages burned with the truth eternal, and they glow with the light sublime. And people have tried that before. You can try to disregard the message. You can try to destroy the message, But the message is still true. The message is still God's message to your soul.
But if you'll accept Jesus, that will change your faith. If you'll trust in him, that will change your faith. If you'll stop trying to do all these religious things or believing that if you just are good enough, things will be all right, stop that. The Bible is clear. It does not save your soul, but Jesus Christ alone, Ken.
So how are you going to respond to this message this evening?
New choices.
I'm thankful as I see some cases. I know they responded the 1St way. They feared the word of God. They obeyed it. They went to the way of safety.
But I don't know everyone in this room. Maybe there's someone here that's saying, wow, that sounds good.
But I still might completely. I'm still not going to go my. I'm still going to do things my own way.
Dear friend.
You're playing with fire.
You're playing with fire if you regard not.
The word of God, how much more wonderful to say that I'm ready. How much more wonderful to be able to say that Christ is mine, that I'm saved. I heard a preacher one time tell that he read one of Billy Graham's books of his biography. And Billy Graham said that he was asked that when Dwight Eisenhower, the former president, was dying to come to see him in the hospital on his deathbed. And he came to Eisenhower and of course, he started trying to chit chatting with him. And Eisenhower said, no. He said, I, I don't need to chit chat right now. He said, the only thing that's important for me is to hear how can I be ready for heaven?
He was explaining the gospel to him. At one point Eisenhower says, OK, you can stop now. He said, I'm ready. I'm ready. Dear friend, how wonderful it is to be able to say I'm ready, that I know that Christ is mine, that I know that I feared the word of the Lord and so I came the way of safety and I don't have to worry about the wrath of God and the judgment of God.
How sad it is.
I'm going to smash the microscope. I don't want to see it anymore.
I'm going to just disregard what what the Lord says.
And so we've looked at so far the receiving the message, what kind of message it was.
It was a God-given message. It was looked at how the individuals responded. There was one of two ways. They either feared God and so they took all their animals in, they put themselves in, they stayed out from the open.
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Or those that didn't left everything out, did everything the way they wanted to. And then lastly, let's look at the results of the message. Let's go back to our passage.
Starting at first.
23.
The Lord tells Moses, verse 22, to stretch out his hand that there may be hail in the lands of Egypt. Verse 23 says in Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent Thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground, and the Lord reigned hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled, mingled with the hail very grievous such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt, since it became a nation. And the hail smote all smoked throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field.
Both man and beast and the hail smote every herb in the field and break every tree in the field. Only in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel world was there no ham. So what is the result of this message now?
This message that God gave to them.
Well, it's simple, number one, what God said happened, happened when the Lord said it. You stay inside, you'll be safe. But if you leave anything outside and you stay outside, Hell's going to come down. And it will be unlike anything that you've ever seen and that Egypt has ever seen since it became a nation. And exactly what God said could happen, happen.
Many that were outside that regarded not the Word of God paid for that regard, that disregard with their eternal soul.
And they died as that giant hail came crashing down upon them, killing them, killing anything else that was left in the field.
But also what happened is what those that fear God, what happened to them, they were safe.
Those people, even amongst the Egyptians that took all their animals in the barns and stayed in the houses themselves, they were saved. The only people that died were the people that God said would die if they stayed in the field.
And of course, that is the way with the gospel.
There's only two results, dear friend.
What God says is going to happen is going to happen. When the Lord says that you will die one day and you'll stand before him in judgment, that's going to happen. It's a certainty. George Benoit Shaw said that there is one statistic that has remained true and throughout all time that one person out of one person dies. Of course, we know as Christians there is an exemption that possibly if the Lord were to return and take His bride home, that we wouldn't die, but we would be transformed and taken up. But if the Lord doesn't come back.
That statistic one out of one dies is still true.
And that could be you.
I know of course, like Paul, if I were to die, can say for me to live as Christ, to die is gain.
I trust that you'll be able to say that this evening. I trust that you'll be able to say that I trusted that want bled for me. He died for me. He suffered me in Calvin. But I realized that I was a Law Center and couldn't save myself in any way. But I look to him. I think I trusted him as my Savior because when God says something, it's true, you can count on.
You know, people try to, umm, deny, people try to disregard, people try to mock and scar, but the ultimate reality is that God says that it will happen. Mark it down.
You know, I heard a preacher one time tell about out in the Midwest.
They were selling this new irrigation system.
And they advertise it that you don't even need to pray. Put this new irrigation system in. You don't even need to pray. You'll have all kinds of water.
So that year when springtime's game, they have all kinds of water, they were flooded and not a crop group. You can't stop a God, you can't mock God. You can't say you don't need to pray and expect that everything is going to be all right because the Bible says that God is not mocked. What sort of man sow that? Shall he also remark it down, dear friend?
What you sow, what is, what you'll read, unless you go to the one that took your sin, your judgment upon himself.
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John said and was a preacher he was traveling in a train and someone asked him. They said well you know I've heard you preach the Bible and everything but I just don't understand how can I, God of love send a man to hell and send said that I'll I will answer your question by asking you a question and and way of reply.
And he said my question is this, how can a God of righteousness take a Sinner to heaven? You see man's got it all backwards. They think, well how can God do this? But the real question is how can God take you a Sinner into heaven? Well, the only way he can do that is if you are plans by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the only way he can take you to heaven.
But people think, well, God's sending people to hell. He's not sending you there, dear friend, you're sending yourself. You're making a choice. You're deciding your eternal faith. If you reject Jesus Christ, it's possible you could walk out of this building and go off into your eternity. We don't know. Proverbs 27. One boasts not thyself tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. We don't know. None of us. Here's no.
But what we do know is God's word is true. As Roman says, let God be true and every man alive.
So the question is, how are you going to respond to this book if what happens?
Will happen if this Bible is the word of God. We try to establish that point just simply so you realize that your eternal destiny is at stake.
How are you going to respond?
What are you going to do? Are you just going to go leave this place and say ha ha ha, very funny?
You know there is AI may have told this story another time but some of you may have heard it. But I read this little.
The little book that sold back there called Coming Home has historians. It's a really powerful story. There was a young man who who worked for a Christian and.
Christian lawyer decided that he was concerned about them in the Gospel, so he paid the employees to stay and read the book by Robert Laidlaw called The Reason Why.
And this young man didn't want to do it. He had a party that he wanted to go to and he really didn't wanna do it. But he didn't wanna turn down the extra money because he was paying them for an hour to stay and read it. Or, you know, he would pay them for the whole hour whether it took them an hour to read it or not. So he stayed because he wanted the money. And at the end of Robert Laidlaw's book, the reason why there's a place that says On this date you put the date, you put I, you put your name, either accept Jesus Christ or reject Jesus Christ. And he thought it was a lark. So he brought on this day he wrote the day he wrote his name.
Under I rejected some drugs Hannah the booklet in got out early, happy because he could finally go to his party went on his way.
Well, he had to drive away to his party.
And.
You know, you could be like that young man. You could say what alarms, I'm going to go out and have some fun. I'm not going to buy into this whole, you know, salvation stuff.
But dear friend, what about your eternal soul? What about your eternal destiny?
You see the Agatha people in the in the Philippines, they refer to the word of God as Ma da God and ma de GAT means two things in their language. First of all, it's the stinging venomous poison of certain snakes.
But it's also that same poise is also used as a healing compound, and they believe the word of God can either heal you or can be like a poison if you're rejected.
And dear friends, I trust this evening that we've been able to establish to you that there is a decision you must make tonight.
And there are two choices that you have before you. You can either.
Be got, disregard the word of God, regard it not and find out.
That is true. And wake up and eternity too late.
Or you can hear the word of God and receive the wonderful message of love and grace found in Jesus Christ. I want to read you a poem, and then we'll have prayer. And then we'll close with the hymn. Poems called What then? When the great dizzy plants of our city shall turn out their last finished work? When the merchants have sold their last order and dismissed every last hired clerk? When our banks have raked in their last dollar and have paid out their last dividend? When the judge of the earth wants a hearing.
And ask for a balance. What then?
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When the choir sung its last anthem and the preacher's voiced his last prayer, and the people have heard their last sermon and the sound has died out in the air. When the Bible lies closed on the altar and the pews are all empty of man. When each one stands facing his record and the Great Book is open, what's that?
When the actors have played their last drama and the mimic has made his last simulation. When the movie is flat, this last picture and the Billboard displayed his last run. When the crowd seeking pleasure has vanished and gone out into the darkness again. When the trumpet of the Aegis has sounded and we stand before him with that.
When the bugle call sinks in the silence and the long marching column stand still. When the captain repeats his last orders and they have captured the last Ford and hill. When the flag has been hauled from the mast head, and all the wounded, the field have checked in, and the world that rejected his savior is asked for a reason. What the hell, dear friend, I beg with you.
Don't believe this for me tonight without knowing Jesus Christ.
Our Father's evening #26 #26 After we have sung this song, meeting will be over. There is life and a look at the crucified One. There is life at this moment for thee. Then looks in her. Look unto Him and be saved unto Him. He was nailed to the tree. Someone start that place #26.
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