Gospel—Steve Stewart
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I want to welcome everyone to the Gospel meeting this evening, and we'd like to start the meeting this evening with #15 on the hymn sheet.
If someone could stop.
That course, I appreciate it #15.
Awesome.
There is room.
It tells you all around.
Yet there is room.
Oh, guilty may draw near.
Oh, while they need nothing.
They know, may hear.
Yet there is room.
God's love in Christ we see.
Yeah, there is room.
Greater it could not be.
Yes.
Only sunny game.
His willing now to say.
Oh, when him they leave.
Yeah, there is room.
All things are ready come.
Yet there is room.
Christ, everything I've done.
Yet there is room.
Work is now complete.
Before the mercy.
Seat, oh savior, you will meet.
Yet there is room.
God's house is failing fast, yet there is room.
Some guests will be the last.
Yet there is room.
Yes, and Salvation's Day.
From you will pass away.
Then grace no more will say.
Yeah, there is room.
Let's pray before we start the meeting.
Our God and our Father, our hearts, look up to Thee this evening.
We thank thee for thy well beloved Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ is there at thy right hand, the Savior of sinners, and our God and our Father. We thank Thee that we can present him tonight to this audience, and we pray that if there is one here this evening that has not yet received him as Lord and Savior.
At the work of thy Spirit of God.
Would impart that needed faith and hearing air to receive the message that seed might be sown into good ground, that it might produce fruit for thy glory and the glory of Thy beloved Son. I think of that day when thou survey the travel of his soul and be satisfied. And so we pray that the gospel message this evening would add to that number.
For thine own glory, and the satisfaction of thy heart, our God and Father.
We pray Thy help and Thy blessing for the glory and honor of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we would ask it in His alone, Precious.
And worthy name. Amen.
Like to start with a portion in the book of Acts in the 17th chapter.
X-17 if you're here tonight and you don't have a Bible.
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It's OK.
Or if you have one and you're not familiar with it, don't be anxious about trying to get to the right page. Just listen. We'll read it. This book is the Bible.
It's God's Word, divinely inspired, given from God to you.
It's the truth, and it's the only truth that this world has.
There was a man here once.
Who said to himself, I am the way, the truth and the life that this world nailed him to a cross and this book now.
Is the only receptacle of truth in this world.
And we're going to read from its holy pages and see what God has to say this evening. Act 17.
And verse 24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life and breath.
And all things and it's made of one blood, all nations of men for to dwell on the on all the face of the earth.
And have determined.
The times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. For in Him we live and move, and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said. For we are also His offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the God.
Like unto gold or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
And the times of these, of this ignorance God went in, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead.
The God that these verses present to us is the God of the Bible, the God who gave us.
This Bible and it declares that He made the world and all things therein, and he gave life and breath to you and to I life and breath.
You don't think about it, but just take a breath.
Breathe in, breathe out. You feel it. Maybe you're young.
And it feels strong.
Healthy. Maybe you're old and it feels.
Fluttering. Tenuous.
The breath that God gave you.
Your life breath.
I want to turn back to Genesis to see where God first gave that breath of life.
Genesis, the first book in the Bible, and we're going to look at chapter 2.
Verse 7.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
In time, God took that man.
And he?
Caused a deep sleep to fall upon him in verse 21.
And from his side he took a rib, and he formed a woman and brought her to the man.
God put them in the Garden of Eden. He provided everything that they could need or want.
In verse 16 the Lord God commanded the man sang Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
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God gave man everything. Notice that word every that he might freely, freely. That's the liberality of the heart of God. But he had a restriction. There was one tree that he was not to eat of, and if he ate of that tree, he would forfeit.
That breath of life that God had given to him.
And the day he ate of it or in more accurately, might be.
Rendered this way, that in the day thou eatest thereof, that eateth thereof, and eating thou shalt die in dying. Excuse me, thou shalt die.
He would forfeit that life's breath.
In chapter 3 we find.
The enemy of God appears Satan in the form of a serpent.
Determined to destroy what good God had made.
And he comes in and he deceives the woman.
To take of that tree that God had restricted from them, and to eat of it. And she gave to her husband, and he ate of it as well.
What was the result?
Verse seven in the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool in the garden and the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.
And so he begins to excuse himself. He blames the serpent. He blames his wife. And man loves to point the blame everywhere but himself. You know, they made those aprons of fig leaves. And I suppose if Adam looked at Eve, she might have said, how do I look, dear? Oh, you look fine. You might say to her, how do I look? And she would say, oh, you look fine. And.
Maybe they look fine and we like to congratulate each other that we look just fine.
Well, when the voice of the Lord God was heard, they didn't look so fine anymore and they hid in the garden.
Man is self congratulatory, isn't he?
While those excuses.
That's all they were. Excuses did not defer the just judgment of God. And he had said, in dying thou shalt die.
And he has to pronounce upon that man. Verse 19. In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return to the ground. For out of it thou was taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. And then we turn over to chapter 5. And we read in verse 5.
And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he.
Died.
You have inherited that same life breath from Adam.
And that life breath that you often call your own is not.
It's forfeited through sin.
You know, in the Declaration of Independence that celebrated today, there is a claim that there are inalienable rights for man. And the first one stated is life. And I'm here to tell you today you have no right to that life that you have.
It's forfeited through sin.
And the forfeit must be paid.
And Adam paid the forfeit and he died.
And my friend.
And I speak to everyone in here, saved or lost.
Life breath that you're breathing in your seat right now is forfeit.
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And the day may come when the forfeit must be paid.
And so man spends his whole life not knowing when that day will come, when the forfeit must be paid.
Ever looking over his shoulder, ever trying to plan.
To prevent that inevitable payment.
Like to turn to a verse in Hebrews?
Chapter 9.
Hebrews 9.
Verse 27. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
You know, death is just like the sheriff.
That comes and arrests the man.
But then he brings them before the judge.
Not only must the forfeit be paid.
But after the forfeit is paid judgment.
My brother.
Repossesses course.
People get a car.
They take a loan.
And for whatever circumstances neglect inability to pay, they don't make the payments and the bank sends out a notice.
You're short.
You've missed your payments.
In Romans 3 tells us all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And the bank sends another notice. We're going to come and take your car back. You forfeited the right to it. And my brother gets a notice from the bank, Go take that car.
It's their car, but they don't have a right to it anymore. They forfeited it.
And now they're just waiting for the day when the repo man will come and take their car. They don't know when it is.
The repo man comes and he takes from the rich. He takes from the poor.
Young and old, he gets his notice. He comes. He takes it from the town accountant.
Pulls out in the street. Town accountant runs out of his house, jumps up on the car, stands there on the hood. You're not taking this. The hood dents in.
And across the street, out of the police station, comes a night officer. And he says, Bill, get out.
The repo man showed us he's got the legal paperwork. It's not your car.
Comes to the trailer out in the boonies.
There's a young single mother, 3-4 kids.
Knock on the door and need your keys.
Oh, you can't take my car.
It's my only way to get to town, get groceries.
So winner.
I'm here alone with these kids. You can't take that car.
No exceptions.
Give me the keys.
Another four footed car drives by the road. The repo man says pull over.
I'm after that car and he mocks.
It makes fun of the repo man and he takes evasive measures and he pulls into the Wendy's restaurant, gets in line, orders his lunch.
And he thinks in the line there, the repo man can't touch his car, but he waits till he pulls up to the drive up window and he backs up and the grappling hooks come out and they grab that car.
The man jumps out and he says wait wait wait, I can pay.
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Take me down the street to the bank. OK, I'll take you down the street. Drop you off at the bank. Wait here. Runs in the repo. Man drives away. Doesn't get paid unless he impounds the car. Death is cruel. Death is.
Comes whether you're rich or poor, irregardless of your circumstances, it doesn't come at a convenient time it. And so that's a little picture.
Of you, your life is forfeited through sin, and you're just waiting for the moment.
When the forfeit must be paid.
And after this the judgment.
What hope is there for you, my friend?
Could we sing the 1St 3 lines versus the number six?
God and mercy sent his Son to a world by sin untone. Jesus Christ was crucified.
Who was for sinners? Jesus died.
Oh, the glory of the grace.
Shining in the Savior's face.
Telling.
Sinners.
From above, God is life and God is love.
Sin and death no more shall reign.
Jesus.
Died and lives again.
In the glorious highest height, see Him?
God, supreme delight.
Oh, the glory of the grace shining.
In the Savior's face.
Telling.
Sailors from above.
God is.
Lord and God.
Is love.
Who in his name believe?
Everlasting life receive.
Lord of all is Jesus now.
Every knee to him must fall, O the glory.
Of the grace shining.
In the saviors face.
Telling.
Sinners.
From above.
God is.
Light and God is.
Loved first Timothy.
Chapter 2.
The end to verse three. First Timothy 2 The end of verse three. God our Savior.
Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. The same God who made all things, and gave you life and breath.
Is God the Savior and He?
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Has given his well beloved son.
A ransom for all his life.
For your forfeited life.
On Calvary's cross.
Turn back to John's Gospel.
Chapter 6.
John's Gospel, chapter 6.
The people. This was in the time the Lord Jesus was here on this earth.
The crowds that were following him in verse 30, verse 31 make this statement. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven.
Giveth life unto the world.
Verse 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.
God sent his well beloved Son.
Who his Son in the God had God is in Trinity.
There are three persons in the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. 3 persons and one God.
That's how the Bible presents him to us and the person in the Godhead that the Scripture calls the sun.
God the Father sent him into this world to become as the bread of heaven, to give his life for this world.
I want to turn to Hebrews.
And we're going to look a little bit at the detail of that wonderful story.
Hebrews.
In chapter 10.
Hebrews, chapter 10.
And verse 5 this is Speaking of the Son of God.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world?
He saith, sacrifice and offering. Thou wouldest not but a body as thou prepared me.
When we look back at Genesis, we saw that God formed that man of the dust of the ground.
And after he was formed, his body formed from the dust of the ground, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
Uniquely different from all the rest of the creation.
They are the other creatures in this world were formed all at once, also out of the ground, and Genesis speaks of them as having the breath of life. But they were formed with their life all at once, and when their bodies die, their life goes back to God that gave it.
Won't turn to the 104th Psalm, but we could read that there.
The man is uniquely different.
His body could die, but because the body was created separate from the soul, the soul lives on even after the body is dead.
And so it's appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. But now the Son of God comes into the world. And in contrast to all that had gone before, where God had given directions for the people to sacrifice animals because of their sin and and a basis on which they could approach God and worship him.
Now the sun comes, and he says, sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire.
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Because if we look back.
We find in.
Chapter 9.
Excuse me, I think I've turned back page here.
Verse 13.
For the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
All of that previous order of things that we read of in the Bible.
When the sun came in, he was the fulfillment.
Of all that they looked forward to. And so he says when he comes into the world, sacrifice and offering now what is not?
But a body has Thou prepared me, and burnt offerings, and sacrifices for sin, Thou has had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me to do thy will, O God.
If we were to read on in the Book of Genesis, after the portion we read, we would come to a point where man built a tower called the Tower of Babel with bricks. And he said, I'm going to build a tower that will reach right up to heaven.
And you know your sins and mind and all of man's kinds have piled up like that Tower of Babel, as if they could reach right into heaven itself. Man's rebellion and sin and rejection of God, as if he could reach right into heaven itself and insult the throne of God.
And it called into question the very nature of God.
How could God allow that to continue?
And how could God, if he is a God of love?
Ignore his holy nature.
And forgive that sin.
It presents, you might say, a question. If he would forgive that sin, then he compromises holiness. If he simply judged man and consigned him to a lost eternity, then what about his love? And it calls in a question as to his very character of his nature.
How is it that God is going to be a savior gone?
And the Lord Jesus came into this world, and a body was prepared for him. The Son of God came into this world, and he became a man that's called the incarnation, and he was born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin.
He was the God, man, man and God and one person completely.
Holy man, spirit, soul and body, and yet God too, but different than you and I in that.
He did not have a forfeited life because he had no sin.
He was sinless and spotless.
God demands that sin must be.
Paid for.
That his holy nature would be vindicated. But what man could ever offer his life?
For your forfeited life. Because every man and woman in this world already had a forfeited life through sin, But he came spotless, sinless, holy, and he could give his life.
A life that was never forfeited.
And so when he comes into the world, he says, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
He comes and he says whatever it takes.
Whatever it takes to render a satisfaction to the throne of God.
Whatever it takes to deal with this question of sin.
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I yield myself up wholly to it. I come to do thy will, O God. And by the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God on calvers cross.
He offered himself a ransom for all. He was the bread of heaven that came down to give his life for the world.
Whatever it took.
He gave himself wholly up to whatever had gone required.
Let's look back at the gospel.
Of Matthew.
Matthew 20.
7.
On the Cross, verse 45.
We read Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land unto the 9th hour and about the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani, that is to say My God, my God, why?
Hast thou forsaken me?
Verse 50 And Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Whatever it took.
And in three hours of darkness on that cross and Calvary.
God showed what He was in all his nature, in all his holy nature against sin.
And the judgment of God was poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ and those hours of darkness on the cross.
And yet God also showed what He was in His love and His.
Nature.
As that God who loved you and I.
And was this? And is the Savior God not willing that any should perish?
And that the one he gave was his well beloved son.
The object of his own heart's affection.
He gave a full display of his love.
And the Lord Jesus Christ on that cross, in those hours of darkness, rendered a satisfaction to God, or by God is able to come out and say to you, whosoever will may come, able to say to you, come and find forgiveness of sin, come and have life come.
John's Gospel, chapter 3.
Verse 14.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not a Son into the world to condemn the world, at the world through Him might be saved. He gave His.
Life that was never forfeited on that cross.
That you who have a forfeited life through sin might have eternal life, a life that can never be touched by death again. And not only that, a life that is able to enjoy God and fellowship and communion with Him. Because we read in John 17, we'll just turn to it.
John 17.
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Verse three. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God.
And Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent not like that forfeited life of Adam and Eve that ran and hid in the garden, and that did not want to have any association or fellowship with God. They wanted to stay out of his sight. But a life that can walk in communion and fellowship, enjoy God, enjoy his Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
A life, a relationship with him.
And the offer goes out to you, Sinner friend, receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, we read in Acts 17. God isn't really giving you a choice. God commandeth men now everywhere to repent.
He's not leaving it up to you, he says. Repent.
Repent and believe and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
We read in Hebrews chapter 13.
For those who receive the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can enjoy this.
Precious Scripture.
Verse 6.
So that we may boldly say the Lord is Excuse me?
End of verse five. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man will do to me. You might be afraid to receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior for what you think other people might think about you.
What your friends might think, what your neighbors might think. Don't worry, the Lord Jesus Christ will never leave you or forsake you. That life eternal that God has to give to you.
Because your life that you have now in that breath, you're breathing now is forfeited.
Is a life of relationship and of knowing one who will never leave you nor forsake you all your life long.
I've kind of come to the end of our time, so I'm going to just close it there.
And we're going to close in prayer. You can receive the Lord Jesus simply in your seat.
God's throne is satisfied. He's come out free in his love.
And he would draw you to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, this evening. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we pray the entrance of thy word giveth light. We pray that it might reach some lost soul here this evening and draw them to the Savior, thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we do.
Thank thee for him. We thank Thee that He is satisfied all the holy demands of Thy throne above.
Now it's been glorified in the work of thy beloved Son. Thou art free, and thy love and thy grace.
To reach.
I swear each of us were lost, dead in trespasses and sins. Make a sign on eternally. So we just commit this little time to Thee, Thy precious word, Thy blessing, and the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.