Gospel—David Mearns
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Hardly want to spoil what we've had before us.
But it is the exercise of.
The brethren here to have.
The gospel now. So let's just ask the Lord for his help.
Our God and our Father.
We thank thee, it's our privilege to have been here over these days.
And to have Thy precious word open to us. We're so thankful for the Lord Jesus.
We're so thankful for his work on Calvary that has brought so many of us into blessing and now our God, our desire is if there is perhaps someone here.
That hasn't been brought into blessing.
It hasn't realized.
The knowledge of sins forgiven, we just would pray our God and few minutes that we have as they always touch their heart. We just would ask this our God as we give thanks in his alone most worthy and precious name. Amen.
OK.
Quite a bit before us.
A vote.
Sovereignty and responsibility.
We're going to talk about.
Our responsibility.
How much is?
God's sovereignty and.
How much is our responsibility?
We have 100% responsibility.
100%.
Just this past week.
I had the privilege of being with three marks.
Mark Jennings, Mark Cell, Mark Steikle. Four of us.
Was mark cells exercise? He does this often. He goes to.
A crossroads in Saint Louis.
Very very busy intersection.
And he holds up signs.
And he goes at rush hour.
And he's calculated that during rush hour.
2000 cars.
Past this corner every hour.
So here we were with our signs. The signs are about.
Half the size of this door, four of us with science.
Well, there's a lot of responses. These people come to to lights, they stop big long lineup of cars. I'm holding a sign like this very easily to read twice as far as that wall away.
Marks exercise is you hand a track. People won't read a track, but they glance at this sign and it's stuck in their minds. It's stuck.
You can't hit the delete button.
It's there.
Well, there's all kinds of responses.
There's people that beat their horns. I was standing there and a girl rolled down her window and she had a big smile and she held her Bible out the window.
There are people that.
Send out obscenities.
There was one man rolled down the window.
And he looked at me angrily. He says that slang is offensive to me. It's offensive to me.
You know there's a turn with me to Galatians, please. The 5th chapter.
Because we read there.
In Galatians chapter 5.
When he's speaking to those that were seeking to add something to the work of Christ.
For the salvation of a soul.
He speaks in the end of verse 11. Then is the offense of the cross ceased, suggesting that there's an offense to the gospel and there is an offense. I understand that man that says this is offensive to me. There's a man that my wife and I.
We worked with for years.
Many actually have been in this room. I've actually been to his place of business.
If you were at Jim Highland's funeral, you're at this man's place of business, runs a He's a funeral director.
00:05:06
Worked with them for years. He's asked me to, when my wife and I go down to Florida, if we would please drop drop by and and touch him with him, which we did a short while ago. It wasn't exactly on the way, but we stopped at his place and we we had lunch with him. We spent the afternoon with him and then we went on our way. My discussion with him, it was offensive to him.
The concept.
That our brother Tim brought before us in his last meeting, the exclusivity of the gospel.
That's offensive to me, he says. I can't understand that. There's only one way as far as I'm concerned, he said. I have. I have.
Funeral sessions for all kinds of religions. And he says, as far as I'm concerned, they all end up in the same place. They all end up in the same place.
Well, I told them.
If you're right, I'm good.
But if you're wrong, I'm still good.
He didn't like that. I'm not suggesting that's the way we present the gospel. It seemed to be the way for him.
But we've been speaking a little bit about.
In the last couple days, the concept of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, and there is such a tendency naturally for all of us.
To be.
Like the Pharisee, we looked at the Pharisee in John 3.
There's another Pharisee in Luke 18.
And the Pharisee in Luke 18, he points the finger and he says, I thank God I am not like other men.
There could be such a tendency.
For us to have that spirit without realizing it.
That probably the worst person that any of us knows is ourselves. And why do I say that?
Because we know more about ourselves than we know about anybody else.
Well.
What did I hold up in this sign?
Turn with me.
To Philippians, chapter 2.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
On my side.
I had.
Verse 10.
And it was just part of the verse it says in Philippians chapter 2.
And verse 10, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. That was on my side. I want everybody just to pause for a moment and I want to want you to look at your knees. Look at your two knees.
You know, we often hear this.
Concept that.
We either bow the knees here or we're going to bow the knees there. I don't believe that's accurate. I believe we are all.
Going about in that coming day, I appreciated our brother Sam Orange after he had his knee replacement. We were gathered for the prayer for the gospel. He was his first time after his surgery. We were sitting there. We all kneeled down. He was. He stayed seated up and he said, brethren, the next time I kneel, it's going to be in his presence. I love that.
But for anyone here.
Who has not?
Bowed the knee now.
What a solemn thing.
Like all the rest of us, you are going to bow the knee, those knees that you just looked at.
This is not something I've dreamt up.
That every knee should bow.
Things in heaven.
Things in Earth.
Things under the earth that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.
00:10:04
The Father.
The brethren have given me 15 minutes here. I've got one left.
Turn with me to Romans.
Chapter 10.
Romans, chapter 10.
My wife and I started a trip this trip that we're on a week ago this past Thursday.
On Thursday morning I was loading the the suitcases into the car.
And a woman stopped by our house.
She helps my wife out with a few things that she can't do anymore.
Buses around the garden a little bit, does a bit of house cleaning. It was her day to come. She stopped by, She came in distraught. She said my cousin just dropped dead of a heart attack.
I had lunch with her just a few days ago. Just a few days ago I sat down in the town of Perth and had lunch with her and she just dropped dead of a heart attack.
Well, she carried on with what she was doing and.
I went to my back.
Office desk and I ripped off.
Christian calendar and I wrote on the back of it, Romans 10.
9 stuck in my pocket finished loading up the car.
We said goodbye to her.
She gave my wife a hug, She gave myself a hug and I reached for the door and I turned to her and I said.
Your cousin.
What if that was you?
Where would you be?
She looked at me. She said, oh, Dave, we've been through this before. You know, I don't know.
I don't know.
You know, this afternoon we can know we had a lovely gospel last night. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed.
We had in our previous meeting the thought of the wrath of God.
As God laid on him the iniquity of us all.
We can know.
Do you have full assurance of your salvation here this afternoon at the end of these meetings?
Do you let's read this verse. I handed her that. It wasn't even. It wasn't even. I didn't even write at the verse. I gave her the reference. I said, do you have a Bible? She said, yeah, I have three of them. I said go home and read those. I expect she probably found a Bible in our house and read them. I don't know where it lies now. We'll find out when we get home. But we have here in Romans 10, verse nine, if thou shalt confess.
With thy mouth.
The Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved. I handed that paper and I said to her, There are no strings attached, but you do have to be all in.
Pray for her name is Susan.
But if anyone here, if anyone here has come to this conference and you're lost and in your sins.
Put your faith and trust not in the feelings that our brother spoke about in the address.
But rather on the word of God, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth.
The Lord Jesus and shall believe in thy heart.
That God hath raised him from the dead, thou.
Shall be saved, Let's pray.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee that it's our privilege to have been here these last couple days. We think of that which we had before us.
Concerning the life of Elijah, we're so thankful for this, our God.
We pray that each of our spirits would be touched.
We think of that which we had before us, having confidence in thee, our God.
And we thank thee for this, but in a special way. We just would pray for anyone here that has lost it in their sins.
That they might indeed.
Confess Jesus as Lord.
And it would be to the glory of God the Father. We would ask this our God as we leave ourselves like here, and the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.