Gospel—Jack Ryan
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Perhaps we could start the singing together.
MMM hymn #13.
And the little hymn sheet #13.
And sometimes I think, as we often enough, at least if I maybe look at myself, we tend to, we drop into a habit now and then of singing a song or a hymn and giving practically no thought to the words. We just get caught up in the rhythm of the music and we don't really pay too much attention to what we're actually what we're saying. We're just mouthing.
Words. So I'd like to read this one and perhaps we could pay some attention to what it says.
Man of Sorrows.
What a name for the Son of God.
Who came ruined sinners to reclaim?
Hallelujah, that means praise the Lord.
Hallelujah, what a savior.
Bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place condemned, he stood.
Sealed my partner with his blood. Hallelujah.
Or, praise the Lord, what a savior.
Guilty.
Vile and helpless.
We spotless Lamb of God was he.
Full atonement? Can it be?
Hallelujah, what a savior.
Someone strike the tune for us #13.
What's your name?
In my place.
Condominiums.
Fill my heart and with His love.
How I love you.
Guilty by an hour last week.
Oh, I don't have it.
How can we pray before we proceed? I'd like to turn again that him we just sang #13.
Like to be underline some of those words, a little little lymphatic about some of them. Notice in the first verse.
A word ruined the third line ruined sinners.
Ruined. Have you ever been perhaps in this town, on the street in the some warehouse neighborhood, perhaps you come across an old building, The windows have been knocked out of it. It's been abandoned. Merida, uh, one end of it has fallen out. And you walk by that or drive by and you say, well, there's a ruin. We're out in the country roads. You see an old barn, an old farm barn.
That's been neglected and, uh, hasn't been painted maybe in 40 years. And some of the boards are missing and part of the roof is collapsed and one of the walls is gone and you wonder how it's gonna survive another snowstorm. It's just a ruin.
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Can you imagine that you, without Christ tonight, are no better, no, no better than such a barn, a ruin beyond repair? The farmer who has a barn like I've just described might call a building contractor and ask for an estimate on repairs. What would he hear? What the hell? The cost of fixing this whole thing up?
Will be far in excess of the cost of putting up a proper one a new one.
Ruined Sinners.
To reclaim Christ, came into the world to save sinners, ruined sinners.
Not centers on their high horses, not centers who pretend to be something worthwhile, not sinners who come from the higher fields of education, who have some pretensions to thought processes, but to ruin sinners.
Is there anyone here without this Savior? Can you appreciate your real state? Can you admit that you are just a ruin, good for nothing? The next verse?
In my place, condemned, he stood.
The third verse, 3 words in this one, the first line that describes sinners and every soul in this room is a Sinner. Some of us are saved sinners, some of us are unsaved sinners. Anyone here without the Lord Jesus as your own personal possession, your own Savior for you yourself, if you don't have him.
Verse three, the first line describes you.
Healthy.
Vinyl.
Dirty. Corrupt, unclean.
Guilty, dirty, corrupt, unclean, and worse, helpless. Absolutely no capacity to do anything for yourself.
Helpless.
And we turn in our books, we read it some things in the Bible, we wanna find out from some a authoritative source if the hymn writer.
Was just, uh, speculating or did this, this him writer, uh, have some substance to his references? Were his comments reasonably accurate? Am I really guilty? Am I really vile? Am I really helpless? Am I really a ruin? What does this book have to say? And if this book says so, you'd better believe it.
If God said it.
That settles it. That eliminates all disputes. This book is the one touchstone. If it's here, that's the end of it. Can we turn 1St to the 14th Psalm?
Psalm 14.
Not too long ago, a Sunday school teacher was talking to the little ones and the Sunday school class, or maybe a dozen or 15, maybe more little ones present. And the teacher says, is there anybody here who has never, never committed a sin?
Is there anybody here who's never sinned?
I won't ask for a show of hands on that.
But he did in the Sunday school class. A little less formality perhaps, and the youngsters were close by where he was standing.
And this little boy admitted, yes, I've, I've done some things that were wrong. And the next one did and the next. And they all did until near the end there was a little girl of about 10 perhaps, and she insisted that she had never, never done anything wrong.
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As she stood there with her face hanging out, looked honest, she probably thought it was a true statement that she had never done anything wrong. She was not a thinner no, if I'm not a Sinner, I don't need a savior. If I if I have done nothing wrong, I'm not guilty.
I'm not vile, unclean, I don't need a savior, but if I have sinned, then how many sins does it take to put you in hell to keep you out of heaven? How many? Just one, only one.
One nasty thought, one bad deed. Just one.
Psalm 14 tells us another description of what God in heaven has to say about you.
Verse 2.
This is written about 1000 BC, around about 3000 years ago. This is written Psalm 14, verse 2. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men. This is not my neighbor looking at me. It's not your mother looking at you. This is God, a holy, righteous God, the God that made the world.
You know the heavens. And he says.
God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. And what did He find? What did he find?
Virtually they are all gone. Aside, they are all together. Become filthy. There is none. Let's do it Good.
No, not one.
None that do it's good, no.
Not one. That's pretty emphatic. And that's just that wraps it all up. That includes us, everyone. Is there anybody so bold as to say that God is a liar?
There's one thing we read in this book that God who cannot lie, He just is not within his capacity to lie. You might say why? God is almighty, He can do whatever he likes through, but there's one thing He cannot do. He cannot lie.
And he says.
There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Now turn over a few pages to the 53rd song.
Psalm 53.
And strangely enough.
We'll find these words almost verbatim from Psalm 14, repeated again.
Psalm 53, verse 2.
God looked down from heaven.
Upon the children of men God has eyes to see.
The little comments made to the children earlier today, this morning.
It was a little reference to the text now gone. See it me right where we are right now. God sees inside your heart. He knows what's going on there.
We cannot hide it from him.
Psalm 53 verse two, God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. What did he find? Everyone of them has gone back. They're all together become guilty.
Unclean, corrupt, vile.
There is none that doeth good comma.
No comma, not one.
Now let's turn over in our Bibles.
This is the one text that has authority to Romans chapter 3.
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Oh, if God had something to say to us, that He was really in earnest, that we have an attentive ear, do we not miss the point? If God had something to tell us that He wanted to be sure there was not a single soul that would miss it, He might repeat himself. He might say it twice, and we've read it twice. What do you think about it if he says it three times? Romans chapter 3.
Verse 10.
As it is written.
Reference back to the Psalms that we just read.
There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understand that. There is none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way. They are together, become unprofitable. There is none. Now do it good comma. No comma. Not one little girl that answered the Sunday School teacher's questions.
Who said never done anything wrong? Was she correct?
No, she was wrong. Wasn't she? Very wrong. It would have been smarter for her to admit it, that she indeed had done something wrong and that therefore she is barred from heaven.
What do we mean? Bard excluded? No entry, no way in?
Looking at over to the begin beginning of our Bibles, the third chapter of Genesis.
See what happened to the first man and the first woman that lived in this world who did something wrong. They made a mistake. They did something that God had told them not to do. So they were what?
Centers and what happened to them?
The end of chapter 3, Genesis 3 because of their fault, only one, only one little breach, 1 little mistake is enough to put them in all their children and their children's children after them. So this very day in hell.
Genesis 3, Verse 23 Therefore the Lord God set him forward from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. Verse 24 So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life entrance to that garden.
Was prohibited. They were thrown out of that lovely garden of the Lord where everything was perfect. It was thrown out of that place because of sin.
Sinners.
The man and his wife, the two of them.
Barn prohibited from entrance.
Can you get into heaven?
With your mistakes still on you, with your sins, with your faults, can you get into heaven?
So we drove out the van, were barred from that garden of delights, and no capacity in man to enter that place.
Suppose a man owns.
The city lot with a nice house on it and he puts a fence around it and he, uh, puts a gate in the front, in the middle of the front. There's a gate one way in and out.
And he invites some folks over to visit and to have a little entertainment, have a dinner together.
And the evening goes on and somebody misbehaves.
And that somebody has escorted out the front door up to the front gate, and he said go.
You can't share my house. Go out.
And then the householder puts a bar in the gate and he puts a lock on it, and he locks the lock.
Go and never come back.
Barred forever.
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Guilty. Guilty.
That's what happened to Adam and Eve, and that's what we've inherited from our fathers, Adam and Eve, the genes. The medical people are getting acquainted with genes now they're understanding a little more, more about inheritance of what did you inherit from your father and mother to you young folks here.
Can I ask you that? What did you inherit from your father and your mother? Oh, I hear a little child of 10 or 12 tell me. Well, I inherited my blonde hair from my mother. Or another might say, umm, I inherited my broad soldiers from my father.
But what else did you inherit from your father or your mother?
With apologies to your father and mother if they're here, did you inherit something else in your jeans?
Sin Sian, and so we're all.
Hard with the same price. Every one of us, young and old. I'm no better than you.
Sinners guilty.
Vile. Helpless. Ruined.
Let's turn now to the 34th chapter of Exodus.
We have to admit that we're guilty. We have committed at least one crime that would bar us from heaven, and no access to that lovely place.
Exodus 34.
Verse six And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord gone.
Merciful. Oh, that's a sweet word, isn't it? Sounds like there's some hope for me in my sins, Merciful.
And gracious.
Begins to sound more promising. Many of those hope. After all I said that BA the gates of the bar and there's a lock on it. No way in.
Lord God, merciful and gracious long-suffering.
And abundance in goodness. Surely he won't put me in hell just for one little fault, one little mistake. long-suffering in goodness.
And truth, The truth of the matter has to be known. That begins to sound a little bit maybe dangerous. I don't want all the truth to come out. Perhaps that might make my guilt all the more evident.
Verse 7, This is the the Lord God keeping mercy for thousands. Well, maybe I can squeeze in with one of those mercy for thousands. Maybe I can get into that crowd. Maybe I can get through that gate somehow because God is merciful.
Keep going. Forgiving iniquity, forgiving sin. Is it possible that God can sweep my sin under the rug? Is it possible that you can forget it and just wipe it off the books like it never happened? Forgiving iniquity, How can that be? Well, and transgression and sin begins to look pretty good. Now we come.
To the real difficulty.
And that will by no means clear the guilty.
Will by no means.
Clear the guilty Is it possible that there's no remedy for sin? God, who will be by no means.
Clear or guilty? Guilty.
Vile, helpless we and God who cannot an earlier commented that he cannot lie and now we find that something else he can't do. He cannot clear the guilty.
Are you guilty? You made one mistake in your life. You have to admit it. You're guilty. And it says right here in plain English the word of the living God. He can by no means clear the guilty. I say that's not good news, is it?
We sometimes say the gospel is good news, but that doesn't sound like good news to me. I'm guilty and God cannot clear the guilty.
00:25:05
Well.
We also read in Ezekiel 18 twice in one chapter it says the soul that sinneth and say how many you have to do. One's enough. The soul that's in it, it shall die.
Die. We go into the grave, and then we go to meet the judge at the Great White Throne, and we spend eternity.
Everlasting eternity time without measure.
In hell for one mistake. That sounds cruel, doesn't it? Sounds inflexible, and it is. God said it, and that settles it. And he can. By no means he's not. He's not within his capacity to clear the guilty, no matter what.
God, who can by no means clear the guilty. No, go on to Second Samuel 14.
But so far, we come up to a pretty much of A dead end.
Pretty much of A dead end sounds hopeless.
To God, who can by no means clear, but guilty.
Second Samuel 14, verse 14.
40 months needs die. That's a fact that's been common lot of the human family from Adam's day to this. We must meet God.
Die in our sins and go into the pit, the lake of fire forever and ever. We must need God and are as water spilled on the ground to him. Writer talked about being helpless. How can what can a bucket of water do to lift itself up after it's still on the ground? Nothing.
We we are as water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again.
Neither does God respect any person. You have committed one crime, one sin. You said one nasty thing, you've done one bad thing. You've thought one thing disorderly.
One's enough. God doesn't respect you if you happen to be from a well born family.
It doesn't if you happen to be.
A son or daughter of the King or the Queen.
God does not respect any person. If your father has $1,000,000 in the bank, that won't help you.
God does not respect persons.
Rich or poor, highborn, lowborne, black or white, red and yellow, all the same.
Still in that same verse, Second Samuel 14, verse 14.
Yes, all those, those three letter, three letter words in Scripture are they're precious, they're meaningful, they're very significant.
They must need die as water spill on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Neither does God respect any person yet yes.
Does he devise means that his vanished be not expelled from him from Genesis three. We found they were. We are barred. We've been expelled. We've been tossed out of that garden of delight. There's no way for us to go to heaven. We can't reach that delightful, delightful place. I think I heard the other day of a brother who was standing up on a on a ladder with extension 28 foot long ladder. I think I think there are such things.
I work with pencils. I don't know too much about ladders. 28 feet? It sounds like you're getting pretty close to heaven. It won't work.
A 56 foot ladder wouldn't work either.
Build as many ladders as you like. There's no way to get to heaven.
We borrowed from that place, yet that the devised means that is vanished be not expelled. Now would it be of some interest to you to find out what those means are? Would it be of some interest understanding that we're barred, We can't get into heaven, there's no way to get there.
But God has made an arrangement. He's devised the scheme. He's arranged a program.
00:30:03
He has devised means that we not need not be expelled.
What are those means? In Genesis three we read that were barred from that garden.
The whole human family was tossed out of that garden, sent away and the way it was barred with an Angel with a standing there with a sword and a flaming sword.
Let's look at one verse in.
Is it umm?
Matthew maybe?
Luke Luke 23.
The 23rd chapter of Luke.
We've been barred, every one of us. We have no access to glory. We have no way of reaching that heavenly garden of delights. And God, who cannot clear the guilty, insists on.
His own purpose will.
Move 23.
We're, uh, at the cross of Calvary here. The Lord Jesus is hanging there.
And.
He was hung up on that center cross and it was a thief on one side who's also crucified the same day, the same hour, and another on his right side, one on the left and one on the right.
And these two N had a little discussion conversation.
They were within a few feet of the Lord Jesus as he was hung up.
There's, uh, 39 in one of the manufacturers.
That's the one who has, uh, done something amiss.
In the French, and Mao means something about Mao de mares means seasickness. Uh, these men have done something wrong. And so they were convicted criminals and one of them which were hanged railed on him, saying, if thou be the Christ, save thyself and us.
But the other the other thing answering rebuked him, saying, dost not thou fear God, saying thou art in the same condemnation and we indeed justly what we receive the due reward of our deeds. What is the due reward of our deeds? The sole defendant, but you're dying.
That's the new reward. There's no way to get into heaven.
Within Bard and God, who cannot lie, has said he cannot clear the guilty.
We spoke of the Lord Jesus favorably in verse 41. He said, This man has done nothing amiss. Then he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou cometh into thy Kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
We spoke a little earlier about about a householder who had a house on the city lot and a fence all the way around it and one door in and out at the front, and someone was expelled from that.
That, uh, that property and the door was closed and a bar was put up to prohibit further access and a lock was put in place. Now if, if I should come along to that householder's place, walk up the sidewalk and look at the door and say, well, I think I could break that lock and the bars aren't that strong and bring us all along. Maybe I could, I could maybe make my way in. Would I have any right to do that? No, it's not my house. It's not my property.
Do you have any rights to force your way in? No.
Who has the right to alter the terms of entrance?
Who has the right to open that gate? Well, the man that owns the place, right? And the man that owns the place said in Genesis 3.
He drove out the man and that very same person who drove out the man comes to us in Luke 23 and says today.
00:35:04
Today.
Shalt thou be with me in paradise? Jesus has the right. He has the dominion and the control over that gate to heaven. But how can he do it if it's going to be?
Umm, consistent with his commitments, The God who cannot lie? How can he take this thief in? How did he take you in? How was it that he took me in?
Or any of his presence. How did he do it without?
Compromising his integrity. He told us in Exodus 34 he will by no means clear the guilty and he can't do it. And yet it says here in Luke 23 that he's going to do it. How can that be? Well, there's one thing that happened between Genesis 3 and Luke 23. There's one event of interest. There's one thing that happened between Genesis 3 and Luke 23.
That alters the circumstances.
That changed things. What was that?
What was that one event of significance between Genesis 3 and Luke 23?
Christ came into the world to save sinners.
The Lord Jesus.
Took upon himself.
The guilt that belonged.
To you and me, those of us who have received Him as our Savior.
Can, can, uh, can stand up and boldly approach the gates of heaven with No Fear of being repulsed or driven off. Cheerfully approach.
That was just called the King of Terror. The deathbed can cheerfully approach that extremity, as we may sometimes call it, because we know and our debts are all paid. Our guilt has been carried away. It hasn't been put under the rug. No, Christ bore our sins. Hymn #257 in our little black hymn book tells us something about that.
Now, if you want, if you have any interest at all in getting into heaven. Oh, and what are the alternatives? Or is there an alternative? There's only one. There's no in in between ground. It's either heaven or.
Hell.
One or the other, and surely we have some interest in being in heaven. How do we get there? We don't get there with the just pretending like it never happened.
Face realities. We are verily guilty. God said it, and that settles it. And hymn #257 tells us what has the Lord Jesus has done for for you and for me? And if you'll have him, it's all yours. If you won't have him, you don't have any part in it at all.
Himself, that is Jesus, He He could not save himself. He on the cross must die or.
Mercy cannot come to ruin.
Sinners, knowing that Him we started with said something about ruin sinners. Christ, the Son of God, must believe that sinners might from sin be freed.
This is a great remedy, that arrangement that God has made. It was referred to in Second Samuel 1414. God has devised means by which his vanish need not be expelled. Yes, there's guilt, but he's gonna put it. He's gonna put that guilt on the shoulders, on the head of his own Son, God. The Son, God himself come down in the person of Jesus. The Son of God is gonna take our guilt and put it all on his own head.
And he's gonna suffer and take the penalty. What was that?
To solve the Senate. It shall die. So Christ died for our sins, those of us who know Him as our Savior.
How can we hear such words? How can we have such things brought to our attention without having some little jump in our hearts?
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What a marvelous thing. What are we doing to deserve such favor? How is it that he loves us? You can understand how someone might love the lovely. How someone might love something is particularly attractive, particularly lovely. Go to a wedding and you look at the bride and the groom and then maybe sometimes say to yourself, well, I can sure see why that young man found an interest in that young lady. What a beautiful bride. You go to another wedding and the bride isn't quite all that beautiful.
And you might say, well, I wonder what he saw on her.
What did God see in you?
Healthy, vile, corrupt, unclean.
Help with the boot.
So the love of God.
As dimensions that we can't hardly grasp.
Jesus.
Said I love you. And he tells us, tells us that his word He also said to his disciples, the Father himself loveth you. That's two persons of the Godhead.
That loved us. And a third, I think it's Romans, maybe chapter 14, the references made to the love of the Holy Spirit, the whole of the Godhead, love for sinners, love for the unlovely. That's remarkable, That's beautiful.
That's to be admired.
Message to him #257.
The second verse says justice must be done.
God can't overlook my sin. You can't pass by yours. Justice must be done. He can by no means clear the guilty. Our sins full weight must fall upon somebody, either on your own hand or on the head of Jesus, the hymn writer puts it. Our sins will await, must fall upon the sinless one, for nothing less can God accept.
In payment that fearful death.
Nothing less.
You know it's the Lord. Jesus was merely a man.
And subject to death.
He would be no savior.
You know Savior, but he was not merely man, He was God manifest in flesh, and he was himself spotless, sinless. In the Old Testament would read of the one of the requirements of the sacrifice that the Israelite would bring. A pious Israelite would come to the priest with a a lamb or a an ox or a Bullock.
And it was required that that creature that sacrifice be without damage. Perfect.
Spotless, no taint, no sin, no blemish, perfect in every detail, not just on the outside. You might bring that lamb to the priest and inspect it carefully and maybe get a, uh, some scissors and shear it and remove most of the, uh, outer covering and get it down to the, the skin, real close to the skin. Looking for maybe a tear on some barbed wire from the fence, looking for some defect in that piece.
It passes all the inspections and it looks like it's a perfect animal. Then you get inside after it's slain and you find some imperfection in that beast. Not satisfactory.
B without blemish.
The Lord of glory, God's only Son.
Without blemish and nothing else would do, for nothing less can God accept in payments of that fearful debt.
And now he's hung on that cross. You came into this world for that purpose.
And he stands there.
As our substitute, your substitute if you haven't, if you won't have him, there are no alternatives. Is heaven or hell, and the only way in is through Jesus and his precious blood.
He bore the penalty of guilt.
When on the cross, his land was built.
In love himself he gave to pay the debt that we owed.
As we said earlier.
00:45:02
Oh, what a savior.
Man of Sorrows.
What a name for the Son of God, God the Son, God himself provided the Lamb, the substitute, the full settlement, the full payment for our debt. A debt so monstrous and so deep and high that could possibly begin to pay it.
That's good, it works.
Those of us who have received the Lord Jesus, who have understood our helpless condition, who understood that we were guilty and vile and helpless, and have come to rely on Jesus and Jesus only, nobody else, is not a tandem affair. It's not a matter of a committee or a combination of forces, but Jesus alone, Jesus only, and none other name under heaven.
Whereby we must be saved. It's just as simple as ABC.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ now. I shall be saying now, you can't believe on someone you've never seen. Really can't do that, can you? It sounds hard, but you surely can if you're desperate enough, if you really understand that you are guilty.
Violent and helpless.
There are no other means. There's no one else that.
Might possibly fit the bill.
Relief on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Can we, uh, maybe sing together and cozy?
Uh #12 in the book the little hymn sheet.
Just as I am.
Without one plea, I'm not gonna stand here and argue with God. I'm gonna admit that I'm a Sinner and that I'm guilty and I'm vile and I'm without the means. I'm helpless, just as I am without one plea. But there's another three letter word, beautiful words. Thy blood was shed for me. And.
That's how bits become to thee.
And I just hope.
That every single soul under the sound of this voice.
And honestly seeing the next line.
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. And those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, some of us may be for 10 years or 10 days, or for 20 or 4050, sixty years, 70 years, maybe more.
Can we say, Oh Lamb of God, I come nearer, closer?
I appreciate what has been done a little more than I did a week ago, a little more than I did yesterday.
Just as I am.
Admittedly guilty.
Vile, helpless, ruined just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot, there's nothing I can do to rid my soul of the least blunt just as I am to thee, that is, to Jesus, whose blood can cleanse each spot. O Lamb of God, I come just as I am, poor, wretched, blind.
Now the contrast site, riches instead of poverty, healing of the mind, they all I need.
In thee and in nowhere else, not in anybody else, but in Christ alone. Indeed, to find old Lamb of God I come.
John says I am.
Guilty, vile, helpless. Just as I am now what? Receive welcome, pardon, cleansed, relieved of all obligations.
Lamb of God, I come.
Just as I am, Thy love has broken every barrier down those days that were closed that barred me from heaven. No way of access prohibited from entry.
The God will by no means clear the guilty.
00:50:02
My gifts, your guilt if you'll have Jesus was laid on Jesus.
And now we are free. We can enter.
Now, NOW, the last verse. Now don't put it off till tomorrow. What is now?
You got a minute from now? Or is it? Now write this instant right where we sit.
I believe Jesus.
As my savior, can we sing together #12?
They did not.
Read my soul.
One star lot.
To me on blood.
00:55:02
And so we pray.