Gospel—John Bilisoly
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The hood and he went to the king of Moab, I believe it was his name was Eglon and he said I have a message from God to you and I trust that tonight.
I have a message from God to you, dear one. So each one that's here, I don't know some of you and I don't know, only the Lord knows whether you're one of his child children or not.
But our desire is to present the gospel to you, the message from God of salvation. So I wonder if we could begin tonight by singing hymn #21 in the little hymn sheet. And maybe it would be nice to to stand and sing this together #21 in the hymn sheet. Someone would start that for us.
Save praise the power of sin.
Rise the world, be satisfied.
Which is to prepare.
Well, to begin with here, I just want to look at a statement that we have from David and it's in First Samuel Chapter 20.
And we know that at this time in David's life.
He's fleeing for his physical life. He's.
He's fleeing from King Saul, who wants to kill him. And so David has come into a relationship with King Saul's son Jonathan, and he's telling Jonathan how he feels. And Jonathan is having a hard time accepting the fact that his father would really ever do such a thing because David was a faithful servant for his father, the king.
And had been promoted to.
Position of responsibility and this is hard for Jonathan to accept this fact, but we have here in this chapter 20, I'll just first Samuel, I'll just read verse 3.
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So Jonathan is trying to convince David that his father really would not do this. But John, David says, and David swear, moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes. And he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. But truly, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.
Now I want to use that little statement there.
At the end of the verse 3.
As and use it in application tonight in the gospel.
David says there is but a step between me and death. So David meant that literally. He was fleeing for his life. I have never been in a position where I was fleeing for my life. I can't imagine the anguish of heart, the fear that must have coursed through David's mind.
And heart as he thought about this.
And could see in his thinking that Saul meant to do him harm and David was feared him and was fleeing for his life. There is but a step between me and death.
Now, none of us knows what's going to happen in this life. We know that we could physically lose our lives suddenly. We have heard of of many accidents that have happened, things that have occurred in people's lives where one moment they were alive and the next few seconds they were in eternity.
That happens. It happens all the time, no doubt in this world.
Especially with all the wickedness that abounds.
And so we don't know. There's uncertainty, isn't there, as to how long our physical lives might last. But I'm thinking too, in a spiritual way, that if you are here tonight, perhaps you've never heard the gospel before. Perhaps you've never heard God's message of his love to you and sending the Lord Jesus into this world to die on the cross so that you might be able to be saved from your sins.
And the consequences of those sins. And you know, every time you hear the gospel, dear one, tonight, whether you're a young child or you're older in this room, every time you hear the gospel, you are faced with a decision just like Pilate could say in Matthew 27 verse 22, I believe it is concerning the Lord Jesus. He said, what then shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?
You dear one, tonight you have to answer that question before God. What are you going to do with Jesus, which is called Christ? Oh, I hope you will accept him as your Savior if you have not already. God has made it very simple. All you need to do is own that you are a Sinner, that you have sinned before God.
And what you deserve is the judgment of God against that sin.
But there's one that has taken your place at Calvary's cross, if you will allow him to. He has done so, and he is willing, God is willing to forgive you those sins, if you will accept his Son the Lord Jesus as your Savior. What a wonderful provision God has made. So in one sense, as you are here tonight.
There is a step between you and death. I don't know.
If you will have another opportunity after this to hear the gospel. So I feel compelled to warn you of the consequences of continuing on in your sins without a Savior. God wants to save you, dear one tonight, and he's made every provision to do so through his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, the one who he can look down from heaven and say.
That the Lord is the one in whom is all his delight, that one.
Has laid down his life at Calvary's cross. His precious blood was shed there. And God is offering you salvation tonight, you know.
All, all related experience that my father had before he was saved. He was probably in his teens. And there's a lake in Colorado not too far from where we live. And I think it's it's in the city of Lakewood.
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And there was that one time a peer that went out into the water from the shore on that lake. And just about every time I drive by that lake, which is fairly often, I think of my dad and this experience that he had.
He was one of three children in his family, and he had an older brother, my Uncle Bob, who's still living and lives in Colorado. He'll be 692 This year.
My father and my Uncle Bob were swimming there one day. They used to allow swimming, they don't anymore. And they would go out on the pier, Kids would go out on the pier and they would dive into the water and swim. Well, Uncle Bobby was sitting on that pier and he had his feet in the water. And you know, they were, they were close, my, my father and my Uncle Bob. But just like any siblings, they, they like to play pranks on.
Each other. And so my dad saw my uncle Bob sitting there on the pier with his feet dangling in the water. And he thought, you know, it would be so fun to sneak out there and grab his toe. And so that's what he proceeded to do. Well, unknown to my father, there was a low spot in the ground under the water there that he couldn't see. He didn't know how to swim. So he began waiting out to where my uncle was.
And he stepped into this hole and before he knew it, he was over his head in water and not knowing how to swim well.
It reminded me of this when I read this first. There's but a step between me and death. Well, he floundered, as you would expect. And so on. But he was in real trouble. He was under the water. He couldn't be seen. The Lord allowed it. He had his eye on him.
The Lord allowed a bigger fella to come along and he literally bumped into my father as he was waiting out and realized that somebody's under there and he reached under and grabbed him and pulled him up and his life was spared, but it was so close a step between him and death.
How about it tonight, dear one? Like I said, I don't know what's in store for you when you leave this room, but God is giving you an opportunity to believe the gospel message tonight. I trust that you will. I want to look at a few individuals in Scripture very briefly that came to a point of decision in their life or when they had an opportunity.
To accept God's offer and the decision that they made. The first one. We've already mentioned a little bit about Cain. Brother Nick mentioned about him, but let's turn to Genesis 4 and just read a few verses there concerning Cain.
We know the story, most of us, that there were two boys that were born to Adam and Eve. The oldest one was Cain.
And the next one was able, and it says that in in the process of time they bought, they brought sacrifices to the Lord. And Abel he brought, Cain brought of the fruit of the ground that which he had raised in his garden, as was mentioned, no doubt the best.
That he could, I'm sure he took great pains to make it attractive in whatever way he presented it, in a basket or whatever, whatever it might have been. But it was that which Cain had raised from this cursed earth, the earth that had been cursed because of sin. And I, I would like to mention too, that I have no doubt that these boys learn the story of what had taken place.
Our our young men, I should say.
I picture them as being somewhat older than boys, but they had no doubt heard the story of how sin had come in through their parents and that God had to set angels with flaming fires of sword to keep the way of the tree of life so that they would not partake of it.
After they had sinned.
And no doubt, perhaps maybe even the fact that his, their parents from their earliest memories would have had these coats of skin perhaps or something, some covering, maybe all of that came out as to what had taken place. But I believe that they were responsible and I think we can we have grounds for that because of of what?
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Abel does with intelligence. He offers an animal sacrifice that had to be killed.
To take his place, a substitute for him. He is a guilty Sinner before God offers an animal that takes his place, and that animal is slain and his blood is shed. Oh, how important that is. Whereas with Cain there was no blood in his offering, and so he he, as it were, spurns the the effects of what sin had brought into God's creation.
And God's remedy for it, to slay those animals, to make coverings for Adam and Eve.
And his brother's offering that had to be slain and its bloodshed. He spurns all of that. He sets it aside. And as it were, he thinks his way is better. It's the heart of man by nature. And perhaps there's someone here. Maybe you're a child. And you think, well, if I just be good, if I just do what my parents tell me to, I'm OK. No boys and girls.
You need you need the the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To shelter you from judgment without the shedding of blood, we're told in Hebrews 9 verse 22, there is no remission. Almost all things it says by the law, and almost all things by the law are purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. First John 17. But God commendeth or proveth.
His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by His blood. We have peace. We shall be saved from wrath through Him. You know, dear ones, without the shedding of blood there is no remission. It took God sending His Son the Lord Jesus, to Calvary's cross. It took the Lord Jesus laying his life.
Down there on Calvary's cross and his precious blood being shed in order for God to be satisfied eternally concerning the question of sin. How important that is.
An able brings before us someone that sets that aside. He feels like he can come his own way, the way of his own making. And maybe you're thinking that you're going to come that way. It won't do.
You can't reach God that way. You cannot come into favor with God by anything that you can do. You have to accept God's way. There is only one way to be saved, and that is through the work of Calvary's cross by the Lord Jesus. And so Cain brings this, and the Lord says to him in verse six of Genesis 4. The Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth?
And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest dwell, thou shalt shalt thou not be accepted. And if thou, if thou doest not well, sin layeth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother.
And slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not.
Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice?
Of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. Well, I just want to point out one thing.
It says there in verse seven, if thou doest dwell, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not, well, sin lieth at the door. If you look at a more critical translation, I think it's in a Jay and Darby's translation, he has a footstote footnote there considering that verse and the thought of sin lying at the door is perhaps the thought of a sin offering.
Lying at the door. And it just came over me that here is Cain. He has this opportunity, if you will, to take what God is offering, if that's indeed the correct translation of that verse. And it seems like it would be so in keeping with God's heart of love that he would provide a remedy. And Cain, all he had to do, if you will, is open the door.
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And take that sacrifice.
That was laying at the door for him and offered that as a substitute for himself, following the example of his brother Abel. But what does he do?
He slays his brother.
He kills his brother. He becomes a murderer.
And then it says one of the more solemn statements in Scripture in verse 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.
Isn't that solemn? Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. And you know, I don't think we ever read that Cain was in the presence of the Lord again.
How solemn.
Dear one, tonight you may not have another opportunity to hear the gospel. And so we beseech you, we urge you, young child, if you haven't accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you can do so even now in your seat. You can own in your heart before God, sincerely and honestly, that you're a Sinner and that you want His.
Savior that He has provided to be your savior.
And he will come in and do that work. What a wonderful thing it is. You know, there's a a lady that we're familiar with that wrote many hymns. We know her best as ***** Crosby.
And she lived. She lives quite a while ago.
She lived in the night. She was born in 1915 or actually she passed away in in 1950 and she was born in 1820. I have here and lived to 1950. So she lived to be 94 years old, quite remarkable for that era of time. But she wrote over 18,000 I'm 8000 hymns. Many of them were very familiar with and one of them is this one here that came before me as I was thinking of this.
Only a step to Jesus then why not take it now?
Come on thy sin confessing to him thy Savior. Bow only a step, only a step. Come He waits for thee. Come and thy sin confessing thou shall receive a blessing. Do not reject the mercy He freely offers thee.
Well, dear ones, that's the gospel message. Only a step to Jesus. Why not take it now, you know?
Many of us in this room will remember the moon landing that happened in 1969.
We had not, my father moved us as a family to Corner Brook, NL in 1970. So it was about a year before we had before we moved. And I, I remember I was pretty young, I think I was around 13 and I had a paper route, maybe some of you have had paper routes and I had like 60, some papers that I would deliver in the neighborhood.
And I remember.
The day after the moon landing and it was on July 20th, 1969 that a man named Neil Armstrong an astronaut.
Of the United States stepped down on the moon and left a big imprint on the moon. And of course.
There were many, many pictures taken of that and all of and those pictures were being sent back to the.
The command center and of course they they got into the newspapers and I remember the next day after the landing took place that the paper was the front page was in full color and it showed a picture of Neil Armstrong stepping off the Apollo spacecraft into the the dust of the moon and leaving that big print.
And he became famous for.
A statement that he made about that time, he said. This is a small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind.
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And you know, as I've thought about that.
I I would like to ask you a question. Do you think that man landing on the moon made him more aware of God? Do you think that that event that took place brought the nation that we live in?
Closer to God? Through that experience, do you think it's been God's mind for man to explore the planets and the moon?
And Mars, it's amazing when you think about it. You know, we have a Museum of Science and nature in Denver and occasionally some of us will go there if we want to see something or if we have company and we are thinking of what can we do with them, Maybe they would like to see the animal exhibits there. There's some very, very nice collection of gems and many things. But they were having a.
Exposition, exposition, exposition on the.
The moon landing and.
The Apollo spacecraft missions in general, but they had quite a bit of things from that, that journey to the moon. And it was, it was impressive to think of man's technology, that God has allowed the intelligence he's given him to be able to do what he's done. And yet has it brought him any closer to God? No, it hasn't. If anything, I believe it's caused him to be.
To come more vain in his thoughts.
To leave God out, to shut God out of his thoughts. Well, so he might have been able to say it was. It was a one small step for a man and a giant leap for mankind, but I don't think it was in the right direction.
So I want you to think about this tonight, this evening. There's but a step between you and death. And I hope that you're considering that God is reaching out to you, giving you another opportunity tonight. Let's look at a more positive example in the book of Ruth and.
It's a beautiful story, but we won't take the time to to read it.
But there were two daughters that were with Naomi that married her two sons, a man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi left Bethlehem, Judah, House of Bread and House of Praise.
Here isn't that something they left that place of because it it seemed to them there wasn't food there. So they they went into the land of Moab and their their sons end up marrying daughters there.
Moabite ish women girls.
And then they die, and her husband dies, and now she's left with what to do and the Lord lays it on her heart to come back, like a picture of repentance from having left. Now perhaps she wasn't.
Totally responsible. I'm sure she wasn't for that decision, but she was part of it. So they come back. And I think I counted here at least four times in this little account where she tries to persuade her daughters, her daughter in laws, to go back to their people to turn again. But Ruth continues on through each of those.
Entreaties. And she persists. And she persists, and she persists.
And she says in verse 16, And treat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and thy God, my God, and so on. What a beautiful answer. Here is a decision that these two girls are faced with. What are they going to do? Are they going going to forsake that which is familiar to them?
And go with their mother-in-law into a foreign land? Or are they going to continue on?
Well Orpa, she makes the decision to go back, but Ruth cleaves to her mother-in-law and what is the result of all that? Well, she meets a man named Boaz and together they have a child named Obed, and he becomes the father of a man named Jesse, and Jesse becomes the father of a man named David who becomes the king of Israel.
After Saul and this dear woman is mentioned.
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And the genealogy of the Lord Jesus in Matthew one, what a what a reward for the decision that she makes. And dear one, tonight come to the Lord Jesus. If you don't know him, you won't be disappointed. I'm not saying you'll never have any struggles, that all your troubles will be over. No, we live in a scene of sin and sorrow.
And disappointment and trials. And God permits and allows these things.
And there's various reasons why He allows these trials in our lives. But one thing I can assure you is that you will have a peace that passes understanding. Now, not that Satan won't try and take things away from you, even peace, but God will give you a peace. You'll have that assurance from His precious Word, which nothing can alter. It's forever settled in heaven. You'll have that assurance.
That you are going to have a future.
With the Lord Jesus in a coming day and we believe that his coming is near and that's why we press upon you to make a decision tonight. Don't put it off. I want to look at another individual in the book of Acts and let's turn to the book of Acts and go to chapter 20.
Three, I believe it is.
They're Acts, actually. Let's go to Acts 25.
We're going to talk about a king named Agrippa.
And Paul is a prisoner and he's preaching and he's telling the king about his experience and he says in Acts chapter 25.
We learn about this king in verse 13 and after certain days King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus. And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Pauls cause under the king, saying there's a certain man left in bonds by Felix, about whom when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him. Well.
Forsake of time, I'll I'll turn over to the next chapter 26.
But Agrippa, when he hears the account given by Festus of Paul, he wants to hear him too. So Paul says, OK, I mean, Festus says, OK, I can arrange that. And he arranges for there to be a meeting with Paul. And so Paul is brought before him and Paul asks him a very pointed question. He kind of describes his course and how the Lord.
Saved his soul. And then he says to King Agrippa in verse 27, Believe us all the prophets. I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost self persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor.
And Bernice and they that sat with him.
And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. Then set a grip on Defeastus. This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. Well, I think it's striking that.
We see some similarities between what Cain did. Cain rose up and went out, it says at the end of that account. There we'll hear Agrippa. He rises up in verse 30.
And he goes aside with the others and they talk. And, you know, I don't believe that this man possibly, as far as we know, ever had another chance to hear the gospel presented by Paul. What did he do with it? Well, it appears that he scoffed at it. He appeared that he made light of it and said almost.
Now persuade us me to be a Christian. Let me ask you this.
If you are standing before a holy and a righteous God, and you said I almost believe the Gospel.
Of the thy grace, that the gift of thy son. Would that be enough? No, no, it would be too short, too little, not enough. How solemn, how solemn. And so, as far as we know, this man never had another opportunity. Now I want to just touch on one. A man named Jonathan. We already spoke briefly about him.
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But let's just.
Again, look at Jonathan and First Samuel 18.
Because to me Jonathan and I want to make this application.
Jonathan is. In the light of the way we're speaking now, I would refer to Jonathan as someone that is saved.
But his life is lost.
And so it says in in verse one of chapter 18 of First Samuel. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
And then just for sake of time.
Let's read in chapter.
20.
21 I think it is.
Chapter 20 I'm sorry and verse 4.
First Samuel chapter 20 and verse 4.
Anyway, I we won't read it all but.
Basically, it comes to the point between David and and Jonathan that Jonathan has to make a decision, am I going to follow David or not? And we read at the end of this chapter.
Verse 42 I'm going to just skip down there for the sake of time because and Jonathan sent to David go in peace for as much as.
We have sworn, both of us in the name of the Lord, saying the Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed forever. And he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city. Again, a very sad account in Scripture. Now, as as I said, I would look at Jonathan in the way we're speaking as someone that's saved. But when it came to making a decision, am I going to follow David? He's in rejection. He's fleeing for his life. My father is hunting him.
Wants to take his life. Am I going to follow him? And he makes that decision, that fateful decision to go back into the city. And the last we read of Jonathan, is he slain in battle? He was, he had, even as it were made a covenant with David that they were going to, he was going to enter into David's reign with him. And instead he loses his life and he never has that opportunity.
Oh, I would just say this is a word to each of us.
That, you know, sometimes it's just a step in the wrong direction and we can, as it were, lose our life. We can spiritually lose our life. May the Lord keep us in that. Now I want to finish in a few minutes that we have left with the perfect example of one who walked, who every step he took was in perfect obedience to his Father's will and let's just go to.
Luke 9. I think we might have touched on this today, possibly Luke 9 and verse 51.
Luke 951 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. I just think of the Lord Jesus, as it were, taking each step according to the Father's perfect will.
Each step that led him closer and closer to Calvary's cross, we think of his agony in the garden and his asking his Father if it was possible to take that cup from him. But nevertheless he would say, not my will, but thine be done, and say, we see the Lord Jesus walking, going all the way, even unto death.
And then just to end on the thought of the example that he has left us in first Peter.
Chapter 2.
It says in verse 21.
For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. I'll just stop there. I was thinking primarily of what we have there, that beautiful statement that Peter makes, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps.
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Well, may the Lord encourage us that those of us that are his that we might.
Walk carefully before him, seeking to follow him. And for anyone, young or old in this room that doesn't know the Lord Jesus.
As Savior, we just plead with you to come with him to him tonight. If you want to talk with any of us, I'm sure most of us would be glad to talk with you to make it clear perhaps or something that was is confusing to you, but God just says believe His word.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.