Gospel—Tim Roach
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Good evening. Maybe we started our meeting this evening by saying #4 Christ is the savior of sinners. Maybe someone could start that for us.
Brightness of Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me.
While I will take him to darkness now, I didn't bring thy own praise.
Say you're up there in the world. Say you're on January, like me.
70753.
No problem.
Thank you. I love you and I figure out they figure out there's like me.
Shake it up for my God.
See if the shaker for me.
Yes, Yes, Sir. Thank you for calling me.
In Acts 16 verse 31 it says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's a very common gospel verse because that is how you get saved believe on the Lord Jesus.
Umm, I think it is good to know who your audience is when you are preaching the gospel.
We heard last night or the other night about some working down on the Skid Row.
I just recently heard about a couple of fellows who were who were working down on or who were working as whole or they were homeless for some time and they went to some gospel meetings at a mission in order that they could get some food to eat. And but they first had to listen to the gospel before they could get their food. And they they said about 80% of the time the people who came in would preach about health, fire and damnation.
But yet these people.
That are living on the streets, many of the ones that I meet with in Malawi, they know what hell is like here on earth. It's nothing like the real actual hell, but they live in terrible circumstances.
They know what it is like.
To live a life with no hope.
They know that they are lost. They know that they are sinners. They know that there is judgment ahead.
And like Paul and Silas when they were speaking to the Philippian jailer in Acts Chapter 16.
They didn't have to explain to the jailer that he had to repent from his sins.
He came in, he knew he was a Sinner. He was ready to be executed.
Because some prisoners had, he thought some prisoners had escaped, and he was afraid to meet eternity. He was afraid, and so he comes in trembling. Before Paul and Silas. He had already knew he was a Sinner. He knew he was in danger.
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They didn't have to tell him about that, and so he could simply tell this man.
Believe.
On the Lord Jesus Christ.
As I look at you this evening, most of you have been here for three days.
You've heard a gospel meeting on Friday night. You've heard a gospel meeting on Saturday night. There was a Sunday school this morning.
What more can I say to explain the gospel to you in a way that you can understand?
Maybe you are already saved?
But maybe you are not.
It is you who I want to speak to tonight, those of you who do not yet know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Menu of You have been to Sunday school many times. You hear about the love of God.
You know what it's like to be brought up in a Christian home. Things are nice, things are easy, and you haven't done anything terribly wicked.
You don't know that you're lost.
Like those people on Skid Row. I was speaking with a man in Malawi sitting on the curb next to him as he was there on the street, a street person.
He says. You preachers, you come in here and you talk about hell.
And about eternal life, he says. What do I want eternal life, for this life is miserable. What do I want to live eternally like this for?
He didn't quite understand what eternal life was.
We have it pretty easy here.
Most of us.
But you need to know Jesus Christ as your Savior. Let's go to Numbers, Chapter 33.
I'm going to talk a little bit about Joshua as he went into the land of Canaan and some of the things that happened there when they came up to Jericho.
And before they went into the land of Canaan, which was the promised land.
Josh was sent in two spies to check out the land to see how they are going to make their strategy for war. And as they went in, they came to the city of Jericho, and the city of Jericho is a big city. It had a big wall all the way around the city, a high wall, and it was a big wide wall. And on the wall there were some houses that were built. Well, they went, they were going to find a place, a motel that they could stay in there in Jericho while they were there.
They found this house on the wall run. The operation was run by a lady named Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute and she welcomed these men in to her motel and there they stayed.
But yet this this woman.
We will see that she was working, that Faith was working in her.
We're told in Hebrews that by faith she received those spies in peace. She let them come into her house. She was afraid of them.
All the people in Jericho were afraid of those Israelites.
But she let them come in people in the town, they heard that these two men had come into her house and they go to check em out, say who where are those people that came to check out our land? And she says, well, I don't know who you're talking about. They came to me, but they they left, they're gone. But really she had taken them up onto the roof and she hid them under some some grain and stuff and she laid it out nicely and put them underneath so they couldn't find them.
I remember when I was a kid, maybe 10 years old, or I used to write to my grandpa, Adrian Roach, and letters. Now and then I asked him a question. In one of the letters they said who in the Bible told a good lie?
Well, he wrote back to me and said, you know, there's no such thing as a good lie. You always need to tell the truth.
And then he listed several possibilities of people who who maybe I was thinking about.
But even though Rahab told the lie, she was a woman of faith.
And we'll find that out as we go through here. But here in before they went into the land of Canaan, we'll find here in #33, verse 50, the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, when you are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, listen to what it says here. Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you.
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Oh, there's a problem in the land. They had to get rid of these people who were in there. They were sinners. God did not want his people of Israel to be mixed up with the sinners of the world. Maybe you have some friends back at your school or at your place of work or your neighbors. You have friends that are not saved, you say, Oh yeah, well, I need to be friends with them so I can give them the gospel. That's true. But God does not want us to be mixing our lives together with the unbelievers.
If you are not yet saved.
The Sinner friends are going to keep you from coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. They're going to hinder you from listening to the gospel. They're going to mock you. They're going to laugh at you, and they're going to try to keep you from hearing the gospel. And so we found these Sinner friends in the land, and they were told to drive them all out of the land from before you. And then it says destroy all the pictures and destroy all their molten images.
And quite plucked down all their high places. There's four things there, the inhabitants of the land.
The pictures, the molten images in the high places, the pictures they were to destroy the pictures. The pictures might speak of the entertainment in the world that that attracts your hearts and your minds and tries to take your mind away from God. Amusement. Entertainment is amusement. Amuse means to think. When you say amuse, it means without thinking.
And so Satan has many things in this world to take our minds, to occupy our minds, to give us empty minds so he can fill it with anything he wants to.
And then it says molten images. They need to destroy the molten images. And in that land there was, they had idols that they bowed down, they worshipped to. They prayed to their gods. You drive around the suburbs around here today you're going to find.
Statues molten images of Mary sitting in some of the the the yards around.
People worship Mary. They pray to Mary. Mary's dead, She can't answer prayers.
But people think that Mary.
Is a God.
They take Mary to represent God and they put more importance on her. Well, you say, well, I don't do that.
But what do you have that's in your life that's more important to you than God?
That's no different than having a statue of Mary in your front lawn.
Idols that are more important to you, things in this life, possessions.
Occupations.
Entertainment.
Then it says to destroy quite plucked down all their high places.
There's things in life, places that we go.
The high places where were they is the places where they put their their idols that they worship.
And to you maybe it means the high places, maybe will mean those places that you go.
To do those things that occupy your heart and your mind, have more importance to you, and it takes away glory of God. It's the places you go. To do those things well, they had to go into the land and they had to tear these things down, destroy everything.
Before they went into the land to possess it. And you have these wicked influences in your life and your need to get rid of those things out of your life, those sinful things, the sinful ways before you can enter into an enjoyment.
In the peace, with the peace of God.
There is sin in Jericho. Jericho was a wicked city and they had to go in there and destroy things in that land before they could go in.
Jericho will be destroyed, but yet those of you who are unsaved, you have sinful things, wicked things in your life that need to be taken care of, and they need to be confessed to God dirty things.
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As you come born into this world, you are born as a Sinner, and as you get older, you become a bigger Sinner and you do bigger sins.
When I was Some of you have heard this story before, but when I was in Malawi.
There was this lady who came through one of the villages and she was a prostitute.
And she had gotten herself pregnant and she had this baby. And she went into what we call a chimpoozy. A chimpoozie is a a toilet. It's not like the ones we have here, but it's a oh, they build a big tank under the ground, a big hole, and they fill it in and they just leave a small hole. And they will. They sometimes call it a squatty potty. But this lady, she went in there to have her baby. She didn't want the baby, so she took this newborn infant.
And she put it in that hole and she pushed it down and she stuffed it down into the toilet and it fell down into there, into the slop and all the stink, the filth.
That baby was born in filth.
Some of the neighbors, they heard the baby crying.
And they came down and took the bricks of the building apart and lifted up the dismantled the toilet.
And rescued the baby.
But that baby was born in Phil. When you were born into this world, you are born in sin.
You are born with a sinful nature. That sinful nature is a dirty, filthy nature that will make you sin, that will take you down into a lost eternity in hell.
That's sin you.
Are a Sinner and that is a problem.
Because God says the soul that sins, it shall die. You say, Oh yeah, well, everybody dies. You put up in a little box and you stuffed in the ground and they throw the dirt over you. That's it. That's the end. But let me tell you, that's a lie. That is not the end because it is appointed unto man once to die. And after death, the judgment, you will be raised again from the dead. There is life after death and you will find that after death when Jesus.
Is ready to judge you. He will take you up out of the grave, and you will stand before God.
And you will have to answer to him.
What did you do with Jesus?
Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior?
The soul that sins, it shall die.
In the Book of Revelation, if you were to go to chapter 20, you would find that the books were opened.
And your whole life is listed there in those books.
Your sin is recorded.
And we're told that death and hell are cast into the lake of fire.
The soul that sinneth it shall die. When you die, you will then be thrown into the lake of fire, into eternal damnation, eternal punishment. You will have a body that will exist forever.
Your body, your soul, you will be thrown into this place of eternal damnation, eternal separation from God.
The soul that sins, it shall die. Let's go to Joshua chapter 2.
Joshua Chapter 2. Because you are a Sinner, there is danger you will.
Face the danger and the judgment of hell.
Rahab.
She knew about danger.
And she was afraid.
And she says here in verse 9 when the people were talking to her.
She was afraid. And she said, all the people, the land, were afraid. And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord.
Has given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
There was terror in the land because the children of Israel were going to come and destroy.
The wicked in that city and the wicked in that city were afraid. Maybe you are afraid tonight. Maybe you are afraid of God. Maybe you are afraid of eternity in hell. But fear is not going to save you. Trembling is not going to save you. Oh, there was terror in this city, and they eventually were destroyed. But their terror did not save them. Being afraid of hell does not save you. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance.
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It is not the fear of health.
But these people, they were fainting.
Because of the terror in verse 11 Says, as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither remained there any more courage in any man. And so their courage found their hearts melted. They were afraid.
Of the danger of the judgment that they knew was coming.
Tonight you are in danger of hell fire the danger. The judgment is coming. You can't escape that judgment.
Unless you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.
I hope you are afraid. The fear won't save you, but I hope you are afraid.
I want you to fear God. I don't want you to fear man. I want you to fear God.
Hell is very real.
It's called the Lake of Fire.
Some of you heard this story too, but there was a a little girl in Malawi. She's three years old. Her name was Elaine, the mother and the father. They named her after my wife.
Elaine So the girl's three years old. She went down and she sat in a pot of boiling hot porridge that was sitting on the fire.
She sat in it and she burned herself on her bottom and down her legs and she was screaming in pain.
The Bible tells us that there's weeping, there's wailing, there's gnashing of teeth in hell.
Can you imagine being thrown into the lake of fire with that torment of that pain? This little girl, she was screaming and crying. She spent many days in the hospital.
I had to give her many, many injections to help her deal with the pain.
But she got burned.
Her mother.
Her father, the village that raises the children.
They don't teach about danger.
You need to experience it. That's how you learn. There. You learn that fire is hot by putting your hand in the fire and getting burned.
I don't want you to go to hell and find out that hell burns.
I want you to know about the danger before you get there.
And so they we have the Gospel Meeting tonight.
Many of you have been raised in Christian homes. You've heard the gospel many times.
You don't think you're really that bad?
You don't know that you're lost.
But you are there is danger, and I want you to know about that danger to this afternoon.
We talked about that Philippian jailer who trembled in his sin.
And then there was Felix.
He trembled when he heard the gospel message from Paul because he was afraid of judgment to come.
But it didn't save him. King Agrippa was very much the same, he said to Paul. You almost persuade me to be a Christian. Almost.
Where is Agrippa tonight?
I don't know. He's probably in hell because he he was only almost saved.
What about you?
Are you almost safe?
Are you almost saved?
You know the gospel message. You pray to God, you pray to the Lord.
You say Lord, Lord.
You're almost saved.
But almost.
Is not good enough. Almost, but lost.
I don't want you to be almost saved. I want you to be altogether saved, to believe on the Lord Jesus and to accept Jesus as your savior.
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Let's go to Chapter 2.
Well, I guess we're already in chapter 2. Let's go to verse 12.
There is a way of escape. There is judgment, but there is a way of escape. Verse 12.
Now therefore I pray you swear unto me by the Lord since I have showed you kindness. Now this is Rahab talking to the two spies. She says, since I have showed you kindness, that you would also show to me kindness unto my Father's house and give me a true token. She wanted to be saved from the danger.
Oh, do you want to be saved from the danger of hell tonight? Do you want to be saved from the judgment that is coming because of sin? Oh, the Lord Jesus, he wants to save you. He doesn't want you to go to hell.
The Lord Jesus has love for you. Maybe you've never experienced love, true love.
Oh God has true love for you.
If you knew how bad hell was. If you knew how much Jesus had to suffer on the cross.
If you knew the extent of the suffering of the punishment of sin that Jesus endured on the cross.
That is the same measure in which Jesus loves you.
He loves you a lot.
Well, Rahab, she wanted a true token.
That she would have salvation from the judgment.
And so she talked, talked to the spies, and said, give me something. Well, she wanted to save herself. She wanted to save her family too. And the man answered her in verse 14, our life for yours. If you utter not this our business. And it shall be when the Lord hath given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. And then she let them down by a cord through the window, for her house was upon the town wall.
And she dwelt upon the wall.
And then she told them.
Get to the mountains, lest the pursuers meet you there. See, people were gonna They came in to find the two spies. They wanted to kill them, but she rescued them, and she helped them to escape. And she How did they escape? They took this scarlet cord, the scarlet, this red rope, and she put it down over the wall, out of her window, down over the wall. And they climbed down and they ran to to safety.
Well, the.
The two spies, they said, you take this red cord, you roll it up, you put it in your window, and that will be the true token that you will be saved. When we come in, we will not destroy you, but if you don't have that red cord in the window.
You will be destroyed with the rest of the city.
We also have a true token. If you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, there is a true token for you. There is the blood of Jesus Christ, and this red cord is a picture of the blood of Jesus Christ.
That cleanses us from all our sin. It is a true token. The the red cord was evidence of a reminder, that of the promise of Joshua, that he would not kill them, that spies were speaking on behalf of Joshua. They gave her a promise.
Or the blood of Jesus Christ. It is a token to us of the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ that our sins will be washed away. Our sins will be taken away.
If we have trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The red cord was a way of escape.
For the two spies, it's also a way of escape.
For Rahab and her family, Rahab was to give the gospel message to the rest of her family and tell them if you come into my house when Israel comes to destroy the city, you will be safe.
And so the red cord was a way of escape from the judgment.
Verse verse 21.
She said, according to your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet line in the window. And they went and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days until the pursuers returned.
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So she put the scarlet line in the window. The red cord, she put it in the window as.
For her safety. It reminds us again of the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ has so much value. We had a meeting this morning and Sunday school about value. While the blood of Christ has extreme value for you for your salvation, We can be redeemed by the blood of Christ. You can have remission of sins from the blood of Christ. There's propitiation, there's atonement, There's cleansing through the blood of Christ.
We are brought nigh by the blood of Christ. It takes away our sins.
You cannot underestimate the value of the blood.
And then we see in verse 22, Rahab had told them to go out and hide in the mountains for three days. And the people who are looking for you, they will give up and then you can be free to go home. And so they went out, they went down the cord, they ran up to the mountains, and they hid there for three days, three days hidden. That speaks to us of the three days of death.
They did not return to their own people of Israel. They were gone. They were missing for three days.
That was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A picture of the three days that the Lord Jesus had died, Christ died for our sins.
He was buried, and on the third day he rose again and so.
The verse tells us that if you believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And so we we see in this picture salvation, and we see redemption, salvation from your sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
And the blood of Christ can redeem you from your sins and take away your sins so that scarlet cord was evidence.
That Rahab had faith.
You too can have faith in the blood of Jesus. Let's look at a verse in Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3 and verse 25.
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins.
That are past and so.
We are protected from those wrath of God and the penalty of sin by the blood of Christ. Do you have faith in the blood?
Do you believe that the blood can take away your sins? Jesus died for you. He took that punishment. It was not an easy thing for him. Before he went to the cross, he prayed to the Father and said Father, if it be possible, take this cup away from me. He did not want to have to go to the cross, but he was willing and he did. He went to the cross because when he had sinned, put on him.
It was a terrible thing for him.
But yet he willingly took that sin.
To take away your sin. And he shed his blood.
Chapter 3.
And verse 13.
We see that the priests, they took the ark of the Lord and they went into the waters.
They had to go about 3000 feet further upstream so the people of Israel could would not come too close to the ark of God and they were able to cross the stream on dry land because when the priests went into the water, the water stopped and it started to build up behind them.
But the feet of the priests were in the water and it says here in verse 13.
In the middle of the verse.
The Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters.
Of Jordan, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters.
You see, the children of Israel had to go through the Red Sea, through the waters.
The Lord Jesus had experienced the waters of judgment.
As he went to the cross, the punishment was poured on him. Wave after wave of judgment went over Jesus.
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And then the Lord Jesus could rest.
There's peace for you. Maybe you are troubled about your sins tonight and you want to be saved.
You can trust.
In the blood of Christ you can trust in the work of the Lord Jesus.
The God is satisfied with Jesus. When Jesus finished the paying the penalty for your sins, he could cry out. It is finished. That means the work of salvation, the work of redemption was finished. There was nothing more that needed to be done.
To be pay the penalty for your sins, it is finished and God was satisfied that Jesus had completed the work.
God is satisfied with the blood of Christ. You too can be satisfied. And so the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters.
Let's go over to Chapter 6.
And verse verse 3 here, when when the children of Israel were going to come up to Jericho, they're going to destroy the city and they came up.
And the they had, they went into spy out the land so they could plan their strategy. But the Lord said, this is how you're going to do it. You're going to go in and you're going to the whole congregation of people are going to March around the city once each day for six days. And so they went in and then on the 7th day they're going to March around the city 7 times.
And it says here in verse three, you shall compass the city all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days, and seven priests shall bear before the ark 7 trumpets of ram's horns. And the 7th day you shall compass the city 7 times.
And the priest shall blow with the trumpets, and it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, And the wall of the city shall fall, shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.
Here we see that there is judgment. The judgment came.
It's not just something we talk about. It's not just something that's never going to happen. It is a reality. It's going to happen. Job chapter 36, verse 18 says there is wrath. You can't get away from that wrath of God except through the blood of Christ. We talk about a loving God, and that is true. God is a God of love, but God is also a God of wrath and anger. We're told that God is angry with the wicked every day.
But he's also a loving God.
And his love goes out to you and there, but he warns you that there is judgment. And in verse 20. So when the people shouted, the people shouted. When the priest blew the trumpets, and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. So that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him. And they took the city, and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and *** with the edge of the sword. Verse 24. And they burnt the city.
With fire.
There may be some young people here today.
Some children, some older people, everyone in that city was destroyed, the old and the young. And they killed all the animals too. They utterly destroyed the city and then they burnt everything with fire.
There's going to be utter destruction also in hell.
You can't get away from God. You can't hide from God. Some people like to burn their bodies when they die with ashes and have them sprinkled over the ocean, thinking that God could never put them back together to bring them to judgment.
But that is not the case. There will be destruction in hell. You will stand before a righteous God. But yet the next point is that there is salvation. There is salvation for the righteous. And if we see here in verse 22.
We see Joshua had said to the two men that had spied out the country, go into the harlot's house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath as she swear unto her. And the young men that were spies went in and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had. And they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. Verse 25. And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household.
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And all that she had and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day, because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked we find if you read Romans 5 and verse 9.
We are justified.
I better read it.
Romans 5 verse 9.
Much more than now, being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. So because of the blood of Christ, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved from wrath through him. And then if you go to 1St Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 9, again it talks about the wrath. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And so God is not willing that any should perish. He does not want you to experience the wrath of hell because His love is so great.
He was willing to take the wrath of God upon himself so that you could be set free. While Rahab was saved by her faith, she was saved by her faith, and Rahab knew that she would be safe because that scarlet cord was in the window. She knew she was going to be safe because she had that promise of salvation from the spies that Joshua had sent. And you and I, we have peace. We can have peace too. That our sins are gone, We can have.
Assurance of our salvation because of the blood of Christ that was shed for us. You know, Rahab, she was just as safe in that house. While the walls were falling down all around her house, she was safe there. She was just as safe as if.
She had already been taken out of the city.
And you and I, we are just as safe also.
You are say, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are just as safe tonight as if you had already been taken to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus. Rahab had peace. She knew she would be taken into that land of Canaan to be with Israel.
God honored her faith. Rahab was even part of the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And she knew she would be safe in the Land of Israel. She knew she would not be destroyed. Let's go to Ephesians Chapter six, Chapter one.
Ephesians Chapter One, verse 6.
To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through the blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.
We can be safe through the blood of Christ.
You can be accepted in the beloved. Rahab was accepted because of that red cord, because of her faith. If you have faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you too will be accepted in the beloved, accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You are Ju, just as she was safe. You and I can be safe. We find that in John, Chapter 10.
It says My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal life.
And they shall never perish. You will never perish if you have trusted in the blood of Christ, If you have trusted in the work of Christ, you will be safe. No man can pluck you out of his hands. You are in the hands of the Lord Jesus.
He will not let anyone take you out. He will not let yourself do anything that can take you out. Yes, you may fail, but you cannot get out of the hands of the Lord Jesus and you have double security because you are also in the hands of the Father.
There are no greater hands in the universe. You are safe. Not even Satan can take you out of his hands. And in John chapter first, John chapter 5 and verse 13 says, these things have I written unto you that you may know that you have eternal life?
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This is not something you don't you have to worry about. You can know. You can know tonight that you have eternal life and you can never lose it.
I want to make one last point.
And this point is that you need to choose life. If you were. If we go to Matthew Chapter 7, we'll find that there are two roads.
One is the broad Rd. that leads to destruction, the other is the narrow Rd. that leaves leads unto salvation. Matthew Chapter 7, verse 13.
Enter you in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, because Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth to destruction.
The Broadway that leads to destruction. Oh, it's that's the easy way. That's the way everybody takes. I remember that in Malawi. A couple weeks before I got there in October, there was a bus driver. His there were two buses and the first bus driver, he said to his boss, you know, I'm not gonna take this bus with me. I'm not gonna drive this bus over the mountains because the brakes are not very good. Well, the boss said, well, if you don't wanna take that bus across the mountains, you're fired. Well, the guy says fine, I'm not gonna do it.
I don't wanna, I don't wanna crash, but yet.
This man, he went and found his friend, a relative said, why don't you drive this bus over the mountains? And the fellow said, OK, I'll do it.
As they came, it was a long journey, about 8 hours from the long way up to well, they got up to the mountains and they were coming down the mountains. Two buses, one following the other. The first guy was in the bus without the good brakes, he comes down.
Around the bends, picking up speed, no brakes. He comes to the edge of the precipice and he can't make the turn. He goes off the road into the mud, hits a tree and the bus flips end over end down over the precipice several 100 feet to the bottom. People were falling out of the bus as it fell through, as it crashed over the edge and there fell down down.
Down to their death.
68 people killed in an instant.
It was a Broad Rd. It's the way everybody went.
But it LED them to destruction.
When you stand before God.
And he finds that you have been raised in a Christian home.
When he finds that you have heard the gospel once, twice, maybe many times.
But you have rejected it. You haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your savior.
He's going to say to his attendants, bind, tie him up, hands and his feet and cast him into outer darkness and you will be falling down, down, down into the pit of Hell. There is no escape. There is no hope. You will never be rescued from that downward journey into Hell. That's where the Broad Rd. takes you. But I want you to choose life. I don't want you to go on that Broad Rd. down into hell.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Thou shalt be saved. Take take the narrow way.
There's few that find a narrow way. There's many that go down the Broad Rd. but there's only a few that accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. Do you want to be one of those few who accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Maybe you want to get off the Broad Rd.
That leads to destruction. And you want to choose life tonight. How are you going to choose life? Do you just make a decision that from now on I'm going to decide to keep the commandments? I'm going to decide to follow the Bible. I'm going to decide to be good to my neighbor. Is that how you get saved? No, it's not because you will fail. If you try to do those good things, sooner or later you will fail.
I want to give you a clear, easy message how you can be saved. Some people say it's as simple as ABC. First a you can agree with the Lord Jesus Christ that you are a Sinner.
Agreed that you can't help yourself. You can't do any good things to be accepted by God. You can't be good. There is none good. God says you're all sinners. You're in danger of hell.
00:50:14
You need to agree that you are a Sinner, just like the publican who is in the story we read about.
His prayer was God be merciful to me, a Sinner. He recognized that he was a Sinner. You need to do that tonight. Admit to God that you are a Sinner.
The second is B. Believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe that Jesus gave himself to be your substitute.
And to bear your sins and believe that he died.
On the cross for your sins, and believe that he shed his blood to take away your sins.
Do you believe that?
And then we have C.
Confess.
Confess Jesus as Lord. We have that in Romans 10 verse nine that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus says Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. What does it mean to believe in Jesus as Lord?
Is Jesus your Lord? What does that mean? It means you have repented from your own ways, from yourself will, and turned yourself over to Jesus Christ.
Repented.
God says believe and repent. If you don't believe, God says you will be damned. But if you do believe, God says you have everlasting life if you.
Repent. If you don't repent, God says you will perish. But God commands you to repent in his love. He does not want you to be destroyed in hell. So he says believe. On the Lord Jesus he says repent.
Luke chapter 6 and verse 46 says that why do you call me Lord, Lord, when you don't do the things that I say for you to do? Maybe you are here tonight and you have been in the meetings. Maybe you're even gathered and you broke bread with us this morning.
But you say, Lord, Lord, but when you go home tomorrow and you go back to your life, to your daily life, and you start doing those things you've always done.
And you forget about God, and he is not the Lord of your life.
Let me tell you, you have no guarantee that you are saved.
Because you must repent and follow Jesus as Lord if Jesus is not your Lord.
You haven't really repented. If you have not repented, you will perish and so you have no guarantee that you are saved if you have not turned away from the sinful life.
Confess Jesus as Lord that also has the thought of telling others. Tell someone else that you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Maybe your mother doesn't know that you're saved.
Maybe they think you are.
But it's good for them if they really know. And it helps you to have assurance of your salvation if you can tell somebody. I know Jesus Christ as my savior. Let's sing #12 just as I am without one plea.
Just as.
Well.
Lot of my games and I don't know.
Anything so hard?
00:55:16
Mm-hmm.