Gospel—Dean Rule
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But he starts this evening by singing #18 God loved the world so tenderly, His only Son He gave that all who on his name believe its wondrous power will save. Oh, love that only God can feel, and only he can show its height and depth, its length and breadth. Nor heaven nor earth can know #18 If someone could start it, please.
Of the world.
And early.
His only son he gave.
At all who on his name believe it's on his power will say.
Or God so love the world.
They gave his only son.
Should not perish.
Should not perish.
That whosoever believeth in him.
But everlasting life.
All that only God can give, and only he can know. If I can have designs and breath, nor hell nor.
Where God saw the world.
That he gave his only son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
Should not perish.
Let loose, however, believe us in Him.
Should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
Then, ye careless ones, why slide the gracious call? Why turn from him whose words proclaim?
Eternal life to all.
For God so love the world.
That he gave his own.
Son, that whosoever believe us in him should not perish.
Should not perish that whosoever believeth in him?
Should not perish but have ever lied.
Long time ago, I many years ago heard the statement that it's very simple. It says when it comes time to die.
Make sure you don't have to do anything.
But die.
Sometimes wondered up and occasionally or certain frequency on a airplane, sometimes for fairly long distances and quite comfortable on one, but I wondered sometimes what it would be like.
If the pilot got on.
The public address or the announce the microphone and as they make announcements.
And would make the announcement that in most of the planes now are two engines. Made the announcement that one of the engines had a problem and had to be shut off.
Came on a little bit later and made the announcement that the other engine had a problem and it also had to be shut off.
Sometimes you can look there are certain monitors that are interesting to follow that show the altitude at which the plane is flying. Typical altitude on long distance flights might be somewhere between 35 and 40,000 feet above sea level and at that altitude, let's say 36,000 feet.
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The typical jets that's used today.
Will descend at a rate.
Of about 2000 feet per minute.
And so if the announcement came on and you were flying over an ocean that you had.
That the engines were off and that all they could do was because they were too far from any island or any place to land, but there were 18 minutes left before they would come to the water. I'm sure that the first thing that would be done is people would pull out the instruction cards that were in the pocket in front of them.
The stewards or stewardesses would hold up things and give instructions again, and instead of the typical disinterest that's usually paid by people who have flown many times, the announcements being ignored, every eye would be trained on those who are making the announcements. People would pay careful attention. They would explain what was done and that the perhaps the seat cushion could be used as a flotation device and in certain planes that under the seat you would find a bag and in that bag bag there was a life preserver and everyone should get them on.
Might work if you were in a warm enough area, but sometimes there's long flights that go over polar routes and the time period in which someone would last would be very short. And let's say those announcements took seven or eight minutes and you were left with 10 minutes before you would potentially be on a plane that would hit the water, and if it hits smooth enough, it might float for a little while.
Questions. Pretty simple.
What would you be thinking about? Well, some of the thoughts would go to people that we know and love.
But perhaps under those circumstances, one of the things that you would stop and think about.
Is where will I spend eternity?
And have enough time to think about it and to make a decision.
Let's say you were in some place underwater and you were trapped.
All right, I was trapped and there was number way to.
Escape and pinned in your time period would be reduced to perhaps five or six or seven minutes before.
He would suffocate to death because of lack of oxygen.
Still enough time.
You know, I think I spoke about it at a gospel meeting in Addison in the month of July. But something that I don't think I'll ever forget was a call that I received in the spring.
By people who took care of a man, Eduardo Salcedo.
And lived in the house behind his house and noticed that the light was on for many hours from.
During the night, when they went up in the morning to take the man his breakfast, because he had difficulties in the circulation and had certain toes and things cut off because of the effects of diabetes.
Went up one morning at Eduardo Salcedo was lying on the floor. Called, said what do we do? Said call 911, same number as you would call here.
They called and we headed off my wife immediately to the the same same place. The squad was already there, walked up into the room.
And based on his position, he'd gotten up to go to the bathroom during the night and in the process, fell over on his back.
And the man was doing heart massage and all sorts of things, but he sure didn't look like anyone who had life to me. But my finger down on his forehead and it felt cool.
And I have one question that's in my mind. He didn't have perhaps 18 minutes. He didn't have 5 or 6 minutes. I have a question whether he had five seconds.
I've wondered about that man because in the contacts with him.
The different ones it had even to the night before. The person who was taking care of him because of his health condition said that the night before he rejected.
The message of the Gospel.
And so before we go into the subject that's on my heart this evening, I want to spend.
Just five or six minutes.
And have a short many gospel meeting. Just some very essential things.
That if you don't hear anything that's said for the rest of the evening, perhaps these verses if you do not know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Contain everything you need to know in your head and may it get to your heart for you to be saved. And so we're going to start in Romans chapter 3.
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Very well known verses, most here could quote them by memory.
Romans, chapter 3.
And verse 23.
Lesson #1 We held up a little card and it just had four points on it. Perhaps would be the first on the card. For all his sin and come short of the glory of God.
It's not you or not I who sets the standards, who makes the rules, who makes the decision as to what is necessary for someone to go to heaven. It's not any of us. It's God that makes that decision. Point #1 The question I have for you tonight is, do you know that you are a Sinner and that because of your sins that you do not meet God's standards? You've come far short.
Sometimes we use the example if with a group of people on the Pacific Coast of Ecuador, it's only how's that coast?
And standing there, he said, well, what would you do if you were going to have a swimming competition And the competition would be to swim across and hit landfall and.
The islands of Japan or in China or someplace like that.
Said, Well, what would happen is, is everyone going to make it the same distance? No, not everyone's going to make it the same distance. Some are going to get to where the water is over their head and they're going to be done for after a few minutes. Others are going to be able to swim many miles out into the ocean. But everyone is going to come short. And God says that everyone has come short of God's glory. And how many sins does it take to come short? Just one. And there's absolutely nothing that you or I can do in ourselves to erase even one sin.
And even worse than that, we have a nature that loves to sin.
And there's nothing we can do about that in ourselves. And so that's point #1 #2.
One of the most memorized verses. John chapter 3 and verse 16.
I'm just going to read now the first half of the verse.
Says for God.
So loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son going to stop there.
We've heard a lot in these days these last two days about the word love.
A word to a degree that we all understand, but maybe one of the hardest words to define because it's so.
Broad in what it means.
Stop and think for a minute.
About the world in which we live.
Those who have come long distances here and come by plane, those who are heading to the airport. Now, one of the things that will be necessary is to go through a line and in that line your shoes will be taken off. You have to take your shoes off. If you have a metal belt, you have to take it off. You take your watch off. You take your glasses off. If you have a cellular phone in your pocket, it has to go.
Lady in front of me a few days ago.
Pulled out a card and the card showed that she had metal in a certain place.
Why? Because we live in a world that love.
Is a not understood concept. We live in a world where people say I'm willing to strap something on my back and blow myself up and you with it because I think that's going to get me.
To some sort of undefined heaven.
What a difference between the one who does that. And that's no different than what my heart is or what your heart is and the one we read about here. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, the one who did not deserve to die, the one that God and man who's never sinned, the Lord Jesus. What a difference.
He instead of saying I'm going to do something and you're going to die with me so that I can get somewhere, he said I am going to die so that you never have to.
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Which one sounds like the truth to you tonight? For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son.
That probably was the hardest decision that's ever been made or will be made in the history or the future of the universe. God deciding to send his own beloved and eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to this world to die for you.
And to die for me.
Luke.
13.
Verse 3.
I tell you.
Nay.
But except you repent, we're going to stop there for a minute. Repent.
Divide the word into two, you get 3.
Repeat it. Do it again.
Pent comes from a rude.
To think.
Think again.
The question isn't what you or I think about sin. The question is what does God?
Think about sin and so the message is very simple. Think again.
And how can you have a different viewpoint? And how can I have a different viewpoint on it?
Not by looking inside us.
I was with a man.
About two weeks ago.
In the Netherlands, in a greenhouse.
Dutch breeder of hydrangeas.
And I was there about 6 weeks ago.
The day was there six weeks ago was the day that his wife died of cancer.
Neatly dressed.
Clothes that were worn because of working in the greenhouse. Neatly dressed when I saw him a couple of weeks ago and was back in the same greenhouse.
Look like his shirt and pants hadn't been washed in that time.
Someone who is feeling the separation from the person, his wife that he'd been with for many years.
He.
Just had lost something. The question about it, tremendous thing that was missing. He didn't even realize. It seemed like that was the visitors that were there, that there was something wrong, that his clothes were dirty, that perhaps it would have been a good idea for some of the other visitors that were there to have changed him.
You may not realize how serious sin is if you look inside yourself or get opinions from anyone else.
But if you read in the Word of God what it costs the Lord Jesus Christ to be able to save sinners such as ourselves.
That should make us think again. Do you think if God could have found any alternative way other than seeing His Son suffer for three hours? And that's not what took our sins away, but he did see him suffer for three hours.
The one who was sustaining the lives of all who were there was being spit on in the face.
Before it happened, they took a whip and in that whip were embedded pieces of metal and ripped the flesh on his back.
Jammed the crown of thorns on his head. And can you and I look at that and say we're any different? Absolutely not.
That's what my heart is, and your heart is apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Think again.
Because it didn't stop there.
A very unusual thing happened from noon to 3:00 PM.
When an eternal God poured out judgment on the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't a Father punishing his Son? It never says Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me? It was my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
If God had knew of any alternative, He would have used it, but there is none.
But the greatest demonstration of love was shown in that day when it became night during the day, because God was not going to allow the people who blasphemy, who mocked, who treated so cruelly His beloved Son, they were not going to let him see His faith during those three hours.
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When his visage was so marred, more than any man in his form, more than the sons of men.
Darkness for three hours.
What are normally some of the brightest hours of the day and it only paralleled the darkness that is in our hearts apart from the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the message is think again. It's so serious that if you do not repent and believe, you will spend eternity in the Lake of fire. But that's not what God wants.
He wants you to spend eternity with Him and with His beloved Son, His dearly loved Son in heaven. It says, Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.
John chapter 3, we're going to finish the verse.
John chapter 3 verse 16 says that whosoever believeth in him.
Should not perish.
That repeated word, as we saw in the other verse.
To pass into hell, to be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity.
But have everlasting life.
A few days ago this earlier this week.
I was in an apartment in Bilbao, Spain.
And the family, the different ones that lived there, were in that apartment shared, shared by people from Ecuador and Brazil and and Bolivia.
Someone brought out a computer and said we'd like you to hear this. What do you, what do you think about what's on this? It was a message for an hour and 10 minutes from 7 young people.
There was a warning.
About.
Hell.
I said, well, what do you think? So I sat there and had an opportunity the next morning when some of them were off at work, turned it on and listened.
And in that time period, it was they were imagining at a vision, they said that they were going into hell with the Lord Jesus and walking around seeing people and seeing their clothes that were burned and people that were crying to get out of there and.
Have a planner where I make notes and I've got it there and seven or eight things that we wrote down and talked about later.
It's not with the gut. The Bible teaches about hell.
He portrayed it as a horrible place.
But it's not a place you're going to see the Lord Jesus walking around.
He went into the grave, so he went into hell. It's not a place where people are going to be talking with each other. It's not a place where people are going to be with their bodies when they're in the Lake of fire. They will be.
But if you die without the Lord Jesus.
Christ.
Your soul and spirit.
Are going there, your body is going to the grave.
You know, you can bury a lot of things. People have their bodies buried and they bury objects with them. They're people that fall in love with a vehicle. They're people that have had a Corvette and say I love this vehicle so much. When I die, dig a big hole and bury me in it. You can bury the Corvette.
You can bury a motorcycle.
Two things you can't bury.
Or burn or suffocate or drown. Unless it would happen being buried alive and then dying. Two things that don't fit into any casket in the world or any watery grave in the ocean or soul. The soul and the spirit.
They don't go into boxes.
You can put a body in a box, and when that body is dead, that body will decay and rot away. But you can't put a soul in a spirit in a box.
Because when that person dies, the soul and spirit either go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in paradise.
Or to help.
The Lord Jesus.
Were to allow you to die before he comes.
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Where would your soul and spirit go?
The body will catch up later.
That's not the important part where your soul and your spirit go.
Sometimes when in an airport.
Times a little bit of time to spend. One of the things that I find interesting to do is to It's big enough when walking to the bookstore.
And go to some different sections and, you know, free to take the books off the shelf and look at them.
A couple of days ago and then Newark Airport or a few days ago on Thursday, walked in and didn't see it. I said, where's the the religious section of the books?
And the lady said you got on 2 aisles and turn left.
So we'll go see what what it, what different things might be there that might be of interest.
The first book that caught my eye that I had never seen before.
Was a book that had a title of three words, the.
3 words on the cover the spine of that book where the atheist Bible.
Narrow book, not very high, probably 120 pages. I just opened a one page inside.
So horrible I shot it.
Content of sayings from different people who profess to be atheist to deny the existence of God.
Looked on the back cover of that book and they quoted some different people that were evidently quoted on the inside of the book.
The one that caught my eye was the top one. The one that was.
In bold print and it said Ernest Hemingway.
Said all thinkers.
Are atheists.
All thinkers are atheists.
Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 in Oak Park, IL, not very far from here before you get into Chicago, and by 90 if I remember correctly, the freeways born in 1899.
Lived and before he even completed 62 years in 1961. If we were to write an obituary of Ernest Hemingway tonight, we'd find some looking up because I said what really happened. Remembered some things, having read in high school, The Old Man in the Sea and some books that he wrote.
Won a prize Nobel Prize for Literature.
He had four wives.
Never found something a relationship that satisfied.
Countless mistresses apart from that.
He traveled around.
I remember reading something in a flight magazine one time on a look alike contest and a right a right something like Ernest Hemingway rights that takes place in Key West, FL was one of the favorite places he had to hang out. He made it to Pamplona, Spain for the running of the bulls. He came to Quito, Ecuador on multiple occasions during the bull fighting season.
He had money, he had fame, he evidently had his choice of.
Different women that he traded and disposed of like they were used tissue, if facial tissue or something like that, never found satisfaction, what did it say about him in that? What did he write? He said all thinkers are atheists.
In your brain you have, and I have, approximately 100 billion neurons.
If you take a dual core chip from Intel and a laptop computer, it has about 300 million transistors. Your brain has 100 billion neurons and through those transistors, if it goes back to the chip, it either goes electric or in or out. But the electrical electrochemical neurons that you have in your brain have a potential connection.
And gaps for the synapse to.
Depending upon where they are between 200 and 1000 other.
Neurons.
100 billion neurons in your brain and something that only weighs perhaps a pound and a half.
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And yet it consumes 20% of the oxygen that our body uses.
Is actually used by the brain.
It doesn't have any opportunities where you unplug it, shut it down.
Change the battery, reformat it, or anything like that has to keep going from the time you're born until the time you die.
How are you using that brain?
Ernest Hemingway said all thinkers are atheists.
In 1961, he was in the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN to deal with this extreme case of depression and his problems with alcohol.
He was led out and they later decided it was premature. He went to Ketchum, ID and ended his life.
Committed suicide.
All thinkers are atheists.
What was he thinking?
He never stopped, evidently, and repented. He never stopped evidently, and thought again about what really mattered. And you can pick up the newspaper. You can get on yahoo.com online and check out the headlines and their entertainers. There's actresses, there's singers, there's actors.
And see anything beyond the headlines, you know?
That they're having problems, they're having difficulties.
You know, they may be able to pick up a phone and say have a private jet for me.
At the airport that's just here South of Crystal Lake, and I want to fly out at 8:00 PM tonight.
They may be able to write a check for that with no problem at all or whatever. They may have the fame and fortune, but if they've never stopped and repented, never stopped and thought again.
They're in no better shape than Ernest Hemingway.
And so I want to read some verses and we'll spend the rest of our time together in Philippians chapter 4, verses that have already been read in these meetings. Just one verse and you can stay there. We'll read some verses about it, but.
Some instructions about what God says to think about Philippians chapter 4.
And verse 8.
Finally, brethren, and I'm going to stop there.
It's wonderful to have the time together at a weekend like this for those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior.
It's wonderful to have the time together, to have the Word of God together, to open together and to be able to read it.
It's wonderful to have the privilege to be able to pray together. It's wonderful to have the privilege.
To be able to remember the Lord Jesus and his death together for those of us who can call each other.
Brethren.
I don't think very many of us, some of us are very much missing loved ones that we're not with. I think very many of us are saying, well, you know, that was boring. I'm glad that's over. I sure don't feel that way.
But if you don't find yourself included in those who are talks about it, the beginning of this verse, brethren.
Want you to stop and think about something for a minute.
Just a reminder to you this evening.
That there's one thing that God.
Who prepares for everything?
That needs to be prepared for.
The Bible never talks, to my knowledge, about him preparing a place for those who refuse the gospel.
Never talks about him preparing a place for those who say no to his instruction to repent and to believe God is prepared a wonderful place for those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. Lord Jesus himself said I go to prepare a place for you that wasn't to get a construction crew together to put together some mansions in heaven and and get some gold streets put together with the street crew and and get ready that.
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The fountain that would go from the throne and the trees planted and things I go to prepare a place for you was the work he went to do on Calvary's cross.
All the rest he could do with the word of his mouth.
Because he's God, what he couldn't do with the word of his mouth was to pay the price.
For your sins and my sins. And so it says here finally, brethren, are you included in those or brethren?
He went to prepare that, to prepare a place for us by going to the cross of Calvary.
He prepared a place for the devil and his angels.
Never says he prepared a place for the lost.
Because it doesn't make any sense that God would offer a full and free salvation and someone would refuse it.
But being in heaven would be a horrible place to be if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Can you imagine being trapped in heaven and hearing the praise of the Lord Jesus? Hearing the worship of the Lord Jesus that will pour out for all eternity?
And your being there as his enemy, because that's what you are tonight if you do not know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Can you imagine being stuck in heaven for all eternity? So God says I'm not going to put him there.
So the only alternative left is the place that was prepared for the devil and his angels.
The eternal fire of judgment in the Lake of Fire.
It doesn't say it was prepared for human beings.
But God doesn't have any other alternative.
It's not making three places, you made two.
Which one are you going to spend eternity in? Are you one of the brethren? The first thing is whatsoever things are true.
We've heard this afternoon.
And these days, just.
And second John, that true or truth five times. Third John, six times.
The Gospel of John and another books that word is repeated. We're living living in a world that's absolutely full of lies. I found it interesting to go.
By on Friday afternoon on Lake Street in in Addison and drive by a sign that says Navigado Realty.
26.
Or 27 years ago, with three other brothers, we rented a house. It was handled through Navajo Realty. And if you ask any of the other three, without prepping them for the question, what do you think of when you think of Don Navigato?
Says he's a liar.
Thought it was kind of ironic. When I looked at the sign there was a small hole on one side of the sign and if you drove around you drove beyond and on the other side there was a wide hole.
I don't know, just speculating, but I wonder if he didn't have someone so frustrated with his lies if they didn't take a gun and shoot a hole in the sign.
A liar. You couldn't trust a thing the man said.
Would you want to put your eternity in the hands of someone who you could not completely fully?
Trusts.
It's too important a decision.
Don't leave your eternity in the hands of anyone other than the one who said I am the way.
The truth and the life if we look in John chapter 8 just to see a verse quickly.
John, chapter 8, verse 13.
The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself.
Thy record is not true.
That's what they said.
They were religious, represent the religious world.
They said, thy record is not true. The Lord Jesus answered them. Jesus answered and said, them, Though I bear record, yet record is true whence I came, and whither I go.
You judge after the flush.
Of two men is true.
I am the one that bears witness of myself and the Father that sent me.
There spoke with a voice.
Said This is my beloved son.
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So that there could be no doubt as to who it was who was born in the Manger in Bethlehem.
Voice came from heaven. This is my beloved Son. It's one testimony the Lord Jesus gave testimony of himself, not only in what he said, but what he did.
If you're going to make important decisions in life or I'm going to make important decisions in life.
You want to check out the information. If you're going to buy a house, you want to make sure that the title is clear. If someone's going to hire an employee, they're going to want to try to find out what they can under the limitation of the information that people will give in 2007, what the references are like.
It's too important a decision. It's not that you or I sit in any way to judge God, but God says.
Check the references, make sure what you're deciding on.
Let's check the references for Mohammed.
Claimed to be a prophet.
And books that are written apart from the Koran and things claims that if someone.
Gives their life up a promise of immediate.
Glorification and being surrounded by.
Blasphemous even. Say it, and they won't.
Mohammed rotted away a long time ago in a grave in Mecca and people will go by the millions to surround it. And we heard there's a billion people in that today that will follow that. Check out the references.
Still dead in the grave.
A billion people who said that's what I'm going to follow.
Go to India or other places and walk around the streets and never been there but they talk about how the cows can roam free.
And.
They're gods.
And it was right about the man who said, I'm if it's a God, I'm going to stand and study it so I can learn everything I possibly can from a cow. And he stood there and studied him for several days until the cow charged him and he had to get out of the way.
Check out the references.
The beef you had in the sandwich a few an hour or two ago wasn't from God.
Foolish.
Go over to Buddha.
The Buddhists, they've had some good things to say.
But he can't keep up the statues that are made of him when people decide to topple them.
When you come back to the Lord Jesus Christ, everything he said is true.
You can read it and reread it, and if it doesn't make sense, it's not because it's wrong, it's because we don't understand it yet.
But he said in Philippians chapter 4, whatsoever is true if you're going to go.
And put your eternity in any hands. Put it in the hands of one. It was true. The second thing, whatsoever things are.
Honest.
Go to Titus.
Chapter One.
Very well known verse.
Go from verse one. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
According to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth.
Which is after godliness and hope of eternal life, Which God that cannot die, lie, and cannot die too promised before the world began.
Honest.
And that word goes perhaps beyond honest English doesn't really maybe have a word that encompasses all that's in that word.
The margin that says venerable. In another translation it says noble.
We could just say it this way. He's the one who's fit to be King of Kings.
And Lord of Lords, it's all wrapped up in one who is completely honest.
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Politicians come in in countries and promise to eliminate corruption, and then the question is how long does it go before you start to see the corruption in their own lives and in their own governments? Because there are people made out of the same stuff that you and I are made out of. But when we talk about the Lord Jesus, it says that he is honest or noble.
The third.
Whatsoever things just and keep it there if you want to turn with me into a verse in Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 45.
The end of verse 21.
There's no God else beside me.
A just God and a savior.
There is none beside me.
Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth.
For I am God, and there is none else.
We're living in a world that's totally confused. We're living in a world where people like Ernest Hemingway proclaimed that there is no God.
It's nothing new. In Psalm chapter 53, it says what God's title or appreciation of that? He said. The fool is set in his heart. There's no God. You go and talk to someone else and they say, yes, I believe there's a God. It's me.
There's other people that are saying I'm making advances, I'm trying to become God.
I think it's ironic that the highest suicide rate among women in the United States is in the state of Utah.
Who told about bidding? Godspeed in these days. And they come to the door and ring and knock and want to talk.
And they wouldn't say it at the first visit, but if you could go a little further with the Mormon, they would say God was a man who advanced to become God. And men can advance to become gods. Women can't. Lest many women in the state of Utah distressed because they say, if the men can't, why can't I? And it's been the cause of many of them ending their own lives, A God who started out as man.
Is worthless as God.
But a man who began as God and retained.
His place as God and became a man is the key to your eternal salvation and mine. What a difference between the lie that says God started out as a man and became God and the truth of the Word of God that says the Lord Jesus is God, become man Incarnate in the flesh.
Look unto me and be saved. It's the only place to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Eternal.
God the Son, the Savior. Let's go back to our chapter.
Whatsoever things are pure.
Turn to it, but in Psalm 12.
Time is running out. Psalm chapter 12 and verse 6.
The words of the Lord are pure words.
As silver tried in a furnace of earth.
Purified 7 times.
Chapter 19 of Psalm Psalm 19, verse eight. The last part, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
There's a myth it may have may have happened sometime, but it's a story that goes around in in South America where they're very common anymore, but used to be quite common. That milk would come in the same large milk jugs that would be used by.
Small farmers, small dairy producers.
And people would come around to the.
And ring a bell in the street.
And then they those jugs, they would. The thing is, the person would take a pail or something to be able to get the milk in and go out to the street and the person would pour it out. And the story goes, I'd be surprised if it's happened, but at least there's a message there. Someone asked one of the people selling milk. What?
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Can you guarantee me is this milk pure? Oh yes, this is absolutely pure. It's.
Nothing. Just straight from the cow and the person standing there and outcomes the milk and outcomes the fish with the milk.
Well, most of the time it's not adulterated with water from a river.
But The thing is, there's a lot of claims to something being pure in this world.
Messages, people and everything else but the only absolutely pure one.
Of any person who's ever lived is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And his word is pure, but you've got in your hand is pure.
If you haven't read it, encourage you to read it.
Don't wait to be saved until you've read it all. Start perhaps in a place like the Gospel of John.
But it's the book that will give you the answers for life.
Two days ago I got an e-mail from my wife and I mentioned it to some of the brothers in the prayer meeting.
There's a there's a world where we live in the meeting rooms next door in the same property and things, and there's a large gospel verse painted on the front wall. There's a park across the street and people come to play. Children play in the park, adults come to play soccer and other things.
A woman brought her children, some of her children, to that park lives a few blocks up the street.
And noticed that on the wall was painted this verse said to someone, what is that there? And they said, oh, some sort of church or something. So she came and rang the bell.
In the month of June, if I remember correctly, I wasn't there. My wife answered the bell.
Woman's name was Gloria and came into the house, invited her down to talk.
She came in and.
Was sobbing.
A woman with a number of children with a husband who shows up to start the process of having children again, but seldom provides anything for the family.
It's probably off living with another woman.
She was pregnant, desperate with children that were already in their late teens.
Broke down.
She said I didn't know what to do. She said I didn't know how I could take care of another baby. And I said something to a neighbor and she said look who get you something.
She went and bought a pill at a pharmacy and the woman took it.
And before very long, she went into labor.
Went off to the hospital.
Delivered the baby.
And the baby was gasping for breath on a table, and she watched that baby for a period of four or five or six hours.
Until the baby died there, on the table in front of her eyes.
I can't imagine after having watched our three girls being born.
So I said the woman didn't love children. She was desperate. She didn't stop and count what was going to happen. She says what can happen for a person like me. She said I've killed my baby and it wasn't just something in the horrible thing where they'll take a pair of forceps and crush a head, as is done by the doctors who are aborting babies right and left all over the world.
Crush it. They reach in and crush the head.
Like it was a doll. Like our brother John was showing this morning.
Many of them go through trauma, but this woman has gone through an incredible trauma because she said my little girl was there and there was absolutely nothing I could do and there was nothing that doctors could do to bring her back from heading into an eternity.
What, for a person like me, was her cry?
So my wife said it was sin. It was a wrong thing.
But she said there's someone who loves us in spite of what we are.
And you and I are no different than that woman, are no different than Ernest Hemingway or anyone who's ever walked the face of this earth other than the Lord Jesus Christ and what our hearts are.
She reminded her of 1 positive message, and that message was that little girl who you saw, your girl who you.
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Did something that you should never have done, but you did it, she said. That girl is with the Lord Jesus Christ.
As before it could ever reach the age of being responsible. And he said that told her that the Lord Jesus loved her too.
And wanted to save her.
We didn't have any food for a family. Husband hadn't brought any. She's said she wasn't. She didn't ask for any. But she said, you know, sometimes I say to my children, I don't have anything to give them in the morning. She said, go out. And when you go to school, do you go to where you're working in some sort of helping somewhere where you bring in a little bit of income? She says, go with a smile on your face, even if you don't have anything in your stomach. I floated up a bag of everything she possibly could to send up the hill with her and gave her one of the things. She gave her a Bible.
Said read this whenever you want to Come talk. Come talk. We were away when she came and knocked on the door the next time in the month of July.
But on Thursday of this week, she came back and she said.
I've read this book.
From cover to cover.
She said In this book I found things that have given me comfort.
That nothing else has given me. So I've gotten some comfort from this book, but she says now I've got a lot of questions, she said at the time. I can be off work, so can I come with the questions on Tuesdays at 4:00 PM?
You don't have to convince this woman. Her name is Gloria, which translated into English as Glory, and I hope that's where I'm going to see her someday. You don't have to convince that woman she's a Sinner. Do you recognize tonight you're a Sinner? I'm a Sinner. The only way I can stand up here is because I'm a Sinner saved by Grace, not because of anything I've done.
But I hope the Spirit of God has started the work in glorious heart, because she recognizes the first point.
That she is the center. The second thing she recognizes that that sin is so serious that she recognizes that if something isn't done, God has to judge her for it.
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, can you perhaps pray too for Gloria?
She's read a living book from cover to cover. Have you ever read this living book from cover to cover?
Because the next thing in our verse, it says whatsoever things are lovely. Song of Solomon, just one quick verse.
Song of Solomon.
Chapter 5.
And verse 16.
His mouth his most sweet.
Yeah, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved.
This is my friend.
The longer you spend with someone, the more you realize it on each other the imperfections that there are.
The more you examine the Lord Jesus Christ.
The more you realize how absolutely lovely and perfect he is in everything.
No distorted part of his personality. That one thing sticks out and fails at another like every human being, but examined from every point of view.
His lovely our time is up but just very quick thing years ago some of us.
An opportunity of hearing Brother Eric Smith speak on different occasions. He said one time he said people ask in Bolivia. He said why? Why are there 4 gospels? And he tried to explain it. And he finally said one day let's go for a hike. They walked around the mountain and they looked at that mountain from 4 different compass points. And at each compass point he said which mountain is it? They named the name of the mountain. They went on to the next compass point from north to West to southeast or on the side which side they started on.
And each one, he said. Which mountain is it we're looking at? It's this mountain, he said. Does it look exactly the same? No.
God has given us four books at the beginning of the New Testament that tell us.
So much about the Lord Jesus Christ because he wants to know that even seen from different points of view there was number.
Conflicts, but the more that he could be seen, the more we could realize that he's altogether lovely. And so the last thing in the verse, and I wish we had time to do it. It says whatsoever things are of good report. Take a gospel like the Gospel of John and go read through it and find out what people had to say about the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who were there, their eyewitnesses of him.
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And you'll find that the reports are good.
You know the one who loves you, the one who is true.
Let's read it again and close with prayer in Philippians chapter 4 whatsoever things are true.
Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure.
Whatsoever things are lovely. Whatsoever things are.
Of good report.
If there be any virtue and if there be any praise.
Use.
Those 100 billion neurons you have?
Inside Ukrainian.
To think on these things.
And may it get from our brain.
To our hearts and get from our hearts to our feet.
To respond to our lips, to every part of our being, in response to the One who is all that we have here, and much more. Can we just thank Him?