Gospel—D. Buchanan
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There is a Savior on high in the glory, the Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A Savior is willing to save now as ever. His arm is almighty, His love great and free.
Oh come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior. Receive him this moment, and peace shall be thine hymn #10 on our hymn sheet. I'd like to ask everyone to rise and respect for the one we're singing to.
Lord.
Is there anyone in this room that's not saved?
Is there anyone in this room that wants to be saved?
That's what we're here for.
The Gospel. How to be saved.
Today we've had some wonderful ministries, some wonderful truths of God, the blessings that God has poured out.
My heart couldn't help but think of those words of the Lord Jesus.
Blessed are your ears, for they hear.
Blessed are your eyes, for they see.
Have you received that blessing?
Are you just here as a listener?
Has it only got to your ears or has it got down into your heart?
Are you really saved?
That's what the gospel is.
I'd like to begin with a couple of verses in Romans chapter 10.
To introduce our subject tonight.
The Savior on high in the Glory in Romans chapter 10.
And remember, dear children, young people and all this book that we have in our hands, that's going to be our text and we're going to speak from is God's Word. I believe it's the inspired word of God.
I have based my soul salvation on it and many here have.
My whole welfare, my all, I know it's true.
I believe you can find out. It's true too. We can believe what this book says. It's truth. It's what God has revealed to us, the revelation, what God wrote down for us to read and understand. And it's not too difficult to understand if you pay attention to it.
And we're going to read a few verses from Romans 10, beginning with the sixth verse.
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise.
Say not in thy heart who shall ascend into heaven.
That is, to bring Christ down from above.
Or who shall descend into the deep?
That is to bring up Christ from the dead. But what saith it? The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the Word of Faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
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Oh, how wonderful are these words. Thou shalt be saved. The gospel message is brought near to us, and it's introduced here about righteousness, how we obtain righteousness before God. And that reminds us that our God is a holy God, a righteous God. When God does things, he does them right.
And there's no getting around.
But God has done things, and He's done it well.
And it's good for us to listen to what it is to take it in.
The righteousness which is of faith. We've had much about faith in these days and this day.
And it's the subject is introduced by a question. Say not in thy heart, who shall ascend into heaven?
Oh beloved, we've had much about heaven today and I wanted to speak about.
Heaven.
God has sent something down from heaven.
He sent the Lord Jesus from heaven.
We don't any longer have to ask that question. God has already revealed something from heaven and He has gone back to heaven as our Savior as we were singing. There is a Savior on high in the glory.
You remember hearing once about a preacher that went down to South America, down in Bolivia.
And he needed to obtain an audience in a train station. And so at the train station, after the train had stopped, he walked out, walked out in front of everybody and reached down and grabbed his boots and started tugging on him and pulling on him and lifting himself and.
Making a scene there, as it were, to draw attention because he wanted them to listen.
And he spoke about lifting himself up to heaven. He couldn't do it. And he tried, and he pulled on his boots and he couldn't lift himself up. Now the simplest child here knows that's ridiculous.
That's not the question. How do I lift myself up to heaven? The question has already been answered for you. The same man who came down from heaven has gone back into heaven.
And He's a savior, and He wants to take you there too. He wants to wash your sins away. He wants to make you righteous.
And he wants to take you with himself and make you part of his family and to live there for all eternity.
And so the question is not to be asked, How can I ascend up there? That's already answered, dear child. Your older one, the Lord Jesus has answered it for us. He's already made the way open.
The Lord Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh under the Father, but by me. That's the way.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
That's the way to be saved. It's so simple.
Believing in your heart.
God counts as righteous when we do what He tells us to do. There are many examples of that in the Bible.
But then the Lord, then the apostle here asks another question. Who shall descend into the deep?
That is, to bring Christ again from the dead.
That reminds us of what the Lord Jesus did when he was on Calvary's cross.
When he took my sins there. When he died for you, dear friend.
And when he went, as it were, down into the deep, into the darkness of the earth, when sin was laid upon him there, and he answered to God for all those sins, and.
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Put them all away.
Die.
We don't need to go exploring anymore to find out the answer to that question. Here it is, and it's a part of the gospel. The Lord Jesus died for you and me.
The question has been answered.
All there is left to do is to believe the Lord Jesus did it all.
There on the cross.
Say not into thy in thy heart who shall descend into the deep.
But this reminds us, dear friend, of another issue.
The two destinies for every soul here. Heaven.
And hell.
The awfulness of hell.
The lake of fire, eternal burning.
God uses descriptive language to warn us.
He has told us about these things.
I have a neighbor.
Who works in the oil field?
I don't think he was saved when this accident happened and he was working on an oil rig one day pulling pipe out.
And all of a sudden there was an explosion of gas from the well and the whole rig and Derrick and everything was on fire and he was in the middle of a fire.
And his body was burned on about 70%.
And he went through months and months of rehabilitation.
I asked him about it, what it was like.
To be, to burn, to be burned. He almost died, he says. It's awful.
Why did God tell us about that?
Because he doesn't want us to go there, dear friend.
He doesn't want you to pay for your own sins.
Say not in thy heart who shall descend into the deep, yet beyond that point right now at the beginning of this gospel, and start looking at the Savior on high in the glory, the Lord Jesus.
That's why he came.
That's why we're having this gospel meeting tonight.
And He's here for you tonight too, if by faith, if you just trust Him as your Savior.
This is the Word. The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the Word of Faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, or Jesus as Lord.
Make him as the Lord of your life.
And have you confessed him? Maybe there's been, maybe there's some boys and girls here in this room.
That thing they have believed in their heart. The Lord Jesus is their Savior. They've trusted in Him.
But maybe you haven't confessed him yet. That's a very important part of this verse confession. You know nobody around in this room will know it if you don't confess it. The Lord knows when you believe. And if there's some boy or girl right now who wants to take the more Jesus as your Savior, you can do that right now. You can believe in your heart. That's what the verse says. And I hope that after this meeting is over, or if you can't wait until the meeting is over, you can do it right now to somebody that's sitting beside you. I'll give you that permission.
And if you even wanted to come up here and share it, I would even let you do that.
Because that's exactly what I'm doing too.
The Lord Jesus saved me when I was a little boy. I trusted in Him. Oh how wonderful that He could save me.
And I want you to know about him too. I want you to be saved.
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Now we're talking about a Savior on high in glory.
And I would like now to go back to the Gospel of John and notice a few.
Verses in that gospel about the Savior that came from heaven.
And that went back to heaven.
Because this is how the Gospel got down to where we are. That's why it's near us. That's why you don't have to go anywhere to get it. It's accessible right here. Because the Lord Jesus came from God himself, The Son of God, born here, of the Virgin Mary, lived a life here on earth, took our place there on Calvary's cross, and died. But he didn't remain in the grave. He rose again.
On the third day.
And he was seen of many witnesses that tell us about it and wrote a part of this book that we're reading, the Bible.
And then, blessed be his name, he went back to heaven.
As a man and sent down the Spirit of God to save us.
So let's go back to the first chapter of John's Gospel and look at a few cases.
Because in this gospel we have the Son of God.
The one who dwelt in all eternity in God's heart, in heaven with the Father. It's called the Word, the expression of what is in first in the first verse.
We need words to express action or things. And so when God wanted to make himself known, he sent the word, the expression of himself. And so the Lord Jesus is that he made known to us here on earth everything that God was in heaven, so that we could know it. Because if God hadn't made himself known.
What would we know about him?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. John one verse one.
The word was gone. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
This is God beginning his work, the revelation of himself. He's making himself known.
In the gospel, we don't come here to do something. We don't come here to join a church.
We come to see what God has already done and made known and presents to us to receive by faith.
Just accept God for what he has told us. Believe it except.
And it's yours.
Now we'll drop down a little bit. Verse 14. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
He dwelt among us.
God came down, dear friend.
And he's down here by the Spirit tonight to make it good to your soul, if you'll have him.
Will you have the Lord Jesus? Will you have God's Son? Will you let him take your life and make it what he wants it to be?
Or do you have another plan for your life? I speak to the young men and the young ladies.
That have grown a little and learned a little more the pleasures of life, the joys, the good things that God gave us to be able to enjoy. How are you going to use it, dear young man?
Are you going to use it selfishly for yourself?
Or are you going to turn it over and let the Lord Jesus make you what He wants you to be?
God has come down.
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The fullness of His person has been revealed to us. There ought to be no questions now what God is like. He isn't just some unknown thing, powerful thing offered a long distance. He's near you, dear friend, and He wants to bless you.
God didn't come down to reveal salvation to other creatures, the angels or spirits.
Or other beings or animals.
He came to make.
Himself known to mankind.
The word was made flesh, human being.
For you and me to get near and to know.
Now we'll drop down a little farther in the chapter.
Verse 29.
The next day John see if Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God.
Which taketh away the sin of the world.
This also is a part of the gospel.
The sin question What about your sins, dear friend? Has it been taken care of?
What about?
Do you have peace in your heart about those sins?
Are they taken care of? Has the Lord Jesus taken those sins of yours? Have you let Him?
Be your savior.
John the Baptist spoke about him.
The one who takes away the sin of the world.
He didn't come to condemn, he came to take away the sins.
All of them. And one day he's going to do that.
And there will only be two places to be then.
With the saved where the sins are removed, or with the lost the condemned, with the sins still upon them.
How wonderful that Jesus came.
To take away our sins. He wants to do that tonight to you too. But we must pass on a little farther down.
I'd just like to notice one little more episode in the first chapter verse.
30 and verse 47.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him.
And saith to him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.
Nathaniel said unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
Nathaniel answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I saw thee. But I said, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, Believe the style. Thou shalt see greater things than these.
And he said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open.
And the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
Heaven opened, dear friend.
This is what the Lord Jesus has done. He's beginning to speak about it here to Nathaniel.
This was the first time I believe that Nathaniel had come in contact with the Lord Jesus.
And the first thing that the Lord Jesus says to Nathaniel was that he had seen what Nathaniel was doing previously.
My dear friend.
When we deal with God, we're dealing with one who knows all things.
And I must send faithfulness to your soul, tell you that God knows all about your life.
And all about mine.
But don't think that just because he knows about you that he doesn't love or care for you.
He cares for you very much.
Nathaniel accepted this word that the Lord Jesus had said about him.
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He took him up for what he professed to know about him, and he admitted that he was the Son of God. God knows everything. God was there in the midst of those people, revealing himself to them, and the people didn't run away scared.
No, they wanted to know more about him and I hope that's the result of this meeting tonight, dear friend.
That as you get to know more about the Lord Jesus, that instead of wanting to run away from Him.
You want to get closer to him.
If you understand him properly, that will be the result.
So Nathaniel recognizes him, the all knowing God, the Son of God here.
But what blessing the Lord Jesus in the very beginning he speaks about heaven opened.
You know what? It was going to cost the Lord Jesus to open up the heavens that that blessing come down here on earth.
It was going to cost him his life on Calvary's cross to become the center bearer, to take away the sin of the world, to make a way where a holy God and sinful creatures, human beings like us, could be near God blessed here on earth.
Or better yet, as we've had during these meetings in heaven.
In heaven.
You see?
We need to be saved even to enjoy life here on Earth.
But you also need to be saved if you're going to go to heaven. That's the only way. No other way to the Father but by me.
We'll turn over to the third chip to the second chapter now.
Chapter 2 of John's Gospel and verse 23.
Now when he, Jesus, was at Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed on his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man's.
There came there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, or truly, truly I say unto thee.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom.
Of God.
I'd like to comment on this just a little before we go on.
Probably most everybody in this room has heard the gospel many times already.
It's easy for us, those of us who have heard the gospel.
For those of us who have been raised in Christian homes to take things for granted.
And that's why I want to notice a little bit about Nicodemus. You see, Nicodemus was kind of like like that. He took a lot of things for granted and he approached the Lord. He had seen the miracles. He had an appreciation for the Lord. He called him Rabbi.
He appreciated much.
But you notice that the Lord didn't commit himself unto them, for He knew what was in man.
You see?
What this really tells us is that man can't be trusted.
Are you trusting in your own heart, or are you trusting in somebody else?
Be careful.
These same people that were professing to recognize Jesus here on earth were those who affused years later said away with them, crucify him.
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Why the change?
Man's heart can't be trusted, dear friend.
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, the Scripture says.
God didn't send his son down here just to be received that the best people here on earth would receive him and recognize him and they would be the blessed and everybody else would be banished. That's not the gospel message. And I think that's a little bit what Nicodemus was thinking about here and his means of approaching.
And if you're here tonight in the gospel meeting with some attitude that there's some goodness in your own heart, beware.
You've got a sorry lesson to learn.
Take God for His work. He didn't trust in man's heart.
For what they would do, he knew that when the right circumstances came, they would reject him.
And they proved it later on.
No, but God isn't thwarted by man's.
Evil ways.
He still brings salvation down.
God has done it at such a cost.
And he wanted to save Nicodemus.
And so the Lord tells him Nicodemus.
You're coming to me on the wrong basis.
We can't get together as good buddies here. Just because I'm good and you associate with me won't make you good either.
That isn't how you get saved. Just mixing with the crowd here won't save your soul. Dear friend, you must be born again. You've got to start out with a new life. You've got to start out with the life that the Lord gives.
That's what he was telling Nicodemus.
It's not man making himself fit for God's Kingdom.
God's presence.
It's just as ridiculous As for that preacher of the gospel.
Who reached down and tried to pull himself up to heaven with his bootstraps.
That's how ridiculous it is.
But God has made a way.
The Lord Jesus came.
He was there visiting Nicodemus expressly to save his soul. He wanted him to be saved.
It's come down from heaven to earth.
Salvation is here.
Now let's go on in our story.
We'll drop down in John 3.
Verse 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and you receive not our witness, if I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not.
How shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven.
This seems rather difficult for an educated man.
To understand that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
And Nicodemus was reasoning humanly, trying to understand that with his head, and it didn't make sense to him.
God didn't send the gospel message just to the best.
The most educated people or with the best reasoning heads.
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I'm glad that God didn't make salvation only available to smart people.
Oh, we were singing.
That he calls the wretched and the blind.
Is there someone here, wretched, Miserable.
Can understand things. Life is complicated for you.
Or difficult come to the Savior.
He wants to save you.
It's not a question of the mind.
Question of your heart. The willingness of your heart to submit to God.
The Lord Jesus spoke of that which He knew.
It's very well substantiated, it's very true.
And he tells Nicodemus, if I have told you of earthly things.
Ye believe not. How shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly? You see, the Lord Jesus in this gospel is getting ready to unfold heavenly. Thanks.
And that's what we want for you, dear friend, tonight.
The wonders of heaven God has opened up for sinners like you and me, and He wants to share it there with us.
Will you come?
Will you accept what God is offering?
Verse 13. No man hath ascended up to heaven.
But he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man.
Which is in heaven.
It's so plain, no man ascends up to heaven.
Say not, who shall ascend up into heaven?
That is by our own means.
The means has already been made.
The Lord Jesus came down from heaven.
Do you believe that?
But he didn't stay here on Earth.
He went back to heaven.
He's gone back there and if we would read the gospel through, we would see the rest of the story.
But I want you to notice one other little clause in this verse. The Scriptures are so wonderful, says he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven.
There is a certain sense in which the Lord Jesus.
Never left heaven.
There is a sense in which He was always enjoying the Father in heaven, even when he was here on earth and He was making known what it's like there in heaven so that you and I could go there, enjoy it with Him.
That's so wonderful to think that the Lord Jesus would want us. You see, the Gospel isn't just a fire escape for hell from hell.
The Gospel is much more than that. Oh yes.
If you're not saved, you're on your way to a burning fire of hell.
But there is a Heather.
There is a place of bliss where Jesus wants to share with you what he has won and where He has entered in.
And this is what he wants, Nicodemus.
To participate in, to take, to make his own. Now let's go on here, verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever eternal life.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
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Now we come to the part that tells us how we can get saved, how you can make this salvation yours.
We have seen that the Lord Jesus came down from heaven here on earth, made known to us all the things that God wanted him to make known.
He went to the cross. He died there on Calvary's cross.
For our sins, he went back to heaven afterwards.
And he tells us how we can make this.
Our own and it's he uses the illustration of the serpent in the wilderness.
And most of the boys and girls here will remember the story in Moses days of how when there were those.
Poisonous.
Serpents and they were biting the people, and people were dying all over the place.
It was a serious condition and the people said take away the serpents.
But God had a better way.
God didn't just take away the serpents, He sent a Savior. He sent a remedy and he told Moses to make a serpent of brass, which it was the picture of the Lord Jesus who was going to be the sin mare that was going to be lifted up. And everybody that looked at that serpent of brass was immediately healed.
Now, whatever doctor has ever invented a cure that good in the world today?
That's how God does things so well, dear friend.
God does something. He does it well.
All they had to do to be cured when they were bitten by those poisonous serpents was look.
At that serpent of brass, and they were healed.
Wonders. And that's all you have to do to be safe.
Look to the man that was lifted up on Calvary's cross and died there for your sins.
A look of fame.
How easy, how wonderful.
You know I'm all the time getting mail.
Get all these splendid advertisements in the mail.
You know, I think that Satan has is working in this country to destroy the gospel message in this way.
So many false claims are out there.
I suppose maybe once or twice a month I get in the mail these advertisements. You have won $10 million.
Have you ever gotten that some of the older folks may may relate to this a little better.
You see, there's all kinds of gimmicks out there, but they're false.
They are not true.
And people are becoming hardened.
To God's offer because of it, and I believe that at Satan's way.
Of making unbelievers out of us.
Why is it also that you go out on the street and offer gospel tracts?
And people refuse.
They probably had an experience with some false witness.
Or some bad experience?
With religion.
But not with Christ.
For a cup.
For he is genuine.
My dear friend, take God at His word. It's real when God says it. Don't be duped because of all these false claims with the little fine print down below. And sometimes it takes more than one page to fill all that fine print. And if you'd ever took the time to read it, you'd probably be tired by the end of it. You decide it wasn't worthwhile to try to win that so-called free gift.
Oh dear friend, God doesn't deal that way.
He's genuine, he's true, everything he says.
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Is true and we can trust it.
Just because it's so easy, as it were, to be saved, that is, it's so accessible to salvation, is so accessible to us, so that all we have to do is look with faith to the Lord Jesus, doesn't mean that it's not real like many other things in life.
Oh, God has made it so easy to express our faith. You know, I think of another lady who wanted to be blessed and she came to the Lord and she didn't have very much faith and she was a little bit of ashamed of her life and the results of it. And so she came up behind the Lord and touched the border of His garment from behind with faith. And the Lord knew it the moment she had touched him.
A dear one.
If you put your finger on a verse of scripture and read it.
And touch it and accept it for your soul. You'll find that God will do what He says in that verse. You can do it.
As Moses was lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believe us in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Notice it doesn't even say that whosoever looks to him, if there was a blind person here in the room, they would be shut out if you had to look.
Now their God is made it successful for the blind. They can hear, and they can say with their mouth.
Or if those who don't have a mouth to speak, they can look.
Or you can touch.
In many ways, faith can express itself. Why? Because God wanted to make it so accessible.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son the.
Gospel cost God very much.
He had to give his son.
When you think about the blessed Son of God, they're giving up his life for you and me there on Calvary's cross and how God looked down upon him at that time.
His only son.
Oh, it ought to cause you to want to turn your heart over to Him.
To turn your whole life over to live and serve for him the rest of your life.
It's a wonderful thing to get saved when you're young.
Sometimes Satan, you know, will say to us, oh, salvation is for the old people. When you're getting ready to die, then yes, it's time to get saved. When you're about ready to leave this world.
That's a lie of Satan, dear friend. It's better to be able to live for Christ now.
This whole life through then wait till you're old and about to die. And besides that, not everybody gets old before they die either. Beware, don't play with God dear friend.
Heard the gospel, dear boy and girl, are you waiting?
Are you indecisive about your soul?
Are you saying no to the Lord Jesus? Are you saying wait a while?
We have no promise tomorrow.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Oh, we could spend the whole hour on this gospel of verse, the greatest gospel verse of all the Bible. It gives it the seven greatest things here, the wonderful things that God has done at such a cost.
Now I'd like to go just between closing before we to the latter part of this chapter, the 31St verse.
He that cometh from above is above all.
He that is of the earth is earthy, and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard, that he testifies her telling. And no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true.
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This is faith. God is true. God said it. You may believe it and count on it with all your heart. He that cometh from above came down here to earth to make us known, make us know of salvation.
Is reliable. You can trust in him with all your heart. He'll never disappoint you.
Shall we close in prayer?
Our God and our Father.