Gospel—D. Jaeger
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Greetings.
We have before us an hour in which we trust, with the help of God, to present the most wonderful message this world could receive. That is the gospel. And gospel means glad tidings, good news. And we hope that in what is said, we'll make it very clear as to why that gospel is good news. Shall we begin our meeting this evening by standing and singing Hymn #6?
On him she hymn number six, and as you're standing I'll read part of it. God and mercy sent his Son to a world by sin undone. Jesus Christ was crucified to us for sinners. Jesus died. Oh, the glory of the grace shining in the Savior's face telling sinners from above. God is light and God is love Number six.
Now I just want to say a brief word about myself, not to make anything of myself, but to point out that.
At any time, one who was yet in their sins can put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's never too late, nor is it too early. In fact, God's Word says today is the accepted time. Now is the accepted time to put one's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In my case, I was 29 years old.
Some here may find that hard to believe, but it's true. I was 29 years old when I finally heard a clear gospel.
And accepted what I found in God's word through the help of a very godly brother. And since that time I have been supremely blessed and happy and at peace. So you're looking at a man that has experienced that and that one could not say I was raised to believe that I was raised in a home of a lovely mother and father, very moral, But they themselves had no light from God's word.
And I'm happy to say that by the time the Lord took them, they both had to confess Christ as their Savior, much to my joy.
But the thing that would disturb my peace and happiness tonight is to think that there are.
Possibly some in this room who have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their own savior.
You know, one of the things that you find as you go through life and you speak to others about the Lord Jesus is that they often have notions which they have. Oh, I believe that God is fair, or that my good deeds outnumber my bad and things of that nature. I just want to quote a verse from the book of Proverbs which is spoken very strongly to my own heart. And the verse is as follows. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man.
But the end thereof.
Are the ways of death, and that's an interesting bit of.
Word structure because it says there is a way, singular, that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof, meaning all the different ways that men have apart from this book that we're holding tonight, are the ways of death. So it is not what man thinks, it's what God has told us in this book.
And the reason I say that is I'm going to be speaking from this book tonight. What I say will be on the authority of this word. It will not be any notion of mine, and I trust it will be accurate and understandable. So with that in mind, I'll ask you to turn to the first chapter of the apostle of the Gospel of John in the New Testament, the first chapter of the Gospel according.
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To John in the New Testament.
And we read in the opening verses something most remarkable.
In the beginning, it doesn't say the beginning of what, but it's in the beginning. So as far back as your mind might go.
That was the beginning.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Notice Word is capitalized, so that's another name you might say from God. So in the beginning was God was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, making it very emphatic. All things were made by Him, and without him was not anything.
Made that was made. And I'll just stop there. You can go out on a clear night and look up there. He made it all, all the stars. He made this earth. He made you. He made me. He gave us what we have as we know in our life today. And we are creatures of two things. Time and the clock is moving along and space. And we live in three-dimensional space.
That's things have width, depth and height, and God made it. And it tells us in this book and one of the epistles that by his word all things consist meaning God said let there be and there was, so let there be life.
He created, as we know from reading in the book of Genesis.
All the creation as we now know it, the animals, the sky, the plants and men. So God said let there be and there was. God is absolute, God is supreme, God is eternal, God is all powerful, we sang, God is light. And that's one of the things if we had continued reading here in the first of John, he is light.
And he is loved. And that's the most wonderful thing. Now just to make it certain so we see it for ourselves in this first chapter of John. Let's just go to verse 14.
And the word.
Capital W Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So that person, that one God that we read up in the first verse is the Lord Jesus Christ, because he became flesh and dwelt among us. There is no other story, no nothing in this world.
That this could be taken from, This is the absolute word of God that we have in our hands tonight. And if someone says to you, well, I don't believe that, or I think these are just old mythological tales that have been handed down through the ages, that's their problem. Believe me, this is the word of God. God has told us that heaven and earth shall pass away and He created it all. And so when he says pass away, it will, but His word will endure forever.
So that's what you're hearing tonight, and I hope seriously, you'll consider that this is not really a choice on the part of any of us we don't make.
Often here mentioned, but it's clearly in the scriptures that we are to be obedient to the word of God. In other words, God has told us the truth. This book is truth. We hear it, we should act on it because it comes from God and He's telling us.
What we need to know, and I want that to be a point that's clear too, that this book is not written for theologians or PhDs. It's written for you and for me. It's been said that the truths of the Bible.
Simple, straightforward truths can be understood by the smallest child, but the deepest things in this book can't be touched by the brightest intellect of man that ever lived, because it's from God.
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He has given us in this book that which we need.
So now what I'm going to do, And so we don't have to keep flipping back and forth, I'm going to quote a few verses that are in the Bible, which are absolutely fundamental, basic, and need to be understood by each one of us. The first one is.
All, all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's God's word All, no exceptions.
The one exception we could say, of course, is the Lord Jesus, who was the flesh, the one, the Word who was made flesh and dwelt among us. God sent apart. And this book says that about him as he walked on this earth as a man. But apart from him all have sinned. And it's not just that and come short of the glory of God. So that means where are we going now? Another thing this book teaches is.
That man, once he's born as a man, is eternal.
As we walk this globe right now everyone in this room is really has three parts Triune and that is they are body. That's our body. Warm hearts are beating, bloods coursing through our veins. Soul the soul is our feelings. And one thing I came across recently which I really enjoyed is.
Soul is self consciousness.
In other words, the soul. I know I'm neat. I'm not you, and I know you are within yourself. You have feelings. I have feelings. So that speaks of the soul. And then the third part of man, which makes them distinct from all other animal creation, is spirit because man is conscious of God. Even the atheist is conscious of God because why?
They love to argue about it.
If they could and they can't believe that there is no God and there would be no nonissue with them. But it isn't. Atheists want to argue about it, but there's a few years ago, when the word was out that God was dead. But I had to thought that if on a certain second across the face of this globe, everybody could shout God is dead, would it have changed anything? No, we know that.
God is there. We are here. He's made us conscious of Him, and that's what sets us apart from the rest of creation. And we know from this book, too, that we're made in the image and likeness of God. It tells us that right in the first chapter of the beginning of Genesis can imagine that God has made us God. Like we can speak with God because we have a spirit. We call it prayer.
We can ask of God.
We can tell God we're sorry if we offend him. We should tell him that.
Now consider this. If God made us in His image and likeness, he is wholly pure light. Perfection, joy, peace, All the lovely adjectives you can think of.
Now he's made us in his image and likeness. If we sin, that's an offense to him. That isn't why he made us. He didn't make us to sin. Sin is wickedness. Sin is darkness. We may read some verses. We'll see how the time goes tonight of what this book says about sin and wickedness. And God tells us in this book that he is of holier eyes than to behold sin. That means he cannot have sin.
In his presence in heaven. And I sort of like and have to say, I visited a farmer and I went out into his barnyard where he had some cattle. But I didn't turn around and walk right into his living room. And you know why? Because he had a lovely house and living room and and so I wasn't suited to go in there. Well, if you're in your sins, you're the same way. You cannot go into the presence of God.
But God is love. As we sang light, He knows everything in love. And what has He done in love? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever and he went in his room believeth in him his Son.
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Should not perish, but have everlasting life. And the only way you can have everlasting life in the presence of God is to have your sins put away. Now that brings us to the purpose of this meeting. This is called a gospel meeting. Gospel is the story. Good news, good news from God. God is saying, all right, you who are among the all who have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
I have a solution so that you can spend eternity with me.
I gave my son my beloved son.
To be a man walking the face of this earth. And of course the Lord Jesus accomplished many lovely things as he did. He revealed the heart of God. He showed that a perfect man could walk on this earth. He showed God for what he truly is. But as we all know, at the end of that earthly path, and he came by the way to bring deliverance to his people. They rejected him, Cast them out. They said We will not have this man to reign over us.
And then he became the sacrificial Lamb of God. That's one of his titles. And he died as a sacrifice to the satisfaction of a holy, righteous God in that matter of sin. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now I hope each one at that point will say to themselves.
Do I have everlasting life? I know many here can say that I can say it. I say it. And they do too on the authority of this book because they believe what kind of said and.
We had it in the hymn the Word whosoever believeth.
It's an interesting thing when you analyze what God has given us in this book, that God is not looking for us to walk as perfect men to do good works. God is looking for us to believe Him. There's a verse that tells us about the famous Abraham, who was the father of all the Semites, and that's interesting. Jews and Arabs.
But Abraham, who lived, by the way, at least 400 years before the law, was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Those temples, tablets of stone with the 10 commandments, Abraham 400 years before. So he wasn't even alive at the time of Moses. So the law, the the Law of Moses as it's called, didn't exist, but what the Bible tells us.
Is that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
It doesn't say Abraham did what God said. It says Abraham believed God. Now how did God know that he can read the hearts? So he knows. If you say I believe in Jesus Christ, he knows whether it's real or not.
If I were talking to you I might not be able to tell. Although generally speaking, and this is almost the truism, if we spend enough time together the reality of your faith or non faith would show forth because ultimately we must live what we believe. But the point is getting back to Abraham, God was pleased with Abraham because Abraham believed God truly believed God and we know it.
Because later on Abraham moved from Ur the Chaldees and finally got to the Promised Land.
The long late in his life he fathered.
The child of promise, who was Isaac? And then Isaac had Jacob and Jacob in heaven, 12 tribes of Israel, and it all expanded. But the point was, and it tells us several times in the New Testament, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
So I'll ask you right now, as we are in the beginning of this meeting, do you believe what this word says?
And by the way, it's been observed that this being the eternal, perfect Word of God, heaven and earth shall pass away. But this word won't pass away.
If you believe it, then your faith is in the right place. God knows it and He values that. It tells us not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. We thank God. Mercy sent His Son. What was His mercy? His mercy was to send His Son when this whole world, every human being.
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Had sinned and come short of God's glory. That's God's mercy. He sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
Now, do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God?
You probably know many elements of the story. We all do. We learn it as we go through life. But that he was born of Mary. He didn't have a natural father, but she conceived through the Holy Ghost.
And he came as a lowly man, so lowly they couldn't find a room in the inn. And sometimes I don't think we really realized what it meant to take a newborn child and put them in a feeding truck with straw and a Manger Than if you've ever been in a barn, you know what a barn is like. And that's exactly where they were. It was a stable. And that's the way our saviors thought it was life on this earth. Very humble.
It tells us in the book of Philippians that he emptied himself of his heavenly glory in obedience, came down and took the place as a lonely man. And you know it was only obedient, and coming here as a man, but obedient unto death, because he possessed the divine power. He says it right in one of the Gospels. He could have called upon 12 legions of angels to deliver him from the hands of those who were seeking to take his life.
But he allowed them to do that.
So that he could become the Lamb of God. These sacrifice to the satisfaction of God.
And the question of sin.
Well, with that was supposed to be a brief introduction. It's taken half of our time. I propose now to turn to the third chapter of the same gospel, John.
And I'll read right from the first verse, because it's going to make an important point.
John's Gospel chapter 3. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus.
A ruler of the Jews. So he was what we would call a clergyman. He was religiously important to the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night. Why was that? He didn't want any others to see him. And he 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 them.
And that was good reasoning.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God, so we'll stop right there. The Lord often does this as you read the gospel accounts of his walk on the earth. That is, he doesn't directly answer a question or an issue raised by someone who goes to see him, because he knows the heart and he knows what's needed, and he knew what was needed by Nicodemus.
And he tells Nicodemus, thou must be born again. Now this is very puzzling, and no doubt we would have reacted the same way.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter it the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered. And again he says, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except the man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. So now he's not talking about physical birth.
Again, he's talking about being born of water and of the Spirit. And you might say what is this about water? God considers his work to be water by the washing of the water of the word is a clear scriptural expression and so it's really the word of God. So unless one is reborn, you might say according to the truth of God and of the Spirit meaning.
Work of God, the Spirit. You'll notice spirit here is a capitalist. That's the third person of the Trinity. So unless a person is born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Now we've heard in the Scotland and popular usage about being born again, but it's very real. It's true.
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God cannot take natural man of the fleshes. We are born into this world and allow us to go to heaven, because we have sin upon us. And as we said earlier, God is a full of your eyes than to behold sin. So we need a new creation, not the physical one, but we need a new person, you might say, born again, born of.
Water and bone of the spirit.
So let's see what happens.
The Lord goes on to say.
In verse six that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that is which is born of the Spirit, the Spirit.
And the Lord gives the answer right there. Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again.
So the Lord is making a flat statement now, the new birth when one accepts Christ as a reality.
We have some verses in the Epistles that tell us that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, all things are become new. I can tell you about me. I told you I was very mature individual when I got saved. And my own mother said to me, she said, Richard, you're different. This is my mother after almost 30 years said that to me because she could see the reality of the fact of the new birth faith in Christ.
There was a new, how should I say, person inside me, reacting to what I was learning from God. A new value system, looking out on the world and seeing things in a different light.
Very much a man. I mean, I know. I think how people think.
And so on. But now I had a new spiritual length, so I can give you my own testimony. And any real believer here can do the same, That when you put your faith in Christ, you're born again. You're a new creature in Christ, and it's real.
So verse 7 The Lord says, Marvel not that I said unto thee, he must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and now here is the sound thereof can't not tell once it cometh, and wherever it goeth, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
Very simply, that means you can't go down to the local bookstore and get a book and read about how you get born again. You can't go to a doctor's office and say I want to be born again.
We don't know. It's the working of the Spirit of God.
The spirit of God. And that's part of our makeup. We have that within us.
Which is spiritual. And so this new birth is the work of the spirit, cannot be seen, cannot be felt, except that through the change in our makeup. So everyone at a so is everyone.
That is born of the Spirit. We can't tell exactly how it happens, but we know it does. Nicodemus answered and said unto them, How can these things be? Jesus answered, and said, unto Whom art thou a master of Israel? And knowest not these things? Third time? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness, speaking as the Son of God, the divine person.
We speak of the things that we know and have seen, and you receive not our witness. If I had told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you 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. And of course that's Christ being divine. He was in heaven, but he was on the earth. We don't question the fact that God is omnipotent. He's everywhere. He's in this room tonight.
On Lord's day morning, we will remember the Lord and his death with the elements on that table Speaking of his body and his blood. And he has told us that where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst. Will we see him physically? No. Will we know He's here? Yes, we will know He's here, because he is a spirit and we have a spiritual body.
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Or a spiritual makeup and the presence of the Lord is known to us, where new creatures in Christ.
And then he goes on in verse 14 and brings up an event that took place in the Old Testament, when fiery serpents were sent into the camp of Israel as they went through the wilderness from Egypt to the Promised Land. And they were complaining. And so they were dying from these fiery serpents which came in and bit them. And so the Lord brings that up and tells.
Reminds them, or reminds Nicodemus what had happened there, he said, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of man be lifted up. Now this is interesting, what Moses was told by God when Moses said, What are we going to do about these people who are dying from these serpents? He was told, Make a serpent out of brass and lift it up on a pole. And whosoever looks at that serpent will be cured. And it was true.
Now think about that. You'd say, is that a form of idolatry? No, it's a form of faith. Because they were told, go out and look, suppose somebody was in this tent and he was languishing in pain and felt as if he was going to die shortly. And they said, well, just get up and go to the door they sent. Look at that. Oh, you're crazy. But those that did, look, they did live because God said it, by the way, it was faith. It was just like.
Abraham Abraham believed. God. Those who looked at the serpent believed.
Leaved and they had the reward from God because they believed God. Now you're going to believe what we're learning in this book.
So what? The word here is that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
So what he's saying is this is anticipating by the way the Lord Jesus being lifted up nails of the cross.
But whosoever would look to him in faith would be cured from the sickness of sin.
And notice there's an interesting word in that verse, and this is typical of the scriptures. Even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up? In other words, God had to have that suitable sacrifice to put away.
Our sins to satisfy God, the holy God who could not have sin in his presence. So his Son, his beloved Son, his only begotten Son as well read in a minute, was the sacrifice and he had to be lifted up.
Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, Otherwise no one in this room.
Would have any eternal hope other than the opposite of heaven.
Which is hell? The lake of fire, where there is consciousness for all eternity, and suffering where there are worm. Dieth not is the way Scripture says it. The terrors of hell are awful.
Some who think they're very flippant and so on, if you try to talk to them about these things, which are very serious, and they said, oh, all my friends will be in hell and we'll be playing cards and having a good time. No, no, no.
God did not create hell, by the way, for men. He created it for the devil and his angels.
Because they cannot be redeemed the way we can through faith. And so hell was only for fallen angels, for the devil and his angels. But that's the only place men can go if they're not suited to go to heaven for all eternity, so.
So that brings us to an important point. There are only two things ahead of us as we go through this life, Heaven or hell. God makes heaven.
Available to each one.
God doesn't want you, if you're still in your sins, to go to hell. He does not want you to go to hell. He loves you too much.
Tells you in this book what to do. He gives you the remedy.
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And what more can I do? It's a free gift. There's a verse in Romans that says the wages of sin is death, and that's what leads to the lake of fire. But the gift of God, the free gift of God, is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So if you're hearing the gospel, the glad tidings, the good news of salvation, full and free and complete.
It's faith in Christ.
It's availing yourself of the work that God had done through his Son, that you might live eternally. Now we'll go on. You'll notice we're very close to one of the most well known verses in the Bible, and it says here in verse 15, So the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have a possession.
Eternal life for God so loved the world.
Even though I was full of sinners, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Now maybe that's the point we didn't emphasize, and I'll just touch on it now. Once you're born as a human being, you're going to live eternally.
Now I say maybe a better word would be to exist eternally.
Life in Scripture is really thought of being in the presence of God.
And that's for those whose sins are forgiven through faith in Christ, but those who refuse.
God's free offer of salvation, that gift and a gift as you well know, is of no value unless you accept it. If I said here's a gift of something you say, no, I don't want it. It's no gift because you didn't accept it. So if God offers us the gift of eternal life through His Son, that's because you have accepted His Son as your savior. So here we have should not perish whosoever, and that's an important word.
There are no.
Limitations on that term. It's not who's whoever lives in the United States.
Or whosoever has a job or any other condition, it's whosoever believeth in him just like Abraham. That's the reason I brought Abraham up. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. If you believe in Jesus Christ you have everlasting life. I'm going to just flip ahead and I'll tell you where it is. But you need current to it as a verse in Romans and it's chapter 10 and verse 9.
But it tells us.
What relates to this?
That if thou shalt confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart, believe that God hath raised them from the dead, Thou shalt be saved. So there it is. You accept the free gift, you believe, believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. Now it puts it's pleasing to God if you'll have Christ as your savior.
And it should be lauded and savior, because she should have power in your life that you tell others. And so if thou shalt confess with thy lips. But I just wanted to read that. And it's something we like to point out to children in Sunday school, too, because we sometimes learn and that, yes, I accept that the Lord Jesus, the little child. And then you say, have you told anybody? Have you told your mother? Have you told your father, your brother, your sister, or playmate? That's pleasing to the Lord if we confess him to others as our Lord and Savior.
Well, back to John Three. Now verse 17 is very important, and that's one reason I felt like to take up the safe portion tonight. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So God sent him here to be the Savior. And what does that mean? The world doesn't have to be condemned by God sending someone. The world is condemned itself by sin.
And you say, how is that? Well, we know what goes on in this world. There are robberies. There are wars. There are unkindness untold, the selfishness. There are all those things that are really, really.
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Of a nature to condemn those that committed. This is, by the way, the nature we inherited from our first mother and father, Adam and Eve.
Because they sinned in the Garden of Eden, as we know through the forbidden fruit.
And we inherited their nature, so that's why all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, who are born with a nature that's prone to sin.
So God says he didn't send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be safe. Now just think about that. If you tonight listening to me cannot say I'm on the way to heaven. And I say to you, oh, that's nice, why is that? And you say because Jesus Christ died for me, he put away my sins at Calvary. Then I say wonderful, you're my brother. We are both believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God sent the Lord Jesus to be the Savior of the world.
Put away the sins of the world. He didn't send them here to condemn the world.
Now verse 18. If you are in the right state, he that believeth on him.
Is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.
Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now what does that mean if you're sitting out there?
And maybe it's a young person from a Christian family and saying to themselves, as I'm talking, I said, oh, I've heard this over and over again so many times and they're thinking about, boy, if they just didn't have to be here, they don't want to be bothered.
God, in all seriousness because he loves you, is telling you that he that believeth.
Not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now why is that?
Suppose in the next few minutes, for whatever reason, you expire, you die in this life, and you're now on your way to eternity. If you die in your sins, nothing can be done once you're dead in a scene. That's a clear teaching of Scripture. Absolutely clear.
You have to make the decision in this life, and since you don't know how many heartbeats you have left, you should not put it off. You have no idea what's going to happen.
We don't like to frighten people, but the truth of it is so young people dying, old people die. You can be driving on a country Rd. and somebody can be coming in the opposite direction and you're doing everything right. You're in your lane, you're under the speed limit and so on, and they swear right in front of you and you're gone.
So you're condemned already. In other words, that's your state you right now, and we term that we use from Scripture. You are in your sins, and as such you cannot come into the presence of a holy, righteous God.
That's solemn, you know, as I think that, and I'll tell you something, by the way, going back to the little account about myself, until I believed in the Lord Jesus, I was afraid of death. I really was. I had that clear sense that I was not ready to stand before a holy and a righteous God, and I wasn't a waste roll or a, you know, what should I say, violent or sinful?
Overtly sinful person. I was just the average.
Type. But I knew that I had sinned. We all have sinned. Anybody that denies it doesn't understand about themselves.
You know, God knows. He knows right into the heart of our mind. If we have a sinful thought, he knows it. But I had a sense of that I was raised with a fear of God. The Scripture says, by the way, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. I love that one.
I was with a man, a fellow employee of the big corporation I worked for and I remember so clearly in a cab in San Francisco. And we were going to the corporate headquarters there. And I quoted to him the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And he immediately responded and said, that's terrible. God is love. How can you say?
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That we fear God. We shouldn't fear God. He didn't know this word.
You know why we fear God? We don't fear God because he's mean or hurtful. We fear God because he has all power.
He is absolute. We cannot argue with him. We cannot reason with him on the matter of sin. He tells us he loves us, so he says, I'm telling you what the rules are in this game of life. I wrote the rules on the umpire. I'm the judge and we go by what I say.
He's God is absolutely. And so we fear him. It's in the sense of not cringing fear, but it's in the sense of recognizing where the power is if you work for a big corporation and the chairman of the board comes into your office and starts to demand things and so on.
You know, tell them I'm busy. Get lost.
He's the one that has all power, right? And so you hop up and do what he does. You you fear him in that sense, Well, that's what the fear of God is. And it's wonderful thing, by the way, to have the fear of God because that can affect how you walk, how you think, and it should affect how you look at eternity.
That's all important. You don't know whether you have another heartbeat. Well, we only have 5 minutes left, so.
It says then this is the condemnation.
Verse 19 The light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. The light that came into this world was the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
And by the way, we flew in last night into the LAX LA airport over the city, and it was an unusually clear night. The famous smog wasn't around. The city was just glittering with all of those St. lights. But why are those bright St. lights down there? Because where there's light in the neighborhood, crime is reduced. That's the reason all big cities have bright St. lights.
To reduce crime men through their wickedness in the dark. That's their nature.
So the sad thing is, light has come into the world.
And so.
I'll read verse 21 again. Well, verses 20 and 21. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. And the Lord Jesus, in the first chapter, where we didn't quite read to it, said, I am the light of the world.
If you have Christ, you have light.
You have your sins forgiven. Now we only have a few minutes left and there's one more verse in this chapter that I want to read because I think it's one of the most solemn verses in the Bible. It's the last verse of chapter 3, verse 36.
And it sums up tonight.
He that believeth on the Son hath.
Has present position right now. Everlasting life. You believe in Christ, you say He's my Lord. He's my savior. He died for me. He put away my sins. On Calvary's cross he shed his precious blood to wash away my sins. You have everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
So that's the point that was made before that you're condemned already if you don't have Christ. But as I think of the wrath of God, abiding on is like a cloud over my head, just waiting to have a cloud burst. That's the wrath of God, the judgment of God, the anger of God. It's sin. God is pure and holy, and he cannot have sin.
God loves you. He doesn't want you to go to hell. That's for the devil and his angels. God said, I so love you that I gave my only begotten Son. And if we think of what had caused Christ, our Creator, just think of that. Christ, the Creator of this whole universe, became a man.
Lived in the mountains of Galilee in Nazareth. Carpenter's son then went out and did wondrous miracles.
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If you read the Bible carefully, the crowds that would follow the Lord Jesus were astronomical. He'd go around the other side of the Lake of Galilee. They'd all run around to be there. Then they'd feed the 5000 with 7 loaves and seven fishes.
Just the the person of our Lord Jesus is something that we believers are just waiting that moment because when we see him we shall be like him.
We believers, and we shall know as we are known. That is right. Now I may have a question. Should I or shouldn't I do this or that? But then in that day, when I'm caught up to meet him, see him, be like him, then I'll have the same judgments He has perfect I'll be perfectly suited to spend all eternity in His presence.
So in this closing, now I'm going to ask the question.
I hope that you understand that this is the word of God, This is truth. This is not the writings of men. I know a man, he's a brother. Now. He's in the meeting in North Carolina and he started to read this book in resentment against his believing grandmother to prove that she was wrong and he found Christ.
This book to almost everyone that has ever researched it to try and prove error or whatever, have generally come to see that it's divinely inspired. It's given to us of God. So what I've tried to indicate to you are some of the key points number when you're a Sinner, you're short. God sent his son as a gift that if you receive him, believe in him, your sins will be put away the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son.
Cleanseth us from all sin. That's the exact quotation of a verse in this blessed book. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanseth us from all. All no exceptions, all sin. It's never too late. It's God's gift. A true gift is not hard to receive. We know that. We say is it a gift if I have to work for it? You don't have to do anything. One of the words that we have in this book is repent.
Now, what does repent me? It means that you recognize that you have offended God as a Sinner and you're really sorry for it. And you say, Lord, you know, this is something I shouldn't do here, my creator. You love me, you take care of me. I have clothing, I have shelter, I have a job, I have a family, lovely children. God, I don't want to offend you, but sometimes I do, because I have that old nature, which I won't lose until we're caught up into the glory.
But God loves us. He doesn't want us to go to that lake of fire. So my question to you tonight.
Number one, be clear in your mind. Just simple faith in Christ and say I believe in the Lord Jesus. He died for me. He washed away my sins with his shed blood at Calvary.
And say, Lord, receive me and he will. It will be a reality in your heart.
But if you don't, just think of what you're refusing the God, the great God of this universe.
I can't describe it. I was thinking about preaching tonight. And I was thinking, oh boy, just to describe how wonderful a universe is, how wonderful this earth is, how marvelously the Earth is created, you know, with a tilted axis. So we have winters and summers. And then he put the moon up there to give us tides to flush out the bays and the rivers and and that this world regenerates it itself after men pollute it and misuse it.
And this. I told this to a brother during one of the breaks. I just learned this. It's cheaper. God, it's so generous to us. It's cheaper for us to buy a gallon of gasoline than it is to buy a gallon of water.
Now you think about that. And yet a gal and a gasoline will do what it'll move a heavy automobile 20 miles. Just think of what it would be if you wanted to push that car for 20 miles. God has given us that gasoline from where pumped the oil out of the earth. That's our great God. He loves us. He made us in his image and likeness.
And he'll bring you into that position of eternal blessing in heaven with him. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Shall we close by singing hymn #1 on the hymn sheet?
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Almost persuaded now to believe, almost persuaded Christ to receive.
Seems now some soul to say Go, spirit, go thy way. Some more convenient day on the alcohol almost persuaded. Come come today almost persuaded. Turn not away. Jesus invites you here. Listen to his voice so clear now falling on an ear. Come, Wandra, come.
Oh.