Gospel—Josh Costron
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Well, good evening. Welcome to the Gospel meeting.
I'd like to open our gospel meeting tonight by singing hymn #26 on the hymn sheet. Hymn #26 if somebody could raise the tune please.
There is fire by the snow, Catholic crows if I won't carry a client by the tips alone and one of the things I don't have been said until the material of the word material.
The Dream.
No, no, no, no, no.
I'm trying to admire you and I'm dumb at that. Brilliant scene by one. There is life that is more than 40.
Eight in my life theatre S Greek Pennsylvania and smart prayers of the blood thou art coming for a night so.
Oh, I can hear him. Thank you. Please, I haven't got a father. Don't drink steel for him. Blood now can make me one bowl.
We are healed by his triumph in some words, and I have been forwarding.
By one there is life at this moment.
For the.
To our heart and declared.
There is my happiness moment for you.
Uh, taking when? Please join anything from Genevieve thousand points.
Loud, I'd like to speak to you. I'd like to see who's in.
Let's look up and ask for God's help.
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Our God and our loving Father, we thank Thee tonight for another opportunity whereby we can proclaim the gospel of Thy grace, the good news of salvation to sinners, and we just would look to Thee for help and Thy blessing upon the Word.
We thank Thee for Thy love, for Thy goodness, Thy mercy and long-suffering to this lost and perishing world, and that thine arms are open towards anyone who would come and receive our Lord Jesus as their own personal Savior. Tonight we just ask Thee for blessing and look to Thee for help, and we do so. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Well, as most of you know, this is obviously a gospel meeting. And gospel, as we are all well aware, means good news.
It's not a whole lot of good news today.
We don't have to go very far or look very far to find out that this world is hurting.
That there's not a whole lot of peace. Men's hearts are failing them for fear, and they're giving up.
They don't know where to turn.
And the problem with man today is that he is looking everywhere and anywhere but in the right direction.
And tonight our desire is to point you, dear friend.
Unto God, and more specifically towards our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because the gospel concerns his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
He is the one that you need, that this world needs.
And it's not a set of rules or obligations, Not a, umm, a religion.
But it's a person, and tonight it's our prayer that before you leave your this room tonight and get up out of that seat, if you don't know, our Lord Jesus is your own personal Savior. It's our desire that you would come to that saving faith in the person and work of himself.
A work that has been done for the glory of God at the cross 2000 years ago, and a work that has been done for you.
If you would only receive him.
And tonight I would like to look at a passage in scripture that we are very well familiar with. And I appreciated the message last night and where our brothers started from. And I would like to do the same. I would like to start.
With respect to where man is today.
Where he is, and I believe that's the proper launchpad, if you will, into the gospel message that we seek to proclaim tonight with the Lord's help.
I'd like to look at a passage in Luke's Gospel, chapter 5.
Luke's Gospel, Chapter 5.
I'd like to start in verse 12.
Luke 5 and verse 12 And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy, who, seeing Jesus, fell on his face and besought him, saying Lord.
If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
And he put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.
And he charged him to tell no man, but go and show thyself to the priest.
An offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
But so much the more went their fame abroad of him, and great multitudes came together to hear.
And to be healed by Him of their infirmities.
And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. They came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law.
Sitting by which were come out of every town of Galilee, in Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
The old man brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy.
And they saw it means to bring him in, and to lay him before him.
And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop.
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And let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
When he saw their faith, he said unto him, Men by sins are forgiven thee.
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies?
Who can forgive sins but God alone?
But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, the answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
Weather is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say rise up and walk.
But that you may know, that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins.
He said unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. They were all amazed, and they were, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying.
We have seen strange things today.
Well, as I said.
This gives us a little picture of where man is.
Morally and spiritually in his soul today.
We find here a little picture of sin.
Those of us who are familiar with the Scriptures know that leprosy in the Bible is but a universal type of sin and evil. It's never spoken of in a positive way. It's never presented to us in Scripture as something that is good.
And what is so striking here is that we have a man that was a leper.
Man, that was a leopard.
What's very interesting to me is that how the Spirit of God portrays this.
He doesn't say, well, here's a man who was a leper and he had but a mild case of it, No. Or here's a man who is a leopard who had a moderate case of leprosy. No, but it was a man who was full of leprosy.
He was so full of it.
This is man. It is natural condition before God.
The first was quoted last night that the head is sick.
And the heart is faint, and from the sole of the foot unto the top of the head.
His wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.
This is man in his natural condition before God.
He is not good at all.
Romans 3 gives us a very apartment and distinct picture of what I'm Speaking of tonight. It says that there is none righteous. No, not one.
None righteous.
They are all gone out of the way.
They are all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one.
Not one.
God levels humanity.
And says that man in his best state is altogether vanity.
So light em up.
It's easy to cast stones, if you will, that those who are.
I'm.
The obvious sinners, if I could put it that way, in this world.
Those who have lived a rough lifestyle. Those who are, umm, pretty offensive.
But God says line them up.
Give me your best.
The righteous man, the wealthy, the intellect.
The Philanthropist.
All that man can produce is all vanity, and God says man in his best state is altogether vanity. The Lord Jesus said that out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts.
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Adultery's, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness and evil eye, blasphemies, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and they defile a man.
We are full of leprosy.
There is nothing that you and I can do to gain favor or merit with God.
It is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy.
Mercy that he saves us.
This man.
Was full of leprosy and it says he.
Who seeing Jesus, and that's who we want to point to you point you to tonight, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus, he says, Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the world.
For I am God, and there is none else.
It has been said that one look to Jesus saves the soul and every after look is the power of Christian living.
That's all you need, dear. 1:00 tonight.
Is a look of faith and repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
This man, he saw the Lord Jesus. He looked in the right direction.
And I said, as I said at the start of this meeting, men and women and boys and girls are looking everywhere but to the Lord for their answers.
They're trying to solve all their problems and they're trying to solve this issue that they have of leprosy, if you if, if you will.
This spiritual condition of wretchedness, and they're trying to remediate it.
And get themselves into a place where?
They are more acceptable to God.
Through various works, various things that they think will gain them some merit with God, it ain't gonna work.
If I could be so blunt, pardon my slang.
This man looked at Jesus and he fell on his knees and he said Lord.
That's the other thing that you need to do tonight, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
It's as easy as that. Our brother said the other night that the gospel is simple.
This is not a hard thing to do.
Is to look to our Lord Jesus.
To accept Him as your personal savior.
And to accept him as your Lord.
This man fell at his feet.
And he said, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
I have no doubt that this man.
Knew that here was one that could help him.
Here was one that could help him.
Without the Lord Jesus, he was hopeless, and without Christ tonight, this world has no hope.
Has no hope.
The Lord Jesus and he says to the Lord Lord, if thou wilt.
I don't suppose she really knew the heart of God.
Do you know the heart of God tonight?
You know God is not an austere being. Speak reverently, one who is waiting to beat man down.
To trip him up.
To catch him.
In his, in the act, so to speak.
But God is a God of love.
He is a God of light.
And he is a God of love.
And God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
This man questioned the willingness of the Lord Jesus to heal him.
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The Lord did not hesitate one moment, did He?
He put forth his hand.
Touched him saying I will.
Be thou clean, and immediately the leprosy departed from him.
You know what happens just as fast as that.
Is when you put your faith and your trust in our Lord Jesus tonight.
That if you're sitting in your seat in your sins.
That look of faith.
Is enough to save you.
And God will cleanse you from all your sin.
The Lord Jesus wants to heal you tonight spiritually.
He wants to give you eternal life, which is in Himself.
Because you by nature, dear friend, are dead in trespasses and sins.
That's what we are before God.
Dead in trespasses and sins.
Man says let's go see life.
Let's live it up.
But all they're seeing is death.
Corruption.
There is life in a look at the crucified one. There is life at this moment for thee we sung tonight.
And we find here in verse 15 that the multitudes heard his fame of his fame.
And great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.
You see, the grace of God goes out to all.
Whosoever will.
Whosoever will may come, and the Lord Jesus, the gospel is open to all. The message goes out to everyone. Whosoever will may come.
It says in Revelation, in the Spirit and the Bride, say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will let him take with the water of life freely.
God is extending to you tonight.
Free salvation in the person of His beloved Son. Have you tasted the waters of this world and the broken cisterns of this world? Have you found that they do not satisfy?
It's true.
I've been there.
There's here, there's many here, I'm sure that have been there too.
To realize that the pleasures of sin are by first season and they don't last.
And you're left just as empty as when you started.
Then you go on to the next thing.
You realize that that doesn't satisfy either.
No, in his presence His fullness of joy and pleasure is forevermore.
Our Lord Jesus.
Is the answer.
And he is extending to humanity today the offer of salvation through faith in the person and work of himself.
The multitudes came, they thronged him, They took from our Lord Jesus.
All that could be given.
He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him.
Where did it land our Lord Jesus?
He was taken by wicked hands, crucified and slain.
He was hung between 2 Thieves.
But the Lord Jesus, when he came into this world, knew what he was getting himself into, if I could speak that way.
He was on a mission.
He is God knew exactly.
Where the end of the road?
It's going to land him.
Who's going to land him on a cross?
Between 2 Thieves.
Rejected, despised and rejected of men.
And as bad as that was, he would undertake the work of redemption.
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That not one of us could have done.
It was said that he died for God, and that is true.
And that he died for men. And that is true as well, because God was so.
Outraged when it come when it comes to the question of sin.
That somebody had to answer for those sins.
And if somebody didn't come and answer for those sins that you and I have committed.
Then it would land you and me into a lost eternity with no hope of getting out.
Into a sinner's hell, there to pay for our sins for all of eternity.
In the Lake of Fire.
And God's heart of love.
His foreman.
And he sent his only begotten Son into this world to answer.
Percent and to answer for all the effects of sin in the universe.
There the Lord Jesus in three dark hours.
He paid the penalty in full.
At the end of that work, the Lord Jesus cries. It is finished.
And the veil in the temple that held man back from the presence of God was rent and twain from the top to the bottom.
And now free access is opened, so that sinners might come.
Well, here.
We have the multitudes coming.
Salvation is free.
But it wasn't cheap. It cost God his only begotten, begotten Son.
Where he sent him to the cross, and the Lord Jesus gave up his life freely.
As a sacrifice for sin.
It says here in verse 17 that the Pharisees and the doctors of the law were sitting by.
Which were come out of every town of Galilee, in Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
Interesting, isn't it?
That here sandwiched between a leper and one who is suffering from the palsy.
We have.
The cultured. The intellectuals of the day.
And the religious man?
It's as though it suggests to me that God says they need salvation too.
Again, man in his best state is altogether vanity.
And the power of the Lord.
Was present to heal them too.
Man might OfferUp his best.
But again, it's not good enough.
The Lord Jesus died for all.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
How about you tonight?
Have you accepted the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior?
Have you come to know him as your own? Do you have?
An understanding that you have a need.
You know in this same chapter it says that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Why does he say that?
Well, I believe that's because man who doesn't feel his need has no use for the Savior.
But what we want to impress on you tonight is that you are a Sinner.
That you need salvation.
And that Jesus died for you, and that he loves you with an everlasting love.
Yes, the Pharisees and the doctors of the law, those who were the refined.
Of the day.
Were just as bad if not worse we find the Lord Jesus. How he speaks of the Pharisee later in Luke's gospel I can think of and he exposes.
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The folly that was hiding beneath the veil of righteousness that they carried about.
And the religious vanity and the veneer that they put on. And you know, that's one thing that we want to impress upon you tonight.
Is that God sees right down into your very heart.
That you cannot hide from God that all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
He says, I the Lord, search the hearts, I try the reins. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, He says.
He knows it.
You can put on a very nice front.
You can say all the nice things, all the right things, have all the right answers.
You can recite your Sunday school verse. You can put on your Sunday best.
But God sees through it all.
And knows if you belong to him or not.
And so tonight we plead with you and ask you tonight to get real with God.
Pharisees thought they were pretty good.
Lord Jesus said that they were whited sepulchers and within were dead men's bones.
They made the outside of the cup clean.
But inside they were filthy.
God wants you to know this tonight.
He wants us to understand.
That we need him.
And here we find a man in verse 18 who is a palsied man.
Another picture of the center.
1St we had one who is a leper.
Who is full of leprosy? You know leprosy.
I don't believe I mentioned this, but it starts underneath, doesn't it?
It slowly works its way out.
To become manifest in the flesh and eventually starts to eat away at that flesh.
To the point where limbs are lost. Isn't that sin? Doesn't? Isn't that what sin does?
It corrupts, it defiles, it eats away, it breaks people down and leaves them in a hopeless condition when it's done.
That's man.
Inside there's nothing good.
But here's a man with no strength, Romans tells us when we were yet without strength. Christ died for the ungodly.
All right, another picture of Nan and his helpless condition.
You and I have no strength of our own to come.
And to make ourselves fit for God.
But this man here, they brought him in and laid him before the Lord Jesus.
And because of the multitude in verse 19.
His friends.
Lowered him down into the presence of our Lord Jesus.
You know, I'm thankful.
For those who have a care for souls.
There is a number of us a few minutes ago, on our knees, crying to the Lord.
For you, dear friend, tonight if you're in your sins.
That you might be brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Consciously.
I'm reminded of what it says in the book of Acts. I think it's Acts 10 where it says therefore are we all here present before God?
To hear all things that are commanded thee of God.
Have you consciously got yourself into the presence of the Lord tonight?
Do you understand that God?
Is aware of you in your seat tonight.
If you're sin, if you're in your sins tonight, he wants to save you.
He wants to give you the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus.
Christ our Lord.
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This man received forgiveness.
The Lord Jesus said, man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
Reminded of that verse that says there is forgiveness with thee.
Neither is there salvation.
In any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, and forgiveness is alone found in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ tonight.
Think of it, you can have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ offers you free salvation, forgiveness of sins.
Reconciliation to himself. Justification.
He offers you himself in heaven.
There is forgiveness with thee.
I'm reminded of a story I just read.
Not that long ago.
Where this poor girl?
Was on her deathbed a young girl.
There her parents stood by her bed.
And they knew their daughter wasn't saved.
And this faithful man of God happened to visit her.
And to paraphrase the story, he kneeled down by her bed, told her the good news of salvation.
She said. Oh.
God wouldn't want anything to do with me.
I'm too bad.
But he said to her, you know.
God is not looking to put His trust in yourself and to find merit in you, but He wants you to put your trust in Him.
In all his merit and what he has done.
And that's the point tonight. You know, sometimes we can look inward and say, I am too bad God does not love me.
What did Paul say? He said I am the chief of sinners, and he could say the Son of God who loved me.
And gave himself for me.
He said that by inspiration.
He called himself the worst.
And I want to tell you tonight.
That God is saving the worst of the worst today.
God's free salvation in His grace goes out to all who will receive it.
And this man?
Who is a palsied man receives his sins as being forgiven on the authority of the Word of God Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And he rises up.
In the very circumstances that he lay in, he wrapped it up.
And if I could say he became master over it, that those things at once confined him.
No longer had his grip upon his life.
That's the transforming power of the Gospel tonight.
It is the power of God and the salvation unto everyone who that believeth.
God's power.
Is such that those who receive His Son as their savior.
Receive eternal life.
Have their sins forgiven and how many people have we seen?
Who lived a terrible life, had their life totally turned around of 180.
Surely, as we read tonight, we have seen, we have seen strange things today.
It's the power of the gospel.
You know the Lord Jesus.
Was questioned here by the Pharisees, the religious man who could say who could forgive sins, but God only.
And they're right.
God himself.
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Was in their presence.
The Lord Jesus is God manifest in the flesh.
By him all things were created, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were made by him.
By him all things consist.
All things were made by him.
Lord Jesus is God Himself.
You know I'm amazed every time I muse over.
The message of the Gospel.
And as we've had it before us at this conference, the work of God.
When you think that God would come into his own creation.
To take upon himself the form of a servant, to be made in the likeness of men.
And to walk amongst his own creature.
And to extend his good hand of grace.
And forgiveness to those who were his enemies.
It overwhelms me.
When we think of the grace of God.
In the love of God.
But you know.
All of that combined the love of God. As great as it is, God is light.
And God is a God of righteousness, and he is a holy God, and he cannot stand sin in his presence.
And as I mentioned earlier, the Lord Jesus had to die.
So that God could offer free salvation to you and to me.
So that we might be able to get to heaven.
God, in all his fury.
Poured out his judgment upon his beloved son.
At the Cross 2000 years ago.
The Lord Jesus took it all.
And he could say it is finished.
God now is so satisfied with that work that his son did, that at the end of three days He raised his Son from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities and powers.
It might and Dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
God raised his Son and gave him glory.
Now the Lord Jesus can go out.
And say, come unto me.
Come unto me.
He wants you to come and receive Him as your own personal savior tonight.
We can see here that He alone is the one that can forgive sins.
Only him.
There is none other name under heaven.
Given among men, whereby we must be saved. And God commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath the point of the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. By that man whom he hath ordained, whereof God hath given assurance, and that he hath raised him from the dead. God commands all men everywhere to repent.
You need to come to the cross, to the foot of the cross tonight and say, Lord Jesus, I am a Sinner, I need to be saved.
As has been mentioned already, you need to take sides with God against yourself to realize that God looks at you and says there is nothing in you that is worth.
Anything.
You are full of leprosy.
But he loves you anyway.
And that love was shown out in the gift of his beloved son at the cross.
And he says, I love you, I gave my son for you.
Come unto me.
Oh dear. 1:00 tonight.
I see that our time is gone.
But before you leave this room, you just would plead with you that if you do not know the Lord Jesus as your own personal Savior.
That you would place your faith and your trust in Him tonight.
To come unto him and to receive the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and beyond the way to heaven.
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Because without Christ, you're lost.
You may draw your last breath tonight.
And the question is, where will you spend eternity?
Where will you spend eternity?
That is the most important question that we will answer in this life. What will we do with Christ?
Will you receive him tonight as your own personal savior?
Or are you going to put it off?
Putting it off neglecting it is just as bad as flat out refusing it.
God wants you to be saved tonight, to come to Him. He loves you. The Lord Jesus gave himself for you. He wants you to be saved. Let's just pray, Lord Jesus, we look up tonight and we ask thee that thou bless Thy word. And we pray that if there is anyone here tonight that is lost and in their sins, that they would come to know Thee as their own personal Savior and receive thee as their own Lord.
And receive thee, Lord Jesus, and beyond their way to heaven, that they might have the peace of God, which passeth all.
Understanding and that they might have a settled disposition in their soul that they know they and that they are on their way to heaven. We pray that they would not have peace till they come to know thee is their own personal savior and Lord. Lord Jesus help.
The word bless thy word, and we thank Thee for dying for us, giving us a message of hope.
And giving us a bright future with thyself, for all those who come in faith to thyself.
Knowing that we have a better place to be with and like Thee forever in the coming day, Lord Jesus, we long for that moment, but in the meantime, we again pray that sinners might be saved, Thy word might be blessed, we ask it and thy precious and worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.