Gospel—Kevin House
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Like to welcome everybody to the Gospel meeting this evening. Perhaps we could start by singing a song together here off of our hymn sheet #14 if another would start it for us. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
The question is, have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Perhaps another would raise the tune please.
Have you Jesus?
Praise himself or you watched in the block of life.
For you all in the love in the soul of antiques.
Are you walking daily by the Savior side? Are you lost in the glory of the world?
Do you rise in someone in the grocery? All you ask in the world?
Will your soul be ready for the hand turns right, and be washed in the blood of the blood?
For you all.
In my soul, when people love the world.
Hold your father and stop it by your hands. How are you watching the world of the world?
The only person that can answer that in this room tonight is you. I don't know whether you are washed in the blood of the lamb.
I hope that you are. I'm thankful to be able to say that I am. You know what? I can say that on the basis of the word of God.
And it would be wonderful if every single person in this room that's old enough to understand could say, I am washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's let's ask for his help in prayer, particularly for me, but for you too, that you'll be able to listen to the word of God. Let's pray together.
God and Father were each one that is thine is thankful to be able to sing this hymn to be able to answer yes we are washed in the blood of the lamb. Just thank thee for the excellence of the Lord Jesus and just ask for help tonight to be able to bring out that word that that would have and then it would be able to convict any here that is still in the dark. There's still outside of the enjoyment of that wonderful love.
That is having thy heart, and that is give thy beloved Son the Lord Jesus.
To give his life, to provide salvation, that whosoever will may come. Just thank thee for thy grace. Just pray that each one that is thine might be in the enjoyment of it tonight. Just ask now. Father, in Jesus precious name, Amen.
Well, let's open the Word of God here together this evening.
To First Timothy.
First Timothy, chapter 2.
In verse 3.
Says For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved.
And to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom to be testified in due time.
We're getting these verses here. The heart of God, towards you and towards me.
You know what?
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If people measure tonight, I have in my heart towards you a care.
That you would be able to understand a little bit of the heart of God towards you.
Maybe you'll be able to perceive that. Maybe you'd be totally unaware of it. That's not what's important.
What's important is do you recognize that God loves you? He loves you and it's His desire that you will be saved and come to know Him.
Notice the verse in the Psalms that says God has spoken, you know, back home.
In our reading meetings, Uncle Rob pointed out some time ago, the people put build all kinds of devices to listen into outer space to see if there's any kind of voice or some kind of pattern that's coming in from aliens or something like that. But God has spoken.
We have His word. Does it mean something to you that God cares about you, not just everyone else? It's so personal. He cares about you and He wants you to be saved. You know, I had the privilege when I was a little boy getting down beside my bed.
Asking the Lord Jesus to save me because I recognized I was a Sinner. I needed to be saved. What about you?
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? We know what it is to take a bath, right? When I was a boy, I like to avoid taking baths. I figured that once a week was plenty for me. My mom and dad didn't think so. They seemed to think that I needed to have to be washed a little more than that. We know what it means to be washed, and after we're washed, it feels good to be clean and we like to get dirty again. But when we're washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus, it's not something we have to do over and over again. The blood of Jesus Christ is.
Once and for all to take away every sin, so that when God looks at you and looks at me.
He sees spotless.
I noticed on my sleeve, here on my arm, I managed to get a spot on my sleeve. My sleeve isn't spotless anymore, it's dirty. We know what that means too, to be dirty.
But when the Lord Jesus does his work, we are clean once and for all, and it's His desire that we would be. He doesn't want anyone to be lost.
Not even one.
Do you recognize that God loves you?
You know, if we turn over to the book of one John.
I, John. Chapter 4.
Verse nine. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him, through Him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Over to verse 16 says and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Verse 18 there is No Fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because.
He first loved us, He first loved us. He first loved me. He first loved.
You How important am I in this world of all the billions of people?
Am I important? No. But God loves me and he cares about you. He cares if you stubbed your toe.
He cares if you're feeling laughed out, you know. He doesn't want anyone to be left out of his home, to be able to enjoy his son for all eternity. He doesn't want you to be left out. He wants you to be able to enjoy that love.
But he's not going to force you.
He's not going to twist your arm further and further until you finally give in, he pleads with you.
Come, come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
You know, sometimes we're tired. There's a lot of Labor in this world. There's a lot of care. There's a lot of pressure.
Sometimes we're weary.
Lord wants us to come to Him with those burdens. You know, I remember reading in Pilgrim's Progress.
Though Christian on his way to the Celestial city, and had a burden on his back, it was heavy, and the burden of sin is heavy, says a man shall be holding with the cords of his sins.
And I used to like to go out in the woods, do some work in the brush after school. There's a lot of people at school, a lot of pressures. Just go outside and be away from everything and just enjoy. The Lord is a maid.
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You know, I was out there one day and I found a little tree. It reminded me of a little child. The tree was maybe this tall, only maybe 4 feet. You know, the little tree was dead.
And it was dead because there was a little vine, little vine that started out real small and it grew and it grew around the tree, and it went around the tree and around the tree and around the tree. And it had leaves on it. And eventually that vine, it covered the entire tree and it blocked out all the light and it killed that tree. And I saw that. I thought, wow, a little tree was holding with the cord of that vine. And that's like a little child or an adult, whoever you might be.
Sin will wrap around you, and we'll try to hold you captive.
And there's only one person that can set you free from your sins, that's the Lord Jesus. You know, if you continue on, let that vine continue to grow, it's going to end an eternal death for you. So happen that little tree. And I was sad to see that, but it was a lesson for me right before my eyes of the effect.
What sin can do because that tree died because of sin. It wasn't for sin. There wouldn't have been death. The little tree was dead. Now how about you? Is there some kind of sin that's holding you down, keeping you back from the Lord Jesus that you would rather have instead of Him?
It's not worth it. There's nothing.
That's going to be able to satisfy your heart. Other than the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing else.
You know, I know that satisfaction, and yet sometimes foolishly, I go to other things to try to fill me up, and I try and try and fill myself and I'm empty. You know, if you don't have the Lord Jesus, if you don't know Him, you're not satisfied. You can try to distract yourself with many things, but it won't work.
You'll just have to try something bigger and bigger until you realize you have nothing.
And we read these verses here in first John 4.
Because it talks about the love of God towards ourselves.
But can you personally enter into verse 16? We have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
If any of you have listened in Sunday school at all, or if your parents read the Bible, you're going to know that God loves you. But do you believe it for yourself that God loves me?
It's amazing.
It's amazing.
You know what if you knew everything about me? All the wrong things I've ever done in my life.
Might look at me a little differently, and probably rightfully so, but you know what? God knows all of that.
He knows everything about you and he still loves you.
Such grace.
Let's turn over to Titus.
That is chapter 3.
We read from verse 3.
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish.
Disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
The being justified by his grace.
We should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
There's another scripture that says in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
You know, a lot of you children, perhaps young people, have been raised in Christian families. Not everyone.
But often when we are raised in a place of protection safety, it's easy for us to think.
That we're really not totally sinful, but there's something in there.
That's good. You know, my pride in my flashlights, to think that there's something in me that's good.
That's not true.
In me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. You know, I wasn't guilty of killing people or maybe stealing a lot of stuff or doing some things they might think are really, really bad.
You know in this list here.
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We have some things that even as a boy I knew I was guilty of. Boy's ever been foolish.
I certainly have been about disobedient.
Anybody ever been disobedient?
Anybody ever not been disobedient?
All of us are guilty of the things on this list. How about deceived?
Serving divers lusts and pleasures, trying to satisfy ourselves apart from God.
Living in malice and envy. How many people ever go to a birthday party of someone else and feel kind of a little envious at the presence that they got? You know, that's sin.
Do you recognize that you're a Sinner? You recognize in God's sight? Maybe in my sight. Maybe I see you doing kind things. I don't know what's in your heart, but God knows. Maybe there was a Lego set that your brother got.
You wanted to have it.
How both hateful and hating one another.
You know my brother's not here. You know what? My brother got delight out of making me angry.
You know what? There was a time in my life when I hated him.
Nobody else knew.
But I did, and God knew it. I hated him.
He delighted in me being upset and frustrated.
That was sin.
By the Lord's grace, he gave that to change.
It's wrong to hate, right? Lord Jesus says if we hate our brother, it's like we've committed murder in our heart.
So I was guilty of far worse than I thought.
How about you? Do you recognize that when God looks at you, He sees right down into the very depth of your heart? He knows everything that's there.
And He wants you to be able to bring that out into the light and be in His presence perfectly at rest.
Are you?
You know, we had in the readings about setting the Lord always before me.
We recognize if the Lord is right at your right hand, you know which hand is your right hand.
Some people have a hard time telling which is their right and their left. If the Lord is right there, he's right beside you.
If the Lord is there.
And he knows everything. Are you comfortable?
Are you rejoicing in that? Is that something that is marvelous to your heart, or is it something that kind of makes you?
You like you like? You'd like to get somewhere else in a hurry?
He wants you to be able to enjoy fellowship with him.
You can't have it in the darkness, That's impossible. It has to be in the light.
And so the kindness and love of God our Savior appear.
Does it mean something to your heart?
That God wants you to know the love and the kindness He has towards you.
Or is it just, boy, when this meeting is done, I'm going to be able to go play dodgeball. It's going to be amazing.
This is something that is going to be forever. It's not a game that begins and ends. As fun as a game might be. What about your soul?
That's not just over at the end of the night, it goes on forever. Your soul will never end.
And the Lord wants you to be able to be enjoyment with him of His son.
But he doesn't force you.
I'd like to go back to the Old Testament for a story here.
In Second Kings chapter 5 it's a well known story to many of us. I didn't know what to speak about.
Spraying about that.
We had in our reading meeting that the Lord instructs us in the night.
Last night I woke up.
Use the washroom.
And the story came into my mind.
Now how would this story come into my mind when I'm going to use the washroom in the middle of the night?
I hadn't been reading it in some time.
The Lord can answer our prayers.
He cares about our needs, whatever they are, and I experienced that last night.
He cared about me, you know. He cares about you too.
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Let's read this together.
It's about a man who was a Gentile who was afar off from the promises of God.
He had leprosy, which is a type of sin.
And he was an enemy of the people of God, and God reached out and loved to him. He's reaching out to you tonight. Let's just read this chapter together. Second Kings 5, verse one.
Now name and captain of the host of the king of Syria was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance, sent to Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper.
And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive over the land of Israel a little maid. And she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, What God, my Lord, or with the prophet that is in Samaria? For he would recover him of his leprosy, when one went in and told his Lord, saying thus. And thus said the maid, that is, of the land of Israel.
And the king of Syria said, Go to go, I will send a letter into the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver, and 6000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes of Raymond. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is coming to thee, behold, I have therewith sent name and my servant to thee. But thou mayst recover him of his leprosy that came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God to kill and to make a life, that this man.
Descend unto me to recover a man of his leprosy.
Wherefore consider I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so when Elijah the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know there is a prophet in Israel. So Naiman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of Elijah. And Elijah sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan 7 times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
But Naaman was wroth and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand and call in the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not abandoned on far part rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage, and his servants came near and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?
How much rather than when he saith unto thee, Wash and be clean.
Then when he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came again like under the flesh of a little child, he was clean.
Stop there.
As we said, here's this man naming.
He's a strongman.
But he has a problem. The problem is he has an incurable disease, leprosy. You know, just like sin, you're not going to be able to go to any doctor to be able to get fixed of your problem with sin. Nobody can cure you of sin. Leprosy must be cleansed, not cured.
You know what? There was a little girl.
A little girl who had faith.
We learned in the New Testament that there weren't other lepers who had been cleansed before.
In the land of Israel. But this little girl, she cared for someone else.
Perhaps the man who had captured her and taken her away.
She had the spirit of Christ towards her Master and she wanted something good for him. Imagine being captured and taken away, taken away from your family, made to be a little servant for someone else and to think of.
Trying to do good towards that person.
This little girl had a tremendous spirit.
You know, she had a message that.
Brought tremendous blessing to Naaman and she just said to her mistress.
If Neiman went to the Prophet, he could make the mall better.
She was right, but it was by faith.
It wasn't because she had seen it happen before. It was by faith. You know, it's hard to keep good news to ourselves. It's a privilege to be able to share it.
And there's many kids, if you go to school, have no idea about the Lord Jesus, you could tell them.
So Naaman winds up in front of the most important man of Israel, the king.
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What could the king offer Name. All he could do is tear his clothes.
If you go to important people in this world that are really smart.
They cannot save you.
You know what? There is an answer, and the word came from the Prophet. Send him to me.
The Lord was able to help Naaman with his problem.
We were talking about that problem being the problem of sin.
Your Naaman was willing to recognize that he had a problem, and so he was willing to look for help.
You know, I naturally like to do things myself.
How about you?
My little daughter was two years old. She would say it.
I'm going to do it myself.
And do it myself. We cannot save ourselves. We have to have the Lord Jesus save us. We cannot.
Save Ourselves name. And he was willing to acknowledge he needed help. You know what? We need to acknowledge that too, if we're going to have help.
So he came to the House of Elijah, and he came with his own ideas.
I know what he'll do. He'll come out and he'll do some big fancy thing and put his hand over the place and then I'll get all better.
But that's not what happened. Instead, just a messenger came out. You know, tonight there's just a messenger.
To tell you about the love of God, it's not somebody important.
Just a messenger to say that God loves you and he has salvation for you if you'll receive it.
And the message was go wash in the Jordan 7 times and you'll be clean. It was a very simple message. The message of the gospel is not complicated. Whosoever will may come. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. It's not complicated.
God has made it so the little child can understand that when Jesus died on the cross and his blood was shed.
That that blood. God accepts it to wash your sins away. And if God says that, you're cleansed.
What does it matter what anyone else says?
If God says it's true.
But you know what? Naman had his own idea. That's not the way it should be. Not just a simple messenger. The Jordan River is dirty. I don't like that way of salvation. And so he turned, and he went away in a rage. And I would expect the general of an army, if he's in a rage, it would be quite the thing to behold.
You know what? There were some people in his life. They were servants. They weren't real important people.
But they cared about naming.
And they cared that Naaman would be better. And so they came to him and they asked him.
If the Prophet had asked you to do something great thing, you would have done it. But he just asked you to do something so simple, wash and be clean.
I don't know about you, but I've been upset before when someone speaks to you. When you're upset, sometimes you don't listen the best right away. Sometimes it takes a little time.
Settle down a little bit to recognize that what the person said is true. You know what? By the Lord's grace.
Naman. He listened. He listened.
And he recognized these people that cared about him were right.
He needed to try it.
You need to try it for himself. Wasn't good enough for other people to go into wash. He needed to go himself. And so I don't know whether he turned his chariot or whatever. Anyway, he ended up at the Jordan River. They had to go down into that water. Most likely. It was kind of dirty water, just like he expected, and he had to wash.
In that water he had to go under. He came up.
And it wasn't cleansed and he had to go down again.
Six times.
Maybe it was on his arm. He could look at the spot and say it's still not cleansed.
I want to add to the word of God. I remember listening to a tape. The sister who read made these stories for us and.
She said one of the servants may have said.
He said seven times, Sir.
So he went down that 7th time.
And when he came up.
Flesh was like the flesh of a little child.
You don't expect Naaman was a very young man. I don't know how old he was, but generally as we get older, our skin doesn't get nicer. It gets wrinkly and maybe a little rougher. You know, the skin of a little child is so soft and so smooth.
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You know that there was new life here that was given to Naaman. His leprosy was gone. He was cleansed. You know, he could look at that spot wherever it was. We're not told when there was on his forehead or on his arm or leg. Wherever he had, it was gone. You know what, when we're washed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, our sins are totally gone. You know nickname and regretted listening to his servants.
I think he would have rather kept his rage, went home, not humbled himself.
Not a chance.
Think anybody in this room that has accepted the Lord Jesus would say, oh boy, I really wish I hadn't done that. It was a terrible decision, no.
No one that has ever come to the Lord Jesus and that has been saved and said I wish I wasn't.
When we're clean, it's wonderful.
You know what? Naman had to humble himself and go down.
And have to be very old before we can be pretty proud.
Are you willing to humble yourself to accept God's offer of salvation for you?
You know we didn't read it.
But in the next story.
Going on further in the chapter, there's a man named Gehazi.
You know Gehezi, he was brought up or he had the opportunity of serving Elijah.
Read later on of how he was in the presence of the king, telling all the miracles.
That Elijah had done.
He got to watch.
You know Naaman comes back after he's cleansed.
And he wants to worship. He wants to worship the Lord. And if you're saved?
It's appropriate that you would desire to worship the Lord. There would be a response in your heart back to Him. He's done so much for you, for me.
Name and he wanted to give something to the prophet, but the prophet said no, I don't need anything. You can't pay anything for the blessing of God.
You know what? His eye, he looked at all this and he said I want to get something for myself.
So he decided he'd run after it.
So he runs after name and after name and leaves, and he makes up a lie, a story to help him to get what he wants.
Later on in the chapter it talks about men, servants and maidservants and vineyards and olive yards and garments and sheep and oxen.
You know, Gehezi, he didn't desire to have that relationship with God. He desired to have something for himself apart from God.
You know, he went out and he got it for himself.
Then he came back to the man of God and acted like nothing had happened.
Everything's fine.
And Elijah, he has to say, when not my heart with thee.
You know his eye went out from the presence of Elijah, a leper as white as snow.
You know, in this story we have two men, one that started with leprosy.
And got to know the Lord and ended up being a worshiper and one that was raised in a tremendous or given a tremendous privilege. I apply it to you children, young people that have grown up hearing the word of God.
And then to go and to look away from God to something else to satisfy your heart.
Porgy's eye. All he gets is leprosy.
What a contrast.
You know God desires for each one of us.
That we would know him, That we would come to the knowledge of the truth. That we'd be able to spend eternity.
Enjoying what he enjoys to be with him.
Which one are you?
Name and or gaze I.
I don't deserve to be in name and shoes.
By the Lord's grace, I am.
Many here are we have the privilege of being like Naaman to be able to return and to worship the Lord just like the leper of the dead. It gave thanks to God for saving him.
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But is there someone tonight?
That when you look on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You think he's not enough to satisfy my heart? I've got to have something else.
You know, there's something else out there that's going to fill me. No, it's not. It's not.
I'd like to read maybe just one more verse before we sing #19 and in the reading meeting back home, John chapter 6.
Because I remember when I was a little boy, I went to gospel meeting. Somebody would give the gospel and I would wonder if I was really saved or not.
You know, this verse in John chapter 6 and verse 37 brought me tremendous peace. Perhaps there's a little one here.
And you don't feel peace in your heart. You've tried to trust in the Lord, but you're just not sure. John 6 and verse 37 all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Here's the part that I want you. If you can memorize this for yourself, you can repeat it to yourself whenever you have doubts. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast down.
Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast down if you have come to the Lord Jesus.
He will never cast you out. Can you rest in that?
That if you come to him, he's going to take you.
And perhaps you've had opportunity to be rejected in some way.
Rejection is a hard thing.
And if you're saying no to the Lord Jesus, that's what he's experiencing tonight, rejection from you. But if you come to him, he won't reject you. He'll take you. That's amazing.
But he's not going to force you. He just says come.
So let's sing #19 together.
Another would raise the tune of #19.
I saw her.
In the.
Sun.
The Christ. And so it's hard. It's hard. No, it's hard no more.
For me, their love and life and love and joy.
More.
The.
Before we pray, if you've never told somebody that you believed in the Lord Jesus.
You need to tell somebody. We confess with our mouth. It also helps us have peace.
We tell somebody that we have believed in the Lord Jesus.
You know we don't know.
How much time we have.
And I was in grade three, came to school one day, and there was a little girl who didn't come to my class.
She had died the night before.
Grade 3 is not very old.
Don't think you have lots of time.
We do not have any guarantee of time.
It's important that you decide to accept the Lord Jesus yourself now.
Do not put it off.