Naaman's Leprosy

Gospel—Stan Allan
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Thing this evening with a one of my favorite hens #4 Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the savior for me.
Long I was chained in sin's darkness. Now by his grace I am free Savior of sinners, Savior of sinners like me, shedding his blood for my ransom. This is the Savior for me #4.
Her eyes.
The Savior.
Are 23.
Shedding this blood form around some distance, but they were over me.
No, I can say I am part of everything I see. I am just implying.
And my my blood surgery, deep breath.
This is the savior for him.
And they are on the same transplant Queens where everything just was born for my grandstone. This is the same here for me.
Good travel time. 1 secrets sinking from judgment to play.
Now there is no problem. Every day comes.
And learn.
Your heart standards like today.
I thought you got the money down the line of this graveyard says there's been such day there farted.
Shame around them.
Staying there, I'm standing there just like me.
******** and plucked by my grandson. This is a savior for me.
We just ask the Lord's blessing. Our God and Father, we come before thee this evening and we thank you for this precious privilege of being here to present the gospel of the grace of God. We thank the Lord Jesus that thou has come down here into this world nearly 2000 years ago, and Lord done a score of the cross and there shed thy precious blood with lost sinners, might come to thee and obtain salvation.
All we thank thee for the gospel that has gone forth so many times in this world and still there is room and all. We would just pray if there's someone here this evening who has never realized that they are a lost guilty Sinner on their way to hell, Lord, that they might accept the as their Savior tonight. We thank you Lord Jesus for thy love. We thank Thee for thy shed blood on Calvary and we just ask thee for thy health. And so we would just commit a little time to thee and the worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. And we could sing one more hymn.
Umm, although 17. Have you any room for Jesus, He who bore the load of sin as he knocks and seeks admission, Sinner, will you let him in #17?
Have you and anyone?
Anything in the flower's thumbnail, That's all. That's a day and 1/2 and 1/2.
I have seen offensively.
And, well, you know the way.
00:05:03
Rolled on fortunes of water on the morning.
And now it's worth all day.
Swimming without my heart so our wine wiggle open.
But the other one.
Room for pleasure, room for jazz and love for Christ. That's really big love.
I don't have any time.
And the heart for a great shape by.
The jeans on the floor of glory.
At 8899 Square and all that.
Swear.
By the old man that I had to give him, and I'm terrible, all that I think I'm trying to make him.
Let me hear you right. Well, let's play.
Or Cape of Florida, And it is. And now it's Ernest.
Swimming hard to provide me all the time.
And then it's very well done with Diane.
We'd like to welcome each one of the Gospel meetings this evening.
And maybe we could turn to 1St Kings chapter 5. This is a well known story, I'm sorry. Second Kings chapter 5.
One that I've often enjoyed and one I believe that could bring it before, is the Gospel message.
The story of namely.
Second Kings chapter 5.
Now Neiman, captain of the host of the King of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable because by him the Lord has given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper, and the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little mate.
And she waited.
On the name and state on Neiman's wife. And uh, she said unto her interest, would God, my Lord, we're with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in and told his Lord, saying, That's a nut said to me that he is of the land of Syria, of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him 10 tons of silver.
And 6000 inches of gold, and 10 changes of ramen. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith St. Niemann, my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he read his clothes, and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive, that this man descend unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider I pray you.
And see how he seeks a quarrel against me.
And it was so, when Elijah and the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he said to the king, saying, wherefore hostile, rent thy clothes, Let them come now down to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Neiman came with his horses and with his Chariots, and stood at the door of the House of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan 7 times.
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And thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
But Neiman was rocked, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, he surely will 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 leopard. Are not a bada, and far, far rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? And he went away in a ring. 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 things.
Which thou not have done it how much rather than when he say it to the Washington and be clean. Uh, Then when he down and ****** himself seven times in the Jordans, according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
And he returned to the man of God and said, uh, he and all his company and came and stood before him. And he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all his all the earth, but in Israel.
Now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. Uh, But he said, As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. And they even said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant? 2 mules burden of earth. For Thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offerings nor sacrifice unto other gods, but under the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardoned my servants, and that when my.
Faster goeth into the House of Lemon, to worship there any lean, and he leaneth on my hands. And I found myself in the House of Remen, When I bow down myself in the House of Remen, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little late.
Well, I'm sure that there are many of us here in this room that know this story, the story of Naman.
It says here in the very first verse that he was the captain of the host of the king of Assyria. This man is shown here to be a great man and honorable. And you know, there are many people in this world today who I suppose you could say would fit this description. We would not. We would think of somebody like umm Barack Obama or umm the new president of France or David Cameron, premier of.
Umm, England. These men would be considered by the world.
To be great men and honorable and, uh, and of course they, uh, are respected by most people in the world. But you'll notice here that it says at the end of this first verse, but he was a leopard. Now, you know, in the Bible, what does leprosy speak of? Maybe we should just notice a verse for a moment in first Corinthians chapter 5 that might give us a hint as to.
What uh uh, leprosy might speak of.
Umm, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. That's eleven I Washington. I wasn't thinking, umm, leprosy. However, we should think of what leprosy is like. It's a sickness. We all know it's not something that is found, uh, in this country. At least they're not very much, uh, but it's very common in, in countries like India and Africa. And as I understand it, it's something that starts with some sort of a mark on your skin and then it eats away.
And it deforms a person's hands and deforms a person's face and so on. It's a terrible disease. And, umm, to a large extent, uh, at least in the past, it was incurable. And I have no doubt the leprosy is, umm, given to us in the Scripture as a type of sin. And so here we find, uh, Naaman, this great man, this honorable man.
But it says he was a leopard.
And you know, it doesn't matter whether it's Barack Obama or Stephen Harper or whoever we would have to say, but he is a Sinner. You know what tell us in Romans chapter 3. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And dear friend, tonight as you sit here and and your seat, if you do not know the Lord is your Savior, it's very important that you understand the way of salvation because.
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God cannot allow one sin to enter His presence.
Uh, and uh, God hates sin And you know, I often think that the very first sin in the Bible was disobedience. Remember how God said thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were not deed of it. I'm sorry that they were not eating the tree in the midst of the garden. Uh, maybe we should look at that.
You'll have to forgive me. I, uh.
We know the story so well, I just wanna get it accurate. Uh, Genesis chapter, Umm.
UH-2, actually.
Umm.
Verse 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So the very first sin in the Bible, God said, Thou shalt not eat of the fruit and fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What did even Adam and Eve do? They ate of the fruit of that tree. They they committed the sin of disobedience.
And it has led to all the sins we see in the world today, murder, theft, uh, all these things just from that one sin. And so God cannot allow one sin in his presence.
In fact, we're told in first Peter that God is holy and it says be ye holy. He says be holy as I am holy. But you know, we're in our sins. We can't, we can't be holy because we are. We've sinned and we're incense and there's nothing we can do about it. This man here, Umm Naiman, he was a leper and there was nothing he could do about it. He was helpless. Well, let's go on and see what it says here.
Uh, it says the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel. A little made and she waited on Neiman's wife. So here was a little girl, I don't know how old she was. She might have been five or six.
And during one of the wars when Syria had gone down into Israel.
Uh, Neiman had taken captive this little girl, this little man, and here she was now serving in the home of Naman. One thing I like about this little maid is that even though she was considered little, she had great faith, great faith, and she knew. Well, first of all, I want to say that she loved, uh, her Master, uh, Naman.
And, you know, she was concerned for him. And I wanna say tonight, dear friend, that we love you. We want to see you saved. And just like this little maid here, she desired to see her, her, uh, master healed. And, uh, So what did she do? Well, it says here in the third verse, it says, would God, my Lord, we're with the prophet that is in Samaria for he would recover him of his leprosy. So she went in, you know, and and said, look.
All you have to do is go down and see the profit that's in Samaria. He'll, he'll, uh, heal you. He'll, uh, he'll be able to, with the Lord God's help, you'll be able to heal you of the, of the leprosy.
And tonight we wanna say that we can offer you a way to have a, not our way, but God's way. You know, there are many people in this world that, uh, offer many ways to get to heaven. They say we'll join our church. Umm, or they say, uh, do the best you can keep the 10 commandments. They have all these various things to tell you, but, uh, it's not God's way. What is the way to, uh, to heaven? What is the gospel message? Well, it's really very simple.
Umm, let's just look at a verse we know well, I won't even turn to it. Uh, Romans, uh, chapter 5, uh, Romans 6, I'm sorry, Romans 6 and 23 says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so tonight, dear friends, the gospel is very simple. It's just simply a matter of taking the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. First of all, acknowledging.
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That you are a Sinner. You know we had that verse last night. I believe in Romans 10:00 and 9:00. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Pretty simple, isn't it? Well, the first step I believe is to acknowledge that you're a Sinner. And dear friend tonight, have you ever gone into God's presence? Do you realize that right now as we speak?
God can see you, He can see right down into your heart, and He knows whether you have ever accepted His offer of salvation.
Well, have you ever just bowed your head and said, as the Republican God, be merciful to me, the Sinner? Have you ever done that? I can well remember the time I was listening to a gospel preacher like this and I was very concerned and I'm thankful that I got down on my knees when I went home and I got and I confessed to the Lord that I was a Sinner and took him as my Savior. You know, you don't even have to wait till you go home. You can do it right here.
All you have to do is bow your head and acknowledge that you're a Sinner and accept God and salvation.
Well, we'll say more about that in the minutes. Let's just go on here. So we find here the little maid, she gives the message, go to the prophet in Samaria. Well, what happens? The message was taken here, you'll notice to the king and uh, what's it say in the fifth verse? And the king of Syria said, go to, I will send a letter unto the king of Israel.
Now the little maintenance said go to.
The the profit in Samaria, but here the king.
Umm, he sends a letter to the king of Israel. Now what could the king of Israel do for, uh, name it, We know there's nothing that he could do. In fact, when he got the letter, notice what he says, uh, in the umm, in the seventh verse. And it came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter.
That he rents his clothes and said, am I God to kill and to make a life. That this man does send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy. Wherefore consider I pray, pray you and see how he seeks 1/4 of history. He says, why is the king of Syria sending me this letter? I can't heal. Umm Naman, is he trying to cause a quarrel and get us into a war? He was very, very concerned. And you know, there's a lot of people in the world today.
Rather than going to the Lord Jesus to bowing their heads and asking the Lord Jesus umm to tell him the way of salvation or at least to umm come to him and acknowledge that they're sinners and accept the Lord Jesus as their savior. What do they do? They sometimes go to their ministry or they go to the UMM. They say, well, you know, I'm a, a, a member of such and such a church.
And perhaps if I go to that church regularly every week and confess my sins to a priest or something, then I can get to heaven. But that's not what the Bible says.
You know the Bible says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
You know.
I've often thought.
Supposing I went in my backyard and I saw some sparrows sitting there chirping, and I wanted to communicate with them. You know, if I went out the back door and down to where those sparrows were, what do they do? They would fly away. Why? Because they're naturally frightened of them.
Well, you know, if God ever came in his power and glory and came to his creatures in this world, it would terrify them. But what did? What did God do? He sent his Son, the Lord Jesus into this world.
In fact, in fact, I should probably mention first of all that God is a triune Tri human being, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ into this world. He was born a baby.
In a Manger in Bethlehem, in the city of in the country of Israel.
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And, you know, this world didn't even have any room for it. They had to put them, uh, Mary and Joseph had to go to the, the barn, more or less. And the Lord Jesus was born there in a Manger.
But God sent His Son into this world, and He was different than any other person in this whole world. Why #1 Because he was God himself. I want to ask you tonight, dear friend, do you believe that Jesus is God? Do you believe that? Or do you just think He was a good man that was born into the world 2000 years ago?
He is God. He was God manifest in the flesh, and he grew up in this world and he never sinned. Why? Because he was God himself and he worked. He walked through this world as a human being just like we are, but he has no sense and he always did what was pleasing to his Father.
And yet he was hated.
He was passed out, he was not wanted. The people sat away with this man. We will not have this man to reign over us. And what did this world do? They Co took him and they nailed him to a cross.
I put nails through his hands and his feet. They put a crown of thorns on his head and they took a spear and pierced it into his side and forced and with came out blood and water. That's what this world has done to the only person whoever lived a sinless life. They cast them out. And yet what does God say? He says the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleans us from all sin.
And I want to say tonight, dear friends, that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that was shed there on Calvary can put away your sins tonight.
Have you ever gone to to? Have you ever bowed your head and asked Jesus to wash your sins away in his own blood? Have you ever done that? Well, I did when I was eight years old. I know I'm going to have it. Not because I'm better than you.
I'm going to heaven because the Lord Jesus has paid the punishment for my sins. I should mention that point. During the three hours, 3 hours when Jesus was on that cross, it got pitch dark. God blanked out the sun, as it were. God pitch dark. And during those three hours, Jesus paid the penalty for my sins. The judgment that I deserved in a lost eternity forever was taken on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And now he says I can go free. His blood has put away my sins. Have you ever done that? Have you ever asked him to save you? Well, here was this king. He didn't know what to do. But fortunately the umm, the profit in Samaria. Elijah, he heard about the king. And what does he say here?
Uh, verse eight. And then we saw when Elijah, the man of God had heard that the king of Israel.
Had uh 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 that there is a prophet in Israel. So Elijah says, send them down to me, I can heal. So Naiman goes down.
And notice what it says in the ninth verse. So Naman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of Elijah.
So here was this great man, Naman Leopard, and he comes with his horses and Chariots, knowing the Scriptures, the horses and Chariots often speak a man's natural power and greatness. And he stood there, you know, he'd seen rolling up in his chariot with his horses, and he stood there in front of the House of Elijah. And what do you think he expected? I think he expected, you know, election to come out and bow himself down and said, glad to meet you and I'll make you better.
But you know what never happened? There was Nathan. Nathan, our Nieman standing.
In front of the door of Alicia's house and nobody came to the door.
Uh, So what does it say here?
Umm Alicia sent a messenger on to him saying go and wash in Jordan 7 times so election never even came to the door.
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And then the messenger appeared and he just simply said, naman, I have a message for you and that is go and wash and the Jordan River seven times.
Well, Nayland was curious.
You mean to say that?
This man Elijah cannot even come out of his house and speak to me, nor is what it says here in the 12Th verse, or at least, uh, the, umm, the 11Th verse. But Naman was Roth and went away and said, behold, I thought he surely, uh, would 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 leopard. So this is what he thought would happen.
But you know, I've sort of enjoyed in this 11Th verse, what does Damon say? He says, behold, I thought, I thought he had his own thoughts as to how we could become a conversation. And dear friend, tonight you might have your own thoughts. I might ask you and you can answer in your mind, are you going to heaven when you die?
How are? How do you know you're going to have them when you die?
Is it because you've asked Jesus, the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, who died on the cross and, and have you ever asked him to save you? Or do you have some other way that you think you can be saved? You know, you can go down the street and ask a person, are you going to heaven? And they say, well, I hope so. And you say, well, why do you hope you're going to have there? Why do you think you might be going to heaven? And they said, well, you know, I'm not such a bad person.
I know I've never murdered anybody. I've never robbed a bank. Umm, I think God will accept me. But you know, that's man's thoughts.
There is only one way to be saved, and that is God's way.
And so how important it is to to know from the scriptures how we can be saved? Well, Naman here, he said. I thought.
And he was very insulted that Elijah wouldn't even come to the door and speak to him. So what does he say here?
Uh, in the umm, uh, 12Th verse, he says, are not a banner and far par rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I know washing them and be clean. So we went away in a range, you know, he looked at that Jordan River and he said, why should I go down to that river? You know, I want to say that about two months ago I was standing beside the Jordan River.
In Israel and it is a very muddy river. Uh, you, you can't see the bottom at all. It just filled with mud and no doubt a life or at least a name. And when he looked at that, wherever he thought, I don't wanna get into that money river.
And Alicia wants me to dip in at 7 times. I'm not gonna do that. We have reversed back in Syria that are clean Havana and firefighter and you know.
I've liked and I'd like to, umm, liken those two rivers.
To what I call ritualism and rationalism. There are some people that are trusting their religion in order to get to hell. They think about a member of such and such a church.
And I do the best I can and I have a Bible in my house, umm, that I'm gonna get to heaven. There's a ritualists.
Uh, there are others, however, that say I don't believe in religion. I, I believe in science and, umm, how can you prove there's a God? They say, they look up in the sky and they say, where is God? I can't see. And remember Yuri Gardner Goddard, he was the first Russian to go into space. And when he went up in, uh, that little space capsule back in the early 60s, he said I didn't see God in space. Well, how foolish.
But you know, he was trusting his rationalistic mind.
In the thinking that he was safe because he couldn't see God.
And there are many people today that consider themselves atheists. They say there's no God.
What does the Bible say about that? Take a look at, umm, some UH-14.
Uh, well known verse.
Psalm 14.
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The fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good, so it says they're The fool has said in his heart there's no God. Dear friend, are you one of those kind of people that are trusting, uh, so-called science?
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with science, but science will never lead you.
Uh, to God, never. And yet some people, they look around and they say there's no God.
But you know what other verse tells us that they are without excuse, all you have to do with without and examine, uh, creation, the intricacies of a leaf or how a Caterpillar changes from a Caterpillar into a, a butterfly and these kind of things to see that, umm, that there's a creator behind what we see in, in nature. Well, I'd like to, I'd like to, umm, compare the two rivers, Havana and Carpark to those people who are ritualists and religionists.
And those who are rationalists, well.
He was fed up. He thought he would just go home.
But you'll notice here his servants, they begin to plead with them. Notice what they say.
His servants came near and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had been thee to do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather when he says to the wash and be clean? So the servant said.
Sir, all I asked you to do was to go down and dip in that river seven times. That's nothing hard. If you ask you to do something very difficult thing, well, you might understand why you wouldn't do it. But why not go down and dip in that river seven times?
Well, you know, the wonderful thing is that Nieman.
Began to think, as you know, it says of the, uh, prodigal son in Luke 15, he came to himself and here was naman. He began to think, yes, it would be a very simple thing to go and dip in that river seven times. And so it says there on the 14, first he went down. He went down. And you know, that's the first step to salvation is to realize.
That you're a Sinner in God's presence, not trying to defend yourself, not saying that you're not as bad as your neighbor, umm or anything like that, but just simply acknowledging what God says. That you are a sin.
And so we find here that, uh, name and he went down and it says he dipped himself seven times, supposing he had gone down and he had dipped in the river five times.
Would he have been cleansed of a lepersy?
I don't think so, in fact I know some. It had to be 7 times and therefore salvation is only one way. It can't be anything less than God's way. And so let's just take a look at the gospel verse that's well known. John chapter 5. Sometimes nice to look at these verses to see them for ourselves.
John chapter 5 and this is Jesus himself speaking.
Verse 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believes on him that sent Me, has everlasting love, and shall not come into condemnation or judgment, but his past from death unto life.
Isn't that wonderful? He adheres my word. Are you? Are you ready to listen to God's Word tonight? Are you ready to realize not only that you're a Sinner, but the Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners?
Are you willing to acknowledge that?
Are you willing to realize that his blood can put away your sins forever?
Are you willing to bow your head right here in this room and say, as we said before, God be merciful to me as senator?
I accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. He's the only one that can say, well we find that uh, uh, naman here. He dipped himself in the Jordan 7 times and what was the result? It says His flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
00:40:20
Notice a little child you know. Have you ever looked at the skin of a little child?
There's not a wrinkle, is there? No imperfections. It's just very, very smooth skin. This man, when he was cleansed, I'm sure he looked probably 25 years younger, maybe, maybe more. His skin was like a little child. And you know what? Tell us in God's word, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
There was a man that was here yesterday.
And he came from my town, New Glasgow, and you know, when he was about 18, he, uh, decided he would start taking drugs, took LSD and a lot of other, uh, such drugs. He left home, he hitched, uh, onto a freight train that was heading for Montreal, jumped in a box car and, uh, traveled up to Montreal And from there he went on to the British Columbia.
And umm, smoking pot and going to rock concerts and doing everything you can imagine. And umm, I won't go into all the details, but uh, that person, umm, was convicted of his sins when he was out West. I can't remember all the details, but you know, he acknowledged that he was a center, took Jesus as a savior, and there was a complete change in his life.
Complete and dear friends and I, if you're willing to take that step of acknowledging that you're a Sinner.
The Lord Jesus Christ will give you a new life, one that wants to please Him.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are becoming new. And that's what the Lord wants to do for you tonight. He wants to give you a new life, one that wants to please Him.
And so we find here, it says his flesh became as a little child and he was clean.
Verse 15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him, and he said, Behold, now I know there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.
You know, I like this expression. Now I know in order, as I said before, there's a lot of people who you go to them and you say, are you saved? And they say, well, I hope so. Are you going to heaven when you die? Well, I hope so. But you know, God doesn't want you to hope. He wants you to know. Let's look at a verse in first John chapter 5.
First John, chapter 5.
And, umm.
Verse 13.
These things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that she have eternal life, that he may know that you have eternal life.
Friends, do you know if you have eternal life? Do you? I do. I'm not going to have them because I'm better than you, but because my sins have been put away in the blood of Christ. That can be your salvation tonight too.
And so it says here, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.
If you accept crisis and your savers and knife, you'll know that you have eternal life.
Well, you know, if we could go on here just for a moment, I won't take too much more time, but umm, uh, he says there in the 16th verse, as the Lord liveth before whom I stand. I, I'm sorry, I'm ahead of myself. Umm, we'll read verse 15 again. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company and came and stood before him and said, Behold, now I know there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Now, therefore I pray thee take a blessing of thy servants.
And Alicia said, as the the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. So here's Naman who says, look, at least I can give you something for what you've done. I'm clean. My skin is just even better than it was before I had leprosy. Surely I can give you something. How about 10 changes of Raymond? So he offers Elijah all these disclose and uh, silver and gold and so on.
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And the license says I'm not gonna take a nickel up.
You know it makes me sad sometimes you hear the gospel preached on the on the radio sometimes or on TV and umm, you know at the end they say please send your money to such and such a a box number.
And it almost sounds like you have to pay for salvation, but you know, when you came in here tonight, we didn't ask you for a donation. We didn't ask you to, uh, leave some money in the box as you leave. Why? Because salvation is free. It doesn't cost a nickel for you. It costs the Lord Jesus everything. It cost him his life.
But it cost you nothing. All you have to do is accept it as a gift, the gift of God.
Is eternal life. So Elijah, he wouldn't take anything from me. Nothing.
And so tonight, God isn't asking for money. He's not asking you to turn over a new leaf. He's simply asking you to accept his gift, the gift of His only son.
The gift of eternal life. Are you willing to accept it tonight?
Well, I'm not going to take any more time, but if you've never acknowledged Jesus as Lord, if you've never admitted that, you're a Sinner.
Do it tonight before it's too late. Too late. It's 7:50 and you know.
Very soon the Lord Jesus is going to come and take his own out of this world to be with himself. If you're left behind, it's to be left behind from the judgment of God. We had this morning the story of the Titanic, and we know a lot has been said about the Titanic. You know, they said it was unthinkable.
And umm, there were a large number of people on that boat, I don't know how many. It was something like 2000 and some. And there they were crossing the Atlantic, thinking that everything was fine. Little did they realize that that boat that they said that God himself couldn't sink was going to go to the bottom.
And you know, people in this world today, they think everything is just going to continue the way it is. But one of these days God is going to bring judgments on this world for the rejection of His Son.
But you know, before that moment, those who know us know Him as Lord and Savior are gonna be caught up to be with Him forever. Are you gonna be caught up at that time, or will you be left behind for the awful judgment of God? Behold, now is the accepted time. Don't wait even till 7:50. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. I remember a story I've told many times.
When I was training for a teacher. This was back quite a while ago.
There was a young man who was the president of the student council. His name was, uh, Ernie Grant. And he was very popular, good looking and, umm, my friends, umm, I went to him one day and said, Ernie, do you know the Lord of your Savior? He said, uh, what are you talking about? And uh, Jim, uh, gave him the gospel and he listened and he said, you know, I think maybe you're right in what you say, but he said, I wanna have a good time.
And, umm.
I have lots of time. I'm young, I'm only 21 or 22, whatever it was. And he said when I'm on my deathbed, I will accept, umm, God's offer of salvation. Well, you know, it wasn't even a year after that conversation that Ernie was driving a sports car and he had a head on collision and he was ushered into attorney. He was never given a death penalty.
And you might say, well, thanks for what you say, but I'll think about it. If you wait, it might be too late. God's time is now.
And that's why we urge you to take that step now. All you have to do is bow your head, tell the Lord that you're a Sinner, believe that He died on the cross to put away your sins, and salvation will be yours. Let us pray.
Our God and Father, we thank thee for the gospel message. We thank thee most of all, blessed God, for thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank Thee for sending him into this world to save sinners.
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We thank You for each one in this room who has accepted Thy offer, the full and free salvation. But oh Lord, we fear that there are some here tonight who have never taken that step.
They've heard the gospel message but have either neglected it or rejected it. We pray for such here tonight that they might, uh, Lord Jesus, acknowledge that they are sinners, believe that Thou is coming to the world to save centers, and they might accept by offer of a full and free salvation tonight, before it is forever too late. We ask Thee for this and ask Thee for, umm, the Word of the Holy Spirit and the souls of any here who know not Thee as Savior.
We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.