Gospel—David Mearns
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Like to sing with him tonight #11 We sang it earlier just like the thing the 1St 2 verses.
You know as we present the gospel of the grace of God.
Many here presented it. It was presented last night.
Sometimes we present it as if our life depends on it.
Tonight mine doesn't.
But yours might.
What's the thing #11 The first couple of verses?
Please start that.
Will your anchor hold in the storms of light?
When the.
Umm.
And the wild winds blow the airway and let your fire farm.
We have Lakers and give some soul.
That's not some cure. I wasn't alone.
Which cannot move. What is there can be in the Bangor's Law?
Maybe if we have enough time in the meeting.
We'll sing the latter 2.
Versus of that lovely hymn.
I stand before you here as a happy man.
My anchor holds. Does your anchor hold?
Just before we pray.
Like the total incident?
I buried my first sibling.
About a month ago.
My brother Peter.
He's at home with the Lord.
That's all a little incident in his life when he was four years old.
He's eight years older than I am, so I don't remember this incident, but my mother told it to me. So it was the winter time and he wanted to go to slide and play and she dressed him up in his winter clothes and.
I don't know what it was, but she told him he wasn't supposed to do something.
Anyway, you went outside.
Unbeknownst to him, she could see him from the kitchen window, goes inside, and he does exactly what she told him not to do.
So he comes back in and umm.
She challenges it.
I told you not to do such and such. I didn't do it.
I guess you did.
No, I didn't.
Yes, you did. Well, how do you know?
And my mother's French Canadian way of presenting things, presenting to them that he had a guilty look on his face, she said. It's written all over your forehead.
And umm, and it will transpire, but.
Few days later he comes in again and she's got no idea what he's been doing, but he comes in the house and he's pulling his hair down.
You know, as older ones, we're not four years old.
We're a little bit more sophisticated, aren't we? And that the saw that we have and the veneer that we put on.
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How about tonight as we pray and we listen to the message?
You get the hair off our foreheads and we would be real with God.
He was trying to pretend.
Cover up, Maybe there's someone here tonight.
You're lost in your sense.
And you've been faking it this whole time.
Perhaps there are those here. I think you know the Lord Jesus.
And you're nothing but a fake.
Great tonight that everyone of us would be real ourselves, would be real before God.
There would be no when you're here, right?
Our foreheads, that's just great.
Our God and our Father, we thank thee for the Lord Jesus.
Thank you that last night He was presented in all his glory.
Mid to darkness there can be marvelous light.
And we thank you now it's our privilege to be able to open my precious word and the read from these blessed pages. We just would pray that our hearts would be open tonight and we would have a listening here and that we would seek our God to be real before the selfish desire to be real with us. So we would ask for like help tonight.
And we just would pray for thy blessing upon Thy precious word.
There's some part here with perhaps without Christ. We just would pray that they would come to a safe and College of origin and the sea. God bless the one and all of duty and all his glory.
And we have to go on the waiver choicing.
That means your computer. So our God reacting thing that just went.
It asked for special help tonight, for utterance and for uh, and for wisdom. We ask it in the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Please to the book of Luke.
Mm-hmm.
OK, look.
8th chapter.
Group Chapter 8. Commitment to verse 4.
And once when once people were gathered together and we'll come to him out of every city, he's picked by a powerful us over when it's to sow his peace.
And he told Some fell by the wayside. It was trodden down and the falls of the air devoured it. Some fell upon a rock.
And as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked the moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. Another fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bear fruit in underfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And disciples asked him, saying, At what point this mirror will be? And he said.
Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to others in Caribbean.
Of seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. How horrible is this? The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are made, and here then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. Say on the rock are they which one they hear receive the word of joy. And these have no roots which were a wild belief. And in time of temptation fall away.
That which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of his life, and bring no fruit and perfection.
Ground are they good heart, having heard the word, Keep us and bring forth fruit with patience.
Listening and I hopped on the plane on Thursday and, umm, our seats, uh, were not together. We thought maybe we could just sit together on the way here. What's my portion? I sat down on my seat. Gentleman came along, sat down, very talkative.
He was ahead of.
The engineering firm and, uh, he's complaining that, uh, he always, uh, he always, uh, flies first class and that, uh, it was full and he wasn't able to do that and umm, he went on to tell me about his business quite talking to fellow I, I sat there in the same thing and just listened to him speak. And after he went on, Ronnie said, So what do you do? I say, oh, I hammer some nails. Oh, that's a nice profession and umm, he pulled out his Wall Street Journal to the.
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Section and umm and sorry to read it and they stopped and he look at me and he said he wanted to tell me more about his life. He said, you know, I was brought up a Catholic and umm I've left that behind. I'm umm, I'm an agnostic, that's what I'm.
I'm not sure where this, where this came from, but I'm just sitting there and he's agnostic and he's, umm, his wife got married in a, in a nomination where they could get it done fast and there would be no spiritual investment. And, umm, he's quite happy the way he, umm, miss his wife. And anyway, he opened up his paper and, and, uh, started to check out the, uh, the uh.
The Dow Jones.
So I sat there for a while and then after about 20 minutes, I reached down into my, uh, to my briefcase and I pulled up my Bible.
Am I, I don't know my lap, but I'm reading it and, uh, sitting there with the paper and I have my first reason why like I see and it looks over like this and it looks over again and pretty soon he's.
And uh, I'm thankful for your comments and marking up your Bible. After a while he umm, put the paper away and he says, you know, that must be umm, that must be an old family Bible for many generations.
All those markings intermittent. It's actually my new bucket.
It's a new bike. I pulled out my old bike.
Pattern and yellow and he said, wow, that looks centuries old. And he, he just stopped. He looked, he said, wow, that must be a real passion.
I said well.
Actually, the authors of Ash.
You know that the whole demeanor changed.
All of a sudden he's asking questions.
And this concept of being an agnostic was fading.
It's the background. As he was sitting beside someone, I was reading a book.
That meant so much to him. I looked to him. It was an old, old book.
I'll tell you the rest of the story. I wanna pull and look at what we have here in this hospital. We start off with this parable of the sword.
And it says the store went into sow his seed and he sowed some felt by the wayside.
And was trodden down in the fowls of the air.
The wayside.
And we read a lot about the wayside. It was the wayside where, umm.
Increase Trudeau went into pain on the wayside. We read about Eli and said he was sitting on a in his seat by the wayside when he when he heard them the the umm, the arc was taken. We revoked, uh, Lion Bartelia by the wayside. Such a number of places by the wayside. What is the wayside speak to itself the wayside if you can picture in your mind.
A a track in the country where there's graph on either side and grass up the middle and there's these two tracks where where the tires go. You can all picture what I'm talking about where the tires go. That's the waste light. It's the hard packed dirt.
Where when you throw the seeds nothing can happen because it's so hard.
I'm just wondering.
If there's someone here tonight and your heart is like the wayside as we present the word, it's hard packed.
You're just not interested. It it can't. It can't. It can't go down into the ground and it can't germinate and it can't sprout because it's hard.
Turn with me for a moment to the The Book of Job Job.
23.
Because if there's such a one here tonight, this is very meaningful for you. Job 23.
12/23 and verse 16 it says For God maketh my heart soft.
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Oh, I trust that there's someone here tonight, and you have.
A hard, hard heart.
My prayer, the prayer of many here tonight, is that God would soften your heart so that the good feet with land in fertile grounds, the wayside.
Hard act dirty.
To elaborate on that, we've got 12 minutes left.
Let's go on to the next one.
Verse 6.
And some fell upon a rock.
And as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.
The rocky ground.
Perhaps there's someone here and you've got no interest whatsoever in the word of God.
You know the the reason that that the seed withered when it landed on the rocky ground because it lacked moisture. So you see the expression it lacked moisture and.
I think both of us were believed. We don't read the word, Uh, we're just gonna wither. But if there's someone here and you're opposed to the word, there's no spiritual value in your life, none whatsoever. And God has given you the opportunity tonight. Perhaps your, your, your heart was hard like a hard packed dirt. Maybe God is making it soft tonight.
Maybe the water is a word that we're presenting right now. It's gonna cost.
Moisture to go in and to be able to take the good seed that we're sowing the fridge of, germinate and bring forth fruit.
Then when we reached for seven and some hell among four.
And the thorns sprung up.
And choke.
That's an interesting expression. You know, we we had before us yesterday the.
All the all the demons and how they went to the pigs and said the pigs ran down. It's actually in the next chapter.
Uh, it's actually in this chapter.
Umm, chapter 8.
UMM verse 33 then went out the demon out of a man and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake and were choked. This is interesting concept in connection with presenting the worst because if you look over at first UMM 13.
It says are they on the rock?
Or rather, they are on the thorns. Verse 14. They which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked. The cares and the riches and the pleasures of this life bring no fruit to perfection. There are those things that choke at the word. Understand the concept of the word choking.
You know if you ever seen a.
A baby starts to choke.
And what the mother does.
She doesn't casually sit on her chair with her feet up on another chair and watch the baby choke. You know, everything else goes out of her mind that she goes that big and tries to dislodge what's stuck in that in the throat of the child. And that's what happens when we're choking any of us when we choke, you know?
We're not conscious of anything else around other than what's stuck in our throat. And that's what the enemy does with these things that he's thinking about the pleasures, the cares of this life which are real.
And they choke out the words. You know, it's interesting. Turn over to, umm, to umm, Matthew's gospel, uh, the 18th chapter.
Matthew 18.
In verse 23 it says, therefore is the Kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants, and when he began to reckon, one was brought in a major 10,000 talents.
And for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children all that he had a payment to be made. And the service therefore fell down and worshiped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me in all, Pay thee all. And the servant, Lord, that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the death. And the same servant went out and found one of his fellows servants, which owed him 100 pence, and he laid hands on him. And this is the thought of choking. He said he took him by the throat.
That's what he did, tried to dislodge and try to try to stop the air from going in. And it's interesting, isn't it?
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That that's what the enemy uses to try to dislodge the word stone in our hearts. You know what's amazing? That in Luke's Gospel, the the enemy is referred to the devil twice. Once when he unsuccessfully pencil or Jesus and the other when he very successfully.
Deceives men, and he does it by choking out the words. And I just wonder if there's someone new tonight.
As we present the word.
As we present, I'm not thinking of an audience here. I, I recognize that there was some here that, umm, I walked in that haven't been here all day, that we've changed years here a little bit. But we're speaking to an audience that has heard the gospel many, many times. And maybe there's someone here tonight and the enemy of our souls is trying to choke you. You don't listen to the word.
A solid thing.
No, it says here.
First aid. Other fell on good ground and sprung up and barefoot on hundredfold.
When you said these things, he cried. He that hath ears to hear left him here. Oh, we trust that there's someone here tonight that doesn't know the favor that you would hear. You would listen.
The Gospel of the grace of God.
You know, just three weeks ago.
I, umm, was working with my son-in-law in a house, I was kind of directing traffic there and, and, uh, the lady of the house, uh, we worked there a number of times before the lady came over to me, her husband was sick. He's actually a cancer patient, umm, in a hospital bed in the living room. And she called me into another room and she said they, umm.
Umm.
Need to talk to you. Yeah. So we're sitting there in the in the family room, He's in the living room. We're seeing the family. And she said Dave.
You seem to have a lot more.
Confidence and a lot more peace than anybody at the church that we go to. Would you take my husband's service?
Piece of let's pass away umm off the boards either, I'm thinking well.
Umm, yeah.
I guess I could do that. Umm, anyway, uh, few days later I have to visit with him and I go in and I visit with her and umm, she's all that works. All about umm, the good things she's done and, and how umm good living people and uh, she's.
Telling me the whole story and umm, and uh, you know, it's interesting. Umm, she had never, her husband had never talked.
About him stepping over that line.
And I I turned her to the thief on the cross and we went through that portion where the thief on the cross. I would have turned to this portion. We don't have time to it would have turned to if there was someone here that just walked in. But the season across says to the Lord Jesus, Lord, Remember Me.
Now comes into thy Kingdom, the thief on the cross. He owned Jesus.
Ask Lord.
And I went through that portion with this woman and I said, you know.
What could this man do in the way of good works? He was a robber. How could he pay back the things that he had stolen? How could he even go to someone and say he was sorry for the things that he did that he had done?
Kind of thought about that. And you know, I left unbeknownst to me, she goes into her husband and she takes up the thief on the crossword. And my wife and I are discussing this at home and umm, my wife decides she's going to go and visit with them the next morning. She arrives with a basket of, I don't know, lungs or scones or whatever. And, uh, never met them before.
And and goes in and and 2 1/2 hours later the man has greatly confessed the Lord.
90 years old, just a short time.
Well, he passes away.
And, umm.
She told me the service is gonna be in another few days and umm.
On a Friday night I get a call from a brother.
And the first name said, you know, there's a young man here and umm.
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He's a grandmother who's dying of cancer and umm, she lives in a little town called Pitbulls and umm, he wondered if they knew anybody in Spitballs or close by to be able to go and visit with his grandmother and give her the gospel. So of course I live right around the corner. So umm, I go there the next morning, umm, my granddaughters just born. So I have a peek at her and I go to look this lady up and I couldn't find her.
Couldn't find anything about her and I thought, well you know, I need the time to do this. Umm, I'm.
Maybe I'll go over and see this widow. It's just they lost their husband. So the way the world opens the door, I go over there, she's reading John's gospel.
And, uh, just from reading the word she says to me, they, umm.
I've asked, umm, I've asked the Lord to forgive me of all my sins. You think he has, You think He has.
8085 years old. There's a man 90 years old.
Wife 85 years old. Both come to the saving homes of the Lord Jesus.
An old Jesus as Lord.
You know, I found out that the lady in the hospital had died.
That's why I couldn't go to see her. And her grandson had been on the phone just before she passed away, And she turned to the Lord, too. You know, it's marvelous.
That the Lord can take of the Word of God and make it good to the soul.
And I'm just thinking, is there someone here tonight? And you know the gospel, you know the Lord Jesus has died, you know that he shed his precious blood for your sins, and you know that if you would simply repent and ask the Lord Jesus.
To deal with those sins that it's done.
Is there someone here you know? We're in progress. We have a hard time.
You have a hard, hard time only Jesus as Lord.
Would you do that tonight?
Would you be able to do that? Oh Jesus is Lord, own your lost and ruined condition.
For the Lord himself, before God, be real before him, with no hair over the forehead. Could you do that tonight and just ask God?
I washed those things away in the precious blood of Lord Jesus.
It's marvelous.
Here in a company with so many that know the Lord Jesus and Savior.
And we just trust that there's someone here and your heart is hard. So the word can't penetrate all that. It would do something like, you know, I had the privilege of, of two years ago in the winter time, a man calling me up and saying, Dave, umm, I'd just like to have your piece. I'd like to have your piece.
And I said, well, I don't come on over and my wife is in Florida and uh, we spent some time together over the word and I, I said to him, I said, you know, how real is this? He says it's real. I said, is it real enough to talk to God better right now? And, uh.
He said yes. He just poured his heart into the world.
You know, a few months later.
After I had some Bible studies with him, he, he said to me, David, I'm, I'm having a hard time, uh, having a hard time reading the bicycle, read all kinds of things like having a hard time reading the Bible.
And at the time I was reading this portion, it looks possible.
And umm, you know, I came to this portion here where it says umm, and the, the umm in verse 6, some fell upon the rock and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. I thought, you know, he needs to hear that. He needs to hear that if we don't read and we're just going to be like that, we're just going to wither. And so if I go over to his house and, uh, on my way over, I, I stop and I park and I just admit to the Lord and ask the Lord to.
To, to, to bless his words, help me to be in a good spirit to be able to present it and help him to be in a good spirit to be able to receive it. And I drive in his driveway just as he's taking a sprinkler and putting it onto some fresh grass that's up this high that he planted a week before.
You know, it's amazing the way the Lord opens up something like that. And I'm just thinking tonight, if there's someone here and your heart is like a hard packed thirst, two things.
The heart has to be so that's what that's the work of God, and the moisture of the Word of God has to go in.
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OK, bye.
Oh, just tonight here, time is up. If there's anyone here and you're lost in your sins and perhaps it's the the cares of this life that are talking the word out. Maybe it's a hard packed dirt or maybe some moisture. Oh tonight trust that you would turn to the Lord.
Come to know Him as your Lord and Savior, and God is your father. But I think those last two verses.
And then we started with #11.
Will your anger hold in the floods of death to somebody? Starts the third and fourth verse.
Oil your anger, hold in the blood of town when the water falls till your legs, and then.
Right on the rising rise.
We are anchor that is powerful and rest assure all the devil's role happened to the wrong which can happen.
Would you like me to hold through the clock in my life?
Laughing out loud in the heart of my life.
You know, I mentioned that my brother passed away.
A month ago.
He passed away suddenly.
He dropped out of a heart attack.
This other man were speaking about, he was on a deathbed and he had a few days.
After the gospel was presented to him. If my brother had been lost.
There would have been no opportunity to come to the Lord.
We don't know how the Lord's gonna take us.
You know, a day and a half before the Lord took my brother, we'd have been in constant contact because he had hip replacement a couple months before I did, so I was kind of eager to know what the next step was. This is what he texted me a day and a half before he dropped it.
I've been enjoying the peace of God.
And the God of peace.
As I'm facing heart surgery in the next few weeks, I've had this going through my mind constantly. Oh, the peace forever flowing from God thought of his own son. Oh the peace of simply knowing on the cross that all was done. And he says the peace that comes from knowing who is in control passes our understanding. Last word I got from my brother day and a half of what the Lord took him.
You have that piece tonight. I know so many here do, but you haven't tonight.
You sit down in your chair. He's a God. This is all I understand. Oh, we trust. Tonight we've come to the stage, you know, touch his brain.
Our God and our Father, we thank you for the Savior. We thank you for so many of us here.
Oh, that blessed one of our Lord, Lord and Savior, we thank you, our God, that we can know He is Father.
Yeah, company here, but perhaps there's someone here and they don't have these.
There is someone here in their heart. It's like a heart.
Packed wayside just looked great. Their hearts would be touched on it. Or perhaps there are those cares of the life, the pleasures of me, the various things that the enemy of our souls choke of the word. Oh, we just would pray our God, the good feet of fall on fertile soil tonight provide honor and glory. We ask these things, our God, as we give thanks.
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Worthy and the precious thing of our emoji. Amen.