Gospel—Peter Marcus
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I think now how?
We have another opportunity to tell out the gospel, the power of God unto salvation. And we would.
Give the thanks, Father, for each one here that has already been covered in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we're humbled to think, Father, that perhaps.
There might be one or two or even 3 sitting here in this company.
That have not made that decision, that have not trusted in the finished work, his finished work at the cross.
If not.
Been cleansed.
By that precious blood.
So we would ask for help. We cast ourselves upon the in.
As for help as we would.
Look into thy word and ponder.
This one.
As one who's been the subject of so much already today.
The Lord Jesus Christ, we give thee thanks now in his most worthy and precious name, Amen.
Let's start with a little story, just a little illustration.
Want to sort of set the picture of a young boy and his father up on a hilltop and then going out to fly a kite on this particular day and.
Kite was quite a ways up in the air and some low flying clouds came in and.
All of a sudden, Kite was up inside the cloud deck and.
A little boy To his eyes it looked as though that kite had disappeared, and he got quite upset and wanted to know where the kite had gone. Father, where's the kite? So his father carefully handed him a little roll of string and.
He said. You feel that tug.
You feel that tug And the little boy said, yes, I feel the tug. And the father said, well, that's how we know the kite is still there, it's just up in the clouds. But that tug tells us the kite is still there.
And so if you're saved here tonight, if you've been washing that blood, if you've been redeemed by that finished work of Christ at the cross, you have a tug. You have a tug in your heart and in your soul. Every single day of your life, you hear His voice.
You have a sense of His presence and the Bible says you've been indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The moment you were saved, you were indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Sealed onto.
That time when he will come.
Down into this the clouds into the sky, and call us up home.
And so.
We don't have the ability to look into hearts and souls here today. There was only one, the Lord Jesus. He walked on this earth and He could look into someone's eyes and He could see every facet of what was going on in their soul, in their life.
We can't do that, per Perhaps mercifully, we can't do that. But.
The Lord knows where you are today. He knows exactly where you are.
And so.
If in fact, there are any here that are still wrestling with the question.
How can I be saved? How can I know for sure?
That I will be in heaven someday.
Well, the gospel.
The gospel is a word that really means good news, and so we.
We are here to tell that gospel out. We're here to share the good news.
That the Lord Jesus Christ came from heaven.
That he ministered here.
That he went to that cross outside Jerusalem.
Was crucified.
Died.
Was buried and then rose again on the third day.
And now the free gift of salvation that's offered to everyone, every child, every woman, every man. The free gift of salvation is that you simply accept.
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God's offer.
The Father points to the cross.
And says done.
He points to the cross and says done, and so we.
Here and now to lay down any thoughts or any hopes that in some way you would be able to live a life that would be somehow pleasing to the Father. That you would in some way be able to do things here in this scene for whatever number of months or years the Lord has you, leaves you here alive with breath in your lungs, that you could do something to please the Father, your Creator.
Somehow merit his favor, merit his love, merit his forgiveness for those things that we've done wrong.
We want you here and now to forsake any hope that you could get to heaven that way, that you could, that you could find some way into heaven through your own good works, your own good deeds.
Not of works the Bible says, lest any man should boast.
We are saved by faith.
Grace is God's gift to you, and you accept that gift by placing your faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross. So we want to spend a few minutes talking about this one.
The Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I want to start perhaps before we go to the Gospel of John, I want to start with a couple of comments about the song that we just sang.
Ye must be born again.
You know, it's discouraging to me to see.
Out in the world.
How those two words?
Are so are so corrupted.
How those two words are mocked? How those two words?
Are misinterpreted. And yet those were the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those were the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ when one perhaps just like one of you here today walking along in this scene, not not sure of your place before God.
But with questions, perhaps a real desire to know the truth.
A real desire to get the matter of eternity settled. 1 Just like you came to the Lord Jesus Christ at night many years ago.
And he wanted to know a little bit more about this one who was performing these miracles, this one who had such authority in his words, this one who was attracting crowds of hundreds and thousands to himself every single day.
And you know the Lord Jesus Christ.
He didn't mince any words. He didn't even respond to the man's first question.
He immediately cut to the heart of the matter and he told that man, whose name was Nicodemus, he must be born again.
And so that was our little him here to start. But you know the world.
The world is trying to make a mockery of those two words.
The world wants to paint a picture.
About those who can happily claim that they've been born again, washed in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, somehow that they've.
They've.
Laid aside their reason.
They've been pulled into some.
Strange way of thinking, some religious system, just one of many religious systems that are offered here on the earth. But we have to, we have to cut through all of that.
All of that.
And we have to say, those are in fact the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
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And so we we wanna be.
Somber when we think about those words, you must be born again. There's a responsibility here that there's a decision to be made.
There's no sitting on the fence.
The Lord Jesus Christ said he who is not with me is against me.
He left you no room.
To waffle on such an important question a question.
On which your eternal soul hangs in the balance.
He longs for you. If you're here today and you don't have the assurance of salvation, if you've not been indwelt by that Holy Spirit, if you don't feel the tug in your heart and your soul, He wants you.
He pleads with you today to make the decision, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and walk out this door today, knowing without any doubt that if you were to die this evening.
Your portion is eternity with him in heaven in glory. Let's turn to the Gospel of John. I want to look a little bit at this person, this glorious person, the only begotten Son of God, the one who said of himself, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man.
Cometh unto the Father, but by me, or by or through me.
You know.
I hear the statisticians talk about how the world population is sorted out as to religion. There's so many of of this religion, there's so many of that religion and there's so many that adhere to Christianity.
And that pains me, because it puts Christianity on the same level with all those other systems.
But we have to say to today to you.
As clearly as we possibly can. Christianity is not a religion.
It's not a religion, it's a personal relationship with the Lord of glory, your Creator, the One who created you.
Religion.
In every one of its facets always boils down to some set of guidelines or rules that tell you do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that.
And when it's all said and done.
You'll be weighed in the balance.
Perhaps you'll be good enough to have gotten in.
And again I repeat, the father says to you today.
Look at my son and look at the cross.
There it was accomplished. You add nothing to it.
All you can do is step into the good of it by trusting in Him.
Well, the 1St chapter of the Gospel of John, one of my most favorite portions. I want to spend a few minutes here.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
Now we're going to go down to 14.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth.
I have to go no farther than what we just read to be able to say to you today.
That this one, this one that came 2000 years ago and paid for your sins on the cross.
Was none other than God Himself.
Incarnate, that is, He took on flesh. He came to the earth. We know the story. He was born in that Manger in Bethlehem.
The Angels announced his coming.
The shepherds came. They did homage.
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This was.
God come to the earth in the flesh.
Make no mistake.
God here walking on the very earth that he had created.
In eternity past.
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
Hebrews tells us.
The world were framed by his word.
Sam tells us that he he stretches out the heavens.
Everything we see.
This one, the second person of the Trinity, spoke into existence out of nothingness. Everything that you see was created by this very one, who came as a babe.
And so.
He started his life humbly.
He grew up.
We have very little in the scriptures about how he spent his early days.
It was not not God's purpose that we need to know a lot about that, but we see Him.
We see him growing up and then.
At the beginning of his ministry, beginning to reveal himself slowly at first.
The out shining of that glory. The out shining of the glory.
God in the flesh.
So he.
He proved in miracles, in words and deeds.
His deity.
Every every word validated every word.
Every instance where he dealt with those around him.
Perfection.
Grace. Grace upon grace.
And so.
Is it necessarily had to be?
Those to whom he came his own received him not.
Verse 11 In our portion He came unto his own, and his own received him, not the Jews given the opportunity.
A viable offer of the Kingdom.
The Messiah with them, present with them.
They rejected him.
They would not have him.
To be their king.
And so.
Persecution.
And then?
The cross.
Now we're moving very quickly here, but.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and eternity past could look down through those tunnels of time.
Their crowning achievement in the creation. The creation of a creature.
All of us here today created in his image.
Body, soul and spirit.
But then sin came in. We know from Genesis sin came in.
Ruin.
God's purpose before the earth was even formed.
Was to provide.
A solution provide.
Amending a healing for that sin that came in every one of us infected.
With this thing we call sin.
Hertz.
You know many of us here today.
Have had loved ones.
That have gotten sick.
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Eventually.
Going into eternity.
Sometimes older ones, grandparents, perhaps sometimes younger ones.
Mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, perhaps even children.
You know.
In those times.
And I've lived through those myself.
It's easy to fantasize about.
The power that God has to heal, the power that was manifested when the Lord Jesus was here on the earth and how he healed those that were ill, those that were on their way into eternity.
Heal them with a word.
To think about a loved one.
Heal.
You know, if you were in that position.
Someone in your family was sick.
You were without hope. Yet there was one. There was one who had.
Secure, there was one who had the ability to speak the word, to heal that loved one.
Oh, you would want. You'd want them to step up. You'd want them.
To step up, provide that cure.
But you know, we all have.
We all have that stain of sin, every single one of us.
You were born with it.
And we prove it out.
If we're honest, we look in the mirror, we have to admit we've all fallen short of the glory of God. That's what the Scriptures tell us. We've all fallen short.
We all have a rap sheet.
A mile long, even Paul, the one with whom we were.
Occupied this afternoon.
That greatest of.
Evangelists.
That greatest of workers in God's Kingdom could say with absolute sincerity that he was the chief of sinners.
You know everyone who's truly saved here today.
Can stand with Paul and say the same thing. The chief of sinners eye the chief of sinners.
We know, we know what he meant.
Uh.
The stain of sin.
There is a cure.
And shame on us if we don't present you with that cure.
So simple.
So beautiful, so complete, so perfect, so free.
Again.
All you do is reach out and receive.
That free gift offered by God and the cure is yours, the same of sin removed.
So his own received him not, but in verse 12 as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
You know when I was first saved.
And the reality of of these things, these eternal questions that we.
That we ponder this afternoon.
Became more and more in focus.
The reality that without that covering, without the shed blood of Christ, that I.
Was on my way to a lost eternity.
Comes into sharper and sharper relief.
As time goes on.
But it says here that he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
Simple, childlike faith.
The world, particularly that you young people face.
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The message you're going to hear time and time again from the world is you have to work, you have to strive, you have to achieve, you have to learn.
You have to climb.
You have to succeed.
And yet the Bible tells us.
That it's simple belief on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That cleanses you from your sins.
That places you.
That places you.
On a right standing in fellowship with God.
When God looks upon you, if you haven't been covered, if you haven't accepted this cure for that sin problem, God sees those sins and those sins separate you from Him. They separate you from Him here and now.
And far worse if you go into eternity. If you die in your sins without that covering, you're separated for all eternity. There's no hope.
But today is the day of salvation.
God says right now.
I will make you whole.
I will bring you in to my family. I will make you my child.
I will make you.
My son.
The power to become the sons of God that is yours. Today that free gift is offered to you.
Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
You know.
Most of us here along the pathway.
We've had conversations with many people, many unsafe people over the years and I'm sure we all can recall conversations that went something like this.
Do you know?
That if you die tonight, that you'd go to be with God in heaven. Are you sure?
The answer comes back, well, you know.
Like our brother said this afternoon, well, I do a lot of good things. I fix cars for poor people for no charge or whatever.
Or you know my.
My father was a pastor in that church up the highway there.
Used to go there for Sunday school when I was a kid.
Oh, we could think of 100 answers that could come out.
But those answers are not.
With the question.
Those answers are not dealing with the question. That's why the Lord went right with Nicodemus, went right to that statement. You must be born again. He was not going to even allow Nicodemus to get caught up.
In his place, his position.
His, his Jewish religion, none of that was going to be allowed in.
Let's go right to the heart of the matter.
Not of blood.
You're not gonna be able to stand before God and say, well, you know, I had all these relatives that were fine church going people they.
They were, uh, they were born against.
They believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Nobody's going to follow or cling on to any coattails.
At the judgment of God.
This is the ultimate one-on-one situation.
You won't have mother, father, sisters, brothers. You'll have none of those relationships that would mean anything.
Before a righteous and holy God.
It's you by yourself. It's you and God.
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And the question will be, how did you deal with that Blessed One that he sent to the cross? What was your decision?
Not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, you know.
Might be nice.
If someone could pronounce you saved.
Doesn't work that way.
It's not my will. It's not even your will.
You can't wheel your way to this place.
A forgiveness of redemption.
Its belief on the specific.
That we are talking about the specific person, the specific work of.
Down to 16 and of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace now.
The one that wrote this gospel? Johnny speaking as a believer here.
And of His fullness have all we received in grace for grace, or grace upon grace, you know, John.
John's ministry and it was brought out a little bit this afternoon.
Really brings in the heart of God's love, Brings it in in a precious way to our souls.
The love of Christ.
The love of Christ that brought him all the way to the cross on your behalf.
It's been said many times before that if you are the only one, if you are the only one here on the Earth.
In need of that redemption?
Christ.
Would have gone to the cross for your soul.
Christ would have paid.
Paid the penalty for your sins at the cross.
Grace upon grace for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
You know the the 10 commandments in the Old Testament.
They speak to us.
They're a mirror that we can look into and we can see how far short we fall.
If we compare ourselves to the perfections and the glories of Jesus Christ.
The law was good and that it did that job. It showed us how desperately wicked, how desperately needy we are before a righteous and holy.
The Word but here really isn't necessary, for the Law was given by Moses. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
We could never. You could never.
Live according to the 10 commandments, a perfect life.
Could never happen.
And in his love.
God said.
I will send my son.
And the son said I will go.
And in obedience to the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ came humbled himself.
Humbled himself all the way to a cross and was nailed there on that cross.
The most shameful kind of death that a man could die at that time in human history. The most shameful kind of death that a man could die.
Yet he had said before he went to the Cross.
If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to me.
He draws you now.
He draws you now. He pleads with you.
He does not come condemning or pointing a finger at your rap sheet. He is not interested in reviewing with you all the things that you've done wrong.
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No, he comes pleading.
With you.
That you would accept him.
That your name would be added to the Lamb's Book of Life.
That you would be sealed.
For eternity.
That you would have the assurance of knowing that when you die, you'll be brought up into his presence to be with him forever.
Good.
Not by works, lest any man should boast.
He pleads with you.
And we plead with you.
If you're here today.
And you're still struggling with these questions.
Read the scriptures.
Seek him out.
Repentance is the first step.
Repentance simply means that you're going to turn from the path that you're on right now. Where, wherever, wherever you're found here this afternoon, whatever your path in this life is, they're simply going to stop.
You're going to turn. You're going to contemplate God's claims.
About.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Father's claims about his Son. You're going to contemplate those claims.
You're gonna do something about it.
You're gonna make that decision.
We talked about creation a little while ago.
You know, I find it fascinating to read.
About what the astronomers are now seeing as they peer deeper and deeper and deeper out.
Into the cosmos.
So when we have that scripture in Psalm where it says he stretches out the heavens.
We now see that in in all of its magnificence, the mind of man can't even comprehend.
We don't come close to comprehending the power.
Of his creation.
The beauty, the magnitude.
And yet the one.
That spoke all that into existence walked here in the scene.
And he makes that claim. He makes that claim on your life now.
U.
You are a miracle of creation.
You look in the mirror.
Ponder that.
An infinite.
Mind.
An infinitely powerful, omnipotent personality designed you, created you, nurtured you in your mother's womb.
He.
Once a personal relationship with you and it starts.
With the repentance that we talked about, a simple turning and acknowledging.
All things.
That God has you to know about himself, about the plan of salvation.
About how He can bless you in your life here as you walk with Him in that path of faith. It's all contained in this book.
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The Bible is.
Complete.
In every way, shape and form as God's revelation of Himself to you.
So she came out.
Read the Gospel of John.
As you ponder these questions.
To close today I want.
Move to Revelation.
Chapter 20.
We've been doing some reading.
At Mount Tabor.
In Revelation.
We are in chapter 20 now.
You know, we talked about the first in Psalm, how the Lord is stretching out the heavens.
In his creation.
But there will come a time when he's going to roll it all up.
It's gonna roll it all up. All of the physical creation is gonna be rolled up like a scroll, Isaiah tells us.
And then all of the all of the physical creation that you see around you here is going to be dissolved with intense heat and this creation will be gone.
And it's at that moment.
In God's timeline.
Where the Lord Jesus Christ?
Now.
Risen now the judge of all the earth.
We'll sit on this great white throne, and this is the last judgment, the last judgment that we have in the Bible. And I want to read this. And I saw in verse 11, we'll start in verse 11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
They were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
We would be remiss.
Tell out the gospel.
Not talk about the consequences of unbelief, the consequences of going through the scene.
Rejecting that free gift that's been offered.
Re rejecting that so great salvation that the Bible talks about.
So great salvation.
To dismiss that, to neglect it, to walk away from that wonderful offer.
Means.
That one is.
Left to face this great White Throne Judgment.
And whosoever's name was not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life or in the Book of Life, here was cast into the Lake of Fire.
The somber thing?
It's a somber thing to contemplate, an eternity separated from God in a place of torment.
We plead. We plead with each one here.
That might still be wrestling with these questions.
Do business with God.
Do business with God.
At that cross those many years ago.
There were those three dark hours.
Three dark hours.
During which time everyone of your sins was laid on him, as he hung there on the cross.
And he suffered the punishment.
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He suffered the wrath.
That you.
Should have suffered.
He took it on himself.
We might say he deflected that wrath to himself and away from you.
If only you'll come and trust in him.
Be saved, be born again.
And at the end of those three dark hours, he uttered 3 words.
Probably.
The most important words.
That have ever been uttered.
He said it is finished.
It is finished. Everything had been accomplished. All your sins had been paid for.
Now.
Make him your sin bearer.
He was your sacrifice for those sins.
Remember, John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God. He was the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God. Now.
Let Him be your sin bearer. Let those sins be born away by placing your faith in Him. The good of what was accomplished at the cross is only yours if you reach out in that simple childlike faith. Trust in Him.
He washed in that precious blood.
Let's close with a short word of prayer, our God and Father.
We give the thanks for the Lord Jesus Christ we think of.
The love.
The grace.
That was poured out for us.
How that he went all the way to the cross?
To accomplish.
Our redemption.
All the pardon full and free.
So again, Father, we would just.
Lift up any here.
Going on.
Without that certainty.
Just lift them up.
Come in, father.
Come in and guide them along.
Bring them to the cross.
They might receive that gift so full and free.
We give you thanks in his most worthy and precious name.
Amen.
Yes.