Gospel—Jim Hyland
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Like to start the gospel meeting this evening with hymn #19 on the gospel hymn sheet. Oh Christ in thee my soul hath bound and found in thee alone the peace, the joy I sought so long the bliss till now unknown Hymn #19. If someone could please start it.
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father how thankful we are for our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're so very thankful for everyone in this room who has come to know that Blessed One as their Savior, had their souls satisfied and come to know that one too.
As the great provider all along the path of faith and service, we rejoice too, as we think of all that is ahead in that future day of glory, when we will be with and like that blessed one for all eternity. But now our hearts are burdened as a gospel meeting has been announced once again. And our God and Father, We pray that as we open Thy Word and seek to present the gospel, that it might be clear and simple that Christ might be presented in all His loveliness and beauty as the Savior of sinners.
00:05:15
And we cry to Thee that there would be a work of Thy grace in the power of the Spirit, that would open the eyes of the spiritually blind, and that would draw souls to that one. So we ask Thy help and blessing. We think of Thy word going forth around this planet today, many special efforts to reach the lost, and by many means our God. We pray that there might be much fruit, but particularly we look for blessing here, and we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Like to begin by reading 2 portions of the word of God.
The first one is in the book of Ezra.
Ezra, Chapter 7.
Ezra Chapter 7 and I want to read just an expression at the end of verse 12.
Perfect peace.
And at such a time and then in Luke's gospel.
Chapter 2.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 2.
And verse 13 And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest.
And on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. I read these verses at the beginning of the Gospel meeting, because as we present the Gospel as simply as we can tonight, I'd like, in keeping with that which has been before us in these meetings, to speak a little bit on the subject of peace. And here we read in the book of Ezra, perfect peace, and at such a time.
I'm taking a little bit of liberty with this expression. I'm taking it a little bit out of its context to apply it to the day in which we live. Because, you know, there is, this is a day of world turmoil. This is a day when men's hearts, it says in scripture, are failing them for fear and looking for those things that are coming on the earth. And those of us who travel the world realize that it doesn't matter whether you're in North America.
It doesn't matter whether you're in the Caribbean. It doesn't matter whether you're in South America. It doesn't matter whether you're in Egypt. It doesn't matter where you are in this world. There is fear in the hearts of men, and I have sometimes watched as I rub shoulders with the upper echelon of the political and economic world in the airports, which I find myself from week to week.
I have learned to look into people's faces and to see the fear and the distrust that you find in the faces of people in high places. Because they realize, while they may not verbalize it, they realize that they are dealing today with an interplay of economic, political and social forces that are beyond their control. They realize the elastic is being stretched further and further.
And it's not if the elastic is going to snap. But when it's going to snap, people realize that this world cannot go on in the way it has gone on for all these centuries. Men's hearts are failing them for fear. But isn't it wonderful that tonight we can open the word of God and we can offer a message from this blessed living book? A message of peace and a message of hope? No peace and hope in this world.
Apart from what this book has to tell us concerning the person and work of God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, some of us often have sung A hymn where there's a little refrain goes, he's our peace, He's our peace. Because tonight it's a person that we have to present to you and we're going to speak of that person a little bit. But here we have perfect peace, and at such a time.
You say, can you talk about peace at such a time as this, when this world is in its frightful condition, when this world is really winding down for the judgment of God and things are becoming worse and worse? Why, even here in the United States of America, the political turmoil that we hear about every day has men really shaking their heads and wondering where it's all going to end, but perfect peace?
00:10:28
And at such a time, but before we go on to some further scriptures, we read in Luke's Gospel chapter 2.
Because I want to tell you about a piece that we cannot have this side of the return.
Of the Lord Jesus to planet Earth. There will never be peace on earth.
In an outward way, until the Lord Jesus comes back to reign in righteousness. All the angels announced it here, Peace on earth, goodwill toward men. But you know, they rejected this world, rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord said later on, think ye that I have come to bring peace on the earth, I tell you nay, what does that mean? What did he mean? He didn't mean that he was happy with.
Division and confusion that had come in, but it means that he realized.
That his coming into this world had indeed caused division because there were those who received him.
And there were those who rejected him. And so there really can be no peace in spite of the angels announcement. There will be no peace until the Lord Jesus comes back until as it says at the end of the Old Testament, the son of righteousness rises with healing in his wings until the Prince of peace comes back to reign. It says in that day a king shall reign in righteousness and Princess shall rule in judgment. Oh what a wonderful day it's going to be.
For the for this world, but I'm going to read you. I just jot it down. Some statistics I thought were rather striking in regard to this subject. Before I read these statistics, just mention that some time ago my wife and I were visiting in Belgium and we had opportunity to go to a museum on the French Belgium border near the city of Eepers in the heart of Flanders fields.
And to visit a museum called Deadlines, and it is a very, very sober look.
At both of the great World Wars, World War I and World War 2. But what was most striking about our visit was that as you were about to leave the museum, there was a monitor. And on that monitor is a continual scroll of wars and their dates, starting with the First World War and going up until the present time.
Some of those wars you and I have never heard about. They're little skirmishes, little civil wars and skirmishes in Africa and different places, but war nevertheless. And I stood and watched as those dates scroll by, and there was hardly a year since the First World War that there hasn't been some conflict somewhere smaller. Great.
Here in this world.
All men are looking for peace in this world, but I say they will never have peace, outward peace in that way until the Lord Jesus comes. Subsequent to that visit, I jotted down some statistics I found that I thought were rather interesting.
These statistics are put out by the Society of International Law in London, England.
And here's just a summary of some of those statistics.
It is estimated that in the last 4000 years there have been only 286 years of peace.
In the last 300 years, there have been almost 300 wars in Europe.
In recorded history, 8% of the time there has been peace. I'm not saying these statistics are completely accurate, but I thought they were interested.
There have been over 8000 peace treaties made in the last 300 years made and broken. Isn't that interesting? You think there's going to be peace on earth until the Prince of Peace comes back? I say not a chance.
00:15:13
And yet we go back to the verse we began with peace and at such a time and you say, how can it be? How can we read a verse peace and at such a time?
Well, I want to go on, and I want to look at some other scriptures that bring before us that we can have an inner peace, that we can have a peace, a peace that this world never can understand, a peace that the man of this world, who knows not Christ, will never know, experience or understand. Let's go first of all to the book of Job.
Job, Chapter 22.
Job, Chapter 22.
And verse 21.
Acquaint now thyself with him and be.
At peace. I read this because we want to stress, as was stressed last night and as is always stressed, when the gospel is presented faithfully, And that is this, that the gospel has to do with a person. If there's going to be an inward peace in the soul, it is in connection with a relationship with a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, men are searching for peace everywhere.
But they're looking in the wrong places. They're looking for it in culture and technology and science and the betterment of this world and a better environment and and bringing people together and sitting them down at a table and being an arbitrator or a mediator and signing, as we've said, treaties and all this kind of thing and the UN and NATO and all these kinds of things. Is it working? No, it's not working.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm thankful for the measure of stability we enjoy here in North America. I'm thankful that tonight we can have a gospel meeting. We've had Bible meetings without having to bar the doors or do it in secret. We've been able to sing with all our hearts without fear of the police coming in and shooting us. They're arresting us. I'm thankful for the measure of peace that we enjoy in a land like this and in Canada, where I come from.
But again, tonight, we're not preaching reformation or sociology. We're not even preaching theology. We're preaching Christ because it's Christ. And Christ crucified the Apostle Paul when he went to the to Corinth. They were an intelligent people.
They were the upper echelon of society, so to speak. What did he do? Try to bring some new doctrine? Try to present things in a fanciful way? No, he didn't use enticing words. He presented the simple gospel to them, that he died, he was buried, and that he rose again the 3rd day according to the scripture. And oh, here we read a point. Now thyself with him and be at peace. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Have you acquainted yourself with him?
How thankful we are for friends and acquaintances that we can go to for help. Sometimes in a difficult situation we can go and we say, I know that person well enough. I've been acquainted with them, they know me and we don't mind going to a person like that. But oh tonight, if you want to obtain peace in your soul, there is only one person who can give you peace. There is only one way that you can have peace and rest of soul.
And that's by coming to know this person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tell you a little story, perhaps I've recounted before, but took place many years ago on the East Coast of the United States. There was a farm along the coast, and it was a farm that was somewhat exposed to the elements and the storms that blew in from the Atlantic. And the farmer who had this farm found it very difficult to keep good health because when the storms raged, often there was loss of livestock.
00:20:04
Loss of property and damage and so on. And there were very few farmhands that wanted to deal with that kind of thing. And so one day the farmer interviewed a number of men.
For the job of hired hand.
And everyone he interviewed seemed unsatisfactory and he dismissed them. And then there came in a man he was slight of build, didn't really look that robust, but.
Sat down in the presence of the farmer and the farmer began to ask him questions. And then the farmer asked what he always asked a potential employee. He said. What would you do if a storm struck the coast here and was going to affect the farm?
Oh, he said. Sir, I can always sleep when the wind blows.
The farmer thought that was a rather unusual answer.
Because most people he interviewed had some great explanation about what they would do and how they would tie things down and get the animals in and so on. But this man simply said, oh Sir, I can always sleep when the wind blows. Well, as the story goes, the farmer wasn't completely satisfied with this man, but he was desperate to get a hard hand right away, and so he hired the man, and the man proved himself very well.
He was very adept at taking care of the animals and the crops and so on, and the farmer was quite satisfied until one night the farmer woke up and he could hear outside that farmhouse, A fierce storm raging. He immediately jumped out of bed and got dressed and ran outside, ran to the bunkhouse where the hired hand slept. Into his horror he found he had his face turned to the wall and he was sound asleep.
And this farmer was irate. He shook the hired hand. He said, What's the problem? There's a there's a storm raging. The farmer sleepily looked out of one eye and said, Sir, I told you, I can sleep while the wind grows. The farmer was incensed, but there was no time to lose. He raced out of that bunkhouse. He raced around the farm, only to find that the haystacks had been secured. The animals were all in their barns and coops.
Everything was tied down. Nothing was being affected by the wind and the rain that was lashing at that by that time. And all of a sudden the farmer realized what his hired hand meant when he said I can always sleep while the wind blows. You see the farmer, the farm hand, anticipating what was going to happen That night before he went to bed, he secured everything. He made preparation for the storm that he knew was going to hit the East Coast of the United States.
That night and he could go to bed in perfect confidence and sleep while the wind blows. There's a storm of judgment brewing over this world. There's a storm of judgment going to fall just as sure as the destroyer went through Egypt on the night that the first born was slain. So just assure God has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained.
And the Lord Jesus said, Now is the judgment of this world. As sure as we're sitting here tonight, judgment is pending. It's coming.
Are you ready? Can you like that farm hand? Say I'm ready. I've made preparation. We read that statement so often. Prepare to meet thy God.
How solemn to reject or neglect the gospel. Message a point. Now thyself with him, with the Lord Jesus Christ, and be at peace. Let's go to the book of Romans.
Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 and verse one.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Any of us who've traveled to other parts of the world where something other than Christianity is the main practice of the day, we'll realize that most people in this world today.
00:25:18
If they have any conscience about God, or a God, if they have any thought of trying to better themselves for the next life.
They will spend their whole lives trying to make peace with their God or gods.
And it is a very, very sad thing. I have heard people wail out their hearts at the hour of prayer. I will. I have seen people almost starving to death and neglecting to provide for their families the necessities of life because they're giving their money and their food.
In sacrifice to their gods, trying their whole lives to appease their God. And there are people who will at great expense take pilgrimages.
To various corners of the world, to different shrines, people who will abuse and neglect their bodies, thinking it is going.
To provide them something better in the next life, I remember one time in the mountains of southern France, we visited a monastery and there in the room where the monks slept several 100 years ago, they had a little rectangular place for each monk, and they slept on a hard stone floor with nothing between them and the floor. Why did they do that? They thought it was going to.
Obtain something better in the next life.
But thank God we don't have to make peace with God. You know, people say, have you made your peace with God? If I had to make peace with God, I couldn't. If I had all eternity to do it, I couldn't. But thankfully I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see again, it's a person. It's the person of the of the Lord Jesus.
God's son who went to Calvary's cross, who stood in the brink, who stood in the gap.
Who took my place there on Calvary's cross? Who bore my sins in his own body on the tree? Can you say that? Can you say that Jesus died for you? You know I love to stand here and say the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, oh, what a thrill that gives to our souls tonight to know that the Lord Jesus gave himself at Calvary's cross and now I'm justified as we had this afternoon.
I'm more than just a forgiven Sinner. I've seen before God and all the perfection and righteousness of Christ.
So that I am perfectly comfortable and will be perfectly comfortable in the presence of the Lord Jesus and the Father's house for all eternity. Oh, I'm a forgiving Sinner, thank God. But I'm far, far more than a forgiven Sinner. I'm justified. I'm seen in all the righteousness of Christ.
I know it's perhaps a feeble illustration, but I have enjoyed it.
For as far as the illustration will go in connection.
With the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. Because you remember in the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, there were boards that went to make up that building where God dwelt among his people in the wilderness. And I suggest that those boards individually represent to us individual believers and their standing before God. First of all, we find that they stood in two sockets of silver.
Silver in Scripture always speaks of redemption, and I'm thankful that I'm redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the world. But there was something else about those boards. They were covered completely with pure gold. It speaks of divine righteousness. And as the eye of God rested on those boards, what did God see? Not that rough, rough cut lumber underneath. He saw that which spoke of Christ, because I'm seen in Christ.
As a result of the work of Calvary, and by the grace of God, having availed myself of the finished work of Calvary, I'm seeing justified before God. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace. Let me repeat a little illustration that I've sometimes used in this regard.
00:30:10
Brother Nick won't mind since he was the one that brought before us the subject of justification this afternoon.
But let's suppose for the sake of illustration, that I go to Nick's neighborhood. I go to his house one night and I break in and I steal some of his valuables. And I don't get very far. And the police catch up with me and they bring me down to the police station and they call Nick and they say, Nick, we've caught your thief and he has the goods on him. Come on down and press charges and collect your your goods.
And so Nick ends up at the police station, and as he's approaching the counter, he looks over and he sees me sitting handcuffed on a bench, and he realizes who it is. And he comes over and he sits down beside me and he says, now, Jim, what you did was wrong, but I know you and I know you're sorry and I'm going to forgive you. And I'm not going to press charges. And not only that, but come on over on Friday night and have dinner.
With Amy and I and let's just go on like nothing's happened.
Would I ever be comfortable again in Nick's presence? He might say he forgives me, but my grandmother used to say I forgive and forget, but I always remember.
I would always feel in Nick's presence like a forgiven thief. I would always have on my conscience what I had done. But I am perfectly comfortable in the presence of God.
In the presence of the Lord Jesus, I have perfect peace because I say I'm more than a forgiven thief. I'm more than a forgiven Sinner. I'm justified. And you can have this too. You can have this peace tonight. I have no doubt there's somebody in this audience whose heart is in turmoil as you think of circumstances in your life or circumstances in the world, your circumstances in the political arena here in the United States.
You're just overwhelmed.
But you can come tonight and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's go on to the book of Colossians.
Colossians Chapter One.
Colossians chapter one and verse 20 and having made peace through the blood of his cross.
Having made peace through the blood of his cross, I want to stress for a few moments the value and the importance.
Of the blood of Christ. I don't believe a gospel message is complete without stressing the blood of Christ and the Lord. Jesus has made peace through the blood of His cross. You see, that's why I don't have to make my peace with God. He's done it for me. He's made peace through the blood of His cross. God is satisfied with the work that his Son accomplished on Calvary's cross. Again, it's illustrated in the Old Testament with the Passover lamb.
Whose estimation of things made the Israelites safe? Was it the Israelites estimation and value of the slain lamb in the blood? No, it was God when God said When I see the blood, I will pass over you. What was it that satisfied God?
That night, it was the blood. It was the blood that was on the door. It was the blood.
That was shed and sprinkled on the lentil in the side post between God, that is, between the Destroyer.
And between the first born, it was the blood, and so it's the blood of Jesus Christ his Son.
That cleanseth us from all sin. You know sin separates.
As soon as Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, separation.
Came in, and Adam, with a conscience, hid himself behind the trees of the garden. But it tells us in the New Testament we're made nigh by the blood of Christ.
It is the blood of Christ that brings us back into the presence of God. It's that which again has.
Stopped the gap. Taken the gap away. We, you know, this morning we sat down, many of us in the presence of the Lord Jesus. How could we do such a thing? All the blood of Christ, the blood of the Lord Jesus. We sometimes sing our title to glory. We read in thy blood, because every person who eventually is gathered around the Lamb in the Father's house will be there on no other basis.
00:35:24
Than the blood of the Lord Jesus that was shed on Calvary's cross.
There will be no one get into heaven apart from the blood of Christ.
I have sung from the very early days of my childhood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
You know, it's one of the things for which there is no substitute. You know, we're always substituting for something. I do a lot of Bible and book ordering online, and they always ask you at the bottom of the invoice, are you willing to take a substitute? In other words, if we don't have a certain line of book or a certain title, a certain line of Bible or a certain title of book, are you willing to take these substitutes?
I suppose the ladies substitute all the time. Maybe you have a favorite detergent, but you go to the grocery store, the supermarket, and there's another detergent on sale. Or they didn't have what you normally buy, Tide or cheer or whatever it is. And so you substitute does the same job. Basically. In the end, we're always substituting different things in this life. But there is no substitute tonight for the Precious Blood of Christ.
It's the blood of Jesus that is going to take away your sins. It's the blood of Jesus that satisfies the claims of a holy God. Oh I know. We've gone in our minds eye over and over again to that scene where the Lord Jesus at Golgotha cried. It is finished. Then he says, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. He bows his head and he lays down his life in a way that no other ever had or could.
And then we read.
A soldier with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came the route, blood and water. Oh glorious seemed my own soul, and oh I thrilled to think of that day when I'm going to lift up my voice and my heart in the Father's house, and sing of that blood for all eternity, And to see a lamb as it had been slain, and as we were reminded today, to see those wounds in his hands and in his feet and in his side.
And to praise him for all eternity. But we have often sung another hymn.
Will you be there and die?
Solemn question, isn't it? Will you be there? And I go to the book of Hebrews 13 Hebrews, chapter 13.
And verse 20 Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you, that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ.
To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I read this because I want to stress another very vital point when it comes to the gospel, and that is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Again, I don't believe a gospel message is complete without stressing this vital truth of the resurrection. Because we read if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain and ye are still in your sins.
But as was pointed out earlier today, he was raised again for our justification and they took the Lord Jesus down from the cross, and the God made sure that it was loving hands that touched the dead body of the Lord Jesus.
After the Lord Jesus died.
Sinful hands never touched his body again, and so the Lord Jesus had two men ready.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and they so lovingly took the body of the Lord Jesus down from the cross.
And they wrapped it, and with the spices they put it in a new tomb, as it had been prophesied so many years before.
00:40:04
They put a stone against that the door of that tomb and then they were told by the authorities to seal it.
Hoping that he wouldn't get out, that he wouldn't rise from the dead.
But oh, a moment came in this world when the Son of God.
With power.
Came forth from the dead.
As he had said that he would, he could say of his life, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father, oh glorious truth. Christianity presents to us a living savior. We have a grave, a tomb in Christianity, but it is an empty tomb. It's not a coffin with the bones of some so-called great religious leader that lived and died here in this world, but it is a tomb with a stone rolled away and over the door.
He is not here. He is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay. But not only did the Lord Jesus rise from the dead, but after he had remained on earth long enough to give complete and ample witness to his own, even appearing to about 500 brethren at one time, a moment came when his feet left the Mount of Olives, and the cloud received him out of their sight.
And he went back to sit down eventually on the Father's right hand. And I love that glorious hymn we often sing in the gospel. There is a Savior on high in the glory, a Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree, a Savior as willing to save. Now as ever, his arm is almighty. His love, great and free, all come now to Jesus.
That dear loving Savior, receive him this moment and peace shall be Thine. You want peace. It's only in a glorified Savior. And again, we're not presenting Christ where He was. Yes, it's all based on the fact that he came as a man in incarnation, and that he went to Calvary's cross and that he laid down his life, that he shed His precious blood. But the Savior we're presenting today.
Is not a savior hanging on a cross or laying in a tomb. There was an evangelist many years ago visiting in a small village and he was going from door to door giving out some gospel tracts and he came to a certain door and there was an elderly lady and answered the door.
And he asked her if she'd like to have a gospel tract concerning the Lord Jesus. Oh, she said to him, Thank you. You know, I often look at him.
Thought that was a strange response, and so he queried her as to.
What she meant, she said. Come on into my home and I'll show you. She took him into her living room and on the wall was a crucifix with a figure of a man supposedly to represent the Lord Jesus hanging on that cross, She said. You see, Sir, I often look at him, but he was able to tell her, and she was a true believer, but he was able to tell her the Lord Jesus is not on the cross. And though she knew it in theory, it was a thrill to her to get a hold of the fact in her soul that while the Lord Jesus died on the cross.
Yet he wasn't on the cross now, and he wasn't in the tomb, but that she could look up by faith and see him as her Savior, her friend, her great provider, seated at the right hand of God. Our time is gone, but I want to read two further verses in closing.
They're both in the book of Isaiah. The first one is in the 57th chapter.
Chapter Chapter 57 of Isaiah.
And verse 21 There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked, and then back up to the 26th chapter.
Chapter 26 and verse 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.
Whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusted in thee no peace to the wicked. You know those who reject Christ, not only do they not have peace of soul, rest of heart in this life, but they are going to go out into a lost eternity where there will never be peace.
00:45:20
A place called Hell, the Lake of Fire.
Where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Oh, how solemn.
If you leave this room tonight without Christ, and you pass out of this world through the article of death.
Or the Lord Jesus comes, which he is going to do at any moment.
And you are left behind. You will never know peace.
You will eventually stand at the Great White Throne judgment and you will be cast into the Lake of fire. But oh, what a contrast we have where we read in the 26th chapter that will keep them in perfect peace. We started with perfect peace, perfect peace. And at such a time, and you know, for those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can have a perfect inward peace in spite.
Of circumstances in our personal lives, in the family, in spite of circumstances at work, in spite of circumstances in the political arena, in spite of circumstances at any level in the world, you and I can be kept in perfect peace.
By having our minds.
Focused and stayed on the one who died for us.
The one who is our Savior and the one who is going to carry us safely home to glory.
Paul's prayer for the Saints was this. Now the God of Hope fill you?
With all joy and peace in believing Romans 15 verse 13, let's pray.