Gospel—G. George
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Chapter 17.
Acts 17.
Whenever I come to a conference like this and I hear 1000 people or so singing.
Kind of reminds me of heaven. A little preview. But if you're not saved, you won't be able to join in that song. You might sing the song here that may sound to others like you may be saved because you're joining in, but if you're not saved, you won't be there to sing at all. And that's why this gospel meeting is convened, that you that are not saved might hear the gospel. And I know it's been repeated many times to your ears likely.
Many of the children here have heard the words time and time again, and probably the attitude of many might be another gospel meeting.
Another 7:00 to 8:00 meeting where I got to sit through another preaching meeting. Well, our desire tonight is that God might speak to you personally and might arrest you in your condition and awake you to what you are before God. Acts 17, verse 18.
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him in some said, What will this babbler say?
Other some he seems to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them.
Jesus and the resurrection down to verse number.
30.
And the times of this ignorance.
God winked that, but now commendeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.
Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him.
From the dead. That's the verse I would like to speak on. God now commands all men everywhere to repent.
Someone told me once.
And it went like this. If the Bible is not true, then nothing matters.
But if the Bible is true, then nothing else matters.
If the Bible is true.
Unsaved one tonight, then nothing else matters. Your pursuits of this life are vain. If the Bible is true, then nothing else matters.
In the Bible, my friend. Tonight.
Is telling us something very serious because it comes from God.
And God now is commanding all men everywhere to repent.
His call to repentance is no longer to an exclusive people like Israel.
Jesus came into the world as the Son of God and as the Son of man.
And on the cross that Christ was crucified, there was a superscription in three languages.
Not just in the Jewish language, but in Greek and in Latin.
And so the whole world is guilty before God.
Even the law of the Old Testament tells us that for by the law.
Is the knowledge of sin, and that we know that what things so ever the last saith, it says to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped in all the world, may become guilty before God. Romans 3 and 19 those that were under the law, and even if the whole world was, they too would be guilty.
But because Jesus has come.
And more than that, Jesus is not here.
Now God.
Commands all men everywhere to repent.
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Now would express the urgency of it.
God would express would express the authority of it.
In all men.
Would express to your heart that you're included in this category tonight.
We read in Romans 2 and verse 4.
The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.
And I trust, I realize, that there are many here tonight that have never repented to God.
Well, my Bible says that godly sorrow worketh repentance.
Not to be repented of.
And so in the preaching of the gospel, God can generate in your soul real repentance. God would not parent, would not mean world, but God would.
When Peter visited the House of Cornelius, Cornelius could say we are all here before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Yes, he wanted to hear the words that were commanded of God. And when Paul had gone to Thessalonica, he could write back to them and Thanksgiving concerning the results.
In First Thessalonians, one in five. For our gospel came not unto you in Word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. And he goes on to say, in the second chapter, verse 13, when ye receive the word of God, which he heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the world of God.
Which effectively worketh also in you that believe.
I never read the Bible until I was 19, so I suppose I might be in the minority.
Of the number of people here tonight.
And I never saw my need of repentance up to that time I began to read the word of God.
And God convicted me of my sins. It made me to realize.
That I was not right before God, the Lord Jesus said in Luke 7 in verse 30.
They rejected the counsel of God against themselves. Are you in that category, my friend tonight?
Do you fall in that class? Are you one that is respected the counsel of God against yourself?
You might say, well, God's on my side, isn't he? Well, in a sense he is.
But we read the Word of God that you are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you. Ephesians 4 and verse 18. And that's why, dear friend, because you're dead in trespasses and sins.
You have need of repentance towards God.
When John the Baptist came into the world.
Jesus said he was a Bernie and a shining light. We don't read much of John's sermons, but we do read of a few expressions he used in his preaching.
And John the Baptist prepared a people for the Lord, and he said to them.
Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near.
At hand.
When Jesus began his public ministry, he preached.
To men, repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
When Jesus called unto him the 12 That says in Mark 6 verse seven, and he sent them forth by two and two, and verse 12 Says, and they went out and preached that men.
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Should repent.
They preached that men stood repent.
There was never a time in the world.
For 4000 years when men were ever called. Like the time when Jesus came into the world for men to repent.
Have you repented toward God?
When Jesus ascended on the 40th day.
His disciples were gathered together in the upper room in Acts 2.
And on the 50th day, the Holy Spirit of God.
Filled the room in the hearts of the disciples.
And the eleven stood up.
As the multitudes gathered when they heard the rushing of the mighty sound.
And they heard these men speaking. It says Peter filled with the Holy Ghost.
Said men and brethren and children of Israel.
And he went on to say how that Jesus was taken in by wicked hands, slain.
And when they heard this later in that, Stafford says they were picked in their hearts.
And they said, Men and brethren, what we do, have you ever asked yourself before God, What shall I do?
Well, Peter remember, was filled with the Holy Ghost, and later he wrote the epistle to them. Many may be there that were saved. And he said to them, how did you receive the gospel which was preached unto you by the Holy Ghost?
Sent down from heaven and he's still here in the Holy Spirit, still working, convicting the hearts of men.
And they said, men and brethren, what shall we do? They were pricked in their hearts. They heard about the crucified one. They heard a boat, Jesus of Nazareth, the one who they maybe thought was not the man approved of God. Maybe they were on the side of the majority. Maybe they were in the crowds that cried out, crucify them.
Where to stand unsafe friend tonight?
Where do you speak with God?
Peter said to those men, repent, repent.
And that's what Peter preached.
Now we come to Paul.
Oh, it's repeated again. And now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because He at the point of the day.
In which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man.
That's what they said about Paul, that he preached Jesus.
And the resurrection.
Because He has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man.
We heard last night that expression, the inescapable Christ. You will not escape his person. You might, like Adam and Eve, hide behind the trees of this life. You might be hiding behind the music of this world and the dancing and all the glitter and the glamour and all the trees that men have grown in this world.
But someday.
Like the voice of the Lord in the garden, that said, Where art thou is going to echo in your ears, and there you will stand before that man whom he hath ordained.
But now you have that assurance. You have the assurance that he is the man that you will face someday.
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Why? Because he hath raised him from the dead. That story, man, woman, boy, girl.
That's God's reason to you. That's the assurance that you can know that you will stand before Him someday. How great is our God that He would give us this assurance?
Because he raised him from the dead.
He rolled the stone away.
Not for Jesus to get out, but for you.
To see that he isn't there, that is your experience.
To know that that's the man that someday you're gonna meet, but now God commands you to repent.
You know, if Jesus was here.
Repentance wouldn't be. It wouldn't have to be preached.
Because Peter said in Acts 319.
Be therefore converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Lord. Well, if man had repented, then if the nation of Israel particularly repented, Jesus would have come then, instead of his Kingdom in repentance. To the Gentile dogs which you and I are, will never have the occasion to be brought in under the blessed gospel sound.
In hear that, yes.
There is room and that the guilty may run vile. They need not fear, yet there is room.
God raised them from the dead, Paul said. Listen, dear friend, tonight in First Corinthians 15 and verse 14.
If Christ be not risen, then as I preached in vain.
There is our preaching vain in your faith is also in vain, and if you were to have it and don't now, it would be in vain. But Christ is risen from the dead. This is the gospel, that Christ died for our sins, and he was buried, and he rose again the third day.
According to the scriptures.
Rose from the dead. So simple, you know. How about it on store? But let me tell you, this is a hallmark of Christianity. This sets it above all others.
Buddha is in the grave. Mohammed is in the grave. Confucius is in the grave.
But she dust. Is that God's right hand?
Exalted in the glory is he your stay here tonight. I'd want to be right with this man, the man that God raised up from the dead, it says in Romans 6, verse three and four.
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ, were baptized unto his death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead?
By the glory of His Father, so ought we also to walk in newness of life.
Raised up from the dead by the glory.
Of his father.
Jesus said in Matthew 12 verse 39.
And to 41 and even an adulterous generation seeketh after his time, and there's a little sign be given to it. But the sign of the prophet Jonah for his Jonah was three days and three nights in the whales belly.
Of the Son of Man be 3 days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and the men of Nineveh arise in judgment with this generation.
Install condemn it because they repented at the priestly of Jonah, but a greater.
A greater than Jonah is here.
I think Nineveh knew something about the experience of Jonah. I get that from Luke 11 and 29, you can check it. But it seems to me that the men of Nineveh, it could have been because of his appearance. I don't know. I read an article, a brother had cut it out from the 1920s of a man who was swallowed.
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By a whale. It doesn't say in the original that it was a whale. With Jonah, it says God prepared a great fish. It may have been one of its kind.
Well this article actually showed the picture of the whale. Don't ask me how, it's unexplainable to me too. The world and the man that had come forth from the whales belly, he was there 24 hours and they said that his face was all wrinkled, his whole his skin was all wrinkled. He was his pig. The pigment of his skin was changed to a yellow.
Grayish type of a color.
Well, I don't have scripture to say that that's how Jonah looked when he appeared.
To the Ninevites, but I think I can rightly assume that when he went to Nineveh.
That there was something about the appearance of Jonah that made them aware.
That he came from the belly of a great fish.
Well, Jesus, my friend came from the heart of the earth, He came from the tomb, and he was raised up from the dead, and He appeared, it says, on one occasion, up to 500 brethren at one time. And when some of his own looked on him, he doubted, He said, It is I behold and see that flesh.
And bones.
That a spirit hath not flesh and bones. That's how it goes. It is I when Jesus appeared in a vision to John in the Book of Revelation one verse 18, he turned and he saw and he heard a great voice, and this is what was said.
I am he that liveth and was dead, and in my eyes forevermore. Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death.
That was about the year 90 AD Jesus was living then, and he ever liveth, it says, to make intercession for us.
He is able to save to the uttermost.
Them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make it succession for them. Hebrews 7 and 25.
He was raised up from the dead and a greater than Jonah is here.
Jonah preached and it says that even the king.
De escalated from his throne, and he took off those prestigious garments, he disrolled himself, he took off that which gave him such glory in preeminence among men. He stripped himself of that, and he rolled himself with sackcloth.
Will you get off whatever throne, dear friend, you may be on? Will you come down where Jesus can meet you in your sins and save your soul and give you eternal life when Jesus rose from the dead in Revelation 20?
It says he breathes on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
He imparted to them that resurrection life.
And I and others here that are saved have the life of Christ risen from the dead in US.
He that believeth on the Son of God.
Hath a testimony in himself.
Do you have the testimony in yourself? Romans 10/9 Dead of thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
And stop, believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou ought be saved.
Thou be saved. Have you believed it yet? It's simple.
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Don't add to it, don't confuse it.
Those stuff be saved. God says it, I believe it, and that settles it. Will you believe that tonight that God raised him from the dead?
Yes, when Peter preached.
He says that the about the father that he loosed the pain or pains of death, for it was not possible that he could be holding of it, and he goes on to say about David.
His double occurs with us to this day. David was a man after God's own heart, and of his seed of promise was said, that of the fruit of thy Lords. I will raise up unto me one who shall be a son unto me, and I will be a father to him, and he shall sit on David's throne.
And so Peter says it was not possible that he should be whole, that he should be holding of it.
It wasn't possible that death, in all of its terror, the grave in all of its sobriety, and with its grip on the bodies of men, could not hold the Son of God in the grave.
He's now, Paul says, declare to be the Son of God by the spirit of according to the spirit of holiness.
Because God raised him from the dead.
The next chapter Peter says in the third, the second he says it was not possible that he should be holding a bit.
The next chapter says about Jesus.
Whom the heavens?
Must receive.
The great couldn't contain them.
Kevin was moved for him.
Heaven Head and Urge had an impressed.
He knew that his place was in the glory.
God raised them from the dead.
Him hath God exalted with his right hand.
Peter says in Acts 5, verse 30 and 31.
The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree, Him as God, exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a center.
For to give repentance to Israel, repentance to you, and forgiveness of sins.
Earlier in the third chapter, I think it's the 14th verse.
He says the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.
The God of our fathers hath raised up his Son or servant too much to say about it, and I can't but help tonight.
Preached by trust, with the help of the Lord, by the Spirit of God to preach Jesus and the resurrection.
The woman in Acts 28.
They went to the tomb, Jesus said repeatedly.
That He would be live, be delivered into the hands of wicked men, and be slain, and on the third day rise from the dead. That's what Jesus said later He could say to them. Old fools, being slow of heart, ought not Christ to have suffered, and then to enter into His glory? He was going to be glorified.
God was going to see to that that Jesus was going to be glorified.
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The woman came to the tomb.
And they saw this, but of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.
The God of our fathers hath raised up his Son or servant, Jesus from the dead.
This is the simple truth, isn't it? But God's Word has so much to say about it, and I can't but help tonight.
Preach, I trust, with the help of the Lord, by the Spirit of God, to preach Jesus.
And the resurrection.
The woman in Acts 28.
They went to the tomb, Jesus said repeatedly.
That he would be delivered into the hands of wicked men, and be slain.
And on the third day rise from the dead. That's what Jesus said later He could say to them. Old fools in slow of heart, ought not Christ to have suffered and then to enter into his glory. He was going to be glorified. God was going to see to that, that Jesus was going to be glorified.
The woman came.
To the tomb.
And they saw the stone rolled away.
Because great fear had come on the keepers.
Of the tomb.
So many men are still keeping the tomb as if Jesus was still in it. But the Bible says that the age of the Lord came down, and the earthquake and the men, and I expect that they were.
Mighty men, men of valor, muscular men, Strong men.
Men that were fit to be positioned, men in the Roman army, they became as dead men on that occasion.
Is this an occasion tonight when you will be struck by the Spirit of God? Where is He striking a chord in your hot little boy little girl that have heard the gospel many times?
Is he making you stop?
For a moment and consider.
Those men became a dead man. The woman came and they saw this sight. The stone rolled away.
And the angels said to them.
Ye seek Jesus, who was crucified.
We were hearing in these meetings about crucifixions.
And I had one in my bedroom many years and I prayed before it.
I was seeking, in a sense, Jesus crucified.
Like those women, maybe you could say.
He seeks Jesus, who was crucified.
And they went on to say.
Praise God for these words.
He is not here.
Is he here? No, he is not here. He is written.
From the dead.
Come and see where he laid. I have the picture sent by a brother who went to Jerusalem. I don't know if it was the actual tomb where the body of Jesus was laid, but it's empty and I understand. The brother told me that next to that tomb there is a sign and it says on that sign.
He is not here.
He is risen. Listen to that. He's not here. He's risen. You must repent. You have to repent. God would, because Jesus isn't here. That means you're guilty before God, and God commands you to repent. Wherever you are, whatever your background is, however religious there may be, God commands all men everywhere.
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To repent, to repent because Jesus is not here for the heart of men is so vile. When pot put him on the platform and put him in the arena for men to make their decision. What then do with Jesus who is called the Christ? Behold a man.
What did man say?
For both the men above all, men whose love is above all others.
Who came?
And he did good unto men.
He came, the scripture says. They marveled at the gracious words that proceeded out of his lips.
Others could stay. Never men.
Spake like this man, and that man said repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. Did they repent? What an opportunity.
Here he is.
Thorn crowned. Behold a man.
There is before men, as it were, with the last plea.
For men to repent.
What did man say?
Crucify them. Crucify them.
Give us Barabbas. Crucify them. Crucify them. You are in the stock that day. Maybe not physically, but you were there. Your heart was there. The heart of me was exposed before the heart of God, the heart of love in God's wicked heart of hate.
What shall I do with Jesus?
Not only once crucify Him, but twice crucify him. But what did God do after he laid in that grave three days? God could say, Glorify Him, glorify Him. Let all men know everywhere that this is My beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased. He walked every step to my glory. He spoke every word to my glory.
And now I'm going to give him a glory. I'm going to give him a preeminence above everything.
Philippians 219.
I should quote the first part, but I will just say that it says that He took upon him the form of a servant, was late made in the likeness of man, and being found in fact as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross cursed. It is everyone that hangeth on a tree we read in God's Word. That's the depth of the love of Christ in His obedience.
The death of the Cross.
That's what man gave him. They gave him a cross to bear. But let's read the next verse, verse 9.
Therefore God now, now God's going to do something about it. God's going to do something with his Son. Man did what he wanted to do. Man give him the cross. Now God says, now I'm going to show you what I'm going to do. You gave him the crop, but Goddess highly exalted him.
And giving him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus.
Every knee bow of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue.
But confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. My friend, will you tonight give glory to God the Father?
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By believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand. He's in the He's in us, at the side of God.
In a place of dignity, exalted, glorified, magnified above all others.
It says in Ephesians one and 20 to 21.
Him hath God raised from the dead.
And gave him a name.
Above every name, and gave him to be the head of principalities and powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, both in heaven and in earth, and in the world to come.
God's exalted him, God's thought highly, highly, highly of his Son.
And he set him at his own right.
Right hand.
What will you do?
With Jesus.
We've heard how what God has done with him.
And we were singing those words.
There is a Savior on high in the glory.
A Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A Savior is willing to save now as ever. His Son is almighty, His love great and free.
Another hymn writer says.
May have closed. What a name for the Son of God who came.
Ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah. What a Savior. He goes on to say, lift it up. Was he to die? It is finished.
Was his cry now in heaven exalted high?
How are you? What a savior.
What a savior exalted high.
When Cain flew Abel.
God says to Cain, Where is thy brother Cain?
Where is thy brother Abel? Excuse me? And Cain said. Am I my brother's keeper?
God took note of that blood that was shed.
Instead that his blood.
Crieth unto me from the ground. From the ground. The blood of Abel was crying to God for vengeance against the murderer of that righteous man, who offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice.
But we have come to justice.
The mediator of a new covenant and of blood.
Which speaketh better things?
Then Abel's, then Abel's blood, I think than Abel's blood, Abel's blood cried to God from the ground.
This is blood cries to men, from God to you.
His blood cleanseth us from all sin. Your iniquity separate between you and your God and your sins, if it is faced from you that he will not hear Isaiah 59 and verse 2.
But the blood has been shed now the word of God says.
How that Jesus is entered into heaven and that He now speaks from that place of glory to you here below.
We get that verse in the book of first John in the 5th chapter. It says this is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water and blood. Jesus has come into a place he can buy the blood that he's built on the cross.
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Wash away your teeth and save your soul.
Are you saved?
Where will you spend eternity? Are you prepared to meet God?
God has done all that He can for man.
And not the word says in second Peter three and nine, he's not willing to any should perish, but that all should come to repentance in Acts 11 in verse.
18 We read that God also to the Gentiles granted repentance to life, and so God is desirous to give you repentance to life right now.
There's about 3 minutes before 8:00.
God now commands you.
To repent and to believe the gospel.
To believe that God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand.
In the blood that Jesus shed in the cross is now.
Speaking to your heart, might you plunge beneath that Crimson flood and lose your guilty stains? Will you like to hear my to said? I do believe. I will believe that Jesus died for me, that on the cross He is blood from sin to set me free.
The blood, all the blood's been shed. The work's done. Now Christ is on high in the glory.
God has commanded you to repent.
They rejected the counsel of God against themselves. When Paul went to another Greek city in first Corinthians 2, verse four and five, he says our speech and our preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith cannot stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Have you been subdued by the power of God?
Romans 116 The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Do you believe what you've heard? The meeting is ending. Time is gliding swiftly by. Death and judgment both run eye to the arms of Jesus Christ. Be in time.
Oh, I pray you count the cost ere the fatal line we crossed, and your soul in hell, beloved.
Be in time.
Hell, well, I haven't said much about it.
Maybe I should have said more, but maybe the Lord brought it up at the very last.
Hell will be your doom if.
You continue.
Disobedient to the Gospel.
Paul I rebel of the gospel, one who did all that it could, contrary to the name of Jesus.
In Acts 26, verse 22 Says.
I was not disobedient.
Unto the heavenly vision.
He wasn't, but what did he do after he received it?
1St.
That they should repent. There was a man that repented God would he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. It wasn't Jesus down here. It wasn't like John says.
Whom our eyes have seen in our hands, have handled of the word of life. I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, Peter later writes to those that never saw him.
Whom having not seen ye love.
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Are you tonight disobedient to this heavenly vision, so to speak to the truth?
God raised him from the dead, and now he's speaking from on high in the glory, that you might run here to the cross and see the work that he did in the final words of the finished work when he said it is finished.
The wages of sin is death.
The pleasures of sin for a season.
And the consequences are steep for the pleasures of those sins.
God now, Commander, all men, all boys, all girls, all ages, everywhere.
To repent.
Because he's not here. Jesus isn't here, and that's why the Holy Spirit is.
And he's in the world to convict the world of sin, of righteousness.
And of judgment, of spin. Why? Because I go to my father.
He went to his Father because of me and sin because man didn't repent. But now God's commanding you to repent. I'd rather be right with God than wrong with the world than right with the world and wrong with God. Will you take sides with God? God raised him from the dead. God exalted him.
God gave him a place above all others will get. Will you give him that place in your heart and receive him this moment and peace shall be dined. Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. He stands at the door of your heart. It was pierced through at Calvary's cross. He's not against you Sinner, He's for you.
He loves you, He died to redeem you. Only believe His word. Receive Him this moment and peace shall be dying. Shall we close in prayer?