Gospel—Ed Staggs
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Could we start out this evening by singing hymn?
In #21.
He sighed for Christ today.
And got salvation.
It'll fall in my heart and will.
Reverse in Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew chapter 5 and verse 3.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
For theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Let's pray.
Our God and our Father, we are thankful for this gospel meeting tonight, the last meeting of our three days here.
And we thank thee, our God, that thou hast been so good to us. Thou has blessed us, so thou hast encouraged us.
Put the burden on our heart tonight.
There might be those in this room.
That are still lost in their sins.
And we pray our Father, for those who might not be aware that they're guilty before a holy God.
They might somehow be trusting in themselves.
We would ask the Our Father that the Word of God and the Spirit of God might open up their understanding.
That it might be revealed to them their guilty condition before thee, their Creator, and that there might be a plea in their heart for an answer to meet their need.
And that they might see that the Lord Jesus is the only Savior of sinners. But to our Father, we pray for those who perhaps even now, are discomforted.
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Are concerned, feel the weight of their sins.
Don't know the answer.
We pray that Thou would reveal it to them tonight through the Gospel.
And that they might accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
So we just ask for liberty of the Spirit, we commend this time before thee are God and Father, we ask thy blessing and our Lord Jesus Christ precious name, Amen.
We'll also look at a verse in Luke chapter 15.
These are very common verses.
No doubt have been heard many, many times the many in this room.
And yet nonetheless.
It may not have yet had an effect.
On the one in this room are the more than one that are still lost in their sins. And of course, it's our plea tonight that you might pay attention, that you might ask the Spirit of God, you might ask the Lord.
If you're a Sinner.
And you feel it. You might ask him.
That the Word of God might have an effect on you tonight.
Then it might answer your need and that you might see that the only answer.
That will answer the question before you and a holy God.
Is that God sent his Son into this world.
To die on Calvary's cross, to bear your judgment, your sins on Calvary's cross, And having died completing the work God has and shedding his precious blood, God has raised him from the dead.
If you believe that right now, this moment, you don't even have to wait for the whole gospel. That's all you need to know if you would accept him as your Savior, your personal Savior, and he would have died and bore your sins on Calvary's cross.
The verse I have on my heart here is.
We'll start with verse one. Then drew nearer unto him all the publicans and sinners, for to hear him.
Send, the Pharisees and Scribes murmured.
Saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
And he spake this parable unto them, saying, what none of you having, and 100 sheep.
If you lose, one of them does not leave the 90 and nine in the wilderness.
And go after that which is lost until he finds it.
You know what my heart desire is tonight?
That you might see yourself as lost.
That's the condition that you must be in.
You must understand how far you are away from God because of the sins that you have committed in your body.
And you have to understand that you are at a great distance from God. I read that first verse in Matthew of chapter 5 before I prayed. Because it's my desire that you might see yourself as poor, as needy, that in you there is no strength in yourself.
You have to come to a place where you understand there's nothing.
That you can do.
Your weak in the flesh.
That's the condition you must be in to enter into the Kingdom of heaven. That's the condition that you must be in to be lost and to understand that it's there that the Lord can search you out and find you and meet your need.
You know, my wife and I, we were at a, a baseball game, the, the little, umm, junior high baseball game. My, my daughter was, my granddaughter was pitching in it and, uh, we were there.
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And this, this boy came up to us and, and, uh, he was somewhere between 11 and 13. He went to the same school that my granddaughter went to.
And he said hi, He says, uh, who's your, uh, who's your, your daughter out there? And we said, well, Angelique says she's a pitcher. She's our granddaughter. Oh yeah, I know Angelique. He's my, my name is Christian.
Well, it's nice to meet you, Christian. And he says, hey, you want to hear a joke? Well, I'm always immediately, I'm weary. Somebody says, you want to hear a joke. You just never know today where it's going. And I wasn't very quick to respond to his question, but it it didn't, he didn't hesitate to give us an answer. He says, my name is Christian, but I'm not one.
My wife, she says, well, she said, I'm sorry to hear that. She says, we're Christians and we love the Lord Jesus.
And he says, well, we don't even believe in God. He says, my dad says there is no God. He said, if there is a God, where did he come from? Where did he start at? You know, I pondered his question. I I wasn't about to get into this debate with this little 13 year old boy. I knew that it was, it wouldn't go well, you know, and.
So then his little brother comes up. He's probably more like 11.
And he says, yeah, we don't believe in God and we don't believe he exists.
And uh.
Then, then we turned around and my wife had this look on her face and it wasn't a very good one. And, uh, I knew there was a problem somewhere and I, I didn't quite catch it, but uh, the father was over on the other bench on the other side and he looked at our granddaughter that was pitching and she had a mask on. They put a mask on these young kids. So if the ball gets hit, they get hit in the face, they're protected.
And uh.
He looked at my granddaughter and he said, oh, that's the epitome of ignorance.
Boy, you talk about Grandma Bear coming out. She right away she looked over at me. She says I gotta pray the Lord give me grace.
But you know, sometimes that sometimes you just have to leave people where they're at.
And to try to tell somebody about the love of Christ sometimes just creates an argument.
And you know, I thought it was very interesting because this kind of reminded me of that where where the Lord said he left the 90 and nine in the wilderness. Why? Because they didn't know they were lost. They didn't think they were lost. They didn't care if they were. They were religious leaders.
And.
They thought they had an end with God.
So they had no idea that they were poor in the spirit, and they had no idea that they were lost.
You know, I'm a little afraid that maybe there's somebody like this in that in this room. Uh, I've been raised in a Christian home. Yeah. My parents never heard me except Christ as my savior, but they just think I am saved. And, you know, I'm probably good enough anyway because, you know, I've been raised in a Christian home.
You know a brother prayed umm in the backroom.
And I can't really remember how he prayed, but I I thought when he prayed, I said, Lord, that's on my heart.
And he prayed, he prayed that there might be those that that might repent of the direction that they've gone in their life.
That's a very solemn thing, isn't it? Because we all know what that means, that, that there have been those amongst us raised in a Christian home, children we love, children who played with other children. And then one day they're gone and they're out in this world. And you may have tried to talk to them and they don't want to listen. They, they think that they're fine where they're at and they're not looking.
You know what I don't?
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I don't want another child to go down that path.
I don't. I don't want anybody in this room. Just pretend.
Think that it's all fine.
I don't want you to grow up.
Take a pass.
Go out into this world.
It's not what I want for you.
I love you.
I love you because you're the children of those that I love.
I love you and I want you to see that the Lord Jesus wants to save your never dying soul.
I want you to see that you're a Sinner.
That you were born into sin and you can't help it. It's what you are. It's just what you are.
But it can be different.
So I thought about this scene where the Lord is going out and he's looking for that lost sheep. Oh, I plead that you're a lost sheep.
Because you have to be lost to be found. You have to own that.
You have to see yourself the way that God sees you.
That all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You come short.
Of the glory of God.
You know those kids that that said that and you know, I looked over at their dad and I said, oh, poor kids, they don't have a chance.
What kind of a man would sit up in an audience and then make that kind of a comment about a 12 year old girl?
What kind of a home was that poor child raised in?
You know, I think that there's.
Fewer privileges in this world than being raised in a Christian home.
Being raised under the sound of the Word of God day after day. Understanding the love of the Father that's been displayed in your home.
You know, I, I wasn't raised in that way, but I'm not condemning anybody. I'm not condemning my parents. I'm not, that's not the point that that I'm bringing that up, but I'm just bringing it up in contrast of the great privilege.
That you have in being raised in the Christian home.
You know, there was this man just want to talk about just how wonderful the work of God is. There was this man. He used to work for me. His name was Roger and uh.
You know, he told me about his parents, uh, talking to him. He had religious, uh, Christian parents and, uh, and I, I appreciated him. I had an opportunity to talk to him a number of times about the things of the Lord. So about 25 years ago.
One day he came into my office and he said that I have to quit.
And I says, well, I don't, I don't understand what's the matter.
And he said, well, and he said, sit down and I'm gonna just tell you the truth.
He said before I came to work for you, he said I used to go down to Seatac.
And.
I used to pick up packages and all I had to do was pick them up and I had to take them to a house and I just dropped them off and they paid me big money to do it.
I said, really, yeah, he said. But you know what he said? I started getting scared, he said. The money was way too much for what I was doing, and I decided that I was gonna get out of it.
And so he thought I came to work for you.
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But he said, you know, the other day the FBI came over to my house.
And they told me it was a sting.
And that they had been following me for quite a while.
And they wanted to know.
Who the people were that were paying me, where the houses were, They wanted him to testify.
Against the people that were doing this.
And he said so. He said I have to do it or I'm going to go to jail.
I said, well I understand.
So he had given his notice and and he was gonna leave and then he come back into my office. He said that he said I'm in real trouble.
He said. I don't know what to do.
He said. Uh.
Two guys came to my door in suits.
And, uh, I answered the door and I said, yeah, what can I do for you? And he says, well, this is what you're going to do for me. He says you're going to go to prison.
He said this is where your dad lives and this is where your sister lives. We know everything about your family and if you want to keep your family, you're going to go to you're going to go to prison.
Well, you might wonder, why am I telling this story?
Because I wanna tell you sometimes when God wants to save your soul.
If you don't come to the Lord today and the Lord desires to have you, He may allow you to go down a path you don't want to go, like the prodigal, and He might need to bring you to the end of himself.
And He will, because He loves you, and He'll drain you to a point in your life where you come to the end, where you have no place else to go but to plead to God.
The answer? Parents prayers.
To accept Christ as your Savior.
Well, of course, Roger said. You know what he said? I'm not even gonna fight it, He said. I'm I'm not gonna testify. I'm just gonna tell him I'm guilty and he went to prison.
Well, some time later I got a letter from him.
And he thanked me for hiring him.
He thanked me for being his boss and and for treating him good.
And he said, and he said, I want you to know.
I may be in prison, but I've accepted Jesus as my sake.
You know, I'll tell you something.
I would rather have a child end up in prison.
If that's what it took.
To help him accept or her.
To accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior? That sounds very harsh.
But really, it manifests the love of God, doesn't it?
So we end up going to prison. He got saved, he's been out, he's worked out a nice job now and the Lord has really taken care of them.
But that's not the way, is it? That's when that brother prayed that prayer. I thought, Lord.
That is so much on my heart.
Said I don't want a child in this room. I don't want a young person in this room. I don't want anyone in this room.
They have to go down that path.
I want them to be found today. I want them to see their need today. I want them to understand that all that's necessary to save them.
Is provided at this very moment and has been provided through the finished work of God's beloved Son. I'm gonna again, I'm gonna talk about the Lord Jesus. I'm gonna talk about what He's done on Calvary's cross. I'm gonna talk about how important it is for you to see that everything that was necessary, everything that is necessary to meet your need has been done.
But you have to come. You have to own that you're a Sinner.
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I want you. I want to just say something. You know, I when I was when I was a younger boy, I used to, I used to wander around Yakima some. I had a couple of uncles there and and I was, I was afraid I was, I was young, probably, I don't know, thirteen years old.
I was afraid of going to hell.
The Lord I was afraid because I knew I was a Sinner.
I had done dishonest things.
Everyone in this room, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have done dishonest things.
You have sins that you have committed, that you're responsible to God.
And I remember one time going down the streets of Yakima with my two uncles and they said, let's go inside this church.
And we went inside this church. It was a Catholic Church.
And they were running around and they were grabbing the holy water and they were making signs.
And I was afraid. I was afraid even though I didn't know anything about where I was at. It was a place that there were things that represented Christ and God and that was afraid. I knew I was a Sinner. And all the while they were doing this, I said, let's get out of here, let's get out of here. And I was afraid.
I want you to know that I was afraid for many, many years.
Didn't mean that I I just stopped doing bad things because quite honestly, I didn't have the strength to stop doing bad things. And the more bad things I did, the more guilty I felt. I didn't know what to do.
I hope you feel that way, I do.
I hope you don't have peace in your soul. That's the worst thing you could have if you're lost, is to have peace in your soul and not see that you're guilty before a holy God. It's absolute worst thing. It's a blessing that God has awakened your conscience that you're guilty before him.
But God has met that need. I hope you feel that way.
But God sent his own beloved Son to come into this world.
And become a man. You know, we've had much before us about Christ becoming a man. Oh, so thankful that Christ became a man.
There's a man in the glory, man who wears our nature on the throne. We rejoice because of that, don't we?
But he came down into this world and you know, I can't go a day.
I can't go a day. Even when I was younger, I could not go a day without something I'm sure that I did that displeased God. That just made me more and more responsible to Him.
Just piling it on day after day. Sometimes I look back for I was saved. I was so afraid.
But the Lord Jesus came into this world as a man, and you know he never did anything that displeased his Father.
You know, I never had a thought.
He never went a direction that wasn't the will of the father. He never got up in the morning and went someplace without it being the will of the father, seeking his direction in his path. He never healed anyone.
Through the power of the Spirit of God. That was not the will of the Father. Everything that he did every day of his life.
Always please the Father.
But you would think that if there was such a person and he was walking this planet that people would just embrace him. What a wonderful man.
He came into this world to manifest the love of God to the Jewish people.
They wouldn't have them.
He said we will will not have this man, this man to reign over us.
And so they took him.
And they abused him.
During the breaking of bread, I was weighing out the things that were said, the different things that were done to the Lord Jesus. This morning they weighed out.
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You think of all the things they did to the blessed Lord Jesus.
And then they laid him down, and they they put nails in his hands and in his feet.
And then they took him to Calvary.
And they hung him up.
Hung up on that hill of Calvary between 2 Thieves.
You might think what a what a terrible thing and it and it was.
It was a terrible thing God did his absolute manifesting Christ to this world.
And it manifests just how dark.
Is the heart of man.
You know, there's three gospels in Scripture, Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke, and in each one of those gospels.
You know what it says? It's, it's an appeal.
To man to manifest, if there is anything in man that could be accepted. 3 Gospels.
And in those three gospels, each time they took the Lord Jesus and hung him on a cross.
Know that manifest there was nothing in the heart of man that could respond to the love of God. Not one thing.
In the Gospel of John, however, it's not making an appeal to man at all. You know what it says? Man is in darkness. Very first chapter, very few verses, the 1St chapter, man is in darkness and he can't receive the light.
And the whole of the gospel brings out the love that the Lord Jesus has in glorifying his Father.
And being the Lamb of God in providing a way in which poor lost sinners could be saved.
In the very first chapter of the book of John, it says, Behold the Lamb of God.
You know the Lamb of God has two beautiful aspects to it. One is it represents that burn offering character that has been offered for the glory of God.
But the other aspect of the Lamb of God is that he's the sin offering.
And our brother earlier today talked about the trespass offering that would be part of it, but he was the sin offering that is that He's a lamb that has come to take your place, if you will have him. Now we go to Exodus chapter 12 and go to Genesis 22. You see him there is the burn offering. You go to Exodus chapter.
12 And you see him as the sin offering.
And there you find that they offer the lamb. You know the lamb has been offered. God has provided a lamb.
The only lamb, the only one that could meet your needs.
The Lamb of God.
Well, the Lord Jesus hung upon that cross.
He experienced the most terrible thing that could, that could be meted upon him from his very creatures that He created, whose breath he held in His hand, whose very molecules were being held together by His power.
And yet they nailed him to a cross, and hung them there as a spectacle between heaven and earth.
But as the Lamb of God.
A tremendous thing happened, very solemn thing, and in its own way a very beautiful thing.
Is God in rap, the Lord Jesus in darkness?
And in that darkness.
You heard the cry.
That Jesus cried out to God. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
You know, I sometimes feel.
That those words were meant for me.
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Those words were meant to touch my heart.
Those words were to remind me and to remind you what happened, what was going on in that darkness.
That the judgment of a holy God was being meted out against the Lord Jesus, who never did any wrong, who never sinned, and always did what pleased the Father.
And stroke upon stroke, the wrath of a holy God meted out upon the Lord Jesus for the sins of those who would accept Him as their Lord and Savior. I could look around this room and I could ask this brother that sister.
Did Jesus bear your judgment? Did he take the judgment of God for the sins you've committed?
Did he exhaust them once and for all they could say Amen.
Amen. What a savior.
But you know, if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you don't profess that He died for you, then He never bore your judgment.
You have to ask Him to be your savior.
But you know the the burnt offering, one of the things that characterizes the burnt offering, Sometimes when I when I read it, I think of how solemn it is. It says what is leftover in the morning, completely consumed.
I think about the Lord Jesus.
You know we cannot enter into the depth of the sorrow and the suffering. Only the Father knows how deep the sorrow was.
But we can enjoy the fact that he died for us. You can enjoy that he died for you.
That he bore your judgment and penalty on the cross, if you will have him.
Well after the work was all done.
The Lord Jesus cried out. He says it is finished.
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Aren't those wonderful words?
Not one stripe, not one lash of judgment, not one drop of judgment is left for me, for you, if you will have him.
And then it says and he bowed his head and gave up his life.
What a solemn scene, the Son of God.
God's beloved Son in that scene of agony.
Exhausting the wrath of God, laying down his head and giving up his life.
But then something else happens.
A soldier comes by with a spear and he pierces his side.
And forthwith came out blood and water.
Word of God says without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins.
And I love it in Exodus when it says that the Angel of death came over, and when it looked upon the blood that was put on the outside of the houses that were there, and said the judgment passed over them.
It's all necessary, the completeness. It's the evidence of the death of the Lord Jesus as the precious blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood.
My brother.
Quoted if thou shalt confess.
The Lord If thou, umm, if thou shalt confess the Lord, and believe in thine heart that God had raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Oh, there's more.
God has raised his Son from the dead.
There's a man in the glory. He's raised him and placed him at his own right hand in the majesty on high. Why is that so important?
In Romans chapter 4 says if you believe in him who raised Jesus from the dead, what does that mean?
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Well, the beginning I I believe I mentioned that the father sent the son.
When the Lord Jesus completed the work that he was sent to do, the Father was satisfied, and he raised them from the dead.
God took up your need.
To answer what was necessary for your sins.
Through the finished work of his own son.
And being satisfied with his work.
He raised them.
On high.
You know I'm.
I had purpose tonight not to.
You have a Hellfire, brimstone, kind of a gospel. I really, I really wanted you to know.
That God is love.
And it's really God the Father who provided what was necessary, that is necessary for you to be saved.
We've enjoyed in the meetings here how we have a nature as God's children to enjoy Him.
To be able to live before him, consistent, just like his son.
It's beautiful to see that.
And yet perhaps there's one in this room still yet tonight, lost in your sins at a distance from God, and you're not a child of God.
You don't have peace with God.
And so.
The verse that says the soul that sinneth.
It shall die.
And after this the judgment.
You know, I believe that.
The love of God is sufficient to draw your heart to Him.
But I would be amiss.
If I was to give you the impression at all.
That there's not a consequence.
For rejecting him.
Because rejecting him.
Rejecting God's Son.
Means that you must stand before God, before the Lord Jesus, and you will have to bear the judgment and the penalty of your sins in your own body.
You've been rejecting the Lord Jesus.
You will be cast out of the presence of God for all eternity.
So there's a consequence.
You might think that.
You might think that maybe you'll wait till tomorrow.
No, my little brother.
Is unsaved. He's an adult now.
Now I remember one time I came home.
And it was all bundled up. It was all bundled up in a corner.
And he was weeping.
And I said, mom, what happened? What's wrong with Darren?
And she said well.
A friend of his grandfather took his granddaughter and little grandson and took him up in a plane.
And they got into a car and they got into a plane accident and everyone there perished.
You know, we have, we have no lease on life.
There's no guarantee about tomorrow.
There are so many people that will go to bed tonight.
Have great plans for tomorrow.
And never lived to enjoy tomorrow.
So it's so important and so pressing.
That the time to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and have all of your sins washed away by His precious blood is now.
Right now.
Won't you come to Jesus?
Let's pray.
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Our God and our Father, we are thankful.
We thank Thee for sending thy Son, the Lord Jesus.
We thank thee, Lord Jesus, for all that Thou hast done to meet all that is necessary for poor lost sinners.
We thank thee that thou hast risen are sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Soon to come back and to take thy people to be with thee for all eternity.
We pray that not one in this room.
Would be given peace if they are still lost in their sins.
We pray that Thou would continue to strive with them through Thy Word and through the Spirit.
We pray that they might accept the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior tonight.
And we ask this, and I alone most precious and worthy name. Amen.