Gospel—Tim Roach
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Good evening. Maybe we can start our meeting tonight by seeing #1 almost persuaded. I know many of you have heard the gospel before, and you know how to be saved. You know how to pray. You know how to live like a Christian. You're almost saved. We pray that you will not only be almost persuaded, but altogether saved. Tonight, let's sing #1.
Almost persuade.
Now.
All day long I hear.
Come.
We give thanks for the Gospel meeting once again, so I want to speak tonight about the arrest and the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. We know that is where he gave his life for us, and it may be that someone here has already heard the gospel many times and you've decided that this Christian stuff is just not for you. So you may want to use this hour to sleep or to catch up on your messaging, Twitter, Facebook, and if you do.
I won't be offended.
I just want everyone to turn off all your sounds to your phone so that there will be no distractions. However, if you don't mind, I suggest you do stay awake and you put away your phone and you listen, because there are eternal ramifications for everyone in this room in the gospel message tonight.
If you believe that Jesus is God.
And if you trust the work that Jesus did when he died on the cross for your sin, and if you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal savior, you will be eternally safe from the punishment of your sins, and you will be safe in the hands of the Lord Jesus. And God will remember your sins no more, and you have eternal access to the Father in heaven, to the Father Himself.
For the rest of you.
If you don't believe, if you neglect to take care of this matter between you and God tonight.
Or if you reject this opportunity to have your sins washed away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, let me tell you there is a miserable eternity that awaits you in the fires of hell, where you will suffer alone with your conscience, continuously, not continually, but continuously.
Tormenting you.
But enough of that for now, because there is hope. There is hope, There's a way of escape from your eternal misery. And I want to talk about the arrest and the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ in the night in which he was betrayed. And if we can go to Mark chapter 10.
You know, when Jesus came to this earth, he was holy.
He is God. He had no sin in him. And Jesus lived on this earth for 33 years without sin. And he preached and he healed, and he did so many kind things. And Jesus loved the Jewish people, and he came into this world to be their king. He came unto his own, but his own received him not. Jesus came to his his own people, but they did not believe him. In fact, the Jews hated him.
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And Jesus? He knew that the Jews despised him, and that he knew that they would crucify him. Well, the previous Jesus had previously tried to explain this to his 12 disciples, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. Let's look at Mark chapter 10, verse 33. And Jesus is speaking to his disciples. He says, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests.
And unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him. And the third day he shall rise again.
Well, the 12 disciples, they believed Jesus was the Messiah and they were expecting Jesus to take over the world. And the disciples, they wanted to begin reigning with Jesus over this world in the Kingdom, they said. But they did not understand what Jesus had said to them. John chapter 13 and and we'll find here in this chapter that on the same night in which Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot before he was arrested.
By the officers in charge, Jesus ate one last Passover meal with his disciples. And in the preceding days and weeks we find that Judas Iscariot had somehow been dabbling in the occult, and we'll see how this affected him on the night in which Jesus was betrayed, and then after the feast of the Passover in John 13. After the feast, Jesus spoke to Judas Iscariot in verse 26.
We'll read part of the verse. When Jesus dipped the SOP, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon. And after the South, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him that thou doest do quickly. After Judas left the upper room, the Lord Jesus talked to his disciples about his death, and he showed them how to remember him in his death in the breaking of bread.
But they did not realize. They did not realize that Jesus would be arrested that very same night to be crucified and to be put to death. Matthew chapter 26.
When the This is when the supper had ended, Jesus went outside the city to pray, and he went with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane and Matthew 26 and verse 36.
Because then comes Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane. And he said unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray Yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then said he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death, Tarry here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying.
My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Well, Jesus. He went into the garden full of sorrow and with a heavy heart. But he came out of the garden with a heart full of joy, knowing he was doing the will of the Father, as he went to the cross.
On the day that the Lord Jesus was arrested.
To be crucified, He could say in Psalm 118. He could say, This is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. How could Jesus rejoice knowing he was going to be so cruelly treated and crucified?
How? How could he have joy knowing he was going to have our sin put on him? My sin put on him? He was the innocent one. He had no sin in him. He was the one who did no sin.
Because he could not sin. He is the righteous one who has made sin so that you, the Sinner could be made righteous. Well, let's look at Hebrews chapter 12.
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Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus did not let the shame of the cross turn him away. He did not worry about the curse and the shame of being crucified on a cross. His joy came from being obedient to do the will of the Father. And so when Jesus was done praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus found his disciples sleeping, says OK guys, it's time to wake up, let's get going. And as Jesus and the disciples were leaving the garden, they met Judas Iscariot.
And Jesus says to him, Hello, friend.
Why are you here?
Judah said. Hell, Master.
Hell, that means rejoice and be glad, master, as he gave him a kiss.
Of betrayal.
Immediately the officers and the soldiers, they arrested the Lord Jesus and they led him away to crucify him. Let's go to John Chapter 18.
John Chapter 18, The first few verses.
Starting in verse one.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook sedron where he was, where was a garden into which he entered, And his disciples and Judas also which betrayed him, knew the place. For Jesus often times resorted thither with his disciples. Verse 3. Judas then having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.
Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom Seek ye they answered him, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus said unto them, I am he.
And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon as he said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground. Jesus asked them, Who are you looking for? Well, they answered him, We're looking for Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus says, I am that name. I am. It's the same name of the eternal God. In the very presence of the eternal God controlled those men with the authority of God.
And they all stopped at that name and they stopped and they bowed down the Roman soldiers and the Jewish officials. They stepped backwards and they fell down before Jesus. This reminds me of Philippians chapter 2 and verse 10 and 11 where it says at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
The Father was glorified at that moment when the Roman soldiers and the Jewish officials and Judas himself, they fell down to the ground before the G before Jesus of Nazareth. And I like to think that when they fell down they bowed their knee to Jesus when they heard that name, the name the Great.
I am at the name of Jesus. Every knee shall bow, and that includes you, you sitting here tonight. Every knee shall bow whether you are saved or not, whether you want to or not. You will both. You will bow both of your knees down before Jesus Christ.
While the soldiers, they got up off the ground and they took Jesus to the religious leaders and the soldiers. They beat Jesus and they tried to get him to confess a lie, but Jesus refused. He refused to lie and he and the leaders took him to Pilot. The governor, Well, pilot interrogated Jesus and Pilate came to this conclusion and Pilate says this man has done nothing wrong.
And and three times he said, I find no fault in this man. All the religious leaders they said crucify him. Why? Said Pilot. He said what? What evil has he done? Well the religious leaders, they wanted Jesus dead and when they heard Pilate defend Jesus they became very angry and they shouted, we don't want this man away with this man crucify him.
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Crucify him, Pilate, the governor. He was afraid of the gathering mob. And finally Pilate agreed to crucify Jesus. But first he had Jesus whipped 39 times with a scourge and Jesus with his back bleeding. He went to the cross. Let's look at Matthew chapter 27.
Matthew chapter 27 will begin at verse 26. When Pilate, when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band.
Of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put him in a scarlet robe. And when they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a Reed or a stick in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him, and mopped him, saying, Hell, rejoice, and be glad, King of the Jews.
And they spit upon him.
And they took the Reed, and they smote him on the head. After that they had mocked him. They took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
Jesus, the soldiers, they took Jesus outside the city and they laid him down on a cross. And I don't think they did it very gently. They didn't say, oh, they didn't say oh be careful Jesus don't get any splinters in your back. No, I'm sure they just threw him down on that that cross and and they, the soldiers put those big nails through his hands and his feet and then they dug a hole in the ground and they stood that cross up and dropped it into the into the hole.
And the Lord Jesus as the as the cross fell into that hole, he had horrible pain.
And he couldn't breathe very well.
Someone in an act of kindness, they offered Jesus a drink of medicine to take his mind off the pain. But Jesus refused any He refused to take any medicine that would reduce the pain.
He came to suffer and to die for sin, for my sin and he was going to endure all the pain and all the suffering and all the punishment. Jesus endured the cross and he experienced the shame and he would endure all the suffering of the cross. The physical pain, the suffering of the physical pain and and the suffering of his body was something that our minds we can picture.
In our minds, and we can understand a little bit about physical pain, but none of the physical sufferings that the Lord Jesus endured, none of the physical sufferings that man could inflict on the person of the Lord Jesus could ever take away sin. The worst of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus was yet to come, and when and that was when he would be stricken and smitten of God.
And afflicted. And we would not be able to understand this part of the suffering that Jesus endured. And so while Jesus hanged there on the cross, God turned off the sun and there was darkness. For three hours there is darkness over all the land from the six hour to the 9th hour. God could not allow anyone to see Jesus suffer for sin. He could not allow anyone to see my sin put on Jesus.
Jesus was that holy sinless 1 The spotless Lamb of God and God could not allow anyone see Jesus suffer for sin during that time of darkness. Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the tree, and it was too horrible for anyone to see the righteous judgment of God against sin when stroke upon stroke of God's wrath awoke and fell upon Jesus for me.
God, God is long-suffering and not willing at anyone here in this room tonight.
Should perish God. God had been patient with the wickedness and the sin of man for so long, but now now sin had reached its worst point. And the people he loved, the people he came to, they rejected him, they rejected his only begotten Son, and they crucified Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. God could not be quiet.
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Any longer.
When God saw the shame and the indignities that were inflicted on Jesus Christ.
It seems like the anger of an holy God woke up and exploded against the.
Of mankind.
All of God's holy anger fell in righteous judgment on Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God.
Nobody, nobody knows how much righteous anger, how much righteous judgment fell on Jesus Christ in that those three hours of darkness, all the punishment was more than we could endure, that we could imagine. But the Lord Jesus, He came into this world to save sinners. You are a Sinner. Jesus came to save you. He went to the cross for you. He suffered for you.
He allowed your sin to be put on him, and God punished him. For you, the Lord Jesus, He suffered. He suffered the anguish and the pain and the terror and the torment of hell upon the cross for you. Jesus suffered so much as he endured the darkness.
And the cross, and the shame and the humiliation of having my sin put on him.
As he suffered the punishment of sin against himself. Let's go to first Peter chapter 3.
First Peter chapter 3 and verse 18.
For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
Jesus suffered so that he could bring you to God. You've been reconciled to God by the death of his Son. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, well, Jesus is here tonight. We don't see him, but he is here. He by his Spirit. He is here tonight waiting to bring you to God. And God and his sovereignty has done everything possible for you to be saved.
Now it is your turn. It is your responsibility. Now you have heard that Christ had to be crucified for your sins because you are a good Sinner.
Good Sinner. I say that you are a good Sinner because you were raised in a Christian home. You're listening here tonight looking like a good Christian, but you're a good Sinner because you are raised in a Christian environment. And sometimes you look like a Christian and you act like a Christian and you think you are pretty good and you don't need to worry about all this stuff we're talking about. You are a good Sinner, but you are a bad person. There's none righteous. No, not one. All have sinned.
And come short of the glory of God, Well, what must you do to be saved? Two things, you must have repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus. That verse in Acts 16 says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. But if you reject Jesus once again, if you reject Jesus tonight, that's too bad. I know you are here tonight.
And you have heard the gospel many times, but you have never admitted that you are a Sinner. And then and you have never asked Jesus to save you. And here you sit, trying to ignore the gospel message, looking at your books, talking to your friends.
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus?
You have never asked Jesus to save you. Why? What are you waiting for? Pretty soon it's going to be too late. The Lord Jesus is coming anytime, he says. Surely I come quickly and you don't know when your last day on this earth is going to be if the Lord Jesus doesn't come and you drive home tonight and you have a car accident and you die just like that.
You won't have another chance. You will find yourself at heaven's throne of judgment, and you will hear Jesus say, I never knew you. Jesus will say you rejected me and my love while you were here on earth. Why are you standing at the door of Heaven's Gate trying to get in? Why do you want to come into the Father's house now? You never wanted me before. Get out of here. And you will bow your knee in that day. And you will say, Lord, Lord, let me come in.
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I was not so very bad. I went to the Bible meetings. I sat in the Sunday School. I learned the Bible verses Don't send me to hell. The Lord Jesus will have to say, get out of my sight. And Jesus will tell his angels to tie you up by the hands and the feet and and throw you into outer darkness, into the pit of hell. And the angels, they will, under the instruction, they will grab you and they will tie you up and they will throw you with force.
They will cast you into the lake of fire and down you will go down.
Down, down, screaming no as you enter into a loft, eternity, and you will fall into the suffering torments of the lake of fire alone.
Without Christ, without your mom and dad, without your friends, you'll be alone and we will never hear from you again.
But within your never dying soul, your anger and your hatred against God will increase every day, forever and ever and ever, where you're the worm of your conscience will never die and where the fire is not quenched.
But Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you, and he doesn't want any of these bad things to happen to you. And that is why he willingly came down from heaven, from the Father's house, to come into this world, to die that the shameful death on the cross, to take all of that horrible punishment for you.
At the cross, let's look at a verse in Isaiah chapter 52.
Isaiah Chapter 52.
And verse 14.
And it says many were astonished at Jesus.
His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.
The visual appearance of Jesus was so distorted more than any man's, but not because of the physical tortures that were put put upon him. But it was because of my sin that was put on him, and he endured the wrath of God because.
Of my sin. That's what distorted the face of the visual appearance of the Lord Jesus, as he felt the anguish and the pain and the suffering and the wrath of God in the darkness and out of the terror and the darkness. At about the 9th hour Jesus cried. He cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The Lord Jesus felt so alone there on the cross as he had our sins put on him, and he suffered there.
Alone. Why are you so far from helping me that that is what Jesus endured on the cross so that you could have a way of escape from the punishment of your sin? Jesus loves you that much. He loves you that much as he spread out his arms and allowed them to nail him to the cross. He loves you that much and after the suffering for sin in the darkness for three hours.
Jesus cried. It is finished. Then Jesus gave his spirit into the hand of the Father, and he died.
Jesus gave his life for us. The suffering was finished. Let's look at Hebrews 10.
Hebrews 10.
And verse 10.
We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We only need to be made holy once with one sacrifice of sin for sins. Jesus is able to sit down on the right hand of God because the work was done forever, the payment for sins was completed and so Jesus has put away your sin forever and even the sin you have. This is for believers, even the sin you haven't done yet he has put away.
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But if only if you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll just quote a verse from Psalm 103 says as far as the East is from the West so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Some believers, they get concerned about their salvation because if they do some sin and they think that if they die before they confess that sin to God or they die before they get reconciled with the person they have offended.
They wonder how could they possibly go to heaven if they die in that condition.
If you think this way, it's a problem because you are somehow putting yourself under law that you must be good in order for you to get to heaven. You are thinking that your security of going to heaven depends on your ability to be good all the time.
You're trusting your ability to remember all your sins. So you can confess all your sins that you have ever committed, but you can't possibly remember all of your sins to confess them. The unbelievers, the unsaved people, are not required to confess their sins.
But you can't possibly remember all your sins. You need to understand that when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved forever.
Well, I have a question.
If Jesus loves you so much.
And Jesus suffered the punishment, and he suffered so much.
And Jesus paid such a big price to save you. And you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think that Jesus is going to let you get away from him? Do you think he could let you jump out of his hands and lose you?
Will Jesus allow you to be taken out of his hands and cast into the lake of fire? No. You are his child when you put your trust in the Lord Jesus.
Your sins are gone. They're gone forever. We used to sing a song. I think it was at the gospel tent. Something like my sins are gone. They're underneath the blood of the cross of Calvary, as far removed as darkness is from dawn. Praise God, my sins are gone. Jesus will never bring any of your sins to you on judgment day and say, hey, you forgot to confess this sin, so you must go to the lake of fire.
No, it can't happen like that in Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 12.
Hebrews 8 and verse 12.
Lord Jesus says their sins and their iniquities. I will remember no more. Jesus took all your punishment for all of your sin and that is what he Jesus means when he says I'll remember them no more. Jesus won't bring any sin to you on judgment day and say hey you can't come into heaven. No, God doesn't work that way. Go. Jesus knows that he paid the price to cover all of your sins.
Whenever you commit them, and he still has the wounds in his hands and his side to prove that he's taken the punishment for that sin that you've committed.
His blood has already washed away your sins from off your record. God is not going to charge you again for that sin that Jesus paid for. However, if a believer does sin, you will need to. The believer needs to confess his sin in order to fix his fellowship with the Father while you're living here on earth.
But your eternal destiny with Christ in the Father's house is eternally secure, and it's all because of the blood. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from every sin. And so if you, if you refuse to believe that your sins are gone as far as the East is from the West, Are you sure you're going to go to heaven if you doubt the finished work of Christ?
That it is sufficient to cover all of your sin. Will you go to heaven?
If you believe that you must confess your sins to go to heaven, Are you sure you remembered to confess all of them?
If you are not trusting Jesus for your salvation, who?
Who are you trusting yourself? That's a joke. Are you more holy than Jesus? Are you wiser than God if you are not trusting Jesus 100%?
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There's no other sacrifice to cover your sin. Romans 623.
We all know that verse the wages of sin is death.
The wages of sin is death. But there's good news. Jesus paid the price for you. Christ died for your sins and the end of that verse says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
At the last, after the Lord Jesus had given his spirit to the Father and he died, we find the soldier with the spear, and that soldier hated Jesus too, and one of the And with one more act of hatred against the Creator, that soldier took that spear and he speared Jesus into the side.
Well, people still hate the Creator today and they revolt against the idea of intelligent design and they prefer to believe in evolution and big bangs and man made global warming. Well, who do they think made the energy to make a Big Bang if that's what happened? God tells us in the Bible that this world will be here for at least 1000 more years, for the Millennium, for the reign of Christ, with a perfect climate for people to live and to grow crops in.
But we don't have a perfect climate yet. We get hot, we get cold, we get dry, we get wet. It's a natural cycle. While I was in Mozambique just a few days ago, there was a huge cyclone that hit hit Mozambique cyclone EDI, and that devastated the 4th largest city in Mozambique, the city of Beira. And they had a population between 500 and 600,000 people. And 90% of the city of Bayra was destroyed.
And it caused damages in Zimbabwe and Malawi as well. More than 700 people dead villages of people in the people in the villages from Zimbabwe were washed down the streams downstream in the raging rivers, and they were collecting their bodies and burying them down in Mozambique.
Houses, crops, roads, bridges gone. Women and babies climbing up trees and stranded there until they're rescued. Some people climbing on the roof tops and they're there for three days without food and water before they get before they get rescued. We do not have a perfect climate. God uses the weather to get people's attention, but they have no idea that God it is God who controls the weather. People today, they believe in the religion of man. Controlled climate can change.
And man thinks he's in control of his own destiny. And if the Creator were to come here today to visit again, you know what? They would spear him in the side again. And they don't want a God who controls creation. They don't want a God of love. They hate Jesus.
Why? Why do they hate him so much?
As a result of that act of hatred, when that soldier thrust the spear into the side of Jesus, immediately the blood flowed forth from the side of Jesus Christ, and it is that precious blood that cleanses us from every sin. When Judas Iscariot, he saw that Jesus was going to be crucified, he was actually going to be crucified.
Matthew 27 verse five tells us that Judas went and hanged himself.
He committed suicide.
And in his in suicide.
The last state of Judas was worse than his first, because now Judas is in hell and he's lifting up his eyes in torment, awaiting his turn to to be cast into the lake of fire. Judas was never saved, you know Judas had been communicating with Satan. We don't know exactly how he did it, but he was controlled and he was possessed by Satan and he quickly fell into a deep dark depression and he saw the only way out of his situation.
Was suicide.
That is what messing with the occult does to a person.
You begin to have doubts about the goodness of God. Maybe you don't think.
We have the occult here in this country, but we have Ouija boards and Harry Potter and we have. We have drugs. We have.
So many things that bring in the occult yoga.
Some of the martial arts.
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There's connections there to the occult playing cards. They have connections to the occult.
And as we get involved in these things.
And we become controlled by them. You begin to have doubts about the goodness of God.
And you have no peace and you become depressed and obsessed and distressed.
And lonely. And Satan is pushing you to suicide in the darkness of your depression. But suicide is not the answer, because the darkness and the depression and the loneliness are all part of the existence in hell. And when the unbeliever commits suicide, instead of getting relief from the dark depression, you'll find yourself in outer darkness, utterly alone.
And you will fall into eternal hopelessness and despair. And Satan is trying to push you into the eternal dark depression of hell before you get saved.
Something similar happens to believers who get busy with the world and they try to live like a Christian at the same time. And when you have one foot in the world and one foot in Christianity, Satan controls you and he takes away your joy. He takes away your peace, and he replaces it with doubts about God. And slowly, as you have this struggle within your soul, you also can go into a dark, deep depression while you're looking, while you're trying to look like a good Christian.
It happens.
Let's look at a verse in Luke chapter 4.
Luke Chapter 4, verse 18.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. This is the heart and the person of the Lord Jesus in this verse. And he wants to set you free from your depression, but you need to 1St.
Confess the hidden sin in your life to get free from the control of Satan's demonic power, because it's Satan's demonic power that debilitates your joy and the usefulness of the believer.
I want. I want to sing.
Part of #4.
Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me. Let's sing #4. Christ is the Savior of sinners, Christ.
Savior for me.
Long I was chained in sins, darkness.
Now by his grace I am free.
Savior of sinners life.
Blood for my ransom. This is the savior for me.
I can say I am pardoned, happy and justified. Free singer for me.
Maybe you appreciate the love of Jesus and you really want to be saved tonight. If you want the blood of Jesus to start working for you right now, to wash all of your sins away, you must believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. But you must trust Jesus. And you can tell the Lord Jesus in a prayer right now that you want to be saved and you can pray at the same time. I pray.
Let's pray.