Gospel—David Whitaker
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Well, tonight I noticed there's a lot of children that makes my heart happy. I think I could probably count 100 children here this evening. Lots of dear children. Uh, new crop, a fresh crop of children. So we're going to sing #42 on the back of the hem sheet.
I was at a conference not very long ago where I think there were six or eight children.
I was very disappointed.
Could someone please start hymn #42?
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Before we pray, I would like all 7 year olds.
Are you listening? Are there any 7 year olds here?
1.
Is there any more? Raise your hand real high if you're 7.
Oh, there's another one. Another one.
We got 3-4 some more in here.
Oh, oh, look at there. Wonderful. Good. Very good. A little child of seven. You know, seven is an interesting age. You stop being a little kid and you're starting to think, and there's something else that starts working when you're 7 years old. And I can prove it.
Shall we pray?
Well, because there are so many children here tonight, I see children. Oh my. They're all over the place. How wonderful. I got a question for the children. Here goes Like this. I want you to tell me the answer.
There's a Mama sheep, a sheep. She's in the fold, you know, And she finds us breaking the fence and she goes outside the pole.
Enclosure and she wanders off.
Over the hill.
Over the valley, across a stream in the woods, she wandered off.
Do you think she was lost? Yeah.
But while she was out there, she had a little baby lamb.
Do you think that Lamb was lost?
The girl says no, Bless your heart. That's our hearts. We'd like to see all of you children save that little lamb is born lost, lost.
Now.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save that which was lost. So tonight we're gonna, I'm gonna tell you some things with the Lord's help that you don't even know, and they may never been told you before.
Children with older folks, probably most of them, know this.
But some of you may not, and it's so serious.
But you know, someone said that the 10th meetings if someone didn't open the Bible within.
30 seconds. There would be someone in the back of the room waving like that. Let's get the book open. So let's get the book open. What do you think? What verse do you think we should? What's a good gospel verse, children? One that's real famous and popular. Can you think? Look at that, John 316. Let's look at a particular word in that verse.
Momachucci and Zombie We Zangiliakohashi, Achizi, Wachelli, Munini, Afuli, Akashic, Katoka, Eliose. Oh I'm sorry, this is English.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, children, look at this verse right here.
00:05:04
Gave Oh, what a word that was. What a word that is a gift. And we're gonna talk a little bit tonight about the gift of God. We're gonna go down through a little story before we get to that wonderful gift. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our our Lord. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
God loveth a cheerful giver. It's kind of interesting to put that verse in there. Who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross.
Despise the shame, He went right to the cross for you children, to save your soul.
Now.
If we're born lost, we don't have to stay that way. We don't have to stay that way. So God has given us the gospel of the grace of God. You know, Apostle Paul at the end of his life, he said, I've finished my course with joy, Boy says, but do the work of an evangelist. That's some of the last things he wrote in his book is epistle through the work of an evangelist.
And you know something kids? Have you ever mailed a letter to anybody?
Sure you have. No, the letter's about the general envelopes about that wide. You don't see there how much is how? How wide is the gospel track? Just a little bit less.
I'm talking to all of you.
You don't have to face the person when you mail them a little gospel tract if they go, if you got to mail something into the telephone company, remember that usually the envelope is about that white and the gospel track just a little bit less. You can slip a gospel tract in there. Maybe four things God wants you to know, just something that they're opening up the letter like this and they're looking at it. What's this? What's the gospel? The gospel of the grace of God.
It's a love story. There was a.
Two boys, I think they were Ukrainian fellows and they were about 12 years of age. They came into the office where I worked and they had a box of candy.
And, uh, they wanted to sell me a, a box of Skittles, you know, Skittles and, uh, they were overpriced. I, I suppose they were twice, two or three times what I should have paid. But I looked at these boys. I said, OK, I'll buy a box of Skittles. So after the transaction took place, I said to these two young boys, I said, uh, let me ask you if you were standing at the gate of heaven.
And God were to ask you, how can I let you come into my heaven? You're a Sinner like this guy.
You know what he said? He says because God came down into this world, wrapped himself in in human flesh, and he went to the cross and he died for my sins.
He put his Skittles and all that stuff back in the box and he walked out the door.
Now if someone were to say that to you children, what would you tell them?
What would you tell him? How can God let you into his heaven? Because you and I are sinners.
What I'm going to tell you is something you might not know. You probably don't.
I'm gonna take you on the roof of the house.
Now this guy, he's nailing down the roof of his house, he's just a man of the world, doesn't know the Lord Jesus.
And he's nailing that roof down.
And he sees this guy coming. Oh, he's that's my neighbor. I hate that man in I can't tell you how much I hate that man, but what he's done to me.
I hate him with a passion.
And he hits his thumb and he smashes his thumb.
Now his neighbor's name was Joe. Do you think he takes Joe's name in vain?
No, he takes the name of Jesus Christ in vain.
There's something desperately wrong with that man.
And then I've heard people say, jeez.
All the time I've heard Christians say that that's called a minced oath. Why is it that within this heart of ours, those kind of things come out?
Especially the guy on the roof there. He's a grown man, sensible man and all that, and he takes the name of the Lord Jesus in vain. He doesn't say Lord, he says Jesus Christ.
Well, what I hate to tell you, but it's true deep down inside of us.
00:10:00
There's something that's called a fallen, broken nature.
And it's been imprinted.
A fixed principle of broken sin and you don't even realize it.
Usually think of doing something wrong. It's it's sinful. That's true and we shouldn't have done it, but you know, there's there's something a transgression is bad, but.
As you get older, you start to think about there's something going on down inside of me that's opposed to my God. It's I'm opposed to my maker.
That's awful, you know, God knows that, and God wants to take care of that particular problem, and how he does it is beautiful. That's what we're going to talk about, the gospel, the grace of God.
No children.
This is a love story, really.
And he got up above, and the Father, the Lord Jesus, God the Father, two persons that God had the Spirit also. They have a plan to bring you into eternal blessing.
It's called eternal life. What do you think eternal life means? Can someone tell me what eternal life means? What's a good?
Go ahead. Go to heaven. Yes. What else? Anybody else? Eternal. What's that mean?
For live to live forever and ever Well, Satan is going to live forever and ever forever. Well, you're right. You're going down the right line, but you know something, eternal life is something where it's more than living forever and ever, which we it is. It's coming to know God is your father, the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. The Spirit of God is your comforter.
The Bible is your guidebook. God's people are your companions and your friends.
Heaven is your home.
And the Lord's coming is what you're waiting for. It all comes as a beautiful package. Eternal life.
Have children. You can have that life by asking for it.
This gift.
Comes from the warmest heart.
Could ever be.
And that's something. It's a tender, loving heart.
And it's directed to you. God has so much. He can show his power. You know He can show his power by shaking the mountains, causing the earth to shake.
He can show his wisdom.
By spreading out the universe, that man can't find the end of it. He can intelligence, He can give something called DNA.
Talking to a man the other day, he says we're looking deep into the DNA and we're finding cures for this and we're finding cures for that.
He was a man. I don't think he was saved, but he was mystified and amazed at the order of God's DNA. It's a, it's a word that's a 3.5 billion letter long, something like that.
Now.
Your college students or high school children too. When you get a chance, look up something on your computer that says, uh, Fibonacci. Raise your hand to anybody. Have you ever heard that name? Fibonacci? Oh, look at that. There's a couple dozen. Well, there's another. Good for you. There's another word for it called the golden ratio.
I'm not going to explain it because I'm not good at it, but.
Look it up, you'll find amazing.
In the sway the the the seeds on a sunflower spins around like this, the way the waves curl around like that, and the waves all through nature you find.
It imprinted that Fibonacci's number. The man discovered it years ago. It's amazing. And you don't hear that in school because it just testifies to the design capabilities of our God. So you have to have things like that. And so you have his power. He can shake this world.
His artistic abilities, God's artistic, artistic abilities. And you children, you like to draw and you like art, so he likes you to like that.
But where is his love shown out?
His intelligence, his power, his wisdom, his artistic ability, his skill.
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And his creatorial genius. Old children, it's amazing.
But how can he show out his love?
He did it wonderfully. This all started in the heart of your God.
Apparently there was a council. It was a council of peace between the father and the son.
And they said God is going to get the glory from this council. The Father said, who shall I send the Lord? She just said, send me, I'll go, I'll go. So where'd he go? He came from the heights of glory. And it began a lot of story that starts up there and it comes right on down here to Bethlehem's Manger where they laid that little baby.
Doesn't say he was born in the main jerk. He was laid in the Manger. We don't worry. He was born, just that it was in Bethlehem.
And there he was, he was raised up, his mother there, who was supposed father Joseph and.
It says the lines have fallen onto me in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage.
You know something he was cared for by his mother.
And outside that door of his house there was bitter hatred, bitter hatred for this one that came down. He came down into this world in love and compassion. Do you think the world appreciated him? No, they sought right away. O'Hara. He had a bunch of children killed and there started the mothers were fathers were weeping there in Israel because that wicked Herod. He had those children killed and they were two years old. I see. Two years old.
And my heart goes right out to a beautiful little children up and down the aisles here.
And Can you imagine that this wicked heritage said I want those children dead?
And so you know where those children went, by the way. They went to be with the Lord Jesus because of the precious blood of Christ.
So he.
Came down into this world and he walked among men like he had a he had a human nature.
You and I have a human nature.
He had divine nature.
We have a fallen human nature. He didn't have that.
In him was no sin, and so he was the one marked out of perfect sacrifice to go to the cross to pay the penalty for this man's sins, and there are a lot of them.
So as time went on, he had a gift for mankind, and He brought it with him. It was his self himself. And along with that gift says on the way the truth and the life becomes a life and truth away. And all that came with him, He came down from the Father up above, and he presented himself to this world. And did the world appreciate him? No, they did not Why?
Because, as I was saying a few minutes ago, deep inside of each one of our hearts is a settled.
Principle. Like I've said, think about trying to think of a better word. We are enemies of our God.
Oh, no. Is that possible? Yes, it is. We are enemies of our God when we're two years old, three years old, 30 years old, eighty years old, 100 years old were enemies of our God. I was at the airport yesterday. Before yesterday, there was a child there about 3, maybe four years of age. And that child was, by the way, I, I really appreciated what the brothers said about child raising.
This little boy.
He was kicking and slapping his father. It was shameful.
Like going over there and say, Sir, I want to tell you something.
If one of my grandchildren would have done that.
And they would stop it right there. But you know, to do that, you have to have a good conscience. I'll just take off on the sideways here a little bit. When you start life, children, you're gonna raise children. You can't have a bad conscience. You have to start with a good conscience because you can't discipline anybody if you yourself have a bad conscience. A conscience is something we're gonna talk about later on.
So here we come down into the world. The Lord Jesus came down the world, He presented himself to mankind, and he had a purpose.
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Got a purpose, and that purpose was to go to the cross so that he could bear your sins in his own body on the tree.
I'll Fast forward a little bit here. The lot could be said, but there's what we call a sinner's bench. You have to kind of imagine that. And on that bench, there's room for two people and you're one of them.
Your lost Sinner, who do you think would be the other person sitting on the sinners bench?
You know this has been amazing to me, the Lord Jesus.
He came down and he's willing to sit beside the Sinner on the sinner's bench as if he took the place of being a Sinner. Is that possible?
He bore as if he was the Sinner. He didn't sin, but he took my sins responsibility of my sins upon himself, and God punished him for my sins.
What a beautiful, amazing, wonderful gift that was. And now what he can do, children, He can give you just for the taking, A free gift, and that is the gift of God, is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So we've had the wisdom of God, the power of God. You know, there's been a little fire out our way where we live just South of us, umm, I think 12 or 14,000 homes were burned to crisp.
And the the smoke floated over a wicked city.
San Francisco noted for its wickedness.
And I suppose folks were thinking with their masks on, walking around there is this kind of like Sodom and Gomorrah?
You know children.
Guess how many times Solomon, how many books of the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah is found in this? Maybe in a couple of gospels. You think solving the more brother, What do you think? Couple three or four gospels, maybe a time or two in Isaiah? Uh-huh.
I believe it's 16 books of the Bible. 15 to 7 to 16 books of the Bible. You'll find Sodom, Gomorrah, Admiral Sodomites, and even in the book of Job. I could look it up for you after meeting here. It says they're unclean. They die in their youth.
Look at the margin, King James says. Sodomites, yes, this is a broken world we're living in, children, sinful world, and you have not tasted it to that degree.
Stay away children, Stay away from this world. He'll bite you. It'll really bite you. Well, anyway, just to finish off a little story, there was a lady was her husband, I guess they were driving out of those flames there, a place called Paradise.
California.
And the fire was all over the road in front of them, sparks flying off the windshield. And you know what she said.
Uh, Heavenly Father, keep us safe.
You know, he did took care of him right on through that fire. And a lot of stories come out of that, people that didn't have warning on the eastern part of that city. There was a little bit of warning, but the cell phones didn't bark at them or no sirens rang. It was a desperate situation. They had moments to flee. And I think they're 600. That didn't make it 600 people they can't even find.
The the bones, because the waters come down and wash them away.
Wow, think about that God has given you.
Not 15 minutes. How old are you? It's 11/12/13. All your life you've heard the gospel.
In the back in.
The days of Jonah, 40 days, they had in that city, 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown.
And you know they repented.
And then there were other times where, uh, Noah and both had many years to repent and then another seven days of grace.
And different times in Scripture, you'll find that time of grace was given and sometimes they accepted it, sometimes they rejected it. But you children have been told the gospel, and it's important for you tonight to believe the gospel that God has for you. It's free. So we're going to go on.
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Inside that mind and heart of yours.
I don't know exactly where it is. It's called a conscience and pardon, this expression is not a very good enough, but it's like a monkey on your back.
He looked this way and it goes over that way.
This way and the monkey goes over that way.
Yeah, see, you can't get rid of it. So man has been given.
By God, a conscience.
And there was a little boy, little boy who was seven years of age.
And do you think A7 year old child has a conscience that tells him what's right, tells him what's wrong? Well, this little boy, he had a friend.
And his friend said, let's go to the ballpark and go under the bleachers, and we're going to take those empty pop bottles worth 2 cents apiece back in those days.
And we'll just take them to the, put them in a box and we'll take them over to the concession where they the next day and we'll collect our two cents or take them someplace else and collect the two cents a piece. And so they decided, they went over there and they picked up these bottles and they put them in a box and they start, they brought them home.
And one little boy said I don't feel good about this. He was seven. That's why I was concerned about the seven-year old.
But why? Because his daddy was a gospel preacher.
And it told him about sin, told him about the conscience, told him about the wages of sin as death, and the gift of God is eternal life. And so this, uh, little boy said to his fellow thief who was ten years old.
They were stealing these pop bottles. They were going to turn them in the next day. 5 bottles is going to be how much worth how much at two cents apiece.
Five. How many, How many cents is that gonna be? Go ahead. That's a 10 cents, $0.10 center. And so he got home and that little shoe box was full of 55 pop bottles, I think.
And he was a 10 cent center. But you know something, boys, his conscience, his conscience started working. And you know what his conscience said to him, this is not right. This is not right. And so the boys said to the other boy who was two years old or three years older, he says I don't feel right. And the older boys, oh, he was a Sinner. He was a thief too. He might have had twelve cents or something worth.
Of bottles, I don't know.
And the one boy said to the other boy, he said, I don't feel right now that's called a conscience. And God has put that in everybody's mind and heart. It's a, it's a guide. It's not perfect guide, but it is a guide.
That tells you when you're doing wrong and so.
One voice says I feel bad. The other voices. Aren't you saved?
The younger boy said.
No, I'm not saved so well, should we? Do you want to get saved? Yeah. So those two boys that got down on the dirt right there in front of their house.
And the older boys said, the younger boy, you pray after me and So what do I pray? I don't know what to praise. So the older voices, you do, you pray what I pray. And Lord Jesus, take away my sins.
And that boy got saved that wonderful. You know, it's just as simple as that, children.
God has made a way. He's opened up the way where you can have your sins forgiven.
Now out out our way visiting with people, we find out that there's something called works people, they want to work. This would be for the older folks here. They feel that they can do some good for God. But God has a gift. It's beautiful and he wants to give it to you. And if you want to work for it, then he said, oh, I've got nothing for you if you want to do something for God.
Nothing for you.
But if you want to take it as a gift, it's absolutely free. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So go on here. Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
A subtle principle of enmity against God how awful the.
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When Adam sinned, children, death reigned. No, that's not the rain that you have outside right now. That's like it's king over your life. Adam sinned and death is reigned. And now today.
This world, children, is shaped like a great big tear, like a big teardrop. Yeah, I'm, I'm figuratively.
Speaking, there's so much crying and sorrow and terrible. There's people in.
There's people trying to get into this country.
Tonight.
That are from other countries where dictators have taken over and have just ruined things.
Because of their desire for power, God will deal with that. That's true. But there are people that don't have a home they don't have.
They've been burned out or they're the governments have chased them out or whatever. This world is suffering as sorrowful to not you children probably all come from homes where you loved and cared for. There's food on the table and you have homes to beds to sleep and all that.
Children, this world is not that way. There were many, many parts of this world is sadly broken. Why is because of sin. Sin has come in in such a way it is cut deep grooves in this world.
But you know something, God is going to take care of that. There's coming a day when all taint of sin is going to be washed away, all evil is going to be done away. And you know, so the Lord Jesus is going to come down here and he's going to straighten all this out. I talked to children. They don't realize the degradation of this world is so beautiful. That's true. But you older ones know exactly what I'm talking about.
You see what sin is wrought, and it's pathetic. It's pathetic.
But Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And in this, and I'll read you a couple of verses from the 72nd Psalm here. That's so beautiful. It says He shall judge the people with righteousness, the poor with judgment, and so on They shall, they shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the moon, grass as showers that water the earth, and so on and so on until it says.
Should be the Lord God. The God of Israel only doeth wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. All that's going to be gone.
And then it says Amen and Amen, the prayers of David, the son of Jesse are ended. So there's a time coming when God is going to straighten it all out. But right tonight it has to do with the gospel of the grace of God. God comes down with a gift and he says, I want to do this for you. I want to make you my own child. Sons and daughters of a living God. I've given the pathway.
The the way the truth and the life has been marked out and.
The word of God and we got salvation is offered free and is in the form of a gift. Mercy is in the form of a packaged up as a gift and you can reach out and you can take it and you can be eternally blessed and brought into God's family. I think of it this way children. There is two families. I see these chairs lined up here. I suppose if we put.
A row of chairs going this way and a row of chairs going that way to make the point.
God has.
Well, I should say Adam has a family. Who's the head of that family?
It's Adam is the head of that family and that we're all born into Adam's family lost, but God as a family, the head of that family is the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we get out of Adam's family into the family of our Lord Jesus is by simply taking the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, your savior soul. He'll wash your sins all the way and make you a child of God now children.
You have to make that decision by faith. Your grandparents, parents are praying for you. And the Word of God is open here, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us. For by grace are ye saved through faith not, Not of yourselves is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord up.
At one time there was a.
The banker, I think he was, uh, snowed real, real. He couldn't drive his car to work. The snow was all piled up there and he was walking down the street to work and there was a sign there in front of a church building and it said the top of the sign of snow went up, the sign like that. It said the wages of sin. Next day it said the wages melted a little bit. The wages of sin is death.
00:35:06
He looked at that, he thought that's terrible and this, and it worried him because he knew he was a Sinner. And the sun came out and melted it down.
And it said the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I don't know if that man took hold of that or not, but that's the way the story read. So you children, you have had the gospel presented feebly. Indeed, the worst word of word of God is not feeble. And so gospel preachers, it's like this.
You go to the Redwood, California, just S Eureka, and you get that huge Redwood tree that goes, there's one of them there. There's 374 feet tall.
It's so tall they don't want you going there. So there's only 5 three groups of people that know where that tree is because people would ruin it if they went over there.
374 feet, 4 inches, something like that huge tree, but then you got a vine growing up the side of it, a little vine growing up the side of all Gospel Preacher is like that. He's just leaning on that tree. He's like the vine. You know, that tree is strong. It's been there for thousands of years. So no matter how feeble it is, you've heard the word of God tonight, children, and you know something, you can have it free.
The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now there's something that goes along with that that's so beautiful.
Lord wants to have his family with him in heaven.
And so what's he going to do? He's going to rapture. Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and a voice of the Archangel and trumpet of God. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord, and we can comfort one another with these words. Now where did the lost go? Where do the lost go? You tell me, boys.
The people that are lost and reject Christ.
I heard one man say I want to go to hell. Oh, that made me shiver. What'd he say that for?
So children, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. A man that is shopped the other day said I just don't know. I just can't get a hold of it.
V.
If I just believe it, I don't know if I have the faith for that. So what would you tell him? Open up the Bible and just believe it. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So we can thank the Lord Jesus for the gift of God and eternal life. Shall we pray?