Gospel—A. Cantrell
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#23 In our hem sheets behold, behold the Lamb of God on the cross, on the cross for us. He shed his precious blood on the cross. So here the overwhelming cry.
Eli Lama Sabachthani, draw near and see the Savior die.
On the cross.
Like to turn to Ephesians chapter 2 to begin with this evening.
Ephesians chapter 2, beginning with verse one.
And you?
Hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins?
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children.
Of disobedience, among whom we all, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others but God.
Who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us?
Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ.
By Grace.
Ye are saved, and hath raised us up together.
And made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, or by grace. Are ye saved through faith in that? Not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man.
Boss, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
Precious portion this is of God's holy word, and these.
First verses that we read in this chapter. The 1St 3 verses.
Present a pretty black picture of the state of the human race by nature. And as I speak of these verses, I want to make it very clear that I'm not just speaking about people who are lost in their sins. This presents the state of each one of us who is present here in this room tonight.
Everyone of Adam's children comes under the category of these first three verses.
Apart from the grace of God, this is the picture that is painted.
Of you, my friend, and of me who I'm standing here this evening.
It is not a pleasant picture that we have. First of all, it tells us.
That we are dead in trespasses and sins. You like to see dead people.
To me, it's not very pleasant thing to see a dead person. I can still remember when I, as a young boy, went for the first time to a Funeral Home to see in a casket a lady I had known in life, and she was laying there dead.
It's not a very pleasant thing to think of death, but you and I.
In our natural state before God, we're dead in trespasses and sins. Death always speaks of separation.
Physical death is what we are perhaps most acquainted with, and that's the separation of the spirit and soul from the body.
But there is spiritual death when God told Adam in the first.
Of the book of Genesis, that in the day that he would eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. He died that very day. Not physically, no. Adam lived to be 930 years old. But that very day there came a separation between him and God.
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He died spiritually that very day.
And my friend, if you are without the Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps you have.
A lot of knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
But if you do not know the Lord Jesus personally, your state before God tonight is.
Dead in trespasses and sins.
Then IT tech talks about in verse two that we walked according to the course of the world.
According to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
This world is on a course.
And everyone who does not know the Lord Jesus is being carried along the course of this world. What kind of a course is it? It's a course that leads to eternal perdition through eternal damnation in the lake of fire forever. That's the course this world is on. God sent his Son into this world.
To be the savior of the world. And what did they do?
With that savior, they took him, and they nailed him to a cross.
They wanted nothing to do with the Christ of God. They set their course. And my friend, if you are walking in the course of this world, you are walking in the direction of eternal perdition in the lake of fire forever.
How's solemn? And then it speaks of the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.
It scares me to see the willfulness that is evident in so many children, young people today, people, young people think I have a right to do what I want to do and nobody's going to tell me no because behind that attitude.
The enemy of your souls is leading you right down to perdition.
Be careful, be careful. We have an enemy that is very.
Very wise. Not all wise, thank God, but he is very wise. He has.
Nearly 6000 years of experience of ruining men and women in perdition. It really makes me sad when I see beautiful young people.
Think they can have their way and they go in the course of this world for a while and they get totally messed up and maybe in a few short years they look haggardly. Sin takes an awful toll.
But I say if you want to do your own will.
You are characterized by what it tells us here in verse two, children of disobedience. You don't want to obey, not have to confess. That's what I was by nature before God as well. I have that same nature.
By God's grace, He's given me to see that there is salvation from the course of this world.
Which direction are you heading? Are you walking according to the course of this world?
Dear young person.
Dear children, dear older folks here this evening.
And then it speaks in verse three of something else that is extremely serious and that everyone of us has to admit in our own lives by nature there is something that is called lust, lusts of our flesh, desires of the flesh and of the mind.
Every one of us has those lusts in our hearts, naturally speaking.
Desires, sometimes uncontrolled desires, and Satan is an expert at knowing what those desires are in your heart and in mine. And he comes and he sets up the special circumstances and takes us the way he wants to go. Sometimes I've given the illustration of a horse.
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And before a rider can get on the horse's back.
He puts a bridle into the horse's mouth, and then he mounts, and the horse is not looking at the person mounted upon him, but as he goes. He might think he wants to go One Direction that horse, but because of what's inside his mouth, that rider can pull One Direction and another and make that horse go just like he wants him to go.
And that's what Satan's doing to so many people in this world.
Because of those lusts, those desires, those uncontrolled desires of the flesh and of the mind in your heart.
That you do not judge. Satan is taking those and taking you in the direction that you may think you can change at any moment that you're not going to be able to when it comes down to it.
I remember a young man down in.
The little mining town of Siete Suyos, Bolivia, Napanohai El Deplano of Bolivia. We went there for a conference one time, and the brethren told us about what had occurred just a few days before. There was a young man, perhaps 19 or 20.
And he lived according to the course of this world. The desire that controlled him was a desire after.
Strong drink beer, whiskey and his mother got quite irritated at him because he was coming home drunk all the time.
And one day he comes home drunk and his mother gets after him. She was an unsaved woman as well. Didn't know anything about the love of Christ.
And she got after him and provoked him to such a terrific fit of anger that he said, you're going to repent of what you're telling me right now.
And he goes.
Up the road that leads to a point above that little mining town, it's kind of a building, a valley, and at the top there is a little hill where they have the siren that blows.
At the time, the workers have to go to work, and as he's going up there, he pulls off his sweater and throws it to one side.
He takes off his shirt and throws it to another side and when he gets up to the top that point.
Above the town, there's a gully down beneath. He takes a run and he dives off into that valley, under that chasm underneath. He ends up at the bottom, broken up in pieces on the rocks down there, dead.
Satan used the lusts of his heart to take him right down to perdition and I just don't know how many.
Here of you, I know a lot of you by sight, but I don't know the condition of your heart. I don't know what kind of lust that you are countenancing in your own life. It may not be.
Strong drink like it was that young man. It may be other things, but Satan is a master at taking you in the direction you're not aware of. We have another example in scripture of one of the Lord Jesus's own disciples.
Who countenance a lust in his heart It was a lust.
For money. And that's a great lust in the world we lived in, live in today. I can't see your heart. I don't know if that's in your heart or not, you know?
It's not money that's the problem.
It's the love of money that is the root of every evil Scripture tells us. I sometimes ask the poor people down in South America what kind of a person has love of money, A rich man or a poor man? And they always say a rich man. I say, doesn't the poor man love money too? Sometimes they have to admit that it's true.
It's something that is very common to the human breast.
A love of money Judas Iscariot was a man who loved money.
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The 12 apostles that followed the Lord Jesus during his life down here.
There were There was a treasure, what we would call a treasure, one who carried the bag. That was Judas Iscariot. Maybe he was good at keeping accounts, We don't know. But the Scripture tells us that he put his hand in there and took out for his own purposes. He was a thief. That's what Scripture tells us.
And one day before the Lord Jesus went to the cross.
They were in the House of Simon the leper. And a woman comes to anoint the Lord Jesus feet. And Judas Iscariot raises a complaint that could be sold for 300 tenths and given to the poor. That's a waste. And all the disciples kind of joined in with him too. But the Scripture tells us it wasn't really that Judas Iscariot cared for the poor.
It was that he had the bag and was a thief and took from it.
There was a love of money there and Satan knows that. He studies, he knows what thing interests you and so.
Judas Iscariot. Perhaps we should say we should attribute it more directly to Satan because he entered into Judas's heart later on. But Judas is scared. Got an idea?
Perhaps he thought in this way.
Jesus has walked a lot of a lot of traps that they put for them when they've laid weight for him. He walked right through him and gone his way.
I'll just go make an agreement with the chief priests that want to take him.
And then I'll betray him, and when he walks out of the trap, I'll have the money in my pocket.
And nobody will never know anything, that's what he thought.
And Judas Iscariot went and sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
And then he went and betrayed the Lord Jesus. An awful, awful thing to do.
And then when Jesus didn't escape, he saw what an awful thing he had done.
But you know, money doesn't bring a lot of comfort to.
An accusing conscience and Judas Iscariot thought he'd end it all by going and hanging himself his death was an awful one acts chapter one tells us that when he hung himself, he fell down and burst in the midst awful, awful end to a man who.
Was one of the 12 apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. You profess to be a believer in the Lord Jesus. I want you to search your heart in the presence of God tonight. It's not a matter of presenting yourself at these meetings as a nice person, as a nice Christian that doesn't hold any water with God.
It's what you are in your heart before God has that heart of yours open to the Lord Jesus to own Him.
As Lord and Savior? Or haven't you done that yet?
We're not here to entertain you. We're here to bring you into the presence of God. You have to do with God. You don't have to do with me. You can run out that door as soon as the meeting is over. Be done with it.
But you have to do with God, and you cannot get away from God. Impossible.
I really am scared sometimes when I think about it, what scripture tells us.
About those when?
In Matthew Chapter 7, those in that day that are going to say from the outside of a closed door, they're going to say, Lord, Lord, open unto us.
We prophesied, we've cast out demons, we've done many wonderful works in my name.
And he will say to them, depart from me. I never knew you. Is there someone like that here that's going to end up on the outside of a closed door for all eternity?
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I plead with you tonight to search your heart in the presence of God if you are a real believer or not.
Some time ago in Bolivia during a conference, we had the theme in our readings.
Of the Lord's coming, and there was a.
I thought a sister.
Who came up after one of the meetings and said to me.
She was baptized. She was breaking bread.
But she said to me, you know, I just realized I'm not really ready. When I first started coming to the meetings, I did what they expected me to do.
But I didn't really understand what they were talking about. I want to receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior now.
She knelt down and received the Lord Jesus right there. The fact that you are baptized.
The fact that you may be breaking bread.
Old snow water, as to eternal salvation, saves no one.
You must have a personal relationship yourself with the Christ of God.
And I ask you, how is it between your soul and the Lord Jesus?
That's the condition. It's pretty bleak picture that we have here in the 1St 3 verses of this chapter.
And then we come to verse three or verse four. To me, this is extremely precious.
I love this verse.
But God who?
Is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us so. How wonderful.
The picture completely changes when you bring God into the picture. Thank God we have good news of salvation. In spite of what I am by nature, in spite of what you are by nature, God has come into the picture. But God, what kind of a God are we talking about?
A God that's requiring you to do a whole lot of things, no.
The God we're talking about is a God who is rich in mercy.
Too rich to us of us poor ones.
Were too poor or too poor.
To merit anything from him.
Were dead in trespasses and sins. We've come short of the glory of God, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. I want to stop here at this verse.
A few moments to speak about.
This great love of our God, the Scripture says.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, came into this world.
You know, I think it is a tremendous thing to think about it, how that God came into this world right where we are in the person of His own beloved Son.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, the Lord Jesus.
Took human form. He was born of a virgin. He had no human father.
He was born in the Angel that announced it to his mother said that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. We are all born, we heard this afternoon in the Reading meeting. We're born in sin and shaping in iniquity, but the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was born of a woman, but he had no human father.
He was born of the Holy Ghost. He was holy from his birth. We are sinners from our birth. He was holy, and the Lord Jesus grew up here as a man in this world.
He was a small child. Tremendous to think of. What has told us there in Matthew chapter 2. How after? It must have been some time after perhaps.
Something shy of two years after his birth. Wise men come from the East.
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Searching for him isn't that amazing. His own people had no idea that God had entered this world in the person of the Lord Jesus. Here comes people from way off in the east that must have been a long ways away because they took so long in getting there. And they inquire of Herod. Where is he that is born king of the Jews?
And they come to the place where he is, and bow down and worship him.
Can you imagine wise men? Really wise men? They recognized who that child was. Do you recognize who he is? But for the Lord of glory there was no place in this world. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. The world was made by Him and the world.
Knew him not.
And there's still no room for Jesus. You know they celebrate.
His birth in large measure in this world.
But.
He has asked us to remember him in his death. He never made a request to remember his birth. He did make a request to remember his death, but people remember his birth and his death is often neglected entirely.
Far greater wonder than his birth is the story of his death.
There's no room for Jesus in this world. Now I ask you, dear young people, do you have room for Jesus?
It scares me sometime when I see young people who say they are believers.
But when it comes to the practical everyday affairs of life.
Becomes quite evident that there's not much room for Jesus.
What about it, dear young person? Have you really seriously thought out the issues?
When it comes to a matter of your interest, your studies.
Your business.
And perhaps the matter of getting to the weekly prayer meeting or reading meeting.
Which is first? Please answer that question in your heart before God tonight. Which is first? Is there room for Jesus the Lord of glory? Is your business more important? That's the end of side one. This tape continues on side two. Please turn your tape over at this time. Scares me sometimes when I see.
So much time for pleasure.
So much time for other occupations, but when it comes to opening the precious word of God in the home.
No time, no time.
I want to really, seriously challenge you, dear young people and children. Is there time? Is there room in your life for Jesus?
When he came into this world there was no room for him, no room. And I fear in the large mate, in the large percentage of those who are called Christians, that there is very little room for Jesus yet.
About it.
The Lord Jesus grew up and to me it is amazing to think about his life down here in this world. 1St 30 years of his life perhaps were spent mostly in the Carpenter shop. At least in Mark chapter six he is known as the Carpenter.
So the Lord Jesus had physical.
Occupation in the Carpenter shop.
Forming pieces of wood into useful things in this life. Can you imagine? It just makes me marvel when I think about it. The creator of the universe, the sustainer of all things. Where is he? He's down in Nazareth. Where can we find him? Down there in Nazareth? He has a carpenter's shop. You go in there and you see him working pieces of wood.
How long of his life was that?
Up until he was 30 years of age, to me that is a tremendous thing, thing to think about.
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Then he had a time of public ministry for three years and 1/2 when he went out to preach the good news to the poor, when he went out to raise the dead, to heal the leper, to give sight to the blind, to loose those that were in oppression.
And everywhere he went, he healed. He raised the dead. He showed.
The love of God on every side.
But you know, they didn't want him and the very people that probably benefited from some of the things that Jesus did.
We're probably there at that last moment when they took him.
To pilot and they cried away with him, crucify him. Man naturally is an enemy of God. That's what we are naturally. It's easy to say.
And then I remember as a young believer brought up in meetings like this that I accepted that in a mental way. But it's a different matter when you realize really, truly down in your heart that it is so. Man is an enemy of God.
Let's go to that city of Jerusalem, that awful, awful day.
When Jesus was taken by those Jewish priests, those priests were supposed to defend the innocent.
And they sought false witness against him to put him to death. Think of it. The hypocrisy of it all. I don't think there's anything that rankles me more as a person than when people accuse me of things that are totally false. That really hits a raw cord in me that there were those Jewish leaders.
Looking for false accusations, they couldn't find anything that was true. They had to get something that was false.
And then they took him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. They weren't allowed to put anyone to death, those Jewish people. And Pilot tried to defend him, but finally he saw that they were determined.
In crucifying Jesus, he takes a basin of water and washes his hands.
Water is not going to wash Pilot did not wash Pilot from the guilt of condemning Jesus to the death of the cross.
They take him outside of that city. He, bearing his cross, went forth through a place called Golgotha outside that city. He's LED up. His hands are stretched out. Can you imagine the pain as they nail?
Spikes through those hands and those feet, and hang him up between heaven and earth. His head was crowned with thorns. His face was bruised from the beating of those Roman soldiers who hit him in the face.
His face was running with their spittle. His back was plowed upon by the Roman.
Scourge.
There he hung for three hours while they made fun of him.
Why didn't they make fun of those thieves that were on either side of him?
No, that didn't interest the Jewish leaders. What interested them was the man on that center cross.
After three hours of torture from the Jewish people and the Roman soldiers.
God clothed the whole picture with darkness. It got dark right at 12 noon. For three hours no one saw what took place on that hill of Calvary. Isaiah the prophet tells us what took place in those three hours of darkness.
He says he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed all. We, like sheep, are gone astray. We have gone everyone to his own way, and the Lord Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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Here stands the guilty Sinner. There was crucified the holy Savior.
And God southern that he could be able to forgive me as a guilty Sinner, took those sins of mine and laid them on the spotless head of the of his own beloved Son.
And all marvel of marvels, so that he could be glorified in his righteousness.
As we've been hearing today, God let fall on the head of his own beloved Son the fury of divine wrath. He bore it in all its fury for three hours of darkness. On that cross He went down to the very bottoms of the mountains.
That's how much she loves you, friend. That's how much she loves me. At the end of those awful, awful hours of darkness. During those three hours, all is silence.
No cry the end of those awful hours. In an awful moment of abandonment, God turns his face from his.
Sun on that cross, in an awful cry, rings from his soul.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why? What's the answer to that awful question?
Oh, my friend, it was There was no other way that you and I could be saved. No other way. Somebody had to pay that awful price, and Jesus paid it in full. He suffered the full vengeance.
Of divine wrath upon sin during those three hours.
Jesus died, he says in First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse three. Christ died.
For our sins, according to the scripture, he died as a sacrifice for sin. There look at him hanging dead on the cross. Who is that?
None other than the creator of the universe, and this is the way he wants you to understand how much.
He loves them, loves you. You know, I've often thought.
That there were other times in the history of the world where capital punishment wasn't so terribly atrocious as crucifixion. He could have easily chosen another time to come into the world, but specifically so you could understand how much he loves you. He came in that time when that awful.
Excruciating, painful death was the mode of execution.
By the Roman Empire and he died for you, he died for me. He paid the price in full. A soldier came up that that hill of Golgotha after he had given up his spirit to God.
And he had a spear. And he was instructed to dispatch anyone that was still alive.
And he walks up to the first.
Malefactor that was on one side and breaks his legs in the malefactor dies and the other one, the other thief on the other side breaks his legs and he dies and he comes to Jesus. He's dead already. He takes his spear and plunges it into his side and out of his side blows blood and water without shedding.
Of blood there is no remission of sins.
There could be no forgiveness for your sins apart from the shedding of the blood of a God. Acceptable sacrifice. And that sacrifice was satisfactory to God. It not only satisfied his just claims against as a sinners, it glorified Him.
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And God was so satisfied he did not leave Jesus dead.
He raised Him from the dead. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
He was delivered for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. I say if God had not been satisfied with the payment made, he would have never raised Jesus from the dead. But the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, not only in sacred history is that an established fact, but I understand even in.
Secular history.
It is one of the most well established facts that Jesus Christ rose from among the dead.
There is a man now in the glory of God, a real living Savior. You know, sometimes I think we talk about it and it seems so far off it almost is left as if it's not real that I want to say to you, there is a real living man, a flesh and bones at God's right hand in the glory.
Able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God.
By him Are you saved? I want to tell you tonight.
That right there where you sit, you can come to Him tonight by faith and open up that heart of yours and receive him as your Savior to them that received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. I want to get down a few more verses in this chapter. That's the story of God's love.
Is the wealth of his riches of mercy, His great love wherewith he loved us? Oh, he should never, never tire of that story. We'll we'll think of it for all eternity, I often think, when we get home to heaven.
Each one of us got so many wrinkles on us right now and so many scars and and so many different defects in our body. When we get home to heaven, every one of us who are redeemed by that precious blood are going to have complete whole bodies. No wrinkle, no spot, no blemish.
Only in one in that eternal day will there be some man made wounds, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Really touches my heart to think about it. Oh dear young person, have you met Jesus? I really think sometimes that a lot of the problems that young people seem to have.
In older people too.
Are because they don't know the Lord Jesus yet.
Do you know him? Do you really, truly know him?
Here it says in verse 5 Now even when we were dead in sins.
Hath quickened us together. Those who are dead, what do they need? They need life. Quicken is an old English word that means to give life, and that's what he's done. He's given us life.
By grace are you saved? We're quickened together with Christ and hath raised us up together. I love that it's not only quickened together, but raised us up together. You know, one time Jesus stood in the cemetery outside of the little town of Bethany.
There was somebody that had died that he loved. His name was Lazarus, and he raised Lazarus from the dead. Do you think Lazarus kept on living at the cemetery after he was raised from the dead? You know, he didn't. That's the place for dead people, not the place for living people. I'm sure there was another place that he lived after that. And sometimes young people don't understand that when you get saved.
When God gives you new life, He gives you a new position.
You do not longer any longer belong to this world. You have a new position. You have been quickened together with Christ. You have been raised up together, completely lifted out of that position of death.
And furthermore made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.
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So sure is our salvation of being completed that God looks at it as if it is already done. We are seated together.
In heavenly places in Christ, for what purpose? That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Oh, I love this. You know, when Satan was tempting the Lord Jesus, he took him and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And it says it happened in a moment of time.
But when God starts showing his.
The riches of His grace, it's going to take ages to come. Ages and ages are going to roll on, and we'll never get to the end of the riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Verse 8.
For by grace are ye saved through faith. How do you get this? How is it that you get this salvation? What we're talking about? It's by grace through faith. Faith is the hand that says I believe, and that reaches out simply to take what God offers so freely. The price has been paid.
Nothing remains for you to do except receive it for yourself, and that's faith.
Tremendous to get a hold of that.
Last year in Bolivia had the joy after a trip into the South, coming back to Cochabamba, a young man who lived across the street from where we do down there came over. I'd known him for quite a while. He's a law student in university there in Cochabamba.
And he came over very evidently under the conviction of the Spirit of God.
And said I want to be saved and I don't know what to do. The brethren told me I have to repent. And he said I don't know what to do.
So we read the first verses of John's gospel verse 12 verses. We got down to that verse 12 That says to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God to them that believe on his name. Since he was a little bit of a thinker. I said when he got to verse 12, I said what does that say that verse say you have to do.
To receive him, what do you have to do? Does it say you have to pray?
Or do something else. He looked at it for a little while and he said believe on his name. I said exactly. That's it. Do you want to pray? Fine, we can pray. But remember, pray. Praying doesn't save you.
It's faith in Christ that saves you. It's that link that connects you with the Savior. There's no power in me. There's no power in you.
But faith is the length that connects you with the Savior. Sometimes I've given the illustration of a train.
The locomotives up front.
The cars.
Behind.
And those cars don't have any motor. What power do they have?
To run at the same speed as the locomotive. No power at all in themselves, but they are coupled with the power up front. And that's faith. Faith couples you with the Savior, with the power. Religion can't save you. There's no power and religion to save you. Jesus is the Savior if you don't know him. I want to say with all my heart tonight.
Before it's forever too late.
All those I'm sure who are true believers in this room join with me in this invitation.
Say, don't wait any longer tonight while there's still room. Be reconciled to God. He has made him to be sin for us. Who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God and Him.
For thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe.
In thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou.
Shall be saved, Let's pray.