Gospel—Bruce Imbeau
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
The format of the meeting is going to be just a little bit different than, shall we say, the standard format.
I'm going to give 2.
Gospel Messages.
As an introduction which will take a good part of the meeting.
And then we will spend a little bit of time and just so no one gets lost here, the first part will be about the love of God.
And Part B will be or the second opening will be the wrath of God.
And then there will be a section where we'll talk about.
The reconciliation, if you wish to use that word, and hopefully by the time we're done, you won't use that word between those two thoughts.
And then if the Lord allows.
Time at the end, I'd like to talk a little bit about Judas.
It's kind of impressed by some things that were said yesterday.
So welcome to the Gospel meeting. I'd like to begin this evening by singing hymn number 7 and just the 1St 2 verses. Someone can start that place.
Our God and our Father, we just.
There is a God.
And I assume that there's no one in this room that challenges or doubts that.
Even a little bit.
There is a creator.
There is a maker of all of us.
To whom we are responsible.
And that one who is of such great and mighty power.
To be able to reach into this world and to create you with a mind.
That's able to think.
And to consider and to plan.
That that one loves you.
Let's turn to a verse in the Old Testament in the book of Jeremiah.
It's a pretty well known verse Jeremiah.
Chapter 31.
00:05:00
And verse 3.
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yeah.
I have loved thee.
With an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.
There is one thing that the human psyche demands.
It's a necessity.
And that is to be loved.
You cannot properly live out a life in a normal way.
Without the understanding that you are loved.
Because of that tremendous draw.
That is built into us.
We will sometimes seek love in some odd and wrong places.
And yet the human.
Soul the human being seeks after that craves it.
Craves for understanding and love.
And there is someone who loves you.
And that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, who came down from heaven to show you his love to you personally.
And even before he came back here in the Old Testament times, we read plenty about love.
And we find that God himself is that source, and He's the one.
That loves you.
And he has an interest in drawing you with loving kindness. Have I drawn thee, you see?
Not only does God love us.
But he.
Expects. He expects.
To have a personal relationship with us.
To know us by name.
To know are sitting down and are rising up.
To know what makes us tick.
That's the God.
Who is the Creator?
And the sustainer of everything that is out there.
And you say no, no, no.
If he created this huge universe and I know how big it is, it is really, really big.
And this earth is really, really small. Like you wouldn't believe how small it is.
And I only stand about 5 1/2 feet tall.
Maybe 6 feet tall?
And you think that a creator that made this huge universe would exactly care?
About this little BLOB of matter crawling around on planet Earth.
Yes he does, and that is the story of the gospel, the love of God, and that he seeks us out and he cares about us and He wants you to know who he is.
I have loved, saith the Lord.
Very well known verse in the New Testament.
We don't even need to hardly turn to it, do we? John 316 for God.
So loved the world.
He says that the created world. No, it's you. You make up this world. You are the heartthrob of it. You are the vitality of this planet Earth. It's the human beings.
God so loved the world that he gave.
His only begotten Son.
00:10:08
God does not extract from us.
God gives to us.
Love gives.
Love gives.
And God has shown the way that He gave first and foremost himself, his very Son.
To us He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
He's not willing that any should perish.
And you say, what do you mean perish?
I'm going to die and justice like the lizard that crawls across my front porch occasionally.
It's going to get squashed somewhere because part of the dust has turned into grass and trees sooner or later, and that's just like me.
No, no, no.
God loves you too much to give that an existence like that to you.
He's given you a life that goes on and on, and in that life that goes on and on, He does not want you to perish.
He does not want you to pass from this life into a sinner's hell. He does not want that because that's where we're headed. We are because we've sinned against our Creator. We've sinned against our God.
And he loves us too much.
To let that happen after putting us on this planet Earth.
And so he gave his son.
That we might have an opportunity to believe in him.
Not just to believe that existed. Oh yes, there was a Jesus. He lived something, you know, a couple thousand years ago. I don't know, probably somewhere over in. Where did he live anyway? I don't know. I know about him, though.
No, to believe in him.
To know that He came to this world for a purpose, and that purpose was to show God's love to you, to bring you out of darkness into light, to bring you from death into life.
That you should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And that is?
What God wants for you.
Because he loves you.
Let's turn over a few pages to a book called Romans, Romans chapter 5 and verse 6.
Romans 5 and verse six. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
God gave his Son to die for us.
And you say that's unreal. And yes, that's discussed in the next verse. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die.
I'm not going to give my life for somebody just because, you know, I think they're kind of righteous. And for a Goodman, some would even.
Get her adventure for a good man. Some would even dare to die.
You know, there are some people.
That are actually trained to die for someone else.
And you can think of the Secret Service as service of the United States of America and their protection of the president and of other people.
And they are trained to put themselves purposely in harm's way to catch bullets if needs be.
And that is, catch bullets in their own person, so that the life of the other is preserved.
This is not an unknown sentiment among humans.
That one would give his life for someone else.
And there's other stories of amazing love.
Just at the human level.
Or a mother has given her life child.
00:15:03
There's plenty of those kinds of stories.
But God.
Commends his love toward us in verse eight, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God commends his love toward us.
Can you imagine?
The sinless, perfect Son of God.
Being a substitute for people who have rebelled against God.
Impossible, you might say.
And very reasonably so.
But it's not impossible because it's true, because Christ came in your stead to bring you.
Back to God.
I.
Let's turn to Two Corinthians chapter 8.
And this does not necessarily talk about.
Love but.
It's pretty obvious. Second Corinthians chapter 8 verse nine. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich.
He's God, of course he's rich. Everything belongs to him.
Yet for your sakes, he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich.
How did he become poor?
Just because he was born behind a stable and lived a life without money in his pocket.
Is that really what this means? He is the Son of God. He became a person. What an.
Insult.
Yeah.
What is it meaning?
To take on a character like us who have lifted up our fists against God.
And beside that to go into death, death which is the result of sin.
How far down could anyone go?
But to go there, and especially for Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The Christ of God.
For your sakes, He became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. He wants to give you the eternal heavens as a home with God the Father.
And that's what he came to do.
He came to give life where there was nothing but death and decay and things falling apart.
We don't need much to tell us that things are falling apart in this world.
Diseases.
You know, death is all around us.
We hear about it. We pray for bereaved families.
But He's come to give us eternal life. Why? Because He loves us.
Because he loves us.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life.
For his friends.
And then the Lord adds and says, You are my friends.
Are you saved yet?
You've heard about the love of God.
You've all sat here very politely and listened.
And you know now that there is a God who loves you.
00:20:09
Let's turn to the other section of our meeting, and we'll begin that by singing.
Hymn #35.
I think yes 35 and again the 1St 2 verses and if someone can start that place.
Turn with me, please, to the book of Job.
Job Chapter 36.
And verse 18.
Because there is wrath, beware.
Lest he take thee away with his stroke, and a great ransom cannot.
Deliver thee.
Turn with me to the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 13.
And verse 9.
If you feel so inclined, just listen rather than turning to some of these. That's just fine.
Isaiah 13 and verse 9. Behold.
The day of the Lord cometh.
Cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he shall destroy the sinners thereof.
Out of it.
There is a God who created this place.
He made a wonderful world.
With blue sky.
And blue-green oceans.
Trees.
Animals.
A place that God himself said it's good. It's good.
00:25:05
And he put humankind into this world.
And it wasn't very long before.
Our first parents, Adam and Eve.
Had sinned against their Creator.
And God to give them warning.
In the day that thou shalt eat of that fruit pointed out to them.
Shall die.
Shall die.
Adam and Eve, they disobeyed.
Any disobedience of any sort against the creator God is called sin.
Don't be calling me bad names, you know I'm not a Sinner.
Well, have you ever done something that is against what God would like you to do?
Go. Well, I don't think in those terms.
I think about what I want to do.
And as long as I'm true to my own star, and as long as I'm consistent and I give some cure to my neighbors.
Then don't talk to me about sin.
But you know, that doesn't change what the creator said.
So let's turn to Ezekiel.
Well, let's don't turn to Ezekiel yet. There is a couple more verses in Isaiah.
One more verse matter of fact. Isaiah 33.
Because I don't suppose that we are the 1St generation to think of talking back to God.
And helping him, you know, redefine some of these rather narrow definitions of sin.
Isaiah 33, verse 4.
The sinners. Excuse me, verse 14.
The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting?
Burnings.
Someone sounds pretty serious here.
Could it be God? That sounds kind of serious.
Could be.
Another book a little bit later on. It's called Ezekiel.
And in Ezekiel chapter 18.
The very first verse says, The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying.
Now that's the Lord, that's the Lord God of heaven and earth. That's the Jehovah, the everlasting 1.
And he says this in verse 4. All Souls are mine.
You go, that's not fair. I'm my own person, you know?
Hands off y'all, I'm for me.
But God says All Souls are mine as the soul of the Father, so also the soul of the Son is mine, the soul that Sinner.
It shall die.
Verse 20.
The first part of verse 20. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
00:30:02
And at the end of the chapter.
Verse 31 of Ezekiel 18.
Castaway from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will ye die?
O House of Israel.
The.
God is not.
Pleased with the death of the wicked.
Why will you die?
Mm-hmm.
But there is wrath.
God is very very clear in many verses in his Bible.
That says ultimately, that the soul that sins it shall die.
And he goes on to say, And after death.
The judgment.
After death, the judgment.
You know that we have an urge to live, You know that.
We have an urge to support life. You know that there's something in us that drives us. Someone gets hurt, we run to them, we put an arm around them, we talk to them.
If you're taught to give CPR, Annie Annie, are you OK?
That's our natural urge.
It's to preserve life. We fight for it.
We even speak of people at the end of their lives. They were fighting for their breath.
They were fighting for their life. We used those kinds of words because it expresses.
What are inside emotion is it's something that's worthwhile.
God says why have you put yourselves in a position to die?
Don't turn your back on me because there's going to be judgment.
So the Lord Jesus Christ at the beginning of his ministry in the New Testament.
It's found in a couple different places, but.
In Matthew chapter 3.
Matthew chapter 3 and verse 7. Lord Jesus Christ to come into this world.
He was the maker of it, but he came into it.
Don't think for a minute that nature and so forth.
It's just a part of God, and you can find God in nature.
No.
God is God. He created something that was outside of himself, called this universe. He exists outside of time, outside of location and position. He exists outside of that, otherwise he would not be God.
I hope that makes some sense.
But he is God.
And by choice, he came into his creation.
And the Lord Jesus Christ walked in this world. He came.
To give warning of what?
In verse seven. And when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of Vipers, who hath warned you?
To flee from the wrath to come.
Do you believe that?
Well, you know, our governments believe in something like this.
They'll get together a legislature or a king or somebody, and they'll say now these are the laws.
And if you cross the boundary and you do what is not appropriate under the laws of this empire or this land or this country, then guess what?
00:35:15
You're going to be punished for that.
And I go.
No, that's not fair. You don't understand. And they go, we understand it very well.
Come this way please.
And so we understand what governments do, and somehow we don't seem to understand what God does.
Because he has laws also.
And he says, Thou shalt, and thou shalt not.
And if we ignore that, well then guess what?
The soul that sinneth it shall die.
And in Revelation chapter 20.
It says this in verse 11 of Revelation chapter 20, the very last book of the Bible.
Says I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there isn't found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great.
What do you mean dead?
You mean you don't just die and turn into dust somewhere and disappear?
While if you're a person like Walt Whitman or something, you talk about leaves of grass and how dead bodies decompose and they just become grass and trees and other fine living thing.
Oh no.
None.
You die to this world.
That you have an everlasting soul. Remember, you are designed by the Maker of the universe and He has given you a life that goes on forever, your soul and your spirit.
So he can see the dead, and they stand before God. No, not God.
That's the person I didn't like.
The books were opened.
Oh, no, not books. You mean somebody was keeping track? You mean someone was watching?
Another book was opened.
Which is the book of life from the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. See gave up the dead which were in it. Death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. Death and Hell were cast in the Lake of fire. This is the second death. Whosoever was not found written in the book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.
And indeed.
There is a hell.
There is a.
There is punishment for sin.
There are consequences to what we do.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, he came into this world.
And he came.
Says make sin for us.
He stood in our place and he said, I know that you are in trouble at the hand of an almighty God that can show his wrath, and I will stand in the gap and I will take the place. I will die for your sin.
And for your sins.
For what makes up your very nature as well as what you've actually done.
The Lord Jesus Christ said I will take that on myself.
And these sinners that stand in danger of the wrath of God.
00:40:03
They can be saved and brought out of death and into an eternal life.
Do you believe that?
Do you believe that God created?
Do you believe that you are set here by God? And most of all, do you believe that you have sinned against an almighty God?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners?
Are you saved yet?
Are you saved yet?
Do you find yourself in danger?
Of eternal burnings.
And you've gone to someone for rescue.
Have you done it?
The Lord Jesus Christ died for you. The justice.
For the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
Take it.
It's yours.
And so we've had two introductions to a gospel meeting.
God of love.
It has given to us a gift.
And a God that can show wrath.
But he has given us a way to be rescued.
You go. Well, that's nice.
But you know what?
I just believe in God, love.
It kind of fits my personality and you know, I'm not going to think about anything else. I just know that there's a God out there somewhere and he loves me.
Or on the other hand.
You might go oh.
I understand wrath.
I've seen thee.
Thunder.
I've seen a volcano. I've been in big earthquakes.
I've seen pictures of what happens in natural destruction.
Oh yeah.
I can understand this wrath stuff.
And I suppose they all deserved it.
And you know, come to think of it, probably I do too.
So maybe it makes me a little down.
But you know what? I'm a realist.
And I'm pretty sure if there is a God that. Yeah.
He's probably out to get us.
It's not a trivial compare. It's not a trivial question, I guess.
I should say it is not a trivial question to ask.
Is God a God of love or is God a God of wrath?
Take your pick. Let's pick for right now, God of love.
And so you feel very comfortable in this one who is just going to shower you with love.
And you're going to pass away sweetly and you're going to go live with the angels and.
So forth.
But somewhere lurking in the back of your mind is the possibility that there might be this other God.
Boy, would I be in trouble if there's such a thing as sin and offense against God.
00:45:07
If you just believe in a God of love, you're really not going to be happy.
Because of tremendous uncertainty.
Because what if that Bible thumping guy was right?
Oh dear.
Now let's go to the other side.
Well, I believe in a God of wrath and.
And maybe this is a bit primitive, but these were my ancestors did not some people that are still in this world.
That God needs to be appeased.
And so.
I'm going to bring this God of sacrifice.
But an animal isn't quite good enough. There has to be something that's close to me, like a person.
And that should do the trick.
If you think human sacrifices.
Are no longer in existence in this world. You're wrong because there are still people.
That will do that to appease this God of wrath.
You will not be happy.
If you have some sort of thought like that.
And that does pass through the human mind on a pretty regular basis, I think.
Otherwise we wouldn't have such a long history of people trying to appease the gods.
But it so happens that there is a God.
Who cannot have sin in his presence?
Sin must be judged. OK, but that same God is the God who is love.
And you go, this is not making sense. Do we have?
You know, kind of a bipolar situation.
Not in the medical sense, but.
What gives? How can you have this?
So we're going to ask, who is God?
How do you perceive God?
God presents himself as love.
And we had that mentioned this afternoon. God is love. He presents himself as light. God is light. God presents himself as.
Having Grace.
And he presents himself as having truth.
And here is a very very simple thing to think about.
You have all heard the gospel before. You've all heard those four words before. Grace and truth and light and love.
And so for just a second.
Light.
You know the wonder of God's light has shined on our consciences.
That we can even give any thought about God.
Light gives us warmth.
It's fuzzy, warm. We want light.
Some people have this, I forget the exact name, but it's middle of the winter depression because the days are so much shorter. We need that light and God is a provider of light. It's for our good and our blessing.
But if you refuse that light, if you refuse the warmth of the person, of the Son of God, then you have denied to yourself that light.
And you will be without that light forever.
00:50:05
God is love. We all know about love. We can't live without it.
But if you reject the love of God, you have again denied to yourself that love, and you will live without love forever.
Grace, the grace of God.
That is manifest in this world and the giving of the Son of God.
If you turn your back on that grace, you have chosen for yourself not to have the grace of God, and you will live without that grace forever.
And truth.
The truth is that God loves you.
He sent his Son the Lord Jesus Christ to die for you.
He is a substitute on your behalf.
You think that's just a fable?
You think it's just a myth. It's the truth.
Don't turn your back on the truth of God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, His own Son, who He gave to stand in your place, in my place for our eternal good. Don't turn your back on it.
Or else you'll live forever.
Having denied yourself.
That truth?
And you'll live forever without.
Bad truth.
Why do you perish? The Bible asks. There's no reason.
God has spoken to us. He is a provider.
Humble yourself.
Knockout that pride that says I'm my own person, I'm going to fight for it and don't tell me what to do or what someone else can do for me. No, no, no, relax a bit.
Step back and accept Jesus Christ.
The Son of God and creator of your world. Accept Him.
As your safety.
There is one God.
Not 2.
One God. There's one God and one mediator.
Between God.
And man.
The Man Christ Jesus.
One God. Keep that in your mind.
One God and that one that is full of love.
Has sent his son to stand in the breach.
To fill up the gap, to be a bridge to bring us.
Took off.
You may have heard the word propitiation.
It's a long word and you know.
It's probably a fairly simple word though.
It means that the Lord Jesus Christ.
Has made a platform.
Where you and God?
Can meet.
That's what it is.
Where you and God can meet, and that is salvation.
God is for you. He wants you as His child, eternally in His home.
I wanted to make a couple comments about Judas. He's quite an interesting character in the scriptures.
Because he denied the Lord Jesus.
00:55:01
He.
Was a traitor to the very Son of God.
And you know.
Was he a bad person now? I mean as a friend?
You know, I don't mean did he end up in hell because he did, because he was bad, but but as far as a human goodness kind of person, would you have maybe had him as a friend? And the answer is yes, you probably would have. He was a nice guy.
We assume the other disciples thought he was. They were so surprised when they found out that Judas had done this.
Very strange thing of betraying Christ.
Was he a believer?
Well, no, He was not in what we think of as an eternal kind of thing. He did not have eternal salvation, did not accept Christ as a Redeemer and someone who could take care of his sins. But he was a believer in this way.
He saw what Christ could do.
And.
He was willing to to go along with that. You say, well, was he looking forward to the future? Yes, I'm sure he was looking forward to the Kingdom because he just knew there would be more of the same. And here was the one who could provide food.
One who healed the sick. I mean, yes, in that sense, Judas was a believer.
Not for his soul's good, but just.
You know, he knew that Christ could really was the Christ. He had nothing against Christ. He was for him and he would properly have rooted for him if there was some opposition.
He was a thief.
I've wondered about that. Oh, I've wondered about that.
That was his character.
He carried the bag. They just had a a purse that they must have gotten some sort of donations from people. I don't know how that worked, but but he stole from it for his own Piggy Bank.
And you know, no one noticed.
Yeah, certainly. You'd think somewhere in three years that someone would have said, well, I thought we had 20 shekels in there, you know.
I'm going to pose something. I may be way wrong and probably am, but but think about it. Judas had lots of reason to in a sense, trust Christ.
That money never appeared to be missing, perhaps.
The Lord could get a coin out of fish's mouth. He could certainly put coins in that purse and make up for Judas's.
Thievery.
And he was looking forward to the day when he would sit with Christ in this Kingdom and think of all the things that would have been provided to him.
But he was a thief.
He was covetous.
And so the time came towards the end of the Lord's life, and there was this opportunity to betray the Lord and to sneakily go behind the scenes and to, to, to tell the, the, the, the, the leaders of the country there where Jesus was.
Did Judas actually expect?
He had seen Jesus escaped before. He knew Jesus miracles. He just thought it was a quick 30 pieces of silver and Jesus was just going to sneak around and get out.
And everything would be fine. He got his pocket full of some more money and life would just go on.
So in that sense, he really knew what Christ could do. Is that amazing?
I don't know your heart tonight.
Do you like the benefits of Christianity?
Do you?
A lot of people do.
Do you like the camaraderie? Do you like the young people's times?
Do you really believe that God is a provider? You know he's given us a nice life, good family. You'll provide a husband or wife for me someday. That's nice.
01:00:13
Are you a thief?
Are you just stealing because it makes you feel good?
All these things about Christianity, what Christ can do.
You like the benefits?
You like the show of power?
You like these things?
But are you just a thief?
Are you just a Judas?
Don't be.
He lost his life eternally.
And so will you.