Gospel—Ted Sester
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So I was really thinking about, you know, what the gospel means. We know it means good news.
But.
You might look around the room and you say, well.
Why should we give the gospel tonight?
Look around the room and I can almost would almost guarantee you that everybody's heard the gospel in this room.
But you don't. There might be three things. There might be more. There might be 3 reasons why the Gospel needs to go for us tonight.
The first one.
Is it's good for the speaker?
Because.
Can't get up here and just fake it.
You know, I think of a verse.
That says in Romans 1 and 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
Where it's the power of God unto salvation.
You know, have I ever been ashamed? This is the easiest place for me to get the gospel.
This is the easiest place for me to give the gospel.
Hard to give the gospel at work, it's hard to give the gospel at school, it's hard to give the gospel to your neighbors. It's hard to give the gospel to people you're doing business with. It's not hard to give it the gospel here. So there's a lot of things have to go on with me and the Lord when I was asked to give the gospel here.
So there might be a lot of believers there and we have to think about what is this that we have here tonight? Is this something that we have that we would hide from someone because we would be ashamed of it?
What does this really mean to us? And maybe there's someone in this room tonight.
That hasn't come to the Lord Jesus.
I've been shocked by people who I thought were saved who aren't saved.
And maybe there's someone in the room that for the very first time.
You're younger and you just never taken the gospel seriously, So maybe three groups.
Ones that need to be encouraged to give the gospel the speaker who needs to have things right with his Lord and Savior. And maybe there's people here that aren't saved. So with that.
I'd like to look at.
Our condition before God and we've had a lot of things in these meetings and.
You know, I just want to turn to Genesis chapter one, just very briefly.
Very briefly. Very briefly.
And it says in the beginning, God.
Everything starts with God and everything will end with God.
And that is something that you need to understand that there is no beginning without him.
And it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and then if we were to keep reading, God created man.
And he created you in his own image, and there's something in you that only responds.
You know to him and there's a void in you that can only be filled by a creator.
You know, sometimes when I'm in a room like this, I get a little stimulated and I, you know, I get.
Talk and say things I'm not supposed to say. And sometimes I gotta kind of walk somewhere.
So it's after, No, I just drove over to Starbucks at the Target and I just sat there and watch people.
I just started. I just sat there and I drank my coffee and I just watched people. I'm thinking, man, I wonder how many of these people are saved shopping in this Target. That's really the reality of the gospel. The gospel is is that everybody needs to be saved.
And, you know, I look at people and not really many happy people walking in those doors. There was some that people have problems, you know, and there's this void, you know, it's not the problem that you have tonight.
I'm not here to preach that your problems are going to go away, but I'm here to tell you that your creator.
Loves you and that you have a soul, a never dying soul, and you have a sin problem that he sent his Son to die for and that he wants to have this relationship with you. But your sins keep you from having that relationship with him. And so he sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ to pay for your sins because all you do is you're good at sinning.
And He is the Savior. You have nothing to bring what your sins tonight.
If you're not saved, there's not anything you have to bring other than your sins. And he's the great physician tonight.
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Your sins have made you sick. He's the great physician and he wants to heal you tonight of your sins.
And there's no other way that you can be saved. The world has a lot of different ways, and they're not working.
They keep trying a different way and they're not working and there's no true happiness. There's no true joy.
And there's no happy deathbeds without the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you say, well, that's an oxymoron. You can't have a happy deathbed. Yes, you can. I watched my grandma pass away, and that's how I want to pass away.
This gospel is the only way you can leave this world with No Fear. It's the only way.
There's No Fear. He wants to take all that fear away. There's a lot of fear in this world. And if we forget what we're saved from, we'll have a lot of fears too. We can't forget the fears and that are there. But He is greater than all of those fears that we have. Greater is He that is in you than is he that is in the world. And tonight.
Satan would like to paralyze you if you like to put different ideas in you in your head. He wants to get your mind to think about other things.
And not even listen to the word of God being preached tonight. So it says in the beginning, God.
That I want to read a verse in Hebrews 11.
In Hebrews 11.
There's another thing that I want to.
Point out that God is good.
If you don't believe that God is good tonight, you can't come to Him.
He's not an angry God like most the world thinks. He doesn't. Waiting there, so to speak, with a steel pipe over his head or your head waiting for you to do something wrong. He's not a judging God, he's a loving God.
He loves the Sinner and hates the sin. He doesn't hate you, he loves you. But you have to believe that he's good. And in Hebrews Chapter 11.
I didn't look this up, so I'm going to find it. Yeah. Verse 6. But without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You have to believe that God is good. God is for you. If God be for you, who can be against you? That's the promise written to believers. If God is for me, who can be against me? God is good. He wants your best.
You know Satan.
First lie was that God's really not as good as he says he is.
I'm here to tell you tonight God is as good as he says he is.
He he whispered in Eve's ear, half God said.
Is God really as good as he says? Yes, he is.
So tonight, you have to believe that he is, and you also have to believe that he's good.
And you know, we're not going to have a science conversation because it wouldn't work because I'm not a scientist anyway.
And I can't tell you all these proofs of everything.
But I can tell you that all of the other ways don't work. And then we read the verse. We'll turn it to it again, John 14 and verse 6.
Remember the last house we lived at?
The driveway flooded out about two weeks after we bought the new house.
Was.
Interesting timing and it was huge.
Huge pipe had to go across that culvert. We put a 40 foot culvert in about 8 foot diameter and.
I remember thinking there's only one way in this place. There was a stream in front of the whole property and there's only one way you can come up there.
There's only one way to the Father's house tonight. There's only one way to get to heaven.
And John 14 six we read this verse, Jesus saith unto him, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
I am the way.
You know, I've told this story before, but I was sitting there in the plane and this guy.
You know, my first class ticket was a points upgrade. This guy was sitting there first class. I just want to know why he was there, what he what kind of business he did. He handed me his business card. He was a.
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Presbyterian.
Minister or knows that escapades Kapalian How you pronounce it minister?
So I thought this could be interesting.
Hands means business card.
I asked him.
How you get to heaven and he talked about 3 different.
Ways. Is that amazing? That's amazing darkness.
That the minister of that church told me there was three different ways. That's right in the face of this verse. So you have to believe that the word of God is true, the word of God is true.
What says?
In Hebrews 4 and verse 12.
It says the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and the joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Tonight you have to believe that the word of God is true.
Then I want to read another verse.
I believe that is in Peter.
Talks about how fast our life goes.
Says in first Peter one and verse.
24 For all flesh that's us, that's our bodies, is as grass.
All the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away.
But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you tonight. You have to believe that the word of God.
Is God's spoken word. You can't get to heaven.
If you don't believe that God is good and you don't believe that the word of God is true, this is a story from God about you, about your condition, about my condition. We also see something about our life.
There in that verse.
It says all fleshes is grass.
You know, one of my responsibilities is making sure some grass gets mowed and.
You know, a lot of times it cut the grass.
And you cut it.
And you know what happens is, you know what that's like? Everybody cuts grass and you'll cut the grass and the clippings right there. What happens? Pretty soon it looks like it's a lot of clippings right there. You wait just a little bit on a hot day, it's just all gone.
It's all gone. That's where your life is. You know most people in this room with Gray hair.
They can remember like they were just sitting in chairs like this 20304050 years ago. It's like nothing. My life, just like nothing.
Seemed like I've been married five years. Seems like 30 years just went like that.
Time goes like that, but Satan also takes advantage of that. And so he whispers in your ear just to wait and wait and wait and wait, and he'll just wait you right into hell. That's what he'll do because he wants to destroy you. That's what he wants to do.
And he wants to destroy. If you're a Christian, he wants to numb you. He can't take your salvation away from you. But you know what he can do.
When Brother Nathan called me.
He can try to put every temptation and from my face from the very minute that he called because he does not like the gospel being preached from this pulpit right here. And he can try to put every distraction and everyone in this room's mind where you think you're not good enough. I don't have the gift of speaking. I'm not going to share it with my neighbor. He'll give you 100 excuses why you should not share the gospel.
Give you 100 excuses, he'll say. It's embarrassing.
It's a great way to embarrass yourself. Let me tell you something.
We're not all the same, but takes your neighbor to coffee, do something, but just to sit there and think that somebody else is going to share the gospel with somebody is a lie of Satan. He wants you to believe that. He wants you to believe a lie. He wants you to believe that. Time is not important.
Well, we know. Why is this so important? Because we're made with spirit, soul and body. We don't die like a dog. We don't die like a dog.
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You know, I talked to men and women.
And.
I do something a little unconventional, but I give a lot of job interviews and I ask people what their priorities are and I give they look at me.
And they don't know where to start. So I give them an example. I said, well, my priorities are God, family, work, and they're sandwiched really close together. I just try to get the conversation going.
You would think.
That would start a conversation.
I have interviewed Christians that will not say anything about anything.
It's really bad out there.
We are embarrassed for Christians.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know I have been.
But I find that most people.
That I'm interviewing have no have no thought of God in their eyes.
There's no thought of God. There's absolutely no thought of God. There's no thought of God. It's not important.
So I want to look at a little story here and keep it. We're going to keep it fairly short tonight, but I won't look at a story here that in the Old Testament, just a few verses in Numbers 21.
And it ties in with John chapter 3 and verse 16.
Want to keep this very simple? There could be young children here. I want you to listen for just a few minutes. I promise you, if you listen, I'll keep it shorter.
I have been known to punish my salespeople if they don't listen. I make the sales meetings longer.
If you guys listen, I will keep it shorter. Promise. That's my deal. Numbers 21.
In verse.
7 This is a very short story.
And this story says so much about what we're like without the Lord Jesus Christ.
And verse, let's start in verse 6. And the Lord sent fiery serpents. This means snakes among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord.
Not against thee. Pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when you look at the pawn, it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a hole. And it came to pass that if a serpent had been any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
There was a hospital in Portland that has a.
Brass.
Like snake or serpent there?
Symbolizing probably this. If they knew what it meant, they probably would take it down in Portland. OK, but they probably don't know what it means anymore. What is going on here?
Well, we see right here.
That they had.
These snakes were biting them, right?
There was biting the people of Israel and they were dying.
These are poisonous snakes. I've never been bit by a poisonous snake.
But that's a very sad verse right there, it says. And much people of Israel died.
You know, tonight there's a lot of people, they're dying in their sins and they don't need to die in their sins. There's nobody needs to die in their sins. There's not one person right now alive that needs to die in their sins. No one needs to die in their sins. But there was people dying because they were getting these poisonous snake bites. And so the people came to Moses.
And Moses prayed for the people, and they took this.
Brass.
To say it's brass, yes, a brass snake and they put it on top of a pole and all you had to do is what?
Look, all you had to do is look, it says. And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that of a serpent had been any man when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. You know, the story is so quick, but it's so powerful. Do you see what's going on here, that there's absolutely nothing you have to do to be saved?
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There was nothing they could do as their bit with this poisonous snake and all they have to do is just take their eyes.
And just look at that snake on that pole and they would live.
Now it's turned John Chapter 3.
Tonight, there's nothing you need to do. You acknowledge your sin before the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you accept him.
You believe the Lord Jesus died for you.
And John chapter 3 and verse 14. This is the story we just read.
It says in John chapter 3 and 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The Lord Jesus Christ had to be lifted up on that cross, just like that snake had he put in that bowl. And all you have to do tonight is look at the cross. You just look at the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing you can do. All of your righteousness are filthy rags. There's nothing you can do. You have.
Nothing to bring but your sins. There's nothing you have. All of your righteousness are as filthy rags. That means they're worthless now. You can't clean yourself up. I've had people tell me that they want to.
They'll work on this. They'll work on this. They're they're, they're trying to clean themselves up. That is men and women and boys and girls. That's a lie from Satan that you can clean yourself up. There's nothing you can do every step.
Further is a deeper in sin. No one can clean themselves out of their sins. No one.
In fact, the only one Was this the only perfect one?
Was the one on that cross, and we're going to read about that, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If you believe in him, you will not die, just like the children of Israel tonight. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will not perish.
That doesn't mean you will. You won't die on this earth, but this is just temporary. This is just temporary.
You know there's two resurrections.
And I really would be scared if there would be anyone in this room that's going to die in their sins and you'll be resurrected to go to that white, great white throne.
That had the Lord Jesus as your judge. It says he's committed all judgment unto the Son. God has committed all judgment of the Son. If you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, He will be your judge. I will never see the Lord Jesus as my judge.
Not like that. I will never go across the great white throne because the Lord Jesus, when he hung on the cross, he bore all the judgment for me. He took all the wrath of God against sin for me. So I will never have to bear that judgment. I will never see that side of the Lord Jesus because He took all the heat of the wrath of God.
For me on the cross.
If you don't accept the gift as we had this morning, it's not for you. If you don't take the gift, you can't have the gift. He's can't force his love upon you. He will not force his love on you tonight, and that's why he wants you to look.
He's the sinner's friend. He wants to look at the cross and see him there on the cross. He wants you to see that He loves you. He wants you to see that he died for you. He wants you to see that He gave himself for you.
Paul, the apostle who wrote a lot of the Bible here in the New Testament, he says the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, he never got over that.
The Son of God who loved me, He didn't say love the world there.
And I've heard it said, and I believe it, that he would have went just for me to the cross of Calvary God.
Was sufficient in everything, but he needed objects to love. He wants to pour his love on you. He wants to be with you forever. He wants to have communion. But sin is in between you and a holy God and the Lord Jesus.
Has taken that sin and he's put it upon himself, and he's bore it on his own body on the tree.
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Verse 16 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. And here we see. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. You know, men think that's what he wants to do is just He's condemning them, no.
No, He wants to show and bless you. He wants to show love towards you and bless you.
God.
Can righteously forgive you because the.
Sin question has been paid. We read that in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
And verse 21.
It says 2nd Corinthians 5 and 21.
It says for he God hath made him the Lord Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's a very deep verse. I don't expect you to understand that verse if you're very young, but God put all my sins on the Lord Jesus.
And made him to be sin for me.
And that's why God could not look on his Son.
And the words on the cross. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God? It was dark. No man saw the Lord Jesus. God had turned his back.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? No one could look on that holy one. It says we sing sometimes. The Holy One who knew no sin. God made him sin for us.
The Lord Jesus took all of those sins, all my sins, and he put them on the Lord Jesus and punished Jesus for my sins. Can you say that He paid for my sins, that he bore my sins in his own body on the tree? Can you say that tonight or you say it's nothing? So we read in Lamentations, it's nothing. Is it nothing to all you that pass by?
Is it nothing?
Just nothing. Another 5 minutes. The gospel is always nothing.
You're numb, get gospel hardened. You've heard the gospel so many times out of man. I took the dinner one time. I wanted to share the gospel with him, he said. You know I go to those kind of things, I find them entertaining and thanked me for dangling them over hell. Can you imagine that man is on the way to hell and he fools make mock of sin.
You know, there's a lot of men in business. I work with intelligent men, but they're fools for this fools. They're fools unless they accept the Lord Jesus Christ. They can be the smartest man, the smartest woman, they can make the most amount of money. They can be any, they can be famous and they're on the way to hell. They're fools. God says they're fool.
Tonight, be wise, listen to God, don't listen to the God of this world, the devil who whispers.
Like to close with two more verses in Romans.
Romans chapter 5 and verse one.
The Lord Jesus would like to give you peace tonight. There's not a lot of peace in this world right now. Peace is at a rare.
It says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. There's no one that can take you that peace away from you if you know the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior.
Turn your TV off, turn your in and off, turn your phone off and you'll have peace with God opening the Word of God.
You can't take this piece away from a believer that's walking with the Lord Jesus and communion. This is something that you can have right now. You can have peace and you have a peace right here. What's really talking about is that peace you have in your soul that you know you're His, and once you're His, you're His forever.
You know, don't even remember who I was talking to the other night. Get kind of old, you can't remember.
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But I was talking about a friend of mine. Yeah, I think it was talking to Bruce here. I got a friend.
And he thinks you can be saved and lost. He's a nice Christian guy, but he never has peace.
If you don't have, if you think you can be saved and lost, you won't have peace. But you can have peace tonight because you know that you are now the sons and daughters of God. OK, now are we the sons of God? It is not. Appear what we shall be.
And you know, there's all kinds of verses we could go on for a long time that show you that you are once saved. You're always saved. The blood is either on the door or it's not on the door. You know, when that and the children of Israel, when the blood was on the door, you couldn't see it from the inside. It was on the outside. Who saw the blood? When I see the blood, I will Passover. God sees the blood of his Son.
It's not important what you feel tonight.
The blood is either on the door or it's not on the door. He says when I see the blood you can look it up for yourself in Exodus 12. When I see the blood I will pass over God sees the blood of God values the blood of his dear Son and you are safe and you can have peace in the last verse, Romans chapter 8 and verse one. Just sharing some of my Nuggets that I have a simple guy.
Romans, chapter 8.
There is therefore now no condemnation.
To them which are in Christ.
No condemnation.
Tonight.
Don't you want to have your sins washed away? Don't you want to have your sins clean? Don't you want to have to know the price has already been paid? There's nothing more you can do.
And if you're not saved, how do you sleep at night?
If you don't think you're saved, how do you sleep at night? Maybe you are saved and you don't. You don't know because you know what.
I remember my dad telling me there's not one verse in scripture to ever give a Christian.
Any.
Comfort when they're walking in sin. Not one verse in here. If you're walking in sin, you're never gonna feel good, never gonna feel saved.
You know something?
If you are walking in communion, you are saved and you will feel saved.
To know and feel that you are his.
Can my girls had to remind me growing up? Dad feelings are real.
There's a gospel tract.
And I understand, says Factor feeling. You can have both tonight.
You The facts are that you are saved and you can feel saved because you will be walking in the sunshine.
Of the love of your Savior, let's give thanks.