Gospel—Shawn Allan
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Buddy, I would just like to welcome the gospel meeting this evening, please. You could come. And I'd like to start the meeting tonight by singing hymn #7, hymn #7.
Just ask for the Lord's help.
We read a verse.
Last night in the Gospel meeting. I just would like to refer to it again in Jeremiah chapter 18. Jeremiah chapter 18.
And the fourth verse.
Was murdered in the hand of the Potter.
So he made it again. Another vessel.
Has seemed good to the Potter to make it. Just read that one more time. The vessel that he made of clay was mired in the hand of the Potter.
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So he made it again. Another vessel seemed good to the Potter to make it.
Before I.
Go along with the subject that I had in my heart tonight. I'd like to start the gospel meeting this evening by giving just a very brief summary of the gospel message. The good news.
In this verse that we just read, we read of a vessel that was made and it was marred.
And, you know, over the last couple of months at my work, I've had the occasion to have to work very closely with people who are really feeling the effects of that mired vessel.
One man in particular, his name was Kevin Baldwin. He was happily married for 24 years. His wife suddenly got some flu like symptoms and they wouldn't go away and she went into the hospital.
And she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
She was a pitcher of perfect health before that. Two weeks later she went into a cardiac arrest in her liver and her kidneys shut down and she came within a breath of dying. They rallied to back to life and another week later and she was gone.
Needless to say, Kevin was devastated.
I have another person I work very closely with. His name is Michael.
And Michael's wife has multiple sclerosis.
And it's been degenerating quickly.
And she's been miserable for many, many years.
They have no children and she felt that maybe the answer to her misery was to have a child. So they went through unusual means to obtain a child, had a little baby.
Michael was the father, she was not.
But it didn't answer her problems and their marriage continued to spiral out of control and now it's ended up in divorce.
Just before this meeting started.
I saw some tears shed.
You know, every day.
We see evidence around us of the marrying of that vessel.
Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, and sin entered into this world, and death by sin, and so death.
Passed upon all men, for that all of sin.
And justice, before we started this gospel meeting tonight, someone prayed and I was struck by it that the time is short. You were here in this gospel meeting this evening.
I'm not sure for how long.
We do not know time we have left, but you are a vessel that is marred. And the story of the gospel is that the Lord God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Two choices.
To perish or to have everlasting life. And the gospel is so beautiful because it's the story of the love of God in sending the object of his love, the Lord Jesus Christ.
To come down and provide the remedy and the answer.
For these merged vessels.
And you know you have a choice tonight. You can accept the Lord. Irish. That is the gospel message. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleans us from all sin.
You know the answer to the problems of this world. The Kevin's hurt.
And to Michael's pain and divorce.
And through the horrific things going on in Syria and elsewhere in the world.
It's not humanitarian aid and it is not military force.
The answer is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sin.
Is the thing that it has brought in so much pain and suffering over the centuries of this world.
So the subject I have on my heart tonight, with apologies to Derek and B who've heard a little bit of this before, is the subject of passing by.
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And we had a verse in the Breaking of Bread this morning. I'd like to reference it.
One book over from Jeremiah in Lamentations chapter one.
In the 12Th verse.
Is it nothing to you?
I'll either pass by.
Behold and see.
If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
I'd like to turn over and read a verse in the Gospel of Mark and the 15th chapter.
And the 27th verse.
And with him they crucify 2 Thieves, the one on his right hand and the other on his left.
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith and he was numbered with the transgressors.
And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroys the temple, and billisted in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross.
Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves. With the scribes he saved, others, himself he cannot save.
Subject that I have in my heart for the gospel tonight is not so much the fact of those that pass by, although we will speak on that tonight.
But the subject of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ does not pass by.
And I trust that when we leave here tonight, our hearts will be filled up with a sense of that.
You know, I spend fairly often a lot of time in airports.
And airports are great places for observing people passing by.
You can be one person amongst thousands and there's just a stream of people endlessly walking by.
Everyone of those thousands of people is a broken vessel, as it were, a murdered vessel with pain and suffering in their life.
And yet the thousands.
Pass on never really thinking about their fellow man and what may be happening in their lives. I do not say that to be critical.
How many here tonight in this room have felt alone during this conference? As you watch people pass by, it's a feeling that we all can relate to.
And yet I want to bring before you the thought tonight that the Lord Jesus.
Wonderful Thought knows that feeling more than anyone here tonight.
We're not going to talk about the Lord's high priestly work.
But what an amazing thing to think of our great sympathizer. And there he hung on the cross of Calvary.
And the people walked by, and there the blood ran from his hands and his feet.
And there he was, alone, and his disciples, for the most part, had fled.
And he was all alone there on that cross.
And people just pass by an indifference.
We read here in the verse that we just read that some of them laughed.
And what did they say? They said Father Thou that destroys the temple and billisted in three days. They didn't believe what he had said, nor did they understand. And maybe tonight you're a person who doesn't feel understood.
Maybe you don't feel like your belief.
The Lord Jesus, as he hung on the cross, knew those feelings.
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They mocked them as they passed by.
And we hear the voice and lamentations. Is that nothing to you? All ye that pass by, behold, and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.
We're with the Lord have afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
And we know that they're on that cross.
The Lord Jesus endured 3 terrible hours.
When he became sin for us.
He who knew no sin that we could be made the righteousness of God in him.
What was it like for a person who was holy and without sin to become sin for us?
And so I want to get to the subject, the real thing that I had in my heart tonight. So our time is short instances.
Where the Lord Jesus did not pass by in the first instance. He's right here in our chapter where we're told that there was two malefactors crucified with them.
You know, it's hard to express how touching this is.
Will Hale pointed out to me in a breaking of bread a few months ago, and I never thought of it this way before, but I was struck by it.
The Lord Jesus does not pass by.
And he had preordained, he knew, that there was going to be malefactor on Calvary's Hill that day who needed him.
The very time of the crucifixion.
The Lord Jesus knew there would be a malefactor on that cross.
He knew that he needed to be saved.
And he allowed that he would be hung between two of them there, and those two represent the two camps tonight.
The one who witnesses the Lord Jesus in indifference and rejects them.
And the other who witnesses the Lord Jesus in his suffering and says, Father, remember, sorry Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
The Lord Jesus knew he would be there.
The Lord Jesus was there to provide redemption for that malefactor.
And He was there to provide redemption for you.
So the next instance I I'd like to reference is a story we well know in the Gospel of Luke chapter 10.
Story of the Good Samaritan.
And the 30th verse.
Jesus, answering, said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead.
By chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side, And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side.
But a certain Samaritan.
As he journeyed, came where he was.
And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, set him on his own beast, and brought him to an end, and took care of him.
And on the Morrow when he departed, he took out 2 Pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest, more when I come again.
I will repay thee.
Here in this story, we have a man who is traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, the city of the curse.
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And as he travels, he encounters robbers.
Who heard him and leave him half dead?
And two people pass by.
They didn't care, it says. In both instances, they came straight over to where he was. In one case, they looked at him.
And when they had a look, they just passed by on the other side.
You know, I think we've all been guilty of that.
You know, there's a story that I read recently and many of you will know this story about a man called Louis Zamperini.
Book is called Unbroken. The book should be called Broken.
And Louis was a troubled boy who grew up in a in a He's a troubled youth. He got in trouble all the time, but he was a tremendous runner.
And he eventually was able to run in the Olympics and did very well there.
But unfortunately, World War Two hit.
And he enlisted in the Army.
As a as a fighter pilot flying a plane.
And you know, there's a story in that in that novel, it's a true story about Louis. His plane has been shot down over the Pacific Ocean and he's in a life raft with two other people in a shark infested waters.
They spend actually 45 days in the Pacific Ocean, nearing day by day the point of death.
It's an incredible story.
But part way through, they're there in that life raft, and along comes a plane. And they thought, surely this is our answer. An allied plane has come and we're going to be saved. And the plane went by them and it turned around and came in low. They set off flares to get the attention of the plane.
And all bullets began to spew out of that plane. It was a Japanese plane and they saw that life raft and the 2-3 suffering men in it, and they opened fire on the raft.
Louie jumped into the water. They all got in the water at that point despite the sharks.
And the plane took off and they came back into a bullet bullet riddled life raft.
Turned around and came back again, shot at them again and tore up the life raft. Only one of them had the strength to get in the water that time. It was Louie.
He eventually got back in the in the raft and was able to patch up the holes. But you know, Louis went on. I can't tell the whole story here today to spend time in a prisoner of war camp in Japan. And he was tortured in ways that you can't even dream of.
And Louie, eventually.
Got finished The war is incredible story of survival.
But he was a broken man.
A broken man, just like this man in the story of the Good Samaritan.
He had post traumatic stress disorder. He turned to drink even though he married a woman who was beautiful.
And they tried to make it work, and it got worse and worse and more and more to alcohol. And I don't know, perhaps there's someone here tonight who struggles with alcohol. Louis did, and he nearly destroyed his life.
But his wife was at the time of the Billy Graham crusades.
Went to a Billy Graham gospel meeting and got saved.
And she begged and pleaded with him to come and he wouldn't.
Years earlier in the Pacific Ocean, Louis had made a pact with God and he had said, Lord, if I get out of this arrival, give my life to you. And he forgot all about it.
Well, one night in desperation, he ended up going to a Billy Graham crusade. He heard the gospel meeting and never really registered with him. As he was leaving, the Lord sent into his mind that promise that he had made.
And Louie Zamperini was a broken man.
Who accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and his Savior. He never ever craved a drop of alcohol, and He transformed.
Who found them?
The Lord Jesus found him. He came to where Louis was.
This light and this priest passed by, but this Good Samaritan who was despised and a Jew would never expect a Samaritan to pay any attention, came where he was. And I love that expression. That's why I find it hard to read sometimes, because the Lord Jesus meets you where you are.
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Someone I know?
Living in circumstances that I would have assumed would never have led them to Christ.
And you would have never assumed that they would have been led to Christ.
But in the past couple of months, the Lord Jesus came right to where that person was.
And they became a new creation.
Total miracle. And it says here that the Lord, that the Good Samaritan had compassion. Do you know that the Lord Jesus has compassion for you tonight? He loves you. He cares about your wounds. He cares about the fact you're a broken, marred vessel and he come, He wants to come to where you are to make you whole.
Well, I just want to turn to the next instance in Luke chapter 18.
Thank you.
Another scene near Jericho 35th verse, Luke 18 and verse 35.
And it came to pass that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the side wayside, begging, and hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried so much the more.
Thou son of David.
Have mercy on me.
And Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he asked him, saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.
And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight, My faith hath saved thee.
Here's another instance of passing by.
And here are these multitudes.
Walking along in total indifference, undoubtedly to the poor.
And there was this blind man who was begging.
I wonder sometimes.
How much we see that state of things around us. You know, I know for myself that one of the great traps of becoming complacent in Christianity is to stop seeing.
Those needs all around us, those broken, marred vessels.
And there was.
This blind beggar.
And he was there begging.
But he had heard that Jesus was passing by.
And he cried out for mercy.
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And you know the Lord Jesus was walking along that road and I just think it's so beautiful to see.
He comes along and he stops. He does not pass by, he stops.
And he commands this blind beggar to be brought to him. And what does he do? He gives him sight.
But more than that, it says thy faith hath saved thee. I have no doubt we will see.
This man in heaven one day.
You know, there's a verse in Revelation that I'd like to turn to tonight.
In the third chapter.
Verse 17.
Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.
And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind.
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And naked.
Is there someone here tonight who has not accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior? That is a description of you.
You're naked.
You're poor.
And you're blind.
But the Lord Jesus came to give you sight.
He came to give you riches, to make you inherit.
All the inheritance of the riches of His grace in heaven.
And he came to put a robe of righteousness on you.
If you do not accept Him as your Lord and Savior, there will come a day we talked of it at this conference.
The Great White Throne when you will stand before him naked.
And blind and poor.
And you will be cast into.
A lost eternity.
Did that happen to this man? No.
He cried out, and the Lord Jesus answered that cry.
If we just go over to the next chapter, chapter 19.
It says Jesus entered the first verse and passed through Jericho, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.
And he sought to see Jesus, who he was, and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a Sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully.
Verse 9 Jesus said unto him, This day his salvation come to this house, for as much as He also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
We often read this story of Zacchaeus and we think of Zacchaeus as this annoying man who no one liked and was friendless.
And that indeed may be true. But you know, this is what I like to think a little bit of. Zacchaeus, he was insecure. He was a little man. Anybody here tonight insecure? Maybe because you're short? Clearly, I don't have that problem.
Little insecure sometimes about my nose.
But just being silly. But you know, Zacchaeus was a short man.
And you know another thing I think about Zacchaeus.
No one ever wanted to come to his house.
He was a tax collector who ripped people off and no one ever wanted to come to his house. And so he was.
A undoubtedly very lonely man.
Insecure and lonely.
And undoubtedly very unhappy man. No one wanted to be friends with this man.
But this day hears about this man Jesus, and he goes up into the tree to look for him.
But he didn't know that the Lord Jesus was looking for him.
And the Lord Jesus stops at the base of that tree and calls him by name and says, Zacchaeus, come down for today. I must abide at your house. Did you ever think about what kind of reaction that that what that must have made Zacchaeus feel like probably nobody ever wanted to be at his house before.
And here, the very man who he'd heard so much about, who healed people and brought so much good about, wanted to be at his house.
Do you ever think about the grace there? And I'm sure Zacchaeus was totally overwhelmed by that and the fact that he was known by name.
And so the Lord Jesus goes to his house.
And there's a happy occasion there. And we know the faith was brought into that household because Zacchaeus was transformed. We why do we know that? Because there was a change. He offered to give back all the money or a great deal of the money that he had stolen. We didn't read the verse, but he said, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
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You know, I spoke earlier about someone. We just spent time in their house earlier this week.
Who is a changed person?
And you know the evidence.
It's just unbelievable where there was hostility to the gospel a year ago.
Where a brick wall went up every time the name of Jesus was mentioned. Now there's a hunger to talk about him.
Now there is a thirst to read the word of God. There is a glow on the face.
Everybody around that person sees the change, they are transformed, they're totally changed and it is just thrilling to see and you know, tonight.
The Lord Jesus if you're not, if you haven't accepted Him as your Lord and Savior, He wants.
To transform you to take going back to Jeremiah chapter 18, that murdered piece of clay and make it good.
How wonderful that is. Joy came to the House of Zacchaeus and this person, this lady, we know very well. Joy has come to her house.
She's a single mother. She is a lot of difficulties in her life.
But joy has come to the house.
And joy can come to your house and to your heart tonight.
Our time is almost gone.
Everybody here in this room could perhaps tell the story. Many of you at least.
How Jesus came to you. And you know, in my story, it's not a very exciting one, but still, I'm going to tell you it tonight.
Years ago, when I was eight years old.
Fred Cormier was my Sunday school teacher.
And I might have been saved earlier, but what I do know is that for a period of time I wrestled with doubts as to my salvation.
And I asked Fred one day in Sunday school class in the basement of 32 Kirk Ave. Fred, how can I know that I'm saved? He said to me.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And that night I went home and prayed, and I said, Lord.
I do believe.
That you were raised from the dead.
An assurance came into my soul, and from that day forward I never doubted.
What's your story tonight?
You know, you may not remember a moment in time that you accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, and I want to encourage you in that because.
This person who's my sister-in-law who just recently got saved.
We don't know when it happened. We know the Spirit of God worked, and we know there's a transformation.
You may not know the moment, but if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation and you will know that the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior.
One other little story.
I had a little girl come to me this past year.
And told me.
That they had asked Jesus to come into their heart.
And the comment was made I feel way better.
Joy came into my heart.
But much more.
There was rejoicing in heaven.
To go back to the start of the meeting.
Forget this.
The Lord Jesus.
Will not pass you by if you are searching for him. He wants to come.
To where you are.
He came right to where the dying malefactor was on Calvary's Hill.
He came to where Zacchaeus was, he came to that broken man on the road to Jericho. He came to the beggar and he can come to you.
The Lord Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood to be your substitute.
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Will you accept Him as your Lord and Savior tonight? Let's just pray.
Lord Jesus.
For how we love the gospel.
Oh, how wonderful it is to say God is love.
We just pray that if there's someone here tonight who is seeking.
That they may know that you will not pass them by.
We just ask this and give thanks for this happy time at the conference in Jesus name, Amen.