Participants: Jim Gilley
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000056
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00:09 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth from Puerto Rico.
00:13 Jesus Came Preaching with Jim Gilley. 00:18 Have you ever had one of those experiences when you're 00:20 running just a little late and you really don't have time to 00:24 be stopped or hindered by anyone. 00:26 And it's at that particular time that someone 00:29 wants to have a conversation with you. 00:31 They give you that, "Hey, have you got a minute?" 00:33 And you really don't have a minute? 00:46 And he said, "You know, I saw your Bible." 00:49 Now you've got to change your face. 00:52 He said, "I saw your Bible and I wondered if you're a preacher, 00:54 because you had on a black suit. 00:56 And I wondered where you were going." 00:58 And so I explained to him that we're having some meetings 01:00 at the Bella Vista Church. 01:02 And he said, "I'm visiting in Puerto Rico. 01:04 I'm staying in a hotel with a casino. 01:06 I don't want any of that. 01:08 I'm only here for a week and I'm looking for 01:09 a place to find Jesus." 01:10 I said, "Well, that's the place." 01:12 So I gave him the address. 01:13 He said, "I know the hospital, I know the church. 01:15 I'll be there." 01:17 His name is Don Wright. He's Mr. Wright. 01:19 So would you pray with me, as you have time, that 01:22 Don Wright will find his way to the right place. 01:26 Because he's looking for Jesus. 01:28 I had enough time to find that out. 01:30 And I assured him that if he comes here, he will find Jesus 01:34 in this place. 01:35 My name is C.A. Murray and it is my privilege and pleasure to 01:38 welcome you to night number one of what we like to call, 01:42 Anchors Away. 01:43 When we take our Anchors away from our confines at 3ABN, 01:46 we call them, Anchors Away. 01:47 We are at the beautiful 01:48 Bella Vista Seventh-day Adventist Church. 01:50 About half way up the mountain next to the 01:52 Bella Vista school and the hospital. 01:54 A beautiful church, beautiful place, 01:56 and very beautiful people. 01:58 And our speaker this night is our president, our friend, 02:01 Pastor Jim Gilley who will bring the Word, we know, with power. 02:05 I was looking back through some statistics and I found 02:07 that the work began here in Puerto Rico 02:09 sometime in the late 1800's. 02:11 And by 1909, during the lifetime of Ellen White, 02:16 conferences had already been organized. 02:18 So the work has a long and beautiful history 02:20 in the island of Puerto Rico. 02:22 Some 35,000 members and 301 churches. 02:25 I found that on the internet. 02:26 And some beautiful people. 02:28 101 of those churches are here in the 02:30 West Puerto Rican conference. 02:32 And that's where we find ourselves this very night. 02:34 And so we ask you to sit back, relax, sit up, perk up. 02:38 Jesus is in the house. 02:39 And Jesus is coming soon. 02:41 And we will hear about that this night as our friend 02:44 Elder Gilley gives us the word of God. 02:47 But before he comes to us, I'm going to ask 02:50 Gladys Rodriguez-Soto to come and bring us the 02:52 prayer for the evening. 02:53 Then after that, you will hear from our pastor, 02:56 John Lomacang, who has a very beautiful song for us. 03:00 And then you will hear from Elder Gilley. 03:02 Gladys, if you would come. 03:08 Let us pray. 03:10 Dear heavenly Father, we thank You so much 03:14 for this opportunity to be able to spread Your word 03:17 through the technology that we have in our hands. 03:22 We ask You, dear Lord, to prepare the hearts of all those 03:25 viewers who will listen tonight and other nights to these words. 03:31 And that they may fall at Your feet 03:33 and give their hearts to You. 03:35 Bless Pastor Gilley, who will have the word tonight. 03:40 And please bless each one of our members 03:44 and everyone who is watching us tonight. 03:47 Bless also our Bella Vista Media Center and 3ABN 03:53 for the opportunity to spread the word of God 03:58 throughout the world. 04:00 Thank You, dear Jesus, for all Your gifts, amen. 04:06 I am remiss at not introducing Pastor Gilley's 04:09 wife, Camille, who is with him also. 04:11 And you'll be hearing more about this Bella Vista Media Center 04:14 this church has that is doing some very special things 04:17 for the Lord, as we come together from night to night. 04:19 But just now we ask our pastor, our friend, 04:22 Pastor John Lomacang, to bring us ministry in music. 04:41 My Jesus, I love Thee, 04:48 I know Thou art mine; 04:54 for Thee all the follies 05:01 of sin I resign. 05:07 My gracious Redeemer, 05:14 my Savior art Thou; 05:21 if ever I loved Thee, 05:27 my Jesus, 'tis now. 05:43 I love Thee because Thou 05:50 hast first loved me, 05:56 and purchased my pardon 06:02 on Calvary's tree. 06:12 I love Thee for wearing 06:19 the thorns on Thy brow; 06:25 if ever I loved Thee, 06:32 my Jesus, 'tis now. 06:48 I love Thee in life, 06:53 I will love Thee 'til death; 07:01 and praise Thee as long as 07:08 Thou lendest me breath. 07:14 I'll say when the death dew 07:20 lies cold on my brow; 07:30 if ever I loved Thee, 07:37 my Jesus, 'tis now. 07:52 In mansions of glory 07:59 and endless delight; 08:09 I'll ever adore Thee 08:16 in heaven so bright; 08:22 I'll sing with the glittering 08:29 crown on my brow; 08:39 if ever I loved thee, 08:45 my Jesus, 'tis now. 09:24 Thank you, Brother John. 09:26 I appreciate that. 09:28 If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. 09:35 Alright, that's a great song. I appreciate it. 09:39 A real old hymn that we all love and appreciate. 09:46 I love the old hymns. Don't you? 09:48 I really do. 09:50 Reading tonight, and I hope you'll turn with me 09:53 with your Bibles, to Mark the first chapter. 09:57 I love the book of Mark, because mark is concise. 10:02 He does not fool around with a lot of words. 10:05 You know, I sometimes look at a book that Camille's reading 10:09 maybe, and she'll say, "Oh, this is so beautiful 10:13 because it's so descriptive. 10:15 And you read all of these different things about this 10:19 place or that, and all of the different descriptions of it." 10:24 And I read that and I say, just tell me the facts. 10:28 Just cut to the chase. 10:30 Mark just cuts to the chase. 10:33 He tells you the facts. 10:35 He says here in Mark the first chapter beginning with verse 14, 10:39 "Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, 10:46 preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, 10:51 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. 10:55 Repent, and believe in the gospel.'" 11:00 Now that is quite a text. 11:04 Because he tells you an awful lot in just a very few words. 11:08 First of all, he gives you the setting. 11:11 John was now in jail. 11:15 John, the great preacher who had preached repentance. 11:19 John, the one who had been so much on the 11:22 tips of the tongues of the people, was now silenced. 11:29 He was not saying anything. 11:31 You see, the timing of Christ's ministry; so important. 11:36 The forerunner had come. 11:38 The forerunner had come and he had said, 11:40 "I'm not even worthy to unhook His shoes." 11:44 That was John the Baptist. 11:47 He had preached repentance. 11:49 And now he was in jail. 11:51 Christ did not begin His ministry until 11:56 John's ministry was cut short and stopped. 12:01 The timing; exactly the right time for Him to 12:07 begin His ministry. 12:09 And then we find something else. 12:11 The place that He began His ministry. 12:13 He began it in Galilee. 12:17 Now you have to understand a little bit about the geography 12:20 to understand why Galilee was so important for Him 12:24 to begin His ministry. 12:26 Understanding the geography of Israel and of Palestine 12:32 and of the area where Jesus was brought up is so very important. 12:37 Not long ago I heard a preacher, a wonderful preacher, 12:40 a great preacher. 12:41 But he's never been there and so he didn't understand 12:45 the geography. 12:47 And he was talking about the city of Samaria. 12:52 And there is not a city of Samaria. 12:55 Never has been. 12:57 There's a region of Samaria. 12:59 That's be like saying, the city of Puerto Rico. 13:04 Well, it's not the city of Puerto Rico. 13:07 There's San Juan, there's Mayaguez where we are. 13:09 I don't pronounce these names right. 13:11 You understand that. 13:12 I'm a Texan, so if I mess them up, you understand please. 13:17 But you see, understanding the geography helps you to 13:23 understand why Jesus would start in Galilee. 13:28 First of all, He had grown up in Galilee, in Nazareth. 13:31 Which is in the Galilee region. 13:35 He had grown up there. He had learned as a school boy. 13:39 Now I think He learned most of His lessons 13:41 at the foot of His mother. 13:42 But I don't have any question that He also attended 13:45 some school, had some reckoning. 13:47 Because He was a person who knew how to relate to people. 13:54 And I believe that He learned at the synagogue. 13:58 He learned from His mother. 14:00 He learned wherever He could learn. 14:02 He worked in Joseph's carpenter shop. 14:06 He knew how to build things. 14:11 Years later, I would imagine people would say, 14:13 "You see that chair? 14:15 Jesus built that chair. 14:18 He did that one Himself. 14:19 Look at the handiwork of that chair." 14:23 "Look at this table. 14:25 Jesus built this table. 14:28 Oh, what a carpenter He was." 14:34 I like a little music in the background when I'm preaching. 14:39 I appreciate that. That emphasizes it a little bit. 14:44 And then He also worshipped in the synagogue. 14:48 The synagogue was the center of the life of the people. 14:52 And He was there from the time He was a child growing up. 14:55 He knew all about it. 14:57 Don't think that He just showed up at the synagogue 14:59 when He was an adult. 15:01 He'd been going all of His life. 15:03 They knew Him. 15:04 When He came in, they said to Him, "We want You to read." 15:09 They knew He could. 15:11 They knew that Jesus understood what was going on. 15:16 So He lived, He thought, He spoke like a Galilean 15:21 because He had grown up there. 15:22 And so He began His ministry where He was familiar 15:27 with the people. 15:29 Where He was familiar with what went on. 15:32 But there's another reason why He went to Galilee. 15:35 Because Galilee was the most populace area 15:40 anywhere in all of Israel. 15:43 Josephus, in his book, his autobiography actually, 15:48 talks about there being over 200 cities of 15,000 or better 15:57 population in Galilee. 16:00 That means 3 million people. 16:04 I was there this past November. 16:06 Going next November, I hope. 16:09 And I will tell you, the excavations they're doing now 16:13 to some of those cities that weren't even done 16:15 the last time I was there. 16:18 All those towns, they're starting to excavate them. 16:21 And they're seeing that they were well populated. 16:27 Big population shift over the years. 16:29 Not that many people living in Galilee anymore. 16:33 At that time, Jerusalem had a good population. 16:37 It was large. 16:39 But when you added up all those cities of Galilee, 16:43 it was even larger. 16:45 Over 3 million in those 200 cities. 16:49 They had 19 fortified cities of the 200. 16:55 And they had an army, they had raised an army. 16:58 Josephus himself says he had raised an army because 17:01 he was the governor at that time of that region. 17:04 And he had raised an army of over 100,000 young people. 17:10 Young men that were in that particular army that protected 17:16 that northern region of the country. 17:20 So you see, this was a populated area. 17:23 This was an area that had the people. 17:27 First of all, Jesus was acquainted with it. 17:30 Secondly, there were people there. 17:33 And then thirdly, the character and the temperament 17:38 of those people were very likely to be receptive 17:43 to a new teacher and to new teachings. 17:47 You see, Jerusalem was different. 17:49 Jerusalem was kind of protected down there. 17:53 Judea was an area that was really not on the beaten path, 17:58 you might say. 17:59 You had to go off the beaten path to go to Jerusalem. 18:03 But Galilee was at the crossroads of the world. 18:09 I think it's very interesting even today for us to realize 18:15 how important that whole region is in the world. 18:22 Why do you think every time somebody sneezes over there 18:25 that you read about it in the news or that 18:27 you see it on television? 18:30 Every time there's any type of a small incident. 18:33 You see, if you actually look at that location between 18:36 Europe and between Africa, we right now are speaking to you 18:42 on a satellite that is operated by a company in Israel. 18:48 Now they also operate out of several other places, 18:51 including Pennsylvania. 18:54 And the one we're actually talking to you on now 18:57 is coming out of the headquarters for that 19:00 shooting up over North America is Pennsylvania. 19:06 But most of their satellites... 19:08 And I was there in November at RRsat that 19:11 operates these big satellites that we have, 19:14 all the ones for Europe and the ones for Africa, 19:17 and all of that area, shot from that one spot 19:22 up into the clouds. 19:24 Beaming the signals out into the sky. 19:29 Those satellites are covering Russia, Africa, Europe. 19:36 All of it from right there at the crossroads of the world. 19:42 So you see, it is still a vital and an important place. 19:48 And because those actual literal roads crossed in Galilee, 19:55 they were so acquainted with all the different philosophies. 19:59 They were acquainted with the different people. 20:02 They were an open people. 20:05 And when Jesus began to proclaim the gospel there, 20:08 it spread from that particular region. 20:14 Another thing that Josephus tells us is that these people 20:17 were fond of innovations. 20:20 They liked something new. 20:23 They were always ready for an insurrection. 20:27 They had a quick temper. 20:30 They were ready to respond. 20:32 If there was a rebellion going to take place, they were ready. 20:35 This is why they were so careful to make sure there were 20:38 plenty of Roman soldiers in that particular area. 20:42 In order to keep down any type of an insurrection. 20:48 They were never destitute of courage. 20:51 They said that a Galilean, it was more important for them, 20:57 according to the Talmud, honor was more important 21:01 to them than money. 21:03 More important than gain. 21:06 And chivalry was important to the Galilean. 21:11 Peter was the personification of a Galilean. 21:16 With his good traits and his bad traits, 21:20 you see the Galilean in Peter. 21:26 And this is the place where Jesus began His ministry. 21:34 Now you know, when a leader begins a ministry, 21:37 he needs to put into just a few words his message. 21:44 You get too broad a message, you get too many things 21:47 going on, and it's not clear. 21:50 I'm not going to get into politics. 21:52 By the way, I hate to admit this, I don't think I have 21:55 voted in a presidential election in at least 20 years. 22:00 I really don't think I have. Why? 22:02 Because I don't think any man has the answer to the problems. 22:05 I just don't think they do. 22:07 And I've thought that for a long time. 22:09 I've not felt like putting my stamp on anybody. 22:13 Now that may be a weakness. 22:16 If it is, you can go ahead and condemn me. 22:18 But I have prayed for every single one of them. 22:22 And I pray for our President right now. 22:25 And I pray for our Congress, and I pray for our Senators. 22:28 But I have not found anybody yet, and I don't think I will 22:34 before the Lord comes, that I can actually say, 22:37 I'm going to vote for this person or that person. 22:39 I just don't. 22:40 But I'm extremely interested in presidential politics. 22:44 I like to watch it. 22:46 It goes back to when I was a kid. 22:49 I remember the first time that I got really interested 22:53 was watching, actually, the democratic convention 22:58 when John Kennedy all of a sudden, this was 1956, 23:04 almost made a run. 23:07 And I turned to my dad and I said, "That man is going to 23:10 be President someday." 23:11 My dad said, "No, no." He said, "He's Catholic. 23:13 They'll never elect a Catholic." 23:15 Four years later, he was president of the United States. 23:19 But I remember that. I remember it so well. 23:23 I remember listening to all of these different politicians. 23:26 And usually, clear back, if you go clear back to Roosevelt, 23:32 it was, The New Deal. 23:35 You go to Lyndon Johnson, it was the... 23:37 What was it, the New Frontier? Or something like that. 23:41 New Society? The Great Society. 23:45 Whatever it was, he had a motto. Two or three words. 23:49 We've had some motto's happen in this particular 23:56 campaign that's going on right now, in the primary. 24:00 You remember one of them. 24:02 999, do you remember that? 24:06 That was a motto. 24:07 It stuck in your mind, see. 24:10 Very few words but it's sticking in your mind. 24:15 Jesus came forth with a message. 24:20 And His message was simple. 24:23 It was, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 24:30 Repent. 24:31 And if you look at this, you see the imperative 24:35 and the indicative of Jesus. 24:37 And the imperative was, "I'm saying to you, woe," He said. 24:43 To Korazim and Bethsaida, Tyre and Sidon, and to Capernaum. 24:49 He said, "If Sodom and Gomorrah had been preached to like you 24:54 were preached to, they would have been saved." 24:59 You see, Jesus had a specific message of repentance. 25:07 You know, we don't really sometimes understand 25:09 what repentance is. 25:11 We don't really understand it. 25:13 If you break down the word, metanoia. 25:17 It's an interesting word. 25:19 Meta means after. 25:21 Noia has to do with thought. 25:23 So repentance is like an afterthought, 25:27 in that you repeat it. 25:29 You do something and you have an after thought. 25:33 That's what noia repentance is. 25:36 Pronoia is a forethought. 25:39 By the way, pronoia is better than metanoia. 25:44 If you can avoid something ahead of time, 25:47 it is so much better. 25:49 Noeo means the mind. 25:51 We get paranoia, that means an abnormal thought. 25:59 And so we get this noia, comes from repentance; 26:03 turn around. 26:05 Repentance is not some morbid self accusation. 26:11 It's not just a dread of hell. 26:14 That's not what repentance is. 26:17 Sometimes people think that you can repent 26:21 simply by just being sorry for your sins. 26:26 It's more than that. 26:27 More than that. 26:29 It contains four elements that we're going to look at. 26:33 First of all, the realization that one's actions were wrong. 26:40 Number two, sorrow for the wrong doing. 26:45 Number three, a changed attitude towards life. 26:50 Number four, a change of action. 26:54 These are all involved, these four things. 26:57 Very important as far as repentance. 27:02 Now when I was a young man growing up, 27:05 I had a couple of friends. 27:08 We were all the boys that were in the church. 27:11 My brother was a little younger. 27:13 He had one or two friends that were younger. 27:17 I had one or two friends that were about the same age. 27:19 Except one was a little older. 27:32 We really had a lot of fun together. 27:38 Now we looked forward to prayer meeting night. 27:42 Not just for the prayer meeting, although that was part of it. 27:48 But mostly so we could be together. 27:49 We especially looked forward to prayer meeting night 27:52 one time a month. 27:55 Because it had a church board afterwards. 27:58 And sometimes those church board meetings 28:00 would go on and on and on. 28:02 That was great. 28:05 Because we would find something to do outside that was fun. 28:12 I can remember that we usually would try to make sure 28:16 somebody had a few balloons along. 28:19 And we would fill them with water. 28:22 And then we would wait for a car to come by 28:25 and we would through those balloons and hit the cars. 28:31 And now the fun began because, especially in those days, 28:35 it seemed like every car we ever hit the driver would 28:38 throw on the breaks. 28:39 We would start running. 28:41 And often the driver would get out and chase us. 28:45 This day and age, we don't do that. 28:47 If they get away with a wet car, they just go on. 28:50 Afraid something else might happen if they 28:52 get out of the car. 28:53 Not in those days. 28:55 They would chase you down and try to punish you 28:58 if they possibly could. 29:00 Now we were fast and I don't remember them ever catching us. 29:04 I do remember one guy. 29:06 He was in a convertible. 29:08 And we all three hit him with balloons. 29:14 And then we started running. 29:16 Now that's when the excitement starts when you start running. 29:18 Your heart is pounding, you know. 29:20 And you're trying to get away. 29:22 And we ran into a garage, somebody's garage 29:25 down an alley about half a block from the church. 29:27 And we were lying there breathing so hard. 29:31 I was just sure he could hear us breathing. 29:33 And here he comes down the alley. 29:36 And he looked in there. 29:39 But somehow he didn't see us. 29:42 And then he went on. 29:44 Now a couple of times Jimmy Don came to see me, 29:48 it seemed like we were always throwing something. 29:52 I remember one day we were throwing rocks at cars. 29:57 But we were being very careful to throw only at the tire, 30:02 the hubcap. 30:05 Not the car itself. 30:07 Just trying to see if we could hit the tires. 30:11 Well, one of those rocks came up. 30:14 They use to have the little side mirrors on the cars. 30:18 On the side. Not mirror, but glass. 30:22 A little, you know. 30:24 And it hit that and broke it. 30:28 And we immediately walked away like... 30:31 It really was an accident. We meant to hit the tire. 30:35 And it just kind of did that and hit the side of the car. 30:39 So we hid. 30:41 And then we thought, no we better not. 30:43 So we walked real nonchalant down by my dad 30:47 who was doing some painting on the house. 30:50 And the man pulled in the driveway. 30:54 And that cost my dad. He had to pay. 30:59 And I remember what it was. 31:01 It was like 15 bucks, something like that. 31:04 That was quite a little bit of money at the time. 31:08 And dad had to pay for that. 31:10 He told the man where to go to get it fixed. 31:13 Then he took that out of my hide a little later on. 31:21 He was about to the place where he said maybe Jimmy Don 31:26 couldn't come over anymore because 31:28 we always got into trouble. 31:30 And then we moved down into the country a little ways. 31:33 We got down there and I went out one day. 31:38 Jimmy Don was there and we were out around the place. 31:42 We were living on a pretty good size acreage, you know, 31:45 out in the country. 31:46 And we found a nest of chicken eggs. 31:52 And I knew that they were never going to hatch because 31:54 we didn't have a rooster. 31:56 And so I knew they would be very ripe. 32:02 Very rotten. 32:05 And we got those eggs, we went over by the highway, 32:10 we got under the bridge. 32:12 I got on one side, he got on the other side. 32:15 We saw a car coming down the road. 32:18 And I pitched mine, he pitched his. 32:20 Now people were driving down the road and their window was open. 32:27 One of those eggs went in the window. 32:29 I'm not sure which one. 32:31 The other hit like on the windshield. 32:34 This man had just washed his car. 32:37 They had just gotten dressed up to go out to eat. 32:40 We didn't know that. 32:41 Of course we just saw a car coming down the road. 32:43 We found this out later when he came back to our house. 32:47 And my dad had to pay for a car wash. 32:53 And my dad had to pay to have the dry cleaning done. 32:57 I remember both of those that he paid for. 33:01 And again, he took Jimmy Don home 33:04 and he took the cost out of my hide. 33:09 I paid for it. 33:11 Now I had done something wrong. 33:14 I didn't really repent. 33:17 I was sorry we were caught. 33:20 But it wasn't really true repentance. 33:24 Now once my dad applied his belt, it did become 33:30 a little bit more like true repentance. 33:33 Because I suddenly realized I had really done something wrong. 33:38 And you see, repentance is when you turn around. 33:42 You turn around. 33:43 You're no longer going the way you were going. 33:46 You're going this way, you're going the wrong way. 33:49 And then you come to your senses and you turn around 33:54 and you head the other way. 33:56 Now tonight, we were coming here to the meeting. 34:01 We got the directions from the gentleman at the hotel. 34:06 I don't know whoever taught him how to give directions. 34:09 But we followed those directions to a tee. 34:15 And we did not come anywhere near this church. 34:20 We were a long way away. 34:21 We called Pastor John. 34:24 He got a hold of Brother Dennis. 34:26 Brother Dennis drove and met us and brought us here. 34:30 When we realized we were going the wrong way, we repented 34:34 and turned around and went back. 34:38 And we were told how to go back. 34:40 They said, "Go back." 34:41 And they gave us a place, "Go back to there and 34:44 stay there," they said. 34:47 "We'll meet you there and bring you on." 34:51 And, wow, was it good to have somebody leading the way. 34:56 I hate to tell you what Camille said. 34:58 But she said, "I won't go back to the hotel with you 35:02 unless we're following somebody." 35:04 That road that we were on was quite a road. 35:09 And I repent that I got on the wrong road. 35:15 You see, we must see our need of repentance. 35:22 Now when Jesus was talking, you would think that He was 35:25 going into the bars and talking about repenting. 35:28 You would think that He was going out and finding 35:31 those who were operating in sin. 35:34 No, He went to the synagogue. 35:37 He went to the religious leaders. 35:40 He went to the Pharisees. 35:43 And He said to them and the Sadducees and the scribes, 35:47 and He said, "Repent." 35:51 Now you know, they never thought they needed to repent. 35:54 They were religious people. 35:57 Why would they need to repent? 36:00 Because they are so good. 36:04 I will tell you today, you don't hear many sermons 36:07 about repentance. 36:08 You may have never heard one. 36:10 You may be hearing the first you've ever heard. 36:13 You may have heard them before. 36:15 And people think that those who need to repent 36:18 are those who are stealing, killing, committing adultery. 36:22 Sure they need to repent. 36:25 But these are not the ones that Jesus was talking to primarily. 36:30 Primarily, Jesus was talking to religious people. 36:37 You see, I'm a Pharisee. 36:40 I'm a religious person. 36:42 Paul said he was the Pharisee of the Pharisees. 36:47 But you see, real sin, if you really understand what sin is, 36:51 you know that we all need repentance. 36:56 Because sin is not just stealing, killing, 37:01 and committing adultery. 37:05 Sin involves pride. 37:08 Pride of opinion even. 37:10 Certainly the Lord tells us that it's the greatest 37:13 pride of all. 37:15 See, nobody ever kicked you out of the church 37:17 for having an opinion. 37:20 They'll never disfellowship you for that. 37:23 They might disfellowship you for a nasty divorce, 37:26 or something like that. 37:27 But they won't for having pride of opinion. 37:32 Jesus says these sins are the sins we have to repent from. 37:41 You see, when He found the woman taken in adultery, 37:43 He was kind to her. 37:47 He restored her in kindness and in love. 37:54 But He reserved His hardest words for religious people. 38:00 Not just because they didn't accept Him, 38:04 but because He knew of the pride in their heart. 38:09 Religious pride. 38:11 It was religious pride that eventually put Him on the cross. 38:16 The thief on the cross cried out to Him. 38:20 But you don't find any of those Pharisees crying out to Him. 38:27 You don't find that. 38:30 Why? 38:31 Because they did not feel their need. 38:34 Religious pride, more than anything else, 38:40 put Jesus on the cross. 38:43 You may be the elder of the church, but my friend, 38:48 if you have not repented of the pride in your heart 38:53 and turned away from that and sought Jesus, 38:59 then you do not know what true repentance is. 39:07 You see, I believe with all of my heart that we do 39:11 need to repent. 39:16 And this is not something that we can do just on our own. 39:19 You see, we're not to trust Christ because we repent, 39:23 but we trust Christ to make us repent. 39:30 We're not to come to Jesus because we have a broken heart, 39:34 but to come to Christ that He may give us a broken heart 39:41 and sorrow for sin. 39:44 We're not to come to Him because we're fit 39:46 to come to Him, but we're to come to Him because we're 39:50 unfit in every way to come to Him. 39:55 You see, our fitness is our unfitness. 39:59 Our qualification is our lack of qualification. 40:05 And we must come to Him. 40:08 We do not repent in order to be saved, 40:12 but we repent because we have received His salvation. 40:19 We do not hate sin and hope to be saved, 40:22 but we come to Jesus asking Him to help us to hate sin 40:30 and to turn away from sin. 40:35 You see, repentance is something that is so difficult sometimes 40:41 to put your finger on. 40:43 It does not save you. 40:46 But you can't be saved without it. 40:49 But just repenting doesn't save us at all. 40:54 But we have to repent in order to be saved. 40:58 Repent and confess and turn away, and walk with Jesus; 41:07 turning our direction completely. 41:11 The Bible says in Acts the 17th chapter and verse 30, 41:14 "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; 41:17 but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." 41:22 If you go in the book of Revelation and you read the 41:25 seven churches, eight times it says, "repent." 41:34 "Repent or I'll remove My candlestick," Jesus says. 41:40 And these seven churches represent every aspect 41:44 of our church today. 41:47 Every aspect is still represented. 41:49 Even though it was represented at that time, 41:51 you look at it and it all, especially Laodicea, 41:55 but all of them represent our churches, or church. 42:03 And sometimes even us individually today. 42:06 And Christ says, "Unless you repent," He says, "I will 42:11 remove My candlestick." 42:16 You see, we sometimes get the idea that if we just 42:21 turn around and go the other direction, 42:26 confess, do the best we can to live, that this is what 42:30 Christ is talking about. 42:32 But no, what Christ is talking about is for Him to take 42:35 full charge of our life. 42:38 Full charge. 42:40 When we repent, it will not gain anything for us 42:46 unless we depend upon Him for eternal life. 42:52 That's the only way that we can have life. 42:54 You see, the law demands a penalty. 42:58 Somebody does a crime and he is sorry for it. 43:05 And he goes to the warden and he says, "You can let me out 43:11 because I am sorry for my sin. 43:15 I confess it, I'm sorry for it. Now let me out. 43:21 Just open the gates, tell them to open the gates, 43:23 and I'll be headed on back home." 43:27 And the warden will say to him, "Well, I'm very happy that 43:29 you're sorry, but you're going to have to pay the penalty." 43:33 Somebody has to pay the penalty. 43:36 You see, every sin that I've ever committed, 43:39 every sin that you've ever committed, 43:42 the penalty has to be paid. 43:46 Either you pay it yourself at the end of time 43:52 in the destruction of the wicked, or else Christ, 43:56 you allow Him to pay it on the cross. 43:59 But it has to be paid. 44:01 One place or the other. 44:04 There is absolutely no sin that is ever committed 44:10 that does not have to be paid for. 44:13 Either by ourselves or by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 44:22 And so, we must actively handle repentance through faith. 44:30 And without faith, there's no genuine repentance. 44:33 It's a two-headed coin. 44:35 You have a coin that's got heads and tails on it. 44:39 You can't flip a coin to somebody and say, 44:41 "I'm only flipping tails to you." 44:44 They get both, heads and tails. 44:47 Repentance on one side, faith on the other. 44:51 They go hand and hand together. 44:56 The human mind is made up of intellect, which is our mind. 45:01 The human being is made up of the mind, 45:04 it's made up of emotions which is the heart, 45:07 of the volition which is our will. 45:10 These three things, and all three of these, 45:14 must be involved in our repentance. 45:21 And we must determine that we will turn away, 45:26 that we will give our lives to Jesus Christ our Lord. 45:31 William Cowper, it's spelled Cowper, 45:36 is a man from England. 45:39 William Cowper's mother died when he was young. 45:44 And he had a very horrible life with his father and stepmother. 45:51 They sent him off to school. 45:53 His father was an attorney and he sent him off 45:57 to become an attorney. 45:58 But William was not at all cut out to be an attorney. 46:03 And he had a nervous breakdown right at the time 46:09 of the final test to become an attorney. 46:14 He was institutionalized. 46:16 They thought that he would never ever recover. 46:23 But there was a man there. 46:25 A man that was kind and loving and loved the Lord. 46:35 He actually took the book of Romans, 46:37 Romans the 3rd chapter, and he read it to William. 46:44 He read those texts to him and then he asked him 46:47 to read them again himself. 46:51 Romans the 3rd chapter verses 21 through 26 46:56 are the verses that he read. 47:00 And he gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. 47:07 When he was well, they placed him with a family. 47:13 He lived quite well with the family. 47:18 And later, the family moved to Olney in England. 47:24 And he moved with them. 47:27 Now in Olney, he began to go to a chapel where there was a 47:32 man by the name of John Newton, who was the preacher. 47:38 John Newton's story and William Cowper's story 47:41 in many ways parallel. 47:43 Except that John Newton also was a sea captain. 47:48 But these two men began to write songs together. 47:54 They wrote a hymn book called, Olney Hymns. 47:59 I think there are 379 or 380 hymns in there. 48:03 And something like 66 of those were written by William Cowper. 48:10 Cowper's life had changed. 48:13 He had hated God when his mother had died. 48:16 He blamed God because people had told him that 48:19 God had taken his mother to heaven. 48:25 And it was part of the reason that he had 48:29 this nervous breakdown. 48:31 Now he had accepted Christ. 48:36 His life had been changed. 48:39 Completely and totally changed. 48:43 And now he was writing hymns. 48:48 Just like John Newton's life had been changed 48:50 and he wrote hymns like Amazing Grace. 48:53 Cowper wrote a hymn that is in our hymnal. 48:59 And it's called, "There Is A Fountain" filled with blood, 49:08 flowing from Immanuel's veins. 49:11 I'm going to ask Pastor John if he would come right now 49:18 and sing that song that William Cowper wrote. 49:21 There is a fountain filled with blood. 49:24 You see, the only way that we can repent is if 49:27 Jesus Christ helps us to repent. 49:30 True repentance has to come from Him. 49:33 It can't come. 49:34 We can't build it up ourselves. 49:36 We can't be just sorry for sin. 49:39 It has to be a repentance that we receive from Him. 49:44 And we must claim the cross of Jesus. 49:49 We must be bought by the blood. 50:10 There is a fountain filled with blood 50:19 drawn from Immanuel's veins; 50:27 and sinners plunged beneath that flood 50:34 lose all their guilty stains. 50:42 Lose all their guilty stains, 50:50 lose all their guilty stains. 50:58 And sinners plunged beneath that flood 51:05 lose all their guilty stains. 51:13 The dying thief rejoiced to see 51:21 that fountain in his day; 51:29 and there may I, though vile as he, 51:36 wash all my sins away. 51:44 Wash all my sins away, 51:52 wash all my sins away. 52:00 And there may I, though vile as he, 52:07 wash all my sins away. 52:19 Ever since by faith I saw the stream 52:27 Thy flowing wounds supply; 52:35 redeeming love has been my theme, 52:43 and shall be till I die. 52:50 And shall be till I die, 52:59 yes it shall be till I die. 53:06 Your redeeming love has been my theme, 53:14 and shall be till I die. 53:25 Yes it shall be 53:31 till I die. 53:53 Thank you, John. 53:55 You see, my friend, it's only by the blood. 53:59 Only by the blood. 54:02 Coming to Him, receiving Him. 54:06 You see, even our righteousness, the Bible tells us, 54:09 are as filthy rags. 54:12 We wonder how that can be. 54:13 We know our sins are as filthy rags. 54:17 But you see, He was even talking to those who are Pharisaical. 54:22 And He was saying to us, "Your righteousness 54:28 is righteousness of your own. 54:32 It's not from Me." 54:34 Every moment of every day that we walk, 54:39 we must walk with Him. 54:41 When Peter got out of that boat and he started walking on water, 54:45 he was walking on the water. 54:47 Which is impossible. 54:50 And you see, the Christian life is impossible, 54:54 except with Jesus. 54:57 By looking at Him. 55:00 The minute Peter took his eyes off Jesus, 55:04 for whatever reason; fear, doubt, pride, whatever, 55:11 he went down. 55:13 For whatever reason we take our eyes off Jesus. 55:19 We have absolutely no strength of our own. 55:24 Because even our goodness, which will sometimes 55:29 really deceive us, is not good enough. 55:34 It must be the goodness of Christ 55:38 always and forever, in us and through us. 55:44 It must be Him. 55:46 Jesus alone. He is the only way. 55:51 I walked life's path with an easy tread, 55:53 I wondered where pleasure and riches led. 55:55 Until one day in a quiet place 55:59 I met the Master face to face. 56:02 I met Him and knew Him and blushed to see 56:08 that His eyes full of mercy were fixed upon me. 56:12 And then I turned my eyes upon Jesus, 56:16 looked full in His wonderful face, 56:20 and the things of earth grew strangely dim 56:25 in the light of His glory and His grace. 56:30 Father in heaven, tonight we thank You 56:35 that You have told us the way. 56:38 That we should repent and come to You, 56:42 and trust in You. 56:44 To rely upon You, Lord, as the only way to life eternal. 56:54 Help us to turn from pride, to turn from that sin 56:59 which so easily besets us. 57:00 Which is the sin of trying to save ourselves. 57:05 And help us to let You save us. 57:09 In Jesus' wonderful and powerful and loving name we ask it, amen. 57:18 And amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17