Participants: Doug Batchelor
Series Code: EG
Program Code: EG002806
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00:09 It's been 2000 years since the glorious light of the cross
00:12 illuminated the world veiled in darkness and confusion about the 00:16 character of God and still today the greatest need of mankind is 00:19 a revelation of God's love as revealed in the life of Christ. 00:23 Amazing Facts presents the everlasting gospel with Pastor 00:27 Doug Batchelor coming to you each week from Sacramento 00:30 Central Church in sunny California. Discover hidden 00:33 treasures in God's word today. 00:37 I want to talk about something that I believe is probably one 00:43 of the most important things that we can speak about as 00:46 Christians in a church. As a springboard for what I'm going 00:49 to be sharing with you please turn in your Bibles to the 00:56 gospel of Mark, last chapter, 16. Mark chapter 16 verse 15. 01:02 These of course are the closing words of Jesus that you find 01:08 in the gospel of Mark. And he says: Go into all the world and 01:13 preach the gospel to every creature. Now I'm going to stop 01:19 right there. Who is this command given to? Just the 12 apostles 01:27 or to every believer. Every believer. We're all given the 01:31 mandate, the commission of the Lord to go everywhere sharing 01:36 the gospel, but I've come to the conclusion that in years of 01:40 ministry and doing evangelism very few Christians know how 01:45 to make a gospel presentation. As a matter of fact, there are 01:48 a lot of people who have been in the church for years or all 01:51 their lives, they may even be baptized and they don't know 01:55 what the gospel is. Some join the church because they grow up 01:58 in the church and there's a time when those in their class 02:01 get baptized and they figure it's time. If you were to say 02:05 please explain the gospel to me they'd begin to stammer and 02:09 stutter and try and find the words. I thought, you know, it 02:13 would probably be a good idea if I took one message and I just 02:18 went through simply with you what is the essence of the 02:21 gospel and that's the title of today's message. The word gospel 02:28 means good news. It comes from the Greek word ellugion or 02:34 euanglion. It means a good message. The gospel is good news 02:40 I remember hearing a story one time. Back in the 16th century 02:46 as near as they can figure an Indian in the Peruvian jungle 02:52 was lost and burning up with malarial fever. Staggering along 02:57 through the jungle, exhausted thirsty, he finally found a 03:02 puddle of water there in the jungle. He fell down and began 03:06 to drink some of the water. Immediately he realized that the 03:11 water was bitter and he saw it was by a tree called the quinie 03:16 quinie tree. They believed that that was poisonous, the bark of 03:21 that tree and some bark had fallen in the water but he was 03:24 so thirsty and at first gulp though bitter felt so good he 03:27 sat there and he drank his fill from this puddle in the jungle. 03:31 As he lay there by the pool he noticed a few hours later the 03:36 fever subsided, his strength began to return. He went back to 03:40 his village and began to share how this bark from the quinie 03:45 quinie tree had healed him of his malaria which had been of 03:49 course an epidemic anywhere there are mosquitoes in the 03:53 world. Gradually that news spread to missionaries. 03:57 The missionaries shared it with the Spanish who brought it back 04:00 to Europe and it was spread down to Africa. You've heard of 04:03 quinine water, sometimes called tonic water, they still make it 04:07 today. For years it was the only cure even though it was not a 04:11 total cure for malaria. Well when that native got back to his 04:15 village and he had found a cure for malaria, that was good news. 04:19 He shared it with everyone. That news began to spread all over 04:23 the world. Some doctors have estimated that one out of two 04:27 people that has died through history has died from malaria, 04:32 many of them children. So having a cure for that would be called 04:37 very good news. Well the gospel is good news and in the gospel 04:43 you have the serum for the sin and disease of the world. 04:47 That's good news. Now we're going to start at the beginning 04:53 here in this presentation. Very simply you're here and you're 04:57 alive. You may want to take a mirror and put it up to your 05:01 mouth and see if it forms any mist meaning you're breathing. 05:05 Then you next would say we're here. Where did we come from? 05:10 Genesis chapter 1. We're going to go to the Bible for our 05:15 answers. So God created man in his own image, in the image of 05:20 God he created him, male and female he created them. There is 05:25 a purpose for life. We have been created by God in his own 05:29 image. We did not evolve from rocks over millions of years. 05:34 Ephesians 3 verse 9: God who created all things, a few more 05:39 details here, through Jesus. Hebrews 11 verse 3: By faith we 05:44 understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so 05:48 that the things that are seen were not made of things which 05:52 are visible. You know, it's the word of God that has this 05:57 creative power. I understand back in 2003 cosmologists, I 06:01 don't know how they did the study or how they found out but 06:05 they were studying what was it that caused creation. They call 06:08 it the big bang and they believe now it was sound waves. How many 06:12 of you have heard that? Sound waves. Well you know I think 06:15 that's interesting because the Bible says through the word of 06:19 God and I would think the word of God would have some pretty 06:23 powerful sound waves. This is what the Bible teaches that the 06:27 word has inherent creative power all things were made. You know, 06:32 there's only a couple of options Either you're here by design. 06:37 There's a plan. There's an all powerful God that has made you 06:40 and there is a purpose for your life. There is somebody in 06:44 control or everything is just a spontaneous accident and there 06:48 is no purpose to life and it's all evolved. Well you know 06:51 there are a lot of people that believe that. In my opinion, 06:53 that's very tragic to have that kind of a fatalistic, 06:56 purposeless understanding of why we're here. I believe we've been 07:02 made in the image of God and there was a great purpose for 07:07 man. But something went wrong. We have a problem. The problem 07:13 is that for one thing we know we're dying. We're terminal. 07:17 Somebody else estimated that all creatures have about the same 07:22 number of heart beats. An elephant's heart beats about 07:26 30 times a minute. They typically live longer than 07:29 people. Your heart beats about 60 times a minute. A rabbit 200 07:34 times a minute. Based on how quick your heart beats you've 07:38 got so many heart beats. From the time you were born we know, 07:42 we don't like to think about it, but it's true you are all on a 07:47 conveyor belt towards the grave. Happy thought. But you need to 07:52 think about that. You're here for a little while. What do you 07:55 do with your life? We've got a problem. We're dying. We need to 07:59 know what the purpose is. How sad to wait until your life's 08:02 nearly over to figure out what am I doing here anyway. So we've 08:06 got to ask that question, what is the purpose of life? We know 08:10 that our time is limited and we also know we have no control 08:14 over tomorrow. I do not know that I'll be here tomorrow. You 08:18 don't know if you're going to be here. I don't know if you're 08:20 going to be here and you don't know if I'm going to be here. 08:23 We don't know exactly what's going to happen tomorrow. We can 08:26 plan some things, some things will happen with a certain 08:29 amount of regularity, but we can't control the future. 08:32 We're powerless. We're dying. That's a problem. We've got this 08:38 disease of sin, can't even control what we want to think or 08:43 do. Now before we get more specifically into the answer we 08:47 need to introduce some of the main players. We've talked about 08:52 where we came from. God created all things. He spoke and it came 08:57 to be. Who is God? Well according the Bible God is three 09:06 beings that make up one entity. God the Father, the Son and the 09:12 Spirit are pure, all powerful, loving, perfect and eternal. 09:18 They have existed through eternal ceaseless ages. I can't 09:23 explain who made God. If you could explain that, you'd be God 09:27 but one thing we do know is that there are things in the world 09:32 today that require intelligence. The organization, the 09:38 interworking systems, the design the miracles, the beauty that 09:42 you see in the world around you did not happen spontaneously by 09:46 things just burping out of primeval ooze, by accident. 09:50 There's an intelligent God, there is a purpose to life and 09:56 he loves you. God is good. Psalm 93 verse 2: Thy throne is 10:02 established of old thou art from everlasting. From everlasting to 10:07 everlasting thou art God. But the very fact that I've got to 10:13 explain the basics of God here is because we can't see God. 10:19 We are separated from God. What causes this separation? It's in 10:25 your Bibles. Isaiah chapter 59 verse 2: But your iniquities 10:31 have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his 10:36 face from you that he will not hear. Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 10:41 13 puts it this way and I'm just giving you a few high points of 10:45 the scriptures. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil 10:50 and you cannot look on wickedness. God is perfectly 10:55 holy. God is light, in him is no darkness and his light is so 10:58 bright that darkness is automatically dispelled by 11:02 his brightness. It's something like germs cannot exist in 11:07 bleach. As soon as you drop them into the bleach they expire. 11:11 The reason we're separated from God is because he loves us and 11:16 if we with our sin were brought into his holy, brilliant, pure 11:21 presence with our sin it would annihilate us. So out of love 11:26 for us he has quarantined this planet while he works out the 11:31 cure. That's the good news. I'll get to it in just a minute. 11:36 Well we've got this problem called sin. Our sins have 11:41 separated us from God. We need to be more specific. What is 11:46 sin? I John chapter 3 verse 4 and these are not all the 11:51 definitions: However commits sin transgresseth also the law for 11:56 sin is the transgression of the law. More specifically, sin is 12:00 the transgression of the 10 commandments. When we break the 12:05 law of God, it's called a sin. You can also read I John 5:17 12:10 that says, all unrighteousness is sin. Anything that you do 12:15 wrong, that's unrighteousness, that's sin. And again, anything 12:19 that is not of faith is sin, Paul says. James 4 verse 17: 12:24 Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him 12:28 it is sin. When we go against our conscience of what we know 12:33 to be right that's sin. Everything we deliberately 12:38 say, do or think knowingly is sin. Our sins have separated us 12:45 from God. We are all sinful. Because our first parents 12:50 acquired this disease of sin, it has been transferred to every 12:54 son and daughter of Adam and Eve from creation to the present 13:00 day. It is in our genes. It is in our DNA and every human born 13:06 is born with these sinful selfish tendencies. Man 13:09 originally was made in God's image. God is love. Man was 13:13 motivated by love. Everything was made good but because of the 13:17 sin of Adam and Eve, because they listened to the temptations 13:22 of the devil and disobeyed God then our genes were damaged. 13:27 We went from love to selfishness and we are all naturally selfish 13:32 It is only through a work of grace that we can learn to love. 13:38 This separates us from God and in case you missed it, who has 13:45 sinned? Everybody has sinned. Romans 3 verse 23: For all have 13:50 sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All have sinned. 13:55 Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20: There is not a just man upon the earth 14:01 does good and sinneth not. We're all guilty of sin. We have all 14:06 broken the law, probably not just the letter of the law, but 14:10 we've all certainly broken the spirit of the law. The letter of 14:14 law says, Do not kill. The spirit of the law says do not be 14:17 angry with your brother or sister without cause. You don't 14:21 want to assassinate them in your minds and we've all done that. 14:24 Do not commit adultery. That's the letter of the law. 14:28 The spirit of the law says if you look on the opposite sex and 14:32 lust in your heart then you're guilty of adultery. So these 14:37 selfish, conniving, impure thoughts also constitute 14:42 sin and we've all sinned. Now it gets serious. We know our bodies 14:48 are terminal but we're also under a verdict of execution. 14:55 What is the penalty for sin? Ezekiel 18 verse 20: The soul 15:02 who sins shall die. It's a death penalty. Romans 6:23, just going 15:09 read the first part of that verse right now: The wages, the 15:13 just and deserving wages for sin are death. Sin is a deadly 15:17 contagious disease. Now I remember when I first read this 15:20 in the Bible it didn't make sense to me and I thought 15:23 why would God pronounce such a severe penalty on the human race 15:27 for sin? I mean, after all everybody sins. Just didn't seem 15:32 fair. Let me see if I could explain that with a faulty 15:37 parable. Suppose for a moment that you and your beautiful 15:43 spouse live on an Eden-like island out in the Pacific ocean, 15:48 a paradise and you've got a dozen children. You're like that 15:52 Swiss family Robinson except a lot more kids. And you're all 15:56 very happy. And just a perfect climate. You spend your day 16:01 just doing wonderful activities and the climate is great and you 16:04 get along great will all the creatures. You know that every 16:09 now and then this swarm of devil flies goes from island to 16:12 island and you've got to watch out for those swarms of flies 16:18 because if they bite you it's terminal. One bite from one of 16:24 these little devil flies, and they're ugly flies too, very 16:32 contagious, long, painful death in great agony. And if you're 16:39 exposed to somebody who is bitten by one of these little 16:43 devil flies, just 24 hours of exposure and you catch it. You 16:47 don't have to be bitten. Now you're on the island, your 16:51 family is very happy. A swarm of devil flies comes through and 16:55 you bring all the children and you get them all into the cabin 16:58 in time waiting for the wind to carry the flies away and one of 17:02 the children has left the family baby in its bassinette 17:05 out under a coconut tree and by the time you get out there it's 17:09 too late. You see the devil fly biting the baby. 17:14 You're horrified. You bring the fly in and the whole family 17:18 looks and they realize what do we do. We all live on an island. 17:21 The baby will not survive without care. If you keep the 17:25 baby in the family with other members of the family others 17:29 will be exposed. The baby is getting ready to experience a 17:34 long, terrible, painful death. You're on an island. You keep 17:38 the baby. It's so small within 24 hours if you don't do 17:42 something about that baby you're all going to die. Wouldn't that 17:47 be a terrible decision to make. This is what God is faced with. 17:53 You might think it's a little severe to say I need to put that 17:57 baby on a little raft and push it out to sea in order to save 18:03 the other 11 children or all of them will die. I realize this is 18:07 an imperfect illustration but I'm just trying to show you what 18:10 God is faced with. He's got this planet of creatures that are his 18:14 children that he loves. They've got this deadly disease of sin. 18:18 We're quarantined from the unfallen worlds and angels 18:21 because of our disease except God has developed a plan where 18:28 we cannot only be healed but saved from this disease of death 18:34 and be reintroduced to the family. That's good news when 18:38 you consider what we're faced with. One more point I need to 18:43 establish. You and I cannot save ourselves any more than that 18:48 baby could save itself. We are helpless to save ourselves. 18:54 We need outside help. You're works cannot save you. The good 18:58 works, the good deeds that you might do trying to right the 19:02 wrongs that you have committed through your life, that cannot 19:06 save you. And yet a lot of people try. I remember one time 19:10 I had a new computer and I was devastated because I ordered it 19:14 and bought it right out of the box, a Dell computer, exactly 19:17 what I wanted. I was so excited. Couldn't wait to plug it in and 19:22 turn it on. And I plugged it in and I turned it on and nothing 19:25 happened. I turned it off. I turned it on. I looked in the 19:28 instructions. I made sure I had the right power switch and I 19:31 tried and tried and it just wouldn't come on and I was so 19:35 disappointed. Well I finally thought it is plugged in. Sure 19:38 enough it was plugged into the power strip. Y'all know what a 19:42 power strip is? It's one of those bars that's got about 19:46 six or eight outlets on it. It's got a cable you plug into the 19:49 wall. Well you know what this dingaling had done? I'd plugged 19:53 the power switch into itself along with the computer. 19:57 (Laughter) You're not going to get anything to happen like 20:02 that. Now I'm glad to know I'm not the first one that's done 20:07 that. Some of you are laughing because you're going (grimaces). 20:13 Some of us do that trying to save ourselves. You cannot plug 20:17 the power strip into itself and expect any power. You cannot 20:22 save yourself, your good words cannot save you. You can only 20:26 be saved by power outside of yourself. So this is part of the 20:31 gospel. You've got to know you are helpless to save yourself. 20:36 Oh I want to give you those verses. Isaiah 64 verse 6: We 20:40 are all like an unclean thing and our righteousness is like 20:44 filthy rags. No matter how many good works you do your 20:47 righteousness will not be adequate. And again, Jesus said 20:52 in John 15 verse 5: Without me you can do nothing. We're 20:57 helpless without him. Now we've talked about the problem. We're 21:02 terminal. We've got this disease and we can't save ourselves. 21:06 That just describes everybody in the world and everybody here. 21:13 Here's the good news. Here's the answer. God loves you. Got who 21:18 made you, the God who made you, the God who is all powerful, who 21:23 created you. He loves you and he loves you desperately. John 16 21:28 verse 27: Jesus said, for the Father himself loves you because 21:34 you have loved me and believe that I came forth from God. 21:39 God loves you. He loves you infinitely more than any earthly 21:44 parent loves their children. And you know most normal parents 21:49 love their children. Even in the animal world you can see a 21:53 mother bear will lay down her life to save her cubs and even 21:58 a chicken. And you know what you call a person that has no 22:02 courage. Call them a chicken. But have you ever seen a hen 22:05 lay down its life to save its chicks? They'll do it. It's not 22:09 really fair to call a chicken a chicken like that. (Laughter.) 22:13 You know what I mean. So even in the animal world parents will 22:18 die for their children. I remember years ago living in 22:25 the panhandle of Texas hearing on the news about a gas station 22:30 that something went wrong and one of the pumps the gas was 22:35 exposed to a flame. The father had stopped there with his son. 22:40 His son went inside to the little convenience part of it 22:42 and the whole place burst into flames and the boy was trapped 22:47 inside and the father could hear him screaming and the father 22:51 tried to run into the burning flames to save his son and 22:53 others had to stop him and he fought with all he had to go in 22:57 and he certainly would have died But he didn't care. He thought 23:01 it would be easier to die with my son trying to save him than 23:05 the remember the rest of my life that I did nothing. That's one 23:08 of the thousand stories I could site of parents who have laid 23:12 down their lives to save their children. Earthly parents, 23:16 sinful parents, selfish parents that would die to save their 23:21 children. And God loves us infinitely more. He is willing 23:26 to not only die but to experience the death of a 23:30 child to save these children. So just take the love of a 23:35 parent, multiply it and square it a few times and you still 23:41 don't come up to the love of God for humanity. The very fact you 23:44 are alive since the penalty for sin is death is proof that God 23:48 loves you. Why aren't you dead yet? Because he has bought 23:54 probationary time for you to accept the good news. Even the 23:59 wicked, even the secular in the world that do not believe in God 24:03 are alive by virtue of God's grace. God loves you. 24:10 I John 4:8: He that does not love does not know God for God 24:15 is love. The single easiest word you can use to define the 24:19 essence of who God is, God is love. It's at the foundation of 24:23 everything he does. Now we've talked a little about God the 24:27 Father, the supreme authority in the universe who made everything 24:32 through God the Son. Who is Jesus? Now Jesus as we know 24:39 him is a little different than he was before he came to earth. 24:44 Christ tells us that before Abraham was I Am. Jesus existed 24:48 before he came to the world. He was the Son of God. Maybe not 24:51 known by the name Jesus back then, but the eternal Son of 24:55 God existed. That's why you read in Genesis, God says Let us 25:01 make man in our image. Mark 15 verse 39 when Christ dies on the 25:05 cross even a Roman centurion standing there declared, Truly 25:12 this man was the son of God, and he wasn't even a Jew and he 25:17 recognized that God came to earth and took on the form of a 25:22 man in order to save us. I Peter 2 verse 22: It says: 25:30 Who committed no sin. Jesus came to earth in the form of a man. 25:35 God came to earth, God the Son. He was incarnate. Carne means 25:39 flesh. Incarnate means he took on human flesh. He became a man 25:45 to save men. Who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his 25:50 mouth. Everything he said was true. The eternal Son of God is 25:55 the hero in the gospel story and then I John 3 verse 5: And you 26:00 know that he was manifest to take away our sins. He came into 26:06 the world to take away our sins. In him there is no sin. He lived 26:11 a sinless life. So, Jesus came to this world to save us from 26:17 our sins and to connect us with God. Now some maybe have seen 26:21 the gospel illustrated in a very simple diagram, they call it the 26:25 bridge diagram and it works for that purpose and so I want to 26:29 thank Cheryl for helping me put this on the screen. But just 26:32 very simply, look on the screen you'll see a very simple 26:36 illustration. Here you've got man. Man is dying. We're under 26:40 a death sentence. Man can do nothing to save himself. All of 26:45 our good works will not cross the span. We are separated from 26:51 God who is life by this chasm called sin. There is a great 26:56 gulf fixed, in the words of Jesus, between us and God. 27:02 We cannot get across that span. We're separated, we're separated 27:06 from God, we're separated from the hope of everlasting life by 27:12 this fixed chasm. But God so loved the world he said I will 27:17 come to earth, I will become a man. He is the anointed one. 27:22 That's what the word Christ means. Jesus comes, let's go to 27:27 the next slide and he is the answer. The cross of Christ 27:31 creates a bridge through which we can cross from where we are 27:37 to God. The sin that separates us was taken by Christ within 27:42 himself. Jesus provides the bridge by his sacrifice. There's 27:46 only one way for us to get across the bridge. What's that 27:51 word at the top? It's that simple friends. The gospel is 27:56 that God has provided a way to close the gap, to cross the 28:01 gulf of separation between us. It's crossing from death to life 28:06 and that cross is the cross. That bridge is the cross. 28:13 We cross it by believing. There is something you need to do to 28:19 be saved. You need to believe. Whosoever believes will not 28:24 perish but have everlasting life. Jesus came into the world 28:29 as a man. Why did Christ become a man? Well there are three 28:34 principle reasons that we're going to talk about. God the 28:38 Father, God the Son and God the Spirit agreed in the plan of 28:42 salvation that God the Father would send the Son. You might 28:45 be thinking, well that's a little brutal for God the Father 28:47 to say well all right I'll send you. I don't really want to die 28:50 on the cross, so I'm going to send you. What was harder? 28:52 For God the Father to suffer himself on the cross or to watch 28:57 his Son suffer. I believe it was harder for God to watch his Son 29:02 suffer. And Jesus knew how much it would hurt his Father. That's 29:07 why you have the Father and the Son, this great communication 29:11 going on where Jesus says, My Father why have you forsaken me? 29:14 They had never been separated through eternity. God the Father 29:18 withdrew his protection. He separated himself from Jesus 29:23 because Christ took our separation for us. And that's 29:28 what broke his heart even more than the physical suffering. 29:31 He also took the physical punishment that we all deserved. 29:34 Penalty for sin is not only death, it's punishment for your 29:37 specific sins and then death. Every man is going to be 29:43 rewarded according to his works among the lost and there are 29:48 even varying rewards among the saved. And so Jesus took the 29:52 suffering and the death and the separation from the Father for 29:57 you and me. He paid it in fill and because he's the creator 30:00 and all things were made through Christ, he was able to pay it 30:03 not just for you as though you are the only one who ever lived, 30:08 but he paid it for the entire world. He died for the sins of 30:11 the whole world. You and I can't even comprehend how much that 30:14 would be. So why did Jesus become a man? Three principle 30:19 reasons that Jesus came to earth Number one: He came to show us 30:23 what God is like. This world is totally in the clouds. We're all 30:28 fogged up about who God is and what God is like. Jesus said, He 30:32 that has seen me has seen the Father. He is all the fullness 30:37 of the Godhead perfectly revealed. He came to show us 30:40 what God is like. I get these questions every now and then. 30:43 People say you know it seems like the God in the 30:45 Old Testament is a little harsh and severe, but Jesus is so 30:48 loving and kind. One reason that Jesus came is to show us that he 30:52 is the same God as you see in the Old Testament. He is loving 30:57 and kind and yet he is just. And not only do you have plagues 31:00 in the Old Testament, you've got plagues in the New Testament. 31:03 Not only do you have mercy in the New Testament, you've got 31:06 mercy in the Old Testament. People who have the idea there 31:08 are two different Gods, they just don't know their Bibles. 31:12 It's the same God. And Jesus came to be a reflection of God. 31:16 He is full of compassion, he is full of mercy, 31:22 he's longsuffering to usward. I'm quoting from the Old 31:25 Testament now. So he came to demonstrate what God is like. 31:30 Second reason Jesus came. To give us an example of how to 31:34 live. He became a man and lived among men. The first 30 years of 31:39 his life he lived a kind of life a perfect life to demonstrate 31:44 that through his power when your hearts are made new you can live 31:48 according to God's will. That's right. He came as an example. 31:53 The Bible tells us, I Peter chapter 2 verse 21: Because 31:57 Christ has also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you 32:02 should follow in his steps. And especially once the ministry of 32:06 Christ began. It begins with baptism, which is something that 32:10 we should follow. He lived a life of service. He spent his 32:14 life healing others, teaching others, feeding others, 32:18 forgiving others, demonstrating how we should interact with 32:22 one another. So notice, Jesus came, the cross is up and down, 32:27 to show us what the Father is like. The cross is also 32:32 horizontal to show us how we should live among one another. 32:40 And then we came also to connect God with man. Two great 32:45 commandments: love the Lord with all your heart, love your 32:51 neighbor as yourself. The cross is really telling us about love. 32:56 It's that bridge. The third reason he came is as our 33:00 substitute, to take our place. Isaiah chapter 53, this was part 33:05 of our scripture reading this morning: All we like sheep have 33:10 gone astray. How many? All we like sheep have gone astray, 33:14 we've turned every one, to his own way. Selfishness. All done 33:18 our own thing. Instead of God's will we've been living for our 33:22 own will and that will never satisfy you. And the Lord laid 33:27 upon him the iniquity of all. The sin, the iniquity, the 33:32 punishment of all of us who are here, all of us who are watching 33:36 was laid upon Jesus. Whether you accept it or not, whether you 33:39 believe it or not, that's what happened. He came as our 33:42 substitute. Basically, he made a great exchange. It's something 33:47 like the parable of the good Samaritan, I trust that you have 33:52 read. This man falls among thieves. He's robbed, he's 33:56 naked, he's wounded, he's dying. He's passed by a couple of his 34:00 own religious people. Finally a Samaritan comes by, has 34:07 compassion on him, takes some of his own clothes and tears it 34:12 up and binds his wounds. Takes his own wine and washes his 34:17 wounds, takes his oil and anoints his wounds, puts him 34:22 on his own beast. He says look I'm going to take you to the 34:26 inn. I will pay your hotel bill. He makes this big exchange. 34:30 He basically says I will give you what is mine, I will let you 34:35 ride, I'll walk. This is the gospel. It's the great exchange. 34:40 Jesus took our weakness that he might give us his strength. 34:45 He took our sin that he might give us his purity. He took our 34:51 guilt that he might give us his peace. He takes everything that 34:56 is bad in us, our badness, and he gives us his righteousness. 35:00 He makes this big exchange with us and how do we get across that 35:06 bridge, how do we accept that? Believe, trust him. All things 35:12 are possible if you believe. What it means is Christ has paid 35:19 the penalty for your sins fully. You know sometimes I go to 35:24 dinner with friends and they say look let me get the bill. 35:27 No I'll get the bill. I feel guilty, I want to contribute. 35:32 I say well I'll do the tip. But Jesus says look I've got the 35:36 bill, you don't get to say I'll cover the tip. He says no I've 35:41 got the whole thing. He pays the entire penalty for our sin. 35:47 You don't pay any part of it. We are saved by grace through 35:52 faith. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should 35:58 boast. Mark chapter 10 verse 45: For even the Son of Man did not 36:04 come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom 36:09 for many. He gave his life as a ransom for your sin. He poured 36:13 out his life to take your place with his life. What a shame. 36:19 How tragic it would be to have the Son of God lay down his life 36:24 to provide a way for you to cross the gulf to have peace 36:30 in this life and live forever and you not do it. To offer to 36:34 pay that price and then say no I refuse. I'm still going to pay 36:38 it myself even though you've already signed the credit card 36:41 receipt. For me to insist on paying even after it's already 36:46 been paid. What a waste. He did pay and you must believe it to 36:52 receive and to be transformed by that power. God loves you and 36:58 he wants and intimate relationship with you. He not 37:00 only wants to save you, he wants a personal relationship with you 37:04 That's why the Lord says in the Bible: Come now let us reason 37:07 together. It doesn't matter whether you're five years old 37:10 or 95 years old, the Lord enjoys communicating with you. He wants 37:15 to be your friend. He wants to be part of your life. He wants 37:21 to walk with you every day because he loves you. How do I 37:26 respond now? I've talked about the bad news, I've talked about 37:32 the good news. What do we do? The answer, accept it. You must 37:37 do something about it. It will not benefit you unless you 37:40 accept it. Some are listening that maybe have been in church 37:43 for years and they've never really thought through what the 37:47 gospel is or accepted it. Accept his gift of life, believe. 37:52 Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death but, that's a very 37:56 important three letter word. On one side you've got death. 38:01 But the gift of God, a gift is something that is to be accepted 38:07 is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. In order for a pardon 38:12 to be effective it must be accepted. I understand there was 38:18 a president back in the 1800s that issued a pardon to a 38:22 political prisoner who had been accused of treason and the 38:26 sentence was death. There were some extenuating circumstances 38:30 so the president said so you know, we're going to issue a 38:34 pardon. Well this fellow, I guess, was pretty cantankerous 38:36 and he told the president when they brought his pardon to him 38:40 he said, I don't want it. And they'd never had anyone refuse 38:43 a pardon before. So they took it back to the courts and they said 38:47 what do we do about this. The president's issued a pardon, 38:52 he's on death row for treason, death by hanging, what happens 38:56 now? And they talked about it. They said a pardon that is not 39:02 accepted and received is invalid He was executed I presume. 39:08 In order for this pardon that Jesus has provided to be 39:12 appreciated, you must accept it. You see the penalty of sin is 39:17 death. This is why Christ poured out his blood. Without the 39:21 shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. That's why it 39:24 talks about us being washed in the blood. Of course, that's a 39:27 symbol of all of our sins being washed away because of the 39:31 sacrifice that Christ made in our behalf. I heard an amazing 39:35 story. You've heard of yellow fever. I remember when I went 39:40 to Africa, before I left, I got a shot for yellow fever and I 39:44 had a card that wrote down that I got this shot and Bonnie said 39:47 stick it in your passport, you are going to need it. I'd forgot 39:50 all about that because weeks went by. I finally took the trip 39:52 and I got off the plane. They were speaking in French. 39:54 I didn't know what they were saying. Pretty soon they grabbed 39:56 me and they pulled me into this little area cordoned off right 40:00 in the airport terminal with a little white curtain and someone 40:03 there was dressed in kind of blue smock, pulled out a needle, 40:07 a big needle, and I started to yell for a translator. What's 40:10 going on here? They said you got to get your yellow fever shot. 40:14 Oh I've already got it. They said you need proof and so I 40:17 showed them my proof. Man! I was so thankful I had had it at 40:21 a clinic in the U.S. You start getting a used needle in Africa 40:26 you get a little worried. Well the amazing fact is back in 1927 40:31 when there was a terrible outbreak of yellow fever there 40:34 was a humble native by the name of Abasai who contracted yellow 40:39 fever but because of his natural resistance he survived it. 40:43 They took a sample of Abasai's blood. They processed it and 40:47 they put it into mice and chicken embryos and eventually 40:50 they developed a strain from his blood that they used to make a 40:56 vaccine. It was taken to the Rockefeller foundation where 41:00 processed it and through exponential multiplication 41:04 they made vaccine after vaccine and people all over the world 41:09 have been receiving the vaccine from the strain of this one 41:13 man's blood and to this very day it can all be traced back to the 41:18 blood of that one native. Isn't that amazing. Well anybody and 41:22 everybody who is going to be in heaven, Old Testament or 41:26 New Testament, Christian or otherwise, you might be 41:29 surprised, there might be some people there that didn't know 41:31 about Jesus, are all there because of his sacrifice. 41:37 It's only the blood of Christ that makes it possible. Well is 41:41 there something I'm supposed to do? Yes, you believe. After you 41:45 accept it, first you must accept by faith that it's true. 41:49 God then gives you a gift of his Spirit. Part of that will 41:52 enable you to repent and to confess. Now you need to get 41:56 this right. You can't even repent without God. The Bible 41:59 says in Acts chapter 2 it is God that gives repentance unto 42:02 Israel. It is a gift of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings 42:05 conviction into your heart. You're not going even know what 42:08 to confess without the Holy Spirit because who here can 42:11 remember every sin they've ever committed. God is not asking you 42:14 to confess every sin you've ever committed because you can't 42:17 remember them all. But you can start with the general 42:22 categories. Most of us can confess to being liars or 42:27 confess to pride. Maybe you've murdered in your heart and I 42:33 won't go through them all. You know what they are. The deceit, 42:39 the stealing, the impurity. You know the categories. You can 42:44 come before the Lord, you repent and you confess. You say 42:48 why confess, doesn't God already know? It's not for him, it's for 42:52 you. He already knows. I might hurts somebody's feelings and I 42:55 know I've hurt them but they expect me to say you know I'm 42:58 sorry. They know it and I know it but you still tell them you 43:00 are sorry. We've offended a holy God, we've broken his law, we 43:03 broken his law. We should confess. One of the first things 43:06 a good attorney will tell you if you've broken a law and you 43:09 know you've broken it when you go in before the judge admit it. 43:12 Say I did something wrong and I am sorry. If he's going to have 43:16 mercy on you, you first must admit it. Repent and confess. 43:20 There's more to that than you might think. Luke chapter 13 43:25 verse 5, Jesus is speaking: Unless you repent you will all 43:30 likewise perish. So how important is this part of the 43:34 Gospel? The kingdom began, John the Baptist, repent for the 43:38 kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus began repent for the 43:42 kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is crucial that we repent to 43:47 God for our sins. Acts 3:19: Repent and be converted that 43:51 your sins may be blotted out. He gives us through his Spirit 43:54 when we accept Jesus, he gives us the Spirit to help us repent. 44:00 I John 1:9: If we confess our sins, this is the verbal side of 44:04 repentance, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and, 44:08 I like this part, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now 44:12 when you confess your sins to the Lord, you repent of your 44:16 sins, he promises that he is faithful, you can depend on him, 44:20 and he is just, meaning he has a right to, he's the judge, he 44:24 made the law. If he says he's got a right, he's got a right. 44:28 To forgive you for all of your sins. So if all of your sins are 44:32 forgiven what is your condition. To cleanse you from all 44:36 sin. If you've been cleansed from all sin because you've 44:39 repented and you've confessed how much sin do you have? 44:42 In God's eyes you are pure, in God's eyes you're forgiven, in 44:46 God's eyes you're a saint. That's good news. You can go 44:50 from death to life right there through faith. That's good news! 44:55 You know, I think it's so important for us to understand 44:57 this. Let me read one more thing to you here. Ezekiel 33:15,16: 45:05 Speaking with repentance. No I want to start with Proverbs 45:10 28:13: He that covers his sin will not prosper. Be honest with 45:14 God. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. 45:17 Repentance is not just being sorry, it's being sorry enough 45:22 to be different. Amen? Saying Lord, I want to live a new life. 45:25 Don't worry how you're going to do it tomorrow. Except the 45:29 gospel today and then you have the power to do the impossible. 45:34 Now, this is so important. Some people at this point is where 45:37 they choke, they stumble, they fall, they turn back, they quit, 45:42 they get confused. If you come before the Lord and you repent 45:47 of your sins and you confess your sins, that news is so good 45:51 that you believe I've done what God asked me to do. 45:55 He's cleansed me from all unrighteousness. I now have 45:59 accepted the cross. I believe I have eternal life. Once you 46:04 really believe you have eternal life, you become righteous by 46:09 faith. That righteousness by faith then empowers you to want 46:15 to live a different life. Because if you know right now 46:17 you've got eternal life how much lure and temptation is sin when 46:21 you now have left the whole life of sin, you are on your way to 46:25 the kingdom and the devil tries to wave his favorite temptation 46:28 in front of you, you are empowered now by the Spirit of 46:31 God and the desire for the kingdom. You've been adopted 46:35 into a new family. God gives you a new heart. Those things don't 46:39 have the same attraction they had. Some people never really 46:43 believe they're forgiven so they don't act like they're forgiven. 46:45 When you really believe you're forgiven the actions are 46:49 different. There's a joy in your heart. You might be thinking, 46:55 will Jesus accept me? You know we've all had earthly parents 47:01 at one time or another that we felt rejected. You know we just 47:05 couldn't please them. Some of us maybe had parents that were just 47:09 always perfectionistic. Nothing was ever good enough and we 47:13 transfer that idea about our earthly parent to our heavenly 47:16 parent and we think you know I've been such a sinner, how 47:20 could God ever forgive me. Well you look in the Bible. 47:24 You'll find that he forgave David of murder. He forgave 47:28 Moses of murder, David of adultery too. You are not a 47:33 bigger sinner than God is a savior. Don't be so proud and 47:37 arrogant to think that you do a better job of sinning than God 47:42 does of forgiving. Don't think that you have your black belt in 47:46 sinning and God has only got his brown belt in forgiving. I mean 47:50 that's how some of us really come at it. When God says look, 47:54 if I can die for the sin of the whole world, I can die for your 47:58 sin. If my sacrifice was potent enough to cover the sins of the 48:02 whole world then don't think you're so special. He can reach 48:06 unto the uttermost. The Bible promise is that he can reach 48:11 everybody. John 6:37: All, what's that word? All that the 48:16 Father gives me shall come to me and he that comes to me I 48:20 will in no wise cast out. It doesn't matter how dirty or 48:25 sordid your past might have been if you come to Jesus he will not 48:29 cast you out. He accepts you. John 3:16: For God so loved the 48:34 world he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever... Now who 48:38 would that include? Whosoever believes... What is the key? 48:44 Whosoever believes will not perish but have... Do they 48:48 possess it? Everlasting life. That's good news. And then 48:53 you can go to Revelation 22:17: And the Spirit and the bride say 48:58 come... Last chapter in the Bible. Let him who hears come. 49:02 Let him who is athirst come. Whoever desires, let him come 49:07 and take the water of life freely. What is it that 49:10 qualifies me to receive this. Your own desperate need. 49:12 Matter of fact, Jesus seems to demonstrate that those that look 49:16 the most hopeless are the ones he delights in saving. Even the 49:19 ones that humanity gave up on like Mary Magdalene, Jesus 49:22 delights in saving. So who will he accept? Whoever comes to him. 49:28 That means that if you do not come to him, don't blame him. 49:31 You've got the freedom to accept and to believe that he'll 49:35 forgive even you. What will God do for you when you accept him? 49:42 Ezekiel 36:26: I will give him a new heart, I will give you a new 49:47 heart. I will put a new Spirit within you. I'll take away that 49:52 heart of stone... that selfish heart out of your flesh, that 49:56 dead heart, and I'll give you a heart of flesh. I will put my 50:00 Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. That's 50:04 the good news. You say ah Lord I can't do it. He says I'll give 50:07 you a new heart and I cause you. I give you the power to walk in 50:11 my statutes and to keep my judgments and to do them. 50:18 I Corinthians 2 verse 9: But as it is written, eye has not seen 50:22 nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man 50:26 the things that God has prepared for those that love him. 50:29 Well what if I don't love you very much, Lord? Start where 50:32 you're at. You know that he loves you and the more that you 50:35 see how much he loves you it will inspire within you love for 50:39 him. The Bible tells us we love him because he first loved us. 50:42 It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. When we 50:46 see what he's done for us then it touches our hearts. It tugs 50:50 something within. The Spirit stirs us and we want to be 50:55 forgiven. So what's required? You need to make a decision. 51:00 The gospel requires a decision. Now I'm going to invite you to 51:05 make a decision. I've tried my best to very simply explain the 51:08 gospel. Matter of fact, I've taken a little more time than 51:13 you really even need to take. I elaborated and I'm hoping that 51:17 you will make a decision to accept the gospel and if nothing 51:21 else take this program, study the basics and you'll understand 51:25 how you can share the gospel with someone. But a person must 51:29 be brought to a decision. When you present the gospel, don't 51:33 walk away. At that point ask them now do you want to do 51:37 something about it, a tangible decision. Matthew chapter 27:22: 51:43 Pilot said, What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? 51:49 Not enough just to talk about it. You must choose. You've got 51:55 three choices really. Choice number one, you can say yes I 52:00 accept the gospel. I'm going to pray, I'm going to receive 52:04 Christ. Choice number two is you say no I don't believe, I don't 52:09 accept it. Then some have an imaginary third choice. 52:14 That third choice is not right now, I'm going to wait. 52:19 Well, you don't know if you'll be alive tomorrow. You don't 52:22 know if the Holy Spirit's going to move on your heart tomorrow. 52:27 So choosing to say no to Jesus now is really going back to the 52:32 second option which is just plain no. Postponing is a no 52:37 choice. Now granted God is merciful and sometimes the 52:41 Holy Spirit stirs a person later in their life but you're really 52:45 gambling with eternity. That's a dangerous form of Russian 52:50 roulette. So if today you hear his voice, do not harden your 52:55 heart. II Corinthians 6:2: Behold now is the accepted 53:04 between two crosses. There were two thieves, both under death 53:09 sentence. They represent everybody here, everybody who's 53:12 watching or listening. The one on the right hand could do 53:16 nothing to save himself but he looked to Jesus and he believed. 53:19 He said Lord remember me. I believe you're a King. I want to 53:23 be in your kingdom. Jesus promised that he would be. 53:26 He died in peace. The one on the left, he said he wanted to be 53:31 saved but he never accepted Christ. One died saved, one died 53:36 lost. You might even say of those three crosses on the hill 53:40 one died to sin, one died in sin and Jesus in the middle died for 53:48 sin. Everybody is making a decision one way or the other. 53:53 What will you decide? I'd like to ask you to make a decision 53:58 right now. Matter of fact, I'd like to have you pray with me 54:02 right now. If you would like to accept the gospel and accept 54:06 Jesus, I'm going to lead you in a very simple prayer and I'd 54:09 like for you to pray it out loud and you may have been in church 54:13 all your life, I'm going to pray it again; I'd invite you to pray 54:16 it. As a matter on the screen and I hope you'll be praying 54:21 from your heart. Would you like to say this prayer with me? 56:06 Now you have just gone through the first and most important 56:09 step in crossing that bridge through belief and accepting 56:11 Christ's sacrifice. He promises to do his part. He promises to 56:16 give you a new heart. If you prayed that prayer in faith then 56:21 you become his child. He says he cleanses you from all 56:24 unrighteousness. That's good news. You've gone from death 56:28 to life; you've gone from sick to well; you've gone from fear 56:32 to peace; you've gone from meaninglessness to purpose. 56:37 That's the gospel, friends. I just wanted you to hear the 56:41 simple gospel one more time. It's that wonderful old story 56:44 that we've heard before but it hasn't lost its power has it? 56:48 And I hope that you will share this with others and lead them 56:52 to Christ as God gives you opportunity. 56:54 Thank you for joining us for this broadcast. If you've missed 56:57 any of our Amazing Facts programs visit our web site at 57:00 amazingfacts.org. There you'll find an archive of all our 57:03 television and radio programs including Amazing Facts Presents 57:06 Central Study Hour, The Everlasting Gospel, Bible 57:09 Answers Live and Wonders in the Word. You'll also find a 57:13 storehouse of biblical resources geared toward answering some of 57:16 your most difficult questions. And our on-line Bible school is 57:19 just a click away. One location, so many possibilities. 57:23 A web site whose roots date back to the beginning of time 57:27 SabbathTruth.com is the definitive resource for Bible 57:31 light on the Lord's day. Clear Bible answers for every question 57:35 you've ever had about the Sabbath. Seven key topic heads 57:39 guide you through the purpose of the Sabbath, which day is the 57:42 Lord's day, the Sabbath in prophecy, questions about the 57:45 Sabbath, how to keep it holy, the Sabbath in history and many 57:48 Sabbath resources. Visit SabbathTruth.com today and share 57:53 your new found treasure with a friend. |
Revised 2014-12-17