If you would please turn in your Bibles once again. You may have noticed there is some connection between the preaching and the reading, and the reading and the preaching. Sorry. I have a hard time simply pontificating the words. John chapter 1. What did Adam and Eve need? They needed the gospel. What do you and I need? We need the gospel. If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ in a living relationship, loving obedience, receiving forgiveness from Him, what you need is the gospel. In the beginning was the Word, this living Word, and the Word was with God. Remember, triune God, Father, Son, the only begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Living Word was with God and the Word, Jesus Christ, the Living Word, was God. He was in the beginning. He was in the garden. All things were made through Him, through Christ. And without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life. The tree of what? In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness. That's if you do not know Christ, you continue to stumble around lost as a goose in a rainstorm in a fallen wicked world from which there is delivery not just at death, but in this life. The light shines in the darkness in your world today and the darkness didn't comprehend it then and it doesn't now and it will never until it comes to Christ. And the darkness did not, I think it's important to say the word can be taken not just to comprehend intellectually, but the darkness did not overcome the light. It looked for a little while like it did. It was a bad time for the home team. But the darkness did not overcome it. Jump down, if you would please, to verse 10. He was in the world, Christ, and the world was made through Him. The world did not know Him, did not comprehend Him, did not understand Him, did not want Him. I am the master of my fate. No, it's a good thing you're not. The world was made through him. The world didn't know him. It rejected him actively, and it still does, doesn't it, every day. He came to his own place and his own people And his own did not receive him, his own. What did the Jewish nation do? They killed an innocent man and the leaders were totally responsible and they completely knew what they were doing. Total culpability. It wasn't, oh man, I didn't know, I'm sorry. But, You have divine election here verse 12, as many as received Him took Christ into themselves who acknowledged Him for who He is. To them He gave the right to become children of God to restore that relationship that Adam and Eve had with God. No barriers. He gave and He gives to this day. right to be children of God. A Heavenly Father looking after them. It's a tough world out there, a bad, evil world yes, but you've got a Heavenly Father who is looking out for you or you wouldn't be here today. To those who believe Him, receiving Him is dependent upon knowing Him that's why God gave us His Word. We have the preaching and the reading and the teaching of it and so on. You gotta have content so you can believe in the Jesus of the Bible, not believe in a God of your imagination. And when you believe him, you can receive him. Say, Lord Jesus, if you would, please take my life and do with it what you want. Forgive my sins. enable me to live a life pleasing to you. Don't send me to the hell that I deserve. Make me your brother, your sister. Make me a child of the Heavenly Father so that I have this overwhelming identity with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As many as received Him, to them He gave the the power to become children of God to those who believe in His name who were born, remember Eve, the mother of all living, the very name implies being mother. Born not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Let me encourage you this afternoon Go and read John chapter 17, born not of flesh or the will of man, but the will of God. And then jump over to verse, just a moment, I've got my eye wrong here. Yes, I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time reading. The law was given through Moses, and the law condemns. If you take it seriously, you recognize in all 10, you've been there today. You've been there this week. The law condemns. But grace, undeserved favor, unmerited favor, unearned blessing, grace and truth, came through Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter how much you know of the world's wisdom. It doesn't matter how much power you have. There is one way to heaven, and that is the grace and truth through Jesus Christ. Christianity is very exclusive. Then, would you turn please to Romans, the book of Romans chapter 3. The scripture reading seems rather long and I suppose it is as I look at that clock which is not stopping. Romans chapter 3 verse 20 actually, therefore by the deeds of the law keeping the Ten Commandments or keeping civil law No flesh will be justified, treated as though we were right and holy and good and perfect and obedient. We won't be treated that way in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, This is verse 21, but now the righteousness of God, the rightness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God, which is through faith. When you go before, and unfortunately I've not had this experience, but you go before the federal judge, that's a pretty awesome experience in its own. And it is nice, it would be nice to be able to say in answer to the question, how do you plead? It would be nice to be able to plead innocent, your honor, innocent. In our own, we cannot do that. The righteousness, the innocence is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. And on all who, I'm sorry, the faith is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. When the blood has been, Christ's blood has been poured out and poured upon the list of your sins, the charges against you in that heavenly courtroom, those charges can no longer be seen because the blood obscures it, covers them over, buries them. It is through the blood of Jesus Christ that our sins are forgiven. In Jesus Christ, on all who believe, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, verse 25, He is the propitiation by His blood through faith. the word of the Lord perhaps expounded a little bit. And if you've heard that, you have heard the sermon. I can't read the clock back there either. Okay. The covenant of works of which we spoke each time I've preached, or talked, or whatever, we've looked at the covenant of works. Do this and live. And it was pretty simple. Pretty simple. Adam failed, obviously, fell into sin, and God would have been just if He had squashed the whole thing and said, well, that was just a failed experiment, it's over. But He didn't. What did He do? extends the covenant of grace. And the one thing that He requires is faith. A foundational passage, Ephesians chapter 2, for by grace are you saved through faith. Two things over which I have no control. For by grace are you saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We don't have good works that we can take to him. Everything has been tainted by our sin, our very best things. By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Faith is a condition or term by which we can receive the benefits of God's covenant. The question is, where do we get that saving faith? As a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ. What is faith? How does it kind of work out? I want to suggest it is investing our mind and our soul and our time and our efforts, our priorities, our values, All of the things that are important to us in vesting our mind and our entire being into Christ alone. It isn't Christ plus my church. It isn't Christ plus some theological formulation, though those are important to help us think through and get to know the Lord better and see His grace more. But there will be folks in hell who could give you a nice theological disquisition, but they never got around to knowing Jesus, the God-man. Investing into Christ alone, who said there is no other way under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. The option to being saved is hell. And I don't have time in this series. I may have to come back later. I've got in mind a six or eight sermon series on hell itself. Now that is discouraging. The good news always is that Christ has triumphed over death, grave, hell, sin, Satan, and all of the evil. But you don't want to get there too quickly. Well I'm not going to preach an eight part sermon today, sorry. on the Lord Jesus Christ." Did you hear that? Salvation by faith in the work of Christ who kept, what did Jesus do? The one person in all of human history who kept the will of the Father. He always did the will of the Father. He did what His Heavenly Father said do and He didn't do the things His Heavenly Father said don't. He lived perfectly. If He didn't He is just one more dead religious hero. but he's not just a dead religious hero. Being God himself, he took into union with his divine person, a human spirit, human soul. He was the God man. He can represent us. He is our intercessor. So in that day after you have died and you appear in the heavenly hall of justice, instead of you walking down that long aisle and looking up at the high desk and seeing an angry God, angry at your sin, instead you look to your right, and here is the Son of God, God in the flesh, whom you knew in this life, and He's your defense attorney. Could you start to feel a little bit better? I would think so. And when he walks up, you walk up with him in front of the bench and your defense attorney says, hi dad, I don't mean to be flippant, but it's that kind of warm personal relationship within the Godhead that he brings to that courtroom. And he pleads our cause. How would you like this if your defense attorney Answering the question, how do you plead? If he were to say, guilty, your honor, guilty of every one of them, that might cause a little concern, you reckon? But if he says, yeah, dad, he's guilty. He is as guilty as sin. But daddy, I died for him. I died for her. I paid the death penalty. It's already been taken care of. Check the books. They, he, she, a brother, a sister of mine by faith. Lord have mercy. The penalty already paid. What a difference in that courtroom scene. Can you see it? Can you hear it? Can you conceive of that mentally? Or am I the only guy crazy enough? I don't know. I see a couple of smiles, thank you. Justice has already been done for the believer. The penalty is paid. Now then, what are you gonna do about it? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, not just out there, Saved from, what are you a slave of? Your telephone? Sex? Alcohol? Drugs? I mean, go on and on. He doesn't save us so that we can suddenly feel real good and then go back to what we used to do. He saves us out of all of those things. He infuses meaning in getting up and going to work, whether it's fancy or not fancy. He saves us not just in eternity, He gives us a life worth living, He invests meaning, He vests meaning into our lives of what we do. And that all has to do being saved by faith in Him, believing in the biblical Jesus. And I've probably said it before, it's a constant refrain, you are not saved by the Jesus that you imagined. that you wish might have been. You're either saved by the God of the Bible or you are not saved and your eternity is to spend eternity under the wrath of an angry God. The famous colonial sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. If you haven't read that, go back and read it. It's out there, Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. That helps to put things in perspective, I think. Hell, is it just, you know, awesome, awful, horrible to contemplate it. And Christ offers us freely forgiveness of our sins, a right standing before God, innocence in the court of eternal justice, and then invests meaning into our lives. I'm a landlubber, okay? I've not been on big boats or anything, but you're back here east. You got a lot of water real close. I don't know. Anybody here who has not been out on the water in some kind of a watercraft? Okay, well, you know more about this than I do, but we've had some training. Even the Army can receive training occasionally that makes some sense. If you are being transported by boat, Even the small ones, the PBRs, the patrol boat riverine, have on the inside at the gunnels a big round white O. What is that? It's got a rope tied to it. What's that? Isn't that the life ring, the life rope? If you are interested in becoming a Christian, if you are open to the gospel, it is the Holy Spirit who gives us the ability and the desire to be saved from hell, to be saved into eternity in the family of God. It is by faith that we are able to grab the lifeline, the life ring thrown by sailors to people who are drowning. But we were also taught, you are not responsible. When you have thrown the life ring out and it is within reach, a reasonable reach, of the guy who has fallen overboard, he still has two options. He can take it or not. And I don't know what the stats would be in any of the sea services, but there are men I know that have been around too much. that commit suicide on shipboard by jumping over the back end. And if you could get a life ring to them, they wouldn't take it. They are there to commit suicide. What's this talking about? Here's the analogy. You know the Gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You've been hearing it. You've studied it. You've read it. You've heard it at Sabbath school, church camp, all these things. What are you doing with it? What are you doing with the Gospel? Okay, and I'm a hypocrite. Many a time I have not shared the Gospel when I should have. I suspect I'm not the only one in the room. Yes, we have failed. Failed often. When we don't share the gospel, we do share some responsibility for that person. But when you present the gospel, it's a free offer. We don't try to force it. Don't grab them Bible lapels and shake them. We offer new life in Christ. forgiveness of sin right in your heart, right in your relations, a relationship with God doesn't fix your marriage but it certainly makes it less bad than it was. I am not responsible for that person coming to Christ or not. I am responsible to share the Gospel. Most of us don't do that that much. I can't speak for this congregation. I can say farmers are a little slower to do that, tend not to be highly verbal people anyway. If you don't share the gospel, are you not throwing out the lifeline? Do you bear some responsibility? I think the answer is yes, a responsibility for the drowning. If you don't offer the opportunity to be saved by grasping the gospel of life in Christ, the gospel is the life ring. Short application, and I say this as an outsider, my wife and I are, you are just blessing the socks off of me, I'll tell you that. I am so much appreciative of you all. Going door to door is something I never had to do. I had enough people knocking on my door. Right around where I was, I didn't have to go doing cold door, what are they called? Cold, what's the word? At any rate, knock, knock, knock. Going door to door, you aren't trying to save them, but you are offering part of the lifeline. Come to a place where you will hear the gospel and you will see it. Come where you have an opportunity to escape hell and find yourself set on the path toward heaven because in this church they're going to hear the gospel. So we go door to door to start to establish personal relationships. We can't be personal friends with everybody out here but the congregation can and has kind of gotten your arms around a number of people from other backgrounds, other places. they grow in Christ or they come to be saved. And so that's a simple thing to go door to door. But the goal isn't just to go door to door or just to have them come to a funny building for an hour a week. It is for them to get to know this Jesus Christ in a personal relationship with Him. So we offer to these neighbors who are drowning in sin the lifeline, the gospel of free salvation by faith, not good works, by faith in Christ. That's what this door-to-door stuff is. It's not like we're trying to imitate the Jehovah's Witnesses or something, okay? We need to remember, and you can call this point two, faith is trusting Jesus, or point three if you like, Christianity is living by faith. many as received Christ to them Gave he they and Christ gave power to become children of God I don't know how many of you come from broken homes And I don't care. It's not my issue We are surrounded by people who have never had a father. I And I'm so encouraged when I see Christian men being fathers. And when I see that out in public, I often go to the man and thank him for being man enough to be a father, to be man enough to be with his wife and kids, and them being parents instead of just letting the little hellions go. To them gave he power to become children of God. It is always interesting. Children usually go to mama when they want sympathy. But when a guy gets hurt, when a kid, I'm talking a kid, up through age 18 or 21 or whatever it is, when he gets hurt, he doesn't really want mama showing up with lace. He wants dad. He's probably suffered kind of like that. He can kind of identify, I can more identify with him of our heavenly dad, brothers of Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, who was tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin. He's been hurt in his life. He had all sorts of bad things happen, didn't he? And he was always triumphant. And if we are to triumph over the problems of this life, we need Jesus walking with us, sometimes picking us up. A combat medic sometimes is called on to pick up a shot up guy and get him over the shoulder. And you're running back somewhere to get him away from those guys. You want to get him behind some folks that are providing friendly fire cover for you. And that's a little bit of a picture of what we do in evangelism. This guy is wounded. He's going to die. And we get close to him. We grab him up, put him on our shoulder, and we run to the cross with them. Carrying him in our hearts. Get him to come. Get him involved. Let him hear the gospel that they can have life life eternal. How do you become children of God? To those who believe in Jesus' name. This is John 1 12. Who were born by the will of God. Yes, I cannot coerce God into saving this guy. But I can give the guy opportunity to hear. And when he hears, the Holy Spirit may choose to use that. Ugly. But one of the most important facts of the Bible is the resurrection of Jesus who came alive again on the third day after His death. After the Roman centurion declared judicially that Jesus was officially noted to be dead and they were masters of death. When that centurion said it that meant He's dead. But three days later The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. He raises people from spiritual deadness and makes us alive, scripture says, together with him. He doesn't pick us up, dust us off and say, good luck, go on. He's the guy who's walking beside you. Sometimes he's got his arm around your shoulder. You may still be weak and wounded and hurt. Yes, all those things. But he walks through that with us. And that's how we could be more than conquerors through him who loved us so.