You're very much aware if you
attend Grace Gospel Fellowship that we are non-boasters save
in the cross of Jesus Christ. We make our brag in him and him
alone. On Thursday evening, during what
the religious world calls Holy Week, we hosted the Ministerial
Association here and Thursday evening was my opportunity to
preach the gospel. A message that I've preached
for 50 years. I'm asking you to help me and be used of God to make that
message go viral. It's a message the world needs
to hear. It's God's only message. And
not for my sake, Jesus has told us go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. If you haven't, I know over 300
viewers a few nights ago had already seen the full length. I'm gonna ask Duane to cut it
to where the preaching begins and cut all the fluff and preliminary
beginnings because it takes you a long time to get to the message.
So I hope you'll do that. I know many of you are on Facebook
every day, several times a day. Make Christ the center of your
Facebook. Get that message out of Jesus
Christ. Well, yesterday was one of those
days that I'm always so fearful because I can't get settled.
I have no notes today, but we have the word of God today. We know that he is risen indeed,
amen. I don't want you to be an ignorant
church. I don't want this to be a church that cannot give
an answer for the hope that is within them, a sure and a steadfast
hope. Not a hope like, I hope, I hope,
I hope. but a sure and a steadfast hope,
a good hope. Now you're able to say, I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. That in the day of
judgment, you know there will be no condemnation for you and
you know why. This is heavy on my heart and
has been for some time now. As I listen to preachers and
talk to individuals, I see total ignorance. Two things I see,
ignorance of the word of God, ignorance of a very clear fact
that Jesus is Christ and Lord and Savior. I see that ignorance and then
I also see the form of religion having a form of godliness, but
that's all it is. It's a ritualistic, baptistic,
heathenistic, Catholic-listic, Presbyterian-listic, a form of
godliness, but with no power. Someone asked me this week, do
you believe in shouting? I said, yes, but not on business
meeting night. In other words, what I'm saying
is I do believe that there ought to be an amazement and entering
into the gospel of Jesus Christ, where you can say with the songwriter,
and I hope you can say it today, I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder that he could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. Oh, how marvelous. Oh, how wonderful. is the Savior's love to me. Entering in and knowing the gospel
is such serious business. Think about it. Just think about
it. God came down here not to play
with us, not to give us a form of religion, but to save us from
our sins. And he did it. When it comes to the gospel,
the apostle said this, woe is me if I preach not the gospel.
Every man who says he's been called of God has been called
to preach one message. And I know that some of you feel
a little different about this than I do, but I believe there
is only one message. And I believe that the gospel
is a cure-all for your marriage, a cure-all for you disciplining
your children. It's a message of God's amazing
grace. Do your children believe that
you believe and believe it all over that God has come in the
person of Christ and saved you? Do they see that? And you're
excited about it and thrilled about it. You know, you can very well see
throughout the scripture the emphasis that God places on the
gospel. The church at Corinth was such
a worldly church. They were always acting out.
Something was always messed up in that church, kind of like
ours. In fact, they meant to take the
Lord's supper one Lord's day, and they all got drunk. You can read it in the Corinthian
letter. And here's what Paul said to
them. Don't you have your own houses
to eat and drink in? Now, in most churches today,
if they would meet and get drunk, well, we use grape juice here,
but back in the day, it was the real stuff. They use wine. We use grape juice for the benefit
of those of you who have a problem with alcohol. But I would tell
you this, not to get sidetracked, I don't have a problem with alcohol,
so I could drink the real stuff and it'd not bother me at all.
But there are other things that bother me that don't bother you,
right? We also, we use grape juice here
for your benefit. It's nothing to argue about,
just for your benefit. But when the apostle Paul reprimanded
the church at Corinth, it was very light considering they got
drunk. But now when you go over to the
Galatian letter, and the churches have left the gospel in the first
chapter. He said, there's only one gospel.
You're preaching another gospel than that which I delivered unto
you. And even if an angel from heaven comes and preaches another
gospel, let him go to hell because there is one gospel. That's how
serious this business of gospel preaching is. When you come to
the house of God, you ought to expect and want to hear the gospel. I probably won't preach to you
on a Sunday morning how to have a great marriage. Unless I preach
something like this, husbands love your wives as Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it. If I talk about practical
things, I will take you to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you this. If I was
going to preach on sanctification, I would take the gospel. I would
try to thrill you with the message of the gospel, where in your
heart you're saying, as I'm preaching, God, forgive me of what I did
this week. Lord, I love you. Lord, more love to you. Lord,
help me to live my life to your glory and to your honor. I'm
not going to beat you up because in your flesh dwells no good
thing. And you're not going to be a holy person by me giving
you rules and regulations. It's not. What is going to sanctify
you is the same gospel message that justified you, the message
of Christ living and dying for us. So in the Corinthian letter,
15th chapter, as Joe has read, the Apostle Paul says this, I
declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. which also
you have received and wherein you stand. Is that true? Are
you standing in the gospel? When someone says to you something
about their baptism and them being a Catholic or a Baptist
or a Presbyterian, they began to adorn the message with all
of this stuff. Do you strip it right down for
them and say, that message is not the same as my message. My
message is this, I saw One dying on a tree in agony and blood. He fixed his languid eyes on
me as before his cross I stood. Oh, can it be upon a tree, the
Savior died for me. My soul is thrilled. My heart
is filled to think he died for me. Do you strip it? The message,
do you strip it? I have to say I have sat in many
services and I have cried out in my heart, strip it. Well, I've said something else
in my heart too, but let me see him. Let me see what
he did for me again. Tell me the old, old story again. I'm never weary of hearing it. Now the Apostle Paul in the second
verse of Corinthians 15, by which also you are saved if you keep
in memory. Keep in memory? If you keep in
memory. I tell you plainly and without
blushing, every day the gospel is in my memory. Every day. And usually even when I have
a sinful thought, Oh God, forgive me. Oh Lord, thank you for dying
for that particular sin and paying my sin debt for that evil thought
that I just had. Every day the gospel is utmost
in my mind, keeping in memory. Have some of you forgotten? In
fact, the Lord gave two gospel ordinances because he was fearful
we would forget. This do in remembrance of me,
he said, in remembrance of me. Do you remember him every day?
Do you count your many blessings, name them one by one? And are
you overwhelmed and surprised at what the Lord has done for
you? Keep in memory. Say, well, pastor,
do you know that repetition is the best teaching? It's the best
teaching. I know some of you kind of feel
this way. Well, you know, we go and Clark preaches the same
thing every time he gets up there. It's the same old, same old.
Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Because whatever happened to
me as an eight-year-old boy, I've never got older. I haven't
got over this truth that He died for me, He rose for me, He ascended
for me, He's in heaven for me, and He's coming back again for
me. 1 Corinthians 15, 3, For I delivered
unto you first of all, first of all, first of all, You know
what's first and last and everything in between? The gospel. It's
the gospel. That which I also received. I
was trying to consider Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road.
He was like a bloodthirsty dog after the blood of the sheep
of God. He was hunting them down and
killing them and having them thrown into prison and all in
the name of God. And something happened on the
Damascus road. He met up with Stephen's savior. Remember, he held the coats while
they stoned the deacon. But he heard the message as he
held the coats of those that stoned the deacon. He heard the
gospel and it was like a prick deep down inside the Holy Spirit. You better be careful hearing
the gospel here today. You may be a Muslim. You may
be, I don't know what you are, but I know there's a power in
what I'm preaching today. That's almighty power. It's the
power of God. It can take an atheist and make
a Christian. Take a Muslim and make a Christian.
Take a Baptist and make a Christian. The gospel can do that. I delivered
unto you first of all, is the gospel first with you? Learn
the gospel. So while I know the gospel, Christ
died for our sins, according to scripture was buried and rose
again. Oh, you still haven't got it yet. Study the gospel
every day. Oh, the depth of what God has
done in Christ Jesus. So first of all, what I received,
what happened on that Damascus Road, by the way, is not the
invitation that most preachers are giving today. On the Damascus
Road, Saul of Tarsus found out who Jesus was. He's Lord. Today we hear so much about accepting
Jesus as your personal savior. You know, the first thing that
God does in a man is show him who the boss man is. Jesus Christ is Lord. You have
to be overcome. After all, you're a part-time
addict. You go from the church house
to the crack house. Hallelujah. You know, you've got all of the
language of religion. You have a form, but your heart
and spirit is not jumping and clapping, and you're thrilled,
and you're in love with the Messiah, King of kings and Lord of lords. You see, you have to be conquered.
You have to be conquered. And that's what happened to Saul
of Tarsus. He didn't say, bring the decision card on the Damascus
road. He didn't step over the line
to Jesus. He didn't make a decision for
Jesus. He got knocked on his duff. Who art thou Lord? I'm Jesus. And then he didn't say Jesus,
he cried out again, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Is that
your cry? What do you want me to do? You
have saved me. I see you as king, and sovereign,
and mighty, and awesome, and redeemer, and the way, and the
truth, and the life, and the alpha, and the omega, and the
beginning, and the end. I see you. You're the lily of
the valley, and the bright and morning star. You're the fairest
of 10,000. Have you seen that Christ died
for your sins? That's what he said. I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died. Christ died. Christ died. Dying is serious business. Christ
died for our sins. He died a penal death. You see,
the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die in hell. Christ died for our sins, a penal
death. If all you've seen this week
is The nails being driven through his hand, feet and spear in his
side. You haven't seen a whole lot.
I mean, the Bible says his visage was marred beyond that of any
man. And I've often read that in the
book of Isaiah. And I've said to myself, well,
what does that mean? Because I've heard stories of
people who were in World War II, people who were in when the
Japanese dropped the bombs on our ships and they were blown
to bits and they're couldn't unrecognizable. And yet the scripture
says that his face was mired beyond that of any person. And
I said to myself years ago as a young preacher, well, how can
that be? And what does that mean? You've
got to go beyond what men did. God did something. Because, you
see, every sin, in order for you to go to heaven, has to be
punished. Somebody has to pay for your
sins and sin. You see, sin is not so much what
we do, it's what we are. We are born sinners. And so when
you get three years old, you lie about taking cookie out of
the cookie jar. You stick out your tongue at
your mother. You learn bad words really quick. Because you're born a sinner.
You have a sin nature. That's why you have to be born
again. You have to be given a new nature. And then because we are sinners,
we commit sins. That's why you get drunk. That's
why you use drugs. That's why you commit adultery.
That's why we commit these sins because sin is what we are. The hog goes back to the mire
because it's its nature. You can take it and, you know,
paint its toenails and put it in the living room. But as soon
as it gets out of your living room, it's headed back to the
mud hole. It loves the mud hole. And so Christ died for our sins
and God punished him. That's why Isaiah 53 says, he
was wounded for our transgressions, not for his own. He was bruised
for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him and
why his stripes were healed. You got up this morning, you
might have got up really early to watch the sun come up and
worship the risen Christ. But what happened after that?
What thoughts have you had since then? I mean, since you had your
little worship this morning, what thoughts have you had? Looked
into the mirror and said, looking pretty good. They're gonna like
this over church today. The scripture says this, whether
you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do the glory of God.
Everything you've thought today, everything you've thought today,
has it been to the glory of God? Not me. I can just flat out tell
you, not your pastor. He died for our sins, the just
for the unjust that he might bring us to God. You see the
centrality of Christ in the gospel. The only way for you and I to
be brought to God is he's got to bring us. And we must stand
before the almighty who is holy, holy, holy. We must stand before
him without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. In order to go
to heaven, you have to be perfect. You have to be sinless. Oh, it's
getting quiet in here. And I'm talking judicially. I
know that we're not sinless in our flesh. There's no good thing
in our flesh. But I do know this, at the cross,
Jesus Christ said this, Jesus prayed for us. Father, forgive
them because they're ignorant. They know not what they do. And
I said to myself this week, I want to enter into that. I still don't
know. And I cried out in my heart like the Apostle Paul in the
Philippian letter, oh, that I might know him. I want to know him. I mean, I really want to know
him. I want to enter into what took
place for me at Calvary. I want to know how He suffered
and bled so there's no hell for me, there's no condemnation for
me, there's no judgment for me. Oh, love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all. He died for our sins. just like the scripture said
he would, according to the scriptures. Read your Bible, and if you don't
find Christ right away, there's something wrong, because he's
in there from cover to cover, from cover to cover. Say, well,
what about all those lineage passages over in the Old Testament
about so-and-so begat so-and-so? Keep reading. There's a Messiah
coming. There's a Redeemer coming. There's
a Savior coming. that he was buried, that he was
buried. He was buried and in my mind
I've always seen this and thought this and sometimes I've said
it over 50 years. Satan called up death the first
day and said something like this to death, you still have him? This is Kent Clark version now. Oh, death said, we've got him.
Nothing going on down here in the grave. Satan called up the
second day. You still have him. I'm telling
you, deader than a mackerel down here. Nothing happening down
here. Third day early in the morning.
Do you still have him? Something happening down here.
Something going on down here. The stone has been rolled away.
I don't know exactly what happened, but his grave claws have been
folded neatly. On the third day, he got up in
the power of his omnipotence. And they came to the supplicant
very early in the morning and the stone was rolled away. My
friend, the stone wasn't rolled away so he could get out. It's
so they could get in and see he wasn't there. And the apostle Paul would say
this as you go on through this chapter. I want you to know I
am what I am by the grace of God. It's amazing grace. And he said, I want you to know
there's a resurrection day coming. We had a memorial service this
past week for Sean. Sean had come to know the Lord,
but Oded, as most of you know, and I was thinking about him. Well, Pastor, how can somebody
OD and still be raised from the grave? Because of the power and
blood of Christ. Same way you're going to heaven.
I don't suppose any of you have ever had a relapse. There is a resurrection day coming.
And actually, I think every Easter when I think about resurrection,
I think about our little Stuart who died as a baby. I think about
him coming. I know many of you have so many
people that have gone on, my parents gone on, my ma nanny,
my grandmother who knew Christ and taught me so much that I
love like a mother and Milton Men of Grace, Herb. Just so many
over there. What a great day it's gonna be
when the trump of God sounds and the dead in Christ are raised
incorruptible and undefiled. I was just thinking Milton's
probably jumping up and down right now. And Herb's probably
talking. You'd have to know those boys
to understand that. And we traveled all over this
world telling people that Jesus is Christ. And many people came
to know him as Lord and Savior. And now they're there. What a
great homecoming. You know, tomorrow will be a
great day, no matter what. It's a great day. You know why?
Because he reigns. He's King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. Shannon and Dave are down in
Naples, and they got up this morning and went to sunrise service
on the beach. And somebody on the beach, it
always makes me anxious when I hear a trumpet blowing. And somebody was playing on the
beach there in Naples. Up from the grave he arose, I
thought. One day the Trump of God will
sound and the dead in Christ shall be raised. Don't be practicing
your Trump around me, trumpet around me. I'll start looking
up. I don't know what the Trump's
gonna do, whether it's gonna be da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I don't know exactly what's gonna
happen, but we're gonna be out of here. all of the talk about World War
III and North Korea and what's going on in the Middle East.
I don't fret myself too much about that. I mean, I think we
ought to be trying to have peace, but you know, you can't hurt
me. What are you gonna do? You kill me, absent from the
body, present with the Lord. My future is so great. It is so great. You say, I don't
know about tomorrow. Oh, I do, because I know who
holds tomorrow. And he's promised to work everything
for my good and his glory. Amen. So I just, I leave you
with this. By the way, Joe Atwell will be
preaching next Sunday. I'm going to take this cam away. I hope this week and throughout
the months and days ahead of us as we move forward, I really
believe this and I believe the Lord's put this on my heart.
People are always saying to me, so who's going to take your place?
I'm not dead. In fact, I have never felt more
alive, I think. I want to preach the gospel to
the world. I want to preach to the world what I have preached
to you today. It's Jesus. It's Jesus Christ
alone. He's Lord. He's Redeemer. He's
Savior. Look to Him. Look and live. There
are some of you here, life's been so tough. It's time you
get a new life. Amen. Life from above. And maybe today
you got a little excited on the inside. Maybe the Spirit of God
said on the inside of you, He quickened you, He made you alive.
You've had that old dead nature that you've been walking around
with using heroin and crack and women and everything else. But today something happened.
In time, what God will do in the power of the Holy Spirit
is give you life. Life. and it's a good life. Really every Christian in here
quit talking about, my life sucks and I don't know. What are you talking about? It could be your great getting
up morning anytime. It could be family reunion time.
I said, but there's so many sad things happening. There's no
sad thing happening except the Lord's in charge of it. And he's
promised to bring good out of it. People often ask me, well,
so-and-so relapsed, so-and-so ODed, you know, they killed themselves
actually, they took the drug and killed themselves. Where
do you think they are? I said, well, it really, You know, the
deciding factor is not whether you put heroin in your body,
it's whether Christ is in your life. Oh yeah. And I know, I know what some
of you are going, you shouldn't have said that preacher. About
half your audience is going to go out and use now they think
it's okay. I didn't say it was okay. I just said sinners go
to heaven by the blood of Jesus Christ. All right, let's stand and sing.
Will you today, can you, are you able today to simply trust
Christ and on this Easter Sunday morning believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Trust Him.