Jack Jurgens's Ministry Library

Gospel tent meeting with Peter Ramsay and Joseph Baker.

[0:01] I’d like to read from the Bible, 1 Timothy, Chapter 1, 1 Timothy, Chapter 1.
I’m going to read this verse, actually, that’s to my right here.
I’m going to read some of the verses around it.
The writer is a man named Paul, and in verse 12 he says, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me, that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious.
But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
It is verse 15 I have in mind tonight.
Can you read it again? This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

[1:16] We began last week by looking a little bit at a title that’s actually in this book in 1 Timothy, the glorious gospel.
Another word for glorious might be awesome, something that causes awe, wondrous.
And we looked at maybe six things about the gospel that can cause awe.
The fact that it comes from God, the speaker behind the gospel should cause awe.
The standard a person is faced with when they realize that sin is actually coming short of the glory of God.
The scope of the gospel that goes out to all the world.
The stakes in the gospel, that when a person hears the gospel, it’s not about which church to join, but it’s actually as big as either heaven or hell for eternity.
The simplicity of the gospel, and it can be condensed, this amazing message is just three words.
And the reality is that when a person receives the gospel, they can receive spiritual sight.
And this week I’d like to look at some of the people who were faced with the gospel and how they responded.
Some responded in shock.
Some responded like, I could hear this last night. How can these things be?
But this man, Paul, he’s a lot older now than when he was saved.
Not a lot older, I suppose, but nearer to his death than he was when he was saved.

[2:25] And what encouraged me here, even for those of you here who are Christians, sometimes you hear, that being amazed that you’re a Christian or being amazed at your testimony, is really like preschool Christianity. Like you grow out of that. But there’s a time where you appreciate other things beyond that. That’s true. And it’s kind of elementary. It’s kindergarten to enjoy your salvation. Or you’ll have a hard time swinging back by the Apostle Paul.
The Apostle Paul, at the near the end of his life, it’s amazing.
You know, some people, when they talk about Paul, they think like when Paul was saved, he did God’s greatest blessing.
God stumbled upon a prodigy, Saul of Tarsus. And now, now the gospel can go forward.
You know, everyone might believe that except this man. He’s amazed.
He cannot believe that him, the gospel actually came to him, that he was actually a preacher.
Another man like John, an old man, likely at the end of the time the Bible was written.

[3:27] Just before the final words of the Bible, this man John, an old mature Christian, he’s just amazed at who he is as the disciple who Jesus loved.
So no, enjoying your salvation, or enjoying the fact that God has loved you and saved you, is not pre-K spirituality. This is something that we should enjoy all our lives.
And I hope if you’re safe here, you’re enjoying it, and you’re safe, happy day, happy day.
I just looked it up, I don’t know, I don’t sometimes pay attention to the words we say, I don’t know if anyone else is like that, and then all of a sudden it just hits you.
Like, that seems pretty extreme. and live rejoicing every day.

[4:12] Live rejoicing every day. So, whether it’s right or wrong, I was just looking up this guy who wrote this hymn. I wondered, like, did he not have any trials? I struggled to rejoice. I know what it’s like to hear the news on the end of the phone that somebody has passed away that you love, or somebody is really sick, or somebody gets into a car accident.
And so I looked him up, this man, Philip Doddridge, let me just read you some of these things about this man who says he can live rejoicing every day.
His mother died when he was eight years old.
Four years later, his father died. He’s 12.
He was married. They had nine children. The first child, Elizabeth, died before she was five years old.
He had a very sick life and eventually the sickness overtook him and he died, not all, that old himself.
And live rejoicing every day. Like, do you have something?
You have something that you can rejoice every day, even if your mom dies?
Or even the day your dad might die?

[5:32] If your child does? Not that you’re happy those happen, but do you have something that would bring you joy every day? See this man that we’re talking about tonight, Paul, he also had a very difficult life. He was beaten, there were times people threw stones at him, people didn’t like him, they drove him out of the cities, he spent many years in in a jail, ended up being executed. A lot of the Christians that he saw become Christians turned their back on him. There was a time they wouldn’t even acknowledge him as a real preacher or as an apostle. Yet there was one thing that he could rejoice in every day and that’s what we’ve read tonight. Did you notice what we read? This is a faithful state. Worthy of all acceptation, worthy for everyone to accept. What is it?
Praise Jesus. Amen to the world.

[6:31] And if you don’t know that joy that comes from no matter what’s going on in your life, knowing this, that actually there was one who left heaven to save me, then you can have that joy tonight.
And that’s why we’re here. We’re here so that that can be a reality in your life.
I want to just look at these, this verse, and I want to look at couplets in the verse.
First of all, I want to look at faithful saying. Secondly, save sinners. Thirdly, Christ came.
Lastly, all acceptation, because you know, far from now and my voice is forgotten, and, you forget all about me, I hope you’ll still remember this verse.
And I hope this verse will be seed from the Word of God that God can use in your life and in your heart whenever He should please. Faithful saying.

[7:13] I want you to think of it as a solid foundation beneath you.
Solid foundation beneath you.
What this word means, faithful saying, is that this is a statement, this is a word that you can rely on, unlike the prognosis of the weatherman, right?
Or unlike anything really in life that you can’t really rely on, like there was not too long ago where we were told, many of us anyway, depending on which news you’re looking to, that we’re near the end of the pandemic, that there’s no more, everything is now easy to, be dealt with, and yet we’re hearing of variants all over the world and shutdowns again, and, And I hope it doesn’t happen again, but at the same time, there are very few things in life that you can put both feet on and solidly rely on.
That’s what this says.
Paul says this is a trustworthy statement.

[8:03] I just want to appeal tonight to anybody here and all of you here to give you the benefit of the doubt for an intelligent thinking people.
What is the most important thing about a message?

[8:19] Is the most important thing that it is presented enthusiastically?
That’s good. I don’t know if somebody should be presenting it if we can’t do it enthusiastically.
That might just be my opinion. But it’s not the most important thing.
It’s the most important thing that makes you feel good.

[8:41] It’s the most important thing about a message that it makes sense of your experiences, the different things, and it just makes sense of everything going on in the world. And as long as it makes sense of things, then yeah. Or would you agree with me that the most important thing about a message is that it’s true? And that if it’s not true, even if it makes you feel good, even if it makes sense of things going on, even if it’s presented enthusiastically, you have every right to reject it. I’ve said this before, but I got an email once from the Prince of Dubai telling me, that he had transferred six million dollars into my bank account, and it made me feel very, very good.
And I just thought that was amazing. Six million dollars for the Prince of Dubai, never met him, and he knew my name, and all he needed was my social security number, and I would be linked $6 million to Prince of Dubai. You know like that. Yeah. You know what you do with it, right? You push spam or delete or whatever you want to do. Or if you’re like like those people who mess with them, You might do that as well.

[9:54] But no, that’s spam. No matter how good it makes you feel, you understand, like, that is not true. So I have to get rid of it. I have to delete it. And we’re struggling with that in our world. It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not, right? Even in the news and different things that are presented to us. And so it’s so important that this is a solid foundation. Whatever Paul’s about to say, he’s saying, this is rock solid underneath your feet.
This is a faithful thing you can totally depend on. And that’s why, by the way, it’s worthy.
It deserves everyone to accept it because it’s true.

[10:25] Listen, I don’t have to be, really, I don’t want to say insane, but it’s hard not to be thinking properly to reject something that’s true.
Like if something is true, if you were to tell me today that it’s raining outside today, and I said, oh no, no it’s not, don’t rain on my parade, I’m having a warm sunny day here, I think you would have every right to think there’s there’s something wrong with me.
Because truth should trump whatever I feel or whatever I think, right?
And so are you willing tonight, is there anyone here who is intellectually honest?
Okay, we don’t do this every night, but I want you to appeal tonight to the intellect, so the will of anyone who is intellectually honest to face the gospel, or you’re just gonna shut out the truth.
Does it matter that it’s true? Well, I don’t need to deal with it.
No, if it’s true, you should face it, shouldn’t you?
And so it’s a faithful thing. Well, next couple here, save sinners.
See the reason I started with that front porch, if you will, about it being a truth, is because the description now, not the foundation under you, but the description about you, is not a description that I think anybody wants to hear.

[11:40] Sinners. Maybe if you grew up in Sunday school, I grew up going to church, maybe you’re used to that, yeah, I’m a sinner.
I was in Sarnia this year, having gospel meetings and there was a lady coming, I think she was, in her late 80s, and for the longest time, she would not admit that she was a sinner.
She said, I’m a pretty good person. She said, I’m not as bad as other people.
I know I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve asked God for forgiveness.
And as we were preaching, feebly, best we could, At the end of the third week, she came up to me and she said something that was both refreshing and concerning.
She said, I admit I am a sinner, but that is so hard to say.

[12:28] That is so hard to say. And I think if you don’t find it hard to say, maybe you don’t know what it is to be a sinner.
Maybe you don’t understand that a sinner is someone who is looked at in the sight of God as a criminal.
Someone who is worthy of death.
Someone who has already been condemned to death. The soul that sins will die, the Bible says.
Someone who is a sinner is described as someone who God’s wrath is hovering over them, and could fall at any moment.
It says that in John 3, verse 36, that the wrath of God abides on a sinner. It abides on them.
It’s not a pleasant description to be called a sinner, or to be called ungodly.
That’s how the Bible describes us.
We’re described as sinners, because that’s what we are.

[13:13] The reason it says to save sinners, this is another thing that really hits at the pride of human beings.
Is there nothing that we can do? Okay, I’m a sinner. I’ve broken God’s law. There are things He’s expected from me and I haven’t done them.
And there are things He’s never expected from me and I’ve done them.
But is there no way for me to make amends?
Is there no way, if you were here last night, for me to reconnect to God myself by something I could do?
Well, that word, save, save, that’s the word for a rescue.
That seems to indicate that there’s nothing I can do. And it does.
It does. If you understand the word save, it is only for people who need to be rescued, for people who can do nothing. It’s not the word for help.
It’s the word save, people who are absolutely helpless. And so this really strikes at the pride of people as well, that I am actually a sinner before God.
I’ve broken his law.

[14:15] And I’m helpless to bring myself back to Him. I’m helpless to clear my own record.
I’m not only a sinner, I’m a helpless sinner. That’s how the Bible describes you, my friend.
Again, are you willing to face the truth tonight?
Are you intellectually honest?
Is everyone here intellectually honest tonight? When the Bible says that we are yet without strength, are you willing to say, yes, I’ll stand on that foundation?
Or are you actually gonna say, no, No, God is lying in Romans 5 and 6.
And God is lying in 1st Timothy 1, 15.
Please understand, those are the options to us. It is either that God is true, and I am in God’s sight, a helpless sinner, even though I might feel perfectly fine, or that God is lying.
There are only the two options that are allowed.
Moving quickly tonight.

[15:08] Look at this. This is a faithful saint, worthy of all exaltation, that Christ Jesus came.
Christ Jesus came into our world, to save sinners. And there were storms when Christ came, just like today.
And there was a day when there was a storm when Christ came and everyone was watching him on the boat, as the boat was rocking and filling with water.
It was a wonderful day. I can’t compete with the rain, I’m shutting it down.
Just let me know. I want to tell you that if you accept this verse tonight, you can leave this meeting, safe. Christ Jesus did in fact come to save sinners.
Before that penalty on the cross, if a person will accept, that’s the last point there, if a person will receive, will welcome, will trust that Christ is God, they will be saved.
So I leave you with these 25 words, you can hear me tonight, and for those on Zoom who can’t hear me.
Listen, this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into our world.
Bye.

Filed under: Gospel Series, baker-joseph, ramsay-peter