Jack Jurgens's Ministry Library

Gospel tent meeting with Peter Ramsay and Joseph Baker.

[0:00] We’re going to read in the New Testament, 1st John, not the Gospel of John, but 1st John, Chapter 5.

I don’t normally speak with my shirt sleeves rolled up, but people say when you have your shirt sleeves rolled up, you mean business.

[0:17] And, unless you, maybe you haven’t noticed this other night, we are, we do mean business.

This is business for eternity.

There are business transactions that are taking place every day of the year, at a corporate level, at a horizontal level, and they will mean absolutely nothing 250 years from tonight.

But what we are talking about is eternal business, and whether we roll up our sleeves or not, We are concerned that the, what is it, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday nights remaining, that there may be someone who has had a beautiful opportunity to hear about Christ and they will miss the opportunity and never end up being in heaven.

That’s the sad possibility of a gospel effort like this.

Now on the more optimistic, the brighter side of things, people attend services like this, and they hear that they can have their sins forgiven and they can be absolutely sure.

I hope no one’s just hoping they’re getting to heaven.

[1:31] You can be absolutely sure. In fact, 1 John chapter five, we read about being absolutely sure, but you could come to a meeting like this tonight and you could hear about the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation through him alone, and you could leave, go out to your vehicle in the parking lot with a smile on your face, and joy in your heart and peace in your soul.

And that’s what we’re praying for this beautiful Tuesday evening.

First John chapter five and verse nine.

And while you’re looking that up, regarding Christianity, who really is a Christian?

Who has eternal life? Who can you believe about existential matters and matters, spiritual matters, about where you’ll be for the eternal ages?

How do you know if you are a Christian?

How do you know if someone else is a Christian?

So the Apostle John is writing about some of these great matters.

And here’s what he says, verse 9, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is a witness of God which he hath testified of his Son, that’s, Jesus.

He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.

He that believeth not God hath made him a liar.

[2:57] So it’s one thing to not believe me, by me untrustworthy, but when someone cannot believe God, you ever think that you’re calling God a liar?

You say, I’d like to be saved. I have a Bible.

I know those verses, but yet you’re not saved.

You probably can believe me, but you cannot believe God.

In other words, God is a liar. What sort of a stark, this is what he’s saying, Gideon believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son.

What is the record? The Bible. The Bible is God’s holy, reliable record.

And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, this life is in His Son.

It doesn’t say in the church.

It doesn’t say in baptism.

You don’t get an announce of life through baptism.

No church can give you a spark of life, eternal life. This eternal life is in His Son and in Him alone.

Verse 12 couldn’t be clearer. he or she, whoever has a son, has life.

[4:25] And he or she that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. And you don’t have to go through online, look for a lawyer in Manhattan to figure this out.

It’s so clear, isn’t it? If you have the Son, you have life.

If I was to ask you, everyone who has the son, a moment in your life when you receive the son personally, consciously, in your life.

[4:58] All of you stand here, and those who do not have the Son of God, stand here.

Where would you stand tonight? It’s just that clear with God.

There’s no foggy area, there’s nothing misty, nothing hazy.

You either have eternal life, the Son, or you don’t have eternal life.

And this little tent service is divided just that clear. We don’t know who is a Democrat and who’s a Republican here.

We have more parties than that back home in Canada, but we can’t look at an audience and say she’s a Democrat and he’s a Republican.

And we don’t know whether you have money. Some of the richest people shop at Goodwill stores.

So we don’t know that.

[5:46] Do you know something? God divides this meeting.

You either have his son and you have eternal life, or you do not have a son, and yet, and you do not have eternal life yet, but maybe tonight you’ll leave with eternal life.

That’s our prayer. One more verse here. These things, John writes, have I written unto you, that you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.

But I just want to speak for the opening part of the meeting on verse 12.

Whoever has the Son has life.

But whoever does not have the Son of God has not life. You know, it’s really disturbing.

It’s sad to meet people who are accumulating many things in life.

But they’re missing Christ.

They are maybe rich with material possessions, They’re spiritually poor because they don’t have Christ.

[6:58] Do you have Christ? I’m not asking you. There are a lot of people who have got what they call God experiences, God experiences, or a religious memory that happened at a summer camp.

No memory will ever take anyone to heaven. God’s salvation is not in a memory, and it’s not in like a God experience or people have existential stories to tell.

Or a near-death experience. You know what I mean? You see them online, near-death experiences.

And they’re relying on those things. That’s not what this verse says.

Only the ones who can say, I have the sun, have life.

Those who do not have the sun, do not have life.

Well, how about you? Do you have eternal life? Some people have years of prayers.

They have an abundance of religious knowledge.

They have baptism. They have a lot of spiritual credentials.

[8:13] They have a lot of sincerity. I remember visiting an elderly lady back in Prince Edward Island and, oh, she said, come on in, dear.

And I went in and we were sitting there talking and this come over here.

I got his brain. This is my baptismal certificate.

[8:33] Well, it’s nice to have a baptismal certificate saved and preserved and framed, but no baptismal certificate will ever take a person to heaven.

I spoke with an 80-year-old woman in Northern Ontario in Canada, and we sat there, we said, what are you relying on to get into heaven?

And she said, well, I played the organ in the church, and I was a choir leader as well.

And she went over the whole list. She said, my mother and father were both religious people, two different denominations, but we were raised as a very religious family.

And then she said, I taught special needs kids in school.

And she thought about all the things that she did. And then it’s like her mind was going, what can I get into heaven?

Oh, she said, yes. And I was involved with girl guides.

[9:32] Those are wonderful things to be involved with. But checking off the list doesn’t get anyone to heaven.

You must have Christ. That’s why I’ve read this verse. Whoever has the Son has life.

Not whoever has a profession. Not whoever has a verse.

I mean, most people who have been raised in an evangelical church of any kind know the verse, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, Acts 16 30 31 can say it like that. A verse will never take anyone to heaven. Christ alone. You may see Christ in the verse. I saw Christ in the verse and realized that he died for me. But, Christ alone saves.

Well, tonight I was thinking of an analogy that I have used quite a few times, because I think it’s something we can all relate to.

You probably knew that this iconic beast that you… it costs so much to fill only up halfway now.

You probably know that it was invented in… designed and invented here in your country, as many other things have been.

And you probably know that the shopping cart was initially rejected by shoppers.

[10:56] Shoppers thought it was a beast of a thing. They thought it would be copped dead, but I will take and use my hand basket any day.

Not going to go around with one of those albatrosses.

And the person who invented it saw that they weren’t flying, they weren’t going anywhere. No one wanted, no one was going to stoop so low as to get a, make up a shopping cart, and to make a fool of themselves pushing a shopping cart around the store, so he was quite creative.

He said, I’ll hire a bunch of fine-looking young men and women, models, back in 1937, and I’ll have them go up and down the aisles pushing the cart, and people will say, look at it, it can’t be that odd.

They’re pushing. Those are fine-looking people.

And the shopping cart, the rest is history. We use shopping carts, right?

I don’t know whether you’ve ever thought of your life as a shopping cart, a shopping trip.

You’re going up and down the aisles of life.

You arrive at the shopping store.

[12:01] Grocery store, and you sort of have a list. Well, when did you pick up your cart of life?

Most who are old enough know when they arrive. It’s your birthday when you arrive here, when you start of your life, you know the date.

But there’s no one in this audience who knows the date that you will arrive at the checkout when you will leave.

But when you die, you know when you arrive, you know your birth date, but you don’t know when you will check out.

It depends very much on what you have in your car, whether you’ll ever be in heaven or not.

[12:45] Life is very serious. We said it other nights. You are different than the rest of creation.

God has made humans in, he said, our own image. That’s what he said.

The trying God, After our likeness and God, we’ve been created with a sense of God’s consciousness.

The Bible tells us that he has placed eternity in our hearts.

And you are here on planet Earth.

[13:16] To live for God, that’s his desire for you. And if you’re not, how could you ever expect to be fulfilled?

You are specifically designed to have a relationship of communion.

But it’s broken by sin.

But tonight the gospel can bring it all back together and you can have a vertical relationship that will never be severed.

We’re so glad you’re with us this evening. Arriving.

Well, as I said, we don’t know when we’ll arrive at the checkout.

Life can end quite abruptly.

It seems like such a short distance.

[14:01] From the cradle to the coffin.

From the fast race cars and the dirt bikes, the motorcycle to that very slow car, long car, with a little flag on it and lights flashing.

It seemed like such a short thing, time.

From the sand in the play box to the ash in an urn, such a short distance.

My grandchildren back in PEI, or our grandchildren back in PEI, On Sunday they went to a little cemetery and they looked at the Ramsey relatives who were buried there and they were looking at all the headstones.

You ever look at a headstone in a graveyard? Nineteen.

Two thousand. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen.

That just says, that’s how quick life is. Some die young, some arrive at the checkout older.

Eighteen.

Nineteen. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Sixteen. Eleven.

[15:13] But if you were to arrive at the checkout tonight, do you have what it takes to get into heaven? Well, you arrive, you pick up your cart, and you’re looking around.

OK, that’s the meat pot, like especially down here. Like I don’t know your stores.

I was in the store last night buying some fresh fruit.

And I went to three parts of the store before I actually found the fresh fruit. I was in the meat section and I was in the bakery section and I was going to ask somebody, where is the, I need fresh fruit for tomorrow. Not because they’re not giving it to me where I’m staying, but I had another purpose. So you look around, a lot of people looking around, maybe you’re looking around tonight. You know you’re here on planet Earth, but you’re looking around and saying, okay, where is it? What is it I need in life? And you’re looking around and trying to get located. We’re glad you’re checking out a gospel service like this. And we hope that your look will come to an end and you’ll focus on the Lord Jesus Christ.

People are looking around to calm the turmoil within, the unrest inside. Something that That will give them joy, a smile on their face, bring them pleasure, bring them satisfaction to look around.

And they go up and down the aisles of life. Some of you are maybe a preteen year.

[16:39] Some of you may be in your teen years, the aisles of the teen years.

My friends, my peers, if you’re going down the aisle of the teen years and others are in their 20s, it’s finished up our education.

And then my first job in my career path, my first set of wheels that I can afford, a nice one.

Maybe I should be looking for a life partner and you’re looking at all the things on the aisles of my 30s.

Anybody here in their 30s aisle?

And you’re thinking about promotions. Maybe if you’re married, maybe I should have some children, and maybe the payments are not getting weighed down with mortgage and payments.

And 40s, you know, dear, we should go on a little extended vacation and do some traveling in our 40s.

And check our investments have been doing pretty miserable the last few months.

[17:40] Um, I need to get. Like, I really need to find, I want to learn how to golf.

Forties. That’s the 40s aisles. Midlife crisis. Forties. I remember being down the road here in Hatboro, um, in Pennsylvania, and I just saw the first specks of white hair. And I went into a drugstore and I thought, is it too late to get some of that coloring stuff? And I picked up bottles. I guess that would be a mid-life crisis. It’s too late now, you’d all catch up.

But 40s, 50s, worried about getting old, trying to stay young, jogging more, and trying to stay current in the job unless some MBA, some river snapper of an engineer comes into the workplace and you’re just shoved out to get a golden handshake. Text me. Text me.

Retirement. Well, should we downsize? Well, we might need some extra space for our grandchildren.

Oh, I hope I’m not becoming a senior. 70s? 80s? What isle in life are you on? Are you, making the right choices? You’ve seen people go up and down the isles of life, the aisles the grocery store, and they go up and they say,

[19:07] And the reason above.

[19:11] No. Too many calories. And they put it back up.

It reminds me of people who come to a gospel service like this.

And they think about Christ. And they think about the implications if they trust Christ.

How He will change your life. Because mark my words, Christ will change your life no matter who you are.

Your life will be changed.

It won’t be just more of the same.

If you don’t want your life changing, Christ isn’t for you, but if you want your life changed, Christ is for you.

Some people think, no, I’m putting him back up on the shelf.

They go out to their car.

Not in the car. They don’t take Christ home with them. Choosing.

Never underestimate the importance of the choices that you make.

[19:59] Sometimes at a critical juncture in your life, you’re just turning the aisle and around the corner, and you’re going down and all of a sudden you’re blindsided. You never even thought of buying high detergent. And there’s a huge end of the aisle display. I know this because I used to work in the grocery store and mostly I was just tapping, just stopping the shelves. I remember when the manager said to me, Peter, we would like you to try your first end of the aisle display.

The whole idea was to catch the consumer off guard. They were never intending to buy it, but they see this beautiful, magnificent end of the aisle display.

I really must eat it. That must be on sale. And they take it and they put it in their cart.

Do you know what Satan often does? He has end of the aisle displays.

Just when you start thinking about being saved, you’re blindsided by a friend that you haven’t seen for a long time, or a job offer and you can’t focus.

End of the aisle displays to distract you.

Oh, don’t be distracted this evening. This is, this is for eternity, friend.

Please don’t take Christ off the shelf and think about him for five minutes and say, no, I’m putting him back. Not for me.

[21:22] Our prayer is that you will choose Christ tonight. You know, when you go to the grocery store, there are things that you must go home with, you really need. There’s things that you’d like to have, chocolates and chips. And then there’s a night, like we should get a few more paper towels and maybe some vinegar and sugar, although I got a few bags of sugar left.

I must have eggs and flour and whatever.

Well, it might be nice to have a new vehicle. And it might be nice to have a lot of things, but if you’re ever going to be in heaven, you must have Christ, Christ.

You’ll never be in heaven any other way. You must have Christ.

You know, you can go to heaven without money.

[22:13] You can go to heaven without friends. You can go to heaven without an education of any kind.

You can go to heaven without a church.

You can go to heaven without a baptism.

You can go to heaven without ever taking Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper.

You can go to heaven without a job, but you cannot go to heaven without Christ.

You must have Christ.

Arriving, looking, choosing, needing, leaving, checkout.

It must be an awful thing. It’s scary enough at a grocery store when you’re supposed to be there to pick up a roast.

You fill your cart up with a whole bunch of other things and you’re standing in this long line and they’re just about ready to say, next.

[23:07] Will I go back? It must be an awful thing to end that the checker come to the checkout of life, and realize I’ve got this and I’ve got that but I don’t have Christ. Some of you are old enough to remember Senator Ted Kennedy, John F Kennedy, his brother. Ted Kennedy died a few years ago and it seemed like he was going over all the things at the end of the shopping cart of his life that he was hoping to go to heaven with, and so he wrote the Pope.

[23:38] And he had President Obama deliver a letter, and the content of the letter, it’s no secret, it’s been publicized, and Ted Kennedy, I printed it out, Ted Kennedy told the Pope all the things that he had done in his life, all the things that he had put in his card of life over fifty years in elected office. He said he fought for education, he fought for access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I’ve always tried to be a faithful Catholic, your holiness.” And he went on about all the things. He listed all these things. I fought against discrimination. I worked hard to welcome the immigrants. I, opposed the death penalty. I fought to end the war. And the list goes on. And he asked the President of the United States to hand deliver this to the Pope, thinking, I’ve got all these things in my cart, and I read that, it touched my heart.

None of those things will get anyone into heaven.

[24:46] What you have in your cart tonight, will that get you into heaven?

If you have Christ, it will.

Well, let me give you one contrast, and then I’m finished.

Into some here, related to some here, a man by the name of Paul Prins. And he arrived at the checkout of life. Just as he was turning 50 on his 49th birthday, cancer specialists told him the grim news of the severity of his lung cancer. That’s what he got on his 49th birthday. Then he says this, he said, I was allowed to celebrate my 50th birthday. He said, I love my wife Stacey and my children Alexander, Fraser, Spencer, Olivia, and Anastasia, but soon I will have to say goodbye. I pray for their future, but for me, my future is heaven and it’s nearer every day. And I have peace, because I have Christ in me.

[25:57] You got that news that you’re arriving at the checkout much sooner than you ever expected.

By way of a car accident, by way of a deadly disease.

Are you ready? You don’t know when you’re going to arrive at the checkout.

[26:14] You won’t always have a chance to rush back and open a Bible and say, oh, I’m going to scramble now. Doctor’s only giving me an hour to live. You know, we said that some people are taken like that have an applause. And if you don’t have Christ, he that has a son, she that hath a son, has, life. Oh, there’s nothing more important in your life than making sure that you have Christ.

Don’t go home without Christ tonight as you listen to Joseph.

And I’d like to read in the book of Romans, New Testament, the book of Romans in chapter Romans chapter 3, and we will just read verse 19. See everybody who’s here tonight? Thank you for coming. Romans 3 verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Every mouth may stopped and all the world may become guilty for God. Now over to the Gospel of Matthew. That’s the first book in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 27.

[27:43] Matthew 27, and we’ll read from verse 11.

And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews?

And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.

And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.

Said Pilate unto him, here is thou not how many things they witness against thee?

And he answered him to never a word, insomuch that the governor marveled.

[28:24] Greatly. That’s all we will read. Notice a couple of men this week who have marveled at the gospel. Nicodemus marveled. The Lord Jesus told him that he had to be born again. I think there was a man last night, despite the rainstorm, who marveled that Christ Jesus came into the world to save a sinner like him.

We have read an interesting expression here, that Pilate marvels greatly.

That little added bit is only found in the Gospel of Matthew when I tried to look at it today.

The governor marveled greatly.

What he marveled at was the silence. Right. So for these last few minutes, I want to speak about.

[29:24] Have you ever noticed how loudly silence can speak?

Sometimes I think when we preach, I’m speaking myself, we get so excited. We talk so fast.

There’s something about just taking a pause, letting people think about what you just heard.

Are you going to leave this meeting without Christ?

Silence. I’ve learned that humorously now. Wasn’t as much so.

I have two toddlers, and silence can speak.

We don’t enjoy their fighting and yelling. All of a sudden, sometimes during the day, it gets strangely, sweetly.

[30:18] And we have learned that that’s a bad thing, that there’s something happening.

And sometimes there’s food and sweets missing, or things that they’re not supposed to be into.

Into. Silence speaks. If you’re married or in a relationship, maybe you know firsthand experience of the silent treatment. Anyone know about that? Usually marriage is made up of somebody who’s really good at it, and someone who hasn’t a clue what is happening to them. The silent treatment.

You know, when somebody all of a sudden just won’t talk to you, and you’re supposed to get this message through silence.

[30:56] People have even said, when they were going through a hard time, that what spoke to them, more loudly than all the criticism of their enemies was the silence of their friends.

Where are my friends?

And so silence can speak very loudly. And it spoke so loudly to this governor, Titus.

Silence, the silence of Christ spoke to him. And I just wanna look at that at the close of this meeting, the silence of the Lord Jesus, because I want you to notice how beautiful a thing it is.

And believe it or not, it will tie into what you’ve already heard.

So just wait for that, because it does tie in so beautifully that the reason Christ was silent, was for people right here in Wyckoff, New Jersey, and for a person like me.

The first thing you have to understand that it was a peculiar silence. Like, this man’s pilot is going to, humanly speaking, determine whether Jesus of Nazareth lives or dies. This is not a time where you just don’t say anything. Your life is at risk. This man has the power, he says himself, to release him or to crucify him.

[32:06] And it’s peculiar, because if you and I stand before a judge, just like the Lord Jesus stands before a judge, we’ve read that actually in Romans chapter 3, when we stand before a judge, we’re silent too. I don’t know if you’ve ever had your mouth stopped by the Word of God. It’s a good thing when that happens, by the way. It’s a good thing when you’re faced with the claims of God that yes, you are in fact a sinner before God.

You have broken His law.

You are guilty. You are condemned to death. And there’s no buts.

[32:39] There’s no excepts. You just take what the Word of God says, and every mouth is stopped.

Stopped. And all the world, all of us are guilty before God when it comes to the issue of sin.

And so a person is silent as they stand before a judge when they’re guilty.

Boy, my kids are silent when they’re doing things. When they’re guilty, when I ask them, what did you do?

They get even more silent.

When a person’s guilty, they’re silent. There is solemn scene, the Lord Jesus talked about it as a, as a wedding feast, when a man came into the wedding feast without a wedding garment.

And, you know, there are people and they talk to me at times and they say that when they see Christ or when they see God and they stand before God at the final judgment, that they’ll have all the questions to ask God for why they didn’t believe in him.

They’ll ask him about bone cancer in children, and they’ll accuse the Almighty God.

They’ll tell him about how they didn’t have enough evidence.

You know what the Bible says?

You’ll be absolutely silenced.

[33:38] Says the Lord Jesus, when that man was brought without the wedding garment, this is what it says, he was speechless.

There will be no talking in front of Christ. It will be silence when a person stands in the austere presence of the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Silence.

[34:02] So the silence of a sinner, as I look at God’s law, it tells me that the sinner understands I’m guilty.

I have no buts. I can’t look at that standard and have any excuses.

The silence of a person at the Great White Throne tells me that they have no excuse.

They can’t tell God, well, if I had that opportunity.

No, I sure hope this isn’t the case, honestly now. I hope no one from the Great White Throne will remember a tent in Wyckoff, New Jersey.

Silence because there was opportunity.

My sleeves are all the way rolled up. As we do mean business friends.

Like this is for eternity.

This is your soul forever and ever and ever far beyond this time and the things that we think, are so important here today. But why is he fired up?

The governor marvels. The governor is amazed, greatly amazed.

The governor understood some things about Jesus. He understood that he wasn’t guilty.

[35:08] I find no fault in him. Before Jesus was even standing before Pilate, Pilate’s wife got a dream.

And in that dream, after that dream, Pilate’s wife comes to him and says, have nothing to do with that just man.

That innocent man, that perfect man. Pilate has a lot of evidence that this one is not guilty.

And he marvels at Jesus’ silence because he knows.

It says if he kept writing the story, he knows that it’s for envy that he’s being delivered.

He knows that the whole thing is a charade.

He knows that there are false accusations. Have you ever tried to remain silent when there are false accusations?

One thing to remain silent when somebody says something that’s partially true, and yet there’s maybe some things that are false and so you wanna clear it up, but you know that they actually have a point.

But imagine if it is a completely total false accusation leveled at you, hurled at you.

And if people agree with it, it’s going to mean your own shameful death.

This man is staying absolutely silent. He’s innocent in the face of false accusation.

And it’s a very strange thing. And it caused the governor in that day to marvel greatly.

[36:29] Not only was it a peculiar silence, But it was a powerful sight.

Just on the point of peculiar, I remember when I was a kid, I really enjoyed college football.

And it seemed like the big thing. And every Saturday there was a game, right, when the different teams played.

But I remember a Saturday when there was no games played.

I’m not talking about COVID.

I’m talking about the Saturday after 9-11.

[36:57] Not a football game. America. There was like a national moment of silence. It spoke to me. I didn’t really know everything that happened. I was just very young. I think I was in the fourth grade. But it spoke to me that something has happened that has made things silent, shut things down. It does take something peculiar. That’s the Lord Jesus.

Powerful silence. Some people think that the reason the Lord Jesus is silent is because maybe he’s weak, maybe he is like Gandhi or any of these peace-loving people and he’s just not going to say anything in his own defense.

[37:37] I want you to think about how powerful the silence is. Listen, the one who is silent here spoke the sun into existence.

At the word of his power, the ocean that if you wander out into, you disappear, was spoken by this one who’s standing before Pilate.

Spoken words, he created the whole show, people. The whole show.

And it’s almost afterthought, it says, he made the stars also.

This one, when he was here on earth, they marveled at his words.

They never a man speak like this man.

They said he speaks as one who has authority, not like the other teachers and scribes and preachers of the day.

They marveled at the gracious words, it says, that came forth from his lips.

No, as he just spoke, there was authority and power and grace and distinction.

It’s not like he couldn’t speak. So why is he silent?

There’s power in silence.

There’s power. Any of you struggle with an outburst?

Any of you come to a point, there’s some people and their personality is personality outburst.

That’s just who they are.

There’s others of us, and it takes a while to build.

You know what happens, right? They say, it’s the volcano.

And it bursts out at the most inopportune time, at the most embarrassing time.

Imagine the power.

[39:05] Like they’re going to spit on him.

[39:11] They’re gonna mock everything he was and everything he stood for and everything he taught.

Imagine the power in the face of that and just say, absolutely so.

[39:25] Heard a story, you said I come from three young men hopped onto a bus in Detroit, quite a ways back, in the 1930s.

And they tried to mess with and bully and mock a man who was sitting in the back of the bus by himself.

And they insulted him, and the insults got more personal, And the insults got deeper.

And they actually just started rubbing anyone in the back of that bus.

And that man didn’t respond.

Just stayed quiet. As these three young men basically bullied him.

They turned up the heat of the insults, says this that I read today.

And he still said nothing.

Eventually the stranger stood up.

The boys understood now that this stranger was quite a bit bigger than how they had estimated when he was seated.

He reached into his pocket as he was at his bus stop and he pulled out a business card and he handed it to him.

And he walked off the bus.

As the bus drove away, the young men gathered around the car to read the words.

And this is what it said.

Joe Louis World-Class Boxer.

[40:44] And there’s a fist in the state of Michigan, in the city of Detroit, pointing to Canada.

And there’s a fist that those men never saw, but deserve to see, of this man, Joe Lewis, who is still ranked as one of the all-time greatest boxers.

And for him to stay silent against a number of pipsqueak boys who are bullying him and insulting him, I want you to know that isn’t weakness, that’s strength.

Do you know with one swing, one swing, he could have stopped the whole thing?

And I want you to know, the Bible tells me this about the Lord Jesus.

He tells his disciples, he says, listen, put away your little pocket knife there, Peter.

I have the power to call 12 legions of angels.

Two angels, two, went into the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and wiped them out.

To 12 legions of angels, 72,000 angels.

72,000 angels and he says I could just motion and they would all come.

[41:53] They say silence. I want you to realize when someone has authority like that, when someone with one word can stop everything from happening, that is ultimate power.

So his silence is not only peculiar, but powerful. His silence was predictive.

[42:13] This is why, by the way, you should put full confidence in the word of God.

Maybe there’s somebody here tonight and you think, well, that’s what you preach from the Bible.

So-and-so talks about the Quran, so-and-so talks about the Baha Gita in the Hindu religion, so-and-so talks about the various different holy books.

[42:31] I want you to know that the Bible can be foolproofed. The Bible can be tested because the Bible actually makes predictions hundreds, thousands of years before Jesus was here, before other events took place.

You know one of the predictions it says about Jesus?

It says this, he will be led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, though he will open not his mouth.

The whole thing was predicted. There is Jesus before the judge, silent.

Is that this is the word of God and it was all planned before the foundation of the world.

This is no accidental reaction to anything. But I wanna move now to the main point of it.

It was a purposeful silence.

Why not answer?

Like if he has the power to stop it, if he has the power to change the whole thing and to show everyone that he is who he says he is, he is the son of God.

There was a day he took three of his disciples and before them, he showed himself in blazing glory, blazing glory, and they all fell down.

There was another day where a person fell on their face when they realized that he was the son of God.

And here he is, and he could do it all right there, but he’s not doing it, he’s silent.

And the governor in that day is amazed.

Why?

[43:54] Because if he would have spoken he could never have saved you.

[43:59] It could never have saved me You know why he’s silent not because he’s guilty, Because he’s willing I Want to now tie into what you heard at the beginning of this meeting, There is nothing more important to have in the shopping cart of life than Christ But I want to tell you something if Christ didn’t want you you have no hope You understand me?

We are not talking about some village carpenter somewhere.

We are talking about Christ, King of kings, Lord of lords.

And if Christ had nothing for you, no matter how much you may want Him, you could never have Him. But the great news tonight, Christ wants everyone.

Christ has come from heaven to pay a price for everyone. And He stayed silent because He came to save the world.

He came to save every single person in the world. And so there is a Christ available for people to accept and receive and bring into their life because He’s willing.

He’s willing, He said, I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

The verse says Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

And so this silence tells me this about Jesus. He’s willing to go to the cross.

More than that, He wants to go to the cross. This is the purpose for why He came.

He came for that spot outside Jerusalem, Golgotha’s Hill.

That’s why He came.

[45:28] Later in the story that Jesus, He bearing this cross, went forth knowing all things that were gonna happen to Him.

You see, He came for this purpose.

He realized that for a sinner like me, there could be no hope.

There is no way that I could ever work my way back to God.

There is no way, like, look at the standard over me. Did you hear that in Romans chapter three?

My mouth is stuffed. I’m guilty. Guilty is a very stubborn word, isn’t it?

[46:01] It’s not like you could say, I’m more guilty or less guilty.

It’s not one of those words you put on a spectrum.

Guilty is still black and white. Guilty or not guilty. And I’m guilty.

And a guilty sinner, how does a guilty sinner get into heaven?

And yet there was one who saw guilty sinners from the heights of heaven, weren’t really very unimportant people.

And yet he valued them.

He valued them. We were talking to a man today.

I didn’t have a pen and paper. They didn’t let me take my phone in there.

So I had to just paraphrase what he said.

But he was wondering that Christ would ever value, would ever see worth in someone like he is, and for everything that he has done.

And he would come into this world to die for a sinner. If you’re a believer here today, do you wonder at that too?

When’s the last time you thought, and dish the holy and the just, the sovereign of the sky, shoot down to wretchedness and dust that a guilty worm might rise?

When’s the last time it came out of your heart? He came for me.

He came for me. And he stood silent as they spit on him and crucified him.

He stood silent for you, my friend.

He stood silent for you. And he stood silent for me.

[47:24] I was just thinking at Sunday school, One of the first songs I learned, all the way to Calvary, he went for me. He went willingly.

No one forced him to go. No one twisted his arm. No, he went willingly, willingly to Calvary.

We often say that it must have been something. We know that one of the centurions that day was actually saved.

He said, surely this was a righteous man. Surely this was the son of God.

What must it have meant as they pried open the hands and held down the body of a person?

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that, The people, when they’re resisting, are unbelievably strong, even people who seem kind of weak.

[48:01] I used to work in a place where we’d have to hold down people for their own safety.

People that you would think, oh man, she’s only 90 pounds and she’s 90 as well.

I tell you what, if they don’t want to be held down, people can become extremely strong.

And yet here’s one, what must have meant to those Roman soldiers as he willingly lays himself down.

As he willingly allows them to nail his hands and feet to be lifted up on the cross, so that the sentence for guilty sinners could be placed on him.

[48:34] There was one who was willing to die in my stead, that a soul so unworthy might know.

In the path to the cross, he was willing to tread all the sins of my life to forgive.

Friends tonight, don’t pass Christ. I tell you what, there’s a savior who’s willing to save you right here tonight.

If you were to trust Christ tonight, he wouldn’t ask you to do any more prayers.

He wouldn’t ask you to do any more things.

He would take you as you are here tonight. If you were to turn from your sins, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for what he has done.

So he came willingly out of his value for us. We don’t feel that value, but I, from this story, I learned that Jesus Christ says of every person in this time, if he says about you, you are worth his own blood, you are worth his own death.

And what a shame to see all that.

What a shame to look up at that and say, no, not for me.

[49:32] And so the silence of Christ tells me he’s willing. He goes to the cross, he pays the penalty for sin.

He’s in heaven today dealing with it fully. Anyone in this tent tonight, anyone on Zoom, anyone who can hear me tonight, if you were, to believe on that Lord Jesus Christ, he’s my Lord.

If you were to believe on him, he would save you.

Talked to a lady not too long ago, and she was talking to me as she was really trying to be saved.

Maybe there’s someone like that here in this tent tonight.

And you try, when you come to meetings, not to get too worked up because it sends you into some kind of a spell of depression, where it just goes through endless cycles, and you’re just frustrated at the end.

He told me, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

Every night, I get down on my knees And with tears down my eyes, I ask God to save me. He never does.

[50:27] And I didn’t know what to say, except, you think God wants you to do all that?

You think he wants you to make a big show of it? You think he wants you to get down on your knees, spill a bucket of tears, tell him you’re the worst sinner?

Listen, he knows far more about your sins than you do.

You know what God wants you to do? Take his son.

Trust him! Turn from your sins, as dark as they might be, and trust the Lord Jesus Christ.

The sad thing about this story to me is here’s a man pilot and he looks at the silence of Christ, and it says he’s not just amazed. I don’t know what you think about it tonight. Maybe you can, tell me. What do you think? You ever heard a message like that? Maybe it’s non-conventional.

I don’t know. I haven’t been around long enough to know. The silence of Christ, because he’s, willing to save you. You think that’s amazing? Pilate says, it says, he marveled greatly.

[51:33] He was so amazed that this perfect one stayed silent. And yet he missed Christ.

He missed him. He never trusted him. Is it possible for somebody to be so amazed at the silence of Christ, so amazed at how willing he was to come, and look at him in the shopping aisles of life and see, wow, he loves me! He loves me!

[52:07] My brother Peter said at the beginning of this meeting, we are not here just as a, well here we are and take it or leave it type of preaching. I would plead with with you with all my heart. Don’t miss Christ. You understand? And don’t settle for anything except Christ. Nothing else is more important. Don’t miss Christ.

Whatever else you miss, don’t miss Christ. Miss anything else, miss straight A’s.

Miss whatever else you have in life, but don’t miss this man. He loves you, friend.

He loves you. Don’t you miss him. He stayed silent on that cross to take your And if you would trust him tonight.

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