Jack Jurgens's Ministry Library

Gospel tent meeting with Peter Ramsay and Joseph Baker.

[0:01] I’d like to read in the Gospel of Luke, if you have a Bible, that is the third book of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Luke and chapter 2. I can say from this side of the platform, these two weeks have come and gone very quickly.

Not sure about those of you who endured some pretty rough nights, but we have a beautiful night tonight, and it’s gone by rather fast, and the Lord will, Sunday night will be the concluding night, at least as planned, at 730 for the special series of gospel meetings. Luke chapter 2 and we’ll read from verse number 8.

And they were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and, the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the The angel said unto them, fear not.

For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Just drop down to verse 18.

[1:21] Shepherds go and tell us what has happened. and verse 18, it says this, “‘And all they that heard it wondered, marveled.

“‘They were amazed. “‘All they that heard this announcement “‘that the angels had given, “‘they wondered at those things “‘which were told them by the shepherds.'”.

[1:40] I just wanna look at this story, and I understand that for many of you, this might be a story you read at a far different time of this year, maybe around December.

But really, this is, in essence, the gospel message. If you would like to know what the gospel message is, it is presented actually here by angels.

Now, Peter and I are not angels, and you’ll find that out very quickly, but actually there was a day where angels announced the gospel.

That’s what it says. It says, angels brought good tidings.

That’s just what the word gospel means.

Good news. And this was the good news. Unto you was born this day, over 2000 years ago now, this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

I want you to go home and just think about those words, a Savior, Christ the Lord.

This is the message of the gospel. This is good news from heaven, that a Savior has come, who is Christ the Lord.

You see, in that title given to Jesus Christ, What we find out is really, in those few words, the core of what the gospel is.

We could ask a number of questions. First of all, why is he called the Savior?

[3:01] He’s not called a counselor, he’s not called an advisor, he’s not called a guru, he’s not called a priest, he’s called a Savior.

And then the Savior is Christ the Lord. The Lord, this is a title that was only given to God.

It says in Isaiah, I am the Lord, that is thy name, and my glory I will not share with anyone else.

And yet, there’s a baby, a baby that’s born, wrapped in swaddling clothes in Bethlehem.

And the angels say that baby is the Savior, Christ, the Lord.

[3:45] So God has come into our world and is found wrapped in swaddling clothes as a baby.

That is very important.

But why? I want to tell you that the reason he is the savior, Christ the Lord, is because we all, all of us as humanity, have a problem that’s just that bad.

A problem that’s just that bad to need a Savior.

[4:12] The reason Christ the Lord came into this world is because of a love that’s just that great.

A love that’s just that great. The Lord came into our world. God, who made the world, came here.

[4:26] The reason he’s called a Savior is because of a provision that’s just that complete.

Nothing else is needed. He’s not a helper. He doesn’t get you most of the way.

He doesn’t do 90% of the work. No, He’s a Savior.

A provision that’s just that complete. But if this is a Savior, Christ the Lord, then that makes rejection.

Just that sad. Because you see, when people leave and turn their back on the Gospel, they’re not rejecting a preacher, they’re not rejecting a church, they’re not rejecting Christianity.

They’re rejecting the Savior. The Savior, Christ the Lord.

Lord. Tonight, if it hasn’t been clear in previous nights, we preach Christ. We present Jesus Christ. He is the message, and he is what’s on the table, if you will. He is what is being offered to people, this living person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let’s just go through it briefly in the opening part of this meeting. First of all, a problem that’s just that bad.

[5:26] When you think of the word saved, what do you think about? I’m rather concerned that some of these words have been almost hyper-spiritualized.

They’ve been made so religious, like people think of, well, saved is what happens when you go to a summer camp and you say a prayer, or you raise your hand, or you sing a song, and I got myself saved at a summer camp.

Or I go to a religious service, and I get myself saved.

Now come on, when you think of the word saved, I think this is not a religious word.

We’re not talking about like baptism or church or anything like that.

Saved, it’s a word we use all the time.

Right, rescued.

I’ll tell you a little story about what I think about when I think of the word safe.

[6:07] I was sent to a little YMCA thing during the summer and I didn’t know how to swim and it was a beautiful, very hot day like it was earlier today. And we were in the pool, all the kids were in the pool, and I loved the shallow end because you could touch the bottom, you could, play with the balls. But of course, when you love the shallow end and you can’t swim in the deep end, this is the place to be. Diving board and all the things that everyone can’t do. And my brother, my older brother, he wanted to go to the deep end. And so the lifeguard said, okay, well, you have to take a swim test. They took him over to the deep end and put him in the pool, and he did a swim test down and back. As long as you can do that, then you can go swim to the deep end, right? Now, I didn’t know how to swim. I knew I didn’t know how to swim, but it just bothered me so much that he was over there and I was over here where the kids play. I thought to myself, I’m going to go over there too. So I told her, I want to go over there. She said, well, you have to take a swim test. So I got into the pool on the beach and I had no clue how to swim.

I didn’t know how to do it. But I thought to myself like this, I’ll push my feet up against this wall. You know that wall is a pool. And I’ll push myself where all I’m worth.

[7:32] And then I’ll hopefully just float to the other side, grab the wall of the pool, and do the same thing going back.

[7:40] I just push myself right up against the wall of that pool, far as I could, push myself across. Guess what happens?

And I didn’t make it very far, as far as the little boy’s legs could push him a few feet across that pool.

And I looked up and there was this lady, this young lady, she was sitting on this funny looking thing that for some reason they make super high above the pool.

And I looked up at her, and I just said, help!

[8:19] And I went down. The next thing I know, she leaves her high place and jumps right down, right to where I was because I was going down. I was sinking in that pool, and she grabbed me. You know what she did? She saved me. That’s what I said. I didn’t tell her, thanks for helping me. I was going to the bottom of that pool. I said thanks for saving me. I was, was saved by a young lady in a YMCA camp who left her high place to come right down to where I was.

Now, that’s what it means to be saved.

That’s what it means to be saved. It means to be rescued from something that is dangerous, from something that’s taking you down.

There was a man in the Bible named Peter, and he cried out one day when he was thinking, Lord, save me.

And the Lord didn’t tell him, well, Peter, now say a prayer, Peter.

Peter, live as good a life as you can from now on. No, Peter’s going down.

In the bottom of the sea. And the Lord Jesus reached out his hand right to where Peter was, picked him right up.

So to be saved means to be rescued.

[9:26] And the reason a person needs to be saved is because that’s a problem that’s just that bad, my friend.

I don’t know what you think about yourself.

I know there’s people and they have different ideas and they say, well, it’s so hard because really shouldn’t we all accept more of a pluralistic view of our world?

Shouldn’t we all accept that really, religion is quite complicated, but really there’s different rivers and they all flow through the same stream, the same source, God.

It doesn’t really matter which river you take to get there, as long as it gets there to that one same source, isn’t that all that matters? After all, do you have any idea how sincere people are?

Like you think you Christians are sincere, meeting for two weeks, do you realize that people in this world who are on their face for six hours of a day to find favor with God.

[10:17] There are people who cut themselves to find favor with God. There are people who sell everything they own to find favor with God.

Surely that stream must somehow connect.

Now the only right way to understand it is a problem, right?

There’s many religions in our world. The only way to understand it is to identify what is the problem. Is the problem insincerity and it’s solved by sincerity?

[10:46] Is the problem not trying my hardest, and it’s solved by trying my hardest?

What’s the problem with humanity?

You know what the Bible says? Problem is sin.

The problem is sin in the human heart. The problem is guilt in our hearts, and that sin is like a weight that is sinking us down away from God.

And so whatever solution a person presents, mind us now, it has to solve the problem of sin. That’s the problem.

And so there may be people who are very sincere, but is what they’re doing solving the problem of sin?

Is it removing their sin? Are their sins forgiven?

Is their conscience clear? Are they at peace with God, whatever concept of God they might have?

Sin is the problem in the human heart. Sin must be solved. And the Bible says this, the wages of sin, death.

Sin is like myself there in the pool. Sin is sinking us down to death, and not, just death physically, but what the Bible describes as the second death, eternal death, the lake of fire, according to the Bible. And really, respectfully now, because I was a very religious boy myself, but if there’s anyone here tonight, and you’re quite religious, respectfully, do you know what religion is? Religion is that little boy trying to get across the pool by just pushing with all his work.

[12:15] That’s religion. He doesn’t know how to swim, that silly little boy, and yet he’s pushing for all he’s worth, hoping to get to the other side. Never take people there, and I have a real burden in my heart because there’s people who think they’re going there. There’s people who think they’re going to reach the other side, but they’re not going. The problem is sin, and sin has made us even helpless in the sight of God. That’s what the Bible says. We are without strength, helpless, just like me in that pool, going down, all I could do is cry help. And I didn’t say it respectfully, I didn’t say it worried about who else was in the pool, like I’m going down, I’m going down, I’m drinking water, help, drink, help, nothing respectful about it.

[13:04] It has made a person so helpless that all a sinner can do really is cry out. Now I’m not I’m not talking about crying out from your mouth or using your muscles here.

I’m talking about the cry of the heart.

Says, I’m just going down. I’m going down to hell in my sin.

I’m going down to be away from God’s presence in my sin.

And all the person in that condition can do is just look to God, save me, help me.

And so that’s why the savior was provided because humanity had a condition that’s just that bad.

And you’ll notice that it’s not limited to a certain kind of people.

Maybe if, as I described that, as I described those people who are sinful and going down, maybe you have an image in your mind, like people in prison or people who are, who didn’t grow up with privilege or something like that.

But did you notice what it says?

This is good news of great joy, which shall be to all people.

[14:00] This is for everyone, all people. It says it right there in the verse, that this news is supposed to be spread to all people because all people on our planet were born sinners who are going down, without exception.

I’m no exception to it.

I was going down myself. And that’s why the Savior was provided, because of a problem that’s just that bad. But there’s a love that’s just that great.

You see, it was Christ the Lord.

God himself was provided to save us. And we’ll find out in just a few minutes why it had to only be God who could do it.

Maybe you wonder that. Why couldn’t, okay, say we need saving.

Why couldn’t we need somebody to save us?

Why can’t we come up with a Savior, like the best of us and bring him forward, or the most pious, holy act, and offer that to God. Why did it have to be Christ the Lord?

Why did he have to come down?

But before we get there, isn’t it amazing that the Lord came here?

Let’s just for a moment, I don’t know what you think about the Bible, but for a moment, just assume that the Bible is true.

That means that the God who created the sun, the God who counts the stars, The God who measures all the waters in this planet in the hollow of his hand came down here.

[15:16] For sinners, for me, for you, not a lifeguard who left us a pretty high place, but God himself, from the throne of heaven to come down here. I tell you what, it’s a love that’s just that great.

And I can’t explain it any more than that, but except to say, my dear friends, I don’t know what you’ll take from the gospel tonight, but I want you to know God loves you. God loves you. God, God loved you so much that he sent heaven’s best.

He sent heaven’s king into this world to save sinners.

And to save them, he has to come right down to where we are.

And that’s what he did. He became a man.

God became a man. Christ the Lord was found as a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

I see.

Because of a love that was just that great, God loved us, a solution that’s just that complete, called Savior.

I just want to answer a couple of questions that I would have if I was listening to a message like this.

I would wonder, okay, if the problem is sin in my heart, the very root cause that causes me to lie, lust, have evil thoughts, hatred, jealousy, if there’s something wrong in my heart, If that’s not how I was made to be.

[16:44] Why is he the only answer? Why is it just Christ the Lord? Why is it just the Lord Jesus?

Why did Peter say neither is there salvation in any other?

Why did Jesus say, I am the way?

No one’s coming to God except through me.

Make no mistake, it’s not Christians who say Jesus is the only way.

He said it, he said it, and the Bible says it.

Why? That seems very exclusive.

That seems to blow apart this idea that there’s many streams to get to the source.

That seems to say there’s only one way, right?

But why?

Well, remember, whatever solution it is, it has to deal with the problem. That’s pretty basic.

So we need a solution that we know has dealt with the problem of sin.

[17:37] Secondly, we need a solution, and this has helped me anyway, we need a solution that does not come from sinful human thoughts, sinful human beings.

You know that with all the religions in the world, I googled it one time, I think there was 3,200, 3,200.

Google, that’s my favorite research tool, like some others.

But 3,000 religions in our world.

[18:05] Know that really, according to the Bible, there’s only two. There’s the religion of humans working their way back to God, somehow, by good works, by good karma, by, good outweighing bad, by being the best person they can be, by Reformation, by changes. All that’s humans changing to please God. And there’s only one other religion, and that’s God coming down for men. All religions of planet Earth can be, just put into either of those categories. Human beings working back to God. Now mind you, even parts of Christianity are over there.

Even parts of so-called Christianity would be just human beings working back to God. But Biblical Christianity, what the Bible teaches, that’s what it says here. God coming out to human beings. God providing a Savior, Christ the Lord.

God coming into our world. That’s what it says there, doesn’t it? It says, you will call his name His name, Immanuel, which means, God with us.

[19:09] And so this Savior that’s being preached here in this tent tonight has not been provided by any church, it’s not provided by a committee. This is the Savior provided by the God of heaven.

That’s what’s being provided tonight. And so he meets the qualifications. What was the next qualification? He must deal with sin. Now this is why I really struggle with people who tell me, well, I don’t know, I’m saved, I hope that I will be in heaven, or I hope that I have favor with God, and I ask them the basis for their hope, and they, and they tell me a whole bunch of things they’re doing, but my question is when, where do you have that understanding that any of the things you’re doing ever dealt with sin?

Like, take some things that Christians do. Getting baptized.

Where in the Bible does getting baptized deal with sin?

[20:09] Where does that concept come from? How do you know that if I get baptized, I’ll wash away my sin?

Or join the right church? Or say the right prayer?

Or have a certain experience?

Where is any of that? Where is the basis for any of that?

What we need is some certain, sure way.

Like I need something that I know 100% has dealt with sin, and not just dealt with sin to it. I think that’ll do for me.

But dealt with sin in the sight of God, that God says, that has dealt with sin, my sins against him!

[20:42] We are the Savior Christ the Lord. He came into our world. He lived a perfect life. He had no sin himself.

But he went to a cross.

And the Bible says this. This is what happened on the cross, according to the Bible.

He was wounded. Listen to these words. For our sin.

He was bruised. For our sin.

[21:10] It says in another place, his soul was made an offering for sin.

It’s almost like the Bible in all its simplicity, from a God who loves every single person and wants everyone to be saved, is saying, if you identify the problem of sin, I am shouting out from heaven the answer. Christ!

Christ! He’s the one who dealt with sin! He did it! Christ dealt with sin!

Any verse you turn to, you look at the Bible and you try to find things about, I wonder how painful crucifixion was. I mean, I listen to different doctors and they talk about the, different wounds he experienced. You won’t find much of that in the Bible. Hardly anything is said about how painful crucifixion was. But all over the Bible it says that whatever happened on the cross, it was for sin. Christ suffered for sin. Christ died for sin. Constantly it’s like an arrow that’s pointing. Anyone have a problem with sin? Christ, he’s the lifeguard. He’s the one I sent into the world to save sinners. And there was only a person And he said, yeah, that’s the problem.

It’s sin. Oh, and that’s the answer. It’s the Lord Jesus. That’s why God sent him.

That’s why he sent him for sin. And it is in fact that complete because after he went to the cross, after he suffered for sin, he said, it is complete. He said it is finished.

[22:28] And then he died.

And it’s not a, it was hidden secret. Like it’s, uh, like this is open to investigation for any sincere person.

Make no mistake. The Christian faith rests on this rock that on that third day, this man rose from the, dead. Paul said, if he’s not raised, we are yet in our sins.

Paul says if he’s not raised, preaching’s for nothing.

Falsehoods that he’s not raised were false representatives of Christ.

Make no mistake, we stand tonight that there was an empty tomb outside the city of Jerusalem where God brought back the body and life of this man, and he is risen.

Jesus Christ is alive. God raised him from the dead, and that’s the great testimony that shook the Roman world and the Jewish world.

This makes a lot of sense.

[23:35] And so the solution is that complete. God has said, I am satisfied with Christ.

I’ll close tonight just briefly, not to dwell on it, but that makes rejection very sad.

Person who rejects the gospel, the gospel here that was preached by angels, this gospel that a savior has come. God saw sinking sinners like me in that pool, sinking. No matter how strong your leg muscles were, you could never go to the other side. God sent the lifeguard in. He had to, come right to where we were. And he saved us. But imagine somebody drowning in the water, and the lifeguard comes in and they just push the lifeguard. Wouldn’t that be such a sad rejection?

Just say, no. You know, that’s what broke the heart of Christ. When he looked over a city that and had so much privilege.

Many preachers were sent to that city. He said, oh, Jerusalem, I would have, but you would not.

[24:37] I wanted to save you, but you wouldn’t have me. And it broke the heart of Christ, that he had come for people and they said, no.

[24:49] Apparently there are people who still do it today. Make no mistake, when it comes to the gospel, It is not accepting a religious creed.

It is not accepting a testimony of faith from a church. It is not signing, I agree with all these doctrines, no.

It is accepting or rejecting the Savior, Christ the Lord. That’s what’s before you tonight, my friend.

In all our weakness and frailty, we present a glorious, mighty, strong Savior.

He could save you tonight.

You must receive him. You must accept him by faith, depend upon him.

Worthy of your songs.

I was reading today, I wrote it down here. I’ll just read it to you before Mr. Ramsey comes up here to speak.

It was by a historian. I found it quite fascinating. Let me just tell you what he said.

Maybe you think speaking of Jesus Christ is really, that’s only for religious people.

Listen to this quote.

He said, I am a historian. I am by no means a believer, but I must confess, as a historian, that the penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history.

[26:10] That’s a skeptical historian, not a believer, not a Christian.

A penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably center of history and the center of eternity.

And I want to tell you, he’s no longer a penniless preacher from Nazareth to me.

My savior. and he could be your savior.

[26:35] You have probably gathered that, just from listening to Joseph, that this isn’t about, raising money for a cause or for a church, and it’s not a church membership drive. In fact, if you check the table back there, there are not even cards to fill out to join a church.

It’s nothing to do with that. It is all about Christ, the penniless creature from Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, but the Lord of glory, who came down to be the Savior.”, That’s our message tonight, and it has been for the last two weeks.

And if it wasn’t for that message, I sure wouldn’t be here. I would love to be back home in St.

Bernard Island. But it’s because Christ came down from heaven to be the Savior.

And without the Savior, people will perish forever. There is no other way to be right with God.

There is no other way to enjoy eternal life. There is no other way.

People say, well, where am I going to be after I die? Everybody wants to be in heaven.

If there’s a good place after death, they want to be there. There is no way.

There is not the slightest chance Anyone would be in heaven without Christ the Savior.

[28:03] And that’s what causes us to travel, to be here. There’s no collection, you can just relax.

There’s not a collection here tonight.

This is about promoting the Lord Jesus Christ and appealing to you with everything else that’s going on in the summer of 2022, appealing to you, the deepest part of your heart, consider this lovely man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He could be your savior. I’ve known him.

So you can’t take that away. You can’t say, no, you didn’t. It’s my own personal experience.

I have known him for over 50 years through the ups and the downs of life.

I’ve been on my way to heaven. I’m not, I don’t have my fingers crossed hoping that I’m going to get there.

You know, biting my teeth, my fingernails with my teeth. No, no, it’s all settled.

I remember specifically the night when it was settled, when I realized Christ died for my sins and he rescued me, he saved me.

And so you can, it must be wonderful, right? Do you have what I have?

Do you have an anchor in life like that through all the storms?

Life can be dreadfully tough at times.

[29:23] And I don’t think there’s a person here this evening who hasn’t experienced dark times, ears and pillows, dark thoughts.

Wonderful to have Christ in this life, be anchored through the storms of life.

You know anything about it?

You could, he could be your savior tonight. We’re gonna read again in Romans chapter five.

Romans chapter 5, we’re going to read eight verses.

The first eight verses of Romans chapter 5.

[29:58] Verse 1, this is Paul, the Apostle Paul. He wasn’t always a Christian.

No one has always been a Christian. People say, well, I was always a Christian.

No one has always been a Christian. Paul was once an enemy of Jesus, and his raison d’etre was to stamp out Christianity because he hated Jesus.

He thought Jesus was an imposter until he found out that the Jesus who died on the cross, died for his sins and he trusted him on the road one day and took him as his savior.

[30:41] So every Christian has a starting point, conscious starting point. And he’s writing to other Christians here, therefore being justified, we heard about that word last night, by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace, this amazing grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, patience, experience, and experience hope. And hope makes not a shame. This is a verse I really want to underline. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. The love of God is shed abroad or poured out is the the thought is poured out into our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.

But there are three other beautiful verses here. Look at verse six.

I know people who found Christ.

And verse six, for when we were yet without strength, and people say, that was me, my sin.

[32:05] My sin, I had no ability to save myself.

In due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

And they just close the battle with, there it is.

I’m the ungodly sinner.

I can’t do anything about my sin, but there is one who did something for my sin.

He died, he took the penalty for my sin, and they received Christ by faith, reading that verse.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man, some would be there to die.

But God commends or demonstrated his love toward us.

Now, how do you demonstrate your love to people in your life?

[32:47] Well, I mentioned one other night. I know on Valentine’s Day, you probably get some roses.

God demonstrated His love toward us while we were yet sinners.

Before we were all cleaned up of our sins, when we were still in our sins, God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Praise God.

So, the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts. I can relate to this verse.

The love of God shed abroad, or the love of God poured into my heart.

You know what the word pour is. It’s poured this week. We use that word down here, poured. We use it back in Canada.

It’s not when it’s pitter-pat on a vinyl tent roof.

Pitter-pat. Pour is when it’s a downpour, and that’s the thought here.

God poured into our hearts the love of God.

He did it by the work, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So it’s the thought of dispensing without holding anything back, letting loose the love of God.

He poured it into our hearts.

[34:13] The thought is it’s a continuous stream. The night I trusted Christ as my Savior, the night that I opened up to Christ and said, I am just the sinner.

He started pouring into my heart his love and it never stopped.

Do you have anything equivalent to that?

Oh, this is what real life is. This is the life that God intends for everyone in this family.

He wants to pour his love into your heart. Not sprinkle it in, but flow in large quantities.

[34:51] On impetus, his love. That’s the heart of God.

Maybe you’ve harbored some hard thoughts against God.

You think he’s mean, cruel. Why does he let this happen? A lot of bad things happen.

The world is broken. There are other parts of the Bible that we’ve spoken on this other night.

The world is broken. The world is a sad place.

There are tears. There are broken homes. There are broken lives.

There are scams. There are cheats around.

[35:20] Don’t blame that on God. The Bible says it’s sin. Sin is the source of sorrow.

But God says, I’ve got good news for you. I want to pour my love into your heart.

So Paul is writing to Christians about trials and difficulties and how they make us deeper people, greater confidence in God.

He says we have peace with God through faith in the Lord Jesus.

Let me ask you, do you have anything in your life that relates to this verse?

Do you have a moment in your life when you consciously receive the love of God in your heart? The love of God is poured into our hearts.

You’ve been hearing about that love, a love that is marked by complete selflessness.

It’s extravagant love, where sometimes we make meager expressions of love.

God held nothing back.

He gave his Son. He said, this is the way I love you. This is the character of my love.

[36:26] The character of my love is that I gave my only Son that whosoever believeth in him should, not perish but have everlasting life.

A love that is marked by complete selflessness. God’s love at the highest level coming down to man through Jesus Christ.

Sorry, but the angels announced that night so long ago.

[36:52] Shed abroad or gush out the love of God poured into our hearts without any reserve.

You know, God wants to bless you tonight.

He really wants to change your life. He wants to flood your soul with His divine love and give you peace and deal with the problem of your sins.

That is God’s heart for you.

If we say heart, and that’s, we know our physical heart is our primary body organ.

Spiritually, the heart speaks of the center of our affection, affections, our desires.

So the moment that you open up to God, He will pour in His love, and it remains a permanent positive.

It’s actually, if you look up the original language here, it’s the perfect tense.

It continually pours in his love. So there’s nothing miserly, nothing mean, nothing skimpy about God’s love.

It’s abundant, it’s profuse, it’s generous, it’s extravagant.

God’s love infinitely beyond what we ever deserve.

So what is your mental image, your concept of God?

[38:15] You think of love, you think of his generosity, rich grace, just like standing over you.

I know sometimes I visualize things. I just, when I read these verses, I just picture a God in heaven standing over you tonight with a wanting to pour in his love, to a willing heart, to a responsive heart.

He wants to bless you this Friday night. It’s a love without limits.

It’s a love without boundaries. It’s without restrictions and it’s without exception.

This wonderful love of God.

So human love, we sort of tend to love the lovable.

[39:00] People that we sort of connect with. similar personalities, and there’s just some, they say, a chemical reaction, and we, you, know, we love that.

We love the lovable, but you know, God, God loves the unlovable.

[39:20] I don’t know if any of you have been involved in dating in your past, but it’s a lot of it’s done online these days, I guess.

But did you ever play the cat and mouse game?

Like you didn’t want to come out to somebody you think might be your partner for life and you didn’t want to come right out and say the first time over a salmon dinner, I love I love you, I love you.

No, it’s just you’re putting out little feelers and you’re seeing if there’s any reciprocation.

And then just inch by inch, you just don’t flush it all out.

Because what would they say if they looked at you and said, well, hey, let me out of here.

I’m not finishing my salmon dinner.

Oh, what I love about college, well, whether you ever reciprocate or not.

[40:17] Loves you, you can turn your back on him and he still loves you.

He displayed his love when he gave his beloved son for you.

Whether you ever respond to his love, he’s told you over and over again in his word, he told you by way of the cross, I love you.

I love you.

The degree of love is measured by the costliness of the gift to the giver and the worthiness of the recipients to receive the gift.

[40:55] The costliness of the gift and the worthiness of the recipient.

The more costly the gift and the more unworthy the recipient, the greater the love is seen to be.

And what could be more costly than God sending his son, knowing that he was sending him to the cross?

The lostliness of the gift and the worthiness of the recipient.

I look, I live with myself for, it’ll soon be 66 years. Every year I see more of myself and I say, what did he ever see in me?

There’s nothing lovable about me and looking the more I wonder why he ever loved himself.

Think anything about that today? Oh, it would be wonderful if there was a cloud burst of God’s love on your chart tonight.

How refreshing a start to life would that be, if not try to chart the hardness of life, flooded with divine love.

Refreshing.

Well, I’m going to ask you, have you been open to receive his love?

[42:20] I hope this doesn’t offend you, but sometimes they use object lessons because there’s young people in the audience.

And I was staying at Dave and Joy’s Hamilton place, and I went into their fridge today, and there was only a little bit of marmalade left in their fridge in the bottle.

So I said, I need a bottle for tonight. So I scooped it out, made the remaining remnants of the marmalade, and I washed it out. Did you ever think of yourself like this?

[42:52] And God wanting to pour out, pour out His love into your heart.

That’s what I was enjoying today.

How He wants to just pour out His love.

You’re the repository. You’re the bottle. You’re the container.

But there was something wrong with that, wasn’t there? to say there’s something that would have to happen for that water to get in, this is the problem, isn’t it?

[43:31] Who’s responsible for this? You are, you are. His love will never change your life if you leave that lid on.

He’s standing over you wanting, it’s the desire of his heart to pour in his love.

You’ve got the lid on tight, close to him.

I wonder, I believe God is working in your life, trying to soften the cover and trying to get, wanting you to take that cover off.

So open up for many, many things in life. Oh, for your advancement, right there.

A raise, a promotion, here to receive it.

Good friends? Oh, right there, I know how to receive good friends.

Receive God’s beloved Son as your Savior.

[44:28] I was not being overly dramatic, but let me just ask you, have you ever been open to God and honest with God?

Oh God, I’ve received so many things in life, But I’ve never received the one who died on the cross for my own sins.

Tonight, I’m open!

Hello. Kelly Clark, I don’t know whether you follow snowboarding. My son did a lot of snowboarding in his day and so I knew a little bit about Sean White and Kelly Clark and both great Americans, but Kelly Clark, she’s a retired professional snowboarder now. She was the most medaled snowboarder in all history of all the world. And then Shawn White now and her share that honor.

[45:22] And she competed in five Olympic winter games by 18, age of 18. She was at the very top of her game, gold medal from the Olympics hanging around her neck. But she said, but I was empty. I was disillusioned with success and I had dark thoughts inside about the purpose of my life at 18 with a gold medal around my neck. She was at a snowboarding competition and she spent the morning in her hotel room writing about how empty her life is. She said, people think I’ve got it made, but on the inside I am dying. She said, I’m standing at the bottom of a half pipe, to use snowboarders language and at the very bottom of the half pipe, a couple of years later she was heading into a world cup event and we had to go through the qualifying process. At the bottom of that half pipe there was another snowboarder and she had fallen. She didn’t qualify, she had fallen twice and she was down at the bottom of the pipe and she was crying and her friend was trying to make her laugh and say, hey it’s all right, God loves you anyway!

Kelly Clark is standing up the top, thinking, God loves her anyway?

I wonder would God love me?

[46:49] She’d never been to a church inside a church in her entire life.

That stuff with her, God loves you anyway, and she went back to her hotel room.

And she said, I know hotels have Bibles, and she found a Bible.

And she said, I couldn’t shake the thought, God loves you anyway.

And she said, I found out where that snowboarder was in her room, and I went and I knocked on her door and brought the Bible from my bedside desk, And she said, she said, are you a Christian?

Could you tell me about God’s love?

I’m Kelly. I think you need to tell me about God. And the girls in that room started to share the story of Christ and God’s love.

And Kelly’s heart was touched.

She started her search.

The lid was coming off. Are you searching tonight?

Starting to think about Christ? The lid was starting to get soft, and Kelly was thinking about God’s love.

[47:55] Well, she found out that Christ died for her sins. Some of you are old enough to remember, he was a legend in his time.

His name was Larry King, and he interviewed her. You can watch this on YouTube.

And he was nearing the end of his days, his little stint on, I think it was CNN, And he looks at her and leans over towards Kelly Clark.

She was telling how she became a Christian.

And he said, how did you find him?

She said, how did you find him? How did you find him? And Kelly Clark says, basically when I came to an end of myself, God met me.

And then she writes, the very best day of my life was when I responded to God’s love and trusted the Savior.

She said it was the best day of my life.

No trophy, no medal, no amount of money can equal what Christ did in me that day.

[48:59] What’s your story? I just told you I spent a lot of time telling you Kelly Clark’s story.

Do you have any story about finding out that God loved you and that Christ died for you?

I wonder, as you look at this little bottle here, uh, so yeah, the problem is the lid, isn’t it? How do I get that lid off?

Like, there’s no question about it.

God wants to pour in his love, yes, but it’s not going in, is it?

What’s the problem, you’re saying? Peter, it’s the cover, it’s the lid. It’s the lid.

[49:39] Coming to a gospel meeting like this, it’s like God pouring out his love, but you’re closed to it.

It’d be a tragedy to die.

God’s love poured over you, hearing the gospel message, but never into you because you were closed.

What a haunting memory of life to think that I heard about the love of God, But I never got the lid off.

What is your lid?

Sometimes it’s the fear of the unknown. I don’t know what it’d be like to be a Christian.

So I’m not ready yet to take that lid off.

Afraid you’ll lose control of your life? I’m gonna keep this tight under my control.

Some people have too many years that they say, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

I’ve been going this way to all the change.

My mother used to have a cold room and she bottled pickles and jam and sometimes it was the humidity control left something to be desired in the cold room in the basement.

Then you get this bottle and oh, you couldn’t get it. Oh, oh, it was rusted.

I wonder if anyone has a rusted cover. Been on there so long.

Other times we get a bottle and all the guys try to show their might and their power and pop their eyelids.

They’re going like this. My wife, Joyce, give it to me.

She runs some hot, warm water over us.

[51:08] There you go.

Is God running warm water over your life right now? Trying to melt you?

Trying to say I love you? Please take that cover off.

That’s what gospel meetings are about. They say it’s too humbling to admit, oh, that’s sin.

There’s things in my life I can’t spin.

God may soften the cover, but he’s not going to take that cover off.

He’ll never save you against your will.

He gave you the ability to make an informed choice. He may work in your life like you’re here tonight, not by coincidence, But ultimately, it will be you that says, My sin as a cause is separating between me and God.

[52:07] It would be a wonderful Friday evening, if you would say tonight, I’m just a sinner. I don’t care. I’m desperately lost. I need the Savior.

I’m open to God’s love if he will save me. I’ll tell you the moment, the moment that lid comes off, I don’t know what your lid is, but I know one thing, sin is a lid.

But the moment that lid comes off, God is thrilled and delighted, oh heaven is, to be, able to pour in his love.

Are you open to that tonight? Or are you going to go home with a lid on, tighter than ever?

Just cranked up, just, I’m not going to yield, I won’t surrender, I’ll get on with my life. What a tragedy.

Friend, this is for eternity Everyone in this tent will be somewhere 100 years from now those who remove the lid.

[53:16] Open up to Christ You see God love, You’ll be with us in heaven. I don’t mean us the people at both our church There are millions of people in the world and I can they’ll be in heaven. They never heard of our little church We don’t believe we’re the only ones going to heaven, but we know that, So that anyone good to heaven, anywhere in the world, any culture in the world, they, all have a moment in their life when the lid came off and God poured in his love and they were gloriously, wonderfully saved.

That’s our prayer for you as we close the meeting.

Do you have any room tonight for Jesus?

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