Jack Jurgens's Ministry Library

Gospel tent meeting with Peter Ramsay and Joseph Baker.

[0:00] The 130th Psalm, if you have a Bible, Psalm 130. Psalm 130, and we’ll break in at verse number three.

If thou art, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

Let’s read it in a, maybe in a way that would help you understand what’s being said here.

Psalmist is crying out to God and says, if you, O God, should keep record of sin, O Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with you, maybe reverence towards you.

[0:44] I’d like to close tonight by looking at a wonder about God that I’ve just been enjoying for a little bit.

The God we speak about tonight, the God of the Bible, the God who made the world, the God of many wonders as we’ve sung it.

Great God of wonders.

And one of the wonders I’ve enjoyed is that God is a God who knows everything.

There is nothing that God learns.

God knows, he’s all-knowing. It’s a word that maybe you’ve heard, omniscient.

[1:14] And yet there’s a verse in the Bible, we didn’t read it tonight, in the book of Hebrews chapter 10, and he says to people who trust Jesus Christ, that their sins and their iniquities, God will remember no more.

And so an all-knowing God has his memory clear. He chooses not to remember sin.

And that is an amazing wonder, how an omniscient, all-knowing God can choose to not remember sin.

I’ve just been thinking about his all-knowing character throughout the day.

You know, series of meetings like this are very uncertain to us.

Those of us who speak and those who sponsor these meetings, What’s gonna happen?

Hope the tent stays up. Hope people come.

So we’re sitting here on this Sunday evening and do you know, everything that’s happened and hasn’t happened, it’s all been known to God.

There’s nothing he learned. There’s nothing that took him by surprise, not the heat wave or the storm.

Nothing that startled the mind of God. It was all known as if it was one closed book.

[2:17] Don’t lose everything.

[2:20] Our sins, my sins, and your sins, tonight, you are to depend on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior.

He would choose not to remember them.

And I want to speak tonight on the blessing that you can leave this meeting with, the blessing of sins forgiven.

I hope to look at it very simply. First of all, I want to tell you that sins forgiven can only be yours from God.

In order for your sins to be forgiven, you require God. You require God.

There is no man, there is no church, there is no priest, there is no process that can, give you peace that, oh, my sins are forgiven.

If your sins are going to be forgiven, if you’re going to know that, you require God.

When Jesus was here on earth, he said to a man, your sins are forgiven.

They said, they knew. Who can forgive sin? But God.

Only God can forgive sins, they misunderstood who Jesus was in that story, but it is only God who can forgive sins.

And so I would ask you tonight, those of you who have been so kind to come, do you know tonight, that your sins, this all knowing God, who knows everything about what you have done.

[3:35] He knows everything about what you haven’t done. Your sins stand in His sight very clear.

Do you know that He has forgiven your sins?

There’s some people and they long to feel forgiven. There’s people who like coming to services like this because they say when they leave, I feel good.

We hope you would leave feeling good. We certainly don’t want you to leave feeling bad.

At the same time, it’s not about a feeling.

It’s not about somebody leaving saying, I feel forgiven. That won’t do. Do you know?

Tonight, do you know that as far as God is concerned, as He looks at your life and your past, my sins, which are many, are God’s.

They’re forgiven, they’re cleared. You need to know that.

You need to know that, and you need to know that from God.

That’s what I read from the Bible.

You need to get that from God. No preacher can give you that.

Nobody can walk you through and say, okay, what was your experience?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, you must be forgiven, you must be saved.

No one can tell you that.

It is only, you must get that from God, from His Word. So that’s the first point, that if you’re going to know the forgiveness of sins, as it says here, if God will keep record of sin permanently, no one, none of us would sin, but there is forgiveness with Him, with God.

Secondly, forgiveness assumes that the people who are seeking it are guilty.

[4:57] You don’t need to seek forgiveness if you haven’t done anything wrong.

Forgiveness assumes people are guilty.

It says in that same story, when that man was brought down and brought down to the roof, and the Lord Jesus told that paralyzed man, “‘Rise up and walk, thy sins are forgiven.'”, It says something very interesting.

It says that before that whole story takes place, it says, the power of the Lord was present to heal.

It wasn’t as if, and it says present to heal them, all the people who had come to listen to Jesus.

But you see, they didn’t get any blessing from Christ being there and Christ speaking.

They didn’t leave with their sins forgiven because they didn’t realize that they had sins that needed to be forgiven.

I wonder tonight, do you realize that?

Do you realize that in the sight of God, you have sins that he knows all about?

He’s never gotten used to that. He’s never gotten desensitized.

He’s never forgotten them.

There are sins so clear and open in his eyes.

There are sins that he will have to judge because of who he is as a holy and just God.

[6:10] Are you willing tonight to acknowledge your guilt? The story in the Bible about a prodigal son, spent all of his dad’s money, wasted it on riotous living. And it says that when he came to himself, that was a far journey to come to, but finally, at last, he came to himself. I have sinned. I have sinned against heaven, against the that night when I have sinned against heaven.

I wonder tonight, do you realize that your sins, whatever they might be, whether it was cheating on a test and the teacher said, you know, that’s not allowed and you copied somebody else’s answers or swearing when mom and dad weren’t listening.

Do you understand like David understood that my sins ultimately are against you and you only.

My sins are against a living, holy God.

[7:02] You understand that tonight? You see forgiveness is only available for guilty people.

If there are people who are attending this meeting tonight and you are not guilty, I’m, sorry. There’s no message for you. This is good news for the guilty.

This is good news for the hungry. This is good news for the thirsty.

This is good news for the needy. People who have no need, no guilt, no hunger, no thirst, like the power of the Lord is present.

They just leave. No use of the gospel.

So there is guilt that makes forgiveness needful.

And this guilt, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever had somebody wrong you, but you have. And if they seek your forgiveness, you understand that.

The reason they’re asking for your forgiveness is because what they’ve done has hurt you.

[7:47] It’s offended you. Right? And maybe they’ve never even asked for your forgiveness.

Usually, just as human nature, we don’t really think about too many of the people that we haven’t asked forgiveness from.

[8:01] Let me quickly remember all the people who haven’t asked for our forgiveness. That’s human nature.

And maybe just now you’re thinking of people and they just carry on with their life, and, they’ve never had the decency you might say.

They’ve never come to themselves to just come to you and say, I’m sorry, will you forgive, me? Because what they did, and whatever you might be thinking about just now, hurt.

I have to tell you that sin has hurt God.

It is a deep hurt. It’s not a small thing, not with God. So, forgiveness is necessary.

Forgiveness also assumes that the party that’s going to offer the forgiveness is God, right?

Only God can forgive sins, and it’s only the guilty who need it.

[8:44] The party that offers the forgiveness must be gracious. No one deserves forgiveness.

In order to receive forgiveness, it’s out of the grace, the kindness, the love, or the care of the other party.

That person, like if all of us here tonight could at least unite with this, that we are, guilty and we need forgiveness from God, there would be no good news if God wasn’t offering it.

I hope you understand that. God wasn’t coming out to the sinful, if God wasn’t coming out to the guilty, there’s no forgiveness. He must make the first move. And thankfully my friend, He has. God has come out in grace. I love that. The bright glories of His grace above His other wonders. He has come out with pardon and grace. It says of the Lord Jesus, I try to mention one of these nights that He stayed silent just before before going to the cross, didn’t speak a word in his own defense.

And yet right when he’s put on that cross, nails are driven through his hands and feet, right when saying even a single word would have been unbelievable pain, push his hands and his feet against the nails and to lift up a scraped plowed back against the twisted wood.

It’s then that he starts speaking. And you know the first thing he says, Father.

[10:11] Forgive us. I don’t know what they’re doing, but the Savior we represent tonight, I couldn’t represent myself as a very forgiving person, but the Savior I represent is a forgiving Savior.

He comes out to sinners, the very people that put Him on the cross, the very people that hammered nails through His hands and through His feet and spit on His face. Father, forgive us.

And after He had risen back from the dead, after He died on that cross and rose back from the dead. He told his disciples, I want the good news of this message. This message of repentance and forgiveness. I want it to be sent to all the world. But I want you to start at that very city. See that city? That city that sent away with me. See the city that said, spit on him. See the city that said, crucify him. I want you to tell them.

Tell them first. I want the whole world to know that I went to that very city that said I was worthy of a crown of thorns. I want them to hear the message first. Oh, my friends, God is coming out to sinners, God is coming out with forgiveness, and we represent a gracious God.

And so for forgiveness to be possible, we require God, a person must acknowledge guilt.

[11:22] Then there must be grace.

The fourth point I would give you is very important. I would ask you just to think about it, because likely somewhere, maybe not even in this tent tonight, but sometime in your life you have some quiet space where you think about sins that bother your conscience and you wish you could have them cleared.

[11:48] God is holy, God is just, God will not forgive sins illegally. What does that mean?

That God is legal.

Yes. Yes, God made the law. And God has a law by which He runs the universe.

And nobody can be forgiven illegally. God can’t just look at a sinner and say, okay, I’ll let you in there, your sins, no problem.

I know what you’ve done. I know you’re sorry.

No, sins have a legal consequence.

Sins are a crime, really. You could think of, rather than doing it a sin, you could think of it as a crime, a crime against God’s law.

It’s God’s law that says we shouldn’t lie. And when a person lies, they have sinned against God’s law.

And so we need a ground, a ground where forgiveness can be possible.

And it must be a legal ground.

How can a God who is just and holy, righteous, Ever look at people like me and you, who have committed all these sins, all on our record, they’re all known by him.

How could he just forgive us?

How could he just clear it? After all, isn’t it his own law?

It’s his own law, not the devil’s law.

Not some law on planet Earth. Isn’t it God’s law that says the soul that sins should die?

[13:10] Isn’t it God’s law that says the wages of sin is death? Isn’t it God’s law that says whoever keeps the whole law, and yet the peasant wants a

Am I not just quoting God’s law? So how can God look at His own law and then look at a sinner and say, you’re sorry, no problem.

No, it must be forgiven legally.

I would tell you this, please don’t gamble with your soul. 45,000 years from now, if there’s a legal loophole in my forgiveness, I will be in hell.

If the devil can find some legal loophole, that man has sinned and they weren’t forgiven legally.

He’s mine. I would be in hell, and so would every one of you.

No, it must be forgiven legally. But that’s why Jesus came.

He came to provide this legal ground. And I have to tell you, that’s what Calvary, that’s what the cross is all about.

[14:08] He went to the cross. He didn’t just go there by accident.

He didn’t just go there because it’s a sad story.

He didn’t just go there because God wanted to show just how much he loved us.

And so he put his son on the cross and said, this is how much I love you.

No, there was legal requirements for sin, legal requirements.

And God could not just pass sinners by. Their sins demand that they must die.

But in the cross of Christ we see how God can save the righteous.

That’s what the song says, and that’s very true. And the song goes on to say this.

The judgment fell on Jesus.

By His shed blood, sin’s debt was paid.

Now mercy can dispense its sword. You see, what happened on the cross was the Lord Jesus went there willingly.

And He went there to take the penalty, the legal consequences for sin that you and I have endured.

[15:07] The law says the soul that sins shall die. Lord Jesus went to the cross to experience death.

This is what it says in the Bible. I’m just telling you what the Bible says now.

He tasted death for everyone. That’s what he did on the cross.

He tasted death for everyone. What a scope for forgiveness.

Everyone, wow. And so there is a legal ground that has been laid.

He went to the cross, he was made accountable for sin, suffered for his bullying, God raised him back from the dead, God announcing to the world that now there is a ground.

There’s a solid ground where I can legally Forget any sinner, and trust Jesus Christ.

[15:51] What does that happen? Well, this is what happens when a sinner trusts Christ, according to the Bible, and we can get make it theologically complex We can just tell you in very simple terms. I’ll tell you what happens.

You know the day you trust Jesus Christ, the day I trusted him, with all my record of sins, do you know what God did?

[16:10] He took what his perfect son did and he credited that. My account before God, I had sinned, I don’t glory in them, but my account was Joseph Baker has sinned and I should die.

[16:28] But I depended on the 22nd of March, 2003. I depended on him according to the Bible, it says this about him, he was wounded for my sins.

I depended on him. You know what happened? When he got on that cross, God, in a mighty transaction, credited that, freely, to my account.

It was credited to me, as a gift.

And that’s what happens when somebody trusts Christ. And so it’s not that they’re forgiven because they’ve become religious.

It’s not that they’re forgiven because they’ve said the right prayers.

It’s not that they’re forgiven because they’ve joined the right church.

They’re forgiven because they came humbly enough as a sinner to say, I trust him, I trust the one who took the death penalty for me.

And so, thank God, really, that there is a ground, a legal ground to forgive sins.

That brings me to my final point.

Forgiveness must come from God. Tonight, if you want to know whether you’re forgiven, you must get that from God.

It is only through the guilty.

It is only available by grace. There must be a legal ground.

But point number five is this, forgiveness must be received as a gift.

[17:40] You cannot earn God’s forgiveness. You cannot change your life enough to merit God’s forgiveness.

You must receive God’s forgiveness as a free gift.

[17:55] How amazing that that’s how God is offering it. He turns to sinners, just like those people in Jerusalem who said that his son was worthy, of spit on his face, and says, I’m offering you forgiveness for what you did with my son.

I’m offering that to you tonight.

And a person receives that as a gift. They turn to God by faith and just receive it as a gift.

They don’t do anything.

They never, I’ve never met a person who figured out how to believe.

Never.

[18:30] I’ve never met a person who figured out how to trust or suddenly read the Bible enough that a verse just popped into their mind in gold letters.

I’ve met a whole bunch of people in my two weeks here that understood that they were guilty of religious sins and had nothing in their hands and understood that God was coming out to set them free. And they took it as a gift. And my friend, tonight, if you were to take it as a gift, you would go home rejoicing with this man, David, and this Psalm. Oh God, if you were to to keep track of sins, I could never stand, but there is forgiveness.

It’s the fact that there is forgiveness that tells us to share this great news with you.

There is no message like it, as we said before, there may be better messengers, but there, There is no message to think that you can go out into the parking lot tonight with every shit legally forgiven by the God of this great universe.

Nothing between you and God, only the Lord Jesus Christ.

I can’t imagine why anyone would want to leave this tent tonight.

[19:53] I really insist on going back to your vehicle, Mr. Simms, because I’d love, I’d love to have what Joseph is talking about.

I would love to know that my sin record is completely cleared.

[20:09] And I have peace with God. To the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. We’re glad you’re here.

And just before, in case I forget at the end, I just want to thank everybody for being patient with us, over the last few weeks, and for attending, for all the refreshments we’ve enjoyed, a lot of work involved in that every night.

And I have to say it’s been very much a pleasure working with Joseph as well.

So pray for him and his future and his family, and just appreciate the opportunity to share Christ at this time.

So we’re going to read one verse in the Old Testament. And the meaning of it can be somewhat obscure to us tonight in the imagery here.

[20:58] We’re not going to get distracted by that. It’s not going to be too difficult.

But if you look into it, it’s looking forward to a future day when Christ himself will defeat, every foe and every enemy, and he will be the mighty conqueror.

He will reign universally, he’ll reign globally, but I just want you to remember three words, from this one verse that we are going to read.

I want you to spot the three words. Isaiah 63. Isaiah 63 and verse 1.

I think that’s 63 and verse 1.

[21:43] I said these words may be somewhat obscure and may not mean a lot to you and.

[21:51] Verse one says, Who is this that cometh from Eden with dyed garments from Balthazar, this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength, I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.

Now, I didn’t want to give away which three words I was picking up, but maybe just by the way I emphasize it, you clued in.

[22:22] Mighty to save. There is not a scanner on planet Earth that Christ cannot save.

He is mighty, mighty to save.

So I took my little sign here.

Whether it blows in the wind or not, I don’t know. If it does, keep much, you’ll see it for a flash and then it might fly away.

Mighty to save.

You ever think about if you need to be saved for that?

Would you like to be saved? Is there anyone here who is saying, I heard about salvation, but I’m not saved?

Well, you’ve been hearing about one who is mighty to save.

Now I want to read the antonym of mighty to save. in the new testament.

[23:24] Antonym, for those of you who are younger, just means the opposite, the opposite.

If I say the antonym of dark is light.

So that’s what an antonym is. If it’s cold, the antonym is hot.

Well, let’s read the antonym of mighty to save. Romans 5 verse 6.

Romans 5, verse 6 says, “‘For when we were yet without strength,’ in due time, Christ, died for the ungodly.

The antonym of mighty to save is without strength.

[24:16] Stops at a mighty to save, and maybe there’s a heart that’s resonating with these two words tonight in the tent.

That describes me. I have no strength to save myself.

I’m without strength. Well, we point you again to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without strength, there is one who is mighty to save.

[24:47] Some people, you’ve already been here, people wanting to believe and trying to figure out how can I be saved?

Well, you can save yourself.

And the more a person tries, the weaker they are. They realize, I can’t do this.

I want to have my sins forgiven, but I am lost. You try, they say, to get saved.

Get saved.

But to know you aren’t saved, you know, this little text service is, you’re either lost, or you have been saved.

Someone asked us over refreshments last week, were you always saved?

You were always a Christian. Absolutely not.

No one has always been saved and no one has always been a Christian.

Every Christian has found themselves without strength to save themselves.

You say, well, I say I’m a Christian, but I don’t remember a time in my life when I, understood I was without strength to save myself.

Well, from the Word of God, I would tell you, timely, you’re not saved.

[26:04] Call yourself a Christian, but you’re not a Christian if you haven’t found out that that I have no ability, no strength to save myself.

As you’ve heard in my past, save implies a rescue.

So specifically when were you spiritually rescued? When did Christ save you?

I know when he saved me, June the 2nd, 1969. Oh, I know a lot of things happened in 1969.

Landed in the moon for the first time. 69.

Teddy Kennedy drove off the bridge in 69. Someone drowned in his car.

Woodstock, Rockvessel, 69. He experimented with the first debit machine, 69.

All these wonderful things in 69. But the greatest of all things that happened in 69, I was slain.

I found I had no strength, but there was one who was mighty to save me.” Have you found out that the Lord Jesus is mighty to save?

[27:17] Let me tell you a little short Bible story. Some of you probably know, but just a few days after Jesus was crucified, two people were walking away from Jerusalem and they were lamenting and sorrowing about the death of Jesus.

Probably tears running down their faces as they headed home and all their hopes had been centered and pinned on Jesus.

And then, as the story goes, a third person joined them.

And so they were talking along the way, and he asked them, so what things are you talking about?

And they said, you don’t know what happened in Jerusalem just the other day?

He said, what things?

So they said, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet.

And here’s what they said, mighty indeed at the works and mighty in word before God and before all the people.

And so that’s what they told the third person who was walking with them.

Mighty indeed and word before God and all the people.

And then they ended up at the house. The three of them walked in over the patio and through the door and they sat down at the table And just the three of them.

[28:45] He said, oh, that’s it’s Jesus. It’s Jesus risen from the dead.

If that’s not power, if that’s not might, here he is alive. This is might, this is power, this is strength that eclipses all other displays of his power.

Someone who was dead, died on the cross. His corpse was removed from the cross, wrapped, put in a tomb, stone rolled in front of the tomb.

And the third day, there was no power and hell or an earth in all the universe that could hold him back.

Power, he is mighty to save. He has the power to raise himself from the dead.

Jesus said, no one takes my life away from me.

I let it down of myself, and I have the authority to take it back, take it up again.

That’s what Jesus said in John chapter 10.

Then he said on another occasion, he said, destroy this temple of my body.

[29:59] I will raise it up in three days. You’re wondering if the Lord Jesus can save you?

You say, I have no strength. I’ve been listening to Joseph. I have no strength to save myself.

That’s why we point you to the Lord Jesus. He is mighty to save.

I’ve only spoken on this one other time. I just discovered mighty to save in Isaiah and I underlined it.

I got out my notepad and I was like, this is thrilling, mighty to save.

Who are lost and desperate in their sins, and we can point them to the Lord Jesus, He is mighty.

I’m pointing you to the Midland Park Gospel Hall.

Well, I would be home so fast if it was just about the gospel hall or a church.

It’s about a man called Jesus. He is mighty to save. I’m not here to present the irrefutable truths and the facts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but he was mighty to bring himself back from death. Do you need any more proof that he is mighty to save? You have no strength to to say I’m aware now that I am a sinner.

[31:22] I pray, I shut it in my room and I tried to cry. I thought maybe if I could cry, that he’d see my tears and have mercy on me.

No, that’s not how a person trusts Christ.

Tears have no part of it. God never said if you cry, enough tears, And if you say enough prayers, and if you try really hard and you up it a couple more notches, when I see you’re there, then I will change and go.

It’s not like that. That would be human effort, wouldn’t it?

There’s no human effort involved at all. You don’t want to come out, you’re without strength.

Nothing you can do. Give up tonight.

If you want to have your sins forgiven, Give up and face the facts in the Bible.

The Bible says you’re without strength.

You have no ability. Um…

Bankrupt. You are not. No more sins.

That’s why we need upstrength.

I’d like to see who can save you tonight. What do you think you can do? What sort of thing?

Thank you for watching.

[32:52] Giving God is everything to do with Jesus Christ, the mighty one, who is able to save you.

You know, from the beginning of time, mighty to save.

God promised that there was one coming who would be mighty to save.

Genesis 3, you know, the awful, the catastrophic fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, and the dense darkness and the brokenness of the world, as a result of his awful sin. Way back in Genesis chapter three, God promised that there would come a mighty one.

You read it in Genesis three verse 15. He said, oh, Satan, the devil may bruise his heel, will bruise his heel, But the one that’s coming into the world with a cross, Satan’s head is ours.

But promised way back in the Garden of Eden that this mighty one was going to come.

Satan will not triumph forever.

Jesus will come. Evil enters the human family, poison spread by Satan, misery.

Well, I’m so thankful that way back in Genesis, promise was made, that one who is blessed and saved could be better appreciated by the Lord Jesus Christ in that way?

[34:20] Like, is there any response in your heart? Like, did you thank the Lord Jesus Christ today for taking your plunge and dying for your sins and bearing the penalty of your sins?

I think I’m safe, really?

And there’s no appreciation in your heart?

Big question mark there, something wrong? If someone went to the cross and shed his precious innocent blood, and you couldn’t find it in your heart any hour of this day, to say, thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for dying for my sins.

Question, are you saying?

[35:05] God promised back that there would be that strong, that mighty one who would come.

So you read all through the Old Testament. I know there’s some difficult passages in the Old Testament and the Psalms and Isaiah. God promises that the mighty one is going to come.

And one place it is, the wind will be his chariot. Oh, isn’t that figurative?

Mighty to say, oh, there’s no weakness, no lack of strength in Christ. He is going to come.

That was the message of the Old Testament.

The Lord himself will come and with conquering power, the feet, the forces of evil.

What a hope throughout the Old Testament. Someone, Isaiah wrote, whose arm is not too short, that it cannot reach down and save.

We talk to people and they say, well, I’m too far down. I’m too far gone.

I’ve lost the sin. I love the Bible.

It says, my arm is too short.

I could reach anyone, wherever they are. We can reach you, reach you in a tent tonight, and he could save you.

[36:13] Stronger than the strong. You get to Mark chapter three in the New Testament.

And there’s the whole story of people saying, this is Satan and Beelzebub.

They’re attributing the powers of Christ to Satan and to Beelzebub.

And Jesus said, he’s strong, Satan’s strong, but there’s a stronger one than Satan.

The strong man arm keepeth his palaces with their peace, but a stronger than that strong man.

Who is a stronger than the strong man?

Christ, Christ. You see, friends, this message is all about the Lord, Jesus Christ.

[36:55] Strong, mighty to save. Would you like to be delivered? Would you like to be saved?

Would you like to be set free from your sin? Would you like someone with might, with power, to reach into your life, just where you are tonight,

[37:16] Well, who will you find in the universe? Joseph is a good preacher, and I’ve had quite a few coffee with him, and he’s a nice person.

We can’t save him. Who can save you tonight?

[37:36] Absolutely, only Christ. He is mighty to save. When you think of how he came every Christmas, because I enjoy it throughout the year, but at Christmas time, when you’re seeing the nativity scene, he came in a parent weakness.

In the stable as he slept in the manger, he looked like a fragile, weak little baby boy.

That’s what he looked like, parent weakness.

Wrath and swaddling clothes, omnipotence. You can hear me about his omniscience, all knowing, But this is almighty power wrapped in baby blankets.

Isn’t that amazing? Apparent weakness.

He was mighty, you know, at that stage in life. Mighty, he was Christ in human flesh.

He was mighty when he was in the carpenter’s shop. Oh, he just looked like he was an ordinary tradesperson.

Mighty.

When he slept on the cushion in the boat, tired and weary, sound asleep, mighty, mighty when in the cars of Gethsemane, they wrapped his arms, they bound his hands, he had a sufficient power that he could have broken those bands of thunder and he could have swept the ball out into eternity.

[39:01] But in apparent weakness, they bowed the hands of Jesus, and they paraded him through the streets, and they nailed him to the cross. I’ve often wondered what those soldiers thought.

Those are skilled soldiers. The Romans, that’s what they did. That was the way they, yelled with criminals. They were skilled at crucifixion. I wonder those soldiers when it came to selecting the nails to nail Jesus to the cross. And when he just willingly, I wonder the soldier looked at the other soldier. There’s no resistance.

Look at the other ones. We have to put our knee on the arm and hold it down and the other person dives the nail in.

But this lovely man, who is he?

He provides no resistance. His eyes aren’t flashing with anger.

His cheeks aren’t white with rage.

Absolutely is a friend. He has nothing to say to you. He went to the cross in apparent weakness.

[40:14] He didn’t look like a mighty one. He didn’t have all the outward trappings of wealth and strength the greatness of power and might, his ordinary clothes.

No big security details following him everywhere he went. No minstrels going down the road ahead of him, playing a little tune, here he comes, here he comes.

Nothing like that.

Just looked like a poor 30 year old man.

[40:44] They underestimated him. Maybe you’re underestimating Jesus tonight.

Maybe you’re undervaluing him as well, give no place for him.

Oh, think of who he is. He is mighty deceived.

Some accused him of getting his power from the devil, even his own family.

Did you know that? His own family said he’s mentally ill.

They came to physically take him to a family intervention because they thought he had lost his capacity to make sound choices and read good reasoning.

Apparent weakness.

[41:23] Display inherent strength. This lovely one who’s mighty to see. Remember those two in the road to Emmaus? They said, mighty in deed and in word before God and all people his deeds. I don’t, need to enumerate the deeds. They just, it blows their mind when I read the gospels, how he healed impossible cases, just spoken word or by a touch. What no doctor or specialist could do, Mighty, mighty, oh, he has power, mighty to save you tonight.

Anybody interested? Any takers? Anyone wanting just to put up a little hand inside your heart saying, I need strength, I need to be rescued, I’m without strength, I’m ungodly in my sins, I need to be saved.

[42:16] But I can rescue you from your sins.

Weakness, mighty power.

When he went to the cross, he was strong enough, strong enough to overcome evil, Satan, and the intractable problem of sin, that has plagued this human family for millennia.

He had the power to deal with that problem of sin at the cross, mighty to save.

Religious people, prophets, they tried to deal with sin, but there was only one strong prophet, who could deal with the sin problem.

He was strong enough, I already said, to raise himself from the dead.

[43:01] From of the same sinners that are true in the ages. And he’s strong enough to save you.

[43:10] Would you like him to save you tonight? You know, the Bible says he knows.

Chapter 9, once at the end of the ages, appeared to put, put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

That’s the best point. That’s power. That’s strength. All by himself.

He did it. What no one else could do.

Worsened than for mine. Tonight, he has the ability and the strength and the desire to, save. A lot of people have a desire to save. I was reading a story, it happened a little while ago, I have it on my website, but it’s the Nutty, it took place in the Nutty Puppy Cave, way out in Utah. And it used to be a very popular destination for people who like caves and, John Jones, he was 26 years old in medical school and, trained to be a pediatric Cardiologist and he was a he and his wife were expecting a little baby and, All for your Thanksgiving and they thought there would go some age problem, And John Jones went into the cave and he got stuck inside the cave.

[44:23] He got stuck upside down, he thought he would just go a little further, he got stuck upside down.

It was Tuesday at 9 o’clock in the evening, and he was 400 feet inside, and he was unable to move. He was stuck.

Stuck at a 70 degree angle, and most of his middle body pinched in a probably 10 inch wide space.

[44:50] They worked the rescuers. They briefly pulled him out of the crevice. They used a pulley system, ropes that tied to his feet. They gave him food and water. They sent things down to him, trying to rescue him. And they thought they had him out of the narrow space for about 30 minutes. They thought they had him free. And then the rope broke and he went back in.

This time they couldn’t get him out. He slipped back in. He was so close to safety.

And after 27 hours of trying to rescue them, trying to save them, they had to give up.

137 people tried to rescue Jones, but they said, we’re physically, mentally exhausted.

Is it our make-up to leave anything undone?

All of our Herculean efforts make us insane.

[45:49] But it’s very important, David said, if you want to make a spiritual analogy, and he’s, not going to tell you, the rope’s not going to break.

If you want to be saved this evening as we close this gospel service these two weeks, If you would like to have your sins forgiven, we point you to the one who won’t let you down, won’t let you go.

Herculean effort, the power is all in himself, mighty to save you.

But maybe you’re still floundering around saying, I have a little bit of ability to save myself.

You’ll never be saved when you’re taking that life. When you get to that point, oh God, I’m without strength.

My sins, I need to be respected by those who might be saved.

Joseph and I have accepted visiting someone who has experienced God’s salvation.

Thank you.

[46:48] Thank you.

And I wrote about a few years ago, David Berkowitz, who’s still in Sam.

He murdered six people over a period of years, wounded seven others, awful, heinous crimes.

And I asked him, what does Jesus Christ mean to you today? He wrote me back, the Lord Jesus is my savior, my hope, my friend.

Experiencing his forgiveness is wonderful. Being able to know Christ as my shepherd is also wonderful.

One of my favorite scripture passages can be found in Hebrews 2.

My Savior says that concerning all his blood-redeemed children, he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

And this means that the Lord is not ashamed to have such a miserable sinner as I once was, now a part of his family.

And then he’s got amazing! Exclamation mark!

And then he wrote, no one is too far away that the Savior’s mighty arms cannot hold.

He experienced God’s salvation.

[47:53] We’re sitting here, blank. As we close this meeting tonight, let me tell you, he is mighty.

He said, I give to them eternal life.

You will never perish. He never dropped you.

Come to Him, you’re saved forever. Secure in Christ.

He’s able to save to the uttermost those who come to God for Him.

He not only saves you from your sins and lifts you up, but He saves you throughout your whole Christian journey and pathway.

He’s mighty to save.

Pastor, have you ever called Heaven’s 911?

[48:34] Oh Lord, I’m down here on planet Earth! I have no strength, I’m going to hell!

My sins! My sins! My sins!

If he heard that cry from a human heart that no other human can hear, just the faintest cry from the inner recesses of a human heart, his ears are tuned to that cry, and he’s mighty to save.

And if you said, oh God, I have no strength to save myself in my sins and just dying for how you’d reach it safely.

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