Jack Jurgens's Ministry Library

Gospel tent meeting with Peter Ramsay and Kory Crawford.

Kory

[0:00] I’d like to read this evening, if you have a Bible with you, in the book of Acts, and chapter 17. Acts chapter 17.
And here we’re going to read again of this preacher Paul that we have been reading and following along through this book of Acts, as well as Peter, but here we’re going to encounter Paul, and he’s here, and he’s in a very religious place, a very, the very center of philosophy and idolatry, in a place called Athens. And we’re going to read in that verse number, we’ll read verse number 22, but the question that was asked to him in verse 19, it says this, they took him and brought him to Areopagus saying, may we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak. For them it was a message they had never heard of this one named Jesus Christ. And so they did the natural human thing to do. They asked, tell us more. We’d like to hear more about this doctrine that you are spreading, that you are preaching.
And so with that in mind, we come to verse number 22, and it says this, Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious.
Maybe you can identify with that this evening, and say, I’m very religious.
And it says in verse 23, For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God.

[1:27] Therefore the one whom you worship without knowing him I proclaim to you in other words, The unknown God the one who you you cry out to there is a God that you can know, That’s what he was telling and he says this in verse 24 God, Who made the world and everything in it since he is Lord of heaven and earth?
Earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, since he gives life to all, breath, and all things.
And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell in all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope, they might grasp for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
For in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of our poets have said, for we are also his offspring. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone. Something shaped by art or man’s devising.

[2:42] Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day, on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained.
He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead.
What a tremendous message preached by this evangelist. We’ve been noting the last few nights that Asi would preach to religious people In Acts chapter 13, he would use the Old Testament, to help apply it, to help them relate to it.

[3:18] In Acts 14, when he was preaching to those with very little knowledge of literacy, very little knowledge of religion or anything like that, he would take the message down to their level.
And here now, in the center of all philosophy and religious thought of his day, he tells them of a God that they can know, a God that they can know.
It is said of this place, Athens, an old Greek philosopher would say, that in Athens at that time, it was easier to find a god than to find a man.
That’s how many there were. There were so many gods in that city, you’d have an easier time locating that god or whoever it was you’re looking for, more than another human being.
And so in that city, the hundreds if not thousands of different gods that were worshipped, that had their temples set up for them.
Now it’s interesting that every known language in the world has a word for God, it has a, word for God. It’s said that some languages don’t have tenses, or some languages don’t even have the word have or the in the language. There’s no word for them in many languages.
But every known language has some word that is used.

[4:27] God, or the idea of God. It may not be referring to the true God, the God of the Bible, but it shows that in that sense, in every language, in every nation, in this world, that within the human existence, in the human soul, there is a knowledge, there is a longing for something bigger, something greater. God. And when I say.

[4:52] That name tonight, God, it might mean something different to different people here tonight. You could say the God I worship and you could maybe tell me the name, you could describe his character. But you know when we come to the God of the Bible, and that’s why often in the Old Testament and quoting in the New Testament, they say the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Why? Because they didn’t want people to be confused with which God they were referring to. You, know if I were to say tonight, speak of the President, you would immediately.

[5:19] Someone would come in your mind if I’m saying it right here. But if I go to Costa Rica, and I say the president, well a very different person, a very different character, a very different type of individual is going to come to the mind of the people there. Why? Because the president is different. It’s not the same. You wouldn’t associate with the same thing. But you know around this world I think in general, not to pat Americans on the back or toot the horn, but if you say the president in general, I think people, most people would associate it with the, president of the United States. Why? Because I think as we would consider the the scene of this world, you would identify one who maybe has more authority and more power than most around this world, and be the president of this country.
And in the same sense tonight, friend, when we talk about God, and whatever name or whatever being, whatever image you associate that with, our desire tonight is that your eyes would focus in, and as we’re going to see, on the God that you can know, the very one that created you, that created your soul.
The God we preached to them, the God of heaven, God Jehovah, the God of the Bible.

[6:23] And as we would see this, that Paul coming into this city and preaching to them, you.

[6:29] Know, the very first commandment that God gave, you know what it was?
You shall have no other gods before me.
The very first commandment that the God of heaven gave. And as Paul would come into the city and be overwhelmed and inundated with the number of gods that he would witness. It wouldn’t take him very long to conclude. In this very city, it’s full of people that have rebelled against God. They made God of different images, of different sizes, of different materials. And Prentonite, as we think in this meeting here, in this tent.

[6:59] You may not have erected an image of a god in your home, or even broken this specific commandment made in your life, but we can, from the word of God under this authority, conclude this. Every Every single one of us here have fallen short of God’s state.
We’re guilty before God.
And as Paul sees this, the condition of the people there, they had a God for everything.
A God for everything. And he said, you know, I was passing by.
Maybe he noted some of the more famous altars of different gods in that city.
But one seemed to have caught his attention more than others. As he passed by, and we’ve seen that altar wrecked, then maybe would have asked someone, who’s that altar to?
He’d say, I don’t know. It’s to the unknown God. Can you really know God?
Maybe friend, tonight in this meeting you would have that same attitude, that same question in your heart.
Can I really know God or a God in any sort of personal way?
And maybe in your life you have been like those people of Athens and for your life you have followed and bowed down to an unknown God.

[8:01] Something or someone you know nothing about and just hoping.

[8:06] Hoping in some way that that this God would respond to this unknown God would in some way, Communicate to you or speak to you in front tonight the message of the gospel is this, There is a God you can know and this God the Almighty God the God of heaven It says, he’s not very far from each one of us.
And tonight, friend, he is extending to you his grace, his mercy, and his forgiveness that none of us deserve.
And he offers to us his son.
And as Paul that day would have looked upon those people, there was a few things in his heart that he wanted to communicate to them about God, not the unknown God, but the God that they could know.
He was just hoping that, I don’t know what it was in Greek or whatever language they had that altar written, but he wanted to just take those two letters.
Don’t bow down to the unknown God.
Bow down to the known God, the God of heaven, the God who loves your soul and gave his son to die for you.
And he wanted them to know this. He said, the God, in the verse that we have read, God who made the world and everything in it.
Isaiah could say, hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is he weary.
After all the work that he has done, all the creation that He has done, giving life into your very soul, into your very being, that says this, God is not weary.

[9:28] And in French tonight, the God that we proclaim, the God that you can know, is the God who created you and everything in this world. That’s what Paul wanted the people to know that day.
It says, every man, in Hebrews, every man, every house is built by a man.
We see that, a building, it’s built by a man. But he that built all things is God.
You know, just a few days ago, well, yesterday, I’d rather it was, took my sons down for the first time, down in New York City.
And as you walk down through that, right through Times Square and in those busy streets, and you look up at all the buildings, it’s impressive.
It’s awe-inspiring. And you’d say, what an accomplishment by man to construct such great buildings.
It’s impressive, it’s renowned around the world. Everyone would know the skyline of New York City.
And the scriptures would so clearly say to us, every house is built by a man.
Those buildings built by a man. But the one we proclaim tonight is the one who built them.
He created this whole earth, he created you.
He holds our breath in His very hands, as Scripture says.

[10:28] And Paul wanted them to know that, to understand it. The God who can be known is the God who is the creator, the God who created you.
Do you know that God today? Could you say, I know the one who made me, the one who formed me in His own likeness. Do you know Him?
Not just know of him, not just know of him.
Him something above him. Do you know him in a personal way? Could you call him, father to him? Do you have that relationship with God? He doesn’t stop at telling them the God they can know is the God creator, but he is the sustainer too. It says that he is the one who who gives life to all. He has made from one blood, every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. We’ve seen this more than once in the book of Acts. The God of heaven, the God that you can know is is the one who’s also set boundaries in our lives.
He knows the very moment you’re gonna go on to eternity. And friend tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybe this even this evening, is where your life could end being found in that verse, the boundary of your life. And God in His mercy and His grace has extended you one last time to hear the gospel.

[11:32] And what would you do with that? What would you do with God’s grace this evening, God’s salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. God is the sustainer of all things.
He set boundaries, I love the verse that says, He’s put eternity in our hearts, right?
That deep within each of us, even an atheist, and I have a very close person in my family, who would be an atheist.
And one thing I have noted from this individual, that despite them convincing themselves that they believe that God does not exist, they have a tremendous fear of death.
Tremendous fear, more than anyone I know in my life. Why?
Because deep down in their own soul, they know one day they’re gonna have to meet God.
God has set eternity in each one of our hearts.
And some of us, maybe we’ve tried to cover it up, we’ve tried to bury it down, because we don’t wanna think about what we’ll say, or what kind of account we’ll be able to give to God if we meet Him face-to-face after our life. God, who is the sustainer of all things.
He set boundaries, He set timelines. And it says, though, as though we worship Him with man’s hands, as if He needed something from us. You ever thought about that?
That all our trying, all our giving, all our working, all our religion.
We come to God with our hands full and our own mind that says this, as if he needed anything from us.

[12:47] When we bring our petty sacrifices, our petty offerings, when God sent his son to make the greatest offering, and sacrifice this world has ever known.
Jesus Christ died, and God who is the sustainer. He needs nothing from us, but we need everything from him.
We need the forgiveness of sins. And it says here that God who has a desire, in verse 27, he kept going.
He said, he’s appointed all these things, why? So that they should seek the Lord.
And in seeking for him, they might find him.
You know what tonight, friend? Convinced from the authority of the Word of God if you were to seek God tonight if you were to seek Jesus Christ You would find it. He said himself him that cometh to me. I’ll never cast away and that is his desire tonight, He says he’s put these things there He’s put eternity in our hearts so that we should seek the Lord in that that that groping that that that longing after reaching out For him we could find him and this is the declaration because he’s not far from every single one of us I don’t know if you feel lonely tonight. I don’t know if you feel abandoned I don’t know if you think God is just some far-off, evil being, mean-fisted God who has just sent difficulty into your life. The God that you can know, it says here in Scripture, He’s not very far from every single one of us. He is so close in, fact that He had your name in mind when He sent His Son into this world to die for your sins and for mine. For God so loved the world that He gave His only, begotten Son. Then God’s desire is this, that you would search for Him, you would seek the Lord while he may be found.

[14:14] And Paul kept going, he just said, God, it’s not just a God with a desire that you would seek him, he’s a God with a message.
Now, I don’t know what the message of the unknown God was, but I’m sure it wasn’t a very noble message.
Maybe his message also was unknown.
We don’t really know what that God wants, the unknown God, but the God who is known, the God who you can know.
This is his message in verse number 30.
That therefore these times of ignorance, that the bowing down to idols, They’re trying to offer God something with their own hands.
That these times of ignorance, God has overlooked, or in other words, has been long suffering.
Has not in his right, in his justice, just judged us all in a moment.
But he’s overlooked these things.
He’s long suffered. Not willing that any should perish.

[14:56] And what is his message? Many people will tell you, God’s message is this.
He wants you to be healthy and wealthy.
You know what the word of God says?
This is his message. Now commands all men everywhere to repent.
That’s God’s message.
That you would turn from the unknown God in your life, the idols in your life, the sin in your life that are taking you down to hell. He commands all men everywhere to repent, to repent.
Maybe tonight you’re sitting there and you’re thinking, I’m religious, I’m not all that bad.
God commands all men everywhere to repent.
That’s the message of God today, that you would turn from your sins, that you would repent and believe the gospel.
He is not slack concerning his promises, but is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Friend, tonight, that is the God that can be known tonight. The God who commands you to come to him on his terms and his way, to turn from your sins and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because he says here, he doesn’t stop there and say, it’s a God with a message that you can know.
It’s a God who is the judge, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained, Jesus Christ.
It says, God has given all judgment into his hands. And friend tonight, if you don’t trust in Christ in this life, if you don’t receive him as your savior, there’s coming a day when you’ll see him and he won’t be a savior then, he’ll be the judge.
And you will say to all those religious, all those who try, depart from me.
I never agree.

[16:24] Oh friend, what an invitation tonight. That the God of heaven, not the unknown God, but the God that can be known, he offers one to you, a savior, that can be known and experienced and held on to tonight as a firm foundation.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, because he’s the God of salvation.
He gives assurance, he gives salvation, he gives forgiveness.
You know, we didn’t read there the last few verses of this chapter, but it gives us three reactions to this message.
Having heard all this tonight, friend, in a very summarized, brief way.

[17:01] The God who is your creator. The God who desires that you reach out for him, that you seek him while he may be found.
The God who commands you to repent. The God who says, I sent my son to die for you.
What could you ever offer me? God offers us all things through Jesus Christ.
And the reaction that day, some 2000 years ago, it’s amazing when you read the book of Acts and you notice this, that man’s heart has not changed one iota in 2000 years.
Look at verse number 32, three reactions to this message.
And you find here tonight, the message of a known God that can be had, that you can become part of God’s family.
You will have one of these three reactions. It says in verse 32.

[17:45] And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, some laughed.
Maybe as a respectful person, you wouldn’t laugh audibly tonight at hearing this message, but maybe in your heart, there’s some mockery brewing up.
You say, a God that can be known?

[17:59] No, foolishness, foolishness. Maybe tonight, friend, you’ll go to your car, you’ll leave here with that mockery still in your heart, laughing, as it were, to God’s offer of salvation.
Or maybe you’d be like those in the end of verse 32, it says, this some mocked, while others said, we will hear you again on this matter.
There’s some that wait, there’s some that linger. You know, they got past the mockery, there’s something in the message that piqued their interest.
Maybe a conviction in their heart that this God that can be known, I’d like to know more about him.
What does it say? They waited.
Come back another time and we’ll listen to this. Maybe a friend you had that same reaction, maybe a year ago at the tent when the last tent meeting ended.
You say, I desire to be saved. I desire to know more about this message.
And you lingered and you waited and you found yourself here one year later.
Hearing about the same God that can be known and his son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins on the cross. And he’d wait and he’d linger.
You know, maybe it’s easy to condemn people who would mock the message.
But for tonight, there’s people in hell. People who mock the message, yes, but there’s also people who lingered and waited and put it off.
Maybe even younger ones here tonight, you would think I have my whole life in front of me. And you’d say, I’m going to wait and I’ll linger. It’s the same condemnation if you were to enter into eternity.
But our desire tonight would be this, as verse 33 says, verse 34 rather, however, some men Join him.

[19:23] They didn’t moth, they understood the importance of understanding of coming into that relationship with the God of heaven and his son Jesus Christ and they.

[19:32] Didn’t wait and linger. They believed the message. And friend, our desire tonight would be that you would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you would be safe.
And you leave here rejoicing. It was in 2018, in March of 2018, where Chase Canada, Chase Bank pulled out all their credit card services in Canada. I had a Marriott chase credit card that I enjoyed using had no foreign transaction fees so it’s very helpful living in another country having that card. I remember when the news came in 2018 that they were closing all business services all Canadian, credit cards which would no longer exist you couldn’t use them anymore I was disappointed but they said you have to maintain your payments you have to keep making your payments and so life carried on as long and then it was a year later in in April of 2019 where they announced this to the bewilderment of many that I It made more business sense for them as a bank to cancel all the debt on all the Canadian credit cards than maintain business services of collections and all that.
So everybody that had a debt with Chase Bank in Canada received a notice in the mail.
Your credit card balance is zero.
That’s the first time you ever got punished for having good credit.
We’re having the card paid off and it wasn’t good news for me, but for many.
Tremendous news. And they interviewed a man in a small town, I don’t know why they’re in Northern Ontario, Coal Hill, Ontario, a man by the name of Alistair Turner.

[20:55] And they interviewed him there on the CBC and they asked him, how did it feel?
He said, the day I received that notice, $6,154 of credit card debt, completely forgiven.
He said it sounded too good.

[21:08] I could not believe it. But then he said, I had to open up that letter again.
I’ve kept it. Because every time when I think it’s too good to be true, I go right back to that statement where it says this.
The balance is zero. He says, every time I look at that statement, a smile comes across my face.
I can’t help but feel joyous that my debt was forgiven. And friend tonight, I don’t know what kind of debt, you think you have with God.
But it is a debt much greater than $6,154. But tonight, friend, from the Word of God.

[21:39] You could turn to different verses as we have done, and you could find the declaration where it says, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and you could trust it.
If you ever had doubts again in the future, which is not abnormal, you could come back to that statement that says, not from the authority of the president of Chase Bank, who is a man, I am sure, with much authority, but you could come to the authority of the God of heaven, the God who can be known tonight by you, in a very personal way, and you can see this.
He that has the Son has life. If you’d like to be forgiven this evening, friend, we would commend to you the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day.
And the God of heaven, the God who created your soul, his desire tonight is that you would search for him.
And if you’d search for him in genuine, with all your heart, you’d find him. You’d find Christ.
And you’d go home tonight, not falling down, worshiping an unknown God, but you can know God, and you can know Christ as your Savior.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

Peter

[22:42] Some of us have had the joy of knowing this knowable God for quite a few decades, And we have failed Him, but I can tell you that this God, who is no one, knowing, and to live the rest of your life without knowing the knowable God, like I can’t even wrap my head around it, why anyone would choose to try to negotiate the eight turns of life without God when He is available to you.
And you were hearing about the response, some mop. There are probably no moppers here tonight.
At least you’re not doing it from the outside. Can’t see any mocking faces externally.
You may be laughing your head off inside about us, but there may be some who are lingering, as you’ve been hearing, lingering.
And as Corey was speaking, I was thinking, those who linger don’t really understand what is at stake.
If you understood there was urgency, If you understood there is gravity, there’s seriousness to this, you wouldn’t linger.
You wouldn’t wait until Sunday night or tomorrow. You would say, if God is noble, I need to know God tonight, period.

[24:11] And you can know God tonight. It’s not a 12-step program.
You could know God as your God, as a God of salvation.
You could know him tonight before you leave this town. Think about that.
You say, well, I didn’t plan to do such a, have a great transaction like that.
I never anticipated that on a Friday night. Change your mind right now.
Say, if God is noble, I want to know him tonight. Change your mind.
If you weren’t thinking of doing business for eternity, say tonight, I want to have this settled once and for all.
Oh, maybe there is just one person here and you’re frustrated over the fact that you aren’t saved.
Yeah, you’ve heard the message quite a few times.
And you say, I want to be saved.
And you say, I tried to get saved. I don’t even understand that.
We use that word, get saved, that phrase. Get saved? Change it up a little bit.
You tried to get rescued?
That’s what saved means. No, we, he saved me.

[25:16] He rescues us and you say I would love to be rescued this Friday night and you say but it’s not happening for me. The Bible says you have no strength to save yourself. So what does that mean? It means you need someone to save you and that’s why we have a meeting like this. Thank God, the God of salvation that you’ve, been hearing about, he could save you tonight. Just last month we held our breath as rescue efforts were made to save five people aboard a submersible.
They went down 2.4 miles down into the Atlantic Ocean to visit the remains of the Titanic. Millions of dollars were spent, expertise were around the world trying to rescue those five men in that submersible. I was claustrophobic for of them and everything, that little tiny thing down there, 2.4 miles down, but the reality was, there was no way of escape.
There was no door for them to escape, no way to rescue them.
They all perished, a father, a son, a businessman, explorer, the owner of the submersible company, all perished.
There was no way of escape.

[26:44] You know, tonight, this Friday night, we are concerned. Right in this meeting, there are those who are perishing in their sins. You’re not beyond hope yet.
Thank God you could be rescued tonight.
What left to yourself, you are perishing, and you will perish, but you do need to be rescued.
And we can point you to a noble God who one of his titles is, he is a God of salvation, the God of salvation.
We can open our Bible, we can point you to the one, the only door to safety.
Look up John chapter 10, verse nine. There is a door. I remember when you’re looking it up, I was only a little kid, I don’t know.
I know how sometimes there are neighborhood fights, just so you know, the seven and eight year olds.

[27:32] They get in a little scrap and it’s over in 30 minutes, but it seems pretty intense at the time when you’re fighting.
And there was a little fight broke out in our street and I whipped it up the street, running as fast as I could.
And I, my heart was pounding because.
I thought they were going to catch up with me and just right at the right time the door opened my mother said come in Peter, And what do you think I did stood outside?
No Man, I was so glad to see that open door; bolted in. There’s an open door tonight. Look at John chapter 10 verse 9, Jesus says I am the door.

[28:15] By me if If any man or any woman or any boy or any girl, any person enter in, he shall be saved.
In other words, be rescued and be safe and should go in and out and find pastor.
It just speaks of once you’re inside, then you’re protected and you can go in and out and enjoy life from here on in because you’re accepted inside.
The door, the door. Jesus said, not a church is a door. Did you think we were saying, come to our church, we’re the door? No.
You could leave your church and come to ours and die in your sins and wake up in the darkness of a lost eternity.
Our church is not the door to heaven.
There is only one door. His name is Jesus. And he said, I am the door.
Are you looking for a door tonight?
You want to bolt in? It’s a cold world out there, and you’re worried about your sin.
You say, I would love to have a degree of safety. He said, I’m the door.
By me, it sounds like he’s a pretty welcoming savior if you ask me.
I’ve been reading the Bible for a long time, and I don’t think he would turn you away.
In fact, I know he wouldn’t turn you away. If you came, say the door is open, come in.

[29:40] Why stay outside? That’s what I was thinking about today.
Like, I don’t understand. Like this is the second last night of these gospel meetings and you could be safe inside.
We’ve told you about Jesus. We’ve told you about the cross. We’ve told you about his precious blood.
And we told you that there’s no need for anyone to perish and go to hell.
You can be safe inside for the life of me.
How can anyone understand why people would stay outside When Jesus says, I am the door, by me if any man enters in, he shall be saved.
In your current state, we have good news for you.
Is for you, there’s a door you can enter tonight. And the moment you enter, the moment you enter, that’s the moment you’ll be saved, not just for a week, be saved for the rest of this life and for all eternity.
You say, but I don’t think I could, I’m not a very religious person.
I don’t think I could hold on to it. Did you ever tell the story of Noah and the ark?

[30:49] If you went to catechism or something, you probably have heard about the ark and the flood.
Do you remember how the Lord told Noah to build some handles on the outside of the ark?
And how Noah had to, and his family had to, on the outside, when the storm and the flood came, they were on the outside of the ark and they had to hold on for dear life, bobbing up and down in the flood. Remember that?
And don’t let go or you’ll perish. No, you say, I know that story.
They came through the door and they were inside. They don’t hold on to the handles.
You say, I’m not religious.
I don’t think, if I trust the Christ tonight, I’m not sure that I could hold on to him, rest of my life. The beauty of God’s salvation. He saves you and he keeps you.
Once you’re inside, you’re inside forever. I wish I could make your mouth just, I wish you were drooling for God’s salvation. Second, whet your appetite. W-H-E-T. I, spelled it one time wrong. Just in high school and somebody corrected me. I, I almost thought it was W-E-T, your appetite.
W-H-E-T, sharpen your appetite.

[31:53] Oh, if only your appetite could be sharpened for salvation tonight and to come inside.
I want you to look up one more verse, Romans 5, verse 6. Because this is what you need to acknowledge.
This is what you need to know. This is why you need to be saved.
Romans 5, verse 6. when we were yet without strength.
See, nobody has any ability to save themselves. Not even a religious person has any ability to save themselves.
When we were yet without strength, in three times, Christ died for the ungodly.
He’s the savior tonight. That’s why he died.

[32:39] He knew that you had no strength to save yourself, to rescue yourself.
Christ died for the ungodly.
You have no strength tonight? I want you to think for a few minutes of this little illustration from a few years ago.
But if you know that you need to be rescued and that you’re perishing and lost, and you haven’t been able to save yourself and you’ll never be able to save yourself, you’re feeling anxious and you just like to be inside this Friday night.
Anybody want to be inside?
Accepted by God in the family. Well, it’s a few years ago now, but the eyes.

[33:19] Millions around the world were glued to their screens and they followed every new twist.
Remember, some of you are old enough to remember there’s an awful disaster in Chile.
It was August, it was summer, and there was a mining accident and there were 33 trapped miners, 2,300 feet down under the ground, the ground, almost a half a mile below the surface of the earth, darkness surrounded above, below by rock.
The miners were trapped for 69 days in that San Jose mine. You know, first day must have been a long day, down in the darkness, day two, day three, Day four, nothing from above, nothing.
Day 10, day 15, they’re still down there, alive, trapped.
33 of them, not a sound from above. Day 16, day 17, total silence, helplessness.

[34:33] That’s more than two weeks, two weeks. Zero signals from above.
And then finally, that 17th day, they got a signal down to those 33 men that there was eventually going to be a door, there’s gonna be a way out, but they said it may be months before we’ll reach you.
Imagine, months underground.
And so a Chilean rescue plan was in the works and they were looking at months, and what an incredible message of hope.
They said, we got our fingers crossed. We’re not asking you to cross your fingers, about a rescue plan. We can point you directly to Christ tonight and he can save you.
But those men, they must have had their fingers crossed.
I don’t know, can we last two months? Can we last four months down here?
And they made a hole big enough to put down little bits of food and water to them down through all the layers of rock.
And earlier than anticipated, it was day 69, The final stages of the rescue operation, were implemented from above. Just put that in thought and pause.

[35:48] Yesterday I was introduced, what’s his name, Dougie? Doug? Doug, yeah.
He came into the house where I’m staying in Dirk and Rebecca’s place.
And so he was saying, I was 30 years old. He’s 78 now. I was 30 years old when I took a little thin
black book off the shelf and he said I started reading Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 and when I got to Genesis 3, I realized man, desperate shape we need we need help. You know what he read far worse than a mining disaster in Chile.

[36:24] The Bible of theologians call it the Fall. A disaster took place in Genesis 3.
He was absolutely right, Dougie, was. The greatest catastrophe of all times occurred when the human race turned their back on God.
Romans 5, verse 12 says, as by one man’s sin entered the world and death by sin.
So death is passed upon all men, all have sinned.
Later on in Romans five, it’s by one man’s act of disobedience.
Oh, start it there. Dougie’s hot.
Wow, we need help. Friend, that’s why Christ needed to come down from heaven.

[37:07] Because there’s no way such a disaster of sin came into the human family.
A disaster has occurred. You’ve experienced its effects.
Sin, sin is deadly. We try to brush it away.
You try to get on with living in the dark, a bit of fun here, some pleasure there, a few successes, but really you’re trapped.
Like those miners on its spiritual darkness, you’re alone and you’re wondering if you’ll ever, ever, is there ever a way to get out of this awful mess?
I told you about the door. The Bible says, Jesus said, I am the door.
There is a way. Tonight we point you to Jesus. And you know what?
Dougie said, on another day, I pulled that little book out, it was a Bible, obviously, And he said, I’m gonna read all the red letters.

[37:57] And the red-lettered words were the words that Jesus spoke. And Dougie gets saved. He trusted Christ.
He was rescued, I guess is a better word. He was rescued from his sins.
He was saved. Have you ever thought of John 10 and nine as a red-lettered words?
Flashing before you tonight, Jesus says, I am the door, by me if anyone enters in, she shall be saved.
I’ll be saved.
Would you like to be saved tonight? Would you like to come inside or are you gonna stay outside?
Bible says all sin. Seven days, 18 days went by for the miners and finally there is that response.
But think of the response from heaven.
God saw it all trapped in our sins.

[38:45] Up above, he saw our need. No matter what you think of God tonight, he looked down and he said, Those people are desperately need to be rescued.
They’ll perish forever. God loves you this evening. That’s what John chapter three, verse 16 says.
And the incredible rescue mission from above.
Jesus came down, down, down, down, down to planet earth. And he went to the cross.
When we had no strength of our own, Christ died for the ungodly.
What a rescuer Christ is.
There are people here tonight and they have been rescued. and they would commend the Lord Jesus to you.
1 Timothy 1 verse 15 says, this is a true saying, it’s worthy to be embraced by everyone.
Christ Jesus came into the world. You’re still thinking of the Chilean miners down there waiting for a response from up above.
Yeah, a rescue plan was put in place, but all they brought in engineers from all around the world and they frantically worked.
How can we save them down below? Tonight we’re pointing you to one who came from heaven, and He condoned to meet your deepest need.
He can save you tonight.
Last night, we, for those who were here, we told you about the triumph of the cross.
He didn’t promise something that He couldn’t deliver.

[40:09] He said, it is finished. I’m glad Jesus didn’t cry on the cross.
It is 75% done, and the helpless sinners must do the 25 remaining 25%.
He didn’t say that. He said, it’s finished. You see, our rescue all depends on Jesus Christ.
He came down and the Lord Jesus says, I am the door by me. If anyone enters in, he shall be saved.
No work is, you can do no work.
You can’t save yourself.
Those trapped miners down there, they couldn’t save themselves.
They were absolutely without strength.
They were totally dependent on an outside above intervention.
So just to finish off that story, the Chilean mine disaster, they finally broke through.
They sent down a shaft, down the shaft, and I took a picture of it here tonight for you.

[41:05] They sent one of these, a cylindrical, yeah, this. They sent that down, right to the feet of the miners in the darkness.
You see it at the back? Has a door in it, an open door, specially designed, just a shoulder-width capsule.
They sent it all the way down this 2,300 feet. They’ve been down there all of August, all of September.
And into the second week of October, finally, it broke through.
Can you imagine those miners looking at that, thinking, here it is, the door is open.
It’s a small wire oblong cylinder capsule.
Oh, they’d say, it’s beautiful, beautiful.
But then they had to go in it. Oh, well, I’m claustrophobic, I’m claustrophobic.
And they say it’ll spin on the way up.
I’m afraid I’ll get dizzy.
And what if the cable snaps on the way up? Then what? Think of all, maybe you have questions tonight.
What if, what if I trust Jesus? What if I believe God? What?

[42:16] Look at, all they had to do was come, they could come shaking.
They could come shaking to that door, nervous, hoping the engineers did it right above and just go in.
One by one they had to enter. They each had a choice.

[42:32] They could enter or they could stay and perish. One by one they enter.
Oh, you can’t see whether he’s inside. And all from above, all they had to do was to the door.
Why stay outside? One by one, they chose to enter.
And all, that’s what faith is. Just the moment.
God does it.
But just faith is putting you in contact, putting yourself in a position where he’ll save you.
Then you’ll look to him. The moment they enter the door, up, up, up, up, up, they came to the sunlight.
And I don’t know how I can explain it, but I wish you could understand this, that the door was opened at the cross and you may come trembling.
You say, I don’t think I have enough faith.
I don’t know whether I believe enough. It’s not how much you believe or how much faith you have.
All he says, look at the door is open. Come, shaking, faint hearted, with a white face, pale white face if you need to.
Come just as you are helpless, and you rely on me and I’ll save you.
You know, no one gets saved in masses. Everyone has an individual choice to make, and God will never override your choice.
Tonight as we close the meeting.

[43:59] You will not just look at the open door and say, I’m passing on it.
I’m passing on Christ. This noble God, I think I’ll just pass by the open door.
What a tragic life you’re going to live. I enjoy being a Christian.
I’m enjoying my life with Christ.
I’m enjoying knowing God. But more than that, if you pass by the open door, oh, the engineers could have failed there, right?
The cable could have snapped, but that was the only way out for those miners.
Do you have another option to save for salvation from your sins?
There’s no other option. There’s no other God. You’ve been hearing about other gods.
There’s only one God who can save you tonight. And thank God he’s not a frail engineer.
Thank God he’s a God of the universe who sent his son and the son opened the door at the cross.
I am the door, by me if anyone enters in, you say, he will not enter in tonight.
I can tell you this, the moment, the very moment, you say, I’m just gonna trust the work that Christ did.
He’ll lift you up out of your sin and bring you in safe forever.
Does it not sound appealing? Oh, we appeal to you this evening.
Trust Christ, come through that door, and you will be safe.

Filed under: Gospel Series, crawford-kory, ramsay-peter