Sermon

The Three Crosses | Allen Bailey

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. It's a wonderful joy to be with you this morning, being able to

  2. be together in the first day of the week, the day that Jesus was

  3. resurrected from the dead, the day that Jesus taught us with

  4. his apostles to commune together, the day that we have

  5. the opportunity to lay by in the store.

  6. All of this is the wonderful part of our worship service to

  7. God. And we're glad that you're here

  8. to pay respect to God Almighty and his Son Jesus.

  9. And we're severely thankful that we can be here together to

  10. praise God together. A number of years ago we began a

  11. study of the 21st St. congregation and it lasts for

  12. about two 2 1/2 years. And there was a study on the

  13. chronological study of the life of Jesus.

  14. And what that essentially is, is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,

  15. the four gospels and putting them in chronological order.

  16. Now, there are many really good tools or aids out there that

  17. have done this for us. And they're just an occasional

  18. somebody think this went before that, but that's OK.

  19. It gives you a general idea of how things happen in what

  20. sequence of the general practice that happened during the days of

  21. Jesus. And this to me was one of the

  22. most enjoyable studies that I remember having in my adult

  23. life. It was so interesting to see

  24. when Jesus did this miracle. It was at this time of his life

  25. when He was maybe being treated roughly by the scribes of the

  26. Pharisees or the political leaders of the day or whatever

  27. the case may be. It is so interesting to see when

  28. He gave a miracle, why He gave the miracle, What was the

  29. environment whereby He gave that miracle.

  30. But today in our lesson on the three crosses, I don't want to

  31. leave the wrong impressions. I want to clarify it.

  32. The three crosses that we are going to mainly talk about are

  33. is Jesus and the thieves that were nailed on his left and the

  34. thief was nailed on his right on their own individual cross.

  35. We're going to basically address that.

  36. However, I wanted everybody to remember this is not the only

  37. conversation that happened during the crucifixion.

  38. As a matter of fact, and I won't mention them all, but there's

  39. one occasion where we know that the multitude of people, they

  40. just railed against Jesus. So the people out the community

  41. that were not embracing what Jesus preached and stood for,

  42. they would rail against him and say things very, very unpleasant

  43. to him. And Jesus took it.

  44. And then not only that, then you have the faith on the left and

  45. the faith on the right, and they both revived, revealed against

  46. Jesus. They spoke evil against Jesus.

  47. They were dying the same way he was dying the same day he was

  48. dying. And these two thieves, one on

  49. the left, one on the right, they themselves found themselves

  50. doing just what the multitude of people did.

  51. Well, that was sad and very unfortunate, but that's the way

  52. it is now. Remember, Jesus was only on the

  53. cross for six hours before he died.

  54. However, as time progressed, the thief on the right spoke against

  55. the thief on the left because the thief on the left at that

  56. point, which is several hours later, this thief was rallying

  57. against Jesus again. This thief spoke against the

  58. other thief and said, what are you doing?

  59. You know we are receiving just punishment for what we have

  60. done, but this man, Speaking of Jesus, has done nothing amidst

  61. He's innocent. In other words, we're guilty.

  62. So what do you think? Why are you reviving against Him

  63. in such a wicked and a terrible way?

  64. This thief began to show the one on the right, and I have it on

  65. the right intentionally because you know how the bottom puts it,

  66. the good on the left and the bad on the left and the good on the

  67. right. That's why we did it this way.

  68. Now, we don't know from a biblical standpoint, nor even a

  69. historical standpoint, whether the left guy on the left or the

  70. left on the right or the one on the right.

  71. But we've designed it this way just to make it easy.

  72. But yeah, we understand that this thief right here earlier,

  73. he reviled Jesus. He said he quit and then he

  74. rebuked his Co person who had also been a thief.

  75. And now this thief right here, he began to realize, man, I

  76. better get things right. I'm getting ready to die.

  77. It's time for me to get things right.

  78. And that is the message we need to learn now.

  79. We may not die today. We may not die tomorrow.

  80. But as was mentioned in the prayer this morning, we don't

  81. know when the Lord is going to come back, but we want to be

  82. ready when he died. And when the Lord comes back, we

  83. want to meet him, as the Bible said, in the clouds and in the

  84. air. And so shall we ever be with the

  85. Lord. That's what's going to happen if

  86. the Lord returns during our lifetime.

  87. He would never take it one more step on this earth.

  88. There is no biblical evidence He will.

  89. We'll meet him in the clouds. We'll meet him in the air.

  90. The Bible said every tongue will confess.

  91. Every eye will see him. What a grain and a glorious day

  92. that will be when Jesus returns and we're able to ascend

  93. together if we are saved. So therefore I encourage

  94. everyone to inventory our own life, make sure that we're right

  95. and we're ready to meet the Maker.

  96. We're ready to go to heaven. And you said, well, I'm I'm

  97. ready. What are you living like?

  98. You're ready. Have you obeyed the gospel in

  99. baptism? For the Lord can add you to the

  100. church daily, such as should be saved.

  101. Have you resolved conflict between one Christian and

  102. another Christian? Have you got those resolved?

  103. You know, the Bible says, you know, somebody's got something

  104. against you, go talk to them and be reconciled.

  105. Have you done that? Oh, I could give you a list of

  106. things. Well, have we done that?

  107. Well, this is what is important today in our Christian life, to

  108. get us right with the Lord. Well, the Today we're going to

  109. divide these three categories and the three main points, and

  110. we're going to talk about the gentleman on the left, then

  111. we'll talk about the gentleman on the right, and then we'll

  112. talk about our roar and our Savior right in the middle.

  113. It is such a grand event when Jesus, when he died, he died

  114. because it was an accomplishment, accomplishing

  115. God's will, accomplishing God's way.

  116. And Jesus was so willing, so eager to do that.

  117. Well, let's think about this gentleman right here, the man on

  118. as you're looking into the board, the man on your left,

  119. this thief right here. We don't have any record he ever

  120. changed his attitude, his disposition, his reviling

  121. against Jesus. We don't have any record where

  122. He ever made all that right. If he did, it's simply not

  123. recorded. But all of this is found in

  124. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four Gospels.

  125. But what we find is in Isaiah the 5th, 9th chapter, verse 1

  126. and 2, the Old Testament passage.

  127. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that he cannot save,

  128. and neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear.

  129. But your sins have separated between you and your God.

  130. Now we need to remember when we choose to sin, we choose to be

  131. separated from God. The word of God said now is that

  132. if not your sin separates you from God.

  133. We need to make sure to get sin out of our life.

  134. We don't want any part of that in our life.

  135. Sin or keep you out of heaven. Sin is the only thing that will

  136. keep you out of heaven. Sin is the only thing that sends

  137. our soul to hell. Oh, we want to be free, free

  138. from sin. We're going to make mistakes.

  139. We're going to sin. The beauty part about it, as a

  140. baptized believer, one who's baptized with the baptism of the

  141. Great Commission, we can pray to God for forgiveness of our sins.

  142. And God Forgives what pression is that can be.

  143. Would you go with me in the book of John the 8th chapter verse

  144. 34, while we find that John 834 has another teaching about sin,

  145. very important principle. And John 834 the word of God

  146. said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, listen to what he said,

  147. Whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin.

  148. Now we don't lie to be considered a servant.

  149. We think back at many years when people were slaves and servants

  150. and, and that was not right, not fair, but at the day and time

  151. they live, that's just the way it was.

  152. And, and I'm glad that's all changed.

  153. But let me tell you what, this is very serious, even more so

  154. with we've become a servant of sin.

  155. When we choose to sin, we become servants of sin.

  156. We're yielding ourselves to Satan and evil, and we want to

  157. break away from that. There comes a time in your life

  158. you've got friends, family, people at work, whatever your

  159. circumstance, that may be a hindrance to you living a

  160. Christian life. They may be trying to get you to

  161. go places, do things, act in such a way, talk in such a way.

  162. Not becoming a Christian. Now, you've got to make a

  163. choice. No, I am not going to do that.

  164. No, I don't do that. I'm a Christian and I don't do

  165. that. I don't go there.

  166. I don't know it that way. No, no, no.

  167. Oh, they may not like you for that.

  168. They may want to just not have anything to do with you.

  169. And guess what? That's OK Anytime somebody is

  170. hindering you from living a Christian life or encouraging

  171. you to live in a way that's not Christian, my dear friend, you

  172. can turn and walk away and be thankful that you did.

  173. Because if we don't, then we're going to find ourselves doing

  174. some things that's not right. Well, what we can find not only

  175. our sins separating us from God, not only if we sin, we've become

  176. service of sin. Look at what the brother of our

  177. Lord sin at the book of James. You know, reading the book of

  178. James, you know James is very similar to that of Corinthians,

  179. not in content, but in approach. James is a practical book in the

  180. New Testament. So is the great book of First

  181. Corinthians, First Corinthians, James of the two most practical

  182. books in the New Testament. Now James doesn't cover the five

  183. chapters, First Corinthian covered 16 chapters, but we can

  184. learn problem solution, problem solution by reading these books.

  185. And it's so enjoyable to be able to learn a lot about how we can

  186. improve our life. Would you look with me please

  187. that James the 1st chapter, you sit here on the board.

  188. James one verse 15, the brother of our Lord said these words.

  189. Look here then. When lust has conceived, it

  190. bringeth forth sin. Sin.

  191. When it is finished, it bringeth forth death.

  192. This is very, very important. You're seeing the consequence of

  193. sin. When sin is complete, it

  194. bringeth forth death. I want everybody here to

  195. inventory your life and to do the things that are right and

  196. pleasing in your life, and nothing will hinder you from

  197. going to heaven. But if today you turn loose of

  198. your life and you just go do what you want to do, you talk

  199. like you want to talk. You want to act like you want to

  200. act, you don't want to do what God said.

  201. Let me tell you what that can cause us to lose our soul

  202. eternally, forever more everlasting punishment.

  203. We don't want that. We don't want that.

  204. Oh, we can give the whole lesson about what it means to die in

  205. sin, But understand this thief, he died in sin from anything we

  206. find biblically recorded. The thief died in sin, and he

  207. died as a Sinner before he died as a Sinner.

  208. We die separated from God because we were servants of sin,

  209. and sin brought forth death. Listen, Fred, there's no picnic

  210. there. So I want, here's what I want

  211. from you. I want you to make a commitment

  212. to the Lord that you will always live a life that will please

  213. Him. You lift up his name.

  214. You'll be more than happy to tell people in your neighborhood

  215. and your working, the school and everywhere you go.

  216. You'd be glad to share the good news with them about the

  217. goodness of God. Well, this thief right here, I

  218. don't want to have your name on this list.

  219. I certainly don't want my name on it.

  220. One who's dying in sin. I made you briefly the other day

  221. in one of our lessons that one of the challenges in the preach

  222. men of preachers is preaching the life of someone that you

  223. really fear for their eternal soul.

  224. You fear for it. And you, you want to say some

  225. things to encourage the family, but you don't want to mislead

  226. them thing. Well, this guy right here, boy,

  227. he's got it made when he don't have it made.

  228. Not if he's an atheist, an agnostic or an infidel or such

  229. like. No, you know God will be the

  230. judge and that one of the most beautiful things about First

  231. Corinthians 5 and 13. God said I'm going to take care

  232. of those without you. Just take care of those within.

  233. See, we work together to take care of those within you help

  234. me, I'll help you. We work together and that's what

  235. the beauty part about it. You know what I've loved about

  236. this meeting and believe me, this doesn't happen everywhere.

  237. I have loved the fact that whenever we've assembled

  238. together, you know, people are speaking kindly and thoughtful

  239. and polite of one another and commended.

  240. This brother does this, this sister does that, and they work

  241. so very hard. That is wonderful to have.

  242. The brothers have brothers and sisters who are working together

  243. diligently to make the work go stronger and better for the

  244. church. You know, it's fine for women to

  245. work. You know, Romans 16 verse one,

  246. the Bible says feed you with a servant of the church.

  247. And there's a place where Bible talks about different men who

  248. had a lot of worship in their home and their their families

  249. were husband and wife who did that.

  250. It's great to have camaraderie with the brothers and the

  251. sisters working together for the common good of the congregation.

  252. OK, now let's look at another gentleman.

  253. This time we're looking at the gentleman on your right.

  254. Generally, people on the right are right with God.

  255. We want that. Now, right off the bat, the man

  256. on the right, who we don't know his name, but this man on the

  257. right wasn't doing what was right.

  258. Now early on you remember we referenced the fact that he

  259. reviled against Jesus just like the one on the left reviled

  260. against Jesus. But let me tell you what

  261. happened here. Now we'll be noticing every one

  262. of these from Romans, the 6th chapter, until we get the very

  263. last one. And it's a Hebrew passage, but

  264. all the first several from Romans, the 6th chapter.

  265. And this gentleman right here, unlike this gentleman, the first

  266. things that we have a record of, he died in sin.

  267. This gentleman right here died to sin.

  268. How do you die to sin? You die to sin by giving up sin

  269. out of your life. You lie.

  270. You quit lying. You steal.

  271. You quit stealing. You're immoral.

  272. You quit being immoral. You do.

  273. You quit doing all these things. You know, I've recently, two

  274. years ago, I finished researching all of the specific

  275. sins mentioned in the New Testament, well over 100 of

  276. them. And then I used them in

  277. meetings, on several meetings throughout last year of 2023.

  278. And people really enjoyed it because some of the words,

  279. they're not our normal English words and we don't have clues

  280. what they even talk about. So we do one or two or three

  281. things. We maybe go to Bible dictionary

  282. and look up the word or even a little bit quicker than that,

  283. you go to a modern day translation and you look up and

  284. see how they worded that word or phrase and see how they worded

  285. it. And you can probably learn quite

  286. a bit from there. Or you can simply go to a a word

  287. study encyclopedia and learn more about the word and learn

  288. where it came from. Well, this is what happened

  289. here. It was such a great joy to go

  290. through that because as you read through, you know, there are

  291. several lists in the Bible, you know, like works of the flesh

  292. and fruit of the Spirit. One of those, the good ones bad,

  293. of course, but there's several lists in the Bible and what me

  294. and you need to do, we need to make sure that none of that goes

  295. into our life. Well, this gentleman here, I

  296. don't know what all he did. He was a thief, but we don't

  297. know what all he did. But we do know one thing, before

  298. he died, he died to sin and we died to sin, and I'm getting sin

  299. out of my life. So I'm going to encourage all of

  300. you. You've made a commitment to the

  301. Lord. And when you make a commitment

  302. to the Lord, you get with the program and you get rid of sin

  303. out of your life. Husband and wife get rid of sin

  304. out of your life. You commit yourself to each

  305. other. You know, many weddings that

  306. we've officiated out, you know, and we do I require before I

  307. would do a wedding. They have pre marriage

  308. counseling. I don't have to do it.

  309. I don't mind doing it, but I don't have to be the one that

  310. does. They can do it for somebody

  311. else, but I want them to have it because pre marriage counseling

  312. is so imperative, because you 0 right in on the strength and the

  313. weaknesses of your relationship. Very, very important and what we

  314. want to do as Christian people, we want to do everything in our

  315. power and our might to be successful of the husband of the

  316. wife, of the son, of the daughter, as the child of God,

  317. son or daughter of God Almighty. We will do everything we can to

  318. be right with the Lord. With this thief right here, he

  319. started out not on too good of a term, but he ended up doing

  320. quite well and from every indication, we learned he was

  321. saved and I'll share that with you here in a few moments.

  322. I want to turn with you to Romans the 6th chapter.

  323. These are not hard. Romans 6th one through 23 the

  324. whole chapter. I'm not going to read the whole

  325. chapter, but this whole chapter of Romans 6 is 23 verses.

  326. It ended up talking about the wages of sin is death.

  327. But this is really important. We're going to read in Romans 6

  328. and one, make a brief comment, Romans 6:00 and 2:00, and then

  329. you put those two together and we'll read Romans 6 and 12, all

  330. of this, and we go together and it can work out quite well.

  331. So let's turn over to Romans 6th chapter and see what we can

  332. learn. Romans 6 is a powerful chapter.

  333. It's one that really helps us get our strength and our

  334. stability things right with the Lord.

  335. The Robinson says chapter maybe look at verse one.

  336. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that

  337. grace may abound? On Paul's error, he's asking a

  338. question, redundant as it is. He said, are you going to

  339. continue to live in sin? That grace may abound.

  340. So you said what? I'm saved by grace, therefore

  341. it's OK if I sin wrong. It's not OK if you sin.

  342. Just because Jesus lived that perfect life and Jesus died at

  343. Calvary doesn't mean you can go out there and say, think and do

  344. anything you want to do because you cannot.

  345. Oh, look at verse 2, the tithes Titan never verse one.

  346. The Bible says God forbid. In other words, shall we

  347. continue to sin that grace left bound, God forbid.

  348. How should we that are dead to sin live any longer?

  349. They're in, you know, if you're dead to sin.

  350. What that means is I am not living in sin anymore.

  351. I am not getting away. This is very, very important and

  352. it's very essential that we make right decisions.

  353. We make right decisions now. Listen, this is time you come

  354. overnight. This is not going to be

  355. something that that you would always be able to do I

  356. Christian, I want you to be right and ready to meet your

  357. Maker in order to do that. And you have sin in your life

  358. like this gentleman had sin in his life.

  359. He should have got right with the Lord just as quick as this

  360. gentleman got right with the Lord.

  361. But the difference is this gentleman owed up to his sin.

  362. This thief on the cross. We never have any Bible record

  363. where he owned up to it. This thief right here, you know

  364. what he said to Jesus? He says, Lord, Remember Me when

  365. you come back into your Kingdom. That is powerful.

  366. This thief here, get him forgiveness of his sin.

  367. He says, Lord, Remember Me. Number one, He recognized Jesus

  368. as Lord. He recognized the teaching of

  369. Jesus about paradise. Lord, Remember Me when you come

  370. back into your Kingdom. He remember what the Lord said

  371. about the Kingdom. It was so wonderful to see

  372. people who are ready to die and ready to meet their Savior.

  373. My dear friends, today, one of the greatest, grandest, most

  374. glorious event that can ever happen in your life is that

  375. before you die, you're right. And you're ready to meet your

  376. Maker. Oh, you know what people say,

  377. don't you? Oh, yeah.

  378. Well, don't worry, Alan. I will, man.

  379. Right before I die, I get it right with the Lord.

  380. Well, when are you going to die? When?

  381. I don't know exactly when I'm going to die, but before I do,

  382. I'm going to ride with the Lord. How you going to know?

  383. If you don't know when you're going to die, you don't know

  384. when you're going to die. The reason today you want to

  385. devote and dedicate your life to the Lord, let nothing, whatever

  386. interfere, is because you don't know #1 when the Lord is going

  387. to come back. Just mentioned in prayer this

  388. morning, The Lord can come right back during our lifetime.

  389. We don't know when He's going to come back, but when He comes

  390. back, we better be right or we can lose our eternal life.

  391. That's huge. I just want everybody to be

  392. committed and absolutely solely committed that I'm going to stay

  393. right with the Lord. And when I mess up, I'm going to

  394. fess up and I'm going to make things right.

  395. Well, that's exactly what's happened right here.

  396. This man realized he had done wrong.

  397. He he finally come to the point he recognized Jesus as Lord.

  398. And look with me at Romans 6 and verse 12.

  399. What we find right here in this passage.

  400. It's really amazing. He says #1 this is great.

  401. Let not sin. Let not sin therefore reign.

  402. And your mortar body that you should have been in the lust of,

  403. don't let sin stay in your body. Now you can play it down, you

  404. say. You know what?

  405. Guess what? You know Big Bill.

  406. I know. Yeah, I lied.

  407. But, you know, everybody lied. Yeah, I know.

  408. You know, I dress him more. You know, everybody dresses them

  409. more along the way, you know? Yes, I know.

  410. I did this and I did that, and I acted this way.

  411. I quit making excuses. When you sin, you sin and you

  412. own up your sin. I had the baptized believer over

  413. and over and over again. The Bible says confess your

  414. sins, confess your fault, confess, confess and confess.

  415. You know why? Because you've got to take

  416. ownership of your sin and get rid of it.

  417. You've got to get rid of your sin.

  418. You can do this in order to go to heaven.

  419. So therefore, if you've never been baptized, you need to see

  420. just how quick you can get that done because you're baptized,

  421. you're making a lifelong commitment.

  422. You know when you stand for a preacher or someone who's

  423. officiating your wedding and they ask you, do you take him a

  424. hurt? But your lawful wedding, husband

  425. or wife, whatever your situation is, if you're the man or if

  426. you're the woman, and you know what, the more we talk about it

  427. and do you keep yourself to him or her as long as you both shall

  428. live. You know, we're making a

  429. commitment. You know what we're making?

  430. We're making a vow. And Ecclesiastes, the 3rd

  431. chapter, it said you're better off to never make a vow than to

  432. make one and break it. Whoa, that sounds pretty hefty.

  433. You never, ever make a vow and break it.

  434. You make a vow to the Almighty God.

  435. I will keep myself to Him or her all the days of my life.

  436. She, they will be my spouse from now on, and I will be there for

  437. them. That is what is beautiful and

  438. wonderful, and that's what we need to do.

  439. That's the kind of commitment we make to the Lord and even

  440. greater because the Lord's commitment takes us all to

  441. eternity. Well, you know what?

  442. There's another passage in Romans 6 I want you to look at,

  443. and that's verses 18 through 22. Listen, sometime, whenever you

  444. feel like, you know, maybe I don't have my grip together on

  445. my spirituality, grab a hold of Romans the 6th chapter and read

  446. it. It will help you get us back in

  447. line. Verse 18, Romans the 6th

  448. chapter. Please notice here the Bible

  449. says being been made free from sin, you become servants of

  450. righteousness. Wow, things are changing.

  451. Earlier we read it becoming you're a servants of sin.

  452. If you live in sin, you're a servant of sin.

  453. And now here we're learning that you've become servants of

  454. righteousness. Guess what?

  455. You've got a choice. You've got a choice to make

  456. right and wrong, good and evil, heaven and hell.

  457. It's your choice. Which one are you choosing?

  458. Are you choosing to make those right decisions and live the

  459. right life? I pray God that you are this is

  460. so beautiful and so wonderful. Go with me to Hebrews.

  461. Don't one pass them really talks about is Hebrew 12 and verse one

  462. Hebrew 12 and one should automatically set off with a

  463. remembrance in your head because Hebrew 12/1 is right after

  464. Hebrew 11. All of those by faith.

  465. These men and these women did great works and they were, they

  466. were illustrated in this way by faith, Abraham, by faith Isaac,

  467. by faith. Sarah, my dear friend, I hope

  468. and pray that we live that kind of life.

  469. And then finally, when the Hebrew 11 is completed, the very

  470. next verse, which happened to be the next chapter, Hebrew 12

  471. verse one, it says Wherefore sin.

  472. We also are compassed about with such a great cloud of witnesses.

  473. You know what those witnesses are those witnesses, those

  474. people that lived in Hebrew 11 by faith, Abraham and Isaac and

  475. on and on and goes those who were witnesses and we're

  476. compassed about. We're so great a cloud of

  477. witnesses. Let me tell you how to live a

  478. faithful Christian life. I want you to remember the fact

  479. that they're a great cloud of witnesses pulling for you.

  480. Just imagine yourself in a stadium witnessing a ball game

  481. and there are thousands upon thousands of people there and

  482. everybody rooted for this particular team to win.

  483. Well, think about that in the way of living your Christian

  484. life. Here you are.

  485. You're living your Christian life out here on the field.

  486. You're up and down the field, back and forth, back and forth,

  487. and all these hundreds of thousands of people said, come

  488. on, come on, you can make it. You can make it just like a

  489. football. Somebody's running carried out

  490. football and they've done cutting loose and they're

  491. heading down the field. We're saying go, go, go, go.

  492. Well, that's what people are doing for you in Hebrew 12/1.

  493. They're so compassed about with so great of cloud of witnesses.

  494. You got people working for you, God's working for you.

  495. Christ is working for you. The oldest spirit is working for

  496. you. The angels are working for you.

  497. Your brothers and sisters in Christ working for you.

  498. Those have already gone on before.

  499. They're pulling for you. My dear friends, guess what?

  500. Are you pulling for yourself? Are you really hanging on and

  501. doing the right thing? This is what is so very

  502. important. Oh, what we have learned

  503. already. If we die and sin, the end

  504. result is not good. It's not good.

  505. If we have sinned and we all have sinned and come short, then

  506. we have these sort of situations and we put these verses and

  507. many, many more that we can talk about into our life.

  508. But now here is the remainder. Here is the beauty, the man in

  509. the middle, your Lord and your Savior, Jesus Christ.

  510. Dear friend, I want to be very pointed, very honest with you,

  511. but I don't want you to speak up.

  512. But I want, I want you to think in your own mind, when is the

  513. last time that I've told anybody about Jesus?

  514. When I told him how great he was or how great he is?

  515. I tell him how he's the Son of God and how we can pray every

  516. prayer we pray, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus.

  517. Isn't it wonderful today to be a Christian man or woman who that

  518. when you pray, you pray your heavenly Father in the name of

  519. Jesus Christ? And we learned last night and

  520. the Holy Spirit intercedes through your prayers.

  521. Wow, the devil doesn't stand a chance.

  522. I love him. The only thing I want to see

  523. with the devil, I love it. I love to see his backside teeth

  524. running away, just like he did with Jesus in Matthew 4.

  525. The Bible says then the devil leaveth him.

  526. He ran away. The angels came in ministering

  527. unto Jesus. I just want you to be so ready

  528. that whenever, whenever your life ends, you know, before I

  529. left Dallas. And I flew out here.

  530. They called it a three hour and 8 minute flight, so somewhere in

  531. that ballpark I would assume. And then by the time I got out,

  532. I turned my phone off like they asked us to.

  533. And then I turned my phone on. When I landed, we landed.

  534. They said you're welcome, turn your phone back on and turn it

  535. on. And the very first message is my

  536. first cousin had passed away. He died in the last three hours.

  537. And then I was up in the sky flying from Dallas, TX to here.

  538. But he died. He was the preacher of the

  539. gospel of a southern, a regional type preacher, you know,

  540. Tennessee and Alabama and Georgia, occasionally

  541. Mississippi. But he's been doing that for

  542. many, many years. And he's helped a lot of souls

  543. be saved. He didn't baptize somebody last

  544. Sunday. Or he was out helping.

  545. One of the sisters who needed her yard mowed, He was out

  546. mowing her yard. He was 78 years old and he was

  547. out taking care of her, helping her.

  548. My dear friend, I just want you to put a premium on your life

  549. and a premium on your eternal soul.

  550. You don't know when it's going to all be over.

  551. We don't know that you're not. Paul described it in First

  552. Corinthians 15. Paul described it this way.

  553. I'm watching you blink your. Eyes, the Bible said, in the

  554. twinkling of an eye. In a twinkling of an.

  555. Eye. That's how quick.

  556. Wow, that's pretty impressive. The main thing is it's not when

  557. it's going to be. It's not how quick it's going to

  558. be. Is that my ready?

  559. That's what matters. And when you take a good hard

  560. look here and Matthew 1 and 21, this is Speaking of Mary, the

  561. mother of Jesus. And what we learn.

  562. Right here is Mary, the mother of Jesus.

  563. The Bible said that she shall bring forth the Son and I should

  564. call his name Jesus preacher save his people from their sins.

  565. Dear friends, I praise in the Lord worthy Jesus is going to

  566. save us from our sin. Let me tell you what you commit

  567. a sin, you can get forgiveness of it, but you got to be willing

  568. to do it. You've got.

  569. To be willing to. Say I am wrong.

  570. You've got to be like the prodigal son of Luke 15, he

  571. said. Here's what I'm going to do.

  572. This is after years he lived his life for wicked.

  573. I'm going to return home. I'm going to go to my father and

  574. I'm going to say Father, I've sinned.

  575. You know, that's really not. Hard to say.

  576. I I have sinned. That's not hard to say.

  577. Oh, it may kind of rub your grain the wrong way.

  578. You may want to figure out a way out of.

  579. But let me tell you what, it's a whole lot easier to say that

  580. than to hear. Depart from me.

  581. I know you, not depart from me. I've never known you.

  582. I don't want to hear those words.

  583. None of them. Looking to know how.

  584. No surgery. I don't, and I don't want it for

  585. you. Jesus is here to save us.

  586. Matthew 1 and 21 and John 129. Oh this is such a beautiful

  587. passage. The Bible said with John, He saw

  588. Jesus come and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh

  589. away the sin of the world. Wow, what an impressive time

  590. that had been been. I love, that's what I loved

  591. about studying the chronological study of the life of Christ.

  592. And you go through it and you see these little events that are

  593. really big events, but you've read through it so many other

  594. times, but now you're looking at it and you're putting your feet

  595. into their sandals and you got your ears out into the words of

  596. Jesus and you're listening and you want to do what the Lord

  597. said to do. You want to hold back from what

  598. he said, to hold back from. You want to serve Him in a way,

  599. and you want to go out and tell everybody about it.

  600. This is the Lamb of God. He takes away the sin of the

  601. world. Oh, look here with me.

  602. Please. Look at Hebrew 9 and 26.

  603. In Hebrew the 9th chapter and verse 26, here's what the word

  604. of God says. Oh.

  605. This is so neat. I I just really love reading in

  606. Hebrew because this is a book that he's written to keep people

  607. steadfast and unmovable and all week about in the work of the

  608. Lord just like to talk about in Corinthian Hebrew 9 and 26 for

  609. then listen here for then must be often have suffered since the

  610. foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world

  611. have he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

  612. Look at those last three words. He's sacrificed of himself,

  613. Jesus willingly sacrifice. You know, there's a song we used

  614. to sing in I, I don't really remember the last time we sung

  615. this song, but he could have called for 10,000 angels to

  616. rescue them. Oh, that is so cool, Jesus.

  617. All he would have to do is his little finger and those angels

  618. would have come down and they would have left the little crazy

  619. spot where those people were the crucified, the Lord of glory.

  620. I love that song. I remember we sung that back

  621. when I was just a kid. But it it just, it kind of

  622. brought a real genuine feel in my heart because Jesus could

  623. have come off of that cross. He could have come.

  624. Off of there and but had he did that there's no way you could

  625. have been saved me no way I could have been.

  626. But Jesus did that Hebrew 926 shows us Jesus did.

  627. He stayed right there. He stayed there because he

  628. wanted you saved. He wanted you to go to heaven.

  629. Now the ball is going to be left in your court here in just about

  630. 5 minutes. It's going to be left in your

  631. court because you've got to make the decision.

  632. I'm going to be, I'm going to live the right life.

  633. I'm sorry that I messed up, but I will live the right life.

  634. I will prayer for me because I'm a baptized believer.

  635. Whatever the case may be, it's very, very important that we do

  636. this. OK, now we look at first John

  637. one verse 7 and then first John 3 and verse 5.

  638. You know the first John one verse 70.

  639. This verse is so encouraging. It is just so.

  640. Rewarding. Look at what it says.

  641. But if we. Walk in the light as He is the

  642. light. We have fellowship one with

  643. another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from

  644. all sin. Grace, I want you now, if you

  645. don't mind those who who are so disposed, open up your Bible,

  646. the first John 1. I want to show you something

  647. because this is really neat. This will be a source of

  648. strength and encouragement to you.

  649. I promise you. One thing is a source of

  650. encouragement to me. I love to share it with other

  651. people in the home study. I'd love to share it with people

  652. that have struggled and living a Christian life.

  653. So wait a minute, hang tight, hang tight.

  654. Let's take a look at first Sean One.

  655. I'm going to focus the. Attention of verses 6 through

  656. 10. Just a very brief reference, but

  657. listen, this is beautiful. Now please would you look at

  658. verse 6. Please not word if 2 letters I

  659. if, if all right, look at verse 7, but if second word, OK, but

  660. if all right, look at verse 8. If first word if look at verse 9

  661. if look at verse 10 if and what is this going to mean to me and

  662. you? It's going to show your

  663. forgiveness of sin given to you by God is conditional on you

  664. doing the right thing. If you confess.

  665. Your thoughts one to another, if you confess your sins, that's

  666. what all this teaches. These are all conditional bases.

  667. Now there's a couple of points I don't want you to miss, but the

  668. fact of the matter is if we commit sin and we don't confess

  669. our sins, we're going to die in our sins.

  670. Now you got a choice. You don't want to do that.

  671. But here's another very beautiful part.

  672. And you take a good hard look here at this because the Bible

  673. teaches. That he his he will cleanse us

  674. from all and righteous and this cleansing is a continuous

  675. action. You continue to confess, he will

  676. continue to to forgive. But when you get stubborn or

  677. absolutely. In a way for.

  678. I am not going to make this right.

  679. Listen, that is a bad choice. I love for shine.

  680. One, I love verse 6 and 10 because this shows me if I do my

  681. part, God will do his part and our part, your part and my part.

  682. We've got to admit sin. We've got to yield his

  683. unchanging hand. We've got to stay following Him.

  684. And if we confess our sin, the Bible says He is faithful.

  685. He is just to forgive us. But notice those condition

  686. terms, It's not that you're going to have it whether you

  687. repent or not because that's not right.

  688. You've got to show ownership of your sins.

  689. I have sinned. You remember the product sent a

  690. minute ago. I have sinned.

  691. Even David and old Odin, he did some what you may cause on big

  692. sin. You know, he had a man killed.

  693. He committed a daughter with the wife.

  694. He had all kind of issues, but guess what he said?

  695. But he made it right. He became the friend of God,

  696. good friend today, let me assure you, one thing, you want to be

  697. the friend of God, you want to do the right thing.

  698. Just stay dedicated to Him. And then looking first, John

  699. 3:00 and 5:00, because in this particular passage, it drives

  700. the nail home. Bible says.

  701. And you know that He would manifest and take away our sins.

  702. And in him. There's no sin, O Christians, I

  703. ask of you. At this point of our.

  704. Service, I want you to examine yourself, whether you be in the

  705. faith. I want you to prove yourself.

  706. I want you to know yourself, except you'll be able to

  707. reprobate. That is second Corinthians 13

  708. verse five. And then I want you to be saved.

  709. But it's way more important than whatever Alan wants.

  710. I want you to want to be saved. God wants you saved.

  711. What are you going to do about it?

  712. Now here's the situation. Bottom line, you can die in sin,

  713. you can die to sin, but the Savior died for sin, so you can

  714. go to heaven. So therefore, my friends, you

  715. got to make the choice and it's your choice and you can do this,

  716. you can do the right thing. It's just a matter are you

  717. willing to? It concerns me when people just

  718. hang on to it. I go to places on somewhat of a

  719. regular basis and, and I know brothers and sisters who have

  720. managed to get out of the Lord, but sometimes they'll come.

  721. Maybe we're friends or I go see them and they'll end up coming,

  722. Not every time, but sometimes. Then I know of congregation

  723. where they've got two or three young people that have never

  724. obeyed the gospel and some who are older men never obey the

  725. gospel. Listen, this concerns me.

  726. You're saying no to God. You're not saying no to me.

  727. You're saying no to. God, God gave his only begotten

  728. Son, but whosoever believed with him should not perish by him

  729. every night and life. Don't you say no to God.

  730. God is going to win this battle. Understand that we just ask you

  731. at this time if you're right and and ready to meet your maker,

  732. God bless you, but if you're not right, let's get right now.

  733. Kind of.