Acts: The Invitation

Welcome to But that is done. Pastor Jonathan, glad you're

here worshiping with us. If you have your bibles up

that you do. If you'll turn with me to the

Book of Acts, and we're going to start in chapter

thirteen in a moment in verse thirty eight, Acts thirteen,

starting in verse thirty eight. Today is August fourth, and

today is my twenty third anniversary with my beautiful bride. Amen,

mean God good, pray for her. She needs it. She

made it through twenty three years and she's got a

lot more to go. Amen. You know many years ago.

You know, one thing that's really I think I remember

distinctly as a young man is like the nervousness and

the stress, the anxiety, the pressure, the fear, the worry,

whatever you want to categorize it and put it all

in that what it felt like to ask somebody out

on a date, in the fear of rejection or the

fear of accepting, accepting or declining the invitation to take

someone out on the date. I remember that as a

you know, a young man, you were gonna you know,

as a you know, middle schooler, you couldn't really go anywhere,

but you you know, you were going together. You know,

you don't know where you were going, but you're going

to go going together, going or going steady. You know,

there's there's teenagers' data don't know them terms, but some

of you older ones remember those terms, right. But if

you're a little nervous about it. I remember, as in

middle school, you wrote on a note right before text messaging,

people actually wrote notes on pieces of paper, pencil and stuff,

and you put check yes note or maybe maybe just

kind of you know, maybe she was still going to

just considering, and it was okay if you got to maybe,

but getting a note was devastating, right. You know, as

you got a little older than you know, it gramped

up a little bit more because you may take them

out on the date and then they you know, you

may reject you. And so there's a lot of nervousness.

But I remember, you know, it even ramps up when

you go to the proposal, you know, to ask her

hand in marriage. And so you got to go through

the dad and all that stuff too, and and I was,

you know, pretty nervous about it, and you know, asking brandy,

so I decided the best way to make sure I

got you know, a yes was give her a ring

on Christmas. You know, so Christmas present she doesn't want

to return. And so I decided around Christmas that were

that I was going to ask her to marry me.

And so we had I you know, planned it all

out and and I took her out to a restaurant

and and what I did that night is I told

her we were going to go out on a date.

And when I got there, had had our card and

it was kind of it was like a it was

like a scavenger hunt. So she got a card and

it gave her a clue to where she would find

the next card. And so she, you know, she found

that card. And then when we got to our restaurant,

I think we ate at the the place to do

the fundue thing, you know what, let's talk about. And

so we ate there and then she went to the bathroom.

When she came back, there was another card in her seat,

and she opened it and had a scavenger hunt. And

then that one it gave the final clue. And the

final clue was it was talking about a wonderful woman,

a godly woman who can find she's more precious than Rubrey's. Well,

you know where that goes proverbse thirty one. So she

went and got home. She went to her where she

kept her Bible in her apartment she was living in,

and opened up the Bible, and they're at proverse thirty one.

There was this game called mad Gab. You remember the

game mad Gab. And it was a little card and

it was like words mixed up and she was trying

to say it, and the card was mixed up words,

but it said will you marry me? And so she

was saying, I said, oh, don't worry. You know I

got it, and I got on my knee and I said,

will you marry me? You know, you know, as you

think about I was thinking about that in preparation for

this morning. And you know, as as the as the man,

you know, I'm responsible for for and asking for her

to marry me. Right, that's my responsibility, right in our

culture today, you know, women don't ask men. It's men

who has the responsibility to ask, right, So that was

my responsibility to get the invitation to invite. But she

had the responsibility, right, And there wasn't no yes, no,

or maybe right, this is either a yes or no.

She was accept or she could have declined. She luckily

she for my sake, she accepted right in twenty three

years later, God's really blessed us. But as we think

about that in our life spiritually, and we come to

the word of God, understand this morning, as we come

to Scripture, God gives us the invitation. God gives us

his word, and his responsibility is giving his word to you.

Every week God leads us to a passage of Scripture.

As a pastor of the church here have responsibility to

give faithfully the word of God to you. That's my

responsibility to give it to you. But listen to you

as a congregation, as hearers here today understand you have

a responsibility in a service, and part of your responsibility

is what will you do with the message of God?

Will you accept it or will you decline it? And

as a very big part of this message today, in

Acts thirteen, Paul was preaching a message to a church

called Antiochasidia. I mean he's in a synagogue actually there

and in that synagod he's preaching and he's given them

a message. He's talked about how Christ has fulfilled the

promises of the Old Testament. He's fulfilled history has showed

how christis has fulfilled the promises of the Messiah. He's

went through and showed the message of salvation. That's for them.

And we looked at that last week. This was a

personal message. This was a message of promise. This was

a redeeming message, and it was for them. It was

for the hearers. And now he comes to the latter

part of the message. And in the message today, he

now invites them to respond to the message. You heard

how God has fulfilled his word through history, and through

history have revealed that Christ is a fulfillment of prophecy.

You heard how this message of Christ fulfilling prophecy is

a message of salvation for you. Now, he says to them,

now you must decide what you're going to do with

this invitation for the gospel. You must determine what you're

going to do with this message of salvation. Will you

accept it or will you decline it? And this morning

I just quickly as he invites them receive this message

of salvation that he proclaimed he wants to succeed. There's

two responses that are valuable here, two responses to the

invitation of the message of salvation. We can accept the

invitation for salvation, or we can decline the message of salvation.

And so that's what we're going to look at to day.

Let's stand together. It's Acts, chapter thirteen, and we're going

to start in in verse thirty eight. This morning, will

you follow along with me this hays. Let it be

known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, forgiveness

of sin is proclaimed to you, and by him, everyone

who believes is freed from everything from which you could

not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore,

least what is said in the prophet should come about.

Look you, scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am

doing a work in your days, a word that you

will not believe, even if one tells it to you.

And as they went out, the people begged that these

things might be told them the next Sabbath and after meeting,

after the meeting of the sin of God broke up,

many Jews and devout converts to Judaism. Followed Paul and Barnabas, who,

as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in

the grace of God. The next Sabbath on us the

whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

But when the Jews saw the crowd, they were filled

with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul,

reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying,

it was necessary that the word of God be spoken

to you first. I mean spoken first to you, since

you thrust it aside, judging yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold,

we are turning to the gentiles, for so the Lord

has commanded us, saying I have made you a light

for the gentiles, that you might bring salvation to the

ends of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this, they

began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And

as many as were pointed to eternal life believed, and

the word of the Lord was spread throughout the whole region.

But the Jews, incited about women high standing and leading

men of cities, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas

and drove them out of their district. But they shook

off the dust from their feet against them, and they

went to Iconium and Vieis were filled with joy and

with the Holy Spirit. Let's pray together, Father, we thank

you Lord for this morning. Lord. Today, as we come

to gather together as a body of believers, Lord, you

desire to speak. Lord, you desire to deliver your message

to us, your people. So Lord, today I pray you

give us ears to hear your word. Lord. I pray

that you would feel me that I might deliver your word. God,

it would not be my thoughts or my ideas, Lord,

that you would feel me, that you might pour me

out today, that I might pour out clearly, Lord, your

word for your people. And I pray your spirit would

feel us, feel me and God as we hear your

message today. God, I pray that we would consider our

responsibility to respond Lord to your invitation today. It's not

my invitation, it's yours, Lord. And so Lord, may we

consider today, Lord, what you're speaking to us, and consider

how we might respond Lord to you. Today. Lord, in

your name, we pray, Amen, you may be seated. So

two responses to the invitation of the message here this morning.

As Paul explains, he says at the very beginning of

this verse and verse thirty eight, he throughout this passage,

you can kind of see how the passage is divided

because he continues to remind them and continues to come

back to this imagery of brothers. You could see in

verse thirty eight. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers,

that through this man, forgiveness of sin has proclaimed to you.

Paul is drawing upon Hey. These are Jewish brothers of him,

and also among them were Greeks, and he's calling to

their attention. Hey, friends, body of Jews here, listen, listen.

He's trying to call their attention. And then you can

see in verse twenty eight, I mean thirty eighty, says

that through this man, forgiveness sin is proclaimed to you.

This message of salvation, this message is forgiveness of sin

is proclaimed to you today. This is what I've been

telling you in this sermon, is that this is a

message of forgiveness of sin. That is a personal message

for you. It is a promised message for you, and

it's a message about redeeming you. And then he calls

them to accept that. Look at verse thirty nine, and

from him, everyone who believes is free from everything which

you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Listen,

listen what he says the verse at their beginning and

by him everyone who is who believes. So he says,

this is a message I give to you, and if

you receive it, if you accept the invitation, if you

believe that Jesus came and died on the cross of

your sins, if you believe that, if you receive that, listen,

there is forgiveness of sin. Now, this is very, very

important for the Jews. John Macauthur and his message on

Acts thirteen, he explains that there's three things that dominated

the minds of Jews at this moment. Every Jew, as

Paul was talking about, there were three general themes. According

to John macaulthur, their minds were dominated out by throughout

their whole life. First, the Jewish mind was dominated by

the fact that God was active in history of Issuel.

Every Jew believed that God was working in their history,

and we looked at that the very first sermon. As

we looked at the first part of Paul's sermon, Paul

is explaining that everything that you've seen how God has

worked in history history shows that Christ is a fulfillment

of prophecy. God has been working all along in your history.

And that was a dominant thought in the minds of

the Jews. Is how God was active in history. It's

just random. Things didn't happen, things weren't happening, and we're

not just by chance or circumstance. No, God was active

in history, and God was actively moving history fulfillment of

his promises. They believed that. They understood that. That was

a huge part of what they dominated their minds. The

second things that dominated the minds of the Jews was

God's future plans for Messiah to see that. They believed

that God was active in working in history and was

moving everything in history for the fulfillment of him bringing

his Messiah. It said that the Jews were so had

such a hope for this Messiah that they would dream

about this Messiah. They would hope, they would think about

what the day would be like when the Messiah would come.

And it was even said that Jewish mothers would when

they would have a boy that was born, they would

wish that maybe their son was the Messiah. It was

a dream for every Jew all of history. God is

working to the coming of the Messiah, and just maybe

it's today, maybe it's today's today, then the Messiah will

be born. They longed for the Messiah to come. The

third thing that dominated the of every Jew was God's

attitude and how God dealt with sin. You see, for

every Jew, they understood God was moving history, God was

at them in history. For every Jew, they understood that

the Messiah was coming and that's where their hope was.

But for every Jew, they knew that God hated sin,

and they knew they were sinners, and they knew they

needed to do something about the sin that's in them.

We see this in scripture. There's so many different examples,

but probably one of the greatest examples of someone in

Scripture that really understood and demonstrates the Jew's identification with

how God's attitude with sin is David. You know, you

think about David and what he committed with Bathsheba. But

there's another story at the end of Second Samuel chapter

twenty four, if you want to write it down and

read it later. But at the very end of chapter

twenty four, as the end of David's life, David becomes

full of pride and prideful for what he's done, and

so he decides that he's going to take up a

census and he's going to see how many people is

in Israel. It's a pride thing. He wants to see

how big the nation has gone. Actually, one of his

commanders tells him not to do it, but David goes

against that, and he takes a census. And Second Samuel

twenty four, the Bible says, after David took up the number,

he realized he sins against God. And this is what

it says, and number I mean Second Samuel twenty four,

Verse ten, It says, but David's heart struck him after

he numbered the people. And David said to the Lord,

I've seen greatly in what I've done. But now, old Lord,

take away the iniquity of your servants, for I have

done very foolishly. The Bible says in the next few

verses that God spoke to a prophet to come to David,

and because what David had done, that he would the

nation of visual for David's sins. Listen to what it

says that Goad came to David in verse thirteen and

says he said to him, shall three years of famine

come to you in your land? Or will you flee

three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or

shall there be three days of pestilence in your name

in your land. Now consider decide what your answer, and

I shall return to him who sent me. So God

comes to David and says, David, because of your sin,

it's gonna be punishment for your sin, and it's going

to come against Israel. Either David, there could be three

years of famine, or you can flee as a fugitive

for three months, or there will be three days of pestilence.

You must decide. David chooses pestilence. Verse seventeen. That says

David after he saw what the Lord did to Israel

because of his sin. David says in verse seventeen, the

David's spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel

who striking the people, and that's the way he says.

He says, Blah, I have sin, I have done wickedly.

But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your

hand be against me and against my father's house. You see, David.

There it's very clear for David. David understood he was

a sinner. Listen, he understood that he was a sinner,

and he understands his sins needed punishment. And then he

understood Lord, lastly, let it be God. You know we

live in a world today that's to be honest, we

live in today a world today that doesn't want to

recognize sin and sin. We want to say things that

are sinful in our world today, we want to declare

that they're not sin at all. And even at times

when we do declare that we maybe we've done something wrong,

many times we live in a world today that wants

to minimize the consequences right, we want to say that

doesn't need to be consequences or sin or punishment for

sin right and meantimes. As a result, we live as

a place that we don't recognize that we're sinners, and

we don't recognize the things that we've done are ever

our fault. I was in a class this week for school,

and it was on counseling, and we're talking to a

counselor and he was talking about how he's talked to

many of men of different individuals he counseled with and

have been called in sin, sometimes affairs and different things,

and he says he's he said to us, he says,

maybe I must always been a person that had just

thought that there was more good in some people than others.

But and people had this conscious this simple conscience. But

he says, I'm always surprised when I've talked with someone

who's blatantly caught an affair where they cheated on their spouse.

And you talked to that individual, and you think when

he came into the thing, he'd be in such defeat

of how he ruined his family, such defeata what's happened

in his life that he would say, Oh, I'm just

an awful man. I'm just such a ritches. I can't

believe I do something. He says, I'm surprised of how

many times I've sent across from that individual. And this

first response says, you don't know how she was, you

don't know what she said to me, And it's never

his fault. It's always what she or she did not do.

And I tell you that story because we get to

a place that many times in our life that we

don't reckon, we don't accept the invitation for forgiveness of sin,

because we not recognize that we are a sinner, that

we're a sinner that sinned against the Holy God, and

we deserve punishment for the things that we've done against God.

You see, for the Jews, everyone who heard the message

that day would declare, God, I know that I am

a sinner and I've done sin against you God without

a doubt. So my message is you today, as you

come and you think about the message of salvation, do

you simply understand today as David did that God, I'm

a sinner. And where you've lied and done a small lie,

or you've done something great in your life, of some

great sin in your life, do you recognize, whatever how

small it is or how great it is, you've sinned

against the Holy God, and your sin deserves punishment from

a Holy God, just like David did. And then as

you come to this passage, I love what David. David

is the one who got caught right. David in scripture,

we know he sinned against Pashiv, but he had the

affair right, and for a while he had like nothing.

Everything was okay until God sent Nathan in and rec

expose him of his sin. But in Psalm fifty one,

listen to what David says, have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love, and according to your button

abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from

my innicity, cleanse me from my sins, for I know

my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Today,

when you think about when you accept the invitation of salvation,

what are you accepting? The first thing you're accepting Listen

to this. You're accepting the forgiveness of sin. You're saying, God,

I'm a sinner. I know I deserve hell for what

I've done, and today I recognize God, I need forgiveness,

and today God, I accept your forgiveness of my sins.

It's very important foundationally as we accept the invitation for salvation,

what we're accepting. First, we're accepting the forgiveness of sins. Secondly,

we're accepting freedom from sin. Listen what he says here,

look at the passage of scripture. Let it be known therefore, therefore, brothers,

that through this man, forgiveness of sin is proclaimed to you.

What hope must that have been for these Jews? Their

whole lives have been thinking about I'm a sinner life,

I'm thinking about I deserve God's punishment, And today he

declares to them, today you can have forgiveness of your sins.

What I hope for is for you today, believers, how

great or small your sin is there is forgiveness in

the Lord. There is forgiveness in Jesus. This is what

he says in verse thirty nine. And by him, everyone

who believes listen to this, is freed from everything from

which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

He says, Listen, when you accept the imitation for salvation,

you accept forgiveness of sin. But he also says something

else that they accept. They accept freedom from sin. And

listen how Paul describes it. Let it be known, therefore, brothers,

that through this man forgiveness of sin proclaim to you

and by him, so by him there's forgiveness, and by him,

everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you

could not be freed by the law of Moses. You

know what's a problem with with all false religions in

our world, all false religions except Christianity. Christianity believes that

salvation is through by faith in Jesus Christ and what

Jesus did on the cross for their sins. By what

by putting my faith in Jesus and what Jesus did

on the cross, he paid the penalty of my sins right.

So we put our faith in him for salvation. We

are saved what through by faith, by the grace of God,

we receive the forgiveness of sin. So so that's how

we believe salvation is is by faith through repentance, right,

and it's the grace of God that saves us. It's

not listen to this, it's not we don't save us.

God saves us. Right, Jesus saves us. The problem with

all of our false religion is every false religion outside

of Christianity is works base. So if you had, like

you ever seen the old scale, you know, you actually

see them on a judicial system. They have a scale

and it's got two scales on one side, right, and

you put weight on them and try to balance them out. Well,

for every false religion, they believe every man is a sinner.

They're all built upon we're all sinners, right, and that

you've done good things and you've done bad things. And

so for all false religions, what you need to do

is you need to do more good than you've done bad.

So you take the records of the things that you've

done and you put them the bad things you've done

on one side of the scale. And if it's heavy

and it outweighs the good, then you're in trouble. So

what you need to do is you need to be

a good person. You need good works. You need to

do enough good things to outweigh the bad things that

you've done right. And that's how you're saved. You're saved

by your what your good works right. And for the Jews,

there's this temptation and listen to what it says. He

says in verse thirty nine. Everyone's believed is free from

which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

The Jews had had the Old Testament law that told

them how to live for God, how to the tend commandments,

and all the things of law, the Kasher laws, and

these were things that good things that they could do.

But the problem was with that. And they would have

a sacrificial system that would offer sacrifices for forgiveness of

their sins right to show their heart that they wanted forgiveness.

The problem was, is those sacrifices and those Old Testament

laws could never save right. And what was your hopeing, Hey,

I didn't eat the food this week, I did good,

I kept the Kosher laws, I offer sacrifices of my sins,

but for that lie or what I did last week,

But turn around next week, I've done it again. So

what do you got to do Where I've got to

get another sacrifice, I've got to go through the works again,

and it's over and over again. There's never any hope

because all you're doing is you're putting your faith for

your salvation in your work works and just trying to

be good, and good is never good enough, right, And

the Jews understood that they've seen the frustration that week

after a week, I'm trying to depend on I'll do

better next week God, and then next week I fell again.

And Paul says, listen, when you accept the invitation for salvation,

you accept forgiveness of sin, but you accept freedom from sin. Now,

Martin Luther, a lot like the Jews, struggled with trying

to find forgiveness. He struggled because he really wanted to

be forgiven for his sin. He was a Roman Catholic,

must y'all know. And so he became a priest because

he was trying to work his salvation and try to

gain salvation through works. In nineteen, I mean in fifteen ten,

Martin Luther was sent to Rome, and while he was

in Rome. In Rome, they had taken what they called

the Holy stairs. The Holy stairs were supposed to be

the same stairs which Jesus descended when he appeared to

Pilot And according to tradition, they believed that if you

that on those steps by the way, they took those

steps from Jerusalem and took them to Rome, and the

priest talked, according to tradition, that God forgave those who

God forgave sins for those who climbed the stairs on

their knees. Martin Luther was a sinner. He's a priest,

he's trying to do good things. But he knew it

was a sinner and he was overwhelmed with his sin.

So one day he went to the stairs and one

by one he kissed each step. He would repeat the

Lord's prayer. He sought with peace with God. When he

got to the top of the steps, and he looked

back upon all the steps that he took, and he said,

this question, who knows whether this is true or not?

And he left disdained because he felt like he was

no closer to God. So here's the thing. I want

to tell you this, because this is so important to understand.

When God gives you the message of salvation, he's inviting you,

and if you accept the invitation, you're receiving forgiveness of sin,

but you're also receiving forgiven of freedom from sin. You know,

you as an individual can try it, like Martin Luther,

to try to be a good person and try to

work out your salvation through good works, but the reality

is that it will never ever be good enough. By

accepting the message of salvation, you're accepting today that God,

you have made me free in Christ, and I don't

have to earn your love. I don't have to earn

your forgiveness. God. When you save me, you forgave me

my sin. And God you freed me from my sin.

He broke the change of sin. That's what Romans ate

by the way, says eight one through four. Now there

is therefore now no condination for those who are in

Christ Jesus, for the law of spirit of life has

set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of

sin and death. Listen, when you accept the message of salvation,

Jesus forgives you, and Jesus sets you free from the

power of sin in your life, and you don't have

to earn it or achieve it. He breaks the change

of sin in you, and that's not anything you can

do in your own power, your own strength. Lastly, as

we finish today, I want you to see how we

have a As we hear the message of salvation, we

can accept it. And when we accept it, we accept forgiveness,

we accept freedom of sin. But what if we decline,

What if we decline salvation? What are we doing well?

Paul describes this in this passage of scripturey. He warns

them with verse forty and verse thirty ninety says, by

everyone who believes is free from everything which you could

not be freed by the law of Moses. But Any

warns them in verse forty says, beware. Therefore, at least

what's said in the profits should come about. He said, look,

you scoffers, be astonished, astounded in parish, for I'm doing

work in your days, a word that you will not

believe even if one tells it to you. He's quoting Abaca.

He tells them, listen, I'm giving you this message to salvation.

It's now your responsibility whether you're going to accept it

or decline it. But I'm warning you. The prophets that

also prophesied there'd be those who rejected. Don't be one

of those. The prophets would even declare that there will

be those who even hear it firsthand, the messages the

good news of Jesus and hear it for themselves, and

they reject. He says, don't do that. It's like a

big warning label. Don't be that one that Habaka was

talking about. Here's the message of salvation, yet rejects it.

Scripture says, as it went out in verse thirty two

and in forty three, that there are people who were

wanting to hear We actually already see in these converts,

people who have come to Christ. You can see that

verse forty three many Jews and devout converts to Judaism.

Just in that moment. There are people who receive the

invitation except forgiveness of sin, and they find freedom from sin,

and they are so excited they want Paul and Barnabas

to come back the next Sunday and do the same thing.

And so the next Sabbath, verse forty four tells us

that Paul and Barnabas come back, and the whole city

gathers together, and the Bible says in verse forty five

here that when the Jews who are in the sin

of God saw the great crowd, the Scripture says here

that were filled with jealousy and began to contradict. They're

jealous of the crowds that Paul and Barnabas are bringing,

and they begin contradicting what Paul says. And listen to

what Paul says. In verse forty six. He talks about

how these Jews have now rejected the invitation of salvation.

This is what he says in verse forty six, and

Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, it was necessary

that the word of God be spoken to you, spoken

first to you, and since she thrust it aside, and

judge yourselves worthy of yourselves, unworthy of eternal life. Behold,

we are turning to the gentiles. When we declined invitation

for salvation. Paul describes what we're doing by just showing

what they did. Listen what he says. When we decline

the invitation salvation, we push away God's message. Imagine, as

I said to you last week, God writes a message

just for you, a personal message, an email, a text message,

leaves a message on your voicemail. It's just for you,

God speaking directly to you, and you say, I don't

really have time for you right now, God, I really

have time for your message. I don't really have time

for what you need from me right now. I've got

other things that are more important. He uses this imagery

in verse forty six by saying, since you thrust it aside,

you push it away like it's just not worth your time.

When we decline the invitation salvation, we say, God, I

really don't have time for your message. I really don't

have time for you. In my life, I remember Devin

is doing a class for southeastern and evangelism, and one

of the parts of the classes is having got some conversation,

setting up meetings and be able to share with people.

And I remember when I was in that class, I

was asked to do a survey of the gospel. And

I was working on the golf course at the time,

and one of my close friends that I was an

unbeliever there and and I felt like a Lord led

me to share the gospel. So we met. I think

we met in a dunkin Donuts somewhere in waite Forest

and and I went through and shared the gospel with

him and went through a survey of scripture with him.

And I remember as we were working through, and I

had my Bible and I was sharing with him, and

I think I had my pencil and I was like

marking where he could read. And he had not seen

a bible since he was a little boy in a

church in England. And I put a little mark on

my bible. He said, what did you do? You just

wanted your bible. You don't should touch God's Bible. I said, no,

it's okay. But he was so like moved. You can

tell God was working on him. And I was really excited.

This is a good relationship I have with this man.

I really was excited about maybe him reorce, even the gospel,

and he understood, he accepted it. He even said me

to me that day, he says, I believe God sent

you to me. I get I believe God wanted me

to hear this today. And at the very end I

came to him, I said, how about today? How about

today todays? God's inviting you to accept his message of salvation.

Will you will you accept? He said to me. He says,

you know, I really believe God's can't send you today,

but you know it's really not the right time right

now for me. I've got some things I want to

do in my career, and I want to get those

things done in my career person, and me and my

wife are about to have our first child, and I've

and I've got to figure out what it's like to

be a dad person. I want to figure out some

things for my family. And then maybe if I get

my career done, and maybe after I worked through some

things with my family, then maybe maybe I can come

back to this. You know what he did that day,

He said, you know what, these things in my life

are more important than God. And so God's message I'm

putting to the side till later. And when God speaks

to us, and God calls us on a Sunday morning

and we say not today, Lord, We're saying God, there's

other things that are more important. There's other messages in

my life that are more important than your message. Lastly,

when we decline the invitation for salvation, we push God's

message away. But this is striking at the very end.

When we decline, we judge ourselves unworthy of eternal life.

So what Paul says here in this passage of scripture

verse forty six, he says, it was necessary the word

of God be spoken to you first. And since she

thrust aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, it's

very key for Paul. Listen this, this is human responsibility.

I didn't judge you, Paul said, you judged yourself unworthy

of the Gospel. You know, Scripture tells us. Probably one

of the most famous passages of Scripture is that of

the Gospel as John three sixteen. Right, for God so

loved the world that he gave his only son, that

whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have ever

but have everlasting life. But God did not send his

son into the world to what to condemn it, but

in order that the word I mean the world might

be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.

But listen to what Scripture says in verse eighteen. Whoever

believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not

believe in him, I mean believe, is condemned already because

he is not believed in the name of the only

son of God. What is Jesus saying there, when you

reject my son, when you reject me, you condemn yourself.

It's very clear in verse seventeen. Jesus didn't come to

condemn the world right who then condemns them? They condemned

themselves in saying I don't believe the Gospel is worthy

of me. I want to close with a story of

a pastor name's Ben. Pastor Ben went to the hospital

one day in Tanner in the band if you want

to make your way. He came to the hospitals about

three o'clock in the morning, and there's a man there

he knew me was somebody that he had visited with

before he was dying. So Pastor Ben decided it was

I was appropriate, very important to ask him about how

it was with him and the Lord. And he says, oh,

I believe in God. I know everything is Everything's okay,

he says. Pastor Ben said, well, what do you believe

about Jesus? He says, I've known God all my life,

he said, I've tried to observe godly standards. I've been

honest in my business. I've not been crooked with money,

I've worked very hard well. The pastor says, but he

said to his friend, he says, I wouldn't be here

and I wouldn't be your friend if wanted to not

ask you, how is it between you and Jesus? The

man says, you know, I've never really made place for

Jesus in my life. I don't believe in Jesus. If

I were believe in Jesus, it would upset everything I thought,

my philosophy, my life. I would have to rethink everything

about me. The pastor says, by the grace of God,

I'm here tonight. I think you've gotten more opportunity to

rethink it. Would you today do that? Would you rethink

it today? Man said no, He said, I'll die without Jesus.

He said to him, why do you think that Jesus

died for? Why do you think Jesus died. The man says, oh,

I know, he died for my sins. He said, yes.

But the pastor says, yes, your sins. The man responded, perhaps,

but it's too late in my life to rethink the

place of Jesus. I will die without Jesus. The pastor says,

and he did just what he said. It's a striking story.

But the reality is you, just like that man in

the hospital bed. You have the message of the Gospel,

You've heard it. It's been given to you, just as

the pastor had given it to that man on the

hospital bed. I have given you the word of God.

You know that pastor that day could not make that

man in the hospital bed believe it was his responsibility

to what he was going to do with the invitation.

And as much as I love you and I wanted

to make that decision for you, you have to decide

what you will do with the invitation? Will you accept it?

And said God, today, I'd eat your forgiveness. Will you say, God,

you know what. I'm tired of trying to break the

bonds of sin in my life by trying to do better. God.

I need freedom from sin that only you can give me. God,

Today I accept your message for me? Or will today

be the day that you say, you know what? I

don't have time for that today. I really think there's

other things that are more important in my life than this.

And you judge and bring condemnation on yourself just as

that man did that night. Today, accept Jesus. She prayed

with me. Lord, we love you, We thank you Lord

for your word. I thank you for what you've done here.

I pray that as we take this time of invitation,

that God, we respond to you. I pray for those

that are here today that have never put their faith

in You for salvation. Maybe they've been trusting in good works,

good behavior, good things, but God, they've never put their

trace trust in you for salvation and what you've done

for them on the Cross. I pray they'd be those today,

just like David would admit that they are sinner. Lord,

I pray they'd be those today that would get faster

sins to you, Father, I pray it be those today

that will put their faith in You for salvation today

and fine forgiveness of sin and freedom from sin today.

We love you. I pray you lead us now in

your name. We pray Jesus, pain and all to