July 29, 2024 • 23 mins
Listen to the Gospel Audio from Ballyclare Gospel Hall. Speaker: Samuel Fleck.
Subject: "The Forever Christ: Unchanging Hope".
We proclaim the wonderful message that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Now, if you have a Bible, we'll take a short extract, please,
from the book of Hebrews, chapter 10.
The epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 10. We'll read from verse 11.
Hebrews 10 and verse 11. It says,
(00:30):
one sacrifice, for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God,
from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
For by one offering he hath perfected or completed forever them that are sanctified.
Now I'll read again verse 12, particularly this verse is upon my mind.
(00:55):
It says, But this man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of God. Now, many will be aware that the Epistle to the Hebrews is a book that
very, very much extols and magnifies the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(01:20):
It does that in quite a number of different ways, and some of those themes could
be very readily developed in meetings like this.
One of the very precious ways in which he is presented that has been drawn to
my attention in recent days and out of the meeting here is that he is the forever Christ.
(01:41):
Time after time, we read about him and things associated with him that are unchanging. They are forever.
That was relevant to the audience to which the writer wrote on this occasion.
Many of them had known great changes in their lives and circumstances.
(02:01):
Many were being persecuted for the name of Christ.
They had been ostracized from their families. They had been shunned.
Some of them had lost everything, known great change.
But the writer reminds them that they have come to know one who is forever.
He is unchanging. In chapter 13, we read that he is the same forever.
(02:24):
Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday and today and forever.
That is, his very person is unchanging.
We live in a world of men who are changing, and they're fickle.
It doesn't take very much by times to see men adjust.
(02:44):
Just even in the past week, we've seen the so-called leader of the free world
become too frail even to complete an election campaign because men decay,
men become decrepit, men change.
But dear friend, there is a glorious person which we preach to you today.
(03:05):
And what he ever was in eternity past, what he will ever be in eternity to come
is just exactly what he is now because he's Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday and today and forever.
He is eternally and unchangingly God's eternal Son. He's a divine person, dear friend.
(03:31):
The Savior that we preach to you today, unlike men, is absolutely in his essence
and in his being and in his person, unchanging.
Eternally and forever the same. Not only is he the same forever,
but his scepter is forever.
In the first chapter of this book, we read of God himself addressing the Son. How wonderful that is.
(03:58):
And unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is a scepter of thy kingdom. Christ today sits upon the throne.
Once he was here, now he is adorned with glory, as we'll see in a moment,
at the very right hand of God.
(04:20):
And his throne and his kingdom, dear friend, are forever, unchanging.
Also in this book we read of a salvation that is forever.
In fact, I read it there in chapter 10, close to where I want to spend my time.
And we read there that he has perfected or completed forever them that are sanctified.
(04:46):
That is, he gives to every soul he trusts in him an absolutely complete salvation,
not only for time, but for eternity.
If there's somebody today looking for an unchanging hope, something settled
amidst a volatile world, For men all around us hardly know what's going on at all.
(05:08):
And much less can they control it. And you see it all.
And you have an awful sense of dark foreboding as you think about the future and eternity.
And you'd love to have peace. Dear friend, today I want to tell you,
Christ offers to you today a salvation.
And it's a salvation not for 24 hours, or a week, or six months. It's forever.
(05:32):
It's forever. ever. Thank God for that. Also in this book, we read that his sympathy is forever.
That's something that Christians enjoy.
Four times over in the Hebrews we learn that this same one in his capacity as
a risen man in glory, he has been made a high priest forever.
(05:54):
Aye, forever. How wonderful that is.
And you know, as the epistle closes in his very last book, last verse,
It says this, and fittingly so, Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
You know, dear friend, his song will be forever. The eternal,
(06:16):
unchanging theme of heaven's praise will be Christ, the glories of his person, the wonders of his work.
And so he's a forever Christ, dear friend.
But you know, lying at the very heart of the Gospel, as we have revealed to
you here in chapter 10 where I've read, not only is he the same forever,
(06:40):
not only is his sceptre forever, not only is his salvation, his sympathy,
his song forever, but I want to tell you dear friend, he has offered a sacrifice.
And the efficacy and the value and the complete permanence of that sacrifice, it is forever.
(07:04):
It is forever. And for these remaining moments that I have here in the drive-in meeting,
I want to draw the attention of every soul who has gathered,
especially unsaved, to the wondrous work of Christ, completed upon the cross of Calvary.
The path to the cross is a well-trodden one for the gospel preacher. It's where we love to be.
(07:30):
All our hopes are there. And I want to tell you, if you're here unsaved,
your only hope for salvation is in the cross and death and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You need to look within yourself for an answer to your own need.
You needn't look to any other man nor to some priest nor pastor nor preacher,
(07:54):
dear friend there's only one source of salvation,
and that is Christ and his cross and so come with me to consider this wonderful
verse it's one of the golden texts of scripture,
used time after time through the years to bring light and blessing to souls
open your ear to it again here for a moment this afternoon noon.
(08:17):
Let me quote it to you again.
Hebrews 10 and 12. But this man.
After he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down in the right hand of God.
It's a great gospel text because it contains the fundamentals of the gospel.
(08:37):
And let me just, for we're aware sometimes even in driving meetings like these,
that we can't just see all who have come too clearly.
There might be somebody here not too familiar with the gospel.
Let me for a moment make abundantly clear what the truths of the gospel are,
(08:57):
and they're revealed in this verse.
In this verse we have guilt, for we read about our sins.
In this verse we have Golgotha, the cross.
And in this verse we have glory, the right hand of God. In guilt I see man in all his vileness.
(09:20):
At Golgotha, I see Christ as the great victim, led to the place of sacrifice.
And in glory, I see the great God who vindicates his own son who once was the
victim, but is now exalted at his own right hand above.
And so you can see that verse beginning with Christ, the verse ending with God,
(09:45):
and in the very center of it, you have you and I, dear friend,
for man is shown in unmistakable terms to be in tremendous need before God, dear friend,
before the throne of God, with
its unchanging, inflexible holiness and righteousness and justice, this.
(10:11):
We are before him. Guilty.
With records that are black and foul. And as he looks upon you,
dear friend, if you're not saved, he sees one who is condemned,
self-condemned, because of your own sins.
And God can never, ever, ever permit sin to dwell in his presence.
(10:35):
And so you're outstanding need today. And the need that lies right at the heart
of the gospel is this, that man is a rebel.
Man has distanced himself from God man has taken his own course and he needs
to be reconciled he needs to be brought back to God and so his need is not so
(10:56):
much social or economic or cultural but your need today is spiritual,
and I would appeal to every soul here to look within your own heart and soul,
and even your mind for sin corrupts and pervades,
man's entire personality and being and all
(11:19):
before your gaze if you are honest with an open Bible before you it is only
guilty and I would just echo the words of Scripture again in your hearing in
the book of Romans that every mouth might be stopped and all the world,
you include it be guilty before God,
(11:40):
And so man, in his guilt, stands here in all its stark reality.
What then can be done about the guilt of man?
Having established the Bible truth that we are far from God,
someone might ask, is there any remedy for such an awful predicament?
(12:03):
Well, into the dark picture, dear friend, there steps a Savior.
And God himself provides the Savior for men.
Please understand that we never provided a Savior for ourselves.
We never even sought one.
We were so dark, so distant in our minds. But God made the first move,
(12:26):
and he directed towards man, as he lay languishing in his guilt and need,
sunbeams of mercy and grace.
And he found us right where we were.
Though he never deserved it, he revealed himself in a way that is absolutely mighty.
For this verse begins with these words, This man, this man, do you think?
(12:52):
The Savior whom God did provide, he is said here to be this man.
That tells me very simply and yet very profoundly that if man is ever to know
a Savior who can truly meet his need, that Savior must himself be a man.
And I want to pour into the ears of every soul here still unsaved.
(13:17):
Once again, the truth that lies so fundamental to the gospel Well,
it's this, that in order to see us delivered from our sins,
God parted with his own Son, his eternal Son, and his own Son took flesh.
He was born into this world, not protecting, by the way, of the sinful element
(13:42):
of Adam's human race, for he remained ever sin apart.
Heart, but nevertheless he took true, real humanity, and the reason he took,
listen to me, dear friend, closely now, for we're coming now to the heart of things.
Reason God's son became a man was an order that he might die.
(14:04):
If he never became man, he couldn't die.
And this reveals to me the purpose that God and Christ had in mind whenever he came.
For ever before him lay the cross, for the divine wisdom ever knew that the
putting away of man's sin would require? A sacrifice.
(14:26):
It was ever the case that a sacrifice is required to put away sin.
Stamped right across the Old Testament is that truth.
There's a well-known Bible commentator, Scroggie. He once said that if you cut
the Bible in any place, it will bleed.
What he was saying is this, that from Genesis to Revelation,
(14:49):
you could cut any page nearly of the Bible,
and it would flow with the truth of the needed sacrifice for the guilt of man.
Be it the book of Revelation, be it Exodus 12 on the last, be it Isaiah 53, I could go on and on.
(15:10):
And indeed, dear friend, the Bible bleeds. And we come here to the book of Hebrews,
bruise, with all its echoes, of an economy past, when on Jewish altars,
sacrifice upon sacrifice.
Animal upon animal by the thousand was offered to put away sin,
the sin of those who had transgressed the law of God, and yet it was only ever
(15:35):
temporary, only ever a partial remedy.
And so the offerings had to come and come and come again as you read in this very chapter.
Oftentimes the priest had to offer. But it reached a point, dear friend,
in the history of this world.
God moved to completely, fully, and permanently deal with the sin of man.
(16:02):
It wasn't to be found anymore in an animal's sacrifice, nor ten thousand of them.
It was found in one, final, once-for-all sacrifice, not of an animal,
but of this man, this man.
I entreat souls today, as we stand thankfully in the stillness of this beautiful summer afternoon,
(16:29):
if some heart here is longing for salvation, you feel the burden of your guilt,
you know that sin is what marks you, and you long to be free.
You long to know the emancipation of the gospel personally in your own soul.
So today look to this man, not any other man, certainly not the one before you,
(16:54):
but this man, who offered one sacrifice for sins forever.
There it is, God's final answer, a sacrifice that would need no addition,
no replication, no improvement.
For once in the end of the age he
(17:15):
appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself and
because he was an infinite person yet man
and he died upon that cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for every soul being
infinite in his being the value of that sacrifice reveals or would avail for
(17:40):
every soul we come to a car park like this,
and I away beyond the car park here to every home in Ballyclare town,
every home in County Antrim every soul we will see walking the streets of the
province here that we know so well and love for Christ's sake.
Way beyond it, go to China, go to the African bush, go to South America, whoever it might be.
(18:07):
Listen, dear friend, there's a sacrifice and the value of it would meet the
need of every single man and woman, boy and girl, if they would but come for
themselves and personally accept its worth.
Who here today has threw out the challenge?
Maybe after years of waiting, struggling, wondering,
doubting, will look to Calvary's blessed mount and look to the man that there
(18:31):
died for you and you'll say for the first time it is enough that Jesus died and rose again for me.
I want to tell you it was enough for God to somebody prove it.
Well, we read here that after he offered that one sacrifice for sins forever, what did he do?
(18:51):
He sat down at the right hand of God.
How do we know that that final sacrifice satisfied God?
How do we know that it worked? That's a question well worth asking.
As we read the accounts of the Gospels, and read of one who was crucified and
(19:13):
suffered for sinners, we read through the epistles and all the great doctrines of the cross,
how do we know at the end of the day that it's God's mind and will that that
be the center of his gospel.
Here, friend, the proof is this, that after he had died, laid his head voluntarily upon his breast.
(19:36):
Dismissed his spirit, having cried it is finished.
He was buried, and he lay in the tomb, in those hours, ever appointed hours.
There he lay in the darkness of the tomb, but on the third and appointed morning,
the blessed Saviour who had died for sinners, he arose, he arose out from amongst
(20:00):
the dead ones, conquering death in doing so, laying waste the power and the
empire, of Hades and the devil.
And there arose a mighty conqueror. And after those days he ascended from the Mount of Olives.
And men watched him. What a sight it must have been.
They watched him leave this planet of ours to which he had come in grace.
(20:24):
They watched him ascend into the sky till he was seen no more.
To somebody, where did he go? I tell you, dear friend, he went up and he went
up and he went up through the atmosphere.
Through the lairs that are celestial. Into heaven itself he passed the ranks
of angels, and archangels, and cherubim.
(20:46):
And he went up till he could go no higher.
He went to the very throne of God.
And I want to tell you with the Bible before me that the Savior,
he was crowned with thorns upon the tree.
He sat down at the right hand of God.
He couldn't sit any higher. And why did he sit down?
(21:08):
The point is he sat down because his work was done.
And God has shown to this whole world of ours his vindication of his son who was rejected here.
And he has put him on the pinnacle of glory. And through his word,
he wants every soul to hear announced in the gospel today, in this glorious
(21:31):
age that he's granted to us, in all his favor.
He wants us to look in the midst of all our sin and need, to look to the one
who sits at his own right hand, the one who died and rose again and is glorified.
And he says to every soul on the grounds of the righteous bases laid at Calvary,
(21:55):
any who will look to my son and trust their souls to him, I will save them and save them forever.
I will give them the sanctification that will stand permanently.
I will cleanse them. I will forgive them. I will give them a warm welcome back
from the dark paths of sin.
(22:17):
As soon as this meeting here closes in Ballyclare.
This has been a simple meeting really and we've been over the fundamental ground,
by and large we don't apologise for that but we're not here just to preach facts
some of you have known these facts since you were toddlers nearly the crying
(22:38):
out need of soul sitting in the car just now in Ballyclare,
isn't the assimilation of facts into your mind it's the obedience of your heart,
acting upon what you do know already ready, and before you is a choice for Christ
or the world, salvation or sin.
You can trust Him and be saved right now in that car seat where you sit,
(23:02):
and go on your way rejoicing down the road there,
or you can remain in your sins, unforgiven, uncleansed, still guilty,
and eventually face Face the consequences of them forever in hell.
For remember that while salvation is forever, hell is forever.
And so, the two ways are before you, each and every one.
(23:26):
I can't choose for you. Neither can your parents. Neither can the Christians.
As just now we bow our heads and commit the meeting to God in prayer,
I trust there will be some, simple and humble enough, to get to the cross.
Oh dear friend, get to the cross. us.
Get to the sacrifice of Christ.
(23:46):
Get to this man and trust him as your very own saviour. May it be so.
Now, if you have a Bible, we'll take a short extract, please,
from the book of Hebrews, chapter 10.
The epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 10. We'll read from verse 11.
Hebrews 10 and verse 11. It says,
(00:30):
one sacrifice, for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God,
from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
For by one offering he hath perfected or completed forever them that are sanctified.
Now I'll read again verse 12, particularly this verse is upon my mind.
(00:55):
It says, But this man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of God. Now, many will be aware that the Epistle to the Hebrews is a book that
very, very much extols and magnifies the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(01:20):
It does that in quite a number of different ways, and some of those themes could
be very readily developed in meetings like this.
One of the very precious ways in which he is presented that has been drawn to
my attention in recent days and out of the meeting here is that he is the forever Christ.
(01:41):
Time after time, we read about him and things associated with him that are unchanging. They are forever.
That was relevant to the audience to which the writer wrote on this occasion.
Many of them had known great changes in their lives and circumstances.
(02:01):
Many were being persecuted for the name of Christ.
They had been ostracized from their families. They had been shunned.
Some of them had lost everything, known great change.
But the writer reminds them that they have come to know one who is forever.
He is unchanging. In chapter 13, we read that he is the same forever.
(02:24):
Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday and today and forever.
That is, his very person is unchanging.
We live in a world of men who are changing, and they're fickle.
It doesn't take very much by times to see men adjust.
(02:44):
Just even in the past week, we've seen the so-called leader of the free world
become too frail even to complete an election campaign because men decay,
men become decrepit, men change.
But dear friend, there is a glorious person which we preach to you today.
(03:05):
And what he ever was in eternity past, what he will ever be in eternity to come
is just exactly what he is now because he's Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday and today and forever.
He is eternally and unchangingly God's eternal Son. He's a divine person, dear friend.
(03:31):
The Savior that we preach to you today, unlike men, is absolutely in his essence
and in his being and in his person, unchanging.
Eternally and forever the same. Not only is he the same forever,
but his scepter is forever.
In the first chapter of this book, we read of God himself addressing the Son. How wonderful that is.
(03:58):
And unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is a scepter of thy kingdom. Christ today sits upon the throne.
Once he was here, now he is adorned with glory, as we'll see in a moment,
at the very right hand of God.
(04:20):
And his throne and his kingdom, dear friend, are forever, unchanging.
Also in this book we read of a salvation that is forever.
In fact, I read it there in chapter 10, close to where I want to spend my time.
And we read there that he has perfected or completed forever them that are sanctified.
(04:46):
That is, he gives to every soul he trusts in him an absolutely complete salvation,
not only for time, but for eternity.
If there's somebody today looking for an unchanging hope, something settled
amidst a volatile world, For men all around us hardly know what's going on at all.
(05:08):
And much less can they control it. And you see it all.
And you have an awful sense of dark foreboding as you think about the future and eternity.
And you'd love to have peace. Dear friend, today I want to tell you,
Christ offers to you today a salvation.
And it's a salvation not for 24 hours, or a week, or six months. It's forever.
(05:32):
It's forever. ever. Thank God for that. Also in this book, we read that his sympathy is forever.
That's something that Christians enjoy.
Four times over in the Hebrews we learn that this same one in his capacity as
a risen man in glory, he has been made a high priest forever.
(05:54):
Aye, forever. How wonderful that is.
And you know, as the epistle closes in his very last book, last verse,
It says this, and fittingly so, Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
You know, dear friend, his song will be forever. The eternal,
(06:16):
unchanging theme of heaven's praise will be Christ, the glories of his person, the wonders of his work.
And so he's a forever Christ, dear friend.
But you know, lying at the very heart of the Gospel, as we have revealed to
you here in chapter 10 where I've read, not only is he the same forever,
(06:40):
not only is his sceptre forever, not only is his salvation, his sympathy,
his song forever, but I want to tell you dear friend, he has offered a sacrifice.
And the efficacy and the value and the complete permanence of that sacrifice, it is forever.
(07:04):
It is forever. And for these remaining moments that I have here in the drive-in meeting,
I want to draw the attention of every soul who has gathered,
especially unsaved, to the wondrous work of Christ, completed upon the cross of Calvary.
The path to the cross is a well-trodden one for the gospel preacher. It's where we love to be.
(07:30):
All our hopes are there. And I want to tell you, if you're here unsaved,
your only hope for salvation is in the cross and death and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You need to look within yourself for an answer to your own need.
You needn't look to any other man nor to some priest nor pastor nor preacher,
(07:54):
dear friend there's only one source of salvation,
and that is Christ and his cross and so come with me to consider this wonderful
verse it's one of the golden texts of scripture,
used time after time through the years to bring light and blessing to souls
open your ear to it again here for a moment this afternoon noon.
(08:17):
Let me quote it to you again.
Hebrews 10 and 12. But this man.
After he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down in the right hand of God.
It's a great gospel text because it contains the fundamentals of the gospel.
(08:37):
And let me just, for we're aware sometimes even in driving meetings like these,
that we can't just see all who have come too clearly.
There might be somebody here not too familiar with the gospel.
Let me for a moment make abundantly clear what the truths of the gospel are,
(08:57):
and they're revealed in this verse.
In this verse we have guilt, for we read about our sins.
In this verse we have Golgotha, the cross.
And in this verse we have glory, the right hand of God. In guilt I see man in all his vileness.
(09:20):
At Golgotha, I see Christ as the great victim, led to the place of sacrifice.
And in glory, I see the great God who vindicates his own son who once was the
victim, but is now exalted at his own right hand above.
And so you can see that verse beginning with Christ, the verse ending with God,
(09:45):
and in the very center of it, you have you and I, dear friend,
for man is shown in unmistakable terms to be in tremendous need before God, dear friend,
before the throne of God, with
its unchanging, inflexible holiness and righteousness and justice, this.
(10:11):
We are before him. Guilty.
With records that are black and foul. And as he looks upon you,
dear friend, if you're not saved, he sees one who is condemned,
self-condemned, because of your own sins.
And God can never, ever, ever permit sin to dwell in his presence.
(10:35):
And so you're outstanding need today. And the need that lies right at the heart
of the gospel is this, that man is a rebel.
Man has distanced himself from God man has taken his own course and he needs
to be reconciled he needs to be brought back to God and so his need is not so
(10:56):
much social or economic or cultural but your need today is spiritual,
and I would appeal to every soul here to look within your own heart and soul,
and even your mind for sin corrupts and pervades,
man's entire personality and being and all
(11:19):
before your gaze if you are honest with an open Bible before you it is only
guilty and I would just echo the words of Scripture again in your hearing in
the book of Romans that every mouth might be stopped and all the world,
you include it be guilty before God,
(11:40):
And so man, in his guilt, stands here in all its stark reality.
What then can be done about the guilt of man?
Having established the Bible truth that we are far from God,
someone might ask, is there any remedy for such an awful predicament?
(12:03):
Well, into the dark picture, dear friend, there steps a Savior.
And God himself provides the Savior for men.
Please understand that we never provided a Savior for ourselves.
We never even sought one.
We were so dark, so distant in our minds. But God made the first move,
(12:26):
and he directed towards man, as he lay languishing in his guilt and need,
sunbeams of mercy and grace.
And he found us right where we were.
Though he never deserved it, he revealed himself in a way that is absolutely mighty.
For this verse begins with these words, This man, this man, do you think?
(12:52):
The Savior whom God did provide, he is said here to be this man.
That tells me very simply and yet very profoundly that if man is ever to know
a Savior who can truly meet his need, that Savior must himself be a man.
And I want to pour into the ears of every soul here still unsaved.
(13:17):
Once again, the truth that lies so fundamental to the gospel Well,
it's this, that in order to see us delivered from our sins,
God parted with his own Son, his eternal Son, and his own Son took flesh.
He was born into this world, not protecting, by the way, of the sinful element
(13:42):
of Adam's human race, for he remained ever sin apart.
Heart, but nevertheless he took true, real humanity, and the reason he took,
listen to me, dear friend, closely now, for we're coming now to the heart of things.
Reason God's son became a man was an order that he might die.
(14:04):
If he never became man, he couldn't die.
And this reveals to me the purpose that God and Christ had in mind whenever he came.
For ever before him lay the cross, for the divine wisdom ever knew that the
putting away of man's sin would require? A sacrifice.
(14:26):
It was ever the case that a sacrifice is required to put away sin.
Stamped right across the Old Testament is that truth.
There's a well-known Bible commentator, Scroggie. He once said that if you cut
the Bible in any place, it will bleed.
What he was saying is this, that from Genesis to Revelation,
(14:49):
you could cut any page nearly of the Bible,
and it would flow with the truth of the needed sacrifice for the guilt of man.
Be it the book of Revelation, be it Exodus 12 on the last, be it Isaiah 53, I could go on and on.
(15:10):
And indeed, dear friend, the Bible bleeds. And we come here to the book of Hebrews,
bruise, with all its echoes, of an economy past, when on Jewish altars,
sacrifice upon sacrifice.
Animal upon animal by the thousand was offered to put away sin,
the sin of those who had transgressed the law of God, and yet it was only ever
(15:35):
temporary, only ever a partial remedy.
And so the offerings had to come and come and come again as you read in this very chapter.
Oftentimes the priest had to offer. But it reached a point, dear friend,
in the history of this world.
God moved to completely, fully, and permanently deal with the sin of man.
(16:02):
It wasn't to be found anymore in an animal's sacrifice, nor ten thousand of them.
It was found in one, final, once-for-all sacrifice, not of an animal,
but of this man, this man.
I entreat souls today, as we stand thankfully in the stillness of this beautiful summer afternoon,
(16:29):
if some heart here is longing for salvation, you feel the burden of your guilt,
you know that sin is what marks you, and you long to be free.
You long to know the emancipation of the gospel personally in your own soul.
So today look to this man, not any other man, certainly not the one before you,
(16:54):
but this man, who offered one sacrifice for sins forever.
There it is, God's final answer, a sacrifice that would need no addition,
no replication, no improvement.
For once in the end of the age he
(17:15):
appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself and
because he was an infinite person yet man
and he died upon that cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for every soul being
infinite in his being the value of that sacrifice reveals or would avail for
(17:40):
every soul we come to a car park like this,
and I away beyond the car park here to every home in Ballyclare town,
every home in County Antrim every soul we will see walking the streets of the
province here that we know so well and love for Christ's sake.
Way beyond it, go to China, go to the African bush, go to South America, whoever it might be.
(18:07):
Listen, dear friend, there's a sacrifice and the value of it would meet the
need of every single man and woman, boy and girl, if they would but come for
themselves and personally accept its worth.
Who here today has threw out the challenge?
Maybe after years of waiting, struggling, wondering,
doubting, will look to Calvary's blessed mount and look to the man that there
(18:31):
died for you and you'll say for the first time it is enough that Jesus died and rose again for me.
I want to tell you it was enough for God to somebody prove it.
Well, we read here that after he offered that one sacrifice for sins forever, what did he do?
(18:51):
He sat down at the right hand of God.
How do we know that that final sacrifice satisfied God?
How do we know that it worked? That's a question well worth asking.
As we read the accounts of the Gospels, and read of one who was crucified and
(19:13):
suffered for sinners, we read through the epistles and all the great doctrines of the cross,
how do we know at the end of the day that it's God's mind and will that that
be the center of his gospel.
Here, friend, the proof is this, that after he had died, laid his head voluntarily upon his breast.
(19:36):
Dismissed his spirit, having cried it is finished.
He was buried, and he lay in the tomb, in those hours, ever appointed hours.
There he lay in the darkness of the tomb, but on the third and appointed morning,
the blessed Saviour who had died for sinners, he arose, he arose out from amongst
(20:00):
the dead ones, conquering death in doing so, laying waste the power and the
empire, of Hades and the devil.
And there arose a mighty conqueror. And after those days he ascended from the Mount of Olives.
And men watched him. What a sight it must have been.
They watched him leave this planet of ours to which he had come in grace.
(20:24):
They watched him ascend into the sky till he was seen no more.
To somebody, where did he go? I tell you, dear friend, he went up and he went
up and he went up through the atmosphere.
Through the lairs that are celestial. Into heaven itself he passed the ranks
of angels, and archangels, and cherubim.
(20:46):
And he went up till he could go no higher.
He went to the very throne of God.
And I want to tell you with the Bible before me that the Savior,
he was crowned with thorns upon the tree.
He sat down at the right hand of God.
He couldn't sit any higher. And why did he sit down?
(21:08):
The point is he sat down because his work was done.
And God has shown to this whole world of ours his vindication of his son who was rejected here.
And he has put him on the pinnacle of glory. And through his word,
he wants every soul to hear announced in the gospel today, in this glorious
(21:31):
age that he's granted to us, in all his favor.
He wants us to look in the midst of all our sin and need, to look to the one
who sits at his own right hand, the one who died and rose again and is glorified.
And he says to every soul on the grounds of the righteous bases laid at Calvary,
(21:55):
any who will look to my son and trust their souls to him, I will save them and save them forever.
I will give them the sanctification that will stand permanently.
I will cleanse them. I will forgive them. I will give them a warm welcome back
from the dark paths of sin.
(22:17):
As soon as this meeting here closes in Ballyclare.
This has been a simple meeting really and we've been over the fundamental ground,
by and large we don't apologise for that but we're not here just to preach facts
some of you have known these facts since you were toddlers nearly the crying
(22:38):
out need of soul sitting in the car just now in Ballyclare,
isn't the assimilation of facts into your mind it's the obedience of your heart,
acting upon what you do know already ready, and before you is a choice for Christ
or the world, salvation or sin.
You can trust Him and be saved right now in that car seat where you sit,
(23:02):
and go on your way rejoicing down the road there,
or you can remain in your sins, unforgiven, uncleansed, still guilty,
and eventually face Face the consequences of them forever in hell.
For remember that while salvation is forever, hell is forever.
And so, the two ways are before you, each and every one.
(23:26):
I can't choose for you. Neither can your parents. Neither can the Christians.
As just now we bow our heads and commit the meeting to God in prayer,
I trust there will be some, simple and humble enough, to get to the cross.
Oh dear friend, get to the cross. us.
Get to the sacrifice of Christ.
(23:46):
Get to this man and trust him as your very own saviour. May it be so.
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