Let me read a portion from John chapter 5, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. Verse 24 is where I'll begin of John chapter 5. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man." his mediatorial office accomplished. Verse 28, Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. And as you know, that's speaking of the works of men, not as to what they earn for us, but as what they say about us. evidences of being united to Christ or those who are without Christ. Verse 30, I can of mine own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father, which has sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. He says, there is another that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. you sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth." That's John the Baptist. "'But I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say that you might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light, and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish I love that. I love how the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle to write it that way. The works which he hath given me not to do, we know it's a work that he had to do, but to finish, to complete, to bring to its completion. The same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me, and the Father himself which hath sent me hath borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape. and you have not his word abiding in you, for whom he hath sent him you believe not." Search the scriptures. Now the force of this construction of words here is you do search the scriptures. These were men who studied the Old Testament. So he's saying you do search the scriptures. For in them you think you have eternal life. and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me that you might have life. I receive not honor from men, but I know you that you have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?" May the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Now turn back in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 6. I want to read two verses from this passage that I'm going to use as my text to launch out on this subject. Out with the new, in with the old. And let me say this, just before I read this passage, when it comes to our salvation, we understand and know that we most certainly need all things new. Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away. It's our old connection with Adam and with sin. And behold, all things are become new. So there's no argument there. We need all things new. And even the prophet Jeremiah, he spoke in prophecy of the time of the new covenant, a better covenant fulfilled by the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he described it, he said that the Lord, the Lord speaking through Jeremiah said, I'll give you a new heart. We need a new heart. That's what salvation is in the spiritual realm. It's God, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit, giving us a new heart. That's a new way of thinking, a new way of being motivated, a new goal, a new love, the inner man, life from the dead. We need new life. He said, I'll put my spirit within you. And he spoke of things new. The new covenant. Now, what is the new covenant? Well, we know it's new only in time. In fact, the new covenant is the establishment of the everlasting covenant of grace in time. Christ came in time and fulfilled all that God had purposed in and by him before time. And that's an amazing thing, isn't it? The Scripture speaks of Christ being a new and living way. the way which he consecrated through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, so that we have free access unto the Father by Jesus Christ. The scriptures, when describing the new covenant as contrasted with the old covenant, speaks of that which has vanished away. That's the old. It's gone away. And now we have the new covenant established. So when it comes to salvation and our experience of it, we do need all things new. But here's what I'm going to deal with this morning, and this is what I want us to see. When it comes to the gospel, the gospel message, and evangelism, which is our theme, spreading the good news. We have to say, out with the new and in with the old. The old way. The old message. You know, the gospel is an eternal message. It's not something new. People in evangelism today, or what they call evangelism, are always trying to come up with new methods, new schemes, new ways, new messages. And it was just like in the days of Jeremiah the prophet. Here in this book, you know, Jeremiah was a prophet in the last days of Judah, the nation Judah, the southern kingdom, just prior and a little bit into the point of time where they were invaded by the Babylonian empire, and how they were conquered and taken into captivity in three ways. to be captive, held there for seventy years in Babylon. And Jeremiah, in essence, like all the prophets of God, played the part of an evangelist when he pointed the people away from their sin, away from their rebellion, and pointed them to God in line with the promise of a brighter future that would come through the Messiah. And here he gives them the remedy for the problem. Look at verse 16 of Jeremiah 6. Here's the remedy. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, that's the ways of God, and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein. What Jeremiah is saying is we've got to get back to the old way, the old paths, the good way. He's pointing them back to the time of their redemption out of Egypt and their establishment as a nation when God brought them to Sinai and gave them that covenant, that old covenant. But it even goes back further than that. The old paths. Well, the Scripture describes that old path in various ways, and one way is it's the narrow way that leads to salvation. The good way. What is the only good way to God? There's only one way to God. The only good way is the way of His grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Always has been, always will be. It hasn't changed. Jeremiah didn't preach one gospel and we preach another today. It's the same. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. He doesn't change. His way of salvation has never changed. He says, ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls. When I read that, I think about our Savior saying, Come unto me, all ye that are laboring or heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Christ is the believer's Sabbath, isn't He? Hebrews chapter 4. We rest eternally in Christ for all salvation. He is our Sabbath. Where are you going to find rest? Not in yourself. Not in your work. but only in Christ. And that's what Jeremiah the evangelist, Jeremiah the prophet evangelist, is saying to the people of his nation who are in abject rebellion. But look on in verse 16. It says, But they said, We will not walk therein. We're not going to walk in that way. They refused it. Verse 17, Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. That's the clarion call of the gospel that it says here. But they said, We will not hearken. We're not going to hear it. We refuse to hear it. Now, before we, in a self-righteous way, look down upon the people of the nation, We need to understand that those two statements, we will not walk therein, we will not hearken, also describes all of us by nature. Let me ask you the question, or you ask yourself this question. Are you walking in the old path? Do you believe the gospel of God's grace in Christ? Do you trust Christ for all salvation? the good way. Are you walking therein and finding rest for your soul? Are you? Am I? Well, if we are, as we look at the people of Judah who said, We will not, we will not, we will not walk there, we will not eat. Who made the difference between you and them? What made the difference? Well, we're Australian. We're American. I live in the Bible Belt in America. I've gone to church all my life. I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. They didn't. Now think about that. Who makes the difference? I'll tell you exactly who. You know who. It's the sovereign mercy of God alone that makes the difference between one who will not walk there and one who will not here and those who walk by faith in Christ and hear the gospel with joy and rest in Christ. God made the difference. Not you. Not me. I thought about this. The whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the book of Christ and the way of God's grace in Christ. That's what the whole Scripture is about. The scarlet thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation is the scarlet thread of the blood of Jesus Christ. And the main purpose of God in bringing the nation Israel together, now there are other purposes we could talk about but time won't allow, but the main purpose that God brought the nation together as a nation, established them as a nation and made that covenant was to do what? To bring Messiah through that nation according to the flesh. And none of God's purpose, none of God's purpose through that nation was dependent upon the people. If it had been dependent upon them, it would have failed miserably. But God fulfilled his purpose through that nation in spite of them. And Robert and I were talking about this this morning. I thought about that. Here's the first thought that come into my mind. Do you know that God saves all of us in spite of ourselves? Think about it. If God left it to me, where would I be? That's exactly right, lost. If God left it to you, if God said, now for five minutes, I'm going to make it all dependent upon what you do or what you don't do, we would be lost forever. So never, never think that any of the salvation that God has freely given and provided for us through Christ, the blessings that God has given and provided to us through Christ, never think that He gives them because we're such a good lot. Because we're not. We're not. And that shows us this, evangelism has always been essentially the same. It's never changed. Oh, there's a different time in the book of Jeremiah. Go back to the book of Genesis, chapter 3. It's a different time, different culture. But it's the same God of all grace, the God who created the world, as recorded in Genesis 1 and 2. And my friend, it's the same Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same gospel of God's grace. It's never changed, and it cannot be improved upon by men, by modern-day evangelists who are seeking a name for themselves or seeking a crown. In the Old Testament, as you know, when we see how Adam fell and brought the whole human family into sin and death. That's what the Scripture says. We fell in Adam. And as a result of our fall in Adam, we are all born in each successive generation dead in trespasses and sins. And that spiritual deadness may It may express itself in different ways, in different cultures. In some, it may express itself in abject rebellion against everything that is good and right, the immoral, the perverted. In others, it may express itself in the highness of human religion, like the Jews in some points of their history. But it's all spiritual death. And we have always needed, every human being has needed, every human being has, in every generation, has needed one thing for the salvation of our souls. And that's the sovereign mercy and grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's never changed. Think about this in two ways. First of all, most of the Old Testament is the recorded history of Israel during their 1,500-year period under the Old Covenant, Sinai to the cross. But what about before the Old Covenant? What about evangelism before the Old Covenant? Well, you know the story of Adam's fall is recorded here in Genesis 3, how he fell. How it says in verse 7, look at Genesis 3, 7, that when Adam took sides with Satan and his wife against God, it says, the eyes of them both were open. They knew that they were naked. And what did they do? They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Here they were in their nakedness and in their shame, in their guilt, now exposed to the wrath of God. And the fig leaf aprons, I believe they were literally fig leaf aprons, but I believe they represent something much greater, and that is man's efforts to cover himself from the wrath of God, to hide himself from God's judgment. And man ever since has sought thousands of ways, millions of ways to do that, whether it be in abject rebellion or religion. Many have just totally squelch the conscience that God has given every man. And just, we don't want to think about it. And whenever a preacher of the gospel or any communication of the Word of God comes to them, they just don't want to hear it. They're not interested. They're connected to the world. But it's still a fig leaf apron, isn't it? In some form or another. And then God pronounces three curses here in Genesis chapter three. He pronounces first the curse upon Satan, who appeared in the form of a serpent. And secondly, he pronounces the curse upon the woman. And then thirdly, the curse upon the man. But within the curse that he pronounced upon the serpent, he gives an evangelistic message. Look at verse fifteen. And this is probably the first proclamation of the gospel message that we find in the Bible. God said, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it, her seed, shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. That's a prophecy of Jesus Christ as the seed of woman. That's a prophecy of the Messiah who would come. and remedy the situation that Satan had brought in as condemnation. Satan brought in the condemnation of man by bringing sin into the world. And we know it was all well within the purpose and the predestinating purpose of Almighty God. This was the plan all along. You see, God is not a God of second plans, plan B. You know, well, look at what Adam did. Now I've got to figure out another way. Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Paul spoke of a salvation that was given us, meaning God's elect, in Jesus Christ before the world began. Isn't that amazing? Doesn't that just well up within your soul a confidence in Almighty God, a trust in Him, a gratitude? And here he brings it about. He says, someone is coming. I'm going to bring someone into the world who is both God and man. He's the state of woman. That speaks of his humanity, his holy humanity. Not born of man like you and me, but born of woman without sin. And that man is going to do a work, that God-man, that Messiah is going to do a work that none other can do. He's going to bruise the head of the serpent. He's going to reverse this. He's going to bring about salvation for his people. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And how is he going to accomplish this? We'll look over in verse 20. It says here in verse 20, and Adam called his wife's name Eve. Have you ever noticed when you read the first three chapters of Genesis that Eve was not named Eve until this point? You know what her name was before this? Woman. Esha. She wasn't named Eve until after the promise of Messiah, because you know what Eve means? Look in your concordance there. It means mother of all living. You see, if there had not been the promise of Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, she could not have been the mother of all living. She would have just been the mother of all the dead. Because there is no life, spiritual, eternal life without Christ. And so Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And look at verse 21. And unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothing. That's how Christ is going to accomplish the salvation of his people. How do you make coats of skin? You've got to slay an animal. I believe it was a lamb, Robert, because the next thing you see is Abel bringing a lamb. And Christ is the Lamb of God. But he slew an animal. Without the shedding of blood, there's what? No remission, no forgiveness of sin. Remember, he had already told Adam in Genesis chapter 2, in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die, or literally, dying thou shalt die. The wages of sin is death. Salvation cannot be accomplished except in the death of a suitable God-appointed, God-sent substitute. Who is he? He's the seed of woman, he's Messiah, he's God in human flesh, and he's going to die as the substitute and the surety of his people and accomplish redemption, accomplish salvation. He's going to bring in an everlasting righteousness of infinite value which God will freely account to his people, and Satan cannot touch that. In fact, if you look over in Revelation 12, we won't turn there, when Satan accuses the brethren, how do they turn him back? By pleading the blood of the Lamb. That's interesting, isn't it? That's more than interesting, it's overwhelming. You see, you don't turn back Satan by bringing in a guy with a funny collar and some holy water. You don't turn back Satan by trying to be a good person. Should you try to be a good person? We all should. Listen, there's not one of us in here who shouldn't try much harder than we do to be the best people we can be. But that's not how you turn back Satan and his accusations. It's always by pleading the blood of the Lamb. Why in the world would I want to plead before holy God anything of me or from me when I can plead the righteousness of his Son? What arrogance it would be. Think about those false preachers in Matthew 7. Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Why would I want... I've preached in His name. I'm preaching in His name now. But I don't want to plead that before holy God. I want to plead Christ. You see the difference? Christ is my hope. Christ is my salvation. Christ is my forgiveness. Christ is my righteousness. Christ is my life. And it's always been the same. Look at Genesis chapter 4 and verse 1. Adam knew Eve, his wife, she conceived, there came and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. Many commentators believe that Eve at that time thought that this baby was the one promised in Genesis 3, 15. And that may have been so, I don't know. Doesn't matter, it wasn't true. But in essence, it shows if that were true, it shows that Eve was looking for Messiah. And I believe Adam and Eve are the ones who taught these boys the gospel and of course we know Cain rejected it. It says in verse two she again bear his brother Abel and Abel was a keeper of the sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground. In process of time it came to pass that Cain brought her the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect." And Cain was very wroth. He was angry. His countenance fell. You could see it in his face. He was angry. He couldn't hide it. Why? Why, Lord, would you not accept Cain's offering? My Sunday school teachers back in Kentucky would tell you this, well, Cain just wasn't sincere. Cain just, you know, he just, it was just religion to him. Well, how do they know that? It doesn't say that here. The only difference that I see between Cain and Abel up to this time is one had blood, the other didn't. What was the difference? The blood, which was a type, a picture of Messiah, the Lamb of God. Abel believed the gospel. He believed the evangelistic message of God's grace, how God justifies the ungodly, how God makes a sinner righteous before Him, not through his works, not through his efforts, not through the sweat of his brow. but through the blood of the crucified." And Cain didn't believe him. The Lord told Cain, he says in verse 7, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. What is it to do well in the context of Genesis chapter 4? It's to bring the blood. It's to believe in Christ. You realize if you don't have Christ, if you don't trust in Him, nothing you do is well in the sight of God as far as salvation is concerned. It's all evil in the sight of God. He told Cain there in verse 7, he said, and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall his desire be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. What he's saying there is this. If you reject God's way of salvation by grace through the blood of the Lamb, the blood of Messiah, the righteousness of God in Christ, if you reject that, then sin is lying at your door like a hungry lion just waiting to pounce upon you, and you've got to deal with it. It's your problem now. You don't have a remedy. You don't have a Savior. That's the evangelistic message, folks, to people today. We're sinners, and we cannot remedy the problem, can we? Religion won't do it. Ignoring it certainly won't do it. Man has no solutions. There's only one way of salvation. It's the way that Abel went. It's the way of grace. It's the way of mercy. It's the way of the blood. It's the way of righteousness in Christ. And if you don't come to Him and throw yourself at His feet and beg for mercy, then you have to deal with it and it will overcome you. That's the evangelistic message right here in Genesis 3 and 4, isn't it? And it doesn't change. Incidentally, it's very common in our country now when people speak of the union between Christians and Jews. I don't know if that's caught on over here yet that much, but to have the union of Christians and Jews. And listen to me now. I thank God for the Jewish people. Paul dealt with that in Romans, didn't he? You know how we Gentiles who know the Gospel, we're never to be arrogant and proud as if God owed it to us or we deserved it. No, no, no. I thank God for the Jewish nation. He used Israel to bring our Savior through according to the flesh. But it's common for many of them to make this statement, Christianity has its roots in Judaism. Have you heard that? They'll say, no it doesn't. Christianity was in effect long before Judaism. Abel was a Christian. So how can that be? Christ had not yet come. Well, here it is. He had not yet come in time, but he was there, wasn't he? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today. In fact, if you want to be technical, Judaism really was a perversion of Christianity. Paul summed it up in Romans 9 when he spoke about Israel seeking righteousness by works of the law. They didn't find it. They stumbled at that stumbling stone, that rock of offense. Who is that stumbling stone? Who is that rock of offense? Christ is. And he came along and he looked at him and he said, all your efforts to make yourself righteous before God are up to no avail. You must fall at the feet of Christ and beg for mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now, I'm certainly not going to try to go through the whole Old Testament this morning, and I think you will thank me for that. At least Robert will, I know. But anyway, it's the same all the way through. When God brought the Israelites, he made promise to Abraham first, Genesis chapter 12. And then about 400 years after that, he brought the Hebrews out of Egypt, redemption by power, that's what that was. He brought them and kept them together in his sovereign power and providence. He brought them over the Red Sea, you remember that. And even before that with the ten plagues of Egypt, which represent God's judgment upon the lost, rebellious world by men by nature. And then you have the beautiful type of the Passover lamb. That's evangelism, isn't it? Who is that Passover lamb? Christ is our Passover lamb. Isn't that right? I had a dear friend. I had a dear friend who, he and his wife, began at some point in their lives by the providence of God to search in religion And of course, he came up empty. That's the way it is with God's elect. We'll search for a while, but we'll always come up empty until God brings us to Christ. We hunger and thirst after righteousness, and that hunger and thirst will not be fulfilled until we find Christ. Isn't that right? That's the way God works with his elect. And this man and his wife, they were searching in religion and found no peace, found no help, came up empty. And so he decided, he said, well, I'm just going to start reading through the Bible. Started Genesis. And he began to read and read and read. And he got up through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And finally, one day he turned to his wife and he said, honey, he said, according to this book, we ought to be out here sacrificing lambs. And I want you to think about this. This is amazing. On the same weekend that he made that statement to his wife, he turned on the television Sunday morning and Brother Henry Mahan come on. And you know what the title of his message was? Behold, the Lamb of God. It was David. And he said, he liked to fell back in his chair. He said, I've never heard anything like this. He said, I've got to hear more. And he started coming to Thirteenth Street Baptist Church, and in the process, the Lord brought him to a saving knowledge of Christ. And that's when this whole evangelistic Old Testament opened up to him. And he saw Christ in His glory, the Lamb of God, who beareth away the sin of the world. You know, turn to Galatians chapter 3, and I'll close with this. And the man became a preacher of the gospel, too. The Lord called him to the ministry. You know, throughout the Old Testament, we read of the sins, the idolatry, the rebellion and unbelief of Israel against the truth that God had given them. And in spite of all the temporal ceremonial blessings God had bestowed upon them, In their beginning, you know, in Israel's beginning, God described them this way. He said, you're a stiff-necked people. They won't bow. They won't obey. He called them impotent children and stiff-hearted. He said this, he said, you're even worse than Sodom and Samaria. Can you imagine telling the prophet having to stand up before the people of Israel and say, you're worse than Sodom and Samaria. Isaiah made the statement, he said, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a sea, we'd be just like Sodom, totally wiped out. But thank God, he has a remnant. And what's different about that remnant? Well, that's the people in Rye, Australia, and they're just better, you know. I mean, what can I say? They're better than the rest of them. You know better than that, don't you? They're a remnant according to the election of grace. Grace, grace, grace. And when Christ came into the world, it's recorded, He came unto His own and His own received Him not. You see, when I look at my life as a believer, I have to say, Lord God, why me? I know this, there was absolutely no reason in me for God to choose me, to redeem me, or to save me. Because when I read about Israel being a stiff-necked people, I want to put the name Bill Parker in there. No better off than Sodom, I want to put Bill Parker in there because I know who I am. And so we ask ourselves this question, why was the law given? Look at verse 19 of Galatians chapter 3. Paul writes, Wherefore then serveth the law? Why was the law given? If the law can't save us, if the law cannot make us righteous, if the law cannot forgive our sins, why was it even given? Well, here's the answer. It was added because of transgression. God wanted to show them and us that we are a sinful people. And it was added till the seed should come to whom promise was made. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. The law was given to expose our sinfulness, to expose their sinfulness and bring them to look to Christ for all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all righteousness, for all eternal life, for all glory. And all through the law there were types and shadows and pictures and prophecy that continually, in the evangelistic way, pointed sinners to Christ. Not to themselves, not to Sinai, not to Moses, but to Christ. And it was always that way. Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 6, he spoke of a better hope for the future. That was Christ and the righteousness he would brought in. You remember the two passages, Jeremiah 23, when he called him Jehovah Sid Canu, the Lord our righteousness. And the same prophecy in Jeremiah 33, 15 and 16, when he showed the union of Christ's people with him. We took our husband's name, the Lord our righteousness. You see, the hope of the future in the Old Testament was never, never in a better class of people raised up in the future. It was always in Christ, the better Messiah, the better covenant, the better promises, theme of the book of Hebrews. And Israel in the Old Testament, just like today, the vast majority of the nation remained lost in self-righteous works, religion and unbelief. But just like then and just like today, through the evangelistic preaching of the gospel, God has a remnant according to the election of grace. How could we ever thank Him for making us a part of that remnant? It's amazing, isn't it? Lord, we thank You for Your blessings of grace and mercy in Christ. for all that he accomplished to save us from our sins. We pray this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.