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It's good to hear the words of
testimony. As we mentioned last night, the
great American preacher, Dr. Reuben Archer Torrey, R.A. Torrey, he was a lawyer and he
used to say it was great when he was able to bring on the witnesses
in a court case and have the witnesses tell the story and
tell it, as we would say today, like it is. And thank God for
those who have witnessed tonight for the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Now, I don't know about you,
but when I was at school, I wasn't really into English literature
or certainly not into the works of William Shakespeare. But one
quote I always remember from William Shakespeare was, to be
or not to be, that is the question. And the great question of life,
as we are here in the gospel mission, is this. To be a Christian
or not to be a Christian, that is the question. That is the
question that really matters, dear friend. Do you know the
Lord Jesus Christ as your own and personal Savior? Can you
say, Thank God I am saved. I have been born again of the
Holy Spirit. I have had my sins washed away
through the precious blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Or would you have to say, sadly,
I am not a Christian? Now, the sad thing about the
society in which we live and the world in which we live today
is that oftentimes people do not really know exactly what
a Christian is. We are told, well, we were born
into a Christian country. We're told we're born into a
Christian home. Or they said we attend a Christian
church. I was thinking about when people
say we're born into a Christian country. I attended a meeting
yesterday of the Christian Institute, a public meeting. And that organisation
was telling us that in Great Britain, in one town, the council
prohibited a fish and chip shop being opened beside a school
because they said they were concerned of the number of children who
are obese. And so they would not allow a
fish and chip shop to be opened beside the school. But yet in
another town, a sex shop was opened right beside a school. And it makes you wonder just
what people are thinking about. So when we are told we are born
into a Christian country, sometimes we wonder and we realize that
oftentimes in these years in which we live, people refer to
our country and refer to us living in the United Kingdom in a post-Christian
era. And I think that is very, very
true in many respects. Someone said their attend a Christian
church was a great old Church of England bishop. He used to
preach at the Keswick Convention. And he used to say, you know,
if you ask anyone in England Are they a Christian? He says,
they immediately tell you, I am C of E. In other words, that
they belong to the Church of England. But he said, what they
really mean is they attend Christmas and Easter. And that's about
it. And so, it's no use saying, well,
I am born in a Christian country or I attend a Christian church.
As a Uyghur said one night in one of our meetings, he said,
you could be born in the garage, but that doesn't make you a motor
car. And we need to be saved. And we were reading there from
the epistle to the Hebrews about the faith of some of God's chosen
people. But there's a verse over there
in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8, and it sums it all up like
this. For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God, and the following verse
says, not of works, lest any man should boast. So when we
are thinking tonight on to be a Christian or not to be a Christian,
that is the question. We are reminded by the Apostle
Paul that it is by grace we are saved. It is through faith It
is not of ourselves. It is the free gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. Now, in the Bible, from
the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, there are two
lines. There is the line that teaches
us of God's sovereignty, that salvation is by the grace of
God. O, the love that sought me! O, the grace that brought me! O, the grace that brought me
to the fold! Salvation is my grace. The Bible says, Salvation is
of the Lord, and the preparation of the heart belongeth unto God. But running parallel with that
line of teaching throughout the Word of God that salvation is
by grace, the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through
faith. And you have the line of God's
sovereignty on one hand, and you have human responsibility
on the other hand. Now, to go back again to school,
You may remember that we are taught that parallel lines meet
in infinity. If you were to stand on a railway
track and stand between the lines, you would see those two lines.
They're parallel lines. But if you were to look away
toward the horizon, it would appear that those lines actually
meet in infinity. We are finite. We cannot understand
all things. But, thank God, in the infinite
mind of God our Creator and our Savior, the lines of God's sovereignty
and human responsibility meet. And it is our duty as a preacher
to preach the Word of God. And when the Word of God emphasizes
the sovereignty of God, we must emphasize it. And when the Word
of God emphasizes the responsibility of man, we must emphasize that
responsibility. For as I was reading that passage
in Hebrews, it amazed me how the lines of God's sovereignty
and human responsibility meet in the circumstances of these
Bible characters. And they give a picture to you
and to me tonight of what a Christian is. Now, the first person we
read about was the man of God called Noah in Hebrews chapter
11 and verse 7. And the Bible says, By fear,
Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved
with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the
which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness
which is And I want you to notice that a Christian, men and women,
is a person who escapes the inescapable. That is what the Bible teaches
us here about Noah. A Christian escapes the inescapable. The Bible tells us in the book
of Genesis, when God looked down from heaven upon the children
of men, He saw that the imagination of their heart was only evil
continually. And God said, I will destroy
man whom I have created. And so the judgment went out
from God. And God said, I am going to destroy
man from all the face of the earth. Because the only thoughts,
the imagination of his heart, was to do evil continually. But the Bible says in Genesis
chapter 6, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And
here in Hebrews chapter 11, the Bible says, By faith Noah prepared
an ark. So you have the grace of God
and you have the faith of Noah. And when those two things come
together, thank God, you see a picture of a Christian. You
see a picture of a saved man, a man who escaped the inescapable
wrath of Almighty God. Dear friend, the Bible reminds
us that the wages of sin is death. The Bible says, The soul that
sinneth, it shall die. The Bible says, For all of us
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the Scripture
says, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and the nations that
forget God. So the Bible says there is a
coming day of wrath. God has put a rainbow in the
sky after the shower of rain to remind us that never again
will He destroy this world by a flood. But He tells us there
in the epistles that one day He will destroy the world by
fire. There is going to be a judgment,
a fiery judgment to come. And men and women need to be
ready. How can they escape the inescapable wrath of God. Because the Bible says, Because
there is wrath, beware, lest he take thee away with his stroke,
and a great ransom cannot deliver thee. We escaped the wrath of
God, the judgment of God in a Christless eternity by grace and through
faith. Noah escaped the inescapable. Noah found grace in the eyes
of God. And by the grace of God, Noah
was warned of God, of things not seen as yet. And by faith
and with fear, godly fear, he prepared an ark. He saved his
household. And in doing so, he condemned
the ungodly world around him. And he became an heir of the
righteousness which is by faith. Dear friend, in this Gospel mission,
and in many other meetings and many other missions, you have
been experiencing the grace of God. The Bible teaches us about
the common grace of God. And you have known that the grace
of God even a better measure and a fuller measure in being
warned of God through the preaching of God's Word that you are a
sinner, but that Christ died for sinners and that He is able
to save sinners. So a Christian is a person who
escapes the inescapable. Not because he is better than
anyone else. Not because he goes to a particular
church or has been baptized. but because he has experienced
the grace of God and through faith he has trusted Christ. Then we read about Abraham. And
the Bible tells us that by faith Abraham, when he was called to
go out into a place which he should after receive for inheritance,
he obeyed. And then in verse 17 of Hebrews
it says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac.
And he that had received the promises offered up his only
begotten son. Verse 19, accounting that God
was able to raise him up even from the dead. From whence also
he received him in a figure. See, a Christian is one who escapes
the inescapable. And he is one who believes the
unbelievable. It had never been heard of that
God could raise the dead. But Abraham, who was a pagan,
heathen idolater, worshiping the sun and the moon and the
stars, The godly Stephen, when he was being martyred and he
preached the Word of God, he made a defense before the council,
he said in the book of Acts, the God of glory appeared unto
our father Abraham. That is the grace of God. God
spoke to Abraham. God said, Leave your father's
house. Leave her of the Chaldees and
go into a land that I will show you that you will afterward receive
for an inheritance. That was the grace of God in
Abraham's life. And thank God for the faith that
Abraham exhibited. By faith, he obeyed God. And when he was tried, And God
said to him, Abraham, rise up early, take your son, your only
son Isaac, go to Mount Moriah and then offer him as a sacrifice
on the altar. Abraham believed that should
he offer his son, the one who was the heir of the promises,
because God said, Abraham, I'm going to make of you a great
nation. Abraham, your seed shall be as the sand of the seashore,
as the stars of the heavens. And Abraham believed, therefore,
if this son of mine, this son Isaac, who was given to me by
God, if I slay him on the altar, God will raise him up. He believed
the unbelievable and he received him in a figure. Because do you
remember, as Abraham and Isaac made their way up the Mount Moriah,
Isaac looked to his father and he said, Father, you've got the
fire and we've got the wood, but where is the lamb? And by faith, Abraham said, My
son, God shall provide himself a lamb. And when he laid his
son upon the altar, and when he took the knife to slay his
son, God spoke to him again. And he turned and he saw a ram
caught in a thicket. Interestingly enough, the word
thicket is the word thornbush. And it was caught by the head
by the thorns. just picturing, symbolizing,
pointing to one who would come, the Lamb of God, who would wear
a crown of thorns, who would be God's perfect Lamb. Because
when Abraham went up Mount Moriah, a Lamb was provided. But when God took His Son to
the sea of mountain rage, to a hill crag called Calvary, There
was no other Lamb. There was no other way. The Lord
Jesus, He was the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of
the world. And Abraham and Isaac climbed
that mountain. In the climax of that hour, as
they stood there and then slew the Lamb and offered the Lamb
as a sacrifice upon the altar, they could see the cross They
look through, as one old preacher said, the telescope of faith.
Just as we look back, they look forward to Calvary. So a Christian escapes the inescapable. He believes the unbelievable
that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary,
took upon Himself the sin of the world, dealt with it and
rose again for our justification the third day according to the
Scriptures. Why is the resurrection so much
attacked in these days in which we live? Because men won't believe
the Word of God. And then we read about Moses
in verse 27. It says that Moses... 24 rather, Moses, when he was come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach
of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. And the
Bible says there in verse 27, By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, as seeing him
who is invisible." You see, the child of God, the Christian,
escapes the inescapable. He believes the unbelievable
and he sees the invisible. Moses, one day, out in the backside
of the desert, he saw a sight, a bush that was burning but was
not consumed. And there you have the grace
of God appearing to Moses in the bush. God was there in the
backside of the desert in that bush that was burning, that was
not consumed. But Moses, the Bible says in
Exodus, he turned aside to see that great sight. So you have
the grace of God on one hand and you have the faith of Moses
on the other hand. And Moses endured. He delivered
the people. He went before Pharaoh. He led
them through the time of the plagues. He led them in the night
of the Passover under the blood. He led them through the Red Sea. He led them through the wilderness.
He endured a seeing Him who is invisible. How do Christians
endure in this world? And the Bible says, He that endureth
to the end shall be saved. How do they endure? They endure
by faith. They see Him who is invisible. By the night we were saved, we
knelt by faith at the old rugged cross of Calvary. And we received
the Lord Jesus as our Savior. And that is our Lord. And we
endure as seeing Him who is invisible. And then finally, you will notice
we read about verse 30 about the walls of Jericho. We are
reading now about Joshua. It says, By faith the walls of
Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. And I want you to notice the
Christian escapes the inescapable, the wrath of God, and thank God
for that. They believe the unbelievable,
that the Lord Jesus died for them, that He dealt with their
sins, that He rose again, that He ascended to the right hand
of the Majesty on high, and that He is coming back again in power
and in great glory. They see the invisible, They
put their trust in Christ day by day. They have faith in God. But you will notice they achieve
the impossible. Jericho was a walled city. And when Joshua and the children
of Israel came, God, by His grace, He told them, to compass the
city about seven days. Just as God gave to Noah the
plan for the ark and told him to prepare an ark. Just as God
spoke to Abraham to offer up Isaac. Just as God spoke to Moses
at the burning bush, God spoke to Joshua. Compass the city once
every day. And then on the seventh day,
seven times. And you can just imagine the
jeering, the scoffing of the people of Jericho as they looked
over the city's walls and they saw this army marching round
and round. Oh, we are in Jericho. This is an impregnable city. And God says, Joshua, walk round
it. every day and seven times on
the seventh day. And then get the priests to blow
the trumpets, give a shout and go forth. And the walls of Jericho
fell down. And God's people took the city.
God in grace told Joshua what to do. And by faith, Joshua led
the children of Israel and the priests round and round and round
the city of Jericho. And the more they went round
the city of Jericho, the more they realized it will only be
God who can give this city into our hands. We could never take
it by ourselves. It is an impossibility. But they achieved the impossible. They won the victory by grace
and by faith. And I often tell that to people
when people come and say, you know, I would love to be a Christian,
but I don't think I could keep it. No, you couldn't keep it.
But by the grace of God and by faith, the Lord will keep you. Some people say, I don't think
I could get the victory over the habits of a lifetime. I don't
think I could break free from a habit that has chained me all
my life. But dear friend, by faith and
by the grace of God, you can achieve the impossible. That's
why men and women are amazed oftentimes that men and women
who are addicted, whether it be to drugs, or to drink or to
anything else. And they've tried this program,
that program and the other program to try and break free their addiction. But they hear the gospel and
they hear about Jesus, who is mighty to save, who is the delivering
one, who can set them free. And they kneel at a pew. And
they ask the Lord Jesus to take away their sin, to come into
their heart and life, to make them a child of God. And I have
seen it in days gone by. And a drunkard can rise from
his knees as sober as a judge and never touch another drop
of drink by the grace of God and through faith. Dear friend,
are you a Christian? Have you experienced the grace
of God many, many times? You have heard the Word of God.
You have been told a way of salvation. You have been told to put your
faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church cannot
save. Your good works cannot save.
We have read that in the Word of God tonight in Ephesians 2,
8 and 9. Your good living cannot save. Your charitable giving
cannot save. Your baptism, your confirmation,
any other ceremony of man cannot save. But, thank God, Jesus saves. Somebody once said that that
little word, grace, it speaks of God's riches at Christ's expense. That God in His grace gives us
all the riches of glory in Christ and that Christ prayed for our
sin at the cross of Calvary. And the little word faith means
forsaking all I trust or I take Him as my own and personal Savior. Friend, if you do not know Christ,
then tonight you can come and you can leave this meeting rejoicing
that hell you will never see, that you will get the victory
over sin and the world and the evil, by grace and through faith,
that you will endure even to the end as seeing him by faith,
who is invisible through his divine grace. Friend, will you
come and put your trust and your faith in my Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ? Reverend Saldo, I bring a meeting
to a close.
To Be A Christian Or Not To Be A Christian - That is The Question ?
Series Gospel Mission 2010
| Sermon ID | 1119101932242 |
| Duration | 30:21 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 11 |
| Language | English |
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