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I'm going to ask you tonight
to turn, please, to the Old Testament Scriptures. It's 1 Samuel, chapter
20. 1 Samuel and the 20th chapter. A very short reading tonight. Just the first three verses of
this chapter. 1 Samuel, chapter 20, and verses
1, 2, and 3. The first three verses of 1 Samuel
and the 20th chapter. 1 Samuel chapter 20, and the first
three verses, please. The Word of God records it, and
David fled from Nioth and Ramoth, and came and said before Jonathan,
what have I done? What is mine iniquity? And what
is my sin before thy father that he seeketh my life? And he, that
is Jonathan, said unto him, David, God forbid thou shalt not die. Behold, my father will do nothing,
either great or small, but that he will show it me. And why should
my father hide this thing from me? It is not so. And David swear
moreover and said, thy father certainly knoweth. that I have
found grace in thine eyes. And he saith, Let not Jonathan
know this, lest he be grieved. But truly, as the Lord liveth,
and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and
death. There is but a step between me
I want to speak tonight for a little while upon this text and our
title for this message tonight very simply, The Near Room to
Death. The Near Room to Death. Let's pray together and ask the
Lord by His Spirit to speak to hearts. Let's of all of God's
people praying, and maybe you've never prayed for a long, long
time, let's pray that the Spirit of God will come tonight. Solemn
message. And I trust that the Lord will
write it upon our hearts and it will come with the spirit
with which it is intended. Let's pray together. Father,
we thank Thee tonight, Lord, for another opportunity to meet
together around the Word of God. We thank Thee, O God, tonight
for Thy people and for all who have gathered into this place.
And Lord, we have come just to sit at Thy feet and we pray now
that the Spirit of God will come and open our hearts and write
the Word of God upon our very souls tonight. Thank You, Lord,
for the ministry and song. We thank Thee for these wonderful
hymns that we have heard. And Lord, it's a wonderful blessing
to know that the God of heaven invites us to come. just as we
are, just the way we are, and to experience the freeness of
God's salvation. Thank Thee tonight for Thy love,
for Thy mercy, for Thy grace, and for this wonderful plan of
salvation, for a wonderful Savior. And Lord, we pray tonight that
we might see Him in all of His fullness and majesty, and that
You'll bring us all to His feet. Hear and answer prayer, and grant
now the help of heaven, the infilling of the Spirit of God. Hide me,
Lord, behind the cross. Glorify thy Son, and receive
all honor, praise, and glory in the salvation of precious
souls. We humbly pray with thanksgiving in the Savior's precious and
worthy name. Amen. 1 Samuel chapter 20, David's
life has been under threat now for quite some time at the hands
of King Saul. And what a tragic story the story
of the life of Saul is. Here's a man who lost the blessing
of God in his life. Here was a man raised up with
great privilege and great responsibility, a man with tremendous influence
and ability, the anointing of God upon his life, and yet he
became consumed with the spirit of envy, became full of pride
and jealousy and covetousness, jealous over the blessing of
God in the life of David, and Saul tragically forfeited the
blessing of God in his life. There's scarcely anything worse
than a root of bitterness springing up within a person's life. Saul
was a man who became consumed with bitterness and with envy
and with greed and lust and jealousy, and he forfeited the blessing
of God simply out of a root of bitterness. And the great tragedy
is that Saul ended his life and a suicide's grief. What an awful
tragedy the life of Saul is. The Bible reminds us that sin
can bring us into so much bondage. And here's a man who was bound
and fettered by sin and rage and jealousy and covetousness. And he proved the truth of the
hymns. Sin will take you further than you want to go, slowly but
wholly taking control. Sin will keep you longer than
you want to stay. And sin can cost you far, far
more than you ever want to pay. Scarcely anything worse than
knowing in your heart of heart that you've lost out with God
and you've lost the blessing of God in your life and somehow
you never seem to regain it at all and you never seem to get
it back again. Controversy has raged as to whether
or not Saul will be in heaven. Many people for generations have
been asking that question. Was Saul a true believer? Was
Saul really saved? Will we see Saul in heaven? Well,
the Bible doesn't maybe answer these questions. And there are
some things that we are not to know the side of heaven, some
things that we're not to delve into. Suffice to say that the
Bible exhorts each and every one of us, rather than looking
at others and wondering about their salvation, the Bible calls
us to examine ourselves and to search our own hearts and to
make our calling and our election sure. But at any rate, God's
servant David is very, very conscious of the frailty of life of the
brevity of life, of the fragility of life. And so he comes one
day to his best friend Jonathan and pours out his heart before
Jonathan and says concerning Saul, what have I done? What
is mine iniquity? And what is my sin before thy
father that he seeketh my life? And Jonathan tries to reassure
him. But David has no confidence in
Jonathan's reassurances. And so he says at the end of
verse number three, there is but a step, just a step between
me and death. You know, on the 1st of October
1975, Joe Fraser and Muhammad Ali,
the two best and most famous boxers of their day and generation,
were to meet together for the third and final time in the confines
of a boxing ring in the city of Manila in the Philippines.
The fight was billed a thriller in Manila, and certainly it lived
up to its name. It was one of the most aggressive
boxing matches of that decade. And Joe Frazer and Muhammad Ali
fought in the blistering heat of that afternoon, the Thrilla
in Manila. Such was the veracity of that
boxing match that at the end of the 14th round, Joe Frazer
could hardly see. He could hardly function. He
could hardly think straight. But he was adamant that he was
going to go out into the 15th round. The judges had the scorecards
almost equal. And Joe Fraser stood up, but
his manager, Eddie Fudge, put his hand on Joe Fraser's shoulder
and said, sit down, son. It's over. But nobody will forget
what you did here tonight. But they did not realize that
in the far corner of the ring, Cassius Clay, or Muhammad Ali,
was speaking to his manager, Angelo Dundee, and saying, cut
off my gloves. I'm through. And then whenever
they realized that the far corner had thrown the towel in, Ali
raised his hands in victory. But after the fight, he said,
I've never felt so close to death. in all my life. As he did, entering
into the end of that 14th round, he felt surely that another three
minutes would usher him from this world into the next. And
he said, during that fight, I was in the near room to death. the near room to death. And dear
friends tonight, I just want to take that simple phrase, the
near room to death, and draw a few simple parallels from it
as we consider the word of God this evening. Because the reality
is that in this life, in this world, there's just a very small
and thin veil that separates us from eternity. We're all tonight
in a departure lounge. We're all tonight in the near
room to death, and over the last fortnight or so, I've become
more acutely aware of the reality of death. It seems that death
is never far away from us, and even the royal family sadly have
been plunged into the reality of bereavement as well, and many
other young families also that we have heard about even this
afternoon, and how tragic it can be for many, the near room
to death. First of all, our text simply
says, there is a step between me and death. There is but a
step, but a step, just one step between me and death. God's servant David is very acutely
aware that at any given moment he can leave this world and go
out into the next. David is acutely aware that his
soul at any moment can leave the body and he's thinking that
that most likely will happen at the hands of Saul. Have you
ever thought about your soul? Have you ever wondered what it
is that keeps body and soul together? We have just one free life, one
short life, and within your free, within your earthly tent or tabernacle,
there is an eternal, never-dying soul, and that's the very principle
of life. And whenever God made you and
created you and brought your body together and put a soul
within your body, that principle of life, that soul will live
for all eternity. And if you ever wonder tonight
or thought about your soul, what is it? that keeps your body and
your soul together. I tell you tonight, it's nothing
more and it's nothing less than the grace of Almighty God. There's nothing that keeps soul
and body together, W.P. Nicholson used to say, other
than the skin on your ribs. There's just a step here, David
says, between me and death. And as we think for a few moments
tonight about death, I want to mention the conspiracy The conspiracy
about death. You say tonight, well what do
you mean by that? I mean tonight that there is
a conspiracy of silence about death. A conspiracy of silence
about death. Nobody seems to want to talk
about death. It seems like such a dark and
a morbid subject. Why would you want to talk about
death? Why in a gospel mission like
this we've thought in nights gone by about the grace of God,
the love of God, the person of Jesus Christ, that He's able
to meet us at the point of need and satisfy the longing within
our hearts? Well, then why would you change
from subjects like that and focus on a mission and a meeting like
this upon that awful subject of death? Nobody really wants
to talk about death. Nobody wants to consider what
it actually is. You know, it's an amazing thing
that in this world of ours, there's no given definition in science
as to what life actually is. And by the same token, nobody
really seems to understand what death is. The Bible says that
death is whenever the soul leaves the body. It's not annihilation. It's not a cessation of existence. It's but a door that leads us
from this life and from this world into the world to come.
Nobody wants to consider what death is. Nobody wants to consider
why death happens. Have you ever wondered why is
there such a thing as death? And why is it that nobody seems
to have cheated death? We get to 70 or 80 or 90 years,
or some reach 100, but very few seem to go on beyond that. Why
is that? Why is it that we're not living
in a generation where people live to 500 or 600 years of age? And how come nobody ever seems
to cheat death? Why is it that we die? The Bible
says it's because of sin. The wages of sin is death, spiritual
death, physical death, and tragically for some, Eternal death as well. Few people like to consider what
death is, why it happens, and then what happens in the life
thereafter. And maybe tonight you're afraid
to think about death. Maybe tonight you're afraid to
talk about death. That's why whenever we leave
meetings like this and we've been confronted with time and
eternity and the reality of the soul and the reality of death
and the reality of a judgment, we don't like to be alone with
our own thoughts. We turn on the radio or the CD
player or the MP3 player in the car. We go into our homes, we
lift our phones, we check our tablets, we go on to social media. Some will turn on the television.
And we always need to have background noise and stimulants and amusement. Do you know what the word amusement
actually means? The word muse means to think. The little letter A put on before
it is a negative prefix which means not. So the word amuse
means not to think. And we live in a world where
we're consumed by amusement because we don't like to think about
the things that really matter. Because sometimes whenever we're
alone and it's a sleepless night and we can't sleep, we begin
to think about our mortality. We begin to think about our past.
We begin to think about this old loneliness and this emptiness
that's inside. We maybe wonder where we're going
and we can't bear to be alone with thoughts like that. So we
choose rather not to think and we choose rather to be amused. Death somehow seems to be a taboo
subject. We will talk about life, but
we will not talk about death. Well, we're going to talk about
it a little bit tonight, the conspiracy about death. That
leads us tonight to think about the certainty of death. Death
is no respecter of persons. Death is the most democratic
thing in all the world. There are many things tonight
that you and I will never get to experience. I don't think
I'll ever set foot in the White House. I don't think I'll ever
set foot out of a spacecraft and stand on the moon or on Mars
as we're trying to do now. I don't think I'll ever get to
meet some of the world's great leaders. I don't think I'll ever
know what it is tonight to be a millionaire. I don't think
I'll ever know tonight what it is to be a great business tycoon. I don't think tonight I'll ever
be good at very many things and rise to a place of fame and prosperity
in the eyes of the world. But one thing I will get to experience
is death. It's the most democratic thing
tonight in all the world. Now, George Bernard Shaw, the
Irish playwright and author, was certainly not a Christian
as far as we can discern. But he said this, he said, the
statistics of death are quite impressive. One out of one people
die. Death is a great leveler. And
even in the last week, we have heard about some that have passed
from this world into the next. I met with an old friend during
the week that I used to work with, and he said, you remember
so-and-so, and he mentioned the name. He said yesterday he was
found dead in his home, 47 years of age. I spoke to somebody today
and they had lost their grandmother just yesterday and they talked
about their mother having a friend at work who had a young daughter
who just during the week there left this world at the age of
19. Heard about another young man this morning left this world
just in his mid-40s. And we seem to be living in a
day where death is stalking us. And we have all heard as well
about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Death is no respecter of
persons. One out of one die. None of us
are getting out of this world alive. The human mortality rate
in every nation upon the face of the earth since the very beginning
of time, since the fall of man in the garden, has been 100%. Death never takes a holiday.
Death is a universal reality. You say tonight, well, I've got
no time for God. The Bible says there's a time
to live. And there's also a time to die. Regardless of how busy
you are, someday you will find the time to die. The Bible says we must needs
die. The Bible says it's appointed
unto man once to die. The Bible says that death is
passed upon all men. The Word of God speaks about
the house that's appointed for all living. The conspiracy about
death. the certainty of death? What
about the conclusiveness of death? Isn't there something very, very
final about death? I'm sure tonight we have all
known what it is to lose loved ones, people that we love and
people that we care for, and we can empathize and sympathize
with others whenever they experience it, but whenever it comes to
your home, There's something very final and there's something
very solid and very conclusive about death. We often call it
the end. Somebody's reached the end of
life's journey. They've experienced the end of
life in its present form. They've experienced the end of
life's opportunities. And the soul has vacated the
body. And we often say, therefore,
that such an individual has gone. Such an individual is no longer
with us, even though their body is still very much real and material
and tangible. But they have gone, they've left
us. And the soul has gone out into
eternity. And whenever the Bible speaks
about death, It's not speaking, as we have said, about annihilation
or cessation of existence. The Bible says nothing about
reincarnation. It has got nothing to say about
karma or limbo or a second chance or another opportunity. There's
a finality about death, a conclusiveness about death. It's appointed unto
man once to die, but after this, the judgment. Whenever Queen
Elizabeth I was dying, she had a number of days upon a deathbed.
They say that in her dressing rooms round about her bedroom.
She had over 10,000 dresses, and she knew I will never wear
any of them again. She reigned over an empire upon
which the sun never set, and yet whenever she was dying, she
spoke to her physician, and she cried out and said, all my millions
for one inch of time, all my millions for just one more inch. of time. There's a certainty
about death. There's a conspiracy about death.
There's a conclusiveness about death. And then as well, there's
also a sense of realization of the closeness of death. There's
a step, David said, between me and death. Now whenever Paul
in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 spoke about death, he described
death even for the Christian as being an enemy. He said the
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Death is an enemy because
it robs us of life on this earth. Death is an enemy because it
robs us of opportunity. Death is an enemy because it
robs us as well of dignity. Death is an awful enemy. And
yet all the while in this world of ours, we always seem to be
in the shadow of death. It's never far away from us and
it can call us. at any time. David said, there's
a step between me and death. And the 23rd Psalm is a young
man, he spoke about walking through the valley of the shadow of death,
and he realized that this awful enemy of humanity is never far
away from anyone. of us. Whenever those thousands
of passengers boarded the Titanic for its maiden voyage, they never
anticipated that they were in the near room to death. Whenever
John F. Kennedy, along with his wife,
got into that limousine that day and were passing through
the streets of Dallas to make one of his great speeches, he
never anticipated, as he put on his shoes that morning, that
somebody else would take them off his feet that evening. Whenever my wife was having a
special birthday, I thought I'm going to treat her, going to
take her out for a nice day out and we'll enjoy a day together.
And so I took her to the Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast. How romantic
was that for this great tour of the old Crumlin Road Jail,
a dirty, dark, dank old jailhouse. And one of the highlights of
that trip as the tour guide took us around was visiting the condemned
man's cell. We spent maybe 10 or 15 minutes
in that cell, and the tour guide talked about this cell. It was
about twice the size of all the other cells. And the condemned
man knew that he would never get out of the jail alive unless
the laws would radically change. And at any moment he would be
called from that cell and would go to another part of the prison
and would stand in the gallows and the executioner would put
a noose around about his neck and then a bag over his head
and within a few moments of that happening he would be ushered
from this world. But that cell was more comfortable than all
the other cells. It was twice the size of all
the other cells. He got greater food rations than
the other prisoners. He was offered more cigarettes
than all the other prisoners. He was allowed to drink a little
bit of alcohol as well. And all the while there were
two men in the cell with him. They would play chess or checkers
or ludo or cards together. And all the while he knew that
I'm not far from eternity. And then the day would come whenever
one of the chief prison warders would come into the cell and
call him by name and say, this is the day that you're going
to face the gallows. And all of a sudden his perspective
would change. The tour guide said he'd be offered,
now what would you like for breakfast? But most of the time he was just
lost in his thoughts and his appetite went from him. Have
you got anything you would like to say before you go to the gallows? Lost for words, he holds out
his hands and they put the handcuffs on. And he still in his mind
has this idea that the executioner's cell is somewhere else in the
prison. He'll be able to leave his condemned
man's cell, walk down the gangways of the prison, say farewell to
his friends, be taken outside and look up to the sky one last
time before he dies. And he's getting ready for his
last journey. But just beside his bed, there's
this huge bookcase, this huge dresser, this huge cabinet. And
once he has refused his breakfast, once they've asked him if there's
anything else he would like, before he goes to the executioner,
he shakes his head, and then they just pull aside that big
dressing unit, that wardrobe, and just on the other side of
the wall that he's been sleeping in perhaps for months, there's
the gallows. And he doesn't even know that
all the while he's been sleeping in that bed, he's in the near
room to death. And the thing that's going to
take his life is just about 10 feet from where he lays his head
every night. Dear friends tonight, all of
us are in the near room to death. Just a step between us and death.
But friends, if we just died like a dog in the street or just
died like a tree dies and that's it, there would really be nothing
for us to worry about. But the Word of God also makes
it clear for the unconverted that while you're in the near
room to death, you're also in the near room to destruction.
Or can we even use that awful word, the near room to damnation. What an awful word, what a crude,
coarse word, and yet the word damnation was a word that the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself, who the Word of
God says was incarnate love, incarnate deity, full of grace
and truth. He often used that word, damnation,
to describe the eternal destiny of those who do not know him.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth
not shall be damned. He spoke about the Pharisees,
the religious people of his day, and he said that they would receive
greater damnation. It's a word that the Apostle
Paul used as well. He spoke about those who sit
at the Lord's table, unconverted and in their sin, eating and
drinking damnation onto their soul. But what does that awful
word mean, damnation? It literally means a sentence
of punishment or condemnation. And can I remind you tonight
that whenever the Son of God spoke about damnation and destruction,
He was speaking about something that was real. Something that
is real. John Blanchard, the great evangelist
in the 1990s, put out a book entitled, Whatever Happened to
Hell? Whatever happened to hell? We don't hear much talk nowadays
about judgment. We don't hear much talk nowadays
about damnation. We don't hear much talk nowadays
about hell. We hear a lot of talk about heaven,
and rightfully so. Wonderful to think about heaven.
Wonderful to point men to the cross, to Christ, who can take
people to heaven. But is it not true today that
we are living in a day of cafeteria Christianity? where we take out
all of the nice things that we want and we leave the undesirables
behind. One preacher recently, a number
of years ago, Rob Bell, said the Christian life, the Christian
gospel, the body of Christian truth is like a great wall. And
he says you can just take out various bricks and the wall still
stands. So if you don't like the doctrine
of regeneration, Or if you don't like the doctrine of the deity
of Christ or the resurrection or sin or depravity or judgment,
you can take these things out and by and large the wall still
stands just so long as you don't take too much out, the wall will
still stand. What an awful doctrine. Dear
friends, tonight, this book tonight is either absolute or it's obsolete. Either Jesus Christ meant what
he said and said what he meant, or he was a fraud, a charlatan,
a liar, and my Savior, the Bible says, was full of grace and truth.
He spoke about the devil. He spoke about death. He spoke
about hell. He spoke about condemnation.
He spoke about judgment. Most are happy to believe that
there's a heaven. Praise God there is. But very
few really want to consider the fact and the reality of hell. And yet Jesus Christ used the
strongest possible language to describe it. Hell is truth often
seen too late. One preacher said that even the
gospel in hell is bad news. Even the gospel in hell is bad
news. It's a real thing the Savior
is speaking about. It's also a righteous judgment,
a righteous damnation. Off the cry goes up, if there's
a God out there somewhere, why doesn't he fix everything that's
wrong in this world of ours? And that's the attitude that
man has. We will break God's law, and then whenever the consequences
of breaking God's law begin to affect our lives and our society,
we will point the finger back at God and ask Him why He just
doesn't come and fix all of our problems. We have this idea that
God, if He loves us, should just be like a jailer who opens the
keys and opens the doors and just lets us out. to live lives
the way we please. And yet God, if we're honest
tonight, has got absolutely no promise, absolutely no duty,
and absolutely no obligation to show grace or love or mercy
to this fallen world of ours. We do not deserve the least of
God's mercies. God's love is an undeserved love. God's love is an unmerited love. God's love is a love that we
cannot work for, we do not deserve, we do not earn. God's love is
bestowed upon us out of mercy, out of grace, and out of kindness. The Word of God says that the
Lord shall judge the world in righteousness. God is righteous
tonight and shall not the judge of all the earth do right. This
awful word, damnation, There's a real damnation. There's a righteous
damnation. It's also what we could call
a retributive damnation. Punishment and retribution are
concepts that are foreign to this liberal society we're living
in. Often now, whenever a person
is put in prison, it's not to punish them for the crimes that
they have committed. It's to try to reform them or
rehabilitate them. And I believe in rehabilitation.
I believe in reformation. I believe in making a citizen
a better citizen. I believe we should all try to
be the very best that we can be. But there is such a thing
as righteous judgment. There is such a thing in the
Bible as punishment. There is such a thing as facing
the judgment of God. And God's hell tonight is not
reformative or restorative. Hell tonight is retributive,
retribution. One last thing about this damnation.
It's also a relentless damnation. What is hell but the absence
of God? the absence of God's love, the
absence of God's mercy, the absence of God's grace. In hell, there's
no time. In hell, there's no hope. Hell
is a relentless place. One old Puritan said that I read
in my Bible that there are three things in hell. There's darkness,
there's chains, and there's eternal fire. One last thought as we
bring this message tonight to a close. We tonight are in the
near room to death. Those of you tonight who are
not saved are in the near room to destruction. But praise God,
there's always hope. As long as there's a God in heaven,
as long as there's a Savior at God's right hand, and as long
as you've got breath in your lungs, I believe tonight there's
always hope. Because while there's a step
between me and death, A step tonight between you, perhaps,
and damnation. There's also a step between you
and deliverance. A step between you and deliverance. In Mark's Gospel chapter 12 and
verse number 34, the Lord Jesus Christ was having a conversation
with a scribe. Now a scribe is a man who wrote
down the Word of God and made copies of the Holy Scriptures.
And he was a very religious man. And as the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke to this scribe and listened to him, and the Lord will listen
to you tonight if you talk to him. And the Lord listened to
this scribe and then said to him, I perceive that thou art
not far from the kingdom of God. He was like Abner, just a step,
just a step within the walls of the place of refuge. not far
from the kingdom of God, so close to becoming a Christian, like
a group who said, to be a Christian, not far from
the kingdom of God. And here you are tonight, and
some of you have been out more than one occasion at this gospel
mission. You've been maybe thinking about
becoming a Christian. You've maybe been thinking about
trusting Christ. You've maybe been thinking about
getting right with God. And here you are tonight, you're
amongst God's people and they're praying for you. You're under
the sound of God's Word. You're in an atmosphere of prayer,
an atmosphere of worship. And you're not far tonight from
the kingdom of God. And the Savior has promised in
a mission like this, in a meeting like this, that where two or
three are gathered in His name, He's there in the midst. He's
nearer tonight than hands or feet. And you can call upon Him
just where you sit. You don't even have to call out
loud. Just in your heart, you can call upon the Lord. As the
publican did, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Or as Peter
did, Lord save me, I perish. As the Philippian jailer just
believed in his heart, he was wonderfully saved and wonderfully
delivered. Thou art not far from the kingdom,
just a step between us and death. just a step between you, perhaps,
and damnation, and just a step between you and deliverance.
Let me say a few simple things in closing about God's great
deliverance. That's what the word salvation
means. It means to be delivered. It
means to be rescued. It means to be set free. God's
deliverance tonight is free. It's free. Whoever he won that
thirsteth, come to the waters. He that hath no money come by
wine and milk without money and without price. Maybe the thing
that holds you back tonight is you think I've nothing to give
to the Lord. I've nothing to offer Him. I
don't have gift or talent or ability. I'm so weak and so frail
and I maybe don't have many years left to live. I've nothing to
give Him. Well, God's salvation tonight
is free. The Bible says the wages of sin
is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You know, at a birthday
or an anniversary or Christmas, if a loved one gives you a gift,
what do you do with it? Do you say, well, how much do
I owe you for that? Maybe you open it up and you think, boy,
I couldn't afford something, I guess could I pay you off in
installments? And they say, no, I give it to you because I love
you. I've paid for it. It's a gift and I want you to
receive it and I want you to enjoy it. And that's just the
same with the gift of God, which is eternal life. For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son. And the measure
of a person's love can often be determined in what they're
willing to give. Some of you tonight would give
your lives for your children. Some of you would maybe give
your life for your parents, or your life for your brother or
sister, or maybe your life for a friend. Well, God was willing
to give His life, the Son of God, becoming a man. God the Son gave His life for
us. Upon that cross and salvation becomes a free gift. It's not
cheap. It's the most expensive gift
that was ever purchased. My Savior went to a cross and
shed His blood and became sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The gift is free. Deliverance is free. The deliverance
as well is full. Hebrews 7.25 says He is able
to save to the uttermost. Save fully and save completely. Doesn't matter tonight what your
background is. Doesn't matter tonight the type
of life that you've lived. Doesn't even matter tonight how
many times you've heard the gospel and rejected Jesus Christ. There's
still mercy for you. He is able to save you freely.
He's able to save you fully. Horatius Bonner, the old Scottish
hymn writer, said, man is a complete sinner, but Jesus Christ is a
complete Savior, and Jesus Christ saves complete sinners completely.
God's deliverance is free. God's deliverance is full. God's deliverance is final. The Word of God says that whenever
the Savior was on the cross, He cried out with victory and
with triumph, that word finished. It is finished. The price is paid. The door has
been opened. The veil has been rent entwined.
Divine justice has been satisfied. It's finished. You don't need
to do anything. All you have to do is trust in
Him and come. Nothing in my hands I bring.
Simply to the cross I cling. naked come to thee for dress,
helpless look to thee for grace, foul I to the fountain fly, wash
me, Savior, or I die. The Word of God says that whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be done forever. The Bible speaks about God's
eternal redemption. The hymn writer could say, "'Tis
done, the great transaction's done. Jesus and all in him is
mine. Alive in him my living head and
clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne
and claim the prize through Christ my own." The near room to death,
the near room to destruction, the near room to deliverance.
You know tonight there's room at the cross for you. And whenever
the Savior was on that cross, you know that there was a thief
crucified on either side of him, both in exactly the same predicament,
both in the near room to death, both in the near room to damnation,
both in the near room to deliverance. And yet one rejected Christ. And one received Christ as his
Savior. He had nothing to offer. He had
nothing to give. He couldn't go back to a synagogue
or a temple or a place of worship. He couldn't put money in a plate.
He couldn't go through the waters of baptism. He couldn't do anything
other than trust the Savior. And he simply prayed and said,
Lord, would you remember me? When thou comest into thy kingdom,
And right there and then, he was wonderfully delivered. I
pray tonight that you'll trust in this blessed, blessed Savior
and give your heart and life to him tonight, this September
Lord's Day evening, 2022, the same weekend that the world mourns
the passing of her queen. I wonder tonight, will you trust
in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Just a step tonight.
just a step between you and death, but just a step between you and
deliverance. Will you take that step tonight, that step of faith,
and step out for Jesus Christ and say, Lord, I want you to
take me tonight. Lord, I'm coming home just as
I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me and
that thy bids me come to thee, O Lamb of God. Let's pray together. Let's seek the Lord. And as we
have said on other nights, we've got little gospel booklets. Have
to get a few more of them. After last week, a new beginning. There's a few more there. What
must I do to be saved? I'll have these at the door of
the tent. If I can help you, or you'd like just to receive
a little booklet, do you want to speak to me or somebody else
about the things of God? There's a gatehouse up there.
It'll be private. It'll be quiet. And if we can
help you, pray with you, open the Word of God with you, you
want to get saved, do that tonight. Make that step. And even in the
closing moments, why not call upon the Lord? Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee once again for Your presence with us. Thank
You, Father, tonight for the wonderful messages and song and
for the glorious message of the gospel. And, O God, tonight we
pray that You'll bring men and women and young people through
for Yourself. Give deciding grace. Don't let
anybody leave this meeting and take one more step without the
Savior. But, O God, we pray that there
will be those who will take that step towards Calvary. And it's
the last step they'll ever take alone, because Lord, you'll be
with them throughout the rest of life's journey. I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Give deciding grace. Glorify
thy son in the salvation of the lost. We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
A Step Between Me and Death
Series Christ is the Answer
| Sermon ID | 91822830167288 |
| Duration | 44:43 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | 1 Samuel 20:3 |
| Language | English |
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