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Now tonight I want to read with you from, I would say, the best known gospel chapter in the Bible.
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And the verse we're going to read is verse 16. And I tell you,
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when we went to the land of Brazil in 1974, it was the first verse that we learned,
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struggling to learn the language.
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But we felt that if we got John 3 and 16 into our hearts and into our heads,
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in Portuguese, it would be just all that we need.
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I remember Brother Wilfred Lane telling me this. He struggled with the language.
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He said, I thought if I could only quote them John 3 and 16.
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It's what we like to say, the gospel in a nutshell.
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It's the whole message of the gospel.
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And we're going to read just verse 16, for you all know the chapter.
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And then we're going to read verse 36, Just two verses, which will be easy to remember.
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Verse 16, For God so loved the world.
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That he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
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perish, but have everlasting life.
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And I would say that just like myself, you could have quoted that verse without
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even looking at your Bible, for it's in your heart.
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I gave a lady a week or two ago one of the little cards that I print, John 3.16.
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She was in a supermarket, the cashier, and I don't know what age she was,
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but she wasn't a teenager.
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And she looked at it and she read it and she said, I learned that verse in Sunday
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school. It's a tremendous verse.
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The second verse we're going to read is verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,
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and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him.
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And that's all we're going to read and we're going to speak about this chapter,
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and in particular there are two thoughts that have been on my mind over this
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past week or so we have the whosoever will,
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and we have the whosoever will not simple.
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That divides our meeting. There's those who look back to a moment when they got saved.
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I remember clearly when I got saved, 1952, just short of 15 years of age.
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That's 74 years ago, when I was saved by the grace of God.
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Load full transcript
But the other verse is bringing before us another set of people possibly in this meeting.
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Whosoever will not. Whosoever will.
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Whosoever will not. and you don't need a big education to understand what this verse is saying.
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It's basically telling us that salvation is your responsibility.
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God has moved in grace. Our first hymn was telling us that.
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The Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That meant he had to go
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to Calvary. It meant that he had to be crucified.
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And Peter sums it up in his epistle. he said he bore our sins in his own body on the tree,
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it'll not be imposed on you but God wants your salvation for we read in the
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old testament God said as I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death
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of the wicked but that the wicked turn,
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and that's your responsibility you You don't sit in a meeting,
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hoping salvation will fall upon you.
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You go to an open door and to get through it you walk through, isn't it right?
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The Lord Jesus said, I am the door. No one's pushed to it, no one's carried
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to it, but you can go through it tonight by accepting the message, and whosoever will not.
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Maybe that describes you, maybe without even thinking about it too much tonight,
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but really, if you're not saved, that describes you.
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You've heard the gospel many times. We have spoken to people in Brazil who have never heard the gospel.
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To know what it was you talk to them about being saved and,
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they look at you in amazement they think being saved is you were ill in hospital
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and you survived the doctors helped you and you were saved they don't know they
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have to learn from the beginning,
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but that doesn't describe you but what we've already said describes you you have refused literally,
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you have refused to believe the message If we were to ask you, which we'll not be doing.
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Would you like to be saved?
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You would say in your heart, yes, you want to be saved But in your own time,
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that's when you're making a mistake,
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The Bible says, now is the accepted time Behold, now is the day of salvation,
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Now these verses in this chapter were spoken As a result.
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Of a man called Nicodemus There's
little known about this man in the Bible.
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In fact, it's only in this gospel that you read about him.
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We don't know about his family. We don't know anything about his upbringing, but we know this.
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He was a devout.
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Religious, individual. He took his religion seriously. It was the Jewish religion,
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the religion that God gave to Israel away back in the Mount Sinai with thunderings and lightnings.
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And actually, if you read those chapters, God actually read the law that he
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had given to Moses to give to the people.
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God came down, the people fled, and God spoke to them.
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And the law of God was given. So it was religion from God. And here's a man,
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and from his earliest day, he had believed there's a God.
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You couldn't have convinced Nicodemus there's no God.
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He believed in an afterlife. You couldn't have convinced Nicodemus there's no such a thing.
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He was absolutely aware there was an afterlife and what's more Nicodemus wanted,
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he personally wanted to be in the glories of heaven.
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We're not told what age he is but he wasn't a young man.
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Maybe he's an old man about 90, I don't know. But he was facing reality for
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after all his religious studies and we're not criticising religion but he had a good religion but he,
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treated it with zeal and had,
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reached the stage of being a teacher,
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and yet in his heart right down deep in his soul,
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possibly when he'd go to bed at night he would reflect on his day's work he
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had helped people with the scriptures he had explained scriptures,
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spoken to people about God spoken about the law the ten commandments,
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And yet in his heart, there was lacking the thing called peace.
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The absolute assurance.
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Maybe he could feel age creeping on. He wasn't able to do as much as he used to do.
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His mind maybe wasn't able to study the way he had studied. But there was a void, there was a space.
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Maybe that's like you. But I want you to see something else.
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I suppose in one way we're supposing on that but it looks as if that wasn't
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happening but I'll tell you what we can see he, Nicodemus.
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Had decided that this can't go on,
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and I would say to those in this meeting tonight and we're glad to see you this
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situation as far as you are concerned with no assurance of salvation and before you a burning hell and,
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missing out of the glories of heaven,
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before you is the world without end you read about in Ephesians 3 verse 21 it's called eternity,
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the last breath you take and you're in it and you're not coming back,
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and Nicodemus in his own soul had decided enough's enough,
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it's to be a good meeting if you would get into that category tonight,
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enough's enough the world has nothing to offer hope you see that,
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The world's in an awful condition Those of us who were saved It annoys us to
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read what's happening Everything indicates It will soon all be over This world has nothing to offer you.
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But I tell you, God has something to offer you. And you need to be like this man, Nicodemus.
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It says it was at night when others were settling down for a night's rest.
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It shows you that it had been going over in his mind. And it shows you that
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he had decided that this cannot wait until tomorrow. It would be natural.
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I don't read as I told you anything about his family. But it would be natural
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for his wife to say, Nicodemus, you can't.
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You can't go out a night like that wait, it's tomorrow take a few hours sleep
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and you'll be up tomorrow you can go to see this man Jesus of Nazareth but Nicodemus
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had decided that it's now.
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For this subject was so serious and it is serious,
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Nicodemus was travelling towards eternity so like you and he had no assurance,
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of salvation and the lady just outside ported down a number of years ago,
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serious heart condition and she told us at her doorstep with tears in her eyes she said.
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I could die at any minute and I have no hope for eternity,
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and God she could see him but that's what it's all about dear soul it's eternity,
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it's not being a member of Bolly Clare Gospel Hall we would love to see you in that condition,
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it's not a change of religion you're needing it's Christ,
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and Christ alone because eternity must be faced,
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You have heard and maybe read of men denying many things in the Bible.
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But I tell you
what you've never heard. You've never heard any of these atheists,
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or these philosophers telling you that there's no such a thing as death.
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I tell you, we're living with death day by day. We're marching with death.
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There's but a step between me and death, said one in Old Testament scriptures.
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It's just the breath that you're breathing that's keeping you out of eternity
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and Nicodemus had decided as I said already enough's enough I hope you reach
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that in this meeting close your eyes to the world,
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shut out the voice of the enemy face up to the fact that you as an individual,
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must face eternity and I tell you what was wrong with Nicodemus with no assurance,
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and believing in God and knowing the glories that are provided and what's going
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to be the future in the glories of heaven, he was thinking, am I going to miss it?
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Terrible thing to miss it. Indeed, it would be better if you'd never been born.
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To live and die and wake in hell, not only doomed, but damned.
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But this particular night, he decided, I'm facing it. It took some courage, we have to admit that.
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His old colleagues and friends were opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We're not going to that subject, but it's serious the way Israel,
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and they did say at his trial and crucifixion, We have no king but Caesar.
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And Nicodemus was surrounded by those who were opposed to the Lord Jesus, the Son of God.
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But he decided he was going to face the situation.
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Going to take the bull by the horns, is that what we say? That is,
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he was going to face up to the situation because it was concerning himself.
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And after all, when we could just settle down from the preaching here for a
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wee minute and looked down over our audience. Each one of us.
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Each one responsible for their own soul.
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I was typing out some cards last night for my dear sister who wants to send
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them out with calendars.
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The verse still stands in my mind.
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What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
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Tremendous loss to live and die and wake and end not only doomed but Nicodemus
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decided this has to be settled,
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and he came to the Lord Jesus
now you know the chapter and the time's almost
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gone so we're not going to go into all these details and all these verses,
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but in the verse that we read the Lord Jesus talking to a man who was interested
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in reality who wanted the assurance,
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wanted to be sure, the way of salvation is put before him,
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whosoever believeth in him.
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That was run against his colleagues. They weren't wanting to believe in the Lord Jesus.
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But the Lord is saying, there's no other way. Your religion hasn't given you
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assurance and never will.
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He's saying, if you want to be absolutely sure that.
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Whosoever believeth in him, you know, it links me as I have been doing this
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these past number of weeks.
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Matthew 21 is a parable told by a householder who had rejected the owner of
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the vineyard, had treated his servants spitefully, and he said.
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I will send my son, they will reverence my son.
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And here's the very touchstone of salvation.
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It's receiving Christ.
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Godemus had accepted the religion of his fathers, had been a good student, had believed them.
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But now he's being told that salvation is believing in Christ.
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Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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That's the message of salvation. You say, but that's too simple,
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but there's no other way.
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Aren't we glad that salvation isn't by silver and gold?
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Aren't you glad that salvation is not by your efforts? When would you ever know that you'd done enough?
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But thank God the message of the gospel is that Christ has done it all.
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It is finished, so that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish,
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but have everlasting life.
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The alternative is in the last verse that whosoever will not believe won't take it,
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he that believeth not we're told in the last verse shall not see life that's it full stop no argument.
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No way around it whosoever believeth not shall not see life that indicates that
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if you accept Christ you get life shall not see life But the wrath of God.
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Abideth on him,
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so that the message,
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that was delivered here is either receiving life or
receiving damnation.
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It's either when you close your eyes and leave this world stepping into glory,
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or closing your eyes and stepping into damnation, and it's never going to end.
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Eternal life will never end.
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As I quoted the words from Ephesians 3 already, Paul says, and he speaks about world without end.
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That's what you're going to and are you going to be in the glories of heaven
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the things that was a big subject what God has planned for this world the world's going to be cleansed,
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sin removed completely and it's going to be what God intended to be in Genesis
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chapter 1 just a perfect paradise upon earth,
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this devil tried to corrupt it has succeeded to some degree but the death of
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Christ has opened the door back the way back that whosoever believeth in him.
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Should not perish but have everlasting life and whosoever that believeth not,
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so is either believe or believe not that choice rests with you tonight in this
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meeting and I would urge you no matter what age group you're in young or old,
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if you're not saved your eternity's dreadful to think about it but no matter
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what group you're in tonight the Bible says let it in,
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that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
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I'm sure I've told you this before I'm going to tell you it again the night
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I got saved it was to John 19 I just finished the work that Christ had done
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at the cross and when I got home,
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I got another verse of confirmation and.
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It was John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
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son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
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You say, but there's another few words, that's right, but that's where I stopped that night.
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And just as a young lad, just almost fifteen, two months short of it,
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I remember to this moment.
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I'm glad my mind's still clear remember distinctly thinking I'm never going
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to be in hell oh I must ask you before we close where are you going to be,
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in God's eternity two options,
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whosoever believeth,
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and whosoever believeth not now shall we pray,
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our Father and our God we come to thee we thank thee for these beautiful words
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that are found in thy word,
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and we thank thee for the truth in the word of salvation that salvation is in
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the person of Christ who died on Calvary, yes, who rose again and is now seated
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at thine own right hand and accepting,
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the work that he did when he put away sin, when he died for our sins and accepting
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it and making your own, you'll have salvation,
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but how sad for those who won't believe it damnation and that for the world
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without end take pity upon us all tonight and bless,
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and those that are not saved that they might trust Christ even for the meeting
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ends we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen.